WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Dionysus
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◈ The Wizard's Memoir ◈
Chapter 13: Purpose
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Olivia's party was quiet for once.
Etran was usually calm, and Rolf only spoke when necessary, so this meant the warrior and the seeker had fallen silent. They advanced toward the end of the mine tunnel with only their breathing, footsteps, and clinking armor breaking the silence.
One unusual thing was that Olivia had drawn an estoc. The low ceiling and narrow walls left little room to swing a mace. Clearly, the plan was to jab at anything approaching with the long, pointed sword before it could get close. That preparation soon paid off.
"Here they come."
Olivia pulled the round shield close and rested the estoc on top. It looked like a small version of an ancient heavy infantry formation. Naturally, the monster fairy charging straight at it played the part of the "barbarian."
"Get down."
Rolf spoke while aiming the crossbow. Olivia crouched even lower, while Dahlia dropped flat on the ground. Twang! The string snapped forward, scattering dust like mist.
The spriggans appearing at the end of the tunnel were smaller than humans and slightly larger than halflings. Since they could change their size at will, they had chosen the best size for the situation. They were clever, but not wise.
A quarrel struck one and brought it down. With its body so small, the wound was fatal. But there was another monster fairy. The slightly smaller creature leaped over its friend's corpse and kept charging. What made them so angry? Even in that tense moment, Etran felt curious.
Thud!
Olivia stopped the spriggan with sword and shield. The warrior had held firm even when these creatures attacked at the size of bears. Now that it was smaller, there was no chance it could win through strength. Olivia deflected the force of the impact while driving the blade in and twisting it.
"They just won't give up."
This was the fourth attack. Spriggans had kept appearing ever since the party descended the vertical shaft.
Olivia pulled the sword from the corpse and retrieved the quarrel. One small mercy was that the creatures returned to their original size after death. At least there was less risk of corpses blocking the tunnel.
"It wasn't like this last time. Were there always this many?"
"Could the adventurers from Northern Ridge have done something?" Etran suggested.
They might have set off a trap or run away with some treasure. Olivia took the lead again.
"We'll find out if we find a survivor."
Those words expressed both certainty that the Northern Ridge party had fallen apart and hope that someone was still alive.
The tunnel, which the fighting had made seem unusually long, finally ended. Etran let out a long sigh once there was room to move. But this place was by no means safer than the tunnel.
"What was this place even used for?"
The dungeons of the ancient kingdom dated back a thousand years. Some were tombs and storehouses built underground from the start, while others were castles and towers that had once stood aboveground before being buried.
"See? This is why we need a scholar."
The curious halfling regretted their lack of information. But the sword wielder and the crossbow wielder pretended not to hear. Neither wanted to give someone a share of the treasure in exchange for old stories. What mattered was material wealth they could hold in their hands.
"It splits into two paths."
"This way."
Dahlia chose the route. Finding traces of the first humans to visit in a thousand years wasn't particularly difficult. Etran formed a fresh Light Orb and sent it floating high overhead, and Olivia led the way. The tension rose again.
The deeper they went, the cleaner their surroundings became. Dust and mold were unavoidable, but the building itself was very well preserved. After perhaps three minutes of slow walking, Dahlia discovered another structure. Following a brief inspection, the seeker announced proudly:
"Here's the entrance."
Earth and rocks blocked it, making it impossible to enter or leave, but its structure showed that it was the main entrance to the outside. Olivia showed great relief, and Rolf showed just a little. The inexperienced Etran looked at the more seasoned adventurers in confusion.
"What's wrong?"
"That means this was originally the ground floor."
"Right?"
"Then we probably won't have to explore very far down."
Etran tilted their head, then understood a moment later. The party had descended through the mine tunnel from above. In other words, this was the dungeon's top floor.
If there were no main entrance here, they wouldn't know which floor they were on, but there would certainly be lower floors. Their exploration would inevitably take longer. Of course, there could still be a basement. Even so, that would be much easier than exploring all the way from an upper floor aboveground down to the underground levels.
"I see..."
Satisfied with this new piece of practical knowledge, Etran felt glad to have become an adventurer.
"Let's keep moving before another fairy or monster jumps out."
Wasn't there a saying that good luck and bad luck traveled in packs? Before long, they found something new. It was broken glass, something that didn't belong in a dungeon of the ancient kingdom.
"The alchemist?"
"Probably."
Glass bottles were expensive luxuries. Adventurers who picked up even arrowheads to reuse them would never deliberately smash a glass bottle. It was evidence that something urgent had happened here.
"There are tracks."
"...Follow them."
With Etran's Light Orb and Dahlia's keen eyes, following the trail was easy. They tracked it carefully, one drop of blood and one shard of glass at a time, until they found another clue.
"Urgh...!"
Etran quickly covered their mouth, nearly retching. Even Rolf, who had seen every imaginable horror on the battlefield, grimaced. The normally cheerful halfling Dahlia summed it up in a few words.
"Th-they're flat."
It brought to mind a cat crushed beneath a wagon wheel in childhood. That had been a shock, but not nearly as bad as this. A person had been squashed like that cat.
"It's the warrior."
"Me?"
"...The warrior from Northern Ridge. One of the adventurers we're looking for."
