WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Mordor
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Surviving the Frozen Dark Fantasy as a Genius Mage ◈
Chapter 65: The Darkness Lurking in the Abandoned Mine
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Torchlight, burning with the scent of pine resin, illuminated the surroundings.
“...”
The mine, which must have ceased operations long ago, was completely covered in ice.
Support beams holding up the walls, wooden pulleys and rails, mine carts. Every trace of civilization visible in the cracks of the sheer rock walls had frozen solid.
“Watch your step. The ground is slippery.”
The slippery floor was one problem, but visibility was poor as well.
Fwoosh!
Ice crystals sprouting everywhere refracted the torchlight in bizarre ways.
Distorted shadows flickered and danced along the walls. It was enough to mistake our own movements for approaching monsters.
Each time we carefully stepped forward, a crack! echoed through the narrow passage. The lord’s soldier, who had come along as an observer, flinched.
“...!”
The soldier had been loyal enough to be selected for the lord’s personal guard, but this was a dungeon.
It was the soldier’s first time in an unknown place beyond human territory.
“Don’t tense up. Take a deep breath. The darkness of a dungeon preys on weakness.”
“Y-Yes!”
The mine was colder inside than the snowstorm outside.
Even with Kulkin’s magical flames burning, our breaths steamed from our mouths, and our bodies shivered from the cold.
This was no normal environment.
“As expected, this isn’t an ordinary mine. Stay sharp, everyone.”
Our formation was a little unusual.
Elena took the lead.
Behind her was the lord’s soldier.
Daisy, Darnen, and I were in the center.
Kulkin and his two personal guards brought up the rear.
As we moved, Kulkin lightly tapped my shoulder.
When I touched the spot, surprised by the strange sensation, I found a sheet of parchment in my hand.
-You seem to know that dark elf. What’s the story, junior?
Words appeared on the parchment by themselves.
It was a disposable magical tool used to communicate without speaking.
‘Written Conversation Parchment.’
I poured my will into it.
New words appeared on the parchment.
-I explored the Labyrinth with her once before.
-Any guarantee she won’t stab us in the back?
Kulkin was suspicious of Darnen, the dark elf.
That was likely why, despite our lack of a vanguard, he had placed two guards in the rear. He wanted to be ready to deal with her if she tried anything strange.
“...”
I thought about it.
Darnen had saved me twice, once in the outer dimension and once at the underground pond.
No matter how vicious a dark elf she was, and even if reality didn’t follow the game exactly, hadn’t she earned at least this much trust?
-At the very least, I trust her.
The deciding reason I had come to think this way was...
‘The coin never appeared when I was alone with Darnen!’
As I thought that, a coin spun above Kulkin’s head.
[Heads/Tails]
‘Heads.’
[Heads]
[Success]
The coin succeeded.
[Trusting a dark elf. It sounds ridiculous, but...]
[This clever kid wouldn’t say something like that carelessly.]
“If my junior says so...”
Convinced, Kulkin sent one of his male guards to the front.
Elena’s burden lightened.
I recalled the spells I had Memorized before entering the mine.
Since Daisy was a Priest, I had left out Light.
The spells currently engraved in me were...
[Magic Missile] [3]
[Arcane Barrier] [2]
[Lightning Arrow] [2]
[Rising Water Jet] [2]
[Mystic Dimensional Gate] [2]
[Charge] [2]
[Chain Lightning] [2]
That was it.
I had predicted that the lake’s curse was artificially caused, that the culprit might be another mage, and that they might be hiding in a tunnel like this.
This was the best possible selection.
Step. Step.
We had no professional Scout, so Elena, whose senses were sharp, took on that role.
“Stop.”
Had she learned by watching Hans scout from the side?
Elena quickly saw through the malice hiding in the darkness.
“There are two slimes on the ceiling. They’re white.”
White meant Frost Slimes.
Once they latched on, they would not let go until they had frozen one of your extremities with Frost. Vicious bastards.
Even with a helmet on, if your head froze and you could no longer breathe, that was the end.
‘Slimes are slow, but once you let them get close, they’re all dangerous.’
Hadn’t Gimlius’s arm been severely mangled in the Salt Cave?
‘But as long as you spot them first, they aren’t a problem.’
