WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Ceaseless

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ The Dungeon Gallery's Terrifying Newbie ◈

Chapter 23: Tyr (2)

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newbie: I'm debating whether to use Malrang to clean up the bodies... Hmm...

└no_minions_4_me: Why?

└newbie: They're gross...

└newbie: I'm watching while eating jerky, and it's kind of killing my appetite.

└humanluvr: Newbie!

└humanluvr: Just leave them. If they're grossing you out, imagine how bad it is for them.

└humanluvr: Fear and terror are the strongest debuffs in a dungeon, after all.

└antqueen: (Helping newbie chew while newbie struggles with the jerky.)

└antqueen: But the more I look at Dreamland, the more insanely brutal the entrance is.

└psychward_mvp: LOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL Would you believe this elevator is just the entrance?

└worldiscold: Anomaly is insanely overpowered... Please keep it that way and beat the shit out of every elf.

└humanluvr: Where did you end up this time?? Did you finally get away from the elves?

└worldiscold: Near the World Tree, fuck...

└humanluvr: Ah.

* * *

1. Ride suspicious mechanical devices alone.

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Capacity exceeded.

The message was followed by a commotion from inside the elevator.

Twelve people had become nine.

Even Branded Elves found it difficult to keep their spirits up in this situation.

No Mana or anything else could be sensed from that elevator.

Silence hung in the air.

Tyr was the first to speak.

"Let's continue the exploration."

"After seeing that, you can still say that!? Fuck, the second those doors closed, they ended up like that without anyone even noticing!!"

"R-right. Three people died in an instant! We don't even know why! I-I'm not getting in there, even if I die. No, I absolutely can't!"

Their usual cruelty was gone.

They trembled like frightened sheep.

Tyr let out a quiet sigh.

She was afraid too.

But.

"We'll die either way if we stay here."

"..."

"Water and food are limited. We don't have Escape Scrolls, either. You all came here hoping to strike it rich, didn't you? Didn't you come prepared to risk your lives? This is a chance to change your lives. Did you think you could get the Magic Stone easily without making any sacrifices?"

They truly had nowhere to go.

Of course, Tyr was an exception since she had an Escape Scroll.

Still, she acted as though she were in the same position as the others.

To obtain the Magic Stone, she had to get these cowards moving somehow.

"That is the way of the world. Every undertaking carries risk. Don't we, who have made crime our livelihood, understand that better than anyone?"

Tyr argued that if they were going to die anyway, they would be better off pressing forward and dying.

"Everyone is afraid. I am too. This isn't a situation where we can force anyone to sacrifice themselves. So let's do this."

Branded Elves had no such thing as cooperation or camaraderie.

Their own lives mattered most to them.

That was why they had been expelled from their territories and ended up in the Forest of Life.

From experience, Tyr knew teamwork could fall apart in an instant under these circumstances.

If she was not careful, things could turn ugly.

She had to take control somehow.

Tyr laid out a plan.

"We are currently standing in a straight corridor. According to dungeon experts, every path in a dungeon must lead somewhere and can never be blocked off. That means we need to figure out what that suspicious device is. Including me, there are nine of us. Let's draw lots fairly and select one person to investigate it. They can report what is happening inside through communication magic. What do you think?"

Tyr's suggestion was reasonable.

The odds were one in nine. About eleven percent.

Someone would be picked.

But the lower the odds became, the fewer people believed they would be the one chosen.

Tyr thought this was the best option.

Everyone nodded in agreement.

The drawing selected a sacrifice.

It was Ray, the youngest member of the Branded Elf expedition and the leader of Squad Four.

Ray wanted to run away.

There was nowhere to run.

Ray had to move forward, even if forced to.

『The doors are closing.』

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"Can you hear us?"

-Yes.

"How is it in there?"

-It smells like blood, there is dried blood stuck to the buttons, and there are bodies on the floor, ugh...

"Not the scenery. What's the situation?"

-Other than not being able to open the doors, nothing is unusual.

"...Is it safe as long as there's only one person inside?"

Tyr stroked her chin.

Ray was trapped inside, but at least had not been killed the moment the doors closed.

She wrote the information down in her notebook.

It was unfortunate that she had the most magical knowledge among the group.

There was a limit to what she could do with the half-baked magic she had stopped studying.

It would have been nice if she could share Ray's vision.

"You said there are number buttons, right?"

-Yes.

"One through ten?"

-Yes, but I'm really scared. Can't you open the doors from outside?

"Unfortunately, there is currently no way to open them."

That was not a lie.

There were no buttons on the outside.

