WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: HidingTurtle

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◈ I Became the Ophidian of the Apocalypse ◈

Chapter 94: Because I Was a Reading King in Elementary School

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They had used plenty of luminescent stones and torches to make the area as bright as possible.

Even so, underground was still underground. It was bound to be darker than outside.

And darkness was the perfect stage for a stealthy assassin like me.

I silently slithered through the dark.

*「You use Stealth Lv. 10.」

I concealed myself with a stealth technique that had reached its peak and slowly crawled forward.

The dwarves crept along behind me.

"Oops!"

Dunkel tripped over a stone and fell.

That idiot!

Manjin and Trawl startled and ducked.

Thankfully, we had not been noticed.

Dwarves were slow-moving, and few of them had particularly sharp senses.

What Trawl said after returning with a pale face was shocking.

Bluebeard had burned a dying patient alive.

And for some reason, I had a feeling the fire was not ordinary.

That was why I came out to check.

The savage act was really taking place.

Crackle, pop.

I did not know whether they had truly burned them alive.

Still, dwarves who had once been living and moving were now being cremated.

Bright orange flames blazed.

It was definitely the Fire Demon's flame, the one with Mana that Kibaemi had devoured.

I had stolen the bucket and chain. Had they kept some flames in reserve?

If they had burned sick people alive, there should have been resistance, even if it was the mine lord's order.

Yet nobody condemned Bluebeard.

The dwarves gathered around the fire consuming people and watched it as if possessed.

'It really is a demon's fire.'

-It is bewitching the dwarves. It is the same flame that made even my mind reel... I do not like it.

Pelerian frowned.

Unlike the other dwarves, he was not bewitched by the fire.

Still, when he first saw it, he had found it strangely beautiful.

Now, whenever he saw the flames, he cursed them for being ugly.

-The mind of a mage who has reached the realm is like steel. It is exceptionally strong.

Talk about praising yourself.

Something suddenly occurred to me.

'Come to think of it, dwarves like Bluebeard seem pretty strong. Weren't they bewitched too easily?'

-That is probably because dwarves as a race are especially susceptible to fire.

Was it like how Grass-type Pokémon were weak to Fire-types?

Maybe it was a difference in type matchups.

-More importantly, I have noticed this for some time, but you are completely unaffected.

'My Mental Strength is pretty strong.'

I tapped my head with my tail.

I had never imagined I would be able to say something like that in my previous life.

I glanced back at the dwarves.

I figured they must have been badly shocked too.

Instead, they were staring blankly at the flames.

"Hiss!"

No!

I sprang up and slapped all three of them across the face in turn.

They clutched their cheeks and lowered their heads.

'Get a hold of yourselves!'

Good grief.

They had nearly been bewitched just from watching it from far away.

"Huff... That really is dangerous fire."

Dunkel took a deep breath.

Seeing this, I could understand why the dwarves were so easily bewitched.

Fortunately, it seemed they quickly returned to their senses as long as they watched from a distance or only looked briefly.

-If someone has their soul completely taken, like that Bluebeard fellow, it is already too late.

The dwarves surrounding the flames right now might also eventually sell their souls completely.

The orange flames consuming the dying dwarves gradually grew larger.

That alone proved they were no ordinary fire.

It was as if the flames were devouring the dwarves' bodies and souls to make themselves bigger.

Even after there was nothing left to burn, the flames did not die down and continued to flicker.

Bluebeard, standing beside the fire, gave some instructions to his subordinates.

A few dwarves then transferred the flames into a brazier.

Ah, that seemed to be Celestium too.

So there had been more Celestium besides the hammer.

They carried part of the flames back toward the depths.

As I watched the entire process, a thought crossed my mind.

'It seems like they used to hide those flames from the other dwarves. Now they're acting completely out in the open.'

That was right.

Even Rosena had not known that Bluebeard, her former lover, had been doing something suspicious.

But now Bluebeard had brought the Fire Demon's flames up here and was burning patients alive.

As a bonus, he had bewitched countless dwarves with the fire in the process.

-That is the typical method of demons. You could call this the third stage of their process for collapsing a community.

Pelerian spoke as though there was nothing strange about it.

The way demons destroyed groups.

A demon that had slept for a long time had little power.

So, like it had laid a trap and was waiting, it waited for someone to discover it.

Meeting its first prey while hidden behind coincidence.

That was the first stage.

