WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Mordor
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Surviving the Frozen Dark Fantasy as a Genius Mage ◈
Chapter 73: Marauders Are Moneybags 2
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Amid the chaos, Ian calmly assessed the battle, issuing timely orders and supporting his allies with spells to create an opening.
In that brief moment, the balance of the fight collapsed, and two of the Marauder party's vanguard fighters died.
'What the fuck is this?!'
Gardro, the mage of the third-floor Marauder party, was aghast as the situation took an unexpected turn.
'They said they were only at the start of the third floor! This isn't anywhere near that level!'
Had they let their guard down? Their lives were on the line. Of course they hadn't.
Those bastards... no, that absurdly young mage and elf bitch were simply far stronger than expected.
'A Triple Master...!'
Battles between mages were thoroughly strategic.
They identified or predicted the spells their opponents possessed while concealing their own. Countering the enemy with their spells or other means was the foundation of mage combat.
Gardro had thought they had won when they blocked the enemy's Chain Lightning and used mist to neutralize Lightning spells.
But they hadn't.
'I thought he was a Double Master at best...'
He wasn't.
And he could wield so many spells so freely?
Gardro was both horrified by Ian's skill and overwhelmed with despair.
'I picked the wrong people to mess with!'
"..."
Gardro, standing alone in the rear, spotted the elf and dwarf glaring at them with terrifying intensity.
“Eek!”
Terrified, Gardro redirected the spell aimed at Ian and fired it at Elena and Gimlius.
[Frost Burst]
Whoooosh!
What Gardro didn't know was that the shields they carried were covered in Blue Drake hide, which had resistance to water and Frost.
Elena easily blocked the spell, then threw her hammer.
[Heads/Tails]
A coin appeared before Ian.
Elena's hand shook because of her tremor trait.
'Heads.'
[Tails]
She missed.
“Tch.”
Leaving her hammer rolling uselessly across the floor, Gardro fled.
Elena was about to chase after Gardro and finish them off, but she realized there was something more important to her now and turned back.
“Ian!!!”
* * *
“Fuck...!”
The two warriors were dead, and the mage had escaped.
The remaining archer and beastman thief tried to quickly deal with us and even the numbers, but that didn't work either.
[Frost Burst]
Whoooosh!
The Frost pouring from my staff kept them from approaching carelessly.
“Ian! Get behind me!”
Preparing for the thief's ambush, Daisy pressed her back against the wall, lowered her stance, and raised her shield high to protect her upper body.
“Yeah!”
It was a little pathetic, but I was taking shelter behind Daisy's skirts.
“Fuck...!”
In the end, the Marauder archer and beastman thief exchanged miserable looks, then kicked off the ground and fled at the same time.
Idiots.
Their brains worked just fine when they were robbing others, but not when they needed to run away?
Hans's arrows and my spells chased after them.
“Urgh...”
The two rolled miserably across the ground with arrows and ice spikes embedded in their backs.
“Ugh... s-save me...”
I scoffed at the thief, who had worn a cruel smile just moments ago and was now begging for their life.
“If you were in our position, would you have spared us?”
“Of cour...”
“Bullshit.”
Thud! Crack!
The battle ended with that shameless final cry.
* * *
-Whew... We barely won.
-They were dangerous. We only won thanks to Ian's quick thinking. One wrong move, and we would've been the ones killed.
-Marauders as soon as we entered the third floor...
Every Marauder was dangerous.
They possessed cunning greater than a monster's, experience, and sometimes even superior equipment.
Still, if you could defeat them, you could make quite a tidy profit.
“Oh! Look at this! It's made of Damascus steel!”
Was it because they were veteran third-floor Expedition Party members?
From their weapons to their armor and shields, everything was made of high-quality steel.
We snickered as we appraised the equipment stripped from their bodies.
“I can feel mana from this.”
“What?!”
The beastman thief even had a magic item.
'This is...'
“Do you know what it is?”
