Chapter 49

Dungeons and Magical Items is the forty-ninth chapter of Yamada Kanehito & Abe Tsukasa's Sousou no Frieren.

Summary
After the events of the previous chapter, Denken, Richter, Methode, Laufen and an unnamed mage are seen encountering a pair of gargoyles. In the proceeding fight, the unnamed mage gets caught in a trap, having to resort to escaping by breaking a bottle. The chapter then proceeds to cut to Frieren's party and Sense attempting to free Frieren from a mimic. Frieren eventually escapes as the party moves deeper into the dungeon. As they venture Sense and Fern are seen conversing, where Fern mentions her motivation of being a mage being a result of Heiter's kindness. The chapter then cuts to Wirbel, Ehre and Scharf confronting a clone of themselves. Denken's party on the other hand is seen taking down the clone of Laufen before encountering the clone of Frieren.

Plot Details
Right after the events of the previous chapter, the group consisting of Denken, Richter, Methode, Laufen, and an unnamed mage are seen below an archway in the dungeon. Denken is seen inspecting a suspicious floor tile, and after inspecting it, he warns the other party members that it is a trap. He tells them that the ceiling will come crashing down if they step on it, leading Laufen to realize that the blood stain shaped like a person was a previous victim, which Richter finds rather gruesome. Suddenly, they are ambushed by a pair of gargoyles, which they quickly take care of. In the confusion, one of their party members, the unnamed mage, was separated from them by a falling wall. Richter informs Denken about this, who then attempts to break down the wall with an unnamed explosive spell without effect. Denken tells the unnamed mage that there is no other way and that she must break her bottle. The golem inside the bottle then expands, breaking the wall and carrying the unnamed mage outside of the dungeon. Denken laments the fact that they have already lost one, admitting that he underestimated the dungeon and asserting that letting their guard down can kill them at any moment.

The chapter then switches to Frieren's Party. Fern is still attempting to pull Frieren out of the mimic. Frieren asks Fern to stop pulling her, since she will get torn apart if she continues to do so. Frieren enlightens Fern on what to do, which is the exact opposite of what she was doing. Frieren tells Fern that she should shove her deeper into the mimic, so it will gag and stop biting her. Frieren is finally freed of the mimic. She thanks Fern for saving her. Fern asks her how she deals with mimics by herself; she tells her that she blows them up from the inside with an offensive spell, but it makes her hair frizzy. Fern puts the pieces together and realizes that is the reason Frieren sometimes has different hairstyles from her norm. They then carry on. While traveling around the dungeon, they spot frozen gargoyles, which they destroy before they can move. They also find treasure chests, which contain things like medallions.

Fern tells the rest of the group that this is going unexpectedly smoothly. Frieren tells her that she does have a point, telling her that it is strange for an uncharted dungeon, especially since they are close to the innermost depths. Frieren tells her group that, in spite of that, they should not lower their guard. They then take a break. Frieren and Fern are looking over their pile of treasures, with Frieren happily saying that there are some good items in the file while Fern thinks it all looks like junk. Sense does not understand Frieren's fascination with the treasures, which is also Fern's opinion. Sense also tells Fern that she does not get her. She has never met a young mage as talented as Fern and assumes that she must have gone through many hours of training, but she cannot sense any passion or obsession in her. Fern tells her that she became a mage to repay someone for their kindness to her and that it was her life goal. She adds that she was too busy pouring her energy into her training to even think about any future beyond that, which must have burned through every last bit of her passion she had back then. Sense then asks her why she continued in her pursuit of magic. Fern recalls the first time she and Frieren raided a dungeon together. She tells Sense how much Frieren enjoyed collecting magical items that she thought just looked like junk, and that it made her smile. Fern tells Sense that she pursues magic with Frieren because she likes seeing him happy. Sense gives her a smile and tells her that she was right to follow them along and that she is sure that they can have fun even in this dangerous dungeon.

The chapter then switches to Wirbel's group. While walking along the dungeon, one of their group members, Ehre, has been restrained by some sort of magic. She warns the group that three mages have hidden their mana and are going to ambush them. Wirbel quickly erects a defensive barrier. Wirbel informs them that the spell cast on Ehre was 'Sorganeel', a spell that binds targets that you can see. He then tells Scharf to block their vision, which he does. Wirbel tells them that he finally understands why the dungeon is impregnable. He didn't imagine something like what he saw. In front of them appear 3 magicians, each of whom is a copy of one of them. Wirbel assigns targets for all of them. Scharf will take on Wirbel, Ehre will go after Scharf, and he will take down Ehre.

The chapter then switches to Denken's group. They are seen looking at a disintegrating clone of Laufen that they have successfully eliminated. Denken calls it a clone made from magic and says it must be the work of a demon or monster. He tells the group that he has never seen such a perfect copy, since the clone's mana and skill were exactly the same as Laufen's. He also tells them that there might even be a chance that they copied her memories due to the way it behaved, which makes Laufen uneasy. Richter adds that the only thing that's good is that they can tell it's an imposter at a glance, so they can at least avoid friendly fire. Methode calls it a terrifying threat since it may be able to control multiple clones at once. Denken says that teaming up was the right call since it gives them more ways of dealing with it. They then proceed to enter another room in the dungeon, where a clone of Frieren appears. Richter asks Denken if he can deal with that too. Denken tells him that if this weren't an exam, he would've broken his bottle already.

Characters in Order of Appearance

 * Denken
 * Richter
 * Methode
 * Laufen
 * Frieren
 * Fern
 * Sense
 * Heiter (In Flashback)
 * Wirbel
 * Ehre
 * Scharf

Locations

 * The King's Tomb

Battles

 * Denken's party vs the gargoyles
 * Wirbel's group vs their clones
 * Denken's group vs Laufen's clone

Events

 * Frieren raiding the dungeon for loot
 * Denken and Wirbel's groups encountering the clones

Tolls

 * gollem in a bottle

Spells

 * 'Sorganeel', a spell that binds targets that you can see.
 * unnamed defensive magic