WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Mordor

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◈ Mistaken as the Dungeon Boss Monster ◈

Chapter 27: There Are No Bosses Like This in Reality

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The Seven Palaces of the Abyss.

Humanity's greatest public enemy, seven impossible problems beyond all common sense.

Over the past century, even when the Four Heroes of the Empire attacked together, they were often helplessly slaughtered.

In the Demon Realm, they were revered as seven inviolable, absolute seats of power.

Even the Seven Grand Dukes of the Demon Realm could not raise their heads before the Seven Palaces of the Abyss without permission.

The Death Knight stood still, watching the knights.

The Death Knight's mere presence was likely enough to exert psychological pressure because of that infamous reputation.

"That's the boss of the Seven Palaces of the Abyss...?"

"C-Commander."

"Everyone, stop. Don't move without my permission."

The knights stood frozen, their eyes fixed on the Boss.

The Death Knight before them was the boss of the Seven Palaces of the Abyss. If they acted rashly, they would only die meaningless deaths.

'I have to do this.'

If he acted now, while no one was injured, they could all make it back alive.

Gulp.

He could distinctly feel the weight of saliva in his throat.

Wilhelm steadied his trembling hand and readjusted his grip on his sword.

Facing the Death Knight reminded him of the boss of the Shadow of Pangu.

To exterminate that monster, 247 elite members of an Extermination Party, including the Four Heroes, had launched an all-out assault.

The four Heroes had returned safely, but more than half of the party, 130 people, had been killed or wounded.

Wilhelm knew it. As he was before, he would never be able to defeat a boss of the Seven Palaces of the Abyss.

'But things are different now.'

Undead were at a natural disadvantage against him. More than that, he had awakened the Holy Sword.

With those two factors, even the boss of the Seven Palaces of the Abyss was someone he could defeat.

Even if he could not kill the Boss, the Holy Sword's power should at least leave a fatal wound that could not be healed.

Wilhelm steeled his resolve. If he could avenge his friend, he did not care if he died.

Wooooong─

Terrifying holy power gathered within the Holy Sword.

It burned away all darkness, and sunlight filled the surroundings.

Charlotte's expression stiffened the moment she saw the change.

'I only realized it now...?'

Why had she only recognized it after seeing that brilliant radiance?

That Holy Sword had awakened through divine revelation for the sole purpose of killing the Boss.

She had grown complacent as soon as the Boss arrived because she had depended on the Boss. But she should not have.

That was the only blade in the world capable of threatening the Boss.

Charlotte bit down on her lower lip. She covered the bleeding stump and forced herself to stand.

'This is dangerous. Even for the Boss.'

The Holy Sword was the worst possible matchup for undead.

If it was an awakened Holy Sword, even the Boss's life would be in danger, like a candle before the wind.

Even though the Boss was the boss of the Seven Palaces of the Abyss, even though the Boss had killed Balm Monk in a single strike, this time would be too much.

"B-Balutak. Wake up. The Boss..."

"Kirik..."

Balutak, whose body had been split in two, was gradually dying.

Even Charlotte, who had urged Balutak to wake up, staggered. She was no different from Balutak.

Moving even a finger before constructing a spell was torture. Excessive blood loss had dulled every nerve in her body. Her consciousness was fading, on the verge of going out entirely.

A pool of blood had gathered around her feet, deep enough to splash through with a single step.

"Great evil! I, Wilhelm, will avenge my friend today!"

"Ah..."

Less than a second remained before the clash.

All Charlotte could do was watch helplessly.

"Burn to death in the sunlight!!"

She paid no attention to her dying body. Despair and helplessness filled her mind with pain.

Being unable to do anything while the Boss stood right before her hurt worse than death.

'Then and now, I...'

She could never be of help.

If the Boss died, she would die soon after.

If that was going to happen, then even if she had to throw herself in front of the Boss right now...

For a moment, she feared the Boss might die.

That was before the Holy Sword entered the Boss's hand.

"...Huh?"

A single syllable escaped a holy knight's lips.

That brief sound explained the sight that had unfolded in an instant.

Wilhelm, now empty-handed. The Death Knight, holding the Holy Sword.

Charlotte watched it all and held her breath in shock.

An undead was supposed to burn to death the moment it touched the Holy Sword. Yet the Boss held it without the slightest issue.

The Boss had not snatched it away, either. The Holy Sword had floated over and entered the Boss's hand on its own.

"H-How...?"

The answer to the question that slipped from her mouth had been right before her all along.

Just as she had realized the truth upon seeing the Holy Sword, she realized it again only after looking at the Boss.

This was a single-entity Seven Palaces of the Abyss. It was the Seven Palaces of the Abyss because it was incomprehensible and transcended all common sense.

Even as everyone else wandered on the brink of death, the Boss remained unharmed. That was why the Seven Palaces of the Abyss remained unharmed.

Clank.

One step. Then another.

