WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Mordor
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Surviving the Frozen Dark Fantasy as a Genius Mage ◈
Chapter 18: What Is a Labyrinth?
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I was running at full speed, with catlike cannibals behind me and on both flanks.
The light pouring from my staff brightly illuminated the path ahead, while the others' torchlight followed behind.
Uuuuuuu.
Branches jutted out from the darkness, their rough brown surfaces flashing past us.
The trees we pushed through were ordinary trees, but at night, they looked like howling monsters.
Though the dangerous forest was lit up, it was far from a place friendly to humans.
“Huff, huff.”
I had the worst stamina, so just keeping pace with the others left me breathless.
Fuck, my lungs tasted like iron, and my legs were shaking.
Still, this wasn't the time to complain.
Thud!
“Everyone, run!!!”
The other four were running while fending off Karakans attacking from every direction.
Kiiiiiik!
An arrow fired by Narita pierced a strange masked catlike beastman as it dropped from a tree.
The arrow struck its famine-thin body, and it thrashed as it let out a pitiful scream.
“Don't stab them! Just knock them away!”
If they stabbed one with their spears, pulling them back out wouldn't be easy.
Elena's orders came at exactly the right time.
“Don't stab them! Knock them away!”
People didn't listen well in an emergency like this, so Elena repeated the order to hammer it home.
“Uaaaaaah!”
“Haaaaah!”
Dize and Daisy screamed as they knocked back the creatures leaping at them, trying to drive back their fear.
“Put strength into your thighs! If you slip, you're dead!!!”
Elena shouted after burning one's face with her torch and slashing at the agile creatures darting toward us in zigzags with her shortsword.
If I lit the way and broke through obstacles, Elena handled the finer details of directing the party.
Like a shock trooper, she threw herself into the most dangerous places and drove the monsters away.
I could tell.
Elena was even more incredible than I'd thought.
“Huff, huff!”
As we ran, I stumbled over the uneven ground.
My lousy coordination was to blame.
Fuck, I almost fell.
That wasn't all.
There were too many Karakans, and as catlike creatures, they were fast.
They chased us through the bushes and climbed through the trees, gradually catching up.
Kyaaaaaak!
One dropped from above and clung to my shoulder.
“You little shit!”
“Ian!”
I staggered beneath its weight and was about to cast a spell when Elena rushed over.
Tough as she was, two of them had already latched onto her, clawing at her and biting her neck. Even so, she gripped her burning torch tightly and swung it at the Karakan clinging to me.
“This'll be hot!”
Thud!
Kehk!
“Urgh!”
Just as she'd said before, she protected me first.
[Electric Spark]
Crackle!
I charged my staff with a bolt and thrust it into the Karakans attacking Elena.
“This'll sting!”
Blue light flashed around us as the shocked beasts shrieked and convulsed.
“Grrrgh! Aaaagh!”
Elena got shocked too, but surviving was what mattered.
Then, as we started running again, another problem appeared.
Rustle, rustle, rustle!
“What is that thing!?”
One Karakan was especially fast and powerful.
“It's fast! It's the leader!”
“Hey! Archer! Shoot it!”
“Urgh!”
“I missed!”
It was a head taller than the others and wore a mask carved from a human skull.
The creature, which had been waiting for an opening, attacked us.
“Uaaaaaah!”
Dize fell behind.
“Dize!”
“Fuck!”
Ignoring the others as they hesitated, I called to Arthur's party's archer.
“Narita! Shoot it!”
“...I-I can't!”
That rude woman was hesitating?
“Why!?”
I thought she was holding a grudge and trying to get revenge, but that wasn't it.
“H-he'll get hit too!”
It was Narita's first time exploring the Labyrinth. She was an amateur.
At that close range, hitting only the monster was nearly impossible.
“L-leave me... Hic...”
Dize seemed to want to tell us to leave him behind out of a sense of responsibility, but he was too scared to say it and could only sniffle.
“We have to save him!”
“Leave him! It's already too late!”
In less than two seconds, Daisy ran forward while Narita shook her head.
Elena gritted her teeth and asked me, “What do we do!?”
If we tried to save Dize and got surrounded, everyone would die.
Logically, abandoning Dize was the right choice.
But this wasn't a game.
‘Magic makes the impossible possible.’
I steadied my breathing and aimed my staff.
The parchment formed from mana and mental imagery burned, granting me a miracle.
That new spell was...
[Magic Missile]
Thump, thump, thump!
One of the three green orbs struck the leader just as it was about to sink its claws into Dize.
The other two hit the creatures closing in.
Their masks shattered as they were sent flying.
It was weak, but its accuracy and homing ability were exceptional.
