WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Mordor
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Mistaken as the Dungeon Boss Monster ◈
Chapter 50: A Holy Artifact to Some
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Ancient Dungeon Cores were different from 72 Dungeon Cores in every respect.
Most importantly, unlike ordinary Dungeon Cores, they placed no restrictions on who could absorb them.
That meant even I, who wasn't a Dungeon Boss, could absorb an Ancient Dungeon Core.
I was probably the only one who knew where to find one, a place even harder to locate than ruins.
Though calling it a location wasn't quite right.
I knew a certain landmark and planned to use it to find the place.
'Once I absorb that, I'll practically be unstoppable.'
Every Ancient Dungeon Core boasted power that easily surpassed a 72 Dungeon Core.
Was it because they had matured for so long? That was part of it, but they also had one ridiculously broken feature.
When an Ancient Dungeon's boss died, its life force was preserved intact within the Dungeon Core.
The Ancient Dragon's Tomb I was about to visit was the same.
The Dragon Heart left behind by the Ancient Dragon had fused with its Dungeon Core.
As a result, I could use the ancient boss's Trait by absorbing the Dungeon Core.
That didn't mean I could use it whenever I wanted. The effect was temporary and came with plenty of other restrictions.
Put simply, I'd be conditionally overpowered, but I was more than grateful for even that.
Isabella and Charlotte.
With just those two, clearing the Ancient Dragon's Tomb already looked promising.
Just as I decided to start preparing for the journey, Charlotte knocked and entered the Boss Room.
“My Lord. May I attempt to turn Wilhelm into a Dullahan undead?”
That reminded me of something I had forgotten.
Wilhelm!
He had been a Hero in life, so if things went well, he would become a top-tier undead.
Unlike Balm Monk, Wilhelm's body was completely intact.
Without the Holy Sword, Wilhelm had been Level 84.
If the undead transformation went well, Level 85 or even 86 wasn't out of the question.
Whatever he became, if it succeeded, we'd have roughly an eighty percent chance of clearing the Ancient Dungeon.
Since this was a serious matter, I took a moment before answering.
“Are you certain?”
“Yes. I've pored over the process of turning him into a Dullahan undead twenty times. I won't disappoint you. Please give me this chance.”
Charlotte's expression was more resolute than ever.
Beneath that expressionless face, I could sense her grim determination.
She said she was confident, and more importantly,
[Lv. 83]
She had gone up another level already.
Despite already being in the eighties, she had gained three levels at a steep pace since I gave her the Necronomicon.
Just as expected from the combination of the Necronomicon and Charlotte, a Magic Human.
“You have my permission.”
“I will succeed.”
Come to think of it, the dark circles under her eyes had gotten much worse.
She must've stayed up studying Necromancy without sleeping. How admirable.
After I left the Boss Room and waited in the tenth-floor hall, Charlotte headed somewhere else.
She was probably going to thaw Wilhelm's body, which had been frozen in the storage room with ice magic.
Before long, Skeleton soldiers appeared in the distance, carrying Wilhelm's corpse.
They carefully set down his body and head separately.
Charlotte stared at me and spoke.
“I will begin.”
Please, please, please let this work.
I was scared out of my mind, but Charlotte looked perfectly calm.
With both hands extended, Charlotte began quietly chanting a spell.
The color of the ominous energy spilling from her fingertips gradually grew more vivid. Each particle of black mana began to take form.
'This is definitely a better start than last time.'
Once the black mana made contact, the corpse began twitching every so often.
Ink-black mana rose like incense smoke and flowed in and out of the corpse's nose, mouth, and other openings.
Fwoosh!
From that moment on, green flames flickered from the severed neck.
The body, which had been jerking with the sound of grinding metal, rose to its feet.
When the Dullahan opened one hand, a shadow vanished, and a jet-black greatsword appeared in his grasp.
His other hand was already holding his head.
“I will follow my lord.”
Thud.
The Dullahan knelt on one knee before Charlotte.
[Lv. 86]
From 84 to 86. It was an incredible success.
It proved that all her effort hadn't been wasted.
Perhaps sensing my gaze, Charlotte immediately met my eyes.
“It succeeded. Well done.”
“...Thank you.”
Looking closely, I saw that the tips of her fingers were trembling faintly.
