WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Mordor
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Surviving the Frozen Dark Fantasy as a Genius Mage ◈
Chapter 53: The Salt Cave
──────
The most dangerous times in the Labyrinth were when setting up camp and right after entering through a portal.
In such a vast space, you never knew where you would be teleported.
If you were unlucky, you could appear on top of a trap or right in the middle of a pack of monsters.
If you were unlucky, that is.
The stench was like fish left to rot at room temperature in midsummer for dozens of days until it became fermented fish sauce.
“Bleeegh!”
The instant I vomited at the nose-stinging stench, the torchlight held by Hans, Gimlius, and Elena illuminated our surroundings.
In the pale darkness, scaly creatures with dead fish eyes opened and closed their gills as they stared at us.
“Fishfolk!”
‘Fuck, monsters right from the start?’
‘Our luck is terrible!’
“I can't see, Ian!”
Before Elena could even finish speaking, I swallowed down the nausea as stomach acid stung my gut and raised my staff.
[Faint Light]
The spell was called Faint Light, but my improved spell proficiency flooded the area with a clear radiance.
Flash!
The fish-headed horrors squinted at the sudden light, then raged at the sight of unfamiliar intruders.
Four fishfolk harpooners.
One Shaman holding a coral staff.
One ironclad mud crabman.
“Graaaargh!”
Their webbed hands and feet moved with springy speed.
In the blink of an eye, a pale speck swelled as it flew toward me.
One of the harpooners had thrown a harpoon.
[Heads/Tails]
The coin appeared.
The attack was too fast and powerful for weak little me to react to, but not for the front-line fighters who clashed with monsters all day.
Clang!
Gimlius raised his shield and easily blocked the harpoon flying at me.
The Coin of Fate vanished. Elena hurled her torch at the monsters, drew her sword, and charged forward.
“You stinking bastards!”
With her golden hair tied back, three fishfolk rushed toward her.
One crouched and aimed for her lower body, another targeted her upper body, and the last leaped like a frog to strike at her eyes.
They moved like nimble, seasoned hunters, as expected of creatures with a civilization.
Elena responded with elven grace.
She tilted her head aside, taking the attack aimed at her head on her shoulder guard.
Kagaagaak!
Using the force pressing down on one shoulder, she swung her shield and knocked away the spear blade flying at her upper body.
Then she threw her weight forward, taking the spear aimed at her lower body against her armor and driving her sword into the fishfolk's mouth.
Stab.
“Grrrgh...”
Trusting in the protection of the Drake Armor she had acquired, Elena fought even more aggressively.
“Dieee!”
Her sword tore apart the fishfolk's grotesque mouth.
Elena turned a three-on-one situation into a two-on-one in an instant. She immediately pulled the axe from her waist and brought it down on another fishfolk's head.
Its skull burst open with a crunch, spraying brains everywhere.
A crossbow bolt from Hans struck the creature trying to attack Elena from behind.
“Gehk!”
Watching that, I cast a new spell.
At just the right moment, a violet barrier rose around Elena and blocked the Ice Spike fired by the Shaman.
Then came my counterspell.
[Rising Water Jet]
Boom!
A fountain of water erupted from the floor and launched the fishfolk Shaman into the air.
“Aaargh!”
As it flailed, a stalactite embedded in the ceiling pierced its stomach, leaving it twitching.
Just as Gimlius split open the remaining fishfolk's skull...
Kagaagaak!
A giant mud crab charged at us.
Its entire body was covered in a blood-red exoskeleton like armor, and its black eyes were as deep as an abyss.
Its right claw, swollen larger than its own body, was terrifying.
Boom!
“Ghk!”
Even Elena, who wore the Bracelet of Wrath, was pushed back by its strength.
“Facing that thing head-on is suicide!”
Hans was right.
Its hard shell was nearly as tough as steel armor, and its grip was strong enough to crush an armored person in an instant.
It wasn't a higher species, but it came close. It was a dangerous monster, like a tank.
“Grrrgh!”
Gimlius blocked its attack.
It was thanks to the Weight Pendant's Grace Stone he had obtained before.
“I'll turn into dwarf jerky! Is it ready yet?!”