I decided using Kulkin or Darnen’s spells here would be overkill, so I stepped forward.
[Magic Missile]
My spell had grown even stronger as my proficiency increased.
Unlike before, three green spheres shot out and sank straight into the slimes’ bodies.
Boom!
Their cores shattered with a burst, and the creatures that had been bubbling away melted into mush.
That was the good thing about Magic Missile.
Its power was weak, but it allowed finer control than other spells.
“You struck only the cores with such precision. That’s some delicate mana control, junior.”
Kulkin sounded impressed.
“This much is nothing.”
Of course, only a genius mage like me could do it.
“This way is a dead end.”
We had received a map of the mine from the lord.
We could not trust it blindly, since we had no idea what tricks the thing lurking here might have prepared, but it would still serve as a guide.
Besides, the soldier who had accompanied us as an observer said that the soldier’s father had been a miner, and that the soldier knew this mine well.
“This mine is cursed... Several people have disappeared here over the years. My father was one of them...”
The soldier’s father had disappeared in this mine.
As the soldier struggled to steady themselves between duty and fear, Elena suddenly spoke.
“Then you’re an orphan too?”
“...”
“Elena! That’s rude!”
Startled, Daisy smacked Elena on the shoulder.
“No, I just felt a sense of kinship... I’m an orphan too.”
There was no malice in Elena’s expression as she scratched her ear.
That was what made it even scarier.
“I still have a mother...”
“Oh, really? Then that’s good.”
“Pfft.”
Seriously, this psychopathic elf had no sense of the mood at all.
As I laughed, Kulkin stepped in to mediate.
“Relaxing too much isn’t good either, so let’s not overdo it.”
“Yes.”
Step. Step.
We made our way deeper through the winding mine shaft when someone suddenly emerged from the darkness.
“Rats have crawled in.”
It was a middle-aged man with a pale face and torn clothes.
Only the whites of his eyes showed, with no pupils at all, yet he stared at us as though he could see perfectly well.
“F-Father!?”
What?
What kind of joke was this? The figure that had appeared was the father of the soldier, whom I had thought was an orphan.
“Father!!!”
“Stop. That’s no longer your father.”
Darnen stopped the soldier as they tried to run forward.
“What would a dark elf know...!”
“She’s right. That isn’t your father.”
After assessing the man’s condition, I spoke as well.
The miner’s mouth split all the way to his ears in a grin.
“Hehehehe. Sharp eyes. Yes, that’s right. This pitiful miner’s soul, heart, and brain inside his skull changed owners long ago. I am his master, and this is my land. So I’ll ask you. Why have you entered my domain without permission?”
Was this the sorcerer who had spread the curse through the territory?
Kulkin stepped forward, igniting a flame in his hand.
“We are mages of the Magic Tower. We came seeking traces of the curse spreading through Shirinwind Territory. Was that your doing, evil thing hiding behind a corpse?”
“What?”
The soldier was startled at the word corpse.
The soldier’s father twisted his arm with a crunch and clapped loudly.
“Ah, the lake. That disgusting puddle the city’s idiots worship as a sacred lake. Yes, I did it. Then you must have come to kill me on the lord’s orders.”
He had the appearance of a sturdy man, but his high, androgynous voice was deeply unsettling.
“How foolish. Do you truly believe that fraud will keep his promise? Amodei is a man without integrity.”
The mine’s master began spilling the lord’s secrets.
“To secure people to send into the Labyrinth, and to receive money from the kingdom, he breeds the people beneath him like animals. And despite having a wife, he committed adultery with another woman and had a child. Is that all? Even if it was an illegitimate child, he threw the child that woman bore into the pond to feed the fish.”
“...What?”
Daisy was shocked.
Tremble. Tremble.
The soldier who had come with us shook with rage.
“That’s a lie!!! You evil dark mage bastard, how dare you borrow my father’s body and spew that bullshit!!!”
I remembered the unsettling sides the lord had occasionally shown.
I did not know whether the rumors were true, but his trustworthiness might be questionable.
But...
‘If we were ordinary mercenaries, maybe that would be true...’
‘But we have the Magic Tower behind us.’
The lord could not easily try anything.
In other words, this was an attempt to sow discord among us.
“Are you done yapping?”
I snorted.