With every step the Boss took, the oppressive presence of the Seven Palaces of the Abyss itself seemed to crush the space around them.

"G-God. H-How...?"

Wilhelm's legs gave out, and he fell to his knees.

A man who had devoted everything to faith and gained everything through it.

Death now approached the man who had ultimately lost it all.

"God betrayed you."

The boss of the Seven Palaces of the Abyss raised the Holy Sword.

"Know this well. No sunlight will enter this place to illuminate you."

Charlotte knew she would soon die as well.

Yet she had no regrets.

"Ah..."

She was witnessing with her own eyes the calamity that would bring about humanity's end.

Even in death, she would die as that being's subordinate. Could there be a more precious death in the world?

A smile of bliss spread across Charlotte's face.

"As long as I am here, God is not everywhere."

Slash!

Wilhelm lowered his head.

His lowered head fell to the ground, and his severed head rolled across the floor.

The knights, who had been staring at the ground, turned their eyes toward the Holy Sword.

The Death Knight held the Holy Sword, still brilliantly radiant without a hint of fading, and walked toward them without hurry. Everyone trembled.

"G-God..."

"Fuck God! That god abandoned the commander! W-We, we'll be abandoned too!"

"I don't want to die like the commander! Figure it out yourselves, fuuuck!!"

One by one, the knights broke formation.

Starting with those few, all the knights fled without looking back.

Even as they rushed past her, Charlotte's eyes remained fixed solely on the Boss.

"Ah, my Lord..."

Even the figure standing in the darkness and gazing ahead was incomparably noble.

My Lord remained unharmed. Therefore, the Seven Palaces of the Abyss remained unharmed.

* * *

That was way too fucking close.

Even with the Holy Sword, I wouldn't have stood a chance if all the knights had attacked at once.

Because Enhancement had succeeded, it still had an hour left on its cooldown.

I'd put on as much of a show as possible and prayed they'd run away on their own. Fortunately, it worked.

Hoo.

I exhaled a breath of cold air and calmed myself down.

If I had a heart, it would probably have been pounding like crazy by now.

"Kirik, Great Chieftain, strong..."

Balutak's voice.

Despite having been cut in half, Balutak was alive. Barely.

As expected of the DLC boss, Insect King Balutak. It was impressive that Balutak was still alive in that condition.

I put aside the satisfaction of obtaining the Holy Sword. Taking care of these two came first.

I couldn't use Evolution on a target it had already been applied to.

But aside from Evolution, I had another way to save Balutak, who was about to die.

'This will definitely save Balutak.'

The awakened Holy Sword's holy power had two forms: the Sunfire of Hellfire and the Sunlight of Healing.

In one of Wilhelm's lines in the game, he said that switching between hellfire and healing depended on one's intent.

The moment I decided to heal, the crimson sunlight changed into pure white sunlight.

Both would affect undead as hellfire, but Balutak was an Insect.

I brought Balutak's lower body over and pressed it against the cut on the upper half.

When I brought the Holy Sword close to the wounds, the two sides melded together, then began sealing with light.

"Kirik?"

I carefully moved the Holy Sword over Balutak's other wounds.

The fatal injuries that had been killing Balutak disappeared in what felt like an instant.

Balutak stood up with a perfectly healthy body, then drew both forelegs inward. It was a gesture of submission.

"Kirik! Great Chieftain saved me! Thank you."

I felt it every time, but being undead sure came in handy.

I could keep a poker face even around the strongest beings, and it was easy to pretend I felt nothing in grotesque scenes filled with corpses and blood.

Leaving Balutak behind, I headed toward Charlotte.

Isabella had only fainted, and her life was not in danger. After Balutak, Charlotte was the most urgent case.

Her right arm had been completely severed, and she was dying from blood loss.

Her complexion was wan, her lips colorless, and blood was splattered everywhere in contrast to her pale skin.

Paradoxically, Charlotte looked up at me with a faint smile.

"My Lord. It is an immeasurable honor to have you present at my death."

"...."

Was Charlotte losing her mind because she was about to die?

She probably had not even seen me save Balutak from that far away. Then again, when someone was on the verge of death, would they be able to notice the changes around them?

Though Charlotte was about to die, I was not particularly shaken.

Setting aside the fact that I could definitely save her, this was also an opportunity for her to grow.

Evolution normally could not be applied to humans.

Monsters, familiars, and demihumans. Broadly speaking, only nonhuman races could evolve.

Charlotte was human, but she was also a Witch, a race classified as demihuman by the Empire.

The game system recognized Witches as demihumans too, making them the limit of what Evolution could be used on.

The notification window that had been floating in front of me was proof.

[The conditions for Evolution have been met.]

[Would you like to evolve Witch Charlotte?]

I picked up the right arm lying alone on the ground and pressed it against the wound.

The Natural Healing that came with Evolution could not fix a severed limb.

So I planned to evolve Charlotte first, then seal her right arm back on with the Holy Sword.

