WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: HidingTurtle
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Became the Ophidian of the Apocalypse ◈
Chapter 83: Birdie
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-I've lived to see all kinds of strange things.
Pelerian marveled despite already being dead.
Honestly, I felt the same way.
A dwarf who loved nature.
There was a certain perception of them.
From the elves' perspective, dwarves were wicked destroyers of nature. Dwarves cleared forests and burned trees to fuel their furnaces. Damaging the earth's veins while mining was an everyday occurrence as well.
That was supposedly why nature-loving elves disliked dwarves.
Humans had speculated about why elves and dwarves did not get along, but they had only been partly right. It seemed humans assumed elves were beautiful on the inside because they looked beautiful on the outside.
Elves did not go that far in protecting nature. They simply lived in forests. They ate meat and cut down trees to build houses.
Still, it was true that dwarves had no interest in protecting nature.
In that respect, Dunkel was an oddity among dwarves. He had built an indoor garden and were well versed in botany.
Thanks to meeting such an oddity, Kibaemi's seed would not rot.
If this was not fate ordained by heaven, then what was?
I stared blankly at Pelerian.
-...What!
Apparently, my gaze had not been kind.
Pelerian had never even guessed why Kibaemi's seed would not sprout.
-I know more than I don't know. You could say my knowledge spans countless fields in this world.
‘Then why didn't you know?’
-Isn't it asking too much to expect an Archmage to possess the knowledge of some mere gardener?
I gave a sharp snort.
Pelerian tried to sound confident, but their pride seemed fairly wounded.
Dunkel was examining Kibaemi's seed under a bright light, wearing an extremely stylish monocle. Carefully, he dismantled its outer shell and used a brush to apply a medicinal solution that supposedly promoted germination.
He looked completely awesome.
Then, instead of a stew bowl, he brought over a very pretty clay pot.
The pot, painted with a heart pattern, was filled with rich black soil. He planted Kibaemi's seed in it, then finally wiped the sweat from his brow.
“It's done.”
‘Shouldn't you put it under sunlight?’
“It doesn't seem to be a light-germinating species. It should be kept in the shade instead.”
It was best to listen to the expert.
‘I'll repair your garden in return.’
“Oh...!”
If there was a dwarf gardener in the world, then there was also an elf well versed in dungeons and their construction.
That was Pelerian.
-Ventilation is poor here. You could block the vertical shaft with wire to keep out bats, but a simple solution comes to mind.
The vertical shaft reached all the way to the surface, but strictly speaking, it was not completely vertical.
It slanted slightly.
Thanks to that, when it rained, water did not fall straight from the sky. It pattered down along the cave walls instead.
‘I can solve your problem very simply.’
Dunkel's concern was that mold had spread throughout the garden because of the humidity and poor ventilation.
“There's a way?”
A dwarf well versed in construction would have figured it out long ago.
The garden was Dunkel's secret place, and he apparently had no friends who could offer him advice.
Using Transparent Hand, I drove several poles lying nearby into the ground directly beneath the vertical shaft.
After crossing a few of them at an angle, I was able to place a round pot on top. Then I put several pieces of firewood inside.
Dunkel looked like he had no idea what I was trying to do.
I smacked the ground with my tail.
It was not necessary. I just wanted to make it dramatic.
*「You use Elementary Elemental Magic: Fire Lv. 6.」
The firewood caught fire.
Whoosh!
A makeshift bonfire was complete.
It was not for lighting.
There was another reason...
Dunkel's eyebrows fluttered in the cool breeze.
This was always a place where damp air stagnated, so where had that wind come from?
“Ah...!”
Dunkel was a dwarf, so he understood immediately.
“You made a ventilation device using fire.”
‘You don't need to keep it burning all the time. Light it once in a while to control the humidity.’
“That's clever! And simple!”
I presented what Pelerian had taught me as if it were my own knowledge, and Dunkel was delighted.
Then he spoke confidently.
“Good, shall we make it sprout now?”
‘Right now?’
Dunkel's words startled me.
Did sprouts not need time to grow?
“This is definitely Magic Herb. You said it came from the World Tree's roots, right?”
‘That's right?’
“It will need Mana to germinate too. It would be nice if we had something like a Magic Stone. A high-grade Magic Stone would be best, but I can at least use the Grade 1 Magic Stone I have...”
‘Would a high-grade Magic Stone be good?’
“The quality of a Magic Herb depends on how pure the Mana it absorbs is.”
Hearing that, I looked at Pelerian.
Pelerian tried to say something with a pale face.
Then, apparently realizing it would not work, they squeezed their eyes shut.
Good, then I had permission!
‘I have a Magic Stone!’
I took a Magic Stone out of Subspace.
