WeTried Translations
Translator: Coughing Baby
Editor: Coughing Baby
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 14: Basement Floor 70
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Purgatory.
An underground dungeon with a hundred floors.
Its difficulty could be summarized like this.
First, the floors up to the thirtieth.
Top-ranking Academy students could clear them without much trouble.
True to its original purpose, it was an area where students could safely gain experience.
It also served as the setting for practical lessons, assignments, and exams.
‘The real thing starts on the fortieth floor.’
From that point onward, a supervising professor had to accompany them.
It was too much for a student to clear alone.
‘The fiftieth floor and downward are restricted areas.’
From the fiftieth floor downward, students were prohibited from entering.
Professors only came and went to obtain research materials.
Even they could not enter without the Headmaster’s approval.
Those floors were dangerous enough to kill professors who let their guard down.
Once they reached the floors in the sixties, even professors struggled to operate alone.
Entering alone was suicide.
‘The seventieth floor onward hasn’t been cleared at all...’
These floors had remained unconquered for a hundred-odd years.
Raid parties had been dispatched again and again, only to suffer bitter defeat every time.
There had officially been fifteen regular raid expeditions.
A total of 137 raiders had been sent in, and not one returned alive.
Perhaps because of those continued losses, the Academy had decided to seal off the seventieth floor completely.
[Warning]
This area has an extremely low survival rate even for regular raid parties.
-Regular raid parties consist of at least two professor-level powerhouses.
-Twenty years ago, five professors died in the line of duty while attempting to clear this area. Further attempts have since been suspended.
Your chance of returning alive is extremely low.
Do not enter under any circumstances.
So the warning I had seen earlier was not just meant to scare people away.
137 people had died here, including more than fifty professor-level personnel.
‘That’s how troublesome the master of the seventieth floor is.’
Once you entered the room, escaping became impossible.
Neither teleportation nor dimensional travel through sorcery would work.
There was only one way to open the locked door: hunt the master of the area.
“Shall we go?”
The room was pitch-black.
Not even a flickering lamp was lit. The space was filled with stale, inky darkness.
We had passed the warning sign and the great gate, finally entering the boss chamber.
Rumble!
The entrance sealed shut behind us.
Our way out was gone.
A trembling voice came from beside me.
“V-Viktor...?”
“Your Highness.”
Carmilla murmured tensely.
One of her hands gripped my sleeve tightly.
With her sharp senses, she must have felt it.
Even those faint remnants would be enough.
Enough to tell her how unreasonable the true master of the seventieth floor was.
“I-I can’t breathe... I’ve never felt such dreadful, y-yin energy before.”
“Take a deep breath. Don’t let its energy overwhelm you.”
“Ugh, this is ridiculous. You want to hunt something like this...?”
“You’re doing well. Breathe more deeply.”
Huff, huff.
Carmilla only regained her composure after gasping several times.
Her red eyes, though, were still filled with fear.
She wiped away her cold sweat and spoke.
“Viktor truly is amazing...”
“Pardon?”
“Even I feel as though this presence is crushing me, yet you aren’t afraid. You don’t even look shaken.”
“Um...”
How was I supposed to explain this?
Unlike Carmilla, I was simply too weak to sense its presence properly.
Someone with an E-grade in energy sensing couldn’t possibly do that in the first place.
All I felt was that it was a little creepier than usual, enough to send a chill down my spine.
“I’m glad you’re here. Please, don’t leave my side...”
“Of course. With Viktor here, you don’t need to worry.”
“My retainer truly is dependable.”
Naturally, I didn’t offer any unnecessary explanation.
The princess was relying on me.
We looked around.
“But... this is strange.”
“What do you mean, Your Highness?”
“I can feel a powerful presence, yet I can’t see even a trace of its owner...”
“You’ll find out soon enough.”
It was about time for it to appear.
Before I had even finished speaking, a faint breeze brushed my cheek.
Wind in a sealed room. I had no time to question it.
A fierce storm swept over us the next moment.
“Kya, kyaah...?!”
“Your Highness! Please cast a Bloodcraft barrier!”
“A-All right!”
Though she staggered in the gale, Carmilla carried out my request.