"Would you press one of the number buttons?"

-Let me prepare myself for a moment. Hoo... Yes, which one should I press?

"It says one right now, doesn't it? Inside too?"

-Yes.

"Press two."

There was a display inside the elevator as well.

Since it showed the same number as the display outside, they were likely connected.

-I feel weightless. My body is going up. Ah, ah, ah!? It suddenly said, "S-s-s-second floor!" and the doors opened!

"The second floor, and the doors opened...?"

According to the results of her Detection Magic, the dungeon was not very tall.

There should not have been any place that could be called a second floor.

Tyr used magic again.

Just like before, she could not sense Ray's Mana anywhere in the dungeon.

"What can you see?"

-I can see a pitch-black hallway. There are no lights at all, so I can barely see around me with the light from this device. Uh, I'll step outside for now!!

"Wait..."

It had been an enclosed, stifling space.

The moment the doors opened, Ray must have felt liberated.

Before Tyr could stop Ray, Ray had already stepped outside the elevator.

"Haah."

Even after seeing what happened earlier, Ray was this careless.

Tyr felt frustrated, but continued speaking.

"Ray, how is it?"

Silence.

Had something happened?

"Ray? Ray?"

She urgently called Ray's name.

There was no response.

A moment later.

-Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!

-Don't come any closer!! Don't come any closer!! Don'────

The communication cut off with that scream.

『The doors are opening.』

What Tyr and the others saw was Ray's shriveled corpse atop chunks of flesh.

* * *

Day 2 of dungeon exploration.

"..."

Nine people had become eight.

The mood could not have been more dismal.

No one could swallow their food properly.

The Branded Elves watched each other cautiously.

Four had already died.

All in a single day.

One-third of the expedition was gone.

Morale had hit rock bottom.

'It wasn't even this bad when we got caught by the East Kingdom knights and got our asses kicked.'

Tyr scratched her arm raw.

No matter how bad things were.

Telling them to continue exploring now was no different from telling them to commit suicide.

"I heard the barbarians in the northern part of the continent rape other men."

"What?"

"They have a custom where men must take responsibility if they get a woman pregnant, so when they win a war, they fuck men instead of women."

"That's insane."

Should they rest for today?

Everyone needed time to recover.

"If you were a barbarian, Stings, you would have had a lot of wives."

"Other than one, the bitches I've fucked were sickly, smelly whores, so I don't know about that."

"Are frail little beauties your type?"

"I don't know about little beauties, but I'll take responsibility. Will you let me fuck you?"

"Sorry, but men living at the bottom of the barrel aren't my type."

Tyr kept the mood in check with pointless chatter.

* * *

2. Avoid corridors without lights.

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Day 3 of dungeon exploration.

They could not stay still forever.

Tyr was not the only one who thought so.

The other Branded Elves felt the same way.

"Should we draw lots now?"

This time, it was not Tyr.

Stings raised a hand and spoke.

Everyone nodded.

"If I get picked, I get picked."

"We've all been prepared to die since we were branded. Why are you all trembling now?"

Fortunately, no one objected.

They drew lots again.

The odds were one in eight. About twelve percent.

"Ah..."

Tyr was chosen.

Fuck.

There was an old saying that the person who suggested it was always the one who got picked.

It seemed that saying was true.

She looked around at the others.

It was too late to back out.

Then Stings snatched the slip of paper from Tyr's hand.

"If I make it back alive, let's do it here."

"Do what?"

"Fuck, obviously."

Tyr blinked.

"I'm not a frail little beauty."

"You are a little beauty."

"Are you sure you won't regret it?"

"Men live for fucking and die fucking."

Stings laughed heartily.

Tyr scratched her cheek.

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"Can you see anything?"

-I see a pitch-black hallway. Hmm.

"Ray said they could only see a hallway, but there could be something there. Go outside and check."

-All right. If I find anything strange, I'll tell you right away.

Ray had been weak.

Probably the weakest Branded Elf here.

Stings, on the other hand, was strong.

Stings was foolish and naive, but physically imposing.

That was why Tyr decided to test it.

Could Stings defeat whatever was in that pitch-black hallway?

There was a high chance Stings would die.

Still, it was worth trying because it connected to another space.

Only Tyr knew how Ray had died.

She was also the only one who knew magic.

No one would suspect what she was doing.

-Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh───!

'I'll put unlit corridors lower on the list and investigate the other floors first.'

Tyr wrote down the new discovery in her notebook.

* * *

"Huh."

That Branded Elf bitch is one nasty piece of work.

Footnotes:

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