A Grade 9 Magic Stone, no less.
It was the highest-grade Magic Stone I owned.
Dunkel's eyes widened.
“Wh-what grade is that Magic Stone?”
‘Grade 9.’
“How did you get such a high-grade Magic Stone...!”
I casually wiped my nose with my tail.
I just happened to get it.
Only a few of the Magic Stones I had obtained from Pelerian's Dungeon remained. I had thought I had enough to last a lifetime, but I had given quite a few to Father.
Well, it was better than dying without using them all.
Pelerian breathed heavily.
It was the breathing technique I had taught them, good for managing stress.
“I think it would be best if you did it yourself.”
Dunkel spoke with a serious expression.
By that, he meant I should place the Magic Stone with Kibaemi's seed and personally pour Mana into it.
“You're the owner. You should do it yourself.”
‘Okay.’
For some reason, my heart pounded.
I lightly buried Kibaemi's seed, then placed the ruby-like Grade 9 Magic Stone on top.
Then I gently laid my tail over it.
What was I supposed to do with the Magic Stone? Just pour Mana into it?
-Think of yourself as a passageway. Don't force Mana into it. Imagine that you are opening a door slightly.
Pelerian had calmed down surprisingly quickly and offered advice.
I had expected them to be upset over the Magic Stone.
-Strictly speaking, that is also a seed of the World Tree, is it not? Compared to its value, a Grade 9 Magic Stone is no different from a pebble rolling down the street.
Was Kibaemi really that amazing?
I followed Pelerian's advice.
It was not difficult.
The Magic Stone soon began to soften and melt.
“Oh!”
The melting Magic Stone was practically an essence of Mana.
Light burst from it.
Then Kibaemi's seed began greedily absorbing the enormous amount of Mana.
The Mana contained within a Grade 9 Magic Stone was immense. Even this body would probably have trouble digesting it after eating it.
Yet that huge quantity of Mana was absorbed into the seed in an instant.
Tap.
Germination began.
The seed's inner shell split apart, and a shoot rose up.
Cotyledons unfurled, then pop, leaves burst forth.
The Mana continued to be absorbed all the while.
At last, the Magic Stone's Mana was completely absorbed, and it began draining my Mana too.
-Get a grip! Unless you want to wither to death.
‘Y-you little brat!’
Even the Mana in my body was being absorbed by Kibaemi's seed.
I tensed my tail and held on.
The sprout, greedily craving Mana like a starving child drinking milk, gradually slowed its growth.
Then, at some point, it stopped absorbing Mana.
Only then could I pull my tail away.
-Huh.
“Wow.”
Pelerian and Dunkel exclaimed at the same time.
The newly sprouted shoot was slowly swaying as if it were dancing.
Its two cotyledons were unbearably adorable.
I slowly raised my tail to stroke them.
Then...
“It follows you!”
“Shaak!”
Instead, the cotyledons moved themselves toward my tail.
Even when I shifted my tail elsewhere, it was the same.
“It must know you're its owner.”
That was what Dunkel said.
For some reason, my chest swelled.
Kibaemi...
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【Seedling Chimera Lv. 1】
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Should I call it Birdie now instead of Kibaemi?
Birdie...
-It was born after receiving your Mana, so it must be following you.
It seemed Pelerian was right.
Or perhaps Kibaemi's feelings still remained.
After savoring the lingering emotion for a while, I continued my unfinished conversation with Dunkel.
“Right, you said you wanted to meet the mine lord.”
It was about meeting Bluebeard.
“For now, the mine lord is in the deep levels.”
The deep levels referred to the deepest part of this mine.
It was the front line of excavation, where they continued digging farther into the earth.
Bluebeard was said to be like a king, but did the mine lord work personally?
‘Can you take me there?’
I asked Dunkel.
Dunkel seemed fairly flustered.
“Um, uh...”
Then he shook his head and spoke.
“I have work to do right now. It's work for two people. I don't know if I can leave by myself. I think I need to ask first.”
‘Then let's go ask together. Say you're taking a short vacation.’
“Uh...”
Dunkel looked troubled.
-Aren't he trying to turn you down indirectly?
Gasp, was that what it was?
I had not noticed at all.
Dunkel reluctantly nodded.
“Okay. It probably won't work, but let's go ask.”
* * *
Most dwarves in Red Anvil Mine were miners. After them, blacksmiths were the most common.
Dunkel was neither a miner nor a blacksmith.
Someone had to produce food.
And to dwarves, it was unbearably boring and filthy work.
They grew potatoes and cabbages that could grow underground.
They also raised Steelhogs that lived by eating iron ore.
Dunkel and his coworker raised a hundred Steelhogs.
