WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Alyo

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◈ Surviving as a Warrior in a TRPG World ◈

Chapter 50: Ruins (2)

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Minos continued, looking certain.

"That’s why I searched the ruins all day yesterday. To find out whether this really was a part that had emerged from underground. And if it was, whether it was the least buried ruin nearby and the most suitable for exploration."

As he spoke, Minos pulled an astrolabe-like magical device from his backpack.

"It’s an artifact that detects empty spaces and their depth. I measured all the ruins here with it yesterday, and this building had suffered the least damage out of all the buried structures. If we dig here, we’ll probably uncover a hidden area."

"Ah."

Gerik nodded, convinced by Minos’s explanation. Then a practical question came to mind.

"But... do we have to dig all this up with shovels?"

"Of course not."

Minos chuckled and rummaged through his backpack. Before long, he took out an elegant wooden box.

When he held an authentication token to the antique lock on the box, it opened with a click, revealing several high-quality parchment sheets.

"This is an earthquake spell scroll. It’s a high-tier scroll that strikes the ground with a powerful shock and collapses the earth beneath it. It’s really! Really! Expensive!"

Smiling, Minos explained why he had examined the ruins so carefully. If he wasted it, he had no way of obtaining that scroll again, so he had no choice but to be thorough.

Katrin, who had been quietly listening with interest, frowned.

"Wait, wouldn’t an earthquake make the whole building collapse?"

"It would if I only used the earthquake spell scroll!"

Minos took out another scroll and showed it to the group.

"That’s why I’m planning to use this wide-area defensive spell scroll as well. And besides that..."

Minos began pulling out one expensive-looking spell scroll after another. Watching him, Gerik gave a bitter smile.

'Talk about pissing money away.'

Minos began carefully placing the scrolls around the area.

A mistake in placement could not only waste a scroll, but also cause a serious accident, so he checked each position again and again as he set them down.

"I’m done!"

After working at it for quite some time, Minos finally announced that the preparations were complete and sent the group outside the building.

For safety’s sake, he retreated some distance, took a small antique rod made of silver from his backpack, and tilted it toward the building.

'Is that... a wand?'

At the sight of the small silver wand, Gerik naturally recalled the Tabletop Role-Playing Game setting he had played in during his previous life.

As Gerik watched with interest, Minos began chanting with the wand in hand.

A powerful light flowed from the tip of the wand, and waves of magic spread in every direction. At the same time, the spell scrolls placed inside the building began fiercely releasing magic, as if responding to those waves.

Rumble...!!

Not long after the magic ran wild, the ground began to shake.

The unsettling sensation of the earth trembling beneath his feet made Gerik instinctively lower his stance and steady himself.

Before long, the shaking subsided, and the thick clouds of dust rising around them gradually settled.

"...!"

A building that looked like a spire emerged from the collapsed earth.

The group exchanged startled glances, then slowly stepped inside without anyone needing to say a word.

"It’s a passage...!!"

Inside was a large, tunnel-like passage, and Minos cried out in excitement.

It was not a sheer vertical hole, either. It sloped downward, wide enough for people to enter without any additional work.

'There really were stairs...?'

Gerik looked stunned as he spotted traces of stairs here and there among the broken walls and dirt. The building truly seemed to be the spire of some enormous structure, along with the stairway that had led to it.

"It opened up far better than I expected! We’re lucky!"

Minos had clearly not expected it to be in such good condition, and he looked thrilled by the intact passage.

Naturally, he immediately called for an exploration. The others did not object to the wishes of the man who was effectively their employer, and they quietly gathered their gear before setting out.

"A cave...?"

Not long after descending through the passage, a broad cavern appeared before them.

It was a collapsed space filled with a jumble of ruins, earth, and rock.

Perhaps it had suffered an enormous impact long ago, separate from the spell, because the ruins had been badly damaged.

Parts of the walls had crumbled away, and sections of the floor dropped off like cliffs, making the sight unsettling.

"Even if it’s badly damaged... there are no signs of anyone entering from outside, so we’re sure to find something!"

Under Minos’s lead, the group cautiously explored the cavern.

Then they found a relatively intact section of the ruins and began searching it thoroughly.

"Wait, this..."

After searching through the pitch-black ruins for some time, Minos suddenly stopped and began moving his torch around.

"Did you find something?"

When Gerik asked curiously, Minos did not answer. Instead, he carefully placed a hand against the wall in front of him.

"Everyone, hold up your torches and take a good look over here."

The group raised their pole torches and illuminated the direction Minos indicated, their faces full of confusion.

As they gathered their lights one by one, it became clear that what stood before them was not an ordinary wall.

"This... surely not...?"

At first glance, the ruin had looked like a smoothly curving wall.

But once Gerik could examine a wider area by torchlight, he realized it was not a wall at all. It was a finely carved statue, depicting folds of cloth.

"Yes. That’s right. It’s a statue."

At Minos’s quiet words, everyone raised their pole torches higher, trying to see the statue in its entirety.

