WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Mordor
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Surviving the Frozen Dark Fantasy as a Genius Mage ◈
Chapter 10: The Talk-of-the-Town Rookie and the Offer
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Kyle had been an expedition member for over two years.
He was still stuck on the lower floors, but by now, he could be considered past the rookie stage.
As usual, he had just finished exploring the Labyrinth and was drinking with his party at a tavern when he heard the news.
New recruits had arrived.
“Looks like some newcomers came in.”
“Hm. How many of them do you think have the guts to enter the Labyrinth?”
At Kyle's words, Howard the dwarf set down his beer mug.
Foam clung to his thick beard.
Just then, someone dragged over a chair and joined them. She was a young woman with cat ears and a tail, a beastkin and the leader of their party. Lingxiang was a veteran with three years of Labyrinth exploration under her belt.
“Then we should make a bet.”
She looked as though she had just come from a dice game, holding the betting stakes in her hand.
“Bwahaha! Sounds good!”
“I'll win this time~”
The three left the tavern.
Other adventurers who had heard the news were already gathering outside. Watching clueless newcomers was one of the few pleasures in this hellhole, alongside gambling, drinking, and prostitution.
The newcomers had appeared at the northern city wall.
It was rough territory where Draugr, wild beasts, and monsters appeared far more often than elsewhere.
“How many are there?”
Kyle looked things over for Lingxiang and Howard, who were too short and had to hop to see.
“There are four. They don't look like nobles.”
The only notable things about them were a handsome silver-haired young man holding a staff, presumably a mage, and an elf. Other than that, nothing stood out.
‘They must have been exiled because they didn't have fire or earth affinity.’
“I see. All right, let's place our bets.”
The rules were simple.
They had to guess how many people had set out from the newcomers' original hometown.
The survival rate was five percent.
Except for a few unusual cases, most groups never exceeded that figure.
A hundred years had passed since the Labyrinth opened and the world froze over. Countless expedition members had been sent from across the continent, leaving behind what people called big data.
“I'll say eighty.”
Five percent of eighty was exactly four.
Kyle assumed they had come from a city and made the safest bet.
“Then I'll say sixty!”
Perhaps because he was already fairly drunk, Howard made a bold choice.
Then the other two froze.
“I'll go with eleven.”
Lingxiang had made an absurd bet.
“What? Eleven!?”
“Are you just planning to lose, Lingxiang? Bwahahaha!”
They asked again as if they had misheard, but Lingxiang stuck to her choice.
“I just have a feeling.”
Her luck had been unusually good today, including at the dice table.
“Four.”
Just as she expected.
Lingxiang smiled at Ian's answer.
“No way! They set out with eleven people, and four made it here alive?”
“A forty percent survival rate... That's impossible. They aren't nobles from Castle with a line of guards escorting them.”
Kyle and the other expedition members were stunned.
No matter how they looked at it, it was close to impossible.
“Hey! You all came from the same village, right!?”
“How many times are you going to ask? I said yes.”
“A message just arrived. Eleven people departed South Sunlight Village. The young man was telling the truth.”
“Fuck, what the...!”
“This is why betting against the odds is fun.”
Lingxiang laughed.
So that was why her luck had felt so good today.
Every once in a while, people like this showed up. Abnormal ones.
“Hey, hand over the money.”
“Ugh.”
Lingxiang snatched the stakes from Kyle and Howard.
Then, her tail and ears swaying happily, she walked toward the young man with silver hair as cold as winter.
“Welcome to the asshole of hell, rookie.”
Meow, meow.
Grinning mischievously, Lingxiang taught them the one thing they absolutely needed to know about this city.
“For the record, it's even shittier here than it is out there.”
* * *
A savory smell spread from the bubbling pot.
Warmth rose from the fireplace, mingling with loud laughter and the smell of alcohol.
After the priestess took Dize away, the rest of us went to an inn. The beastkin who introduced herself as Lingxiang had offered to buy us a meal.
A woman buying me food?
If this were the twenty-first century, I'd suspect organ trafficking or some cult, but this primitive world wasn't like that.
Free food was always right!
Munch, munch.
Chewy rye bread, soup with beans, potatoes, and bacon, roasted reindeer hind leg, stir-fried spinach.
Elena, Daisy, and I devoured the spread like crazy.
We had been starving before reaching the city, and aside from the time we were selected for the Expedition Party and ate Elizabeth, we had never eaten a feast like this back in the village, where we mostly lived on potatoes.
“It's good. Sniff. It's so good...”
Elena chewed her meat with tears streaming down her face.
Even the normally reserved Daisy nodded off in the inn's warmth while still munching on bread.