The farm, where not even grass grew, was enormous. Large red pigs crawled around throughout it.
On one side, iron ore, their feed, was piled up like a mountain.
After eating it, Steelhogs produced foul-smelling dung.
They collected the dung, composted it, then used it to grow potatoes and cabbages.
It was extremely demanding work.
The Steelhogs were especially troublesome.
Even if they were supposedly docile, they were still monsters.
They sometimes fought each other and even bared their tusks at their owners.
It was not easy for only two dwarves to handle them.
That was why Dunkel could not easily tell his coworker that he would be leaving.
Clang! Clang!
Dunkel's coworker was an old man.
But unlike a human elder, an elderly dwarf was not frail.
His beard was white and his head bald, but the muscles on his bare upper body were massive.
“It'll be a little difficult, right? We've been busy lately, and the pigs haven't been listening...”
When Dunkel and I arrived, he was repairing the fence at the workshop in front of the ranch.
He hammered the fence posts in with a huge hammer. He was seriously tough.
The dwarf was also missing one arm.
From his left elbow down, he had a hook-shaped prosthetic made of metal instead of flesh.
“Then I'll hurry and haul the pigs' feed first...”
“Go!”
The old man said that and looked at Dunkel with blazing eyes.
“I said go.”
“...Pardon?”
“How long are you going to live cleaning up pig shit, Dunkel?”
The old man's eyes were deeply sunken, leaving only black pupils visible.
What a cool craftsman.
-I feel like I've seen him somewhere before.
Pelerian muttered that.
That dwarf looked old too, so perhaps he had met Pelerian before.
“No, I'm fairly satisfied with my work now...”
“That snake wants to meet Bluebeard, right?”
“...Yes.”
“Good. Bluebeard needs to come to their senses too. Or hurry up and die so they can hand things over to their successor.”
I had heard Bluebeard was like a king.
Yet there was not the slightest trace of respect for Bluebeard.
When I asked Pelerian whether dwarves were normally like that, they only shrugged.
“So go. And if you can help it, don't come back here.”
“...”
Dunkel seemed unable to believe the old man had said that.
After lowering his head for a moment, Dunkel nodded.
“I'll feed the pigs before I go.”
“...”
With an expression that suggested he could not care less, the old dwarf kept hammering the fence without replying.
His attitude was cold.
Were they not close?
I asked while sitting on Dunkel's shoulder, and he gave a bitter smile.
“He's the one who raised me since I was young. I'm an orphan.”
So they were not on bad terms.
Even so, he spoke so bluntly.
“He wanted me to become a miner. He said that was what dwarves should be.”
‘Is that so?’
“Well, it might be nice to go down to the lower levels while I have the chance.”
Trying to sound cheerful, Dunkel loaded iron ore into a cart.
This was the feed given to the monsters called Steelhogs.
Steelhogs. They were interesting animals.
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【Steelhog Lv. 9】
【Traits】
[Pig], [Delicious], [Cowardly]
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A lot of creatures had Cowardly written in their traits.
But for cowards, they were not docile at all.
“Squeeeal!”
“Squeee!”
Pigs as large as water buffaloes roared and snorted.
They looked ready to charge us at any moment.
Dunkel hurriedly dumped the cart's iron ore, looking frightened.
Then the Steelhogs rushed over and greedily began devouring the iron ore.
“Phew, that's the problem.”
There was a reason Dunkel had hesitated to leave.
“Steelhogs are violent. Someone could get hurt if they're not careful. It won't be easy for Grandpa to handle all of them alone...”
That was what worried him.
He really was kind-hearted.
I was the one who had pushed Dunkel to leave.
In that case, it was only right that I offered a little help before going.
Tap.
I climbed down from Dunkel's shoulder.
‘Step back for a moment.’
Dunkel was startled as he read the words that wrote themselves in the notebook.
“What are you doing? It's dangerous...!”
But I ignored Dunkel's attempt to stop me and approached the Steelhogs.
The creatures that had been mindlessly devouring iron ore raised their heads and watched me warily.
“Grrr...!”
Perhaps they did not eat only iron ore. They were drooling, after all.
“Snake!”
“Ssshaaa!”
Quiet!
I was once the one who led the Beasts of the Zoo in the Great Forest.
The temporary skill called Overlord was gone now.
That did not matter.
The accomplishments I had earned remained.
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【Monster Leader】
You have tamed more than 100 monsters.
Your domination over monsters strengthens.
A natural dignity emanates from you.
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How could domestic pigs fattened on feed dare bare their teeth at me?
Shuffle back. Shuffle back.
Each time I approached, the Steelhogs backed away little by little.
Dunkel's mouth fell open in astonishment.
Footnotes:
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