Its scale was so enormous that even the broad light cast by their pole torches was not enough to illuminate it all.

Growing frustrated, Gerik was about to suggest they find another way when Katrin quietly pulled a rope and hook from her waist, then skillfully threw the hooked rope into the air.

Clang! Clang!!

After only a couple of tries, Katrin succeeded in firmly hooking it onto something above.

She checked several times to make sure the rope was secure. Once she confirmed it was safe, she gripped it and nimbly climbed the wall.

"How is it? Can you see?"

Katrin pressed herself close to the wall for safety, then raised her torch and shouted down. Perhaps because of the angle, she could not see the statue even from higher up.

"This looks like a statue of some god?"

The statue was headless. Everything above the neck had been cleanly severed, as though it had been deliberately destroyed.

Gerik had been casually examining it when something came to mind, and the shock made his thoughts freeze.

'That... surely not...!'

The folds of its skirt. The shape of its hands. Even its posture.

Gerik realized that the statue was identical to the woman carved onto the handle of ??'s Dimensional Key he had obtained through Lugos several months ago.

"Gerik, what’s wrong?"

Minos’s voice snapped Gerik back to his senses, making him flinch.

He had been standing there alone, frozen as he stared at the statue. Realizing that, Gerik quickly composed himself and made an excuse to hide his secret.

"...Ah, the moment I saw that statue, I got a strange feeling. Something ominous, like an oppressive feeling that’s hard to withstand..."

"...An ominous feeling?"

"Yes. Didn’t either of you feel it?"

He could not let others know he possessed a legendary artifact, so Gerik hid the truth and tried to act as if he knew nothing.

Fortunately, his excuse sounded plausible enough that neither of them showed any sign of suspicion.

"Hmm... Could this have been a pagan temple? If so, it would make sense to feel something like that..."

Minos looked at the statue once more and narrowed his eyes slightly as he thought it over. He seemed to believe that a relic related to faith could cause such a sensation.

"Nothing else to see, right? I’m coming down."

Katrin, who had been listening to their conversation, quickly climbed back down. She seemed uncomfortable with the idea that the statue she had been standing on belonged to some unknown god.

Gods truly existed in this world, after all, and irreverence could earn one a god’s curse.

After getting a good look at the statue, the group left it behind and continued searching the remaining areas. Yet they found nothing else of note.

Strangely, although there were no signs that outsiders had touched the place, the interior was unnaturally empty.

"That’s enough for today."

Ilvern, who had been measuring the time by burning a knotted cord, reminded the group that quite a lot of time had passed.

"Let’s return to camp, eat, replenish our drinking water, and continue the investigation afterward."

No one had any objection to Ilvern’s reasonable suggestion. The group nodded and turned toward the passage they had entered through.

'What is this? It feels like... the atmosphere has changed somehow.'

For some reason, Gerik felt as though the mood around them had grown subdued.

It was as if the entire cavern had become strangely quiet.

The place had been buried, so there had never been even an insect to make noise, but the silence now felt more ominous.

Like the calm before a storm, the silence just before something erupted.

"Hm...?"

As Gerik frowned at the unfamiliar sensation, Katrin also stopped walking. Perhaps she had sensed something ominous as well, because she hunched slightly and slowly looked around.

Flutter.

A tiny sound came from somewhere.

Under normal circumstances, it was so faint that Gerik would never have heard it. But the cavern was so quiet that he barely caught the noise.

Gerik dismissed it as nothing because it was so small. Katrin, on the other hand, was sensitive to sound as a Half-elf, so she naturally turned toward it. The moment she found something there, her face went pale.

"...Over there!"

It was the first time Gerik had seen Katrin look frightened since entering the Boundary Forest.

Startled by the sight of the usually bold Katrin looking so terrified, everyone turned toward the exit she pointed at.

'...Orbs?'

Two golden eyes, each as large as a fist, gleamed in the darkness. In that instant, Gerik recalled the advice Grimdal had given him at the smithy.

'There’s something in the Demonwild Forest they call a hunter of adventurers.'

Gerik froze as he remembered Grimdal’s warning.

Then Ilvern’s expression twisted. He hurriedly drew his weapon and shield, stepped forward, and shouted.

"Grizzly Owl!! Everyone, get into position!!"

As if responding to Ilvern’s cry, the sharp screech of a bird of prey burst from the darkness. It was the cry that only an apex predator could make.

Hearing it for the first time, Gerik felt the terror of becoming prey in an instant, as though death itself were closing in.

"It’s coming!!"

The Grizzly Owl seemed to have finished sizing them up. The moment it finished roaring, it charged.

It moved at a speed that was impossible to believe for such a huge monster.

In an instant, it entered the range of their torchlight, and Gerik was finally able to see the notorious tyrant in full.

'That’s the Grizzly Owl...'

Its grayish-white owl head sat atop a bear’s body that did not suit it at all. With its bizarre appearance, the creature kicked off with forepaws armed with claws as sharp as a bird of prey’s and rushed toward them.

Footnotes:

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