“Speed Boots.”
They were boots that made the wearer's body lighter when activated.
Those boots had supported the beastman's elusive movements.
“Oh! It's something any class could use well!”
“Wow!”
“Excellent.”
Until the expedition ended, the person who could make the best use of the boots would wear them.
That person was Elena, who had the greatest ability as a warrior.
“Oh! I really do feel lighter!”
After activating the Speed Boots, Elena demonstrated a feat by kicking off both walls and rising to the ceiling.
The already agile elf became even more nimble after obtaining a speed-related magic item.
“Hehehe, what a haul~”
“Don't start celebrating already. When the expedition ends, we'll either roll the dice for it or sell it and split the money.”
“Tch.”
Leaving my snickering companions behind, I reviewed the battle.
'Even if their Frost mage used a barrier, we could've broken through with a Charge and Chain Lightning combo.'
'But I couldn't equip them because I didn't have enough spell slots.'
'We didn't know which area we'd end up in.'
'In the end, the lack of spell slots was the problem.'
The Marauders' attack had been unexpected, but we overcame it splendidly thanks to my quick thinking and my companions' teamwork.
Gimlius held his ground well despite being that troll of a dwarf, and Hans also did well against third-floor veterans.
Not to mention Elena and Daisy, who had played huge roles.
'In the Labyrinth, class composition and my companions' skills are the most important things.'
No matter how outstanding a genius mage I was, I couldn't handle everything alone in a Labyrinth filled with countless variables.
The companions beside me mattered more than anything.
'People I can trust, strong both outwardly and inwardly.'
That was probably the ideal party for reaching the upper floors.
Lost in thought, I called Elena.
“Oh, Elena.”
“Hmm?”
Elena was already sitting down and chewing on jerky.
I couldn't help but admire her appetite as she filled her stomach in a place full of corpses.
“That Grace Stone you consumed earlier. What ability did it give you?”
I had made Elena consume it in advance because I was worried the Marauders might take it from us.
I had also wanted to strengthen our combat power before the battle.
“That's right! Elena, you consumed a Grace Stone, didn't you?”
“Oh, this?”
Elena swallowed her mouthful of jerky, stood up, and dusted herself off.
Then she suddenly spread her legs wide against the wall and performed an absurd split.
“My body got more flexible.”
That was it?
“And...”
Elena took off her gloves, clenched her bare fist, and suddenly punched the wall.
Bang!
“I think I got tougher too.”
Stone fragments rained down, but Elena's hand was completely unharmed.
As a Dungeon of Death veteran, I saw through the blessing contained in the Grace Stone.
'A tough, flexible body.'
We would have to get an exact appraisal at the Appraisal Office, but it would probably be worth around the same as Smite.
'Physical defense and agility boosts are essential for a warrior, aren't they?'
Besides, unlike an active skill that consumed stamina with every use, this was passive.
It could be used for a long time.
In other words...
Elena had become stronger.
And...
“Congratulations, Elena. You're a debtor again.”
I applauded with a solemn expression.
“M-me? A debtor again?”
Elena's eyes widened in disbelief, and her ears perked up before she shouted at me.
“Fuck off! You forced me to eat it! What kind of bullshit is that?!”
“There was no other way if we didn't want it stolen. The thief might've had a stealing skill.”
“Nooooo!!!”
Even after I fed her a health tonic, she was still giving me shit.
She had no idea of my tearful efforts to properly raise my childhood friend.
“Ah! So that's why you were able to corner your opponent so much!”
Gimlius congratulated her while smacking his lips enviously at the Grace Stone.
Still, he didn't complain because my judgment had helped us escape danger.
“Congratulations, Elena.”
Hans, who seemed strangely subdued, did the same.
Whew. Things had gotten intense right from the start, but this had gone well enough.
Smiling, I thought about the new spell I had learned.
'Arcane Doppelganger. It's more useful than I expected.'
The thief had gotten close to us.