[Evolving Witch Charlotte.]

[All conditions have been met, so there is a 100% chance of success.]

Charlotte's potential went without saying.

And the standard for sacrifice depended on what feelings drove that person to risk their life.

Charlotte had risked her life for me, and as someone with a human heart, I was endlessly grateful.

For someone to offer their life for another person was, at least to me, one of the hardest deaths in the world.

Light gathered around the wounds covering Charlotte's body.

Starting with her pierced shoulder, every wound began regenerating at a terrifying speed.

In less than five seconds, all the fatal injuries across her body had completely healed. Lastly, I used the Holy Sword to perfectly reattach her right arm.

"...?"

Charlotte carefully opened her eyes.

After looking at me, she examined her body from head to toe. Then she swung her right arm around.

After doing that for a while, Charlotte stared at me again.

I could clearly see what she was thinking.

"You will not die."

"Ah... My Lord, you truly are merciful. I believed I could only atone for my sins by dying after failing to fulfill my duty..."

It seemed Charlotte had known that I possessed a way to save her.

Maybe she had accepted death on her own because she feared I thought she did not deserve to live.

My adjutant had a strange lack of self-esteem in a different sense.

'Why would I let you die?'

Without you, this dungeon would fall apart. How am I supposed to protect it with those troublesome kids and the weakest-of-the-weak boss?

"You have done well. You have more than fulfilled your duty as an adjutant."

"...I am deeply grateful."

The courage she had shown by trying to stop the Hero with the awakened Holy Sword was admirable enough.

Merely attempting it was already daunting, yet she had held out to the end.

My gaze drifted toward Charlotte's eyes without thinking.

"But you have become a Magic Human."

"A Magic Human?"

I had expected it, of course, and only said it to let her know.

Evolution was called Evolution because it also came with outward changes.

Within the whites of Charlotte's eyes, five-pointed-star magic circles had replaced her human pupils.

When a Witch evolves like this, they become a Magic Human.

The only way to tell whether someone was a Magic Human was that unique outward change, the magic circles that took the place of their pupils.

For reference, Magic Humans and half-human, half-demon people were entirely different concepts.

Unlike the latter, who were half human and half demonkin, a Magic Human meant a human of magic.

[Lv. 80]

That meant Charlotte's magic circle capacity had likely risen from the seventh circle to the eighth.

For mages, while it was not absolute, each ten-level interval generally determined the maximum circle they could use.

Those in their fifties could use up to the fifth circle. Those in their sixties could use up to the sixth circle, and so on.

The magic-circle eyes were the obvious change, but there were many others.

Her mana sensitivity had improved another level. She had developed mana-breathing organs that could replace oxygen.

On top of that, the mana circuits that had originally been created artificially in her body had likely transformed into a form devoted purely to magic.

I withdrew the Holy Sword's light and held it out to Charlotte.

The Holy Sword reflected Charlotte's eyes like a mirror.

"Magic Human..."

Charlotte looked back and forth between her reflection in the Holy Sword and me.

She had already seen Balutak evolve, so instead of shock, gratitude was much clearer on her face.

"I can only be moved by the Boss's grace."

Charlotte prostrated herself before me.

This evolution must have meant a great deal to someone for whom magic was everything.

I was looking forward to seeing Charlotte's reaction when I gave her the Necronomicon too.

"Nng... Huh, what!?"

I was about to check on Isabella, but she had apparently woken up and was looking around.

She had no noticeable wounds and looked completely fine. I did not need to do anything for her.

I pulled out the magic tome I had carefully hidden in my eleventh rib.

Charlotte tilted her head when she saw it.

"Could that be...?"

Despite what she said, it seemed she had recognized the magic tome.

"The Necronomicon. It took some effort to get it from Rose Sha."

It had actually been ridiculously easy to get, but people appreciated things more when they thought effort had gone into them.

Charlotte stared intently at the magic tome with her mouth slightly open.

This was probably the expression a cat would make upon seeing a mountain of catnip after going crazy for it.

For Charlotte, who had remained expressionless until now, to react like this, she must have wanted it badly.

"It seems the Boss has also taken an interest in Necromancy. Certainly, having that would be a great help."

"Hm?"

"...I'm jealous."

Charlotte gasped, then hurriedly waved her hands.

"Th-That was a slip of the tongue. Please forgive me. How could someone like me dare covet the Boss's possession?"

The Witch who had been like a machine until now was even babbling.

I was seeing so many new sides of Charlotte today. Was it because she had nearly died and come back?

On the other hand, it was hilarious that the dungeon's only necromancer never considered that it might be hers.

"Could it be that the Boss intends to learn Necromancy because I am lacking... I see, that must be it. I'm sorry. Just as the Boss thinks, I am useless in this dungeon."

Now Charlotte had reached the point of destroying her own self-esteem.

Seriously, I'm telling you it's yours?

Footnotes:

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