Gimlius's desperate shout was aimed at me.
Of course, I was ready now.
Handling especially dangerous or troublesome monsters was a mage's job.
“Everyone, move!”
Crackle!
Bright yellow lightning writhed violently, lighting up my face.
Once I saw Gimlius drop his shield and retreat, I fired Lightning Arrow.
No matter how hard a monster's shell was, its internal organs and brain were still weak.
“Grrrrrgh!”
With the smell of burning shellfish filling the air, its eyes rolled back and it died foaming at the mouth.
Thanks to the lightning staff I had gotten from the Magic Tower, I had more firepower than I knew what to do with.
‘This is damn effective!’
Thanks to my spell ring, I still had plenty of uses left for my other spells too.
I could feel myself getting stronger in real time.
“This thing takes too much work!”
Elena split open its corpse with her axe and collected the Mana Stone.
It was a pain in the ass to kill, but it gave the same 8th Rank Mana Stone as the fishfolk.
In other words, it was the kind of monster you never wanted to encounter because it wasn't worth the effort.
“I heard its shell can be used as armor material... Hm. In this state, it can't even be sold.”
Hans looked at the blackened corpse in awe at the power of my spell.
“Monsters right from the start. What rotten luck. Haha! Ever since I met you and your companions, Ian, I feel like this keeps happening. Must be my imagination.”
Gimlius straightened up with a laugh, then looked at Alejandro.
“Hey, Alejandro. What were you doing until the battle ended? Just standing there and watching?”
There was mockery in his voice, but Alejandro answered evenly.
“My spell takes some time to use. You all finished too quickly.”
The battle had not even lasted four minutes.
That was how much stronger our fighting power was compared to an ordinary second-floor party.
“Tch. You're nothing like Ian...”
Gimlius stopped mid-sentence.
Clay dolls and various potion bottles lay scattered in front of Alejandro.
Hm. Were those catalysts needed to summon a golem in reality?
I wanted to see it soon...
“Let's look around first.”
After spraying perfume that numbed our noses, we looked around the cavern.
There were two visible passages, and an altar stood in the middle.
“A ritual altar.”
Grotesquely grown coral formed the altar's walls. Hearts, eyes, lungs, and other organs were lined up neatly on top of it.
Beside it lay the dried corpse of a poor Expedition Party member, their stomach split open and eyes gouged out.
“Ugh... What is this...?”
The altar was horrifying, but there was something almost sacred in its careful arrangement.
I explained the fishfolk's nature to Elena as she recoiled.
“It’s an altar where fishfolk offer sacrifices to the god they worship.”
Some of them ate adventurers and were reborn as stronger beings.
It was part of the Labyrinth's self-sustaining ecosystem.
For Expedition Party members, though, it was simply horrific.
Crunch! Smash!
I borrowed Elena's sword and crushed the offerings on the altar, damaging the magic circle drawn in blood.
“Y-you'll bring bad luck on us!”
One or two offerings were one thing, but leaving an altar like this alone could trigger a special gimmick.
“It's the right decision. Leaving an unholy ritual alone could harm other Expedition Party members. Still, shouldn't we be careful? We have no Priest in the party.”
It was fine. This wasn't an unholy idol or the corpse of an offering.
Still, just in case...
“It's okay. We have Holy Water.”
I poured the Holy Water I had brought over the altar and sprinkled some on myself.
“Let's go left.”
Once we finished cleaning up, we decided to enter one of the passages.
At that moment, Alejandro finished his spell.
He poured reagents over two clay dolls, drew a magic formula, and chanted.
The damp clay wriggled and gradually grew larger until a clay golem nearly two meters tall appeared.
“We'll need to pass through passages, so I summoned a small one.”
“Ooh! Can I touch it?”
Alejandro nodded.
I looked up at the golem in admiration and examined it with my hands.
Its skin was this tough, and it had this much elasticity.
Its power source was... a separately modified core?
How much output did it have?
“Is this your first time seeing a golem?”
“Yes! It's more delicate and cooler than I expected!”
Golems had actually been my favorite mobs in Warcraft too.
Mithril golems, steel golems, flame golems, and so on.
They were like fantasy robots. There was something about them that appealed to a man's dreams.
