WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Mordor

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◈ Mistaken as the Dungeon Boss Monster ◈

Chapter 5: Witch of the Ashen Earth

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It was do or die. Never in my life had I thought I'd stake my life on Enhancement failing.

The vampires were about to be stabbed to death, so drawing their aggro came first. I deliberately made my footsteps loud as I moved forward, and they reacted at once.

"A Death Knight?"

At someone's mutter, they turned to look at me one by one.

Unlike the ordinary people I'd seen before, none of them stepped back. Maybe they had more guts.

Their level colors were orange, signifying vigilance. To them, I seemed to be nothing but a monster to kill.

'Everything comes down to luck.'

Whether I lived or died was up to heaven.

* * *

A chilling gleam in the Death Knight's eyes slowly swept over the party members.

A knight of death, a Death Knight. Once they confirmed its presence, the party members looked to Sergey for a hand signal.

"What do we do, Captain? Keep going, or run?"

A True-Blood Vampire and a Death Knight. That was enough to confirm the facts.

There was nothing to gain from holding out any longer, only more danger to their lives.

Without a word, Sergey raised his sword toward the Death Knight.

"One who was once a knight. I, too, am an old blade who was once knighted."

"So?"

"We should grant it freedom. That's chivalry."

"What does someone who isn't even a knight know about chivalry? Don't blame us if you die."

"Don't worry. If anything feels off, I plan to run right away."

No living beings could be detected behind the Death Knight.

The vampires were alive, but they had effectively been taken out of the fight and lay scattered across the ground.

Of course, a human facing a Death Knight alone was close to suicide, but that rule did not apply to Sergey.

Before Sergey, once a knight of the Imperial Guard, even a Death Knight was beneath him.

"I beseech Solari. Grant that pitiful soul the gift of rest."

Though a knight may serve the sword, it was only right for a knight to end the Death Knight's life rather than let it serve a Lich.

Using a sword in a narrow cave came with many restrictions.

To minimize them, Sergey used Half-swording. He gripped the blade and held the sword like a short spear.

After conquering countless dungeons, Half-swording had become his specialty.

The Death Knight, on the other hand, would be hampered by the terrain.

Kiiing─

The faint blue glow within the blade grew into a dazzling radiance like sunlight.

Crack!

The sunlight suddenly went out.

More precisely, the sword itself had shattered like glass and vanished without a trace. From tip to pommel, every last piece.

'A mental interference trap?'

Judging from the sensation in his hand, it wasn't an illusion.

He sensed nothing else, and there was no lingering trace of magic.

Sergey's unfocused gaze stopped on the Death Knight.

He couldn't even begin to guess the cause, but his instincts told him that creature was responsible.

The instant Sergey snapped out of it and drew his short sword.

Crash!

"...!"

Once again, the sword shattered and vanished without leaving even debris behind.

Something beyond human understanding had happened twice.

The sound of metal scraping against metal drew closer.

With the Death Knight approaching, Sergey had no choice but to step back.

'...So this is the Seven Palaces of the Abyss.'

Seven labyrinths beyond the comprehension of human minds.

Not all Death Knights were the same.

Foolishly, he hadn't considered that a Death Knight from the Seven Palaces of the Abyss might be an irregular.

That was when laughter sounded at his feet.

The crimson eyes of the fallen True-Blood Vampire curved like crescent moons.

"Foolish human. Do you still not know who rules this dungeon?"

"...What?"

"That person is this dungeon's boss. You didn't even know that, yet you wanted to grant them rest? Look at you, arrogantly rushing in. You walked into a Dragon Lair without a shred of fear."

The Death Knight was the dungeon boss? Not just any dungeon, but one of the Seven Palaces of the Abyss? Then why would the boss appear near the entrance?

The more he thought about it, the more questions he had.

The vampire had no reason to lie just to confuse him.

To monsters, a dungeon boss held the same position as a king.

Even a dungeon Keeper or adjutant would dishonor the boss by impersonating them.

No monster would dare impersonate the boss when that alone could get one killed. Even less so if the situation were not as unfavorable as this one.

The Death Knight only continued to approach slowly.

Just looking at it made it hard for Sergey to breathe.

Only then did he realize it. That unhurried walk wasn't merely a show of composure. It was closer to the constant boredom one showed before a mere insect.

