WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Mordor
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Surviving the Frozen Dark Fantasy as a Genius Mage ◈
Chapter 81: The Tables Have Been Turned
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“Gasp! Hah!”
A worthless little thing thinks it can act uuuup!
The monster pig that had bared its teeth to kill me collapsed.
A sudden intruder stood there, holding a bloodstained sword.
I stared blankly at him before speaking.
“Dize?”
“I-Ian! Are you okay?!”
Startled even by my voice, he ran toward me, caught his foot on the monster’s corpse, and fell over.
“Argh!”
That clumsy display.
It was definitely Dize.
He was bigger now and had picked up a few scars, but he was still the guy I knew.
‘Compared to this genius mage, he’s nothing but a tiny creature.’
‘He’s got guts and loyalty, but no talent. Like a character from a hero party who got kicked out.’
“Um... I can hear all of that...”
“Sorry... Urgh.”
The pain from my wounds had let my thoughts slip out.
“Ian!”
“Give me a potion...”
I took a potion from Dize and treated my wounds.
Sizzle...
Screeeech!
Fuck, is it because it’s low-grade? It stings like hell!
How does that idiot Elena endure this pain?
‘Everyone!’
I searched the backpacks of the people around me and used spare potions to treat my companions as well.
Twitch.
Luckily, Elena, Daisy, Gimlius, and Hans were all alive.
So were the dark mage Kadega, the barbarian Ulric, and their group.
‘What incredible luck.’
They were all groaning, but it would take them a while to regain consciousness.
After catching my breath, I wiped the blood, sweat, and dirt from my face and thanked Dize.
“Thanks, Dize. You saved me.”
I meant it.
If Dize hadn’t come, we might have killed the Floor Master only to die pointlessly afterward.
‘Elizabeth nearly tore me apart and ate me!’
What an absurd way to die.
“...!”
Perhaps my words shocked him.
Dize’s eyes widened as he made a dumb noise.
“I-I only killed one monster pig... Haha.”
It wasn’t just some monster pig.
It had been dying, sure, but it was still a third-floor monster.
Surprised, I asked Dize, “What happened?”
When we parted ways that day, he had said he would settle down with the money we gave him. So why had he suddenly appeared in the Labyrinth?
“Well...”
Just as Dize was about to explain, something popped out from the shattered crack in space where the Star Watcher had vanished.
Cackle, cackle, cackle.
It was a book radiating purple magical power that seemed to twist the space around it.
No, should I call it a living Grimoire?
Golden metal ornaments and sharp spikes protruded from its thick parchment pages. Stranger still, the cover gaped open like a beast’s maw, with a tongue flicking around inside.
‘That’s...!’
My eyes widened.
From the perspective of a veteran player, that was undoubtedly the Tome of Starlight.
A rare drop that only appeared when the Star Watcher was defeated or exiled.
Its ability was...
‘It can combine spells!’
It could combine the spells I possessed on the spot.
For example, if I fused Arcane Doppelganger with Electric Spark, I could create a lightning-attuned doppelganger.
In other words...
‘It’s the best support equipment a mage could ask for!’
It had some side effects, but it was ultimate equipment that remained useful even in the Labyrinth’s Deep Floors.
“Hyahhhhh!”
“Huh? I-Ian?!”
Worried someone might take it, I practically pounced on the Tome of Starlight and snatched it up.
“Khahahahahaha!”
Then I laughed like a madman.
Fuck, to get this here...!
Aaaaaah!
There was always a reward after the Labyrinth’s trials.
Having overcome the wall that was the Floor Master, we had received a fitting reward.
‘And it’s not just the tome.’
Inside me, my spell space expanded once more.
[Level Up]
I could now imprint a total of ten spells.
Rumble!
The ground shook as though an earthquake had struck.
With the Floor Master gone, the three fused regions were returning to normal. The rampaging monsters also came to their senses, and as they moved about, they discovered us.
“Urgh... C-come at us!”
Dize stepped in front of me and my friends.
Then...
Crash!
The monsters that had been about to attack rolled their eyes back and collapsed.
Behind them stood Iromis and the other Expedition Party members from the main camp.
“Ian, my junior! Are you all right?!”
I wanted to snap, What the fuck were you doing until now, old man? But they seemed to have had their own troubles.
Gasp, pant!
Every one of them looked like a wreck.
“The Floor Master?! What happened to it?!”
Heh.
“We won...”
I grinned as I began to speak, then lost consciousness.
Damn this frail body.
* * *
At that time, in Labyrinth City, Labyrinth.
“A Floor Master appeared?!”
“Where?! On which floor?!”