She clasped both hands as if in prayer, and light stirred.
Dark crimson light bloomed like a flower, softly illuminating the darkness around us.
Her lips recited an incantation.
“O scattered life, quench the throat of dawn with moonlight as your thirst.”
Swirling blood-red light.
Thin droplets of blood wrapped around us.
A neat, transparent hemispherical barrier.
“You shall worship your rightful master. At night, of night, to night, as night, I shall speak.”
-Blandir Style Bloodcraft, Seventh Form-
‘Red Blood Half-Sky.’
“Bloom.”
Rumble.
The gale shattered at her final words.
Thanks to that, we remained safe and untouched.
It was the strongest barrier Carmilla could create.
Beyond the shield, which looked like red glass, something black writhed.
“It’s here.”
It had begun.
That earlier gale had only been a byproduct of its arrival.
Carmilla’s red eyes trembled as she looked beyond the barrier.
As if she doubted her own eyes, as if she desperately hoped she was wrong.
“T-That is...”
Opaque green wings.
They spread out majestically, though they were torn in places.
Bones and muscles were clearly exposed beneath rotting flesh.
A horrid stench filled the air. Green fluid dripped from pupils crawling with maggots.
Carmilla swallowed before speaking.
“...A dragon?”
Yes, what stood before us was a dragon.
More precisely, it had once been a dragon.
It reeked of rotting meat.
[Name: Undead Dragon]
-Race: Undead
-Description: An undead based on a dragon’s corpse. It is the master that rules the end of the seventieth floor.
-Passives: Physical Attack Damage Reduction, Magical Attack Damage Reduction, Fire-Attribute Attack Immunity, Water-Attribute Attack Immunity, Light-Attribute Attack Immunity, Dark-Attribute Attack Immunity, Lightning-Attribute Attack Immunity...
Its body was loaded with every kind of immunity.
It looked down at us, then opened its rotten maw and roared.
Kuoohhh!
It felt as if my eardrums would burst.
The ceiling shook, and cracks spread through the barrier.
Carmilla hurriedly reinforced it.
“V-Viktor...!”
“It’s fine. Just buy me some time like this!”
“Against that? The barrier won’t hold!”
“It only needs to last a moment! Exactly seventy-five seconds!”
“Y-You can really defeat something like that...?”
The next moment, the dragon’s massive arm slammed into the barrier.
Boom!
“Urgh...!”
The barrier crumpled horribly, only to repair itself with Carmilla’s gestures.
It looked like it could withstand a few more attacks.
The creature seemed to be underestimating us, too.
“I’ll begin right away.”
I immediately crouched down.
Then I sat on the floor.
‘Perfect. This is exactly the spot.’
A fragment of claw lay on the ground.
It was only a tiny piece.
It must have fallen from that creature’s body.
After picking it up, I began rubbing it against the floor.
‘Don’t get this wrong. Follow the sequence in my head exactly.’
Boom, boom!
Even then, the barrier took several more attacks.
The red shield kept crumpling and reforming.
Its recovery was gradually slowing.
No, it wasn’t slowing.
It simply couldn’t keep up with the rate at which it was collapsing.
“I’m reaching my limit...!”
Scratch to the left five times, then to the right seven times.
I rolled, rubbed, and scraped the claw fragment.
Again and again, until I got the reaction I wanted.
“Hngh, urgh...!”
Boom!
This wasn’t an enemy we could face head-on.
Even reduced to an undead, a dragon was still a dragon.
As I had seen in its status window, it was immune to all kinds of physical and magical phenomena.
That was why the raid parties sent here before had suffered defeat time and time again.
‘But...’
I was different.
The experience carved into my fingertips, the feel of using a keyboard, the time I had spent.
All of it would be a disaster that creature couldn’t deal with.
Scrape, scrape.
The claw scraping the floor finally reacted.
It was faint, but it crackled as a hazy distortion rose from it.
‘There.’
I raised my head and stood.
“Even I can’t take much, much more of this...”
Carmilla staggered as if she were exhausted.
The barrier could no longer repair itself and was nearly shattered.
Grrrk...
As if it meant to finish us off, the creature opened its jaws wide.
