WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Ceaseless
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Dungeon Gallery's Terrifying Newbie ◈
Chapter 21: Position Shift (2)
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Creak. Creak.
Reberio and Jius stood blankly before an old elevator.
"Hey. You said this was a straight passage with no traps or obstacles ahead. Look at the map you drew. It's completely open, so what the fuck is this...?"
Jius sounded annoyed.
Anyone who had trusted Reberio completely and followed them here would have every reason to be irritated.
"This can't be..."
Reberio felt wronged.
Detection Magic had worked normally, and Reberio knew firsthand that there had been no interference during the process.
Yet the elevator before them blocked the passage like a wall.
Reberio tried using Detection Magic once more, but the result was the same as before.
'It's a strange obstacle...'
Detection Magic clearly showed an empty space, yet it stood there in plain sight. The situation was utterly baffling.
"Quit saying this can't be happening and come up with some excuse."
"Hey, why are you getting so mad?"
"How am I not supposed to be mad right now? We can't even go back outside anymore!"
Reberio let out a quiet sigh.
Then, wearing a kindly expression, Reberio tried to calm Jius down.
"Jius, I told you. This is just a newly formed dungeon. Calm down a little. No matter what strange tricks the Dungeon Master pulls, they were born just half a year ago! Hey! Friend! Calm down! Okay!? We're going to win anyway. From an elf's, no, a human's perspective, this Dungeon Master is basically an infant."
It worked fairly well.
Jius soon clicked their tongue and glared at the elevator.
"That thing's blocking the passage right now, isn't it?"
"For now, yes."
Jius drew the sword at their waist.
With physical abilities and combat instincts superior to those of other elves, Jius thought they could cut it apart.
Even a vicious Troll was no match for them.
A sword strike capable of cleaving stone rained down on the elevator.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
But.
It still did not budge.
"It's tough. Enchant it."
"Okay."
Even with Reberio's assistance, nothing changed.
It became instinctively clear.
"......"
The elevator could not be destroyed.
At least, not with anything they could currently do.
"You said it wasn't a magic trap, right?"
"Yeah. I can't sense any Mana at all."
"This is a pain. Ha..."
"More of a pain than when you raped a woman and found out she was a noble lady from the South Kingdom?"
"You can joke around in a situation like this?"
"Sorry, sorry."
The two Branded Elves crossed their arms.
Reberio stroked their chin as they spoke.
"There was no other path. This is a straight passage to begin with... This is obviously the passage. Dungeon walls can't normally be destroyed. Still, I've never heard of a dungeon blocking its passage with its own walls, and it's not recorded in any history book either. Then that device itself must be a trap prepared by the Dungeon Master."
It was something they could physically touch.
Yet even Jius's enchanted sword could not destroy it.
Jius was not a weak swordsman to begin with.
It was not as though it was made of starmetal, like the owner of that famous Automata Dungeon.
While Reberio pondered this, Jius strode into the elevator.
"There's a button here?"
"Don't just go in there carelessly. We don't know what might be inside."
"I'm fine, so it's okay."
Reberio sighed.
Well, now that they had confirmed there was no problem, it should be fine to enter...
『The doors are closing.』
Bang!
It happened in an instant.
Reberio blinked.
"Hey, Jius! Jius! Are you okay!?"
Bang bang bang bang!!
Reberio pounded wildly on the closed doors.
But there was no answer from Jius.
"Fuck!"
Reberio immediately used Detection Magic to check whether Jius was alive.
There was no meaningful result.
"I can't sense any Mana...?"
That couldn't be right. Reberio had clearly seen Jius enter the elevator.
Had some kind of spatial transfer suddenly occurred?
"No."
If an Escape Scroll had not caused the transfer, Reberio should have been able to find Jius's Mana somewhere in the dungeon.
Jius had vanished.
As if they had become one with that bizarre elevator.
.
.
.
.
.
A little later.
『The doors are opening.』
The elevator doors opened.
Reberio collapsed to the floor.
"H-hah..."
Blood flowing from the elevator spread through the corridor.
At its center was Jius.
It looked as though every drop of fluid in Jius's body had been drained.
Their body was blackened and shriveled like a mummy.
An incomprehensible Anomaly had occurred right before Reberio's eyes.
Creak. Creak.
The old elevator made an unpleasant sound.
* * *
Reberio gulped down water.
It was to cool their head.
"Fuck, fuck..."
Their mind would not settle.
If Jius had simply died right in front of Reberio, that would have been one thing.
Instead, Jius had been dragged into that unknown machine, died without anyone knowing, and then appeared before Reberio as a corpse.
People feared what they could not understand.
Reberio, a Branded Elf, was no different.
How could anyone possibly explain what had just happened?
Reberio thought it would be impossible even after acquiring far greater magical knowledge.
It should have been impossible without magic.
Yet every instinct and piece of knowledge Reberio possessed fiercely insisted that this phenomenon was not magic.
The elevator doors stood open.
The interior was clean because an undying slime had appeared midway through, swallowed Jius and every trace of blood, then leisurely drifted away.
A note lay at Reberio's feet.
The slime had left it behind, but Reberio had not checked it yet in case something happened.
A little later.
With trembling hands, Reberio picked up the note and unfolded it.
-LOL
Reberio ground their teeth.
"You fucking Dungeon Master bastard!"
The owner of this dungeon was completely toying with Reberio.
Watching me tremble in fear, that bastard must have been laughing.
That thought grated sharply on Reberio.