As people had predicted, several Expedition Party members managed to escape and report the Star Watcher’s appearance.
The eastern, western, southern, and northern branches.
Naturally, the Expedition Party Guild descended into chaos as soon as it heard the news.
“Branch Head, the city administration...”
“I’ll handle it. Keep everyone quiet first and seal off the Labyrinth!”
Starting with the branch heads who oversaw each district and the Guild’s central superintendent, numerous officials gathered to discuss how to resolve the crisis.
‘Fuck... What bastard summoned a Floor Master when even the summoning method is classified?’
Max, the bald deputy head of the southern branch, was attending the meeting.
The man who had close ties with the dark elves broke out in a cold sweat the moment he heard the news.
‘Was it those dark elf bastards?’
They were the only ones he could imagine doing something this insane.
Even on the lower floors, the appearance of a Floor Master was the Guild’s highest-level emergency.
If things went wrong, his secret relationship with the dark elves could be exposed as well.
‘Those damned dark elf bastards!’
Even as Max worried, the Guild’s meeting hall began drawing up countermeasures in a tense, solemn mood.
“The master that appeared is the Star Watcher, ruler of the third floor.”
“A troublesome one. Who is currently on the third floor? Give me a list of those at least fifth rank, people capable of standing against it.”
“Four people, including the dark mage Kadega... Ah, and Klaus’s party is there as well.”
“The Golden Lion Clan members. If they’re alive, we can reduce the losses.”
“Superintendent, I have something to report. I’ve heard that the Golden Lion Clan intends to send a rescue team independently...”
“Lift the lockdown order and let them through.”
After going through complicated procedures, the Expedition Party Guild also formed a rescue team.
It was made up of carefully selected intermediate- and high-ranking Expedition Party members, elites strong enough to face a third-floor Floor Master.
“A Floor Master... It’s been a while.”
“Which lunatic did this? The dark elves? Ha ha.”
Every one of them was a powerhouse whose name was known throughout the city.
“Then we’ll depart.”
Leading them was a red-haired dragonkin clad in practical full-body armor.
She was Elsa, a seventh-floor Expedition Party member known as the Dragon Knight and the descendant of Dragon Slayer Dritri, the first explorer of the Deep Zone.
People now said she was following in her father’s footsteps.
“...”
Neither Elsa, the rescue team’s leader, nor the Guild expected the Expedition Party members stranded on the third floor to be alive.
‘At least several hundred must have died.’
‘The Mana Stone supply will suffer for a while, and prices will rise.’
No matter how quickly they moved, the situation would already be over by the time they reached the third floor.
This rescue operation was nothing more than a formality to avoid blame.
A few lucky people might survive somehow.
That was how the Labyrinth’s laws had always been written in blood.
“Ptooey! Those fucking Guild bastards!”
The Golden Lion Clan, a large clan, understood that too. That was why it had sent a rescue team on its own.
“Prepare to enter.”
Elsa and the rescue team, who had been preparing to enter the Labyrinth, froze.
Crackle!
A teleportation magic circle appeared in a flash of light.
Not one or two people, but hundreds emerged from the sealed Labyrinth entrance.
“Gasp, pant!”
“We survived! We surviiiiived!”
“Aaaaaah!”
Every one of them was covered in blood.
Yet they cried out in joy at being alive.
They had clearly come from the third floor.
This many survived?
Pushing aside her confusion, Elsa asked, “Did you come from the third floor?”
“That’s right, Dragon Knight.”
While people collapsed from weakness or sobbed behind him, Iromis, a mage of the Glacier School, stepped forward.
“Iromis. You survived.”
Recognizing the intermediate Expedition Party member, Elsa asked, “What happened to the Floor Master?”
“...”
Iromis’s gaze briefly shifted to the silver-haired man sleeping on the back of a blonde elf.
Then he smiled.
“We dealt with it.”
“...What?”
“Thirteen warriors, led by this man, exiled it. We guarantee it.”
“What does that...”
Elsa stared at them with a bewildered expression.
The only recognizable people were Iromis and the Priestess from the Golden Lion Clan.
Most of the rest were low-floor Expedition Party members from the third and fourth floors.
And with just that force...
“They exiled the Floor Master...?”
It was impossible.
Yet the hundreds of third-floor Expedition Party members who had safely returned were proof.
“Third-floor returnees! Two hundred fifty-eight confirmed!”
“What?! The Watcher has vanished?!”
“A suicide squad led by a mage from the Magic Tower named Ian...”
“...!”
The Expedition Party Guild erupted into chaos for an entirely different reason after hearing the news.
Footnotes:
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