WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Mordor
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Surviving the Frozen Dark Fantasy as a Genius Mage ◈
Chapter 98: 3rd Floor Emerald Forest
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'Heads.'
[Tails]
[Failure]
The Coin toss failed.
Tap. Tap.
A light drizzle fell from the sky, pattering against the old watchtower and echoing along the walls.
It had sounded like pleasant white noise before, but after hearing Elena's words, it felt ominous.
Marauders?
Or the Secret Society?
I narrowed my eyes and checked my remaining spells.
[Electric Spark][4] [Ice Spike][3] [Magic Missile][2] [Arcane Barrier][1]
[Charge][2] [Chain Lightning][2] [Arcane Doppelganger][1] [Arcane Ray][1]
[Arcane Firefly][1] [Ice Armor][2]
Everyone inside had dried off, so we could immediately launch a surprise Lightning spell.
'With the rain falling, it should be even more effective.'
After reaching that conclusion, I prepared my catalyst and woke the other three.
"Hans, Daisy, Gimlius, wake up."
"..."
Hans opened his eyes and immediately loaded his crossbow. Gimlius sprang up with a short groan.
"Urgh."
"Hm?"
Still sleepy, Daisy rubbed her eyes as she looked at me. The moment she heard someone was approaching, she gripped her mace tightly in alarm.
"What are the chances they aren't Marauders? They might be people who need help."
"That's certainly possible, but we still need to prepare, don't we?"
"Daisy. Do you still not know Ian's luck? They're definitely Marauders. I'm one hundred percent certain."
This dwarf bastard.
'What's wrong with me, a mage blessed by fortune?'
I refused to accept it, but we still had to be prepared.
We took up positions inside the cramped watchtower and waited.
Squelch. Squelch.
Five Expedition Party members appeared, trudging through the mud in oilcloth robes.
...
They stared at us ominously and whispered among themselves. Then one of them cautiously stepped forward and shouted, waving a white flag in one hand while producing a bright light with the other.
"We need help!"
* * *
Cold air and dampness rushed in.
Ian's party let the strangers into the watchtower.
That was because there was a Paladin of Lu among them.
'Priests are unlikely to be Marauders.'
Simply committing evil would make the good gods turn away from them.
As the newcomers wrung out their soaked clothes, they turned out to be familiar faces.
"You are...?"
"I didn't expect to run into you here... Anyway, thanks for letting us in. Night was falling, and we couldn't find a decent place to rest."
What kind of coincidence was this?
"We can trust Lingxiang!"
Daisy clapped when she recognized the visitor.
"Who are they?"
Elena tilted her head, so Ian sighed and explained.
"You don't know? It's Lingxiang."
Lingxiang was a red-haired cat beastman with perked ears and tail, along with a fierce-looking face.
When Ian's party first came to the city to become Expedition Party members, Lingxiang had taught them the basics and bought them a meal.
[By the way, it'll be even shittier than out there.]
"Food? Ah!"
Elena finally remembered and greeted Lingxiang.
"Long time no see, cat!"
Paladin Mahabreh greeted them with a small smile.
"May Lu's grace be with you. It is an honor to meet the renowned Floor Master hunters. I am Mahabreh."
"Good to meet you! You are the Thunderfall mage's party! I'm Howard!"
"Tch."
The dwarf warrior Howard and Kyle waved as well.
The last member of Lingxiang's group was a mage. The wandering mage, who had been looking down their nose at the others, instantly lost confidence upon seeing the Magic Tower crest embroidered on Ian's robe.
"..."
'Serves you right.'
Lingxiang liked that too and smiled.
Meow, meow, meow.
"You came back in after going through all that? Should I call you impressive? No, perhaps you need that much nerve to take down a Floor Master?"
Lingxiang shut the watchtower door, plopped down beside the campfire, and spoke as Lingxiang's red-furred tail swayed happily in the warmth.
Ian snapped more firewood for the people shivering from the cold and tilted his head.
"What do you mean?"
"Fewer people have been entering the third floor since the Floor Master incident. After going through that mess, would anyone want to come back? Everyone's either lost their nerve and retired, or they're watching the situation. There's also distrust toward the guild."
In short, Ian's party was abnormal for entering the third floor now.
"Fuck, I knew this was crazy after all! Look at this!"
Ian held back the protesting Gimlius with one arm and asked blankly,
"But Lingxiang's party came in too, didn't you?"
"Well, we're in a bind. Howard here has three children, Mahabreh received a mission from the order... I need to make money, and so on."
"I see. We have our reasons too."
We needed to grow stronger as quickly as possible, if only because of the Secret Society bastards targeting us.
"I see."
Lingxiang looked over Ian's party and thought.
This was probably only their second time entering the third floor.
Yet their prowess and equipment were already comparable to those of most veterans.
'Every one of them is impressive.'
Even the little girl Lingxiang had thought was unremarkable enough to recommend as an inn employee had become a proper Priest before Lingxiang knew it.
'Ah, I should've pushed myself and recruited her along with that elf back then.'
Lingxiang smacked their lips, regretting the lack of foresight.
With better foresight, there would have been no need to cater to the whims of that incompetent wandering mage now.
Meow, meow.
Running into familiar people in this hellhole alone was an incredible stroke of luck.
They gladly shared warm food and alcohol, deepening their friendship.
"So? It's even shittier down below, right?"
"Hah. This? It's nothing."