‘This is Magic Missile!’
And one more!
[Faint Light]
I cast the light spell again.
Flash!
Kiiiiiik!
The Karakans, which had grown used to the light, stopped mid-charge and covered their faces as the intense flash erupted once more.
“Ian... Hic!”
“Dize! Hurry!”
Daisy supported Dize.
“R-run... Run... Huff!”
“Seriously, what a weakling.”
Elena hoisted my exhausted body onto her back and ran.
It hurt my pride as a man, but this wasn't the time to worry about that.
Maybe the leader had been hurt by my magic, or maybe we had left their territory. Either way, the Karakans stopped chasing us.
Kyaaaaaak!
As Elena carried me away, all I could see was the leader covering its face while glaring at me with furious eyes through its broken mask.
“Whew...”
We reached a place without monsters. I didn't know if it was safe, but everyone collapsed to the ground and panted.
“I-I can't go any farther... Huff, puff.”
The dew and cold night air cooled us down. After drinking the water from our packs, I felt a little better.
Once I had recovered my senses, I checked my remaining spells first.
[Electric Spark] [1]
[Frost Burst] [1]
I had used all my light spells, and Frost Burst was my only offensive spell left.
It was currently 3:30 a.m.
There were two and a half hours left until Memorize.
‘Even finding the portal and moving immediately would be cutting it close.’
The Karakans had thrown off my plans.
“Are you okay? Your blood...”
Daisy looked at Narita.
Narita was panting as she held the wound that had reopened from all the movement.
“Ian, some bandages and herbs...”
Narita shook her head.
“I'm... Huff, huff. I'm fine...”
Then, drooling as she gasped, she spoke to us.
“Hey... You didn't forget our promise, did you? You said you'd help save my friends...”
‘Now, hold on.’
“I said I'd help as much as possible if we found traces of them while escaping.”
Narita shifted her gaze.
A torn scrap of white clothing was caught in the bushes.
“It's Rami's.”
“Tch.”
Elena seemed to have known already, but she had deliberately kept quiet.
“...”
What perfect timing.
I remembered the Karakans that had chased us and hesitated.
Narita's expression hardened.
“Are you going to break your promise?”
If I had been alone, maybe I would have.
But now I was the party leader. Unless there was no other choice, I had to set an example for my companions.
“Of course not. Let's go.”
We followed the trail.
Soon, we found her in the darkness.
Her name was...
“Rami!!!”
Right. She was Arthur's party's priest.
She had a gentle face and had treated Dize.
“You're safe!”
Rami stood with her back to us, repeatedly knocking her head against a tree.
At Narita's voice, she turned around.
Her clothes were torn, but she looked unharmed.
“...”
Still, I raised my staff.
“She's human! She's my friend!”
I knew exactly what condition she was in.
“Na... hita?”
Perhaps the monster attack had shocked her badly. Rami answered with clumsy pronunciation and started walking toward us.
“Rami!”
“Hold Narita back!”
I told the others to stop Narita as she tried to approach Rami.
“Let go! What the hell are you doing!?”
“Wh-why... Why are you doing this? Why...?”
Without saying a word, I pointed my glowing staff at her.
Flash!
Light should have been familiar to someone who could use holy spells.
But the moment Rami was exposed to it, her whole body twisted as she let out a bizarre scream.
“Uoooooooh!”
At the same time, both her pupils rolled in strange, different directions.
Then, with the sound of bones cracking, arthropod legs burst from her ears, mouth, and every other opening in her body.
Blood spattered across her face, filling the air with a foul smell.
“...What?”
Narita stared blankly, unable to believe what had happened.
“She was attacked by a Corpse Spider.”
It was a monster that burrowed into people like a fist-sized parasite and controlled them.
In the early stages of infection, it could be treated with medicine or certain spells. Once it had progressed too far, there was no cure.
In other words...
“That's already a monster wearing your friend's skin.”
“Ah... Aaaaaaah!”
Narita denied reality.
“No... We can save her. We can save her!!!”
“Ugh...”
“Bleurgh!”
Daisy and Dize, overcome with shock, vomited.
Narita shook them off and approached what had once been Rami.
Kirikik!
Rami could no longer speak human words. It only stretched out its grotesque parasite limbs, looking for a new victim.
Thud!
With a dull impact, her eyes popped from their sockets as her head was crushed.
A human skull was incredibly tough, so it took more than one strike. The sword swung again and again before cutting through her neck.
“...!”
“You couldn't do it, so I did it for you.”
It was Elena.
“Y-you murderous bitch!”
Narita immediately aimed her bow at Elena.
Thud!
Elena struck her at once and subdued her.