"You piece of shit! You fucking bastard! Get out here in front of me right now!"
How dare you humiliate me like this?
It suited the owner of such a dark, suspicious place.
That bastard knew exactly how to make people feel like shit.
"Do you know who I am!? You can't even say a word in front of me! You're only keeping yourself alive with these dark, suspicious traps, fuck!"
Reberio vented their rage.
Once they had let out everything inside them, the trembling finally stopped.
"I'll kill you no matter what! I'll kill you with my own hands! And I'll take the Magic Stone you cherish too!"
Reberio strode into the elevator.
Reberio possessed the greatest magical talent in the Forest of Life.
They might be a criminal now, but could Reberio, who would one day become a renowned godfather of the underworld, really die in a place like this?
Reberio would definitely kill the Dungeon Master and steal the Magic Stone.
That was their resolve.
『The doors are closing.』
Bang!
.
.
.
Inside the closed elevator, Reberio thought.
There were buttons in the elevator.
Open and close, as well as numbered buttons from one to ten.
"Fuuu..."
Jius had died in this elevator.
"That bastard wasn't careful, so they probably pressed something without thinking and died."
The open button did not work when Reberio pressed it.
There was no point in the close button, leaving only the numbered buttons.
The elevator display showed the number 1.
Did that mean this place was 1?
"There don't seem to be any hidden buttons... If I have to solve this with what I've been given, these buttons must be the key to the puzzle."
For now, Reberio would press them in order.
There were too few clues at the moment.
Reberio finished preparing to use magic at any time.
Then, tense, they pressed button 2.
Clunk, boom.
The elevator shook briefly.
Bzzzzz.
At that moment, Reberio felt the floating sensation of rising upward.
Reberio blinked.
According to Detection Magic, this dungeon was not that tall.
Yet the elevator was clearly going up.
This was not an illusion.
What the hell was going on?
『Second floor.』
『The doors are opening.』
A dark corridor appeared before Reberio.
It resembled a passage with all the lights turned off.
Reberio swallowed hard.
Then they slowly began to walk.
Step. Step.
Step. Step.
『The doors are closing.』
Bang!
At that moment, Reberio realized they had made a mistake.
"Ah."
You stupid bastard!
Reberio grabbed at their own hair in regret.
They had been too tense, preparing for a possible fight.
Reberio hurriedly tried to use Detection Magic.
Tatatatatatata!
Then came a sound that could not be ignored.
When Reberio shone a light ahead, their expression froze.
Hot liquid ran down their pants.
What the hell was that?
Reberio felt no regret, curiosity, or even fighting spirit.
The thing charging toward them on two legs was so terrifying that Reberio could not think of anything else.
"Aaaaaaaaaaah!!"
.
.
.
Swish.
It dragged the corpse toward the elevator.
『The doors are opening.』
『The doors are closing.』
『Descending.』
.
.
.
『First floor.』
『The doors are opening.』
Inside the elevator, only a shriveled corpse remained.
* * *
└orange★: newbie's dungeon is seriously fucking vicious LOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
└magichero: Th-th-th-this is the first time I've seen the head mod say something like that...
└dm_disappointed: Makes sense. All the swordsmanship and magic they've built up so far are fucking useless LOL
└imaclown: A dungeon where elves, Goblins, and Trolls can all be equal... This is the real Dreamland, yeah.
└kongkong: Why is Reberio suddenly so fired up?
└dip: Reberio barged in with one friend and is throwing a fucking tantrum.
└cowhead: Why's it been so long since we last saw you?
└kongkong: I was busy dealing with a Blessed One who had their sights on me...
└no_minions_4_me: This is why Branded Elf bastards are no good.
└no_minions_4_me: Their conversation just now was seriously low-class too.
└op_ghost: newbie, good job! Those trash bastards deserved to die... Ptooey!
└3mhamster: What a relief!!! Anomaly is a real lifesaver, yeah...
└tvhead: This is just peak corrective education.
└antqueen: (while fucking newbie) Honestly, those two needed to die. If I could go outside, I would've killed those bastards first, yeah...
└whaleyeah: Agreed. But isn't something weird with this bastard's parentheses?
└golemking: It's such a shame they know their place and don't come into our dungeons.
└psychward_mvp: That's not actually the important part, yeah.
└psychward_mvp: This proves newbie's dungeon is difficult even against intelligent beings.
└anonbutcher: Honestly, I was a little worried, but I can finally relax.
.
.
.
【You have successfully defended the Wave.】
【Rewards will be calculated according to the difficulty.】
-......
I watched the dead intruder through the Surveillance Camera.
A Branded Elf, the kind Veterans especially hated.
Soon, Malrang would eat the corpse and make it disappear.
I had Malrang leave a cheap taunt to get under that bastard's skin.
They lost their mind so easily.
Well, I hadn't planned to let them live anyway.
Still, it would've been nice if they had gone a little farther in.
The more data I gathered, the better.
"A psychopathic elf, huh."
Of course, this didn't look like a full-scale invasion.
Only two of them had come.
It was probably just curiosity.
Still, I couldn't let my guard down just because they died at the entrance.
humanluvr: Newbieee!
└newbie: Yeah.
└humanluvr: Are you mad by any chance T_T?
└newbie: I'm not particularly mad...
└humanluvr: (I have a doctorate in newbie psychology and newbie ontology.)
└newbie: LOL...
"......"
Anyway, if you're coming in, hurry up.
The real Anomaly hasn't even begun yet.
Footnotes:
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