WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Ceaseless

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◈ The Dungeon Gallery's Terrifying Newbie ◈

Chapter 39: Helper (5)

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16:10.

『♪─♪─♪』

『Ding-dong-daeng─♪dong-ding─♪』

『Ding-dong-daeng... daeng... daeng....』

『All classes have ended.』

『All students are requested to return home.』

『This is another announcement. All classes have ended. All students are to return home…….』

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After School.

Max's party finished investigating the fourth floor and arrived on the fifth.

School was over.

Beyond the windows lay a pitch-black void.

The only way to tell the time in this place was by the clock hanging on the wall.

They had investigated every floor from the first through the fourth.

Unfortunately, they had found nothing useful.

"Luka, is your arm all right...?"

"......"

So far, all the group had gained was thirst, hunger, fear, and pain.

Luka, whose arm had been completely wrecked, had sat out the investigation for a while.

The Faceless Teacher had only appeared around the afternoon.

Based on its cycle, they figured it would not show up again for some time.

They agreed to let Luka rest alone in a classroom while the others kept moving.

Max was injured as well, but compared to Luka, it was nothing.

As a Blessed One's companion, Max had a sturdy body to begin with.

This much was bearable.

"The Faceless Girl told us to come retrieve our belongings After School, right? Is this After School now?"

"Yeah."

"What is After School normally like at an Academy?"

Denrid fiddled with a dried, curled poster pinned to the hallway bulletin board.

The melancholy in Denrid's eyes made it seem like old memories had surfaced.

"Some students return to their dorms, some attend extra classes, some join club activities, and some play with friends on the field. Think of it as time for activities or rest outside regular classes."

"Then the chances of the hallways going dark are..."

"Low."

Denrid insisted that After School was when they could freely investigate the School.

If they split into pairs, it would take roughly thirty minutes to cover an entire floor.

Nobody knew how long After School would last.

Still, this would be more convenient and efficient than wandering around in ten-minute bursts.

"What are the chances another Minion shows up?"

"High."

Jack stared at Luka.

The injury seemed to be weighing on Jack's mind.

"So far, we've encountered two Minions, the Faceless Girl and the Faceless Teacher. We don't know exactly how to deal with either of them."

"Right."

Area 2 was quite large.

Because of its size, the odds of encountering a Minion were low to begin with.

They had not seen the girl or the teacher again after their first encounters.

Rather than assuming there were no other Minions, it would be better to think they had simply been lucky enough not to meet any yet.

"Let's keep investigating for now. It's the only option we have."

"Yeah."

"Sounds good."

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Max ran an index finger across the dust coating the hallway wall.

Looking at the finger, now stained black, Max let out a quiet sigh.

Regret was starting to creep in.

Maybe Dreamland had been taken too lightly.

'I should've used the Escape Scroll back then.'

You're too impatient. That was what Sinclair always said.

"Fuck."

Max was thirsty and hungry.

Max's arm stung, his head ached, and his vision was blurry. Mental exhaustion had clearly piled up too.

What should they do if they encountered the teacher again?

Fighting was impossible, and giving the right answer was impossible too.

As Denrid said, they would have to give a wrong answer anyway.

What if they met another Minion?

Could they find the Faculty Office?

What would they do after getting their belongings back?

Should they keep moving forward?

What about the transportation device? The next area?

Did they have enough food and water? Could they manage somehow?

Hopelessness crushed Max's dreams.

It kept Max from imagining a future where he took the Magic Stone to Sinclair as proof and got revenge.

"Fuck."

The shock must have been worse than expected, considering all these shitty thoughts kept coming up.

'I need to get a grip.'

"Max..."

A voice called out.

Max spun around with a shiver and saw Luka.

"If you're going to get in the way, go to the others."

"I'm scared of being alone... I won't get in your way."

As if Max's head did not already hurt badly enough.

Tch.

"If you can walk, do whatever you want."

"Thanks."

The two walked down the fifth-floor hallway.

Luka did not interfere with Max.

She simply followed quietly from behind.

Whenever the distance between them widened, she grimaced and hurried to catch up.

She really did not want to be alone.

Luka spoke up.

"Max. Is your arm okay?"

"You're asking me that?"

"Yours is broken too."

"It's none of your concern."

"...Sorry."

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18:00.

The investigation went smoothly.

They did not find the Faculty Office on the fifth, sixth, or seventh floors.

"Let's go up to the eighth floor."

-Let's do that.

Max climbed the stairs.

Luka was still silently following behind.

"Huh?"

Max's gaze shifted naturally to the ceiling.

The lights began flickering as if they were broken.

A flash of dread brushed over every sense.

Click.

At the sound of a button activating, every light in the School went out.

There was no sun, moon, or even a single star beyond the windows.

With every light source gone, the School was swallowed by complete darkness.

It was on a completely different level from the hallways darkening during class.

Nothing was visible.

"M-Max?"

"Luka. I'm right next to you. Hey, Denrid. Can you hear me? It's pitch-black in front of me, and I don't mean that figuratively."

-Yes, I can hear you. This is bad. I can somehow deal with it using magic on our side, but for Max's side...

"Neither Luka nor I can use magic. It's impossible."

-We'll head over there for now.

"At the stairs leading from the far-left seventh floor to the eighth. Hurry."

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Max waited for Denrid.

There was no other option.

Denrid was the only one in the group who could use magic.

With Denrid, they could investigate even in this darkness.

'Just like in any other dungeon, a mage is essential in this one.'

Without Denrid, their investigation would have been slower and the atmosphere would have been even worse.

Even Max, who rarely acknowledged others, keenly felt Denrid's value.

-Jack. What's wrong?

But then.

Had something happened?

Static crackled through the Communication Magic.

-Over there, um, yeah? What the hell is that? Huh!? It's coming this way!?

Denrid's voice sounded urgent.

Nothing could be seen, but it was obvious that the situation had gone very wrong.

"Hey, Denrid. What's going on?"

"Why are you suddenly acting like that...?"

"Something happened to Denrid and Jack. The Communication Magic cut out..."

Denrid's voice could no longer be heard.

Maybe they had encountered a Minion like the teacher or the girl.

Or perhaps a Jamming trap had activated.

All kinds of possibilities raced through Max's mind.

"......"

Hopefully it was not the worst possible outcome.

Max was anxious.

Of course he was.

What if the party's only mage died?

Communication Magic, detection, none of it could be used from now on.

Exploring the dungeon like that would be no different from Hell.

Denrid always came up with good ideas.

Denrid adapted quickly and had the brightest spirit among the gloomy group.

There was nothing Max could do in the darkness.

All Max could do was stand still and wait for the lights to come back on.

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20:00.

The lights turned on.

The School finally looked normal again.

Two whole hours had passed when Max checked the clock.

Whether that was fortunate or unfortunate, Max could not tell.

"Let's move for now. Jack and Denrid were heading from the seventh floor to the eighth too, so they should be nearby."

"Okay."

Joining up with the others came first.

Fortunately, Jack and Denrid were nearby.

Luka and Max hurried over to them.

But.

Something was wrong with Denrid.

Denrid was lying down.

Usually, Denrid talked a lot and liked looking after others.

Yet Denrid did not move even after the group arrived.

Denrid was clearly in a deep sleep.

"......"

Max checked Denrid's face.

Denrid had fallen asleep without closing his eyes.

Still.

It was hard to say Denrid's eyes were open, either.

Denrid did not have any eyes.

All that remained where they should have been was a reddish, dark abyss.

Something rolled across the floor.

Max looked over and saw Denrid's blue eyeballs rolling down the hallway.

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20:10.

"Denrid is dead."

"Yeah. Dead. But why did only Denrid die while you survived?"

"Stop snapping at me like that, Max."

"Answer the question. Why did you survive while Denrid died?"

"Are you saying Denrid died because of me?"

"Fuck, you obviously abandoned Denrid and ran! You're quick on your feet, and Denrid was a mage, so Denrid was slow! Don't you know how important a mage is right now!? You should've protected Denrid somehow!"

Max was furious.

To impatient Max, it looked as though a slum knife fighter had abandoned the mage and fled the moment things got dangerous.

"It was not a situation where I could do anything."

"Or were you just too busy saving your own skin?"

"If we're talking like that, there was nothing you could do while Luka was suffering either. That's how it felt."

"Ha. You low, petty bastard. So that's how you're going to be?"

"Hey, Max. I'm not trying to fight you. I was trying to explain that the situation forced my hand."

The hallway was in an uproar.

Max's enraged voice filled the space.

It was a vicious noise that numbed the mind.

Luka felt dizzy.

Her head throbbed.

Denrid's death.

The fact that she could no longer properly use her arm.

Drinking water and food.

Life from now on.

None of it mattered anymore.

She just wanted to escape this noise.

She already did not want to think about anything.

Luka staggered away from the group.

Whether Luka disappeared or not, Max and Jack's argument did not end.

She kept moving her exhausted legs until she could no longer hear the noise.

At some point, she looked out the window.

It was pitch-black.

Just like the reality looming before her.

Coming to this dungeon after being tempted by the Magic Stone had been a mistake.

If there was no way to undo that mistake, what choice did she have?

She wanted to live, but only Death awaited her.

Luka could not take her eyes off the window.

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Luka sighed.

She could not possibly take her own life.

Luka turned her head.

Only then did she notice the place behind her.

"What is this place...?"

She stopped for a moment, then took a step forward.

* * *

└ magichero: T-t-t-the mage, our one glimmer of hope, is dead lol...

└ Night Raven: Hell is ON from here... Except the Faculty Office is close by, which is a shame...

└ kongkong: Max said he had an Escape Scroll, right?? It sucks that the information will get out, but the EXP and Points will be sweet this time, yeah.

└ antqueen: Now I get why Sinclair cut Max off. If a bastard like that were my kid, I think I'd strangle him to death...

└ antqueen: You can tell without even seeing it. When things go well, Max takes all the credit, and when they go badly, Max immediately blames someone else lol.

└ no_minions_4_me: Disgusting. Just disgusting...

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The School's only drawback was that the Faculty Office's location was random.

It had been on the second floor during Julius's Wave, and this time it had spawned somewhere below the tenth floor too.

Why couldn't it just spawn on the eightieth floor?

Then I could wipe them all out, Escape Scroll or not. What a shame.

"They're lucky."

The School gets much harder from the second day onward.

That's when Minions begin appearing far more frequently.

"The Escape Scroll is the problem..."

Honestly, I considered the Wave defense guaranteed.

With Denrid, the mage, already dead, clearing it was impossible.

They surely knew that too.

The problem was that bastard Max taking the information and running.

Judging by the distance between the intruders and the Faculty Office, along with their exploration method, they would reach the Faculty Office without fail.

Max had an Escape Scroll.

Unfortunately, there was nothing I could do about it.

Even as a Dungeon Master beloved by Anomaly, there were clearly things beyond my reach.

I had already confirmed that during Julius's Wave.

I failed to steal the intruders' belongings in the Faculty Office.

"Well, I'll have to account for some losses."

I had 300,000 Points on hand.

If things went wrong, I could just create another area.

Oh, and for the record.

The place Luka was heading toward was the restroom.

Footnotes:

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