Bluebeard himself, or one of the dwarves digging underground, was probably the first to encounter it.

-The second stage is quietly expanding its influence.

They had blocked access to the depths, secretly throwing dwarves into the fire pit and feeding the flames.

The dwarves who had worked in the depths would have slowly become bewitched during that time.

A few tail slaps would not be enough to snap them out of it.

-The third stage is when it reveals itself openly.

Then, after losing the Celestium bucket because of me, Bluebeard had acted boldly.

He was bringing up the flames to bewitch the other dwarves as well.

Could the fire itself have a will behind its actions?

The fire's will lives on...!

'What's the fourth stage?'

-What else? Total annihilation. In the end, everyone enters the demon's stomach and is wiped out. That is the conclusion.

I see.

Was Red Anvil Mine destined to fall like that?

"What do we do?"

"What do you mean, what do we do? We pour water on that fire and put it out."

Trawl huffed at Dunkel's worried question.

He had respected Bluebeard, so he was furious at what Bluebeard was doing now.

I told them that even if we put out those flames, there was apparently an entire lake of lava in the depths.

"Still, there should be plenty of people who come to their senses if we put out that fire."

That did sound right.

Trawl was actually a fairly capable dwarf, treated like an elder brother among the younger dwarves.

It sounded like an impulsive idea, but the rest of his plan was reasonably convincing.

"I'll gather the fast ones, including myself, into a strike team. We'll pour water on the fire and put it out. Then we'll help the other dwarves come to their senses, lie in wait, and ambush the mine lord."

Ambushes and surprise attacks were always good.

As long as everything went according to plan.

'Can you do it?'

"Don't worry. If we avoid looking at the fire and squint, we can manage it."

Trawl rolled up his sleeves and showed off his muscles.

This had nothing to do with muscles, Trawl.

'All right.'

Still, I decided to trust him once.

Trawl nodded with a determined expression.

I gently stroked Kibaemi.

Kibaemi preferred staying out with me rather than being inside the Subspace.

So I had ended up carrying a flowerpot around like I was Mathilda from Léon.

Kibaemi swayed their leaves.

They seemed hungry.

Still, they could not just eat dirty fire like that.

Kibaemi had indeed devoured the demon's fire, but several of their tendrils had been charred black because of it.

Come to think of it, Seedling Kibaemi was already Level 9.

Could they evolve too?

Would they evolve at Level 10, then?

Kibaemi had more Potential than I expected, so perhaps they would need to reach Level 20 before evolving.

It would be a little troublesome if they grew bigger than me.

For now, I would look forward to Trawl's performance.

We hid for several days and observed Bluebeard.

* * *

Trawl gathered his strike team and carried out the operation two days later.

Dunkel was eliminated because he was too slow.

Manjin and I stayed behind to watch what Trawl did.

And Trawl put on an astonishing performance.

"Uooo..."

At first, I thought he was joking.

Trawl squinted and carefully approached the fire. When he reached it, he stood still for a long time with a blank expression.

"Uo, uooo..."

Then he dropped his bucket of water and squatted blankly in front of the fire.

The strike team following him (what a joke) was no different.

-That, that idiot!

I agreed with Pelerian's assessment.

'The plan to squint, get close, and put out the fire has been abolished.'

I solemnly declared the plan a failure.

It seemed impossible for dwarves not to be bewitched by those flames.

Even so, turning into vacant zombies like that was ridiculous.

Maybe resistance to mental attacks differed depending on intelligence.

Dunkel let out a groan.

"We can't solve this problem with only the dwarves of our mine anymore."

Only a few members of the Trawl Gang, including Dunkel and Manjin, remained sane.

Everyone else had been bewitched by the flames in the meantime.

"Before, they only burned critically ill patients who were close to death. Today, they even burned people who could still move!"

Manjin was anxious.

The atrocities committed by Bluebeard's group were becoming worse.

For some time, an unidentified strange disease had been spreading among the dwarves of Red Anvil Mine.

It made their skin pale, their eyes sink deep into their sockets, and blood flow from their mouths.

Bluebeard claimed the patients were spreading an epidemic, isolated them, and threw the most seriously ill into the fire pit first.

Normally, the dwarves would have risen up.

But instead of starting a revolution, they only squatted in front of the orange flames.

It was not like they were having a campfire.

"There's Gray Hammer Village inside the Mountain Range. We need to go there and ask for help."