Ice Spear was too slow, and Frost Burst lacked killing power.
But thanks to the new spell, we had overcome the crisis.
“I'm troubled that we let that mage escape.”
Hans frowned as he looked toward where Gardro had vanished.
He was right.
Even as a wandering mage, Gardro was probably the richest loot mob of them all, simply because they were a mage.
'What a waste.'
My moneybag!
“No, that wasn't what I meant...”
“It is a little unsettling, but Gardro lost all their companions and is alone now. They must've used many spells too. Can they even survive here?”
Gimlius spoke as though Hans had nothing better to worry about.
“But if they survive and report us as Marauders instead...”
It was a valid concern, but I eased Hans's worries.
“Don't worry too much, Hans. Gardro is a wandering mage anyway.”
As I spoke, I showed them the official mage insignia of the Magic Tower attached to my robe.
“...Heh. You truly are reassuring.”
Hans smiled.
“Let's stay here for the night and replenish our spells.”
“Alright!”
“Yeah!”
After resting, we resumed our exploration of the third floor.
* * *
As the chessboard trap had shown, the Plaster Banquet Hall was home to golem-type monsters, inanimate forms made of various stones.
Once we passed the chessboard and entered the corridor, it felt as if we had stepped into a splendid noble banquet hall.
A long, timeworn but still elegant red velvet carpet stretched across the floor, while refined arched wooden doors lined the walls.
Yet the atmosphere was anything but elegant.
Hoooooo.
Step. Step.
Only our footsteps echoed through the silent hall that should have been bustling with noise.
The air smelled of freshly applied perfume.
Yet the fragrance was mixed with the stench of blood, and that discordant smell stabbed at our noses all the more unpleasantly.
“This place is disgusting in a different way from the second floor...”
Daisy covered her nose as she spoke.
“Stop. Ten stone dolls ahead.”
Delicately carved stone dolls stood between the corridors and doorways.
Hans raised a hand and alerted us to the enemies.
“They look fucking awful... What are they? They're pissing me off.”
As Elena said, the rank-seven monsters here were like the uncanny valley.
They vaguely resembled humans, and that made them unpleasant to look at.
...
The dolls, sculpted from plaster as white as jade, were vivid down to the wrinkles in their finger joints and the fluttering folds of their clothes. Every expression looked modeled after the face of someone consumed by despair.
What was even stranger was their poses.
One Plaster Doll in a maid's outfit held an actual severed human head as if it were a jewel. Another, dressed like a noble, had replaced its own head with a shriveled human skull and tilted it at an eerie angle.
Creeeak!
The dolls turned their heads when they noticed us.
With movements far too smooth for statues, they began approaching one by one.
'The knight dolls are the most dangerous.'
“You all know this, right? This place is a battle of attrition.”
If we broke every one of them individually, our weapons wouldn't endure.
They were mostly stone, so Lightning would be ineffective. We had no choice but to rely on water and Frost spells.
[Frost Burst]
Whoooosh!
I fired a frosty breath at them.
It wasn't enough to shatter them, but it slowed their movements and, more importantly, made them much more vulnerable to physical attacks.
“Let's go, Elena!”
“Alright!”
'The monsters here are slow, but their durability is the problem.'
'But with a mage like me here who can use water and Frost spells, there's no problem at all.'
Bang! Crash!
Elena and Gimlius rushed forward with blunt weapons and began smashing the weakened dolls.
"..."
Hans held a shield instead of his crossbow, protecting Daisy and me while watching the doors lining both sides of the corridor.
Creeeak!
“They're coming! Elena!”
Whenever stone dolls looking for an opening burst from behind the doors, Hans blocked them and called to the vanguard ahead.
“Got it!”
Unlike the chessboard pieces, Mana Stones emerged from the shattered stone dolls.
“Hehe. They're big! Bigger than the ones from the second floor!”
As expected of rank-seven third-floor monsters, their Mana Stones were larger than those from the second floor.