They said a cornered rat would bite a cat's nose, but even that last struggle required fighting spirit.

Fear consumed Sergey's mind and body, leaving him unable to move a single step.

'I... was a fucking idiot.'

He had thought he could return alive from the Seven Palaces of the Abyss without even realizing how precious his life was.

The price would be unimaginably terrible.

"Captain!"

"Get out here, now!"

Sergey whipped his head around.

The party members had witnessed everything that happened in an instant. Even so, they ran toward Sergey without hesitation.

Having tears blur one's eyes from emotion only happened in fairy tales. In reality, camaraderie like this was nothing more than a pointless death.

"If you take another step, you'll all die! Get out of the dungeon! That's the only way you'll live!"

The thunderous shout made the party members freeze.

With his back to them, Sergey pulled a dagger from the belt around his thigh.

Stab! Stab! Stab!

Blood spattered every time he stabbed his thigh.

His legs, which had been trembling like aspen leaves, finally stopped shaking.

"Listen closely! I'll be buried here today! There can't be more than one person in a grave! Go, now!"

The party members hesitated, then squeezed their eyes shut and turned toward the entrance.

As expected. They listened well.

They looked back one last time, reluctant to leave, but Sergey had already turned away.

And the Death Knight standing before Sergey?

* * *

'No, why are they treating me like I'm the bad guy?'

I couldn't believe it.

Who had barged in first and tried to kill the vampires?

I hadn't even used force. I only destroyed their weapons, then tried to settle things with words.

I even approached slowly because I thought they'd be scared if I ran at them. Yet somehow, after they let their imaginations run wild, things ended up like this.

Grab!

The man suddenly rushed at me and hugged me. It looked like he was trying to buy time for his companions to escape.

'This feels fucking gross.'

Was there any physical contact more unpleasant than getting such an intense hug from a man?

"Ugh!"

I got pissed off in the heat of the moment and shook him off. He flew far into the distance.

Cough! Cough!

The man slammed into the wall and kept coughing. Honestly, I still wasn't over it.

I walked over to him, grabbed him by the collar with one hand, and lifted him.

"Don't come back."

Whoosh!

I threw him toward the entrance, and he disappeared into the darkness. That should make him fuck off on his own.

Honestly, I was going to kill him, but that seemed a little much, so I held back. Murder crossed the line, no matter how pissed off I was.

"My lord, you truly are strong...."

It was Isabella's voice, though she was only relatively unharmed.

She still couldn't hold herself up and lay on the ground like the others.

Though Isabella tried not to show it, she seemed dejected.

I knew why. She had gotten excited after awakening as a True-Blood Vampire, only to nearly die without accomplishing anything from the start.

'Well, I nearly died too.'

An 8% chance and a 16% chance.

Even a humanities major like me could tell those were odds doomed to fail.

But failure wasn't guaranteed, and my life was on the line, so I'd been terrified. What if this succeeded?

In the end, I was incredibly lucky that two Enhancement failures in a row had destroyed their will to fight.

If they had kept coming at me, one Enhancement might have succeeded.

'But does that mean I'm lucky?'

I survived because of two failed Enhancements, so I really didn't know whether that made me lucky or unlucky.

The fact was, heaven was on my side. How could anyone stop a Death Knight with even a god on their side?

I crouched before Isabella and held out my hand.

Caught off guard, Isabella took it and rose to her feet.

"Don't be discouraged. The opponent was simply strong."

"...Thank you for saying that."

Now that I thought about it, I hadn't expected the vampires to be this sincere.

Even if I had saved their lives, we'd only just met and shared no real bond. They could have hardened their hearts and ignored me.

If it were me, I would've put my own life first, benefactor or not.

'But they didn't.'

Not a single one had tried to run outside.

Isabella in particular had risked her life against a Level 52 opponent, and that courage was admirable.

They hadn't been much help, but their feelings had definitely reached me.

They were willing to offer their lives to repay me. I couldn't help but acknowledge that.

"In the end, I owe you another debt."

So that was why she looked dejected. She'd been saved twice, so of course she would feel ashamed.

"I have a request. Could I remain here until I repay the debt I incurred today?"

Could I allow that? I understood that she wanted to save face, but I had my own situation to worry about.

An Extermination Party had already come through. I needed to leave as soon as possible.