That was Dunkel's argument.

He said this was beyond what we could handle now.

Rosena had told us to go to old man Helmut and ask for help.

But even I did not think that would accomplish much.

"Let's sneak out quietly."

That was what Manjin said.

There were four people in Manjin's group, Dunkel, and me.

The six of us quietly began heading up through the levels.

Getting to the entrance without being discovered was incredibly difficult, but it was actually easy now because the dwarves only sat in front of the fire.

But when we reached the mine's entrance, we realized the situation was already hopeless.

"It has completely collapsed..."

The entrance had caved in.

"Did they blow it up with explosives?"

"Why would they..."

"They did not think about what came after."

Bluebeard had sealed the mine entrance with the explosives used to blast rocks.

We could break through if we had enough time, but people were guarding the collapsed entrance ahead.

'Let's listen to what Rosena-granny said for now!'

I patted the depressed Dunkel on the shoulder.

"Yeah. Let's go see Grandpa Helmut."

Had Bluebeard already gone to the place where the pigs were kept?

Fortunately, he had not.

But a problem we had never considered had occurred here.

The moment I saw the Steel Hogs gathered in one place, I had a bad feeling.

They were nudging something with their snouts.

And there, an elderly dwarf lay on the ground.

"G-Grandpa!"

Dunkel screamed and ran forward.

I hurried after him.

Thankfully, the Steel Hogs had not harmed the old man.

The one snorting through its nostrils was the Steel Hog King I had subdued.

When the old man who fed them collapsed, these guys had been protecting him.

Helmut's face was pale, and blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.

Fortunately, he was still breathing.

"Oh no..."

But this was not a situation where we could feel relieved.

"Did you hide that you were sick?"

Helmut had the same symptoms.

He looked exactly like someone suffering from the strange dwarf disease spreading lately.

If Bluebeard had come here first, Helmut would have become firewood too.

"This is bad... Haah."

"What should we do..."

"We do not even know what kind of disease it is... Does Dunkel know?"

Dunkel heavily shook his head at Manjin's question.

He knew more about medicine than other dwarves, but he was not a real doctor.

Since he did not know what disease it was, he could not know how to treat it.

Tears streamed down Dunkel's face.

His grandfather, who had raised him, had collapsed. It was only natural.

Watching him made my nose sting.

My parents from my previous life had been frightening, but my grandparents had treated me well.

I could understand Dunkel's feelings completely.

'Hey, Archmage Heaven-Defier, who knows everything.'

-...

'Do you happen to know what disease that is?'

-Hmm. I do not know...

Pelerian shook his head as though his pride had been deeply wounded.

What a disappointment.

'Since we do not know the cure, would giving him a potion at least make him better for now?'

-Potions cannot cure disease.

'Sigh.'

-Do not sigh. ...Ah!

Pelerian suddenly spoke as though he had thought of something.

-Getting plenty of sleep, eating nutritious food from a balanced diet, and resting well would help.

'Siiigh.'

He sounded so confident that I thought he had some amazing idea.

'...Hmm.'

Suddenly, something in the back of my mind began to itch.

It felt like I had caught hold of a clue.

Among all the information I had picked up while swimming through the endless sea of the internet and YouTube...

Something useful right now...

Besides, I had been a Reading King in elementary school.

That meant I had read countless books.

At that moment, Dunkel lamented.

"How could he have caught it? He never goes outside here, and there is nobody for him to meet..."

Oh!

An epidemic spreading in an environment where it could not spread.

Did that not mean it was not actually an epidemic?

And there was what Pelerian had said.

'You need to eat a balanced, nutritious diet.'

-That is only obvious.

'But the dwarves do not do that.'

The dwarves of Red Anvil Mine used to trade.

They brought in food from outside and ate fruit and other things.

But they had gradually reduced even that, and for the past several years, they had lived on potatoes, ham, and cabbage grown underground.

Well, cabbage did contain vitamins, but perhaps underground-grown cabbage was different.

I did not know.

Bleeding from the mouth, a pale face, and deeply sunken eyes reminded me of one disease.

'Dunkel.'

Once, it had been the dreaded disease that drove sailors who ate nothing but preserved food on long voyages to their deaths.

Yet it was cured immediately with only a few oranges.

'I am not an expert, but just in case.'

"Yeah."

'Could it be scurvy?'

They say the animal that symbolizes the god of medicine is a snake.

Footnotes:

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