Surviving in a Frozen Dark Fantasy as a Genius Mage - Chapter 82

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Mordor

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Surviving the Frozen Dark Fantasy as a Genius Mage ◈

Chapter 82: The Ninja's Threat

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Mmm, so warm.

I was lying comfortably in a house where the boiler bubbled away, warm enough that I couldn't feel the cold at all.

Pizza, fried chicken, chicken feet, tempura rice bowls.

I enjoyed delivery food that arrived right at my door with a single tap.

Ah, once I passed thirty, I had to start caring about my health, so I cooked for myself sometimes too. Octopus and eel were in season these days, so I grilled them, boiled them, and ate them parboiled.

"Hehehe."

Playing Dungeon of Death while drinking soda in that state was heaven.

[Trembling Hands]

[Brutality]

[Obsession]

[Possessiveness]

Nickname: CrazyBlondEfl1

[Kindness]

[Hidden Rage]

[Affection Deprivation]

Nickname: BigBoobedPriest1

[Second Floor Secret Dungeon, Stormy Black Sea]

[Fourth Floor Great Snowfield, Damp Giant Tree, Sky Castle]

This game, where I explored the Labyrinth with characters armed with unique traits that could turn them into unstable wrecks at any moment, was the greatest god-tier game of my life.

"Huh?"

Then something strange happened.

I had definitely been happily playing the game through my monitor, but...

[Weak Body]

[Genius Talent for Mana]

[Misfortune and Fortune]

[One Who Stands Outside the Rules]

[An Overgrown Ego for Survival]

Nickname: 2an

Had I somehow become a character in this game?

"Aaaaaaah!"

Monster spiders, bipedal man-eating beasts, sword-wielding bandits, undead with shattered skulls, exposed brains, and dangling eyeballs.

"Why did you kill us?"

"We begged you to spare us... We begged you... You could've let us go at least once..."

Monsters more vivid than anything in a gore movie came for me.

The most horrifying among them were the snorting monster pigs.

Squeeeeeeal!

Save me... Ghk!

I tried to scream, but as dreams often went, only muffled groans escaped my mouth.

Wait, what?

A dream?

A dream? Ah, right... Of course!

Ugh, these pathetic bastards.

How dare they come at this genius...!!!

The moment I realized it, magic flashed from my hand as I smiled arrogantly.

At the same time, the white world shattered, and I woke from the dream.

* * *

Gasp!

When I opened my eyes, I saw the ceiling of an old inn.

Above me was a brown-haired girl with a gentle face, staring down with wide eyes.

"Ian!"

It was Daisy.

"Daisy?"

"Thank goodness!"

Her innocent eyes widened as tears gathered in them.

Daisy threw her arms around me.

[Heal]

Warm light poured from her hands.

What?

Why was I naked?

Looking down, I saw that aside from a pair of thin pants, I wasn't wearing anything.

Don't tell me...

'Organ trafficking?'

Smack!

"Ghk!"

"T-There's no way that happened!"

Daisy hit my forehead, then looked startled and rubbed it as if apologizing.

"Well..."

Her face reddened. After glancing at me, she spoke carefully.

"Your wounds were all healed, but your fever just wouldn't go down, so I was trying to wipe you off..."

The door suddenly burst open.

"You're awake!?"

Elena appeared in the doorway.

She shoved Daisy aside and came over to me.

"Hey! Are you okay!?"

She held a wet rag in her hand.

Ugh, my head.

"How long was I asleep?"

"Two days."

Elena wiped me down with the rag.

Slap.

Unlike Daisy, she hadn't even wrung it out, and her rough touch only made me feel worse.

"Fuck, couldn't you at least wring it out first?"

"After I went through all the trouble of worrying about you!"

"D-Don't fight! And Elena! Ian's a patient!"

"...As expected, kind-hearted me has to put up with it."

As they bickered like usual, I heard what had happened while I was out.

After dealing with the Floor Master and cleaning up the aftermath, all of us had returned safely.

"Hans and Gimlius are safe too."

"The barbarian guy, the creepy dark mage, the old mage, and the Priestess too."

It had been such a major incident that the guild was apparently questioning the survivors to investigate what had happened, but...

"You were sleeping through it, and we beat that eyeball monster, right? So they let it slide."

I see.

Come to think of it, where were the spoils? What about my Tome of Starlight?

I hurriedly looked around.

Daisy smiled and pointed to a bag in the corner.

"If you mean that strange book, I put it in there. It looked valuable."

I rummaged through the bag and pulled out the Tome of Starlight.

"Oh!"

Thank goodness. I'd been worried someone might've stolen it!

"Is it really that good?"

Elena asked as I hugged the tome and grinned.

"Of course. But it looks like you picked something up too?"

A smooth round shield hung from Elena's back over her light clothes.

That was...

"Isn't that what I summoned from the dimensional gate?"

"Yeah. It looked good, so I took it."

Good call.

I'd been too distracted to notice at the time, but that was a magic item.

From the perspective of a veteran player, its ability was...

'It's a Mirror Shield.'

A magic item that absorbed part of the impact from physical attacks, then released it.

"What!? That's fucking awesome, then!"

Right.

It wouldn't be much use against monsters with incredible durability, but it was useful against smaller monsters, and especially against people.

"Yessssss!"

Elena cheered.

"Congratulations, Elena. Ian."

Daisy congratulated us.

Once I calmed down, someone else came to mind.

"What about Dize?"

"He came by this morning to see your face, then left. He said he needed to apologize to his party members."

...

Elena paused before speaking.

"He saved us, right?"

"Yeah."

If it hadn't been for Dize, we might've won the battle only to die pointlessly afterward.

I didn't know why he'd become an Expedition Party member or how he'd reached the third floor, though.

Elena noticed my confusion, scratched her head, and told me about Dize.

"Actually, I ran into him before we explored the third floor this time."

"What?"

"I was going to tell you, but I thought it might distract us during the expedition... Ah, shit, that's not the important part. Anyway, he said he became an Expedition Party member because he didn't want to get in our way. He wanted to grow stronger."

"Dize..."

Daisy looked touched.

I felt the same way.

'Dize...'

We had kicked him out because we thought he had no talent and would die if things continued like this.

But Dize hadn't given up.

He found the courage everyone around him called reckless, and that courage had eventually created a butterfly effect that saved us.

Still, how had he made it to the third floor, and all the way to where we were? It should've been impossible with his ability.

'Even if he came up to the second floor with a party...'

Something suddenly came to mind.

'A portal had opened near us.'

'What if Dize took it and came straight to where we were?'

Of course, the odds were incredibly low...

[Heads/Tails]

The moment I was exhausted after taking down the Floor Master with Chain Lightning, when I was in danger as the monster pig charged at me, the coin had appeared.

Could it have been because of the coin?

Had I succeeded with the coin, allowing Dize to teleport directly to where we were?

Considering the possibilities the coin possessed, it was a plausible assumption.

'Just how far do the coin's possibilities go?'

"I'll apologize to Dize when I see him later."

"Yeah!"

"You're right."

Companions who refused to give up even in a hopeless situation.

An old acquaintance I thought would be no help.

The Ogre summoned through the side effects of the magic dice and coin.

Iromis's party, fifth-floor Expedition Party members, and the Thunderclap spell I had created through quick thinking.

Many factors had intertwined, allowing us to defeat the Floor Master in the end.

'Two people from the fifth floor and Expedition Party members from the third and fourth floors exiled a Floor Master?'

It was an incredible achievement, one nobody would believe if they heard it.

Still, I couldn't deny that luck had been on our side.

'It was a method we had no choice but to take in the face of the Floor Master disaster, but...'

It had been close.

One wrong move, and we would all have been wiped out.

The conclusion was simple.

'I need to become stronger.'

'At least strong enough not to get swept up by the monster-like bastards who summoned the Floor Master.'

I had to become strong enough to overcome most hardships.

Strong enough to create more possibilities even amid uncertain variables.

Of course, it wouldn't be easy.

No matter how much of a genius mage I was, we had only just reached the third floor and were barely at the level of veterans.

But...

"At least we can pull ourselves together and steel our resolve."

As I spoke with a cold gleam in my eyes, Elena and Daisy nodded with grim expressions.

"...Yeah."

Elena fiddled with the sword sheath at her waist and asked, "Just how strong do we need to become before we can face monsters like that?"

Who knew?

For a lower-floor Floor Master...

"Maybe a Deep Floors Expedition Party member could handle one alone?"

"The eighth floor? That's still so far away..."

Elena sighed when a knock sounded at the door.

"Who is it?"

"It's me, Iromis. Are you awake?"