Naturally, the income doubled.
From the third floor onward, even if you found no special loot, you could earn money quickly by diligently collecting Mana Stones.
Could traps be the only thing we needed to watch out for especially in this area?
“You all know this, right? Don't get near the paintings.”
The lights in the corridor, which had been brightly illuminated like a banquet hall, had all gone out at some point.
...
It felt like a museum on a dark night.
All sorts of paintings hung on the walls.
“It moved... Ian... that thing.”
Daisy stared at it fearfully, pressed herself against me, and whispered.
It had clearly been facing forward, but after we passed, the man's eyes in the painting had turned toward us.
An evil spirit in a painting.
A Poltergeist.
The way to deal with them was to keep watching them until we escaped their range.
Sliiide!
“Where do you think you're going?!”
Even now, a white hand stretched out of a painting after I looked away for a moment. I waved the torch, and it retreated back inside.
'There are special rewards you can obtain from them, but...'
A woman screaming from within an ancient castle, her mouth torn wide open.
A gentleman drowning in a lake beneath an ownerless boat.
Every one of them looked dangerous, so I put it off for now.
'If I accidentally enter a painting with a lake in it, it's over!'
Unless you had an ability related to breathing or swimming, it would be difficult to escape.
We continued hunting, overcoming traps and killing monsters.
We occasionally encountered other Expedition Party members, but nothing like before happened again.
Well, it wasn't easy to run into Marauders in the first place.
On the third day of our exploration, we found something special.
Tarararan~
A colorful girl doll, unlike the colorless dolls, stood in a room as music from a music box played.
It was an Automaton, a superior species among the monsters here.
Click!
Unlike the slow stone dolls, the girl doll sprang up the instant it noticed us and charged forward at tremendous speed.
It spun around as if dancing and kicked out, revealing a sharp blade at the end of its foot.
Whoosh!
Clang!
“Urgh!”
Gimlius staggered, and Elena's hammer immediately came crashing down.
But the Automaton bent its entire body in an unnatural manner until it nearly touched the floor, evaded the blow, then swiftly swung its front limb again.
“This thing...!”
A faint drop of blood fell from Elena's chin as she hurriedly jerked her head back.
It was agile and unpredictable.
“Daisy! Blessing!”
“Yeah!”
This time, Gimlius received Blessing instead of Elena and rushed forward.
“Waaaaah!”
Moving more nimbly than usual, he blocked the Automaton's attacks and held it in place.
[Smite]
Bang!
Elena gradually built up damage against it.
“Die!”
Then I struck a fatal blow with a spell when an opening appeared.
[Rising Water Jet]
[Frost Burst]
The water jet that shot from the floor froze half of the Automaton's body.
Hans, who had hidden in the darkness beyond the torchlight using the Black Crow Cloak, fired a quarrel that struck its joint and tore off one arm.
Creeeak.
[Ice Spear]
The spear of Frost I fired pierced the girl doll's chest and pinned it to the wall.
Creeeak...
Its artificial gem-like eyes went dark.
The girl doll lowered its head and went limp.
Yet when Elena approached, it suddenly snapped its head up, and a poisoned needle shot from its grotesquely open mouth.
“Hmph.”
The Automaton's ability, playing dead.
It was a dangerous pattern that could inflict a fatal wound if you didn't know about it, but Elena easily blocked it thanks to my information and repeatedly smashed the girl doll's head with her hammer.
“Die! Die! Die!”
[Elena has destroyed Automaton (Girl).]
The completely shattered girl doll stopped moving.
Its parts could be sold at a high price, so we took them along with its Mana Stone.
The second floor took three to four days.
On the third floor, it took about seven days on average to find the next portal.
Around our sixth day exploring the Plaster Banquet Hall, we found one a day early.
It was either a return portal or a portal leading to another area.
“Hmm.”
Returning to the Labyrinth.
Or going to the Pig Den or Emerald Forest.
One of those three.
Footnotes:
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