"Stop showing off."
"Don't go west. Ectoplasms come out in groups there."
"Troublesome monsters that aren't worth any money. Thanks."
The information from Lingxiang, the party leader, was especially helpful to Ian's party.
"I'll give you some information in return for sharing your shelter. We saw the Corpse Witch on our way here."
"What?"
"Looks like you already know about it."
Seeing Ian's reaction, Lingxiang made an offer.
"It's in a dangerous place, so we only confirmed its location and left. We're planning to go back for it once morning comes. Want to come with us?"
"That sounds good to us."
Ian immediately nodded.
'This is really happening?'
All we had done was share our shelter, yet the reward was enormous.
* * *
Step. Step.
A corpse wandered through the middle of the gloomy forest.
Its emaciated body showed through its worn-out rags.
The pelvis and breasts whose outlines still remained, visible through the torn clothes, were the only signs that the monster was female.
'It's really the Corpse Witch!'
I smiled to myself.
Third-floor newcomers clicked their tongues at the non-aggressive monster that dropped nothing when killed. Veterans, on the other hand, treated it like a treasure trove and left it alone.
"That's the Giving Skeleton bastard you were talking about."
The Corpse Witch was a neutral merchant NPC with a low chance of appearing in the Emerald Forest.
It vanished into a pile of ash when killed, but if someone offered it a specific item, it gave an item in return.
'The reward also changes depending on what you give it.'
"Right?"
"Thanks for the information."
Lingxiang's party nodded and approached the Corpse Witch.
As I watched them, I gestured to my companions.
"Let's step back a little."
"Why?"
"That sort of thing is know-how too."
Information on specific gimmicks and item combinations was an Expedition Party member's own asset.
Trying to steal it carelessly would not end well.
"Glidden, you step back too."
"What? I'm part of the party too!"
"You're only a temporary hire for this expedition anyway."
"...So that's how you're going to act."
Lingxiang's party even made their own mage stand far away.
'Even temporary party members usually aren't treated like this...'
'Looks like the mage named Glidden has caused plenty of friction because of Glidden's bad attitude.'
All mages were arrogant.
Unlike this genius mage, who considered humility a virtue.
"No, I don't think that's it..."
"What did you say, you dwarf bastard?"
"Ahem. Nothing."
A short while later, Lingxiang's party returned after finishing their trade.
"Not bad~"
Meow, meow.
"Ahem."
Judging by their expressions, they seemed to have made a pretty good deal.
"Then it's our turn."
"Good luck."
Lingxiang's party stepped back.
As we approached the Corpse Witch, Elena whispered,
"They gave it things like a jar, hair, and blood, then received a pile of gold coins."
"Hey, I said don't peek."
"Heheh. My eyes are too good. What am I supposed to do if I see it without meaning to?"
No wonder she had kept craning her neck earlier.
That foul-tempered elf runt definitely had dark elf blood mixed in somewhere.
Either way, the method Elena had overheard from Lingxiang's party was a combination I knew as well.
'It's useful, but we don't need it that badly right now.'
We were going to get something better.
"Grrr?"
As expected, the staggering Corpse Witch did not attack. It only stood there and watched us.
I took out the items I had prepared before coming here and held them out to it.
An old key, parchment, and ink.
Creak. Creak.
After rummaging around for a moment, the Corpse Witch accepted them and handed me a map.
'Thanks to this, we'll find it easily!'
The Forgotten Citadel.
This was a secret map leading to the place where the Emerald Forest's field boss resided.
Thanks to the Giving Witch merchant, things had become simple.
"So this is the item..."
"Q-Quick, hide it before they see!"
What a fuss.
I carefully tucked the secret map inside my clothes.
Then I gave Elena a signal.
"..."
"Die!"
Smash!
Screeeee...
Elena suddenly crushed the Corpse Witch's head.
"W-Why did you kill it?!"
Daisy asked in shock. Elena flicked her mace clean and replied,
"A party can only trade with the witch once anyway. If we leave it alone, other parties can trade with it too, can't they?"
We were seasoned veterans now, so we had pulled up the ladder behind us.
Gimlius looked at Elena and shuddered in fear.
"A dark elf after all..."
"What?! Ian told me to do it!"
"Now you're lying too... You're evil to the core..."
"Hey! Ian! Say something!"
"I never told you to. You wicked elf runt..."
"Want to die?!"
"Ghk!"
After the commotion, we met Lingxiang's party once the trade was done.
"It looks like you cleaned up neatly and made a satisfactory trade too."
"More or less."
Neither side asked about the other's methods.
"Then I suppose we should part ways here."
We thanked each other for the meeting, wished one another easier expeditions ahead, and said our goodbyes.
"One last thing, out of concern."
Lingxiang seemed to remember something and spoke to us.
"Don't let your guard down. Whether it's the lower floors, middle floors, or upper floors, that's what takes the most Expedition Party members' lives."
Of course.
"Same to you."
...
"So it was in a place like this..."
"Can you tell where it is?"
"If I couldn't find it even after seeing this, I wouldn't be any different from a blind man. Hm, I think it'll take around two days."
Using the secret map, we made our way directly to the special area where the field boss slept.
[Once, righteous soldiers gathered here to fight against evil.]
[Ian's party has entered the Forgotten Citadel.]
[This place overflows with a deeper, more ominous darkness.]
[But Ian's party is brimming with confidence.]
Footnotes:
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