WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Ceaseless
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Dungeon Gallery's Terrifying Newbie ◈
Chapter 27: Julius (3)
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op_ghost: He's holding out better than I expected?? Is he finally moving on to the next area??
└ sealedphilo: Hmm... A more troublesome opponent than expected may have entered...
└ sealedconq: It's not like he has infinite Escape Scrolls... But that bastard Julius really thinks like a demon, so he might bring in human slaves or something to experiment on them, yeah.
└ whaleyeah: He's the kind of bastard who thinks Escape Scrolls >>>>>> human lives, so in a way, he's perfectly suited for newbie's dungeon, yeah...
└ golemking: Julius has more guts than I thought. He must have Escape Scrolls too... Think he'll actually break through to the other areas later?
└ dip: Are you newbie? Getting your ass kicked by some pointy-ear? LOL
└ golemking: Haah, this fucking bastard is picking a fight again...
└ dip: LOL
└ golemking: @dip Where do you live, you bastard? Want me to snap every bone in your body into little pieces??
└ dip: Even if I told you, could you come over? You pathetic loser?
└ golemking: You're seriously dead.
└ antqueen: Stop fighting, have sex, and lay eggs ;;
└ antqueen: Honestly, it's a little scary that information about newbie's dungeon could get out...
└ skullbones: If it gets out, they might make something like a rulebook, which could negatively affect the next Wave, so... Hm...
└ magichero: D-d-d-don't overreact... Twenty-three people have died so far, and they still couldn't even get past the entrance...
└ Night Raven: Wow... Seeing the number laid out like this, I can see how it might feel unfair to someone who doesn't know anything...
└ tvhead: Yeah, they've only just gotten through the entrance.
└ orange★: From what I can tell, Julius probably only has about two Escape Scrolls left. It's not like he'd enter without them, so if newbie stops him twice, newbie wins. Some information getting out can't be helped... Supplies come in well enough anyway, and newbie can expand by that much later.
└ orange★: So how's it going?
└ no_minions_4_me: It isn't dangerous, right?
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I chewed on a strip of jerky.
I appreciated the concern, but... well.
└ newbie: It's fine, it's fine. Just watch.
I was certain Julius wouldn't make it back alive.
"Hmm."
Still, nothing was absolute.
Could there be about a five percent chance that Julius returned alive?
└ humanluvr: New-bie-yam!
└ newbie: Why???
└ humanluvr: I think I might've fallen for you just now T_T
└ newbie: Eeeeeek
* * *
6. The Elevator Likes Numbers
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Through the sacrifices of Julius's companions, Julius had learned how not to die in the device.
That left only one thing: using the device to move on to the next area.
Compared to the first task, the second was quite easy.
As long as they followed the rules, they could explore the device freely.
The only part they could touch was the set of numbered buttons, from 1 to 10.
The answer had to lie there.
Whenever they pressed a number button, an announcement told them they were going up or down. Then came a feeling of weightlessness or the sensation of falling.
Afterward, they heard that the floor had changed. When the doors opened, a dark corridor came into view.
Every floor from the first to the tenth had a dark corridor.
Julius looked at the elevator display.
It clearly read 1.
Even so, pressing the first-floor button did not lead to the corridor where they were currently standing.
It led to a dark corridor, the fake first floor.
"..."
They had three chances in total to press buttons on the device.
In other words, they could change floors up to three times in a single cycle.
After that, they returned to this corridor.
From now on, Julius would call this process a cycle.
During a cycle, they always encountered dark corridors and occasionally encountered an Insect Human.
Julius thought.
Why did pressing the first-floor button take them to a fake first floor instead of here?
Why did cycles exist at all?
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"...Wait."
Julius put down a water bottle.
After wiping their mouth on their sleeve, Julius abruptly rose to their feet.
"Elder, what's wrong?"
Madeleine, who had changed pants, asked.
"It feels like a safe."
"A safe?"
"What if it's a reset?"
"A reset?"
Madeleine stared blankly at Julius.
Julius sighed, looking exasperated.
"This dungeon has absolute rules. If we uncover and follow them, it won't harm us. You know that much, don't you?"
"How could I not? I nearly died just a moment ago."
"Then there must be a rule for using this device to reach another area as well, right? Since it's a Passage?"
Madeleine nodded.
"We have three chances to operate this device in one cycle. Then we return to the original location. I don't think that's a meaningless phenomenon."
Every floor from the first to the tenth had a dark corridor.
It was probably a place where something even Julius could not defeat lurked.
Dreamland was not the sort of dungeon they could break through by smashing their way forward like a normal dungeon.
Dreamland stood at the opposite end of the spectrum from other dungeons.
It was a place governed by laws different from those of the world they lived in.
Trying to solve things with magic and brute force led straight to death.
They could never try to understand it through an intruder's common sense.
If they wanted to steal the Magic Stone from this place, they first needed to understand it.
"If clearing the dark corridors isn't the answer... then here's what I think."
A cycle worked as follows.
They pressed a number button.
The floor changed along with the announcement that they were moving.
Then they repeated that twice more.
Julius insisted they needed to focus on the fact that they could press number buttons up to three times.
Since they could not find a floor that led to another area, their only option was simple.
They had to press a particular combination of numbers within a cycle.
Just like entering a combination to open a safe.
Of course, they could not move from the same floor to that same floor.
Those cases were excluded.
"For example, 234 or 345... Put simply, Elder, you're saying that pressing numbers on the device isn't moving between floors. It's entering a combination?"
"That's right."
Of course, Julius could be wrong.
But it was worth trying.
The other two nodded as well.
They had already learned a great deal about the device.
There might still be rules they had not uncovered.
But they were no longer as afraid as before.
Assuming Julius was right, if there was a three-digit combination that led to the next area, there were around 810 possible combinations.
It was manageable.
As long as an Insect Human did not suddenly appear and lick their face with its antennae, it was completely manageable.
* * *
Day 6 of dungeon exploration.
Madeleine complained about having to keep entering the device.
But Madeleine had gotten used to the Insect Human by then.
Someone else might die pointlessly if they went in.
And they could not exactly tell Julius to do it.
"Fucking elf life."
With no other choice, Madeleine pressed the buttons.
Starting with the ones digit.
10 9 1.
10 9 2.
Then came the tens digit.
One by one.
10 8 1.
10 8 2.
Once every tens digit had been tried, Madeleine changed the hundreds digit and started again.
9 10 1.
9 10 2.
The tedious hours repeated.
* * *
Day 7 of dungeon exploration.
Madeleine sighed.
At first, the Insect Human had been utterly terrifying.
Now, he could say he had gotten used to it.
If told to kiss one, he could close his eyes and do it.
-Nothing unusual, right?
"Of course not. Nothing unusual."
Today, he pressed the buttons again.
Then.
4 3 1.
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4 3 10.
The moment he entered that particular combination, the elevator shook.
Clunk!
Then, as though it were plunging at high speed, Madeleine's body became light, with the sensation of floating upward.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!"
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"Madeleine? Madeleine?"
Julius urgently called Madeleine's name.
For a moment, Julius wondered whether Madeleine had died.
-I can hear you. I'm alive.
Five minutes later, as though the scream had been nothing, Madeleine spoke calmly.
"This is absurd."
-Elder. I think I've crossed into the next area.
"What do you see?"
-I can see a corridor and rooms. There are signs in front of the room doors with things like 2-2 and 2-3 written on them. I don't see anything else in particular. At least, I think it's safe here.
Julius immediately used Detection Magic.
Madeleine was telling the truth.
Madeleine had moved into Area 2, which lay beyond a long Passage.
'But.'
Area 2 had clearly been an empty space.
Now, it was different.
There was a long corridor, countless rooms connected to it, and floors and stairs that had suddenly appeared.
It looked like the inside of a massive building.
Was Dreamland's Dungeon Master some kind of god?
What sort of magic was this?
Julius considered whether to use Communication Magic to make the subordinates work from afar or personally inspect Area 2.
'It'd still be better to see it for myself. If it's dangerous, I can use an Escape Scroll immediately.'
If Julius could see it firsthand, Julius should.
Entering Area 2 felt different from stepping into the device to investigate it.
"Go in. I'll follow."
"Understood."
Julius sent a subordinate in first.
Safety had to be confirmed several times before one could feel at ease.
-No problems.
Only then did Julius use the device to move into Area 2.
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Julius stared down the unnaturally quiet corridor.
An old poster clung half-torn to the wall.
The edges of the paper were ragged from moisture.
Windows stretched along the corridor.
Outside them was darkness.
That did not mean it was nighttime.
"..."
The outside was closer to a void where nothing existed.
There was no wind, no stars, no clouds.
The strange sight naturally sent chills down Julius's spine.
'The device isn't in sight.'
Julius used Detection Magic.
'Is the spawn location random?'
The subordinates who had entered first were nowhere in sight.
But they were not that far away.
'I should meet up with them first.'
Julius was about to start walking.
Then.
Tap, tap.
Someone tapped Julius's shoulder.
His expression stiffened.
Julius had just checked the positions of the subordinates.
Then who was this?
Julius wanted to use the Escape Scroll in his pocket immediately.
But after experiencing the elevator Anomaly, he could not act carelessly.
Dreamland was a place where people died before they could even react.
When Julius turned around, he swallowed hard.
A girl stood behind him.
She wore a yellow armband and had long, dark hair.
She wore a uniform like one an Academy student might wear.
But she had no eyes, nose, or mouth.
Her strange face resembled a peach-colored egg.
"Excuse me... You can't bring dangerous things like that into School."
School?
Dangerous things?
Julius took a deep breath and tried to remain as calm as possible.
One mistake and death.
One mistake and death.
One mistake and death.
"Give them to me."
The girl held out all eight arms.
"..."
Julius considered using an Escape Scroll and taking the risk.
But it was still too dangerous.
Based on the conversation with the girl, Julius inferred what needed to be done.
If she meant dangerous things, it had to be something among Julius's belongings.
Julius slowly held out the staff he was holding, and the girl snatched it away.
That was the right answer.
Yet she did not leave.
Apparently, the girl was greedy.
"Ha."
Julius let out a hollow laugh.
Julius finally understood.
That was why those bastard subordinates had not mentioned this phenomenon.
Starting with the weapons, Julius obediently handed over everything except the clothes he was wearing.
Then.
"I'll leave these in the Faculty Office, so pick them up yourself After School."
With that, the Faceless Girl leisurely walked away carrying Julius's belongings.
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"Those fucking bastards..."
The Escape Scroll had been taken.
Julius needed to retrieve it.
Footnotes:
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