Only then did I realize that Charlotte had been the most nervous of all.
She had overcome that pressure and succeeded. I couldn't have been prouder.
I should reward her by evolving Wilhelm too.
[All Evolution conditions have been met for this target.]
[Would you like to evolve Dullahan Wilhelm?]
...All the conditions?
Wilhelm's death definitely hadn't been a sacrifice.
'Or was it? If he let his companions escape and died alone, maybe that counted as a sacrifice.'
I had thought the standard for sacrifice was one's state of mind, but that apparently wasn't the only factor.
Well, a win was a win.
I leisurely walked over and placed a hand on the Dullahan's shoulder.
[Evolving Dullahan Wilhelm.]
[All conditions have been met, so this will succeed with a 100% chance.]
[Evolution complete!! Dullahan Wilhelm has successfully evolved!]
His potential had already awakened to some extent, so a second-stage evolution was impossible.
Still, a one hundred percent success chance was plenty good.
Fwoosh!
Through evolution, the flames around his head changed from green to purple.
A Dullahan's strength was measured by the color of its flames.
Blue, green, and purple. Those were the three kinds.
I remembered Carleon's flames being that exact shade of purple.
[Lv. 88]
His level was even the same as Carleon's.
I felt someone watching me. Sure enough, Charlotte was staring at me.
Her lips moved slightly before she walked over.
Once she stood before me, she lowered her head before saying anything.
“Thank you for always making up for what I lack.”
“What lack? You've done more than well enough.”
I meant it. It wasn't empty praise.
As encouragement, I patted Charlotte on the shoulder.
Her shoulder twitched slightly.
Her level had risen again... I was tired of even mentioning it now.
Lately, I had been seeing hot pink more often than dark green. Just like now.
When Charlotte turned her back on the Dullahan, he slowly vanished and sank into her shadow.
The highest-class necromancers normally hid their servants like that and called on them when needed.
Charlotte had joined their ranks now.
'The time has come.'
The Ancient Dungeon raid.
Charlotte, Isabella, Wilhelm, Vargoer. Let's go.
* * *
Before leaving the dungeon, I broke off my horns and hid my face beneath a helmet.
They would regenerate anyway, but it still hurt my heart.
'Honestly, the horns are the coolest part.'
I wrapped the Holy Sword thoroughly in bandages, so at a glance, it looked like an ordinary sword.
Charlotte also changed into traveling clothes.
A linen tunic, a wool coat, and leather pants.
It was drizzling, so she had even oiled her travel cloak.
Charlotte insisted on carrying the backpack.
I had originally planned to carry it, but she firmly refused.
Then again, it would be strange for the Boss to act as a porter.
“Oh. This might actually be pretty comfortable.”
Flap, flap.
I only realized it later, but Isabella could use Mimicry to turn into a bat, so she didn't need disguise magic.
I had seen that Vampire Queens could use bat Mimicry.
I had just never seen it firsthand in the game.
A pet bat would've been a questionable excuse, so we agreed that she would fly behind us from a distance.
Charlotte checked her hand mirror one last time.
The control magic was working properly, restoring her magic-circle pupils to normal human pupils.
It was troublesome, but all of this was necessary if we were going to pass through cities of the Empire.
“By the way, Boss. What business do we have in the Land of Extinction?”
A bat was talking. That was pretty strange.
Earlier, I couldn't think of an excuse, so I had only told them that I had business there.
I also added that I was bringing them because they were the two guards I trusted most.
Charlotte accepted it without saying much, but Isabella was full of questions.
When I kept silent, she threw another question at me.
“So how long will we be gone?”
“At least a week.”
“Eeeek....”
“I don't mind. I will stay close by your side, Boss.”
It might take a week at minimum, or even a month.
Even so, I had to go for the Ancient Dungeon Core.
There were two abilities I could obtain from the Dungeon Core in the Ancient Dragon's Tomb.
The first was Dragon Fear. The second was the divine power of Dragon Speech.
Fear was a killing intent akin to the intimidating presence of Abyssal Palace bosses.
Fear originated with Dragons, and it had once been their exclusive domain.
For someone like me, pretending to be one of the Seven Palaces of the Abyss, I desperately needed that ability.
