WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Mordor

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Surviving the Frozen Dark Fantasy as a Genius Mage ◈

Chapter 75: Why Are You Lying There?

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The moment the Marauder mage finished speaking, the atmosphere froze.

"Is that true?"

"I swear on my Grimoire!"

The warriors' expressions hardened, and their hands moved to the hilts of the swords at their waists.

"What the fuck are you talking about, you bastard!? You attacked us first!!!"

Elena shouted, but she was too worked up. It only made them more wary of us.

"Don't come any closer, elf."

The false accusation Hans had worried about had come true.

If people at the level of fifth-floor Expedition Party members believed that and attacked us, we were dead.

It was a dangerous, volatile situation, but I only snorted and stepped forward.

'What a fucking moron.'

"The Marauder is over there. Gardro is lying."

"Do you have any proof to support that claim? A recording orb, perhaps."

A recording orb? I didn't have anything that expensive.

But I had something more convincing.

"Isn't the proof right here? We have a Priest of Meia and the insignia of an official mage affiliated with the Magic Tower. What more do you need?"

With a faint smile, I gestured to Daisy in her priestly robes and the Astrafe School emblem on my own robe.

"That's a lie! They attacked our party and stole our clothes!"

"..."

Even the warrior speaking seemed to realize that Gardro, the Marauder mage, was saying something strange. He glared at Gardro.

After all, Daisy was using a divine light spell. Calling her a fake Priest made no sense.

"It's Faithful Light. Though we belong to different denominations, there's no way that sister is a Marauder."

We had a witness on our side.

"Klaus, the kid's telling the truth."

An old mage in a blue robe embroidered with elegant patterns stepped forward.

"I was watching because the situation was rather amusing, but letting this farce continue would be a bit much. Mage Ian."

The emblem of the Frost-focused Glacier School was embroidered on his robe.

"You know me?"

"Of course. Aren't you the newcomer everyone's been gossiping about in the Magic Tower lately? I heard you had the nerve to mouth off to three Masters. Hahahaha!"

'Hahahaha! That joke's a bit much, Senior~'

Whether it was Earth or this primitive Medieval Land, family, hometown, and school connections were the best cheat codes.

The tense atmosphere immediately dissolved, and laughter broke out.

"..."

Only one person was sweating buckets now.

The Marauder mage who had lied.

"T-that's a lie! I..."

"How dare a wandering clown wag such a foul tongue!"

The old mage who had been laughing with me, Iromis, suddenly scowled. A powerful light flashed from his hand.

'Frost Ray.'

Crrrack!

The Marauder mage became an ice statue in an instant, frozen mid-excuse.

"Ha. I told you that mage looked suspicious from the start."

The Scout sneered at the warrior, apparently familiar with him.

"You bastard. You dared to fool me?"

Klaus, who seemed to be the party leader, snarled and swung his greatsword.

Crash!

The ice statue shattered, and the Marauder mage became transparent chunks of flesh.

"Whoa, brutal!"

Without even realizing death had come.

'There had been no avoiding it for that Marauder bastard from the start.'

The Marauder's best choice had been to avoid running into us.

'They should have lived a little more decently.'

"I had no idea you were Iromis's junior. My apologies for doubting you."

One of the mid-ranked adventurers bowed.

Their formerly condescending tone had become polite.

"Oh..."

"That's Ian for you!"

My companions, who had been tense just in case, stared at me in admiration.

This was the power of the Magic Tower.

The power of the connections I'd built up so far.

"Hehehe."

Yes, praise me more.

A genius mage like me had expected a situation like this.

'That thickheaded warrior bastard doubted me at first, and now he's completely changed his attitude?'

It annoyed me, but I was generous enough to let it slide.

"It's all right. It was a situation anyone could have misunderstood."

"This may not be much of an apology, but loot belongs to the victor. Take it."

As an apology, they handed over the Marauder mage's corpse.

There was little worth taking besides money after the body had been frozen and shattered, but one valuable item remained.

This was...

"A Spell Expansion Ring."

A magic item.

The bastard had been wearing a ring that increased spell slots by one, exactly the equipment I needed right now.

Nice!

As expected of a mage, especially one who made a living by robbing others. The Marauder was rich.

The moneybag I'd thought was lost had rolled back into my hands.

Smiling, I put on the ring.

The inner universe holding my Grimoire expanded, and I now had nine spell slots available for engraving.

'Of course, I'll have to pay my companions their share of its value.'

'I'll just earn more money!'

Squeeeal!

Had we stayed in one place too long?

Pigmen came rushing in from somewhere, having sensed something was off. When a squealing pig drew aggro, dozens of them swarmed toward us.

"Holy shit! There are so fucking many!"

Elena raised her weapon in shock, but Klaus only snorted and stepped forward.

"Annoying bastards."

Whoosh!

What followed was a one-sided slaughter.

Whenever his enormous greatsword swung, the Pigmen we had struggled to fight were easily chopped apart.

It took Klaus less than thirty seconds to clear out every monster by himself.

"Th-that's insane..."

"So this is a mid-floor Expedition Party member..."

Elena and Daisy stared with their mouths open.

I nodded as though I had expected it.

'They're on a completely different level.'

