WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Mordor
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Surviving the Frozen Dark Fantasy as a Genius Mage ◈
Chapter 19: Random Gacha Is Also Part of the Labyrinth's Charm
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It writhed its roots, dropped fruit made of corpses, and summoned Crawling Husks.
The monster tree resisted fiercely, but it couldn't withstand my spell and froze solid.
Krrrrr!
Still, I frowned.
It was still alive.
“Fuck.”
If I were a fire-affinity mage, I could've finished this in one shot with a similar spell, Flamethrower. This was why elemental compatibility was such bullshit.
At least we'd bought some time, so if we ran now...
Just as I thought that...
Tap!
“Elena!?”
Elena suddenly charged toward the frozen tree.
“You idiot! Don't do anything reckless. Come back!”
I shouted in alarm, but that stubborn idiot didn't even pretend to listen.
“Dieeeee!”
Whiiirl!
At that moment, the coin spun.
[Heads/Tails]
I knew instinctively.
This coin was divining Elena's fate.
Fuck, fuck.
‘Heads or tails? Heads or tails?’
Despite my hesitation, I tossed the coin.
‘Heads!’
Was it trying to make up for all the unfair bullshit so far?
[Heads]
The coin landed on heads.
As the ground writhed, a root shot out and missed Elena. She struck the tree with her sword.
Clang!
With a dull sound like iron striking iron, Elena's palm split open and she dropped her sword.
Craaaack!
At the same time, the Human-Rearing Tree cracked.
“You fucker!”
A fist slammed into the tree.
The crack widened, then spread irresistibly.
“Die! Just die already!”
Once, twice, three times.
The punches kept coming.
After reaching its limit, it exploded with a crash, scattering countless red fragments in every direction.
The Human-Rearing Tree had been destroyed.
A rookie party that hadn't even reached amateur level had taken down an Eighth-Rank monster.
Uuugh...
The Crawling Husks controlled by the tree collapsed to the ground like puppets with their strings cut.
“Elena...”
“Ian... He did it. He killed that monster...”
Dize and Daisy stared in shock.
“Huff, huff!”
Elena let out ragged breaths before dropping to the ground.
“You crazy bitch! What were you thinking, doing something that reckless!?”
Rather than admire her incredible achievement, I rushed over to check on her because I was worried.
“Ow, it hurts...”
Ice fragments were embedded in her right hand, leaving it bloody, and it looked fractured too.
“We could've just run away!”
“Then we'd have only lost out.”
Elena frowned, spat to the side, then pointed at the Mana Stone the Human-Rearing Tree had spat out as if nothing was wrong.
“So how much is this worth?”
It was an Eighth Rank Mana Stone.
Its price was...
“About twenty pieces of Stone Bread.”
“Oh, that's a big jump in value.”
“It's still cheap compared to your sword.”
“What...? Ah! Fuck!”
Elena screamed.
“What is it!?”
“Are you okay, Elena!?”
Dize and Daisy panicked, thinking the pain from Elena's wound had made her scream, but that wasn't it.
“M-My sword...”
The sword the blacksmith had given her had snapped in half during the battle.
“Tsk tsk. This is why I called you reckless.”
I clicked my tongue as I wrapped the broken sword in cloth and put it into Elena's backpack.
Unless their equipment was enchanted, ordinary low-to-mid-rank Expedition Party members carried several pieces of equipment. Even if they maintained them whenever they could, monster fluids, oils, and hard shells damaged equipment easily.
It was even worse when someone used equipment as recklessly as Elena. The fact that it hadn't broken until now meant it had been fairly good equipment.
“Then we only lost out!”
“Not quite.”
No, we'd struck it rich.
I picked up an especially large, gleaming red bead from the shattered fragments.
It was the Human-Rearing Tree's essence.
It sounded horrifying, but it was like a heart formed from the concentrated lifeblood of the Human-Rearing Tree's victims.
“It sells for a high price as a magic material.”
It could also be used as an ingredient in potions.
“Really!? How much!?”
“Even a rough estimate would be around ten silver coins...”
“That's fucking amazing!”
To beginners, it was a horrific monster. To experienced Expedition Party members, it was a gold mine they deliberately sought out.
And that wasn't all.
“Look around.”
Around the Corpse Tree lay the equipment and belongings of the Expedition Party members who had fallen victim to it.
Some were rusted, but most remained intact enough to be useful. We could use them or melt them down and sell them for more than the essence was worth.
“Arthur...”
...Arthur's equipment was there too.
“Arthur... Arthur... Arthuuur!”
Narita howled as she held the frozen Crawling Husk that had once been Arthur.
“Sob, sniff, ngh... Aaaah!”
A friend from home.
Or maybe a lover.
“...Tsk.”
My heart, which had been racing from the battle, settled down.
My excitement faded, leaving a bitter taste in my mouth.
After seeing the horrific ends of Arthur and the other rookie Expedition Party members, Dize and Daisy threw up what was in their stomachs.
Bleegh!