“Unlike someone who hides behind a corpse and runs their mouth, we value integrity.”
“Hehe. I showed mercy because we are fellow mages, and this is how you respond? If you are so eager to die buried in this filthy pit, then I’ll grant your wish.”
Crunch!
The soldier’s father’s body twisted with the sound of breaking bones.
His slight frame swelled as large as a bear, his waist bent, and sharp claws stretched from his limbs until they nearly touched the ground.
Worst of all was the skin of his face, pressed tightly against the bone until it had lost all human shape.
“F-Father?”
Kyaaaaaaaaaak!
An unholy monster born from a defiled graveyard or evil magic.
“It’s a ghoul!”
“Where do you think you’re going!”
Before it could finish transforming, Elena rushed forward and her sword flashed.
[Heads/Tails]
Before I could even choose the coin, the corpse’s head was cut off.
It twitched, then collapsed with a thud.
“Ah... Aaaah...!”
The poor soldier lost his father once again and joined the orphan group with Elena and me.
It would have been nice if that were all.
The ghoul’s cry had drawn out the other things lurking in the mine.
Kikikik! Kik!
The sound of ice crystals shattering echoed, and the temperature around us fell even further.
Corpses with chunks of ice gleaming through their necrotic skin crawled out from every passage, carrying shovels and pickaxes.
“They’re Draugr! Everyone, prepare for battle!”
The miners who had frozen to death in this mine had become Draugr and exhaled Frost.
Grrrrrr...
A flame arrow exploded against the face of one charging at us with its jaws wide open.
Boom!
Three corpses melted along with the spreading flames.
Kulkin had taken out three Draugr in an instant with a spell, but he clicked his tongue.
“There’s a chance the mine will collapse. We can’t use high-powered spells.”
He was right.
The mine was old and cramped. If we threw something like a Fireball around, we might end up buried alive.
The evil thing commanding the monsters had likely chosen this place with that in mind.
‘They’re a bad matchup for me.’
‘Draugr are hard to kill without fire spells!’
Kulkin was an experienced mage, though.
He had a way to handle situations like this.
“Hey, Ian’s guard. I’ll cast a spell on you, so deal with them.”
“Don’t order me around. Why should I...”
Fwoosh!
“Oh?”
Elena, who had been frowning, looked in surprise at her burning sword.
It was the enchantment-type skill, [Flame Weapon].
“Thank you, Kulkin.”
Kulkin’s guard also charged at the Draugr with Flame Weapon cast on his weapon.
Clang! Clang!
What made Draugr troublesome was the hard ice embedded in their skin, which dispersed the impact of weapons, while the Frost spreading around them stiffened your body.
They could not feel pain, either, so they kept clinging to you tenaciously even in that state.
‘One mistake, and they surround you and tear you apart.’
But once magical flames rose from our weapons and drove away the Frost, every one of those disadvantages disappeared.
Crash!
A pickaxe struck the empty ground, and a shovel grazed Elena’s helmet.
With the nimble movements unique to an elf, Elena dodged their attacks and swung her sword.
The instant her flaming blade touched a neck, frost-covered skin melted with a hiss, and its head was sliced off like a rotten radish.
“Kiyaa! This is fucking awesome! Spellblade! Elenaaaaaa!”
“Hup!”
Without their unique toughness and debuffs, they were nothing but slow targets.
Kulkin’s guard stopped the Draugr trying to attack Elena from behind.
The frozen corpses quickly turned to ash and vanished.
* * *
“Fuck, this is what sucks about this place.”
The most terrible thing about Draugr, and monsters living aboveground, was that they did not drop Mana Stones.
Elena spat and grumbled, having lost a decent side income.
That was another reason why the surface had not been conquered, aside from its extreme environment.
“Ah...”
Perhaps seeing their father transformed into such a horrible monster had been too much for them. The soldier guiding us had completely lost their spirit.
“Hey, cheer up. At least you gave your father a funeral.”
Elena patted their shoulder and encouraged them.
Daisy comforted the soul of the dead ghoul... no, the soldier’s father, on the spot.
“You need to get revenge on the bastard who did that to your father.”
“...Right. You’re right, revenge.”
The soldier clenched their fists, rose to their feet, and glared into the mine shaft swallowed by darkness with burning eyes.
