Surviving in a Frozen Dark Fantasy as a Genius Mage - Chapter 69

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Mordor

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Surviving the Frozen Dark Fantasy as a Genius Mage ◈

Chapter 69: The Return and the Watchers

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‘Join you?’

Swoooosh!

It was the first time anyone outside her clan had said something like that to her.

Until now, everyone had either tried to use her or submitted to fear.

For some reason, her chest felt strange.

The dark elf Darnen wondered why she felt this way.

...

Before long, she let out a sigh.

Right. This was what humans were like.

“I’m warning you. Take another step, and I’ll kill you.”

Bark! Bark!

With the raging blizzard at their backs, dark figures continued to approach.

Their answer was a volley of arrows.

Whoosh!

Arrows powerful enough to pierce shields, along with spells brimming with blatant malice, rained down on her.

Yet neither the arrows nor the fireballs tore the dark elf apart.

Beyond the rising steam and arrows falling uselessly to the ground, violet eyes glinted chillingly.

An ominous coffin hung slightly open, leaking a foul aura.

Standing before Darnen was a huge figure in filthy rags, holding a sword.

“W-What is that?!”

“Master Galio’s spell...!”

“What are you doing? Reload!”

The knight leading the soldiers calmly drew a boar spear and took his stance.

The spear shot forward with a terrifying whistle and pierced the giant.

Even with the spear lodged in its stomach, the rag-clad giant charged at incredible speed.

Shing.

Clang!

The knight and giant drew their swords at the same time.

Sword strikes too fast for ordinary eyes to follow flashed through the blizzard.

The exchange only lasted a moment before black light flashed, and the lord’s knight lost his head.

“Wha?!”

Blood sprayed across the white snowfield.

The soldiers, drenched in it, panicked as their commander died.

“S-Sir Joseph...! Sir Joseph has been slain!”

The rags wrapped around the giant blew away in the fierce wind, revealing its form.

“T-That’s...!”

“A Death Knight! It’s a Death Knight!”

...

Wicked light gleamed beneath its helmet.

The black-armored knight rampaged like mad.

The soldiers who lived safely behind Castle’s walls, rather than in the Labyrinth, had never faced a monster like this.

“Aaaaaagh!”

One after another, heads split open with a single strike, or limbs flew through the air.

“Aah... D-Don’t come closer!”

Flamma!

Amid the rising screams, one of the lord’s attack mages cast a spell.

A blazing flame surged forward.

Obscurus.

At that moment, the black spear Darnen fired shattered the spell and pierced the mage as well.

“Guh...”

The life drained from the mage. They shriveled into a mummy and collapsed.

Amid the spreading terror and screams, the pursuers sent by Lord Amodei quickly fell.

All except one.

“Stop.”

...

With a single gesture, Darnen halted the powerful undead that had butchered dozens of soldiers and stepped before someone.

“You’re the soldier from back then.”

They were one of the lord’s soldiers who had explored the mine with them that day.

Their terrified face still held traces of youth and freckles.

“P-Please spare me... I...”

“I’m a good dark elf.”

It was something Darnen had always muttered since the mine.

The soldier relaxed when she said it.

Then their eyes widened at her next words.

“But I’m not enough of a fool to show mercy to someone who raised a sword against me.”

Darnen drew her dagger and stabbed the soldier in the throat.

“Ghk...”

Even as they died, they flailed their arms and cried out that they wanted to live.

Blood splattered across her pale skin.

Darnen shook it off with a bitter expression, recalled the Death Knight, and turned away.

Swoooosh.

It had seemed like things would end well, but this time was no different.

Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, it was like this.

“It’s always the same.”

Darnen’s violet eyes darkened gloomily.

At times like this, she wanted to kill them all.

Those who looked down on her, those who returned goodwill with malice.

Every last one of them. She wanted to slaughter them all.

The blood of the dark elves and the brand engraved on her back urged those dark impulses on.

“...”

Then memories filled Darnen’s mind.

The exploration in the mine.

Those blue eyes that had looked at her in confusion the night before.

The sincerity in the man’s words when he asked her to enter the Labyrinth with him.

He had looked at her for who she was, without discrimination.

Remembering that, something warm bloomed in her chest, and the impulse subsided.

What are you?

How can you look at me that way?

After the question came curiosity and a faint longing.

