Solar Mage

Chapter 30: Zinc Zidden

I examine the writing on the wall

What does all of this mean? I can't read this language.

"Sage, can you translate this unknown language for me?"

"ORDER RECEIVED: COMMENCING SCAN"

Great Sage Luke Wolkan was truly a genius at everything, not just for magic. I wonder, just what limits on information does the Sage System have? And how is it able to have a seemingly endless amount of mana to continue working for so long?

"SCANNING COMPLETE"

"LANGUAGE DETECTED: Syogol"

Syogol? I remember hearing about that language being mentioned in the Study of Monster Civilizations unit in history class. It was the language of the ancient civilization, Syo, that was said to be an extinct tribe of humanoid creatures that was situated in the Mystical Swamp, now recognized as a part of the Monster Territories collective, where a powerful poison dragon is said to be slumbering. But what is the language of Syo doing this far away from the Mystical Swamp?

"TRANSLATING SYOGOL TO AEGELAN"

"Greetings child of Syo,

Oh, this hidden dungeon room must've been made for the successor of the Syo tribe. I would feel bad for taking someone's legacy that wasn't left for me but... the Syo tribe has been gone for over two hundred years now.

"I don't know when you will be reading this message but, if you're seeing this, that means you must've been sent by the chief of your time, whenever that may be, for your trial and to save our declining tribe."

Yup, I was right.

"Before anything else, let me introduce myself, my name is Zinc Zidden. I was the great shaman of our tribe in my time, but I am probably long dead by now. I created this dungeon for the sole purpose of hiding this dungeon room where I hid all of my treasures."

I feel really bad for him now... seeing how there are no corpses or even any skeletons, the successor he has been waiting for never came.

"I hope that you have patience and continue reading as it will be incredibly important. I have created countless deadly traps throughout this hidden dungeon room in the situation that an unwanted trespasser discovers this dungeon room before you."

The traps can't be that bad right? After all, the traps must be incredibly old and broken by now.

"The trap locations are as follows: The first trap is in the corridor to the right. The entire ceiling will fall down and kill anyone–

I immediately peek through the corridor.

The ground is even.

I look up.

The ceiling is still intact... I was wrong, the trap has definitely not aged and I can feel my instincts telling me not to go through there.

I run back to the wall and sage continues to read.

"–other than a swordmaster. The way to deactivate this trap is to press the third stone to the right of the entrance. You will need to push extremely hard, which will deter anyone from possibly ever accidently finding it. The second trap is in the third room. It will release a trapdoor with deadly iron spikes coated in poison at the end that activates once something steps onto it. There are no traps in the first two rooms after the corridor and the second trap can easily throw something heavy enough onto the trapdoor and you can wait for the trapdoor to come back up. It will be deactivated for ten minutes after it comes back up."

Something as heavy as a human huh?

I look at Han and Sara's corpse.

"The third and final trap is in the fourth room, the fake treasure room filled only of gold plated iron and replica artifacts so don't be too sad once the trap activates, and all the treasures are swallowed up by a lava monster. Once lava starts to seep through the walls, that's when you know the lava monster is coming. There is no way to beat it, just turn past it into the next room which is the real treasure room and destroy the button in the room to close the door, don't just press it lightly. If you just press it lightly, the door will close but the black iron golems situated around the room will kill you."

"I memorized all of it but just in case, can you store it in your memory as well Sage?"

"... ORDER RECEIVED"

It says in a robotic tone after pausing for a second, as if it was thinking about it.

Why do I feel like it's looking at me disappointedly?

"Alright! Thank you Zinc Zidden for writing this out for me. I will make sure to put your treasures to good use in your prophesied successor's stead!"

I say proudly with a greedy smile on my face.

An ev

A voice echos,

"How shameless..."

"Who said that!?!"

I say in a terrified state as I fall down.

Was that a ghost?

Then, I try to get up and almost fail but manage to do it. Then I wipe the dust off my clothes as if nothing happened.

My legs are still damaged... I shouldn't do anything too physically challenging for now. Unless–

I walk up to Han's corpse and loot his body.

Lets see, an artisan sword? He really did kill and rob a lot of people. I don't need another sword though, it would seem too weird for an E rank adventurer to have an artisan sword. It would attract me to nothing but trouble.

I grab his money pouch.

Hahhhh, it's sad that he was evil, especially when he showed me such kindness at the dungeon's entrance. There's a good amount in here though, one gold coin and 20 silver coins. Looks like he didn't rob people as much as the former owner of this sword.

The bandit boss.

That's the one grace I will give you for the fake kindness you once showed me.

His iron laced leather armor is pretty standard but–

I take a look at myself.

Even if I'm a mage, having no armor and just wearing fancy clothing in a dungeon is a bit too careless of me...

I equip the leather armor onto me.

Oh, this armor fits me better than I thought it's not too loose but also not too tight. It's pretty light and doesn't affect my flexibility too much either.