Before I could say no, light shining in from outside caught the corner of my eye.

'Is it already dawn?'

Time had slipped away dealing with the vampires, listening to their obvious backstory, and then facing that Extermination Party. Before I knew it, dawn had come.

Isabella and the vampires looked at me with bright eyes. My gaze went to their injuries rather than their expressions.

'I can't exactly tell them to get lost when they were hurt because of me.'

More than anything, being with several people until nightfall was safer than waiting alone.

I let out a frosty breath and nodded.

"Thank you, Boss!"

"We'll definitely be of help!"

"Just take care of your injuries."

I said that and waved them off.

'Will another Extermination Party come in the meantime?'

Maybe I was being overly paranoid about safety.

Still, three groups barging in within two days wasn't exactly normal. It was practically like getting ganked three times in two minutes in the top lane. Complete bullshit.

Please, just leave me alone for one day.

* * *

Fortunately, no one intruded until night fell.

Sadly, it was time to say goodbye to the vampires I'd spent all that time with.

It was nice being together, and let's never meet again. I was joking. If we had the chance, we'd probably meet again.

Or so I thought.

"I think another intruder has come. There's only one, but they're heading this way."

It had only been a few hours, and someone was already barging in again. What the fuck was this?

'Do they seriously think this place is a dungeon?'

I really needed to get out of here soon.

Still, only one person. The number might've seemed reassuring at first, but their intention mattered more.

It was hardly normal for one person to trek through a forest and enter a cave in the middle of the night.

They clearly had a firm purpose, like the Extermination Party, but there was something else I needed to know first.

Keeping my distance, I stared toward the entrance. Their level mattered more than their number or purpose.

I always kept the worst-case scenario in mind. And under the assumption that the opponent was overwhelmingly stronger than me, the worst-case scenario could happen.

[Lv. 72]

For a moment, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me.

Yet even after closing and opening them, it was still Level 72.

I'm fucked. No, calm down. You never know. They might be a human who relied on weapons, like before.

If Enhancement failed properly, I might be able to handle this somehow.

But behind the level was a wide-brimmed conical hat, the symbol of a mage.

Of all things, a mage. A mage against whom Enhancement wouldn't work.

What could I possibly do with a Level 72 mage approaching me? Other than wallow in self-pity before getting blown to bits by explosive magic.

I stopped the vampires from confronting the uninvited guest and racked my brain.

This was far beyond anything they could handle.

'This time, let's settle it through conversation.'

This isn't a dungeon, and I'm not the boss. All you'll gain by killing me is guilt. I don't have a shred of hostility toward you, so please just spare me.

I rehearsed every possible line in my head and even left my greatsword behind in case they got the wrong idea.

Then I raised both hands and slowly walked forward.

As the distance between us closed, the mage's face came into view.

For some reason, it looked familiar.

'Charlotte?'

She wore the kind of clothes one would expect of a mage. Purple eyes. She looked exactly how Charlotte would if game graphics became reality.

Her face looked young, as if she had only just become an adult, and she was insanely beautiful.

'But her personality is fucking psychotic!'

Charlotte was a notorious named boss. The merciless Charlotte, Witch of Dust.

She was the Keeper in charge of one floor of the Tenfold Abyss, the second-ranked dungeon among the Seven Palaces of the Abyss.

What puzzled me was that the Charlotte I remembered was well over Level 80. Looking at her now, she did seem a little younger.

Could my possession have happened at a point in the past?

No. That didn't matter right now.

I had countless questions about when this was and why Charlotte the Witch had come here, but finding a way to survive came first.

I signaled to the vampires to stay back with my eyes.

If they upset her, we'd all become ashes together.

Before I knew it, Charlotte had stopped right in front of me.

It was enough to make my nonexistent balls shrivel.

Her sharp eyes felt as though they were piercing my throat.

"By any chance, wh-"

"I'll introduce myself later and get straight to the point."

All of a sudden?

I didn't know what this was about, but I felt relieved.

If it was Charlotte, it wouldn't have been strange for her to fire magic at me without warning, yet she was giving me room to talk.

And if she had business with me, that meant she wanted something. I'd agree to anything and send her away quickly, before I stopped breathing.

"Can you accept me into this dungeon?"

...Excuse me?

Footnotes:

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