WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Mordor

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Surviving the Frozen Dark Fantasy as a Genius Mage ◈

Chapter 33: 2nd-Floor Rotten Swamp

──────

The elevation of the soul’s rank.

Right, that was how people in this world tended to put it.

But as a cultured modern man brimming with knowledge, I preferred this word.

“No, it’s a level-up.”

A giant spider gave twenty experience points.

A Gnoll archer gave fifty.

I’d figured it was about time.

“Hmm, level-up? It sounds rather strange. Is that a term mages use?”

Leaving the uncivilized dwarf tilting his head behind me, I hummed to myself.

‘Nice, I gained another spell engraving slot.’

Low-floor mages usually lacked spells while having spell engraving slots to spare.

But since I was a genius mage, I was short on spell engraving slots instead.

This solved the problem, at least a little.

‘It’d be nice if I could find an artifact that increases spell engraving slots too.’

Here was a little trick.

If you leveled up and gained a spell engraving slot, or learned a new spell, you could Memorize it on the spot.

I engraved Rising Water Jet, the new water spell I’d been unable to equip because I lacked slots.

After that, we continued exploring across the planks.

There had been a few close calls along the way, but each time, we overcame the danger with my magic or Daisy’s Divine Power spells. Elena was becoming more skilled in combat with every step, so our exploration was growing steadily safer.

‘Not bad.’

We met other Expedition Party members during our exploration, but unlike what I’d feared, nobody tried to rob us. We simply looked at one another calmly before going our separate ways.

‘Right. It’s not like Marauders are that easy to run into.’

‘You could get branded as a public enemy of the city and executed if things went wrong.’

The downside of the Rotting Swamp was that there were almost no places where you could rest comfortably.

There were hollow-like spaces where overlapping planks connected together. Every so often, there were broad areas large enough for several people to lie down, but those good spots already had occupants.

“Go somewhere else. Dwarf and elf party.”

“Use Heal on us once, and we’ll let you stay here.”

They either drove us away or demanded an excessive price.

“Chivalry is dead!”

“These cheap bastards.”

“Um... wouldn’t we do the same thing in their position?”

Daisy was right.

We probably wouldn’t want to share a resting place with strangers either.

But people are human precisely because they’re always self-centered.

“No, they’re the bad guys.”

“...”

“Exactly! Exactly!”

“Haha! Excellent way of thinking! That’s how Expedition Party members should be!”

Everyone except Daisy and Hans agreed with me.

As we continued exploring, our steps came to a halt.

A group of Expedition Party members was suddenly approaching us.

There were other paths, yet they were coming this way. They had to have some purpose.

‘Marauders?’

Even if they weren’t, it was best to stay alert.

“There’s a mage.”

“Prepare a barrier. Hey! Stop!”

Daisy’s light illuminated the way ahead.

Figures emerged from beneath the old wooden planks about ten meters away.

It was a party of two elves and three humans.

“Calm down! We just want to ask something!”

They raised both hands as if they had no hostile intent. One of them looked familiar.

A handsome male elf with green hair, holding a staff visible beneath his robe.

“You’re...”

“It’s been a while. Nice to see you.”

“Who’s that?”

Our idiot Elena didn’t remember him.

Daisy whispered to Elena.

“You know, the elf who was with us at the guild when we heard how much beginners earn.”

“Hmm...”

“The one I said was handsome, and you said he looked like an annoying anchovy.”

Daisy’s explanation was strangely specific.

“Ah! I remember!”

Elena’s ears perked up in surprise.

The other side had clearly heard that too. The male elf cleared his throat, looking displeased.

“Ahem.”

“What is it?”

When I stepped forward as the party leader, the elf mage spoke.

“We’re looking for someone.”

“Someone?”

“Have you happened to encounter any dark elves here?”

The Labyrinth lured Expedition Party members in with gold and Mana Stones, devoured them as nourishment, and countless people had lost loved ones inside it.

Still, they didn’t seem to be looking for missing acquaintances.

‘A request?’

Putting aside the fact that they didn’t look desperate.

“A male and a female dark elf.”

Elves and dark elves didn’t get along.

No, dark elves didn’t get along with most races.

“I haven’t seen them.”

“I see.”

“Is there a bounty on them?”

Normally, I wouldn’t interfere in personal matters, but I wanted to learn more.

It involved dark elves, after all.

“It is a matter between elves, so I cannot tell you. But I will say that they are utterly wicked individuals.”

The male elf refused to explain further.

‘It hasn’t been long since he took the beginner class, and he’s already on the second floor with us.’

‘Did he enter the Labyrinth specifically to find those dark elves?’

Then Elena suddenly said something absurd.

“Hey, I’m an elf too. Can’t you tell me?”

She pointed at herself and spoke boldly.

“Huh?”

...What bullshit was that?

A matter between elves meant elven society. You’re an orphan elf, aren’t you?

“...”

The male elf seemed at a loss for words after hearing Elena. Still, he was a smarter elf than I’d expected.

“I cannot tell an elf with a bad personality.”