Now that the cheap items have been looted, now it's time for something more interesting!

I thoroughly rummage and search through his clothes with a greedy and mischievous smile on my face.

Where is it? It's well known that veteran adventurers always have at least one hidden and expensive card that they have up their sleeves, which they use in the event of something life threatening!

There! I found it!

I feel an object with sharp edges and flat sides and pull it out.

Aw, is it just Goddess's shield? And the sides only have one eye, that means it's the lowest tier of it! Well– he's just a C rank and can barely be considered a veteran so it makes sense.

I grab the other small bag attached to his waist and look inside.

So this is where he kept all the potions, I knew he had them since there weren't any in my bag. But why did he ask me for a potion if he had the potions with him? Well, whatever.

I take the potions out.

Which one is the healing potion? None of them are labeled!

"Sage, identify the potions!"

"ORDER RECEIVED"

"THE LIGHT RED POTION IS A HEALING POTION."

Yeah, that's nice but I don't think a regular healing potion will be able to fix broken legs.

"THE DARK RED POTION IS A GREATER HEALING POTION"

That– might be able to work but let's take a look at the other potions.

"THE TWO DARK GREEN POTIONS ARE POISONS"

Uhh– why is there poison in the potion bag?

"THE DARK PURPLE POTION IS MADE OF NIGHTHORN IVY"

Is the rest of the bag just filled with poison?

"THE YELLOW POTION IS MADE OF POISO–"

Yeah I don't need to hear anymore, the rest of it is definitely poison.

I grab the two healing potions and walk over to where I set Tin and Rachel.

Sara's the priest so I should heal her first right?

I lay her on the stomach and examine her back, the area where Dawn's sun beam hit her.

Let's try the normal healing potion on her back first.

I pop out the cork from the bottle and pour it over her back. The contents of the potion is very fluid thus, only some of the potion is absorbed into the skin as the majority of it slides off her back and is absorbed by her clothes.

I barely see a difference! But seeing this imprint of my magic... it's extremely powerful and destructive., I held back but it still caused such an injury. I'm sorry Sara, for this, and what I'm about to do.

I rip the remnants of the back of her clothes off, being careful not to rip the entire thing. My breathing and heart rate increase as I feel a sense of lust flow throughout my body.

"Huff– huff–"

Stay focused Arthur, Tin's life is at stake. If Rachel isn't healed from this then she won't be able to save Tin!

I carefully open the greater healing potion and I almost throw up after smelling the stench of it.

What the hell!? How can something smell so bad? It smells worse than those elixirs master gave me! Oh well, if there's one thing I noticed about medicines with strong healing properties, it's that they all smell and taste horrible, so this should work well.

I pinch my nose closed as I pour the dark red potion onto Rachel's back.

Yuck– why is the potion so thick? It's almost like a solid...

After pouring the potion over all the burnt spots, the body quickly absorbs the potion and Rachel's skin is completely rid of her burn marks.

Why is she still not waking up? Tin is going to die... I have no choice, I will have to wrong you for the third time today, sister. I'm sorry...

I put the empty bottle that held the greater healing potion and hold it up to her nose.

Though the contents no longer remain, the smell will still linger for years to come...

For a moment, there is nothing. Then, a faint sniff. And finally, she awakens and jumps away from the bottle.

"Nameless, what are you doing!?"

She says standing upright, before her shirt promptly falls off. Noticing this, she frantically turns away after turning red and drops down, covering her chest before screaming.

"Nameless, I trusted you! I never knew you would be such a despicable pervert!"

"I'm truly sorry sister, you may not remember but this is not the time nor place for such antics. Take a look around you."

She hesitantly looks up and turns around the room.

"Han, Sara! W-what happened?"

She says in a fearful tone.

"I can explain it all to you later but can you please heal Tin's legs first?"

She turns to her right and screams in horror.

"Oh no! Tin as well?"

She begins to sob.

Now she's crying. Why does everyone cry around me? Am I really that scary?

"Calm down, he isn't dead yet. But he will be soon if you don't heal him, so please act hastily!"

She starts wiping the tears off her face.

"Really?"

"Yes."

We stare at each other in silence.

Why isn't she doing anything?

"... Can you get me some clothes first?"

Oh right...

"Oh right! I will get it for you right away!"

I run to Sara and strip the clothes off her lifeless corpse.

Don't look– don't look!

Then I run back and hand it to her before turning around.

"You better not peek."

I imagine her saying with a cute angry face.

After she finishes she tells me that I can turn around,

The shirt is a little loose, but it's better than no shirt at all. The armor is also an improvement. Not bad, not bad,

"Please heal Tin now."

I say as I bow.

I wronged her thrice today, this is the least I can do.

"Of course I will!"

She hurries to Tin's side and begins to pray to Pyro.

Thank god, Tin will be saved!