WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Dionysus

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◈ The Wizard's Memoir ◈

Chapter 2: Adventurer

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It was that uncertain season between spring and summer.

The mornings were chilly, but by afternoon, sweat would bead on your skin. A whole day of sunshine could suddenly give way to a shower. In its unpredictable ways, the weather was much like a beginner adventurer.

Etran followed the party of two.

The tavern keeper grumbled about them leaving as soon as they arrived, but didn't stop them. Adventurers were free to do as they pleased. Even a branch head had no authority to force them to stay. The keeper could have offered a warning disguised as advice, but Olivia and Dahlia were skilled Guild members, so even that was unnecessary. Meanwhile, something else had caught Etran off guard.

‘They were women.’

Not just Dahlia the halfling, but Olivia the warrior was also a young woman.

Her hair was short and her figure hidden beneath armor, but her slender face and light voice were clearly feminine.

A little attention would have made it obvious. Etran had probably failed to notice because female tanks were uncommon. Their job was to take the hits, and their build alone put them at a disadvantage.

Olivia mistook Etran's glances for nervousness and cheerfully tried to make conversation.

“Adventurers have three positions.”

“Tank. Support. Artillery.”

Etran answered without hesitation. This was basic knowledge for any adventurer. Olivia smiled and continued explaining.

“Warriors usually serve as tanks. We have to put our bodies in the way of danger, after all.”

Olivia showed Etran her armor and shield. Ordinary weapons would hardly leave a mark on equipment like that.

“Support isn't a particular profession. It means anyone who helps with exploration. Seekers, healers, trap specialists, archaeologists, and so on.”

Dahlia planted her hands on her hips and went, “Ahem!”

Halflings could see well at night and had sharp powers of observation, making them natural seekers.

“Artillery handles attacks, just as the name suggests. It's the most important position in combat.”

“Are mages support or artillery?”

“That depends on the party. In ours, you'd be both.”

Olivia scratched her cheek. She seemed embarrassed that their so-called party had only two members.

“Magic comes in all sorts of useful forms, right? Light up the area with Light Orb, and you're support. Rain down attacks with Homing Arrow, and you're artillery.”

That was why mages were so highly valued.

Olivia and Dahlia gave Etran meaningful looks, inviting a little boasting, but Etran ignored them without much interest. The warrior decided this was a modest mage. The seeker was certain this was a boring one.

@

Experience showed, whatever the field.

Skilled people seemed to act at random, yet followed a rhythm. They seemed careless, yet finished every task thoroughly. In that sense, Olivia was an experienced traveler and adventurer.

Her arms and legs swung loosely as she walked, but her stride stayed even. She slipped past puddles and jutting stones with practiced ease. By comparison, Etran was clearly a beginner. They hadn't even covered two miles, about three kilometers, before the soles of Etran's feet began to ache with fatigue.

“How much farther do we have to go?”

“We're almost there.”

Etran was glad the dungeon wasn't far away, but that was a mistake. Olivia called out, “We're almost there,” three more times. The distance between the first “almost” and the third “almost” accounted for seventy percent of the whole journey. She had been lying from the start.

“All that huffing and puffing over a mere six miles!”

“A mere six miles...?”

They had walked for two and a half hours without a break. By a mage's standards, it was a grueling forced march. Etran felt they could understand why the “old quack” who had once belonged to this party had left.

Still, thanks to that, they hadn't wasted the afternoon. They reached the site of Shadow Castle Ruins before sunset.

“Is this the dungeon?”

“Hm? No, no. These are just ruins.”

They stood at the edge of an old forest. Oaks and nutmeg yews made up most of the trees, suggesting a shade-tolerant forest that had reached maturity hundreds of years ago. The castle and village buried within it had to be far older.

“Traces of the ancient kingdom...”

Etran gazed with wonder at the heaps of stone beneath the massive trees.

They pictured the people who had lived here, laughing, crying, fighting, and loving in a past so distant that even its records had faded. All that remained were records that those records had once existed.

“We have to go farther to reach the castle ruins, but first, we need to get ready.”

“Get ready?”

Olivia took down her round shield, slipped her arm through it, and gripped the handle. She hadn't drawn a weapon, but anyone could see she was preparing for combat.

“Monsters come out of dungeons. Shocking secret, isn't it?”

“Hasn't this area already been explored?”

“Monsters are like weeds. Turn your back, and they've grown again.”

That was the difference between beasts and monsters. Monsters simply appeared around dungeons.

Countless scholars and mages had studied the cause, but no one had found a clear answer yet. The most convincing theory was that it was a divine curse laid during the days of the ancient kingdom.

Whatever the reason, they couldn't let their guard down near a dungeon. That was why they used a village six miles away as their base camp.