“Huh? I have a bad personality?”

Elena genuinely didn’t understand.

“Me? Sweet little me? Huh?”

Damn.

I wouldn’t have been able to respond like that. Impressive.

Whirr.

At that moment, a coin floated above the male elf’s head.

[Heads/Tails]

There didn’t seem to be any risk even if I failed, so I made my choice.

‘Heads.’

[Heads]

Flinch.

As the coin succeeded, the male elf who had been about to turn away paused.

Then he opened his mouth.

“They stole something important from our clan.”

The coin’s success seemed to have temporarily increased his favorability.

It was vague information, but as a Dungeon of Death veteran, I could infer a fair amount from that fragment alone.

‘Judging by the pattern embroidered on his robe, he belongs to the Deep Root Clan.’

If it was important enough to call it a treasured item of the clan, a few possibilities came to mind...

‘That mage might be stronger than I thought.’

“Then we’ll be going.”

The male elf and his party left.

Unaware of the coin, Elena stared after him in disbelief and cursed the elf.

“He said he wouldn’t tell us, then told us anyway. What a weird bastard.”

I played along.

“Yeah. All elves are strange.”

“What?!”

“Ghk. I-I surrender!”

Elena choked me.

“Dark elves are certainly an untrustworthy race, but elves aren’t exactly trustworthy either.”

Gimlius gave his opinion.

“What?”

“How should I put it? They’re inflexible, suspicious, and have a gloomy side. Unlike us dwarves, who are honest and passionate. Hahahaha!”

It ended with him boasting about his own race, so Elena took issue with it.

“Bullshit. You’re just a race that flies off the handle and can’t control its impulses.”

“What?!”

Anyway, we started moving again.

“Whew.”

“I’m getting a little tired.”

We had been exploring for six hours now.

It was about time to find somewhere to rest...

Oh, just then, we found a broad wooden structure where planks stretching in every direction intersected.

“Big enough for five people to lie down.”

There were no traces of people or monsters.

The planks were a little damp and caked with mud, though, and that smell...

Just as I narrowed my eyes, Expedition Party members suddenly appeared from the other side along with torchlight.

“Hey, we found that shelter first.”

It was a party of five humans.

“What the fuck are you talking about? This tiny...”

I stopped the enraged Elena and Gimlius, then nodded obediently.

“Sure, use it.”

“Ian?”

“What’s gotten into you? We badly need to rest too!”

The two were confused that I backed down so easily.

This dwarf said he had experience exploring the second floor, yet he didn’t know this?

Well, it wasn’t a gimmick that always activated.

I caught the faint lingering scent of mana and gestured for everyone to step back.

“Heh. Yeah, that’s a wise choice.”

“Right. There’s no need to cause trouble for nothing.”

My companions and I retreated. The five-person party snickered and settled onto the wide planks.

Bubbling.

Bubbles suddenly rose from the mud beneath them.

“W-what?”

Boom!

A massive arm shot up, smashing the planks apart with a crash.

A creature that looked as if someone had roughly shaped a human form out of clay.

It was a Mud Golem.

“Aaaah!”

With the ground suddenly destroyed beneath them, the five-person party fell into chaos in an instant.

Three flailed and fell into the swamp, while the remaining two rolled across the half-broken foothold and collapsed.

“G-golem!”

“Urgh!”

The two who had somehow avoided the attack weren’t in good shape either.

Like us, they had tied themselves together with rope so they could help one another if a companion fell into the swamp. But with three people falling in at once, their struggling comrades were about to drag them in as well.

“B-blub! Save me!”

“Stay still! We need to... ngh! Get out first!”

At that moment of crisis, extreme selfishness blossomed.

One gaunt-faced party member drew a dagger and tried to cut the rope around their waist first. Another looked at us and asked for help.

“Hey! P-please help...”

Of course, I already knew how to deal with those rude bastards.

I raised my middle finger.

“Fuck you.”

“You son of a...!”

Boom!

The Mud Golem swung its palm.

A helmet warped, and under the pressure, eyeballs and teeth burst out as though they had been crushed. One of them was squashed like a bug beneath a palm made of filth, weeds, dirt, and gravel, then sank into the swamp.

“H-hiiik!”

The remaining one swung a hammer at it, saw that it did nothing, and fell into despair before sinking into the swamp as well.

A meticulous ambush and a special ability.

It was slow, but its brute strength made it a higher-tier monster stronger than Gnolls or Lizardmen.

“It’s slow, but its destructive power is incredible...”

“What do we do?! Golems are troublesome monsters!”

Hans fired a crossbow bolt, but the quarrel that sank into its body was simply absorbed.

Golem-type monsters had tremendous resistance to physical force.

“Hmm.”

The Mud Golem was already looking this way and striding toward us, but it wasn’t that fast. If we wanted to run, we had plenty of time.

But I decided to use the spell I had been saving.

A golem’s weakness was the core somewhere inside its body.

An ordinary mage would have difficulty detecting it, but this genius mage could sense it.

The core was...

‘Right chest!’