When exploring the Labyrinth, mental strength mattered more than physical ability.
After seeing and experiencing scenes like this a few times, people wore down far too easily.
‘Dize and Daisy are actually holding up fairly well.’
‘Most people would already be pissing and shitting themselves, unable to do anything.’
Of course, Elena and I weren't normal either.
We gathered the dead Expedition Party members' equipment.
The belongings of the undead were caked with blood and bodily fluids. Our backpacks were full, yet there was still more we couldn't take.
‘It's a shame there aren't any potions.’
Then.
“We have to find them... Babeyo might still be alive...”
Narita, who had been clutching the scrap of skin that had once been Arthur, suddenly stood.
After losing two friends so horribly, her eyes gleamed madly through her disheveled hair.
“Sorry, but we're leaving.”
I handed Narita Arthur's belongings recovered from the Human-Rearing Tree.
“Bullshit! You said you'd help us! Babeyo is still out there! Somewhere! They must still be alive...!”
Thud!
“Stop being so unreasonable, you fucking bitch!”
Enraged, Elena kicked Narita in the face.
“I know you're in a terrible situation, but we've done enough. Keep pushing this, and I'll kill you.”
Blood ran from Narita's split lip, but she lowered her gaze.
She dropped flat onto the ground and begged, even bowing her head.
“Please... Please help me...”
“...”
Daisy looked like she wanted to help, but she only glanced nervously between Elena and me, her eyelids trembling. She probably knew she couldn't demand a say when she hadn't contributed much.
A wise decision.
“Huff, huff...”
Dize was breathing heavily, as if the situation were suffocating him.
“Whew.”
Whether to kill or spare, rescue or abandon someone, making decisions in situations this cruel was also the party leader's duty.
I let out a breath, rubbed my face, and spoke coldly.
“Go search alone. We're leaving.”
“Fuck! The promise...”
“The promise was that we'd look for your party while searching for the portal. The result wasn't good, but we found two people, and now a portal has appeared.”
There was a path through hardship: near where the Human-Rearing Tree had stood was a portal.
Red portals lead to the second floor.
Blue portals are random portals that either return people to the city or send them to another area on the first floor.
“Like Elena said, we've done enough. Narita, I feel for you, but we can't do any more.”
The first floor was smaller than the other floors, but it was still vast.
There were more than ten forest-like areas like the one we had passed through.
How were we supposed to find someone named Babeyo in all that?
What were the odds that person was alive?
‘They'd be lucky if the Karakans hadn't eaten them and shat them out already.’
“...”
Narita glared at us, gritting her teeth hard enough to draw blood.
“A-Are we going in right away?”
Dize asked with relief in his voice, but I shook my head.
“It'd be great if it's a return portal, but it could send us to another area on the first floor. Let's rest here first, then go.”
The odds were fifty-fifty.
The most important thing when exploring the Labyrinth was minimizing any risk that could be reduced, no matter how small the chance.
That was the secret of a veteran player.
“Eat even if you don't feel like it.”
We needed to recover our strength while we could and get ourselves back in order.
‘Two hours until Memorize.’
Most of all, I urgently needed to replenish my depleted spells.
Right now, I was nothing more than a wand holder.
‘Without me, our party's fighting power drops by seventy percent!’
Just as we were about to treat our injuries and rest, terrible news arrived.
Kyaaaaaaak!
A beast-like screech echoed from beyond the forest.
“The Karakans!”
It seemed they had learned the monster tree was dead and were following us.
An unexpected variable.
Fuck, we had no choice but to enter the portal immediately.
“Damn it. Those persistent bastards.”
“Cough, cough.”
Elena cursed while Dize choked on his water.
“Everyone get ready! We're going in now!”
I led the others, then turned around.
Narita, whom I thought had left, was still there, preparing to move with us.
Elena, gripping a dead Expedition Party member's sword in place of her broken one, let out a mocking laugh when she saw her.
“You went on and on about your friends, but I guess you don't want to die after all?”
Creak!
Had she hit the mark?
Narita ground her teeth and glared at Elena murderously.
“Elena.”
I stopped her.
“What's wrong with what I said...”
Elena immediately calmed down and grumbled.
Narita, that troll bitch, had made plenty of irrational decisions.
Still, she had also contributed a lot.
Without Narita, one of our group would have died during the Karakans' attack.
‘In the Labyrinth, you use everything you can!’
“Narita. Think wisely. You need to survive, at least, so you can hold a funeral for your friends.”
I'd expected this, so I'd deliberately given her Arthur and Rami's belongings that she hadn't been able to collect.
“If we're lucky, Babeyo may have escaped already.”
The odds were low, but I said it because I wanted to use her.
“...”
Narita followed us with an unreadable expression.
‘Ah, fuck, God. Please. Give us luck just one more time.’
‘It has to be a return portal. Seriously.’
Everyone was exhausted and injured, and most importantly, I had no spells left.
Shuddering at the difficulty of real-life Dungeon of Death, we stepped into the portal.
Footnotes:
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