Editing/Standardisation: kubor04
Formatting/Extras: APM
Original Translation: Blastron
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Well then! None of my problems will be solved if I just sit here forever, so I should get going.
I shouldn’t follow these bootprints. Running into the people who made them would be a huge pain in the ass, so I really should go in the opposite direction.
…But, seriously, this cave is too big.
The ceiling towers over a hundred meters above me, and the section I’m in is probably about that wide as well. The craggy rocks scattered throughout the cave sometimes disguise its size, but as far as caves go, this one is enormous.(TL.1)
Currently, I’m at a sort of crossroad, where three wide tunnels join together in a Y. Behind me stretches the path I came from. The path where those footsteps lead goes off to one side, leaving me with only one path, which travels straight into the distance and out of sight. I climb on top of an especially large rock and survey the road ahead.
…What are THOOOSE?!
Scattered throughout the cave before me are countless monstrous creatures. [Appraisal] goes off accidentally.
{Deer; Deer; Deer; Deer; Deer; Deer; Deer; Deer; Deer; Deer; Deer; Deer; Deer; Deer; Deer; Deer; Deer; Deer; Deer; Deer; Deer; Deer; Deer; Deer; Deer; Bat; Bat; Bat; Bat; Bat; Bat; Bat; Bat; Bat; Bat; Bat; Bat; Bat; Bat; Bat; Bat; Bat; Bat; Bat; Bat; Bat; Bat; Bat; Bat; Bat; Bat; Bat; Bat; Wolf; Wolf; Wolf; Wolf; Wolf; Wolf; Dinosaur…}
…Well, uh, now that you mention it, I guess those do look kind of like “deer”… but the deer I’m familiar with definitely don’t have horns that shine like swords. “Bat” could be used to describe those creatures flapping around, but they look less like actual bats and more like extremely ugly rats that grew demonic wings. Looking at the “wolves”, you’d think they were almost normal by comparison, but then you see that they’ve got six legs. Even the “dinosaur” lying against the far wall looks weird: it’s like a tyrannosaur, but with horns and scales. That’s not a dinosaur, that’s a dragon!
Should I try to push my way through? It’s doable, right? Haha, nooo, I’m just a tiny spider that was born just a little a while ago, so I really shouldn’t do anything rash. The difficulty here is definitely set to Lunatic.
Stealthily, I creep down from my rock. What should I dooo? There’s a huge pile of monsters in front of me, a spider-filled hell on one side, and potentially-hostile people on the other. Am I stuck here?
Ah, wait, hold up, please, no cause for alarm. Even though all three of these paths are blocked, I’ve already devised a grand strategy to advance! …Ahaha, although I say “grand strategy”, I really mean that I saw another passage while I was up on top of that rock. In addition to these hugely obvious passages that make up this Y-intersection, it looks like there’s a much smaller side path through a fissure in the wall. It looks like it’s about three meters high and three meters wide, and there’s no problem getting there from here. No, the problem with this particular path is that this is where those bootprints come from. If those people came from this direction, then wouldn’t that lead to this cave’s (or, rather, this dungeon’s) exit?
Umf. The exit, huuuh… should I really try to get out of here? If I were human, it would be obvious; I’d get out without a second thought. I mean, this dungeon is way too high-level for me! I don’t really know how strong I am compared to other monsters, but that quick glance I got earlier told me that getting into combat would be a seriously bad idea.
Wellll, if this were really just a game I’d be all like “dying’s not a big deal lol” but this is reality! I probably won’t come back if I die, so there’s no way I’d put my life on the line and charge madly into battle, not without any sort of fallback plan.
If I keep that in mind, getting out of here is a pretty attractive option. Well, it’s comparatively attractive, but I really don’t know if it’s actually that good of an idea. After all, I’m a monster. Since people travel through this part of the dungeon, there must be some sort of human settlement nearby. If a big spider like me were to show up, they’d totally hunt me down. So, yeah, there’s definitely risks going outside.
On the other hand, I might find a nice, quiet place to settle down somewhere out there. Staying out of sight of the people out there would be very luck-dependent, though… and, well, now that I say that, I should really also say that survival in here would be equally up to luck. Hmm…
Ah! Got it! For now, I’ll set my sights on the dungeon’s exit. Once I get there, I’ll check out the state of affairs, see if there’s anything dangerous like a base camp for the humans, and figure out if leaving is a good idea.
We have a plan, so, LET’S! GOOO!!
…I got lost, lol. 😛
Well, ahaha, how should I put it… This cave is freaking huge! What is up with these labyrinthine paths? The road has been forking crazily all over the place ever since I started. How many branches, you ask? I lost count after 10!
I also encountered a ton of monsters! Every time, I ran away as fast as I could, but I think I got turned around and I have no idea where I am anymore. What happened to the footprints, you ask? I lost track of them a while ago!
Aaaaaahh, nai wa. I’m lost in a maze and have no map. There’s no way I’ll find the exit!
Plus, I’m so hungry I can barely stand it. Someone, anyone, can you spare any food?
Translator notes:
1 – This is probably the hardest line I’ve ever tried to translate in my (very short) translation career. The Japanese language relies a lot on contextual cues to indicate what a sentence is referring to, and sometimes it’s really damn hard for a non-native speaker to figure out what’s going on. Literally, the line translates to “thanks to the rough rocks scattered haphazardly about, [I] feel things that are somewhat varied; but even so, for a cave, this is huge.” What about the rocks mixes up your feelings? What’s varied about your feelings? What are your feelings even of, the cave? Its width? Tell me, spider girl! Tell meeeeee
APM - Translation 