WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Dionysus
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◈ The Wizard's Memoir ◈
Chapter 5: Reflections
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Being an adventurer was a decent career.
They solved problems in remote places beyond the reach of kings and lords. Once in a while, they could even strike it rich and turn their lives around. If you had no hope in life, no lingering attachments, or no common sense, it was worth a try.
“It’s not quite that bad...”
“Sure, sure. Some people even turn down a court wizard’s post to become adventurers. Wait, doesn’t that prove you have to be out of your mind to become one?”
Etran wanted to argue with Olivia, but lacked the strength. That was what happened when a wizard walked six miles, about 9.5 kilometers, with a 66-pound pack, about 30 kilograms.
Olivia, on the other hand, strode along with over 150 pounds, about 68 kilograms, strapped to her body, including her standard weapons and armor. Etran wanted a look at the body beneath that armor. Out of pure curiosity, of course.
“People become adventurers to succeed in life. A court wizard has already succeeded. Is it normal to turn that down?”
“What I’m looking for isn’t in the royal palace.”
“What are you looking for, if not success?”
“Goblins.”
That last answer had not come from Etran. Dahlia drew a dagger and whispered the warning. Olivia raised her shield and immediately charged out.
“What about your pack...?”
She had told Etran to take it off when a fight broke out, yet she simply charged in with hers on.
That would have made her the worst sort of useless mercenary in a war. As the party’s tank, whose job was to take the hits, however, it was an excellent approach. Without much thought, the goblins focused their attacks on the warrior. Fist-sized stones flew toward her.
Clang! Clang!
The goblins’ stone throwing was primitive but dangerous. Every year, the number of adventurers who fell victim to those stones reached double digits. Olivia was an experienced warrior, though. She angled her round shield to deflect them.
“One!”
Her hexagonal-headed mace swung upward. It was an awkward angle from which even a master swordsman would struggle to land a hit, yet she caught the goblin perfectly beneath the jaw. With a little exaggeration, its green body flew as high as it stood tall.
“Kreeeeee!”
The goblins swung their clubs back at her. Both weapons belonged to the same category of blunt weapons, but their materials and shapes were very different. The clubs failed to damage her double-linked mail and bounced off with a Clang!
“Twoooo!”
The mace was not the only difference between them. Dahlia threw daggers into a goblin’s chest, landing one hit after another.
Many experts claimed knife throwing was useless in real combat, but that depended on the situation. Against a stunted monster that barely wore clothes, let alone armor, it was deadly enough. Two daggers struck its chest, followed by a final one between its eyes.
“Three!”
With that support, Olivia swung her mace up and down again. The goblin jumped backward to dodge, but the attack was a feint. The instant she swung, Olivia kicked off the ground and charged. If one had to give the move a name, it would be a shield charge.
The round shield rushed forward as though it had been waiting for that dodge. It struck the goblin in the face and sent it sprawling onto its back. No matter how quick a monster was, it was finished once it fell. The third attack crushed its face, dealing a fatal wound.
“Ah...”
Etran had not cast a spell. The cumbersome pack had delayed the casting, but the wizard had also held back on purpose to watch the others work. They were excellent adventurers even without an artillery specialist focused on offense.
In the end, the fight was over without Etran’s firepower. Three goblins died, and three fled. Olivia glanced at Etran, hoping a Homing Arrow might finish off the rest, then gave up. The wizard was struggling to undo the pack straps. There was no hope there.
“I didn’t expect goblins here.”
“We cleared out the well. Where did they come from? They couldn’t have respawned already.”
Etran looked in the direction the goblins had fled and murmured, “If they didn’t come from the well, they must have come from the castle ruins.”
Having visited once before, Etran recognized the area. The top of the castle tower was not far away.
“Monsters from Shadow Castle Ruins?”
“But there’s a clearing operation going on there.”
Etran had heard the news too. Three parties were taking turns trying to clear the dungeon, leaving no chance for monsters to slip out. Olivia’s party had been unable to get a turn and had been forced to set their sights on the less crowded Well Cavern.
“Could something have gone wrong?”
No one said it outright, but the question implied that a party might have been wiped out. Dungeons were unpredictable, and adventures came with risks. It was entirely possible.
“What do you want to do?”
This was when a leader was needed. Olivia was younger than Dahlia and knew less than Etran, but she was the party’s leader.
Olivia frowned toward the castle ruins. Nothing was certain. The goblins might simply have been lucky enough to get outside, or they might have respawned sooner than expected. Once the doubt took root, though, it was hard to ignore.
“Let’s just check.”
Dahlia retrieved her daggers from the bodies. She neither complained about getting involved in someone else’s business nor pointed out that they would lose at least half a day. Etran found that interesting. The bond between the two was deeper and stronger than it appeared.
The party continued on. Their thoughts were troubled, but their pace did not quicken. Now that goblins had appeared, they needed to be even more alert to their surroundings. Exhaustion could put them in danger, so they actually had to slow down.
Still, a dungeon rooted in the earth was not going to run away. They reached the castle courtyard before noon.
“That way today, then.”
Etran wiped the sweat from their forehead and pointed at the keep. On the previous visit, Etran had only stopped to look at it.
“Whose party is exploring it right now?”
“Let’s see... Dermi’s party, maybe?”