If all the tasks given to me were over... if that happened, then...

“Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.”

Closing her eyes, Darnen savored the feeling before starting to walk.

“See you next time, Mage Ian.”

The scattered blood soon melted into the snow, then froze solid.

Ownerless weapons stood among the corpses like grave markers.

The lone dark elf set out on her journey once more.

* * *

Humans, beastfolk, elves, dwarves, dragonkin, and more.

In this harsh world, the lands belonging to humans and the intelligent races that chose to coexist with them were only a tiny fraction.

That had been true even before the eternal winter came, and even more so afterward.

“Kyaaaak!”

A cave somewhere in the snowfield.

Deep within it, a being stretched out his hand.

“Fool. To have that much power and only amount to this.”

A murky, faint, insignificant soul was caught in a hand lightly covered in scales.

It was the soul of a sinister mage once called Isanna, who had deceived others and made them tremble in fear.

She was only one of countless seeds he had sown.

He felt no regret.

What interested the man was something else.

“The dark elf from House Systallon... the bitch Daimond dotes on.”

Having collected Isanna’s soul according to their contract, the man read the memories engraved within it.

Dark elf scum always ran wild as they pleased, so he had assumed it was nothing unusual.

This matter could not be said to be entirely unrelated to them, either.

The problem was...

‘This silver-haired one...’

He remembered seeing him through an underling in the Magic Tower.

He was the one who had recently joined it.

The man’s reptilian slit eyes observed the Lightning unleashed at the moment of Isanna’s death.

Through it, he could see the silver-haired mage’s skill and hidden potential.

‘He has considerable potential...’

“He’s said to enter the Labyrinth often.”

If he was useful, he could be brought into the organization.

But if he was a budding threat that might interfere with their cause?

As a member of the Secret Society, he had to deal with it.

“Triple Master Ian... I’ll have to keep an eye on him.”

Whoosh!

Torchlight flickered, casting shadows throughout the cave.

The shadow reflected in the flames was no longer human.

Towering horns, membranous wings, and sharp claws revealed its horrifying nature.

“Kraaaaaah!”

The being crossed the snowfield while summoning its minions, who lurked throughout it.

* * *

...

Inside the Magic Tower.

Master Marianne, the alchemical master who led the Luminous School, removed her hand from the crystal ball.

Then she gave her usual sultry smile and asked, “What was your impression after watching him up close?”

Across from her stood a proud-looking man with red hair.

It was Kulkin, a Fire Mage of the Heide School and one of Marianne’s disciples.

“To be honest, when Master first told me to treat him favorably, I thought it was ridiculous.”

Despite mages tending toward individualism, Kulkin had been favorable toward Ian from the start because Master Marianne had asked him to be.

“I thought Master was making too much of him. The same went for the other mages beneath me.”

A smile appeared on Kulkin’s face as he recalled Ian.

“It didn’t take long for me to realize I was wrong.”

Normally, the more spell branches a mage handled, the harder it became to master any one of them.

But Ian was different.

All three branches were without flaw. No, he was even more skilled than mages of similar ability who handled only a single type of spell.

“He used Ice Spear and Chain Lightning less than half a year after awakening his Grimoire.”

“Oh my...”

“He had the strength of three mages on his own. No, he was worth five mediocre mages. He was a true Triple Master.”

An incompetent mage simply burned spell parchment and fired off spells.

A skilled mage understood the principles behind how a spell worked, found the best approach for the opponent and environment, and used it accordingly.

That required delicate mana control, wisdom, and instinct.

It was something one was born with.

That was not all.

He had heard Ian came from a nameless frontier village where people scraped by on potatoes, yet...

“He also understood how powerful people operated, and he dealt with an evil Witch alone. He’s excellent in theory, but even better in actual combat.”

“Just as I thought, right? I really do have an eye for people! Hoho!”

Marianne covered her mouth and laughed in delight.

Her other hand was secretly touching a crystal ball beneath the bookshelf.

...Oh my.

Marianne’s expression suddenly turned serious.

“Kulkin.”

“Yes.”

“It seems the Lord of Shirinwind is dead.”

“What?”

“It appears it happened not long after the two of you left. The culprit... is said to be a dark elf.”

Tapping the table with slender fingers, Marianne asked for the details.

“...”

