WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: HidingTurtle
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◈ I Became the Ophidian of the Apocalypse ◈
Chapter 84: Snake-Infested Pickaxe Work
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“Squeal, squeeeal!”
These were the Steelhogs that had been acting so cocky just moments ago.
But they had not been given the trait Cowardly for nothing.
Sensing the pressure flowing from me, the Steelhogs gradually backed away.
I seemed to remember that the ham I had eaten at the tavern had come from Steelhog meat.
It had been incredibly delicious.
The thought made a drop of drool fall from my mouth.
“Squeeeal!”
The Steelhog at the front flopped backward.
Ever since I had tamed more than a hundred monsters, the accomplishment Monster Leader had become much more impressive.
Even so, their reaction was more dramatic than I had expected.
One of them was even so frightened that it pissed itself.
Come to think of it, the monsters in the Monster Wave had practically drooled over the sight of me.
There really was a difference between wild monsters and these ones.
Anyway, I needed to scare them enough to break their spirit.
This was still not quite enough.
Then a small Steelhog turned around and fled in a panic.
Rather than hiding, it ran toward the large Steelhog watching me from behind.
It rubbed its head against the larger one, whining for comfort.
The large Steelhog slowly approached us.
Its protruding tusks were quite impressive.
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【Steel Hog King Lv. 14】
【Traits】
[Leader], [Tyrant], [Cowardly]
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“It’s the herd leader.”
Dunkel warned me quietly.
I could tell just by looking at its status window.
It stomped its feet without showing any fear of me.
It looked ready to charge at any moment.
Still, I could see it all too clearly.
Even the Cowardly trait was written right there.
This was actually perfect.
I used Crown of Overcoming.
Then I spent more than half the Mana I had recovered after a good rest all at once.
*「You use Giantification Lv. 1.」
My body rapidly grew.
Not only Dunkel, but even the elderly dwarf who had been pretending not to care while repairing the fence dropped his hammer with a clunk.
Most of all, the Steelhogs’ reactions were a sight to behold.
My shadow expanded with my body and fell over them.
“Ssshaaa!”
When I roared once, the boars stiffened like a herd of goats.
The Steelhog leader, which had been brimming with confidence moments ago, was no exception.
It dribbled dung as though it had been completely overwhelmed by me.
There was no need to resort to force.
*「You use Crown of Domination Lv. 1.」
My goal had been to tame it.
*「You have partially succeeded in dominating Steel Hog King Lv. 14.」
*「You have succeeded in taming Steel Hog King Lv. 14.」
Perhaps it had mentally surrendered.
I was able to dominate it, at least partially.
That meant I could make the leader move as I wished.
At my will, it knelt.
The other Steelhogs followed their leader and knelt as well.
Even after I undid Giantification, they did not stop.
I approached the Steelhog leader and stroked its forehead.
‘Let’s get along, okay?’
“Squeeeal...”
‘Behave yourself and eat your food quietly. And do not mistreat the old dwarf.’
That was the order I gave it.
That was the difference between Taming and Domination.
Just because I tamed a monster did not mean I could control it as I pleased.
It was impossible with monsters that could not understand language.
But because I had partially succeeded in dominating it, I could convey orders to the Steelhog leader.
‘You don’t have to worry anymore.’
I told Dunkel that.
Dunkel still looked unable to believe what had happened.
The elderly dwarf set down his hammer and came toward us from afar.
He approached me and spoke carefully.
“O snake...”
At first, he had not paid me any attention at all, but his way of speaking had changed.
“Are you going to meet Bluebeard and kill them?”
Well.
I was not sure yet.
I was about to shake my head when Pelerian interrupted.
-If that bastard acts shamelessly about breaking the contract, it could come to that.
Then I might kill them.
Not knowing how to answer, I simply shrugged.
I did not have shoulders, so I meant I sort of shrugged my head.
“I see... Wait a moment, Dunkel.”
The old dwarf hurried off and brought something back.
It was a belt fitted with various tools and a pickaxe.
The pickaxe, in particular, looked interesting.
Its head could be changed into a shovel, and it had the excellent craftsmanship expected of a dwarf-made tool.
“Take this with you.”
“This is... isn’t it yours, Grandpa?”
“It is. If you’re going down there, you’ll have to work as a miner too.”
Had my performance changed the old man’s mind?
I did not know why.
“When you meet Bluebeard.”
An unreadable emotion filled the old man’s dark eyes.
“Give them one chance. They are pitiful too.”
I did not answer.
The old man did not seem to expect one.
He turned to Dunkel and said,
“Go!”
His voice rang out.
Dunkel was a beardless dwarf, born in the mine and raised tending pigs.