Olivia's expression grew grave. If the tank who protected the party had ended up like this, they were dealing with a monster of overwhelming physical strength. Yet Olivia couldn't bring themself to suggest retreating. It would hurt both pride and conscience.
"The warrior might have bought enough time for everyone else to escape."
"An alchemist, an archer, and a seeker, right? Then there's a chance."
Those professions had plenty of tricks, so their chances of survival couldn't be dismissed. But that hope lasted less than ten minutes. Dahlia found another clue: a broken bow and a severed leg.
"...Damn it."
Most of the blood had dried by now, but judging by the area it had stained, survival was unlikely. Rolf examined the leg, which presumably belonged to the archer, and muttered:
"Strange."
"What is?"
"This wasn't cut off with a sword or an axe. It looks more like it was torn off."
That was even more chilling.
"Come to think of it, the spriggans didn't use tools."
"Could they even do something like this in the first place?"
"They were pretty strong, but..."
Olivia, who had grappled with the spriggans, considered it carefully. As long as they were made of flesh and blood, it seemed unlikely.
"Then there must be another monster here."
"Most likely a boss monster."
The Northern Ridge party hadn't been a complete failure. After all, they had managed to draw out the dungeon's master.
"Let's recover the remains later. We need to find the seeker and the alchemist."
In a situation like this, it seemed likely that everyone was dead, but they still had to check. Adventurers couldn't avoid adventure. They would have to hunt the boss anyway, so they pressed on. That stubborn belief proved worthwhile.
'Ugh... Uhhh...'
Dahlia's pointed ears stood straight up. Then they twitched a couple of times, as if searching for something. Someone was groaning.
"Someone's alive!"
"Really?"
Olivia's party hurried toward the sound.
They turned from a large corridor into a smaller one and reached an even smaller storeroom whose original purpose was impossible to guess. Now even human ears could clearly hear the sound.
"Urrgh..."
"Just hold on!"
Etran tried to open the door, but Dahlia stopped them.
"It might be a trap."
"There's no time! Leave it to me!"
Olivia stopped Dahlia in turn. Covering their face to withstand any booby trap, the warrior kicked the door with all their strength. Crack! The relic of the old kingdom split in two. It was a fearless act, but the others weren't impressed.
"It wasn't locked..."
"Use your hands next time."
The urgent situation kept the scolding brief. Etran rushed inside and sent the Light Orb high into the air. There was one injured person in the narrow room. It was the alchemist Etran had noticed in the mining village.
"Are you all right? Are you safe?"
It was like saying "Good morning" on a rainy day. A polite person might return the greeting despite the foul weather, but the alchemist was clearly neither all right nor safe, so they simply didn't answer.
"You... already...?"
The alchemist was in terrible shape. Their right arm had been crushed beyond saving, while both feet had swollen to about twice their normal size. The bones had broken and inflammation had set in.
Olivia drew a dagger and cut open the alchemist's top. There was a large bruise on their chest too, and its color was alarming. Ribs were broken, and internal organs were damaged. It was a miracle they were still alive.
"What got you? Was it the spriggans?"
"No... No, it wasn't. Please be careful..."
Just then, Dahlia's ears twitched. Thud. Thuuud. The sounds approached. It was similar to what had happened at the Shadow Castle Ruins, but the situation was completely reversed. This time, something was coming toward them, and the sound was clearly metallic.
"Ollie, we have to leave."
"Wait a moment. We need to take this one with us."
"There's no time for that. We have to go right now. Something very, very bad is..."
Thud!
The ground shook somewhere very close by. Every member of Olivia's party froze. The vibrations in the air conveyed an overwhelming sense of weight. As Rolf gathered the courage to find out what it was, the alchemist gave them the answer with surprising ease.
"...It's a golem."
@
To add to the alchemist's explanation, it was a copper golem.
It had awakened when they sprinkled blood on a copper statue they found in the heart of the dungeon. They had guessed that doing so might be the condition for clearing the dungeon, but they had never imagined that the statue itself was the boss monster.
"A copper golem in a copper mine? That's so predictable!"
"You didn't predict it..."
"Get down!"
Rolf threw aside the crossbow and demonstrated. Olivia grabbed the alchemist, Dahlia grabbed Etran, and both quickly followed suit.
Craaaash!
A fist that looked about four feet across (roughly 1.2 meters) came through the already broken door, reducing it to splinters. A moment slower and they would have been crushed to a bloody pulp.
"Damn it! We have to get out!"
"Etran! Make us a way out!"
Etran was the youngest and least experienced, but the genius's magic was all they could rely on. Etran immediately began casting and created a Floating Disc.
More time would have been welcome, but their opponent wasn't a gentleman. The copper arm withdrew from deep inside the room. A second attack would be difficult to dodge. Etran sent out Floating Discs in rapid succession and shouted:
"Now!"
They were less effective than true defensive magic, such as spells that made the body as hard as steel, but they could serve as a makeshift defense. The discs deflected the golem's fist at an angle, sending it up into the ceiling. Rrrumble! Crash!
Stone dust rained down on their heads. Their skin prickled with fear. But no one despaired or gave up. Humans and halfling alike ran as hard as they could beneath the golem's arm. At least they had accomplished one objective.
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