WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Mordor

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◈ Mistaken as the Dungeon Boss Monster ◈

Chapter 12: Vigilance Is the Emotion the Weak Feel Toward the Strong

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"I am not telling you to serve under me. We are lords of the Abyss. Together, we will lead the lesser ones."

Kalandas began listing the dungeons in his faction.

The twelfth-ranked dungeon, the eighteenth-ranked dungeon, and many others. Altogether, fifteen lower-ranked dungeons stood under Kalandas.

"All the bosses of those dungeons are undead. If you join us, it would be nothing short of perfect. Do you not agree, my friend?"

Now I understood.

Why Kalandas had called me a friend and treated me so warmly from our first meeting.

'If things go well between you and my friend, I will permit you to read a paragraph of the Necronomicon.'

That was why he had brought it up in front of Charlotte.

Everything had been groundwork to bring me into his faction.

Looking at him again, there was no skeleton more cunning than that one.

'If sixteen bosses are undead, joining them does make sense.'

One thing I'd learned in life was that connections mattered most in any group.

Turning down close dealings among undead would mean voluntarily becoming an outsider.

If I accepted, the sense of kinship would make it easy to grow close to them, and I'd have allies to rely on.

Even if a Hero Extermination Party attacked, Kalandas and the bosses under him could help us fend them off.

Still, I knew nothing about the current balance of power among the Seven Palaces of the Abyss.

Accepting without knowing anything? This wasn't choosing a lunch menu at work. It wasn't something I could decide that thoughtlessly.

And if I agreed too easily, it would look like I was entering Kalandas's service.

At all costs, I wanted to avoid becoming someone Kalandas could order around.

'I'll play hard to get for now.'

I would politely decline while leaving room for a favorable answer.

That way, he wouldn't keep trying to win me over and would leave sooner.

"I'll consider it positively."

"A wise decision."

Kalandas seemed to have wanted exactly that answer.

If I had immediately accepted or refused, he might have been disappointed.

Accepting without knowing the circumstances would have shown him just how empty my thought process was.

In other words, Kalandas had been testing me as well as sounding me out.

It would be a problem if a boss meant to stand shoulder to shoulder with him was incompetent.

I was glad I'd only left the door open.

"Still, it is remarkable no matter how many times I see it. For a newly born dungeon, there is not a single flaw."

Couldn't he just leave now that he was done with his business?

Oblivious to my feelings, Kalandas leisurely looked around the cavern.

"You said it was the adjutant's accomplishment. I despise humans, yet I find you quite interesting."

"You flatter me."

"How would you like to become a Lich?"

"...."

This bastard Kalandas kept springing things on us without any warning.

Charlotte's lips moved soundlessly for a while before she managed to speak.

"When the time comes for my body to perish, I will gladly serve you."

"That, too, is a wise decision. Whether it takes years or decades, come before me when you are ready."

Kalandas was not merely unpleasant in appearance and aura.

He had mastered the art of making everyone around him uncomfortable with every word he spoke. No wonder undead were his only friends.

I thought he was finally done, but he kept talking.

"My friend. I have heard all about how you killed the Hero of Faith. They say you killed him in one blow without even lifting a hand. I am curious about the method, but where is the hero's corpse?"

Charlotte flinched.

"I will get straight to the point. May I take the hero's corpse?"

"The hero?"

"In exchange, I will gift you a horde of tens of thousands of undead. You are an Irregular Death Knight, are you not? I will also prepare a Skeletal Horse suited to you. If even that is insufficient, how about a Bone Dragon? It was brought from the Tenfold Abyss, so its usefulness needs no explanation."

The deal didn't add up.

A Bone Dragon was a named monster one level above the Hero of Faith.

Kalandas was willingly offering to take a loss.

Still, I had some idea why he was so insistent.

An undead hero collection. For Kalandas, who hated humanity, turning a hero, humanity's greatest hope, into one of the undead was a fascinatingly vile hobby.

He intended to reveal an undead hero to the world and drive humanity into despair.

"Pardon my presumption, Your Majesty, but he belongs to me."

"What do you mean by that?"

"He is already Soul-Bound to me...."

Rather than say anything further, Charlotte showed Balm Monk to him directly.

Kalandas stared at Charlotte in silence for a while.

An undead familiar was connected to its caster by Soul Binding.

The caster could command it like an absolute subordinate, and it could not even be transferred to someone else.

"It does not matter. I need only sever the Soul Binding with my power."

That was true only because the one receiving him was the Lich King.

Only Kalandas could, in effect, sever a Soul Binding.

Without exaggeration, Charlotte had nearly crossed the River Jordan just now.

If Kalandas couldn't break the Soul Binding, he would have severed Charlotte's soul instead.

"He is in good condition. Hand the hero over to me. I promise I will give you an even stronger army."

Charlotte looked at me for some reason, as if I were a co-owner. She could just hand him over.

I nodded, telling her to hand Balm Monk over quickly.

Charlotte stared at me, then nodded back.

Please let her understand what I meant.

"I'm sorry, but I cannot do that."

"What?"

"This undead is a gift from the Boss, who corrected my mistake and entrusted him to me. He carries meaning far more precious than simply being a hero. It is an impudent request, but I wish to keep him."

I was fucked.

Completely fucked.

What the hell had she thought my look meant to make her say that?

Just as I was about to intervene, Kalandas lowered his head.

"Heh...."

A faint laugh slipped through his teeth.

It steadily grew louder until a maniacal laugh echoed through the cavern.

My taut nerves and senses focused on Kalandas. It was a primal instinct that came before thought.

If Kalandas made even the slightest move, we would die like kobolds.

"My, my... You have kept a very amusing adjutant at your side. My friend, do not worry. I will respect your position and press the matter no further."

I swallowed my relief at the unexpected answer.