Mid-ranked Expedition Party members had probably consumed several Grace Stones. Their physical training, experience, and equipment would all be different.

"This works out well. We can ask them."

Klaus flicked the blood and flesh from his greatsword, then asked us, "Have you noticed any unusual developments while exploring the Labyrinth recently?"

Judging by the mood, it seemed to be a continuation of what they had wanted to ask from the beginning.

'Unusual developments...'

I thought about it.

The past few weeks before entering the third floor had been peaceful.

Before that, the minor Wave in the Salt Cave and the outer dimension portal had been the unusual incidents we encountered.

Come to think of it, all of those...

'Were related to the dark elves.'

To talk about it, I would have to mention that we had gotten involved with the dark elves.

Even the deputy branch head of the Expedition Party Guild's southern branch was a dark elf pawn, so we had to watch our mouths.

Yet if I didn't tell them...

'It looks like they're combing through the lower floors.'

'Fifth-floor Expedition Party members entered the Labyrinth with a special purpose?'

Something was wrong.

We might get dragged into it too.

For us, who were still low-floor Expedition Party members, that was too dangerous.

I told them about the series of wave incidents in the Salt Cave and how the dark elves seemed to be behind them. I hid the matter involving the World Tree Seed, but I did mention that there was conflict between the elves and dark elves.

"Hm, is that so?"

Unlike when I had seen through the deputy branch head's sinister intentions, no coin appeared above their heads.

"We know about the conflict between the dark elves and the elves. Even now, various schemes are unfolding beneath the surface between the two races."

They revealed that fact surprisingly easily.

What was this? Was it nothing important?

As I thought that, a coin spun over Klaus's head.

[Heads/Tails]

Judging by the mood, this was like the time with that elf mage. He was debating whether to reveal the truth.

'Heads!'

[Heads]

The coin succeeded.

"Hm."

Klaus glanced at Iromis, the old mage in his party, then spoke.

"We believe a third party is involved in the conflict between the two races."

So the dark elves weren't the only problem.

Large and small conflicts were breaking out among the various races living in the Labyrinth.

Behind them was someone, or some group, provoking racial conflicts and causing chaos in the city and the Labyrinth.

As members of the prominent Golden Lion Clan and mid-floor Expedition Party members, they had received a request from the Guild to investigate the matter.

"Klaus!"

The archer in the party called out to warn him to watch his mouth.

Klaus shrugged.

"This much is fine."

'Normally, he wouldn't have told us.'

But because I was the junior of a mage from the same clan, and because the coin had succeeded, I was able to hear the truth about how serious the current situation was.

"From what we've seen so far, there's a good chance nothing else will happen, but... I'd still recommend getting out quickly."

"Take care of yourself, Junior Ian."

With that, the Golden Lion Clan party left.

"What should we do?"

Gimlius asked with a grim expression.

'Those bastards?'

Something came to mind.

They were the only ones who could do something like this.

"Let's get out quickly."

Sensing that something was seriously wrong, I spoke to my companions.

When I, the one who always laughed and called myself a genius mage, turned serious, they agreed without a word.

This was our second region, so the next portal was guaranteed to be an Escape Portal.

Rather than hunting, we began exploring the third floor to find an Escape Portal.

Then, less than a day later, we found it.

"Get lost!"

Squeeeal!

Elena let out a rough breath after dealing with the Flesh Pigs.

Her chest rose and fell as she gripped her bloodied sword. She stared grimly at several bodies lying ahead of us.

"Ian. Those people..."

"Yeah."

The bodies the Flesh Pigs had been eating were Expedition Party members.

But they weren't ordinary bodies.

"Aren't those Golden Lion Clan members...?"

Klaus, the warrior who had warned us yesterday, another warrior, and the cocky archer.

The three mid-floor Expedition Party members who had displayed overwhelming strength were now gruesome corpses scattered across the ground.

'On the third floor!'

"What the..."

"Marauders? But who could have done this to them!?"

Cold sweat ran down my back.

"Wouldn't we learn something by examining the wounds on the bodies?"

I urgently cut Hans off.

"No, there's no time for that."

My instincts warned me.

We're fucked.

We're even more fucked.

Something terrible was happening.

No, it had probably already happened.

Now, we had to escape as quickly as possible.

As I thought that...

Rumble!

The ground suddenly shook as though an earthquake had struck.

The surrounding masonry and stone fragments moved on their own, rearranging themselves as though a giant were stacking toys.

Daisy cried out at the sudden phenomenon.

"The Contraction Period!?"

"No!"

The Contraction Period on the third floor occurred during the third week of every month.

I had calculated the date precisely.

There was no way the Contraction Period could be happening now.

This was...

Then the darkness suddenly receded, and our surroundings glittered.

Rumble!

The Labyrinth, normally stifling and packed with walls, opened up as its ceiling vanished. An open sky spread above us, where a dazzling aurora of many colors flowed like waves.

The walls and floor beneath it were the same.

They blended and flowed like paint.

As a Dungeon of Death veteran, I knew about this bizarre phenomenon.

'The three regions on the third floor are merging into one.'

It meant one thing.

"Floor Master..."

It had awakened.

Fuck, why was a raid boss...

[The three regions on the third floor are merging.]

Footnotes:

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