WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Mordor
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Surviving the Frozen Dark Fantasy as a Genius Mage ◈
Chapter 64: The Three Spellcasters
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There was no sign of guards or servants, and the corridor lay drowned in darkness and silence.
Within the ominous flickering cast by the torches, bewitching violet eyes stared straight at me.
Ah, fuck. My staff.
I left it behind.
As I nervously clenched and unclenched my fingers, Darnen broke the silence.
“Why are you on guard? I haven't done anything.”
No, if a dark elf was in a place like this at this hour, wasn't it natural to think that way?
“I'm here because of a request.”
“A request?”
“I received one from the lord here. Dark elves need money to live too.”
“Isn't killing people or threatening them into giving it up your usual way?”
Darnen didn't deny it.
“I'm a good dark elf.”
That was all she said.
“...”
I see.
It was a ridiculous thing to say, but knowing what kind of person Darnen was, I somehow accepted it.
“Is this request related to the underground lake beneath the castle?”
“Yeah. Looks like you received the same request.”
Darnen had been traveling with companions back then.
Had she come alone this time?
“Well, then.”
As I considered that, she passed me and disappeared into the darkness.
For some reason, her footsteps sounded light, as though she was glad to see me.
* * *
The next morning, we gathered at the underground lake again.
Unlike yesterday, though, the atmosphere was unpleasant.
“My lord, are you disregarding the Magic Tower? You even brought in a dark elf.”
Kulkin's gaze shifted toward Darnen, who stood silently with her hood up, before he protested to Lord Amodei.
He must have believed that hiring a second party meant the lord did not trust the Magic Tower.
“How disrespectful. The lord's will is law here. How dare you speak such nonsense?”
A knight under the lord stepped forward angrily.
The lord calmed the knight before speaking.
“I apologize to the mages. But this is an urgent matter for me, so I had no choice. I hope you'll understand.”
He didn't look sorry at all.
“The Magic Tower will remember this.”
Lord Amodei lightly brushed aside Kulkin's warning.
“So, have you made any progress?”
“...”
Kulkin met my eyes, then shook his head.
“Other than excessive fat and iron content, we found nothing unusual.”
We analyzed the contents through alchemy, but aside from certain components being unusually high, we found nothing particularly strange.
“Hmm. Then it isn't poison. Dark elf mage, what do you think?”
Darnen removed her hood and stepped forward.
“Before I give my opinion, I have one question. Human lord, what is that?”
Splash!
Darnen pointed at the thick, porridge-like substance the soldiers were scattering over the fish still alive in the lake after collecting the dead ones.
“Ah, this? It's nothing. It's food.”
Lord Amodei casually shrugged and uttered the disgusting word.
“Feed. Made by grinding up corpses.”
...
“Elizabeth?”
Elena perked up at that, remembering the village chief's cannibal pig.
This time, she had eaten cannibal fish herself.
“No wonder it was so delicious.”
“Urp.”
Daisy gagged and looked at the lake.
The underground lake that had seemed mysterious at first now felt as though it reeked of blood.
‘Just as I thought.’
Living in this world made me feel as though I was gradually losing the ethics and morals of a modern twenty-first-century man.
I already knew this, but was it because I’d spent so long in the relatively civilized Labyrinth?
The behavior of these backwater barbarians made my head spin.
‘This reminds me of the sun-dried sea salt from Angel Island!’
Without any change in expression, Darnen nodded and asked again.
“I see. One more question. Has anyone had reason to resent you recently?”
“When you sit in this position, you earn plenty of resentment. Too much to count, really. Though probably not as much as a dark elf.”
The lord was gentle and kind, unlike most nobles, but that only applied to us.
There was no guilt in the way he calmly listed his own misdeeds.
“I see.”
Darnen paid it no mind. She crouched by the water, dipped a finger into it, and licked it.
“It is faint, but I can sense the energy of a curse.”
The reason the lord had called Darnen, a Necromancer, was because something had been weighing on his conscience from the start.
‘I'd figured they weren't clean.’
A person couldn't lead a territory in a world like this by being kind and virtuous alone.
Hoo.
I narrowed my eyes and let out a breath.
I didn't want to go in, but did I have a choice?
Having a suspicion, I removed my outer clothes and shoes, then splashed water over myself.
Brrr, cold!
“Ian?”
Then I dove into the underground lake.
Looking to the side, I saw Darnen had entered the water as well, apparently thinking the same thing.
...
We looked at each other briefly before diving deeper into the lake.
Human bones lay scattered across the bottom, fish gnawing at them, with a faint presence lingering between them.
‘A presence different from mana, one only this genius mage can sense.’
My gaze settled on the artificial wall of the underground pond carved out by the lord, then on the gaping hole beneath it.
Something glittered on the stone wall where the lake water flowed in.
‘There it is!’
The moment I grabbed it and started back up, strength gradually drained from my arms.
“Mm!”
This lousy body was already out of breath after swimming a little.
Gurgle!
Fuck! I can't breathe!
As I flailed around, Darnen suddenly approached and grabbed my neck to finish me off...
She didn't.
Instead, she practically hugged me, swam upward, and pulled me out of the water.
“Pwah! Gasp, gasp!”
“Ian! You idiot! Are you okay!?”
When I finally caught my breath, I saw Elena, who had been about to take off her top and dive in, and Darnen, who had dragged me out of the water.