Etran knew the name. That warrior had tried to recruit Etran on the first day.
“If it’s that jerk, maybe we don’t need to bother with a rescue...”
“Why? Are they that skilled?”
“They’re that annoying.”
“Oh. That’s what you meant.”
Still, going back on her decision would hurt Olivia’s pride, and the other party members had done nothing wrong. They decided to stick to the plan.
The building’s main entrance faced the courtyard, but it had collapsed long ago. Not even a rat could squeeze through. Clearing it with shovels and pickaxes was out of the question. The ancient kingdom’s buildings were sturdy in strange ways. With a little bad luck, some entirely different part might collapse instead.
“This way.”
Dahlia, their seeker, led them around the back of the keep. Etran hoped for a rear entrance, a side door, or a hidden doorway. It was a vain hope. Things were rarely that convenient.
“Here’s the entrance.”
A tall, narrow arrow slit had broken open, leaving just enough room for one person to crawl through. To put it nicely, it was a dog hole. Putting it any less nicely would sound uncultured, so Etran left it at that.
The short Dahlia hopped inside, but Etran had to duck and crawl through on hands and knees. Olivia took off her pack first and pushed it through.
“Um, sorry, but could you give me a hand?”
Their heavily loaded friend needed help. Etran and Dahlia each took one of the warrior’s hands and strained to pull her through.
Once they were inside, however, it was pleasant enough. There was plenty of space, and the air was fresh. Sunlight entered through gaps in the windows that the vines had yet to cover, allowing them a clear view of the ancient building’s interior.
“...Magnificent.”
Etran murmured while taking in the traces of an ancient kingdom that must once have been glorious. To the others, who lacked that sort of sensitivity, it was merely a half-collapsed pile of stones.
“But if the entrance is that narrow, shouldn’t it be easy to keep the monsters in?”
Only then did Etran return to the goblin problem.
“There are other entrances.”
“There are?”
“There’s a side passage from the fortification out back, and a secret passage from Well Cavern. I told you the other day, remember?”
They were what people called shortcuts.
Dungeons of a certain size had shortcuts that made it easier to explore them over several visits. There were surely other entrances that no one had discovered yet. There would also be actual dog holes, too small for a human to pass through.
“Until the dungeon’s cleared, all we can do is hunt the monsters regularly. Once you kill them, they don’t show up again for a few weeks.”
Shadow Castle Ruins was being explored so steadily that monsters were hard to find there. The monsters that had recently appeared outdoors had respawned in Well Cavern. Olivia’s party had wiped them out, so things should have stayed quiet for a while.
Assuming everything was normal, that was.
“If something happened to the exploration party here, there’ll be monsters roaming around too. Dahlia?”
“Leave it to me!”
It was time for the seeker to shine. Dahlia began investigating with a halfling’s keen hearing and sense of smell. She pressed an ear to the floor and a hand to the wall, then searched for old traces to work out when and where things had happened.
“One floor below.”
“Dermi the jerk?”
“Can’t tell, but I hear thumping.”
Etran followed Dahlia’s example and pressed an ear to the floor. Those round human ears detected nothing.
“If Dahlia says so, that’s where they are. Let’s head downstairs.”
Olivia’s party walked through the keep in search of a staircase.
So many parts had collapsed that it was hard to make out the overall layout. Roughly speaking, though, it resembled the Eastern character for “return,” a square within a square. A corridor circled the central hall, with stairs leading underground at the corners on either side.
“These are broken too.”
Half the castle had collapsed. There was no reason for its stairs to be intact. The middle section had fallen away, leaving a gap of seven feet, about two meters. Dahlia went as close to the edge as she dared, looked down, and sighed.
“That was a waste of time. Sorry.”
“There’s another staircase over there, right?”
It was not the seeker’s fault. But when something went “wrong,” regardless of whose fault it was, the wizard usually had to fix it.
Snap!
Etran cast the basic spell Light Tracery with a snap of the fingers.
“We only need to cross this gap, right?”
Before the others could answer, Etran drew a shape filled with triangles in light. They had seen that magic circle several times while hunting goblins in Well Cavern.
“Floating Disc?”
Back then, Etran had used it for copying magic, but its original purpose was to carry loads. Right now, the loads were humans and a halfling.
Etran divided the newly formed disc into several pieces and set them into the gap in the stairs. Tap! Tap! Tap! Before long, a softly glowing magical staircase was complete.
“Uh...? Is this safe?”
It was an impressive, splendid piece of magic, but the warrior and seeker eyed it with doubt. They did not trust it enough yet.
“I heard once that the spell breaks if you put more than a hundred pounds on it. That’s about forty-five kilograms...”
“How much do you weigh?”
“I, I’m carrying more gear than I weigh! It’s the gear that’s heavy!”
They might do rough work, but they were young women in their prime. Neither would reveal her weight, no matter what. Etran gave them a long, thoroughly unimpressed look before speaking.
“My disc can easily hold a thousand pounds.”
“R-really?”
Olivia and Dahlia exchanged sheepish looks and went down the magical stairs.
Etran was clever enough not to mention that the mana consumed when they stepped onto the disc would reveal their mass.
“But if it’s this sturdy, couldn’t we put our packs on it while we travel?”
“...Oh?”
Whether Etran was truly clever required some serious reflection.
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