‘I want to make one too!’
“You must not have been in the Magic Tower long.”
“No. Anyway, this is really amazing, Alejandro! You can control something like this!”
“...”
Alejandro did not respond. But when Alejandro finally spoke, the voice seemed warmer than before.
“Let's go.”
We began exploring the passage.
* * *
The Salt Cave was difficult terrain to explore, just as expected of an area considered the worst environment on the second floor.
The puddles covering the ground were filled with strange seaweed, sharp coral, and dried shells, making even one step a struggle.
Moss covered the walls, while stone-pillared structures that had collapsed in places looked ready to fall at any moment. The stench was terrible, and the humidity was so high that it blurred our vision.
Whoooosh.
The sound of waves from somewhere unknown.
The strange cries of deep-sea monsters echoing through the cave.
Alejandro's prosthetic leg striking the hard stone floor.
“Huff, huff.”
Just moving felt like it drained all my stamina, mental strength, and energy.
‘I won't be able to eat fish for a while!’
“Ah, I'm hungry. When are we eating?”
‘Fuck. I wish I had a stomach as strong as that beast Elena.’
Our formation was Hans, the golem, the dwarf, the two mages, then Elena.
Thump. Thump.
Though it was only a clay golem, its footsteps were loud enough that Hans moved ahead to scout properly.
It was a risk we could accept thanks to the Night Crow's Cloak, the magic equipment we had acquired before.
We continued exploring, gathering luminous crystals attached to the walls and rare shellfish that grew only here and could be used as sleeping medicine.
Then...
Step.
Hans, who had been scouting ahead, returned.
When he removed his cloak, the sharp-featured man hidden in the darkness revealed himself.
Hans gave us a signal to stop, then explained why.
“There are monsters ahead.”
“One Salt Slime on the ceiling. Two harpooners, and one Drowned Slave.”
The party members looked at me, waiting for a decision.
Hm. Going around wasn't a good option.
There was another passage, but it was narrower for the golem to move through, and it also had traps.
‘With that many...’
“Let's break through.”
This time was different from the earlier battle, though.
I frowned as I looked at the hem of my robe, already soaked through.
The Salt Cave was a natural enemy of lightning mages.
Because of the moisture in the ground and air, a spell could easily harm the caster and their party members as well.
The cavern we had appeared in had been fine, but these passages were full of small puddles and moisture.
That meant my lightning spells, the strongest spells I had, were sealed away.
“So that was a weakness.”
“Then use another spell.”
“That's true, but...”
As I considered it, Alejandro gestured and controlled his golem.
“I'll send the golem ahead.”
Thump. Thump.
The monsters lurking in the passage reacted.
“Graaaargh!”
The fishfolk harpooners threw vicious harpoons like javelins.
The harpoons pierced the golem's body but failed to pass through it.
Glooong.
The Salt Slime was a terrifying monster that released sharp crystals the moment it touched its target, capable of piercing a person's head.
It dropped from the damp darkness of the ceiling, scattering sharp salt crystals in every direction.
But it was useless against the golem, a magical lifeform.
Ting!
My Magic Missile shattered the Salt Slime's core.
Elena lightly harvested the harpooners' heads.
The Drowned Slave, left alone, bubbled as it attempted to self-destruct, but...
“Ooh, ooh!”
The golem grabbed the slave in a hug and took most of the explosion with its body.
“It needs repairs. Wait a moment.”
Alejandro moved his fingers to control the golem, then pulled lumps of clay from his bag.
I was honestly impressed.
“That was amazing, Alejandro!”
“The golem is fucking awesome...! I want one too!”
Elena's eyes sparkled like a child who wanted a doll.
“They say an excellent familiar is as dependable as a trustworthy companion. It seems that's true.”
Even Gimlius, who had been displeased with Alejandro, acknowledged his skill.
“Didn't I tell you he was a capable man?”
What the fuck?
I felt bad thinking this, but Dize had been the problem during the first expedition, and Gimlius had acted like a troll during the second.
There had always been one flawed party member.
But this guy was genuinely capable.
‘Is everything really going this smoothly?’
It was going so smoothly that it made me uneasy.
Footnotes:
Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried
