The Dungeon Gallery's Terrifying Newbie - Chapter 47

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Ceaseless

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ The Dungeon Gallery's Terrifying Newbie ◈

Chapter 47: Dwarf (4)

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Chase diligently wrote down all the information uncovered so far.

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Dreamland could manipulate key information about the dungeon.

Still, the scope of that manipulation seemed limited to writing and pictures.

Before beginning the fifth Dungeon Raid, I decided to interpret throwing away a rotten apple as meaning:

"It is true that you must never go into an unlit corridor."

I assigned meanings to the other items in the same way.

Throwing away an item meant the information was true.

Returning with an item meant it was false.

The beard-trimming scissors and rotten apple were gone.

The dagger and rope remained.

That meant the information in the journal, "The Elevator can hold multiple people," and "You must fight an Insect Human," was false.

At last, there had been some progress.

Dreamland couldn't interfere with bringing items back.

Still, it wasn't an efficient method.

Even if we could uncover a lie, the information was limited, so we couldn't immediately connect it to the truth.

Escape Scrolls were expensive.

And every time they entered, quite a few Dwarves lost their lives.

There was no point in doing anything other than exploring as many areas as possible at once.

Gather as much information as possible, then determine whether it was true or false.

Once false information was identified, leave the rest to the explorers.

That was the strategy I had come up with for raiding Dreamland.

────

Creak.

The door opened.

Chase stopped writing.

When he turned around, Goldhand entered the room.

It was uncommon for the mayor to visit his aide's office.

Chase blinked.

Was there some urgent matter?

"Chase. I think it's best if we stop the Dungeon Raid here."

"What do you mean...?"

"We can't gather any volunteers. Understandably so, considering more than forty Dwarves have died so far. It seems the soldiers have begun to view the raid itself as something ominous."

Chase's brow twitched.

What kind of bolt from the blue was this?

"We still have three Escape Scrolls left. Please look at this. I've come up with a strategy for how we should proceed, how we can break through. All that's left is the Dungeon Raid itself."

"Yes. You've worked very hard. But no matter how I look at it, Dreamland is a dangerous place. Losing memories is bad enough, but the fact that information can be manipulated too..."

Chase abruptly rose from his seat.

"Mayor. The Magic Stone is right in front of us."

"..."

"You know better than anyone how valuable a Magic Stone is."

The North Kingdom traded with Fire Forge.

The reason they had built such a powerful faction despite living in barren, unforgiving lands was because they had obtained a large number of Magic Stones in the past.

"Of course, Dreamland's Magic Stone may not be that large. But even if it's only as large as a pebble on the roadside, the profit will be great enough to make every sacrifice so far seem insignificant."

Dreamland was, of course, a new dungeon.

There was a saying that Magic Stones were proportional to a dungeon's scale, so the result might be disappointing.

Even so, it undoubtedly had value.

Value worth spending lives and Escape Scrolls to obtain.

That was what a Magic Stone was.

Goldhand did not deny it.

"Please reconsider. Just once."

Silence fell.

Then Goldhand spoke.

"There are three Escape Scrolls left. Can you conquer it within those three?"

Chase nodded without hesitation.

Dwarves were a brave race that obeyed their leader, but that didn't mean their lives weren't precious.

The response to recruiting the sixth raid party was lukewarm.

There had been no results.

What use was a place that could make them rich overnight if they died?

They had not shown any meaningful progress so far.

The prevailing opinion was that future explorations might be just as worthless.

Risking one's life for something worthless was no different from suicide.

Most Dwarves likely thought that way.

Goldhand had not suggested giving up on the raid for no reason.

Of course, someone in Chase's position as an aide could force people to come along.

But...

Morale was important in matters like this.

More than anything, Chase couldn't force fellow Dwarves who didn't want to enter the dungeon to die.

'Do I have no choice but to promise compensation and hire mercenaries?'

In the end, Chase had no choice but to settle for the next best option.

Rather than bring Dwarves whose morale had been broken, it would be better to hire human mercenaries.

Chase disguised his identity.

Chaide, a greedy Dwarf expelled from the city, became his new identity.

If Goldhand's aide from Fire Forge proposed a Dungeon Raid to a mercenary company, they would undoubtedly refuse.

It wasn't that Fire Forge's Dwarves had a bad relationship with humans.

But they would surely become suspicious. Why hire human mercenaries for a dungeon with an entry limit when Fire Forge had its own army?

Chase went to a mercenary company stationed in a North Kingdom territory with relatively little contact with Fire Forge, somewhere news was unlikely to reach.

"It's a new dungeon! You don't need to worry! I'm the only one who knows where it is. The Dwarves of Fire Forge probably have no idea. It's near the city, but it's in a snowy mountain crawling with vicious monsters. I guarantee it."

"Oh? That's an interesting offer. A fortune overnight, turning your life around... I believe any man should challenge something like that at least once. Fine, let's give it a shot."

Hiring the mercenary company was easy.

The moment they heard the words Magic Stone, greed filled the mercenaries' eyes.

The fact that it was a new dungeon was certainly appealing.

Still, the biggest reason was Chase's gift for talking up how easy it was to raid a new dungeon like a con artist.

'I can't trust these mercenaries completely, but this is the best option.'

Chase prepared supplies.

Then he headed to Dreamland's entrance with the mercenary company.

'This time, I'll bring back as much information as possible. It doesn't matter if it's manipulated information. It will become the foundation for the next exploration.'

And so, the sixth Dreamland Dungeon Raid began.

【Sixth Raid Results】

【Author: Chase】

Number of entrants: 12

Exploration results: 11 dead, Chase survived, 1 Escape Scroll used.

▼ I

No gains.

Chase blinked.

When he came to his senses, he was standing in front of the dungeon.

Snow fell from the sky when he looked up.

His breath, exhaled like acrid tobacco smoke, vanished in an instant.

It felt like waking from a long sleep.

He had clearly stepped into the dungeon with the mercenary company just moments ago.

"Did I escape?"

This was already the third time.

Still, losing memories was an unpleasant feeling.

"I obviously used a scroll, and my belongings..."

Chase patted himself down.

Things that should have been there were gone.

He looked around.

They were nowhere to be seen.

He would never have let his backpack leave his body.

He must have guarded it as dearly as his own life.

Without the backpack, it was all meaningless.

He had lost everything, from food, water, and exploration tools to the vital information they had gathered.

Had something happened inside?

"..."

That wasn't all.

His carefully groomed beard was gone, and his body bore traces of a struggle.

There were scars that looked like stab and slash wounds, along with bruises from being beaten.

The pain throughout his body was real, not an illusion.

'Did I have a conflict with the mercenaries? Was it a trap? A Minion? Why didn't I return with my backpack?'

There was no way to know without his memories.

The journal had been left inside the dungeon.

Chase felt miserable.

He had used an Escape Scroll without gaining anything.

Only two scrolls remained.

His dream of conquering Dreamland was drifting further and further away.

'Would it be better to give up...?'

Life was precious.

Thinking rationally, it was obviously right to stop.

"..."

They said incomprehensible phenomena made living creatures afraid.

Fear was a survival instinct.

A kind of defense mechanism that made living things flee from predators.

Avoiding it was normal.

But since there was a saying that curiosity killed the cat, perhaps curiosity was the only thing that could overcome fear.

Why didn't he want to let this go?

Why did he want to see the end of this dungeon so badly?

Chase's heart pounded.

Had he gone mad, or had he always been this kind of person?

He didn't know.

For now, he just wanted to entrust himself to his feelings.

He walked backward until Dreamland disappeared from view.

His return to Fire Forge was surely irrational.

* * *

This Wave had been successfully defended too.

Now there was only one Dwarf, and the rest were humans.

More than forty Dwarves had already died.

Just as Veteran said, it looked like people really weren't gathering anymore.

The Dwarf who brought the humans had entered three times already.

His name was Chase, right?

Last time, he had nearly been assassinated in his sleep by one of his subordinates. He got lucky again this time.

Considering he barely managed to get an Escape Scroll before dying, he had to be someone beloved by the heavens.

I looked at the final page of the journal Chase had left behind.

NevercomeinNevercomeinNevercomeinNevercomeinNevercomeinNevercomeinNevercomeinNevercomeinNevercomeinNevercomeinNevercomeinNevercomeinNevercomeinNevercomeinNevercomeinNevercomeinNevercomeinNevercomeinNevercomeinNevercomeinNevercomeinNevercomeinNevercomeinNevercomeinNevercomeinNevercomeinNevercomeinNevercomeinNevercomeinNevercomeinNevercomeinNevercomeinNevercomeinNevercomeinNevercomeinNevercomeinNevercomeinNevercomeinNevercomeinNevercomeinNevercomeinNevercomein...

...

I took a screenshot and uploaded it to the Gallery.

humanluvr was the first to comment.

humanluvr: S-s-scary... Is that a journal left behind by an intruder??

└ newbie: I'm a very scary newbie~

└ humanluvr: Newbie's scaaaary T_T

└ newbie: But I'm curious about something.

└ newbie: Is that bastard going to come back in?

└ newbie: The journal disappeared this time too...

└ newbie: Personally, I hope he doesn't come back.

└ newbie: Though if he does, I won't go easy on him...

└ humanluvr: He doesn't remember being terrified, so he'll probably come back in??