It was not necessarily healthy, but their desire for revenge had overcome their fear.
“That’s right. But be careful. It can use a ghoul spell and command Draugr. It’s more dangerous and vicious than we thought.”
Kulkin judged the enemy even more dangerous than before.
“Either way, we’ve confirmed it isn’t something we can reason with, so we have no choice but to teach it a lesson.”
We resumed exploring the abandoned mine.
I did not know whether they had always lived here or whether the evil spellcaster had released them, but more monsters crawled from the darkness.
Thump!
“It’s a Yeti!”
But this was no ordinary Yeti.
“It’s undead!”
Ribs and discolored organs writhed through its torn upper body beneath the fur of its roughly two-and-a-half-meter frame.
Rooooar!
The creature let out a roar and unleashed its breath.
The blizzard carried the undead’s unique miasma, making it even more dangerous.
And because the passage was narrow, there was nowhere to dodge.
I had no choice but to create an Arcane Barrier to block it.
Krrrrrk!
The barrier’s durability was not that strong, so I had to use it once more.
[Arcane Barrier]
“Ghk! I’ll drop it when its breath stops, so get ready!”
Elena took out an axe instead of her sword and asked.
“Red-haired mage! What about that burning spell from before?”
“I used them all! There’s none left!”
“Fuck.”
The translucent force field trembling under the breath disappeared.
Daisy cast a spell.
[Shining Light]
The purifying light melted the Yeti’s skin and blinded it for an instant.
Kraaaaaah!
The darkness in her blood made Darnen frown.
In that opening, Elena slid beneath the creature’s groin, grabbed its fur, and climbed up its back.
“Die!”
Thwack!
Then she struck its head.
Thanks to her trained body and the Bracelet of Wrath, Elena’s axe carried terrifying power even from such an unstable position.
Its skull immediately caved in.
But the fact that it was undead was the problem.
Undead would not die unless their brains were destroyed or their entire bodies were smashed apart.
Rooooar!
“Ghk!”
The Yeti thrashed wildly, throwing Elena down.
[Heads/Tails]
The Yeti raised its enormous foot, and a coin appeared above Elena’s head.
“Elena!”
At that desperate moment, Darnen stepped in.
She took several weapons and countless bone fragments from the bag she carried, then chanted an evil spell.
Trembling ribs and skulls assembled themselves, and several skeleton warriors appeared.
It was Animate Dead.
The skeleton warriors charged at the Undead Yeti, moving far more swiftly than any other undead creatures we had faced.
They plunged swords into its hollow abdomen, tore it apart, and bit into it with their teeth as they clung stubbornly to the creature.
Rooooar!
The Yeti’s attention shifted to the undead, and the coin above Elena disappeared.
Resurge.
When they broke, they repaired themselves.
When they broke, they repaired themselves.
In the end, the creature fell, shredded into rags like butchered meat.
Thump!
Darnen did not even pause to catch her breath. Her expression remained cold.
“Cursed power...”
“Such vicious skill, fitting for a dark elf.”
Everyone around her was repulsed by the necromancy she wielded, but not me.
‘Necromancers really are fucking broken!’
At the same time, I was puzzled.
With her skill, she could raise even that creature, now a corpse once more.
But she did not.
As I thought about it, Darnen spoke.
“It isn’t particularly powerful, but this is its domain, which makes it troublesome. It must have spent a long time building and preparing this space.”
A mage was someone who prepared.
The power they could display depended on how long they had refined their spells and built their domain.
Several months, perhaps even years.
That obsession and malice were what allowed the enemy to wield this much power.
Darnen spoke.
“Listen without making it obvious. It is watching us. Dark mages and Shamans who operate in the shadows are naturally clever and cunning. If things start to go wrong, it will run.”
She was probably referring to the Dark Eye spell.
It watched us through the eyes of its familiars.
‘A spell it could use on the ghoul and Draugr from before, or even bats.’
Still, it was funny hearing that from a dark mage herself.
Was that self-deprecation?
I understood what Darnen meant and offered my opinion.
“If you’re right, Darnen, we need to catch it in one go before it can escape... Then how about this?”
“Hmm?”
I had a good idea.
...
As I continued explaining, everyone’s expressions grew knowing.
Footnotes:
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