“I’ll make an opening, so finish it. Ah, you don’t have to destroy the core. Just pull it out.”

I immediately burned the parchment within me and cast the spell.

[Frost Burst]

Mana Amplification.

The gemstone embedded in my staff flashed, and an even more powerful blast of freezing wind swept forth.

Whoooooosh!

The monster that had easily endured Bolt and a hammer blow froze at my spell.

It became a transparent ice statue, one arm outstretched in the very pose of its charge.

“Such power...”

Hans marveled at the spell’s power.

“Now!”

Elena and Gimlius untied their ropes and charged forward.

I had frozen not only the golem but the ground as well, so the two landed lightly and swung their weapons side by side.

Crash!

The monster’s upper body protruding from the swamp shattered.

Elena tossed aside her chipped sword, gripped her axe, stepped into the broken golem’s body as if it were a foothold, and leaped high.

“Die!”

She split open its head, pulled her axe far back again, and brought it down to crush its chest.

“Found it!”

Elena spotted the core amid the wreckage, thrust her hand in with brute force, and pulled out the golem’s core.

Rumble!

The golem could no longer hold its form and collapsed.

A Mana Stone larger than an 8th Rank Mana Stone fell out, gleaming.

“Nice!”

“The ice is melting! Get back here, quickly!”

“Argh!”

“Right! Pull those guys out too!”

“What?”

Elena and Gimlius climbed back onto the foothold, leaving the melting ice floor behind.

“Gasp, gasp.”

They held ropes in their hands. Two surviving members of the five-person party, covered head to toe in mud, were breathing raggedly.

“Th-thank...”

They looked at us, their saviors, and tried to offer thanks.

I smiled and held out my hand to them.

“You know it isn’t free, right?”

“Huh?”

“We saved your lives, so we’ll take suitable payment. Hand over all the equipment you’re wearing and your bags, except for food and torches.”

“What kind of...”

“We’re grateful you saved us, but that’s too much...”

Their faces turned pale.

Look at these shameless bastards.

I snorted and pointed my staff at them.

“Want me to throw you back down there?”

“...”

“W-we’ll give them to you...”

“You’ll give them to me?”

“We’ll give them to you, sir!”

There were five of us in perfect condition, while they only had two people left.

Maybe it was because they had seen the power of my spell.

They handed over their equipment and bags with tears in their eyes.

Heh.

Once we brushed off the mud, we could use this stuff as it was.

I smiled.

Second-floor Expedition Party members’ equipment was quite valuable, and their bags contained Mana Stones they had collected.

Without resorting to robbery, we had gained more than all our previous hunting yields combined through perfectly honorable means.

“Ah, so that’s why you said we should save them?”

“Haha! Is this only your second trip to the Labyrinth? You seem like a veteran who’s been through everything!”

Elena grinned.

Gimlius burst into laughter as he shook the mud from his beard.

Daisy looked at the two survivors with pity in her eyes, while Hans wrote down my actions.

“How to legally fleece Expedition Party members... I think it will be a useful reference.”

Still, I was a merciful genius mage.

I left the two with Gambesons and secondary weapons, at least.

If they were lucky, they would survive.

‘If they had been decent people from the start, I would’ve just helped them. Tsk.’

“Ah, now we have to find a camp again.”

As we began moving again in search of a resting place, we ran into more Expedition Party members.

“Stop. People ahead, not monsters.”

‘Those are...’

Unlike before, we were even more cautious.

“They’re coming closer.”

A group was approaching from the opposite direction along the path we were taking.

Some of them were elves with pale gray skin.

“Dark elves.”

Dark elves.

Commonly called Dark Kkanp.

“Could they be the dark elves those elves mentioned earlier?”

“I think so.”

‘To think we’d run into them here.’

As I considered it...

“Look at their skin. Ugh... disgusting.”

Elena, a kind-hearted pureblood elf, made a discriminatory remark.

Hans closely examined the dark elf group and spoke.

“It looks like they have slaves.”

There was a female dark elf with silver hair tied into a single ponytail and a sharp-looking face, and a male dark elf with short hair dressed like an assassin.

Looking closer, the men and women around them wore iron collars engraved with marks around their necks.

I recalled what the Dungeon of Death setting book said about dark elves.

“Dark elves have a hard time recruiting party members. So when they enter the Labyrinth, they either form groups with their own kind or use slaves and mercenaries.”

“Even if those elves hadn’t said so, dark elves are dangerous. Unlike us good races of the surface, they are creatures who emerged from the Labyrinth. Cursed ones. Savagery and cunning run in their blood. They are people we should never associate with.”

Even cheerful Gimlius was extremely wary, gripping his axe handle tightly.

“T-that’s...”

“So they’re different from good Expedition Party members like us.”

Along with vampires, they were a race avoided because of their notoriously bad behavior.

...

The dark elves looked this way.

By coincidence, the path they were taking overlapped with ours.

Step. Step.

In the end, we faced one another with only a few narrow planks between us.

“Move.”

“Why should we?”

The Coin of Fate spun.

Whirr.

Footnotes:

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried