WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Mordor

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◈ Surviving the Frozen Dark Fantasy as a Genius Mage ◈

Chapter 9: A New Spell, a Miracle with a 5% Survival Rate

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Hope is always right.

The hope that my life will be better in the future than it is now.

Hope allows people to live on. It gives them the strength to move forward.

"We're almost there...!"

Once we saw the Labyrinth City was close, we forced ourselves onward.

But the farther we went...

Whoooooosh!

The blizzard began to intensify.

As if it were telling us we could not reach that place.

As if it wanted us buried in this snowfield, left here to die.

"Ugh... ugh..."

"Come on! We have to go! We can do this!"

I gripped Daisy's hand as she coughed. Elena practically held me up as she guided me forward, while Dize braced himself with his spear and held Daisy's other hand.

The warmth through our gloves was painfully faint.

Still, that shared warmth gave us the strength to keep moving.

One step, then another.

We pushed through snow that reached our thighs.

"Wait."

Elena suddenly pricked up her ears.

"Something's coming. Just one."

Whoooooosh!

We had encountered plenty of them over the past week. Elena's senses had sharpened enough to distinguish footsteps through a blizzard roaring like thunder.

'Without Elena, we'd have died long ago.'

Crunch. Crunch.

At first, I thought it was a person.

The Labyrinth City was close by, and it seemed only natural for someone to be walking beneath the sunlight.

Then I heard metal clattering. Chills ran down my spine as I lowered myself.

'Metal armor?!'

"Everyone, get down."

"...!?"

"A Draugr. And it's a warrior."

The owner of those footsteps appeared beyond the snowdrift the moment we dropped down.

Crunch. Crunch.

It wore half-torn chainmail bearing the crest of an old kingdom that had long since fallen. Its face was hidden beneath a Great Helm, and it carried a massive mace and shield.

At a glance, it looked human.

But we instinctively knew it was a monster.

No human could move normally with more than ten arrows lodged throughout their body.

And worse...

'Fuck, it's not an ordinary warrior. It's heavy infantry!'

Draugr afflicted by the eternal Winter's Curse retained the traits they had in life.

That meant a larger, better-equipped one was stronger than an ordinary Frozen Warrior.

'There's no way we can beat it with what we have now.'

If it had been an ordinary warrior, we might have had a chance.

Not this thing.

I signaled to the others.

Daisy, so lively.

Dize, a coward burdened by responsibility.

Elena, the elf.

They held their breath and prayed it would leave.

Please go.

Please, just go. Please.

Then an incredibly shitty situation came my way.

Clink, clink, clink.

The Coin of Fate spun.

[Heads/Tails]

Haah, fuck.

I sighed and closed my eyes.

There was no way I could refuse to toss it.

If I remembered correctly, these would definitely be the two choices.

[Avoid the frozen heavy infantryman's gaze.]

[You cannot avoid it.]

If I made no choice, it would attack us anyway.

'Heads.'

As though it wanted me to be grateful for all my past successes, the coin ignored my desperate plea this time.

[Tails]

[The frozen heavy infantryman has spotted you.]

[Chance of victory: 2%]

Creeeeak!

With a hideous sound like cracking ice, it turned toward us.

'Yeah. I've always had bad luck.'

"It's coming! Everyone, get ready to fight!!!"

I pointed my staff at it and burned the parchment within me.

* * *

Two sharp chunks of ice cut through the wind.

They flew as fast as arrows, but the undead, clad in sturdy armor, easily blocked them with its cracked iron shield.

"Fuck... We were so close..."

Elena was the only one in our group who could face that thing, even briefly.

Clenching her teeth, she charged forward with a flimsy wooden shield and club.

Crash!

It happened in the blink of an eye.

Her shield shattered. Splinters flew, and her arm bent at an unnatural angle.

"Urgh."

Elena was thrown aside after exchanging a single blow with the charging frozen heavy infantryman.

"Elena!"

Ian could have checked on Elena, but he focused solely on the enemy and fired another Ice Spike.

'The weakest point I can find!'

The Heavily Armored Draugr's shield shattered when the spell struck at a precisely calculated angle and moment.

But that was all.

It tossed aside the broken shield and gripped its mace in both hands, as if that made things easier, before rushing Ian.

'F-fuck.'

Watching this, Dize trembled so badly that he wet himself.

A whisper echoed in his fragile heart.

Maybe he could survive if he abandoned the others and ran for the city.

But then...

"Ian! Elena!"

Daisy, several years younger than him, rushed forward without fear even though she knew she stood no chance.

"Daisy, don't...!"

Dize had been about to tell her to stay back, since she would only get in the way, but he shut his mouth.

"..."

What are you doing?

You're the oldest here. You're an adult. What the hell are you doing?

Yeah, you've always been like this.

If you'd lived properly, would you be in this state now?

That damned sense of responsibility.

Self-loathing. Disgust.

The dark emotions that had bound Dize his entire life surged within him.

Yet they did not crush his mind...

His fist clenched tight.

"Fuck, fuck!"

They exploded into courage instead.

"Aaaaaaah!"

Dize threw away his spear and leaped onto the heavy infantryman charging toward Ian.

Of course, he could not stop it. At best, he had only wrapped himself around it.

Still, he delayed the frozen heavy infantryman from smashing Ian and Daisy's heads.

Dize paid dearly for it.

The monster brought its mace down on Dize's back without mercy, then kicked him away.

"Guhk."

Dize was thrown aside with the sound of bones breaking.

"Dize, oh... Aah!"

Daisy suffered the same fate.

"Ptooey!"

In that opening, Elena came to her senses. She spat blood, picked up the spear Daisy had dropped, and charged the heavy infantryman.

It was only a desperate struggle, like sheep rushing at a wolf.

A struggle that delayed death for a few moments.

"Huff... huff."

The elf and the undead danced amid the blizzard.

Watching that precarious dance, where one wrong move could end everything, Ian desperately racked his brain.

Think.

Think.

How can I kill that thing?

As a veteran who knew every last detail of this damned game, come up with something!

No matter how hard he thought, he could see no way to bring it down with what he had.

All he had left were one Ice Spike, Electric Spark, and Faint Light.

'Only one offensive spell remains. One Ice Spike.'

'It can't even pierce its armor.'

Zero percent.

'Fuck. Am I going to die like this? After coming so far?'

Ian's lips trembled.

At that moment, when nothing but despair remained...

Whoooooosh!

The raging blizzard suddenly felt as if it were gently wrapping around his shoulders.

The touch, scent, taste, and sound of snow and ice, along with sensations he could not describe, flooded into his mind.

'This is...!'

Ian suddenly began to shake.

An unprecedented realization was blooming within him.

It was a new spell.

Normally, Memorize required intense concentration around six in the morning, when the sun rose.

But Ian's genius shone through.

Once he learned a new spell, he could engrave it immediately, right there on the spot.

That spell was...

'Frost Burst!'

* * *

Their resistance to Frost was incredible.

But this gave us a way through.

I gripped my staff again despite my fading strength and called out to Daisy.

"Daisy!"

"...Ugh."

"Daisy!"

"Y-yeah. Yeah!"

"The waterskin! Throw it!"

Daisy threw me the last waterskin she had kept close to keep it from freezing.

I caught it and took a breath.

Timing.

If it was off by even a little, it was over.

I needed to calculate the perfect moment.

That moment came when...

"Agh!"

Elena finally collapsed.

I threw the waterskin at the monster.

[Ice Spike]

I immediately fired my final Ice Spike, piercing the waterskin.

Then...

'Frost Burst.'

Whoooooosh!

Blue light flickered as a blast of frost erupted from the tip of my staff, stronger even than the bitter cold outside.

Frost spread across its metal armor and helm in an instant. The frozen heavy infantryman tilted and froze in place with its mace raised high to strike.

Creak?

The blue ghostfire wavering inside its helm was clearly panicked.

"Aaaaaaah!"

I seized the broken shaft of a spear from the ground and brought it down on the frozen undead's head.

Crash!

It only made a tiny crack...

'If once isn't enough, then I'll do it again!'

I struck again and again until it felt like my hands would tear apart. A crack spread across its head.

But...

'Fuck!'

I cursed as blood ran down my hands and the spear shaft slipped free.

The grip of this weak body had already given out.

I did not have the strength for a finishing blow.

The armored undead shuddered as it resisted Frost.

I thought I had found a way, but at this rate, we were finished.

Then...

"Fi... huff."

I turned at the sound of a voice.

Elena lay on the ground, coughing blood as she drew her bow.

Her hands were trembling, and she still thought she could hit it?

'Then again, she can barely move. She has no other way!'

Then the sound of spinning metal rang out again.

[Heads/Tails]

The coin had appeared.

As if it were testing my luck at this very moment.

'Come on, give me this one already!'

'I'm Ian, the genius mage!'

I clenched my fist and shouted.

"Heads!"

[Heads]

The coin answered.

As if by a miracle, Elena's trembling hand steadied.

A single old arrow flew into the crack I had made, widening it into a greater fracture.

Crack-crack-crack!

Then...

The Frozen Warrior's head shattered into pieces.

The scattered chunks of ice glittered like jewels.

"Huff, huff, huff..."

After confirming that the headless corpse had collapsed, I fell into the snow as if it were swallowing me whole.

"Ele... cough, cough. Elena!"

"I'm alive... I'm fine, so... check on Dize."

When I called for Elena, she worried about Dize instead.

I crawled over to him.

"Did... we win?"

Dize asked weakly. His shattered back left him limp.

"Yeah!"

"But at the end... I looked kind of cool, right?"

Dize coughed up blood mixed with tissue, perhaps from internal injuries, and slowly closed his eyes as he spoke, as if he were giving his last words.

"Fuck off, Dize."

It would feel fucking awful if you went out like this.

[Electric Spark]

I used Bolt on Dize as he closed his eyes.

Crackle!

The idiot trying to act cool and take the easy way out alone writhed as his whole body convulsed.

"Aaagh!"

"Daisy! Take care of Elena! Let's go!"

"Cough, cough! Y-yeah! Yeah!"

We pushed through the snowfield toward the Labyrinth City.

The city was surrounded by enormous walls that seemed to rise dozens of meters into the air.

Guards welcomed us at its entrance, beneath the protection of a dazzling human civilization rarely seen in this fallen world.

"Oh, new expedition applicants. Welcome."

Huff, huff.

The guard spoke calmly, as though he could not see that we were practically dying.

"T-treatment..."

"Don't worry. We have people prepared for situations like this."

As soon as the guard finished speaking, a priestess in spotless white robes approached us.

White light flowed from her hand, and Elena and Dize's faint breathing gradually steadied.

Elena's broken arm was easily healed, but Dize's injuries appeared more serious.

"This person will need intensive treatment."

The priestess took Dize away.

Fuck, she could have healed me too.

Instead, the guard handed me a cup of warmed water and asked, "Where are you from?"

"South Sunlight Village."

"That's a long way. It couldn't have been an easy journey..."

Ah, I finally felt alive.

The warmth soothed my cracked lips and stomach. It had an unusual scent, as if herbs had been steeped in it.

Then a group approached us as we lay sprawled near the city gate.

A scarred human man in leather armor.

A dwarf wearing iron armor and a horned helmet, axe in hand.

Even a cat-eared beastkin in light clothing.

They were expedition members, each dressed differently and marked by their own distinct features.

The people who explored the labyrinth and would bring light back to this world.

Our seniors.

They surrounded us and whispered among themselves as though we were some kind of spectacle.

"Oh, what's this? Four of them made it this time?"

"That's a lot, isn't it? Sounds like they started with quite a few."

The scarred man approached me.

"Hey, rookie. How many of you set out from your hometown?"

It was a random question.

Of course, I knew why he was asking, but did he assume I did not?

The kind guard who had given me tea stepped in.

"Hey, Kyle. How can you ask people that the moment they've escaped death?"

"Hmph."

The guard explained why Kyle had asked.

"They're guessing how many people set out from your area. It's a sort of bet, a custom among adventurers whenever newcomers arrive."

Of course, as a veteran player, I already knew.

Rubbing my tired face, I answered, "Eleven."

"Eleven? You started with eleven people, and four of you made it here alive!? Are you from the Castle or something?"

They didn't look like nobles.

Kyle's face filled with shock at my answer.

"No. We're from a village."

"No way!"

"Are they lying?!"

"He does look like a mage... but even so, he must be a novice who only knows a few spells..."

Shock rippled through the expedition members looking down at us.

The nosy guard was no different.

"Hoho... This is impressive. It's been a while since someone promising arrived."

Stroking his beard in admiration, he explained why the expedition members were so stunned.

"The odds of expedition applicants who leave their village or castle reaching the Labyrinth safely are about five percent."

'I know.'

I knew how insane what we had done was, and what kind of miracle we had pulled off.

"You should be proud. That's an incredible record."

The guard remained kind and nosy to the very end.

Footnotes:

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