He was the senior mage who had fought alongside us in this battle.

"Yes, sir."

As I hurriedly put on my clothes, Daisy opened the door.

"Tsk, tsk. I could tell from the entrance, but what is this room? It's far too shabby for the living quarters of someone who slew a Floor Master."

Iromis, a mid-ranking Expedition Party member and member of a successful clan, clicked his tongue the moment he entered the inn room.

What? Had he come to pick a fight?

Should I show him some elder disrespect?

"I came because I was worried. We also need to settle the spoils from the Labyrinth. Starting with the Mana Stones obtained from the Wave, and there's also the Ogre corpse you summoned, isn't there?"

Elena shouted.

"That's right! Old man! Hand it over! We practically summoned that Ogre ourselves!!!"

"Hoho, of course. It's being stored at our clan headquarters, so come collect it whenever you like."

Never mind the elder disrespect.

Senior Iromis really was a good person.

'You could tell he was a good man just by looking at his face!'

"But shouldn't we deduct the cost of the White Parchment I used? As well as the shares for the members of the strike team who accompanied you. Of course, even after all that, junior Ian, as the summoner, will receive the largest share."

I take back what I said.

Was he so thorough with calculations because he was a mage?

'I misjudged him!'

"Once you inspect the corpse and appraise it, let me know the distribution ratio. Ah, and this is the value of the Mana Stones."

Iromis handed me seven gold coins.

The Wave had been close to a natural disaster, but that also meant many monsters had appeared and dropped Mana Stones.

We had to divide them among several hundred people, so it wasn't an enormous amount, but it was still a decent profit.

'Fortune comes after hardship.'

Hahahahaha!

Laughing, I put away the coin pouch.

Iromis asked, "Even if you forced mutual destruction between the Ogre and the Floor Master, how did you deal with the Floor Master? Even if you used Oldimara's Dice one more time, you all wouldn't have had enough firepower... What exactly was that lightning...?"

There was only one answer I could give him.

"It's simple. I'm a genius."

"..."

Spin.

[Heads/Tails]

A coin suddenly appeared over Iromis's head.

'Heads.'

[Heads]

[Success]

When I guessed the coin correctly, I could read Iromis's thoughts, just as I had with Deputy Branch Manager Max.

[Hmm, I was called a genius in my day too, but this brat is something else.]

[What an incredible ego.]

[How dare this little bastard act so damn arrogant before a senior as lofty as the heavens.]

[But... I can't deny it.]

"Ahem."

Hmm. Reading people's inner thoughts wasn't always a good thing.

What a devious old man.

'There's something I need to hear from him.'

Narrowing my eyes, I told him that I had altered the atmosphere with water and Frost spells to form a cumulonimbus cloud, then used Lightning Arrow to draw down lightning like a lightning rod.

"I see! It was a secret art only possible because you are a Double Master... no, a Triple Master!"

[Hmm, I could try it too if I got my hands on a Lightning spell scroll, couldn't I?]

Iromis's eyes shone with curiosity.

Thinking the time had come, I cautiously asked him, "Could you tell me what happened behind the scenes?"

Iromis's delighted expression hardened like mine.

...

He slowly opened his mouth.

"The one who summoned the Floor Master and attacked us was a single dragonkin."

"A dragonkin!"

Even in the Labyrinth, where all kinds of races lived together, including dwarves, elves, halflings, beastmen, vampires, and dark elves, dragonkin were among the strongest.

'Their numbers are small, but every individual is exceptionally capable.'

"They covered their face, so we couldn't confirm their identity. But they were extraordinarily strong. At least seventh floor... no, perhaps even the eighth."

"E-Eighth floor!?"

"Ugh..."

They had single-handedly slaughtered a party of fifth-floor Expedition Party members in an instant, so I had already known they were no ordinary enemy.

But...

"A Deep Floors Expedition Party member..."

They were a bigger figure than I had expected.

Iromis looked around as though worried someone might overhear, then spoke with a grave expression.

"Don't tell anyone nearby. Keep it among yourselves."

"Yes."

"There's a group called the Secret Society."

They violated kingdom laws and city ordinances while committing all kinds of vicious crimes.

"Our Golden Lion Clan and the guild believe they may be the ones behind this incident."

'As expected...'

Just as I thought, it was the Secret Society.

They were the ones who made me hesitate to form close ties with the Magic Tower.