Unlike those primitive barbarians, I, a man of intelligence and refinement, was eating with proper dignity...
“Ah, fuck! Ian! Isn't it unfair for you to eat everything by yourself!?”
“Yep. First come, first served.”
“Pfft.”
I couldn't hold back a laugh.
“If you need more, I'll order some, so slow down.”
Lingxiang rested her chin on her arm and watched us with an amused look, as though we reminded her of the past.
“The custom has disappeared now, but when newcomers arrived, the first seniors they met would buy them a meal.”
Oh? The game never told me about that. What a wonderful custom.
Of course...
“You aren't only doing this because you won money thanks to us, are you?”
“Well, that's part of it, but that was thanks to my judgment too.”
That was true.
This woman was doing us a favor. Of course, she probably wanted something in return.
“Ahh!”
Elena had now downed the stew straight from the bowl. She called over a server to order more food, then asked, “Do all the people here live well? Everyone eats so well.”
Everywhere I looked, people were surrounded by alcohol and meat dishes.
They even kept their fireplaces burning constantly. For people like us, who had shivered in the cold and eaten potatoes in a rural village, it was enough to make our eyes widen.
Since I already knew the answer, I replied casually.
“It's because of Mana Stones.”
“Mana Stones?”
Lingxiang looked at me with interest and added an explanation.
“They're a kind of resource you can only get from the Labyrinth here. Monsters drop them when you kill them... They process them to make fires, obtain stone, raise livestock. They have endless uses.”
“I see.”
“That's why Labyrinth is better off than other cities and villages. Though you only get to enjoy those things if you can earn your keep.”
As if she were tired of talking about it, Lingxiang snorted and asked us, “Enough about that. Tell me about yourselves. How did four of you make it here alive?”
Elena and Daisy both looked at me.
I stuffed meat and spinach into a piece of bread and answered casually.
“Thanks to me. I'm a genius mage.”
“Oh?”
“That's right. Without Ian, we'd all be dead. Ian is amazing. He can use three affinities.”
Daisy, who knew how to get along with people, chimed in for me.
The cat beastkin's interest in me deepened.
“A Triple Master? That's impressive... What affinities do you have?”
“Ice, lightning, and Arcane.”
...
“I was wondering why someone who could use three affinities ended up here...”
For a moment, pity appeared on Lingxiang's face.
“You missed both fire and earth. Your luck is really awful.”
I hated to admit it, but she was right.
If I had even one of those, fire or earth, I would've been living comfortably without going through all this trouble.
“Still, that's impressive. You crossed the frozen land without even having fire affinity. Hmm.”
This Lingxiang seemed fairly experienced.
Unlike Mais, the village's fire mage, and the village chief, who dismissed me after seeing only my affinities, she showed even more interest.
She had the insight to recognize how difficult it was to overcome an elemental disadvantage.
‘We made it here safely, but we're broke right now.’
‘If I make an impression on an experienced person like her or get her interested, life will be a little easier from now on.’
Still, she was only interested for now.
There were many skilled mages in Labyrinth. A party at Lingxiang's level could probably find a mage with more than ten spells.
Then how about this?
‘What if I tell her we even killed a Heavily Armored Draugr?’
Should I say it or not?
As I thought about it...
“If it weren't for that fat guy in the weird armor, we would've made it here more easily.”
Elena had stripped all the meat from her bone and called the server over to order even more food.
Daisy waved her hands, saying she couldn't eat anymore, then spoke.
“That's right. Back then, we really... We almost died. If Ian hadn't been there, we would've died...”
Lingxiang's ears perked up at that.
“A fat guy in armor? Don't tell me you ran into a Heavily Armored Draugr?”
“Yeah. Dize ended up like that because we killed the bastard.”
Elena answered blankly, as though she didn't see the problem.
...
That stupid elf had no idea how incredible what we had done was.
The beastkin expedition member in front of us, who seemed to have some experience, understood.
“...Huh.”
Her faint interest turned into surprise.
Lingxiang drew in a sharp breath and asked, “You said your name was Ian, right? How long ago did you awaken?”
“About a week.”
“...!”
“What about the others? Were you hunters or warriors before this?”
“No. I was an orphan.”
“I used to be a textile worker's third child.”
Her mental abacus went ding, ding, ding.
The elf had impressive physical abilities, but she was still a novice who had never even held a sword properly. And the girl named Daisy was completely dead weight.
That meant this mage had practically done everything himself...
Fuck, isn't this a jackpot?
Wasn't that what she was thinking?
Just as I expected...
“Are you guys going into the Labyrinth?”
The cat beastkin lifted her chin from her hand, leaned forward, and asked in a probing tone.
Footnotes:
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