Green fluid churned inside, and condensed energy flashed in its mouth.
‘Breath.’
It seemed determined to melt us away without leaving a trace.
The barrier continued to crumble, unable to restore itself.
Carmilla’s pupils filled with terror.
Had she sensed death approaching?
As her breath slipped out for a moment, the dragon exhaled as well.
Sticky gastric fluid and flames poured forth, enough to fill the entire room.
Kwoooosh!
“...!”
Crash!
The barrier shattered helplessly.
The two of them could not even scream.
Their figures were swallowed by gastric acid without leaving a trace.
Grrk, grrrk.
Convinced they were dead, the undead swallowed the churning green fluid.
Just as it was about to disappear back into the darkness...
“Oh dear.”
Unfortunately, we were alive.
More than that, neither of us had a single scratch.
Ding!
[The item ‘Mask of the Evil God’ has activated.]
The mask had nullified the breath.
Carmilla was in my arms as well.
After confirming she was unharmed, I looked up at the creature towering above us.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
The corners of my mouth beneath the mask stretched wide.
I imagined the mask’s smile looked the same.
I still held the claw fragment in my hand.
“Do you know what a clipping bug is?”
Clipping Bug.
A phenomenon in games where a player or NPC gets stuck inside a wall.
“It’s fine if you don’t. You’re about to experience it.”
The undead looked down at me, seemingly unable to understand what I meant.
I held out the claw pinched between my fingers.
Then I put a little mana into it and flicked it toward the creature.
“Shwoot.”
Hollow Technique: Purple.
The claw fragment flew weakly through the air.
Perhaps because the haze clung to it, a long distorted afterimage trailed behind it.
The undead remained still, as though it couldn’t understand what I had done.
Tap.
The fragment struck its chest.
The haze immediately spread to the undead as well.
“Direct hit.”
Grrrk...?
Realizing something was wrong, it wriggled its flesh.
But it was too late.
The claw remained firmly stuck to its chest.
Crackle, bzzzt.
Its image stuttered as if the game had encountered an error.
The next moment, its body sank into the floor.
Exactly halfway through its torso.
Kuaaahhh!
It struggled in panic.
It was a technique that used a clipping bug.
It caused monsters or NPCs to become lodged in the map.
The dragon could neither advance nor retreat, only roar where it stood.
‘Good.’
Half its body was completely stuck in the floor.
Then what would happen if the bug wore off now?
I pulled the thread I had attached to the claw beforehand.
Tug.
With a little force, the claw came off with ease.
That was the source of the bug.
It had originally been part of the creature’s body, and because it was attached to it, the game recognized them as one body.
I had applied the clipping bug to it, then stuck it to the creature to transfer the effect.
But now, I had removed the claw again.
“Then... what. do. you. think. will. happen?”
What would happen?
Now that it was stuck in the floor, the bug status would be removed.
Its torso and the floor were practically overlapping.
There was only one answer.
“You split in half and die.”
Splat!
Blood sprayed with the sound of bursting flesh.
As the crackling haze disappeared, half its torso vanished.
“Whoops.”
Its organs splattered in every direction.
The rest disappeared without a trace.
I took an umbrella from my robe and blocked the falling green fluid.
Thud.
The bloated body collapsed across the floor.
Countless messages appeared before my eyes.
Ding!
[You have defeated the master of Purgatory’s 70th floor, ‘Undead Dragon.’]
[You have obtained the exclusive weapon ‘Dragon’s Scale ×1.’]
[You have completed the mini quest ‘A Little Courage.’]
[You have completed the hidden quest ‘The Important Thing.’]
[You have completed the hidden quest ‘Hero of Reversal.’]
[You have completed the main quest ‘Conquer Purgatory’s 70th Floor.’]
[The main quest ‘Conquer Purgatory’s 71st Floor’ has been unlocked.]
Ding!
Ding!
Ding!
.
.
.
Status-window notifications appeared like crazy.
I asked the girl in my arms.
“Hehe, what do you think?”
With a relaxed expression.
As if I had never wavered.
“I told you things would be all right, didn’t I?”
“...”
I smiled at Carmilla, whose expression was blank.
Footnotes:
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