“Hey, you knew too. It was already too late.”
“No! It wasn't! We could've saved her! We could've saved her!!!”
Logically, Elena was right.
But how could anyone act on logic alone?
Narita had lost a friend from her hometown in an instant, and in such a horrifying way. She thrashed as if she had gone mad.
“Fuck, shut up! You'll draw every monster here!”
Elena covered Narita's mouth, but Narita bit her hand. Annoyed, Elena started hitting her repeatedly.
Thud! Thump!
“Ian! Can't you knock this bitch out with a spell!?”
I still had a bolt left, but I needed to save it.
“I used all but one.”
When I shook my head, Elena's eyes flashed.
“Fuck. Then if we just beat her until she passes out...”
No, if it came down to it, she might just kill her...
Just as Elena seemed to be considering something chilling, “Mmmmmmph!” Narita stopped struggling.
A voice came from the other side of the forest.
“Narita...”
“Arthur!”
That was Arthur's voice. I remembered it clearly.
But...
‘He's alive in a situation like this?’
At the sound, Narita found strength from somewhere and shoved Elena away before running forward.
“Arthurrrr!”
“Ugh... Hic.”
Daisy and Dize still hadn't recovered from seeing Rami's horrific death.
Elena shrugged.
“Something's wrong. Let's leave that thing and go. We've done enough.”
She was right.
It had ended in tragedy, but we had found one person.
I shook my head.
“That's where the portal is.”
“...Haa.”
The voice was coming from exactly where we needed to go.
“Dize, Daisy, get a grip!”
Slap! Slap!
“Do you want to end up like that too!?”
“U-ugh... No.”
“No, I don't want that...”
As a drastic measure, I even slapped their cheeks to bring them back to their senses.
Then I gathered Rami's belongings and headed toward the voice.
“...”
The voice grew closer.
Soon, we found Narita.
She stood blankly in the bushes beneath faint moonlight, staring ahead.
Arthur, the friend she had been searching for so desperately, was there.
But she couldn't approach him.
He was dangling from a tree like a hanged corpse.
“Narita...”
Arthur's bizarre appearance as he called Narita even in that state made it clear he was no longer human.
“A-Arthur? Arthur?”
‘So it was this bastard.’
I identified the monster.
“It's a Human-Rearing Tree.”
Corpse Spiders and Karakans were horrifying creatures. Karakans were the catlike monsters native to the Warm Forest.
But compared to some things, they could almost be called humane.
The Labyrinth contained many things that could destroy a person's mind at a glance.
First, humans parasitized by Corpse Spiders.
And...
Human-Rearing Trees.
‘Other than secret dungeons, it's one of the most dangerous monsters on the first floor.’
Fruits hung thick from the vine-covered tree.
Looking closely, they were human corpses.
Arthur, who had been hanging there and calling to us, suddenly fell as the vines loosened.
His cheerful, friendly face was gone. His blond hair and teeth fell out in clumps like those of a sick person.
Uoooooh...
Something strange, shaped like a shriveled waterskin, crawled toward us like an insect.
“Arthurrrr!”
It was a [Crawling Husk].
A new monster born from a victim captured by a Human-Rearing Tree.
The corpse tree swayed.
The hanging corpses flopped about as if dancing.
Ooooooh!
They screamed in unison, as if resonating with one another.
“Ugh... Aaaaaaah!”
Narita screamed at the horrific sight.
The others staggered while clutching their ears.
“Ugh... Ugh...”
In game terms, it would probably be like this.
[Narita's sanity is collapsing.]
[Dize is terrified.]
[Daisy is terrified.]
[Elena is under stress.]
[Ian resists fear with his superior mental fortitude.]
Kiiiiiik!
Honestly, I felt like vomiting right away.
Maybe it was because I had seen all kinds of illustrations and read the setting books from behind a monitor.
Or maybe it was thanks to the Grimoires within me.
Either way, I was able to remain calmer than the others.
‘Seeing it in real life is disgusting beyond belief!’
‘A Human-Rearing Tree is an Eighth-Rank monster.’
‘Our swords and arrows can't even scratch it at our current level.’
But magic could!
Facing the hideous thing seeking new victims, I drew up my mana and burned the parchment within me.
The final spell I had left.
I cast my strongest offensive spell, the one I had used to defeat the Heavily Armored Draugr.
[Frost Burst]
My staff glowed blue, and the air suddenly turned cold.
Ice shards and snowflakes fell from the darkness, then frost began to rage.
Whoooooosh!
The hideous thing covered in corpses could not withstand the fierce cold and froze.
“This is for Arthur and Rami.”
Footnotes:
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