Kulkin remembered the elf, dark elf, and Priest who had been with Ian.

The innocent-looking Priest aside... those two elves were... hmm.

‘Beast. Black beast.’

“It seems this talented junior has no eye for women.”

Kulkin shrugged.

“What?”

No one was perfect.

That only made him more likable.

* * *

After returning to the Labyrinth, we rested properly first.

Daisy sipped warm tea with a small smile, while Elena ate until she was full and leaned against the table.

“Ugh, it’s so warm.”

“Yeah. This is nice.”

“I’m telling you, big cities are the best! Primitive backwaters, fuck off! Boo!”

As Daisy and Elena had said, after spending time outside, I understood just how comfortable Labyrinth City was.

‘Labyrinth would be perfect if it didn’t have the Labyrinth.’

‘No, then the city would collapse in the first place, so that’s a meaningless assumption.’

While we were resting, I went to the Magic Tower and heard shocking news.

“The Lord of Shirinwind is dead?”

“What, that fish owner? Why?”

“A dark elf... Apparently Darnen did it...”

“I knew it. This is why you should never associate with those wicked, scheming black-skinned people! Not like an ivory-skinned elf who loves peace, like me.”

That fucking racist Elena made a racist comment.

No, to be exact, Darnen’s skin was ash-gray, not black. Besides...

‘The lord wasn’t exactly innocent either. Maybe something happened?’

I thought about it, but there was no way to know unless I asked Darnen directly.

Anyway, the first thing I did afterward was stop being a debtor.

I paid Gimlius and Hans for Oldimara’s Dice.

Gimlius shook his head in amazement as he looked at the gold coins in his hand.

“To think you’d repay it this quickly... Twenty-nine gold coins are no small sum.”

Hans quickly agreed.

“With Ian’s exceptional ability, earning this much money must have been easy.”

No, it wasn’t?

I went through quite a lot, you know?

“Of course. I’m a genius mage. Heh.”

But those words slipped out of my mouth on their own.

“Elfleflef! It was easy!”

Elena’s ears perked up as well.

“Elena, quiet down...”

Embarrassed by Elena’s loud voice, Daisy grabbed Elena’s collar and looked around.

“It would’ve been perfect if Miss Daisy gave us a little ‘Daisisisi’ laugh here.”

Gimlius pointed at Daisy among the three of us, sounding disappointed.

“E-Excuse me. That’s a little...”

Right, that was rude.

‘What an uncouth, foolish elf!’

I clicked my tongue and gave Elena a disdainful look.

She was getting me lumped in with her because she was such a vulgar elf.

I should probably teach her some manners soon.

Alejandro was the only one I still owed, so I went to his house.

“Alejandro?”

“...Ah, what is it?”

“I came to repay the money... Goodness, why have you gotten so thin?”

He had stopped eating and drinking to devote himself entirely to his research, so I repaid the money and made sure he ate something.

“Hoho, so that was it. It seems I was too caught up in my prejudice. I’ll have to apologize to Alejandro when I see him later.”

After hearing the heartbreaking story of Alejandro’s struggle to save his daughter, Gimlius regretted having thought poorly of him.

Once the debts were settled, we rested and prepared for our next exploration.

[Dagger of Corruption]

[Spider Pouch]

First, I appraised the magic items we got from the Witch.

The dagger really was cursed with corruption, and the black bundle was, as expected, a summoning-type item.

‘An item that summons insect-type monsters temporarily friendly toward its owner when the pouch is opened!’

‘Perfect for an emergency!’

That was not all.

As I mentioned before, there were many hidden treasures in the snowfields.

This flower was one such example.

Eating this Blue Daffodil permanently increased resistance to Frost.

The effect was better when it was processed through alchemy, so I stopped by the Magic Tower, processed the flowers, and consumed them with the others.

“Ugh, my teeth hurt...”

[Ian’s Frost Resistance has increased by +1.]

[Elena’s...]

[Daisy’s...]

If we wanted to clear the third floor and reach the fourth someday, we needed to build up resistance like this in advance.

That was not the end.

‘After going on that field training, I learned a new spell.’

After wandering the snowfields for so long, it was only natural that my Frost spell proficiency rose dramatically.

Thanks to that, I was able to learn a new spell.

The spell I learned this time was...

[Ice Weapon]

It was an enchantment-type skill.