This wasn't the kind of tension that took years off my life. My entire lifespan had nearly been deleted.

Please, no more tightrope walks with my life on the line.

Once Kalandas left, I needed to give Charlotte a proper scolding. You crazy bitch, I nearly died because of you.

"In return, I would like you to grant another request. Something besides the hero has caught my interest."

Kalandas pointed somewhere with one finger.

"Turn this loathsome human into a corpse. With your own hands."

At first, I thought I had misheard.

But his finger was pointed directly at Charlotte.

"If you do, I will make her into a Lich and put her to good use. I will forgive her sin."

Charlotte's expression was nothing like her usual blank face.

Her pupils shook as though an earthquake had struck, and even her lips trembled like the last leaf on a tree.

"This human has challenged the authority of the Lich King. Then she must pay the price. If you deal with her, I will give you a horde of tens of thousands. No matter how capable an adjutant may be, she cannot compare to an army. What do you say? Is that not a tempting offer?"

"...With my own hands."

If Kalandas wanted Charlotte dead, she would die on the spot without even realizing it.

I couldn't understand why he was leaving it to me.

"If she dies by the hand of the one she follows more devotedly than her boss, it would plunge her into utter despair. Look at her, trembling without even realizing how disgraceful she appears. She is no different from a lamb being dragged to the slaughterhouse."

An undead who had spent an entire lifetime feeding on human pain and despair. As someone undead only in body, I could never understand him.

Understanding him or not, I wanted to live. If I didn't kill Charlotte here, Kalandas might go beyond hostility and kill me on the spot.

A death match between Abyssal Palace bosses was not something that happened easily.

In the first place, none of them had killed each other in a thousand years.

But the boss before me was none other than Kalandas, the Lich King.

He respected me not because I was ranked seventh, but because I was undead.

By nature, he looked down on the lower-ranked sixth and seventh bosses.

If a lower-ranked boss turned against him and sided with a human, he wouldn't let them live even if they were undead. No, he might be even more inclined to kill them because they were undead.

The sense of betrayal from one's own kind must have been indescribable.

'Then again, he might not kill me.'

No matter what, I was still an Abyssal Palace boss like him.

Would Kalandas risk killing me over personal feelings alone?

On the other hand, even if I wasn't certain, was there any reason to risk my life to save Charlotte?

"You told me to kill my adjutant."

Having made up my mind, I approached Charlotte.

Charlotte had already tightly closed her eyes, as though she had given up.

She seemed to understand it too. That she should die for my sake.

I felt the same way. If refusing might get me killed, there was no reason to gamble my life to save Charlotte.

"I can't do that."

But I couldn't kill her.

Everything Charlotte had done so far had been for me.

Setting aside her usefulness, how could I kill a subordinate who had been so loyal to me?

It was hard enough to let her die. I could never kill her with my own hands.

At one edge of my vision stood Kalandas, his eerie blue eye lights burning.

At the other stood Charlotte, wearing an expression I had never seen before. The color of her level was changing, but this was not the time to care about that.

"My friend. Is that truly your choice?"

"Yes."

"You have chosen ruin for yourself. Do you have no regrets?"

"None at all."

Those were not words I had spoken without thinking.

In his mind, I was a boss of the Seven Palaces of the Abyss just like him. My rank might be lower, but I was still an Abyssal Palace boss like him.

Then the ground began to shake, and rotten hands burst out from all over.

The ominous aura of the dead. Groans like death rattles. Even at a glance, there were well over a thousand of them.

In an instant, he had raised an army of thousands.

Just seeing it let me grasp the extent of his power.

-Grrr....

-Groooan....

Step. Step.

Slowly tightening the noose, an army large enough to fill the cavern surrounded us.

No matter where I looked, I saw only dark red levels. This was beyond hostility. It was unmistakable killing intent.

"How regrettable that I must replace another Abyssal Palace."

As expected, Kalandas's level had turned bright red as well.

He had already decided to kill me.

I always prepared for the worst-case scenario.

This was exactly that, and the good news was that it was a scenario I had prepared for.

"I feel the same way. If the Rank 5 Abyssal Palace disappears, it will cause quite a stir."

"Someone must die."

If I looked weak, I would die. I had to make him realize the losses he would suffer in a death match against me.

And if I could make him fear that he might die as well...

If I showed that kind of spirit, the momentum would shift to my side.

This was bravado with a reason behind it, a gamble with my life on the line.

Being undead gave me a perfect poker face. All that remained was to prove it through action.

I focused on Kalandas's hand, which I had been watching all along. More precisely, the bone ring.

[Eternity-Stitched Bone Ring (S+)]

[Enhancement Success Rate: 2%]

[※Caution! If enhancement fails, the item will be automatically destroyed!]

[If enhancement fails, the cooldown will reset.]

[Would you like to enhance the Eternity-Stitched Bone Ring (S+)?]

[YES/NO]

Perhaps I was crossing a line.

He might retaliate reflexively and impulsively without even reading the situation. If that happened, I would die without being able to do anything.

Still, once I threw the dice, I hoped for a six. If I may say so myself, that was a gambler's instinct.

If this worked, I would be the one standing over him.

"Did you ask how I killed the hero in one strike?"

―!

In that instant, a sound like fireworks erupted from Kalandas's hand.

Kalandas looked down at his hand, but the finger where the bone ring should have been was empty.

Only after realizing that did he turn his gaze toward me.

Kalandas's level color gradually shifted from red to orange.

From killing intent to vigilance. And vigilance was the emotion the weak felt toward the strong.

That was the clearest sign that the momentum was mine.

"I can kill an Abyssal Palace boss too. Next time, it will be your head."

Feigning indifference, I jerked my chin.

Come at me, you cowardly bastard. I'm not scared at all.

Footnotes:

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