The kind-hearted dwarf who loved tending gardens was finally heading toward the depths of fire and steel.
* * *
Dwarven mines were scattered throughout the continent.
Many of them were located in the Mountain Range.
Red Anvil Mine was no exception.
The modifier Red often suggested blood, but it had a slightly different meaning to dwarves.
Usually, it referred to iron ore. It likely came from iron ore rusted red through oxidation.
In other words, Red Anvil Mine produced a great deal of iron.
Still, as was common for mines located in the Mountain Range, it also contained many other ores.
Perhaps it was because this was a Demonic Realm, but the deeper they dug beneath the mountain, the more mysterious ores they found.
Among them, one particularly unique ore was called Bone Crystal.
A few months ago, Bone Crystal had been discovered in a branch tunnel extending west from the underground mine.
Bone Crystal was as white as ivory and extremely hard.
True to its name, it was metal formed from the bones of living creatures, compressed tightly by time and Mana.
Calling it metal was not entirely inaccurate.
It did not burn even when heated over intense flames, and it could be refined by hammering it.
It was astonishing to consider how Bone Crystal came into being.
The bones must have belonged to an enormous creature. A fist-sized piece of Bone Crystal must originally have been more than ten times larger.
Perhaps the saying that the Mountain Range was the continent’s backbone was literally true.
The dwarves who mined the tunnels were miners and warriors at the same time.
There were monsters on the surface of the Mountain Range, but there were monsters underground as well.
Blood Moles that lived in the earth, bats, and insect monsters with degenerated eyesight constantly threatened the dwarves’ lives.
The miners who survived had killed countless monsters with pickaxes, and sometimes with shovels.
The dwarves resting in front of the Bone Crystal tunnel were also battle-hardened warriors.
They belonged to a clan of young dwarves called the Trawl Gang.
“Ugh, I want to get back up there and have a beer already.”
The dwarves wiped the dust off their faces with their arms as they spoke.
Once they descended to the lower levels, they could not return to the surface for a week.
“You bastards have only been down here for a few days, and you’re already whining.”
The most senior dwarf among them scolded them.
His name was Manjin, and he was one of the Trawl Gang's most skilled miners.
The young dwarves looked embarrassed.
“Manjin, you really are amazing. Our hands are shaking like this.”
After breaking rock with a pickaxe all day, strain naturally built up in the arms.
In fact, most of the dwarves’ hands trembled even while they stood still.
But Manjin, the senior dwarf, was perfectly fine.
“It’s because I drank Snake Liquor recently.”
He said it confidently.
“Snake Liquor...!”
“Ah, that snake that came out of the oak barrel.”
The juniors had already heard the story of the Snake Liquor several times, but their eyes lit up again.
Stories about alcohol always caught their attention, especially Snake Liquor with mysterious effects.
“Yeah, at first it felt like the sensation in my hands and feet was getting dull.”
It seemed a little snake venom had mixed into the beer.
Manjin had shown mild symptoms of poisoning, but after a day, things had instead improved.
“Look.”
Manjin rolled up his sleeve and showed off his muscles.
Whether it was the Snake Liquor’s effect or not, his powerful muscles bulged.
“I used to suffer from wrist tendonitis, but it cleared right up. I feel like I’m overflowing with strength.”
“I’m seriously jealous...”
“Honestly, the taste was the best part. I’ve never had ale that delicious in my life.”
The tale of the Snake Liquor drunk by the Trawl Gang had now spread like a legend.
Many dwarves hoped to meet that snake again.
After finishing their break, the dwarves returned to the plaza.
They normally stayed in dormitories for miners.
They would roughly wash up with underground water and rest for the day.
But the plaza seemed a little crowded today.
One of the young dwarves who followed Manjin recognized someone.
“Isn’t that Dunkel?”
Everyone’s attention shifted in that direction.
Dunkel wore a hood, but his beardless face stood out.
Dunkel had a pickaxe and shovel slung over his back.
The dwarves frowned deeply.
“Why’s that bastard Dunkel down here?”
One young dwarf muttered.
Dunkel was far older than the young dwarf, but there was not the slightest respect in the younger dwarf's voice.
“Don’t tell me he came down here to become a miner?”
“Looks like it, considering he brought a pickaxe.”
“That crazy bastard. He should’ve spent his whole life tending pigs. What the hell were he thinking?”
The one who said that spat sharply, as though disgusted.
Manjin did not reprimand him.
The young dwarves especially disliked Dunkel.
It was funny when you considered that not one of them had actually spoken with Dunkel, but it was not hard to understand.
A dwarf with no beard or hair who did not work as a miner.
A dwarf who liked plants more than meat.
What would such a dwarf look like to immature youths?
Weak and pathetic, probably.