“Follow us, and be careful.”

Even if the monsters had respawned, there probably wouldn't be many, since the area had been explored several times. Still, Olivia didn't want the beginner adventurer getting careless and hurt, so she kept that part to herself.

Dahlia the seeker led the way, followed by Etran the mage, with Olivia the warrior bringing up the rear. It was a basic scouting formation. If monsters appeared, or hostile humans no better than monsters, they would reverse their positions.

“Once you can see the top of the castle tower, we're there.”

“There's a castle tower?”

“Maybe I should say the top of what used to be a castle tower? Just trust me and follow along.”

Dahlia strode ahead with confidence. Still, a halfling's stride wasn't very fast. Etran kept a tense watch on their surroundings, but at some point, that tension faded.

There was a reason this dungeon was called Shadow Castle Ruins. Trees more than twenty feet, about six meters, tall covered most of the castle in shade. The top of what had once been a tower was no exception.

Long ago, the fortress tower must have reached high into the sky. Rain and wind had cracked it, freezing and thawing had broken it, and it had toppled at an angle.

Ironically, the old trees that had swallowed the castle refused to let the aging tower rest. A great oak supported its base, keeping it from collapsing completely, while a small wisteria vine wound around its pillars and grew as though they were one body. It was a strange sight. A beautiful one, too.

Etran passed the tower that had become part of nature and entered a courtyard thick with weeds. The keep stood a short distance away.

The gate had collapsed long ago, and vines hid the windows from view. As Etran looked around, wondering where they would enter, Olivia tapped their shoulder.

“We're going down there.”

Olivia pointed to a corner of the courtyard. The raised wall meant to keep people from falling in had weathered, broken, and collapsed. The groundwater had dried up, leaving it empty, but its structure made it unmistakably a well.

“That's the entrance?”

“It's a secret passage leading to the keep's basement, as well as a natural cavern. At first, people only found the passage and thought it was a shortcut that would help them explore the fortress. But when they found a new cavern, it was classified as a separate dungeon.”

Etran studied the area around the well. Adventurers who had come before them had left a rope ladder and traces of campsites. This was where the real dungeon began, and the real adventure.

‘At last...’

Etran rubbed the copper ring. Perhaps that sight failed to inspire confidence. Olivia stopped Dahlia, who was gathering tinder, and called Etran over.

“Could we see some magic?”

Etran was young, not stupid. They understood that she wanted to check their ability before entering the dungeon.

“To use magic, you need a magic circle.”

“Those strange drawings, right?”

Olivia spoke with an air of familiarity. As an adventurer, she had seen plenty of mages. Etran gave a small nod and continued.

“In the old days, mages drew them with staffs. Even now, those known as magical scholars stick to the traditional method.”

“Right. That's true. There was a time when a mage meant someone with a staff...”

Dahlia the halfling murmured as though remembering the old days. Nobody mentioned that those days had been some fifty years ago.

“Drawing with a staff allows for large, detailed work, but it's very inconvenient in urgent situations like combat. Sometimes you don't have enough space, and sometimes you don't have enough time.”

“So you use rings instead, right?”

Etran showed them the rings on their thumb and middle finger. If the staff had once been the symbol of a mage, the magic ring had taken its place today.

“Illumina.”

Etran lightly snapped their fingers. With a Snap!, light appeared at the tip of their index finger. This could be called magic too, but the real magic was only just beginning.

“Wow...”

Etran traced a shape in the air with their finger. Trails of light lingered, holding their form. It was like using ink made of light on a canvas made of air. The sight was mysterious, brilliant, and dreamlike.

“The magic circle engraved on this ring is a spell called Light Tracery. Mages today use it to draw other magic circles.”

Etran was an “experienced” mage. A few casual movements of their finger completed the magic circle in an instant. It was at least three times faster than the person they called the old quack.

“So you really are a genius?”

A fist-sized Light Orb sprang out of the magic circle. Like a will-o'-the-wisp, a ghostly flame, it circled Etran before rising overhead. The forest shadows were driven back all at once, leaving the area as bright as day.

“Will this be enough?”

“Ahem. Hm.”

Olivia cleared her throat, offering an unspoken excuse that she hadn't really doubted Etran, then adjusted her grip on her shield.

“Today's goal is a survey. We find our way to the natural cavern and see if there are any dangerous monsters. That's all. We're not trying to clear the dungeon, so there's no need to push ourselves. That doesn't mean we can let our guard down, either. You understand?”

“Yep!”

It was a small dungeon and a small party, so there was no need for a long speech. They set off as casually as if they were going to work at a workshop. For a first adventure, it was a rather uneventful beginning.

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