More shocking than the fact that a dark elf had saved me was the full shape of Darnen's chest, revealed through the wet black leather sleeveless top clinging tightly to her.
‘They're huge!’
‘They don't even compare to Elena's!’
Whether she noticed my stare or not, Darnen wrung the water from her clothes and warned me.
“Don't do anything reckless, Mage Ian.”
“Why did you suddenly jump in?”
“...A dark elf saved someone?”
After recovering my senses, I looked at everyone staring at me in confusion, then raised the object in my hand.
“It's a curse talisman.”
“A curse talisman?”
“The thing embedded in this lake isn't an ordinary curse.”
Could a curse even be ordinary?
In this case, it was simply more malicious and complicated than usual.
“It is combined with shamanic magic.”
“What?!”
“...”
Everyone's expressions stiffened as the situation became more serious than expected.
‘Revenge born from resentment?’
‘Or is there another purpose?’
Either way, nothing changed.
Now that everyone was focused on me, I spoke to the lord.
“My lord.”
“Speak.”
“You said this underground pond is connected to the lake in the mountains at the back of the territory, correct?”
“That is right.”
“Let's go there. We should be able to understand the situation in greater detail.”
* * *
Whoooosh!
The lake, as broad as the territory itself, was frozen solid.
Fish corpses floated beneath the transparent ice as well.
We couldn't enter the freezing water, but we found several curse talismans around the lake too.
“What wretched bastard would dare do this...”
Lord Amodei, who had come with the escort knight and several guards, grew furious when he saw them.
Kulkin rubbed his chin.
“Hmm. A dark mage, a Witch, a Shaman, or someone or some group acting at their behest. There are many possibilities, especially since you said you have earned plenty of resentment, my lord.”
This was a world full of all kinds of groups and lunatics.
Then the lord's escort knight suddenly glared at Darnen.
“Could this dark elf bitch be behind it?”
Darnen, who had found the traces with me, was suddenly under suspicion.
It was because of the accumulated misdeeds of dark elves over the years.
“I didn't do it.”
She could have offered a detailed rebuttal, but after saying that, she only stood there in silence.
Remembering that Darnen had saved me, I spoke up.
“If it were dark elves, wouldn't they use a more direct method instead of something this troublesome?”
“That is true.”
The knight immediately accepted it.
“...”
Darnen looked at me.
For some reason, she had a sullen expression.
What? Why? I helped you, didn’t I?
“Regardless, whoever orchestrated this, we only need to follow the traces.”
Kulkin looked at Darnen.
Since she was also a dark mage, she might be able to track the energy.
“They hid similar curse foci in many places. I can feel them beneath the lake, on the peaks, and beneath the ground all around us.”
The culprit had scattered plenty of decoys to make tracking difficult, but...
“The caster is this way.”
The culprit could not fool Darnen, a dark mage with the strength of a fourth-floor Expedition Party member, perhaps even greater.
“The dark elf is right. The evil energy is growing stronger.”
Daisy, now a Priest, nodded in agreement as well.
We followed the traces across the mountain.
The trail that continued onward led to the entrance of a frozen cave.
There were signs of civilization around the entrance too, including wooden reinforcements near it.
“What is this place?”
“A mine. Its yield was low, and strange rumors began to spread, so it was shut down long ago.”
A dungeon.
Either certain monsters had made it their habitat, or some evil being had created a surface labyrinth for a purpose.
‘A perfect place for sinister spellcasters to hide.’
“I think we should investigate inside.”
“I agree. Hmm, this is becoming troublesome.”
As we mages exchanged opinions, the lord took a step back.
“The enemy is a spellcaster whose thoughts we cannot understand. Ordinary soldiers won't be of any help. We will wait here.”
Kulkin furrowed his brow.
“I understood that the request only covered investigating the strange phenomenon.”
“Investigations naturally involve various situations.”
“But fighting is different. Without support from you, my lord, the risk is too great for us.”
“...I will add thirty gold coins to the sixty gold coins promised upon completion.”
The lord announced that he would pay more gold instead of risking the soldiers' lives.
Kulkin smiled at me.
It was as if he were saying, ‘Watch and learn, junior.’
‘I would’ve spoken up if he hadn’t. Just like a Magic Tower mage, he knows how to protect his meal ticket!’
Kulkin had one concern.
“But surely we aren't expected to move together with this dark elf?”
“Of course you are. She was paid gold coins as well, so shouldn't she earn them?”
“...Hmm.”
“What is the problem? If the enemy is an evil spellcaster, where could you find a more dependable ally than a dark elf?”
He had no intention of entering the dungeon with that dark elf himself, yet he sure talked a good game.
Still, the client had decided, so we had no choice but to comply.
‘I have enough Memorized spells.’
I looked around.
Elena, a talented warrior with the Bracelet of Wrath.
Daisy, now a full-fledged Priest.
Me, the genius mage.
Kulkin, a Fire Mage and Alchemist.
And Darnen, a dark mage at least at the level of a fourth-floor Expedition Party member.
‘You're dead.’
I didn't know who was causing this bullshit or why, but could they defeat this group?
“Is everyone ready?”
“Of course. A dungeon, huh? This should be fun.”
Whooooom.
We entered the abandoned mine, where a chilling presence hung in the air.
Who could the culprit be?
A third party was the most likely...
‘Still, dark elves make me uneasy.’
‘The lord makes me uneasy too.’
It would've been nice if a coin had appeared.
Footnotes:
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