Besides, the elders pitying Dunkel and taking his side only made things worse.
“You bastard! If you say you want to go down, am I supposed to let you in? You’ve never even swung a pickaxe before.”
The supervisor here was also one of the dwarves who disliked Dunkel.
The reason onlookers had gathered nearby was obvious.
They had come to watch Dunkel be humiliated.
“Acting all high and mighty with that hood... Aah!”
The supervisor suddenly recoiled and pulled his hand back.
A snake had poked its head out from Dunkel’s clothes.
“W-What kind of snake is that?”
“Ah, this is my friend.”
“You crazy bastard!”
Laughter burst out nearby.
“Um, Manjin. That snake...”
“...”
“Could it be the snake you told us about?”
Manjin nodded with a startled expression.
The snake he had drunk with was right there.
* * *
“I knew you did crazy things all the time, but...”
The dwarf supervisor glared at Dunkel and me.
What a coward. I was not even trying to bite the supervisor, but they had already recoiled in fear.
I descended to the lower levels with Dunkel.
To meet that Bluebeard, we first had to reach the deepest levels.
I want to meet Bluebeard!
It seemed I could not just say that and meet Bluebeard directly.
Bluebeard was like a king, so I supposed that was unavoidable.
The problem was that we could not head straight for the deepest levels.
Apparently, only Bluebeard’s direct subordinates or craftsmen recognized by the dwarves, called Meisters, could approach them.
The old man who worked with Dunkel had written a letter of introduction.
It was something like a letter to deliver to a Meister who could approach Bluebeard.
Considering that, the old man seemed to have a fairly high status himself.
I did not know why the older dwarf was tending pigs on the uppermost level.
“I hate you, Dunkel.”
The supervisor gave Dunkel a hostile look as he arrived carrying a pickaxe.
“You spent your whole life running away from mining work, and now you show up carrying a pickaxe. And you want to go straight to the deepest levels? Do you think mining is that easy?”
“I don’t think that.”
Dunkel looked intimidated, but he did not grovel.
Good job, Dunkel.
“You don’t have what it takes. You probably can’t even dig properly.”
The supervisor snorted at Dunkel’s request to descend as a miner.
“I’ll work hard.”
“Working hard isn’t enough. You can’t become dead weight for the others.”
“I can do it.”
“Then prove it.”
“...Pardon?”
“Dig this wall.”
The supervisor pointed beside them with a thick thumb.
It was a dirt wall with yellowish-brown sandstone exposed.
“Can’t even swing a pickaxe?”
“No, I’ll do it.”
Breaking the wall with a pickaxe.
Digging and carrying away the dirt with a shovel.
That was the foundation of tunnel excavation.
Dunkel gripped the pickaxe with an anxious expression.
Swinging a pickaxe was not some great feat, but many eyes were watching.
The miners crossed their arms, waiting to see how Dunkel would perform.
Laughter broke out as soon as Dunkel picked up the pickaxe.
“Look at that stance.”
“What’s a bastard who scoops up shit going to do? Hahaha.”
The supervisor sneered as though they had expected that reaction.
“Go on!”
Dunkel clenched his teeth.
He swung the pickaxe.
Thud!
It was neither impressive nor especially terrible.
Thud, thud.
But the onlookers sneered and sighed, mocking him.
Unless Dunkel showed something exceptional from the start, there was no avoiding their insults.
The supervisor was just about to find some fault when a large chunk of rock came free where Dunkel had swung, and a pile of dirt fell away.
Rumble-
The supervisor lowered the hand they had raised.
Dunkel silently continued swinging the pickaxe.
Thud, rumble.
Rock and dirt tumbled down wherever he struck.
Dunkel had not even used the shovel yet, but a tunnel was already being dug.
The speed was astonishing.
“What...”
Truly skilled dwarf miners could see through rock and earth at a glance.
If they struck the weakest point with a pickaxe, even a solid wall would quickly collapse.
Dunkel’s pickaxe work was exactly like that.
He burrowed into the dirt wall in an instant.
It was a performance that would have taken five miners working together.
Dunkel stopped swinging the pickaxe.
“...Am I a genius?”
I smacked Dunkel’s cheek with my tail.
Smack!
“Ssshaaa!”
Get a grip and dig faster!
The onlookers’ mouths had not dropped far enough yet.
Dunkel resumed swinging the pickaxe.
I cast magic again as well.
*「You use Elementary Elemental Magic: Earth Lv. 6.」
*「You use Transparent Hand Lv. 11.」
Earth magic crumbled the wall.
Transparent Hand stirred through the rocks.
It looked exactly as though a god had entered Dunkel’s pickaxe.
The dwarf miners’ mouths gradually fell open at the dazzling performance.
Footnotes:
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