WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: HidingTurtle
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◈ I Became the Ophidian of the Apocalypse ◈
Chapter 22: A Man Newly Arrived in Murim
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The hero was watching Akam Basin.
The Golden Leaf Investigator was headed there as well.
Once appointed, a Golden Leaf Investigator held authority on par with an elder.
At the same time, she was Elvenwood's envoy, so she would be treated as an honored guest in any kingdom on the continent.
Had she been human, she likely would not have come alone to such rough terrain.
She would have sought the cooperation of the nearby Greylim Territory, and in the process, she might even have traveled with Hero Gunter.
But Iris Selena was an elf.
Among elves, she was an ascetic of the Great Forest, living alone like a remote island.
That was why she came to Akam Basin alone.
While Zain and the Guard Captain had arrived at the basin's western boundary, Iris, who had set out from deep within the Great Forest, reached the eastern boundary.
The sun was setting.
The sun of the Great Forest, where the heat ran high, was far redder than the sun in the west.
It looked as if the sun were setting the sky and clouds on fire.
The shadows of everything below were growing longer in real time.
An elf's eyesight rivaled an eagle's.
Her eyes swept over the entire basin.
That did not mean she could immediately find Pelerian's Dungeon.
Still, Iris had experience.
The light that had been observed from the World Tree.
The signal detected through the crystal orb.
The rough coordinates and direction she had pieced together from those were fixed in her mind.
And she also knew what kind of places that old archmage liked to build Dungeons in.
Without hesitation, Iris jumped from the cliff.
A stark contrast to how Zain and the Guard Captain had carefully climbed down by rope.
Thud.
It was high enough to kill someone in a fall, yet all it produced was a light landing sound.
Iris gave her legs a brief stretch, then immediately started running.
She moved as lightly as a deer.
She searched Akam Basin.
Even with Iris's knowledge and experience, the basin was vast.
Starting with the nearest suspicious area, she searched each place one by one.
The process was so meticulous it felt mechanical.
At last, she found Pelerian's Dungeon.
For the first time, life returned to her eyes.
Pelerian had built so many Dungeons that it was difficult to grasp the exact number.
He numbered his Dungeons.
Among the Dungeons discovered so far, the one believed to have been built most recently bore the number 623.
Traps had been installed in the floor tiles of the passage leading to the Dungeon.
Iris lightly broke through them.
"......An early Dungeon."
That was what she thought when she saw the shallow traps set throughout it.
A stone door appeared.
"A Cockatrice?"
The completely decayed corpse of a Cockatrice was there.
A monster had made Pelerian's Dungeon its home.
But had that monster also been hunted by someone?
Its rotten body was riddled with places that had been eaten away.
Iris was disappointed.
It seemed Pelerian was not in the Dungeon.
If he had been here, he would never have allowed a monster like that to settle in, and if Pelerian had killed the monster himself, not even ash would have remained.
Knock, knock, knock, knock, knock, knock, knock.
Seven knocks.
Then the stone door opened.
Iris examined the inside of the Dungeon.
And she learned an important fact.
"Who came through here...?"
Someone had already been here.
Clear traces of someone's stay remained behind.
Iris approached the door of a vault that had been twisted halfway out of shape, as if an earthquake had struck it.
'This really is an early Dungeon... but this vault is on a different level.'
It was a strange Dungeon.
Its design and crude traps were typical of Pelerian's early Dungeons.
But this magical vault was something normally found only in Pelerian's later Dungeons.
Considering that the early and later Dungeons had been built centuries apart, it was strange.
She could form a hypothesis.
The Dungeon had been built hundreds of years ago, but it seemed Pelerian had stayed here sometime within the last century.
A hundred years was an absurdly long time to a human, but not to an elf.
"Just barely missed him... If only I'd come a little sooner."
Iris muttered that to herself.
If a snake species that considered fifteen years a long life had heard it, it would have found it ridiculous.
Iris began dismantling the vault.
The warped door had left a gap, but not one wide enough for a person to pass through.
At best, it was too narrow even for a fist.
She had to gather every clue about Pelerian. There might even be something valuable inside.
Dismantling the vault was extremely difficult.
After spending a full two hours on it, Iris succeeded in breaking the exposed hinges.
Clang!
The broken door toppled over.
Iris stepped inside the vault.
Only then did she realize that nothing remained of its contents.
"......"
Only a few books were lying around.
The clear trails in the dust merely showed the thief's traces all too plainly.
'How in the world...?'
Iris began searching through the Dungeon.
She found many things.
First, there was an inactive interceptor golem draped in a helmet and cloak.
"......"
For a moment, she wondered if she was dreaming.
She truly could not imagine why it had been taken down in such a state.
Then there was the shattered tank.
There, she realized that Pelerian had created a Chimera.
She even found the Chimera's shed skin.
The experiment must have failed, since the Chimera had survived on its own and escaped.
"It needs to be eliminated."
'Eliminate the Chimera and recover a specimen.'
Iris set that as her course of action from here on.
As she was about to leave the Dungeon with lingering regret, her feet stopped.
A portrait hanging on the wall had brought Iris to a halt.
True to his narcissistic nature, that old monster Pelerian had hung up a portrait of himself.
A face wrinkled unlike an elf's, a self-assured smile.
Time had passed, so a thick layer of dust had built up on the portrait.
However, someone who had stayed here had left graffiti on it.
The writing had likely been made by wiping away the dust with a finger.
But Iris could not make sense of the writing with any knowledge she possessed.
'What is this writing? No, is it a drawing?'
If one were to describe what was written there,
──────────────
廿人
ㄷН머己l
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What kind of script was that supposed to be?
"......Rune script?"