With Fear alone, no one would doubt me.
Dragon Speech was the ability to imbue a word or phrase with unknown power.
It was a far superior version of the Word of Command, capable of subduing or even killing someone with words alone.
Strictly speaking, Dragon Speech wasn't quite speech, but calling it a sentence was definitely wrong too.
Just a word or phrase.
It ranged from one syllable at the shortest to four syllables at the longest, so that description fit.
The funny thing was that to use Dragon Speech in the game, you had to actually type it into chat.
That was why the offline version had a chat function enabled.
'I remember mashing Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V during raids.'
Why did I copy and paste even though the chat messages were short?
Because I wasn't familiar with Chinese characters.
The Ancient Dragon, which had been a Dungeon Boss, was far from a pure-blooded Dragon from a modern person's perspective.
The game setting called it a Dragon, but from what I could see, it looked like a Dragon crossbred with an Eastern Dragon.
'Even its design looked like that.'
Of course, it had already died, so it never appeared in the game.
Still, the developers had once revealed the Ancient Dragon's concept design on social media.
Its body and limbs were mostly those of a Dragon.
But its horns were deer antlers, and it had an orb it carried in its mouth like a Dragon Orb.
Even the Dragon Speech it used was written in Chinese characters rather than a Western European language.
The Dragon Heart inside the Dungeon Core might actually have been a Dragon Orb.
Still, the developers officially insisted it was a pure-blooded Dragon. What was I supposed to do? I had to believe them.
“Boss. I'm sorry, but I forgot something.”
I was a little surprised that Charlotte had said that.
...That was clumsy of her.
“I'll wait.”
“I'm sorry.”
Charlotte hurried back toward the dungeon.
My eyes followed her retreating figure while my mind wandered into pointless thoughts.
'...Come to think of it, my horns look like the Ancient Dragon's, don't they?'
I only now realized that my horns were the same kind of deer antlers as the Ancient Dragon's.
What a coincidence.
* * *
At that moment, Charlotte was thoroughly searching the fifth floor.
Before long, her eyes fell on two horns that resembled deer antlers.
It was such a waste that they had been discarded like trash.
Charlotte quickly collected the horns and headed toward the Adjutant's Room, moving quickly yet quietly.
She didn't forget to stay alert so no one would notice her along the way.
After slipping into the Adjutant's Room, Charlotte carefully placed the horns inside a secret drawer.
Her next destination was Faith's Tomb's Boss Room.
Charlotte cautiously edged a foot into the Boss Room and looked around.
Hellbok was tearing into a piece of meat.
It was cheap meat bought from the Merchant Association, and it reeked of a gamey odor, but Hellbok was eating it happily.
-Huff, huff.
The moment Hellbok spotted Charlotte, it stopped eating and ran over to her.
Charlotte stroked the scruff of its neck and looked around.
Soon, she noticed bones scattered carelessly across the floor.
'...The Boss's bones.'
She had kept an eye on them until now, so there was no way she had mistaken them.
Gulp. Even her swallowed saliva felt heavy.
-Woof! Woof, woof!
The moment Charlotte reached for the bone, Hellbok started barking.
Was it trying to stop her from taking its toy?
Having no other choice, she summoned a skeleton and immediately dismantled it.
As bones clattered across the floor, Hellbok jumped around excitedly.
“Take them all. If they aren't enough, I'll give you more.”
-Huff, huff. Woof!
She took that as an answer.
Hoo.
After taking a deep breath, Charlotte reached out.
Her trembling fingertips carefully grasped the Boss's rib.
“....”
After running her fingers over it for a while, Charlotte opened the front of her clothes.
She placed the bone against her chest near her heart, then closed her clothes again.
-Whine....
Was it because it had grown attached to its first toy?
Or had it recognized that this wasn't an ordinary bone?
Hellbok looked at Charlotte with obvious loss in its eyes.
“This is absolutely not a toy. It's a Holy Artifact.”
-Whine....
“Don't look at me like that. I'll treasure it and put it to good use.”
She stroked the bone through the linen.
Perhaps because of her pounding heartbeat, she could feel a faint vibration.
“Thanks to you, I have obtained a Holy Artifact.”
With a faint smile, Charlotte petted Hellbok.
Footnotes:
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