Iris was relatively lacking in magical knowledge.
Since this was Pelerian's Dungeon, perhaps it was some kind of magical mark.
In any case, for some reason, it felt strangely endearing.
Iris met the gaze of Pelerian in the portrait.
Her mood soured.
With a slight motion, she drew her Broadsword.
Papapapapak!
She swung only once, yet a series of tearing air-sounds rang out.
Soon, Pelerian's shattered portrait came pattering down in pieces.
Iris turned away with a cold expression.
The elven investigator would hunt the Chimera.
* * *
Whoooosh.
The wind's a little rowdy today.
Feels like a man's heroic ambition is growing by the minute.
Then I remembered that knight who suddenly kissed my ring, and my mood soured all over again. That lunatic, doing that to someone as plainly manly as me.
A leaf flew in and smacked right onto my face.
I shook it off and looked back up at the sky.
Bright, crisp weather.
A clear sky meant this was a good place to hunt the Chimera.
That thing crawled around underground, but it always showed up only in places with open ground like this.
That was also why I'd run into it near the cliff.
At first I didn't know why, but now I can guess.
It tunnels underground.
And the Great Forest's huge trees naturally send their roots deep below the surface too.
So of course it'd dig while avoiding those roots.
Proof that I'd completely figured out its habits.
That Chimera isn't very smart.
If I lay a trap, it comes every single time.
Or is it just so full of itself that it thinks it can win anyway?
I'm ending it today.
Honestly, last time I licked up the blood it spilled and sucked on the flesh from its severed leg, but my evolution tree didn't update.
Looks like the condition only counts if I really drink it down in gulps.
It won't turn out that even killing the Chimera still doesn't meet the requirement, right?
Well, for now, I'll just have to do my best.
Naturally, I prepared bait to lure it out.
The ground was soaked with monster blood, and on top of it I'd set a boar-shaped lump of earth.
That's right, it wasn't a real monster, it was an earthen model.
A boar decoy I'd made with my Basic Elemental Magic, which had just reached Level 4.
That thing underground would swallow the boar decoy whole without realizing a thing.
Then it'd get the shock of its life when it tasted dirt.
But I didn't go through all this trouble just to surprise it with the taste.
That thing took me a full day to make.
Rumble.
Yeah, come on.
My 'preparations' are done.
Rumble, rumble, rumble.
It burst out of the ground, smashing through the earth.
Man, does it never get tired of this?
It always tries to swallow everything in one bite without even chewing.
That gluttony helped me this time.
It crunched down and swallowed the earthen doll.
This was the same Chimera that had swallowed a boar loaded with Neurotoxin and stayed perfectly fine.
But this time was different.
"Keeeeeeek!"
The Chimera let out a scream of pain.
Blood gushed from its mouth like a fountain.
How did I pull it off?
Simple, I'd jammed the earthen doll full of swords, arrows, and spears.
I took the bladed weapons recovered from the soldiers, packed them together like a chestnut burr, then covered the whole thing with earth.
Naturally, I also smeared them with plenty of Neurotoxin.
"Keeek!"
It kept vomiting blood and started going into a Frenzy.
Even so, it didn't look like it was about to die on the spot.
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【Status】
[Rage], [Berserker], [Poisoned], [Killing Intent], [Immediately After Molting], [Vulnerable]
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A few days ago, that thing evolved its Carapace skill into Iron Carapace.
But after Molting, that once-hard carapace turns soft. That's its weakness.
It's now been a full two days since the last incident.
Its carapace still doesn't look hardened yet.
"Ssaaaaaak!"
I let out a cry and charged.
It still hadn't fully regained its senses.
This was the opportunity.
Time to test the technique I'd spent another full day honing.
I rushed in fast with Acceleration.
And clamped in my tail was none other than a short sword.
The Elven Broadsword, that strangely light blade.
Now I can even run while holding it.
Given my body structure, swinging it properly is obviously impossible.
But I could borrow a skill's help.
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【Skill】
[Billy's Horn Lv. 4: Slash Lv. 1]
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The skill I borrowed from the Chimera last time.
A higher-tier skill than Cut.
And after several experiments, I found something out.
When I'm holding a proper blade, Slash's effect is doubled.
I successfully slithered between its legs.
「You activate Slash Lv. 1.」
The force behind my swing was probably weaker than a child's.
But the sword infused with the skill's power did exactly what it needed to do.
Slice.
The blade passed cleanly through a leg joint.
Pshhh!
Blood sprayed from the severed joint like a fountain.
I slipped past it.
And once more, Taeguk Sword Form!
Thunk!
This time I didn't cut the joint cleanly.
Even so, one of its legs was severed from the middle.
It was so shocked that it tried to catch me.
Its remaining legs went skittering about like it was tap dancing.
Maybe it would've looked funny from the side, but not to me.
Bang, bang, those legs slammed into the ground, and if even one of them stomped on me, I'd die on the spot.
But a swordsman's senses only grow sharper in a crisis.
At last, my mind entered the state of Focused Mind, Listening Fist.
Yikes!
I almost died for real there.
Just once, just once more.
「You activate Slash Lv. 1.」
This skill really eats up a lot of mana.
Still, my sword finally took off another leg.
It tilted to one side.
Slice, boom!
Three out of eight legs had been cut off, so of course it had to fall.
"Keeeeeeek!"
Looks like it's still got fight left in it.
Come on, then.
I'll take you on, me, a swordsnake newly arrived in Murim.
Ting!
Ah.
One of the Chimera's legs knocked the Broadsword away. My tail's grip is weak.
Well, the sword isn't really my specialty anyway.
Honestly, I never imagined I'd manage to cut off three of its legs.
Now the real cooking begins.
Footnotes:
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