Surviving the Game as a Barbarian

Rift (3)

‘Infighting' is a common occurrence whenever you play [Dungeon and Stone].

And the cause behind that ‘infighting', hundred times out of a hundred, is ‘money'.

Research may be the top priority for an economically affluent wizard, but the reason adventurers enter the labyrinth is to make money.

But now this wizard bitch has just poked at that sore spot.

"Are you going to take all the loot from the guardian?"

The dwarf no longer has the kind smile from earlier.

His voice sinks, and the eyes exposed through the thick fur of his helmet gleam with a dangerous sharpness.

"Do I look like a doormat?"

The air freezes in an instant.

And everybody feels it, too.

Creak.

The human man touches the hilt of his sword.

He's probably not just some porter, either.

It's Raven who finally breaks the heavy silence.

"… Instead, I will give you all the magic stones that come out of the rift."

"You're telling me to pick up and eat the leftover garbage."

"… Don't you think this is a reasonable calculation? I'm not just saying things groundlessly."

She tries to hide it, but Raven's expression of embarrassment is evident.

She hadn't expected such a hostile reaction…

She might be unexpectedly innocent.

Of course, she should've expected it.

The drops from the guardian are nothing less than the best and the most essential loot from the rift.

Among them, ‘numbered items' must be like incomparable treasures to a dwarf.

"I won't let any numbered items go."

"… Fine. In return, I'll take the essence of the guardian. And please acknowledge my ownership of any other discoveries that make use of my knowledge."

"Good. Then, the rift stones will be divided equally between the two of us by rolling the dice."

Hurray. What's that bullshit about fairness, again?

These two don't even care about me and Ainar, and have already started fighting for their own interests.

My head throbs from just looking at the scene.

Even the thought that it might've been better to pass the rift with first-floor rookies, crosses my mind.

Whereas now, we'll at best be able to pick up some crumbs after the plate has already been picked clean.

It's such a shame that I don't have the strength to change the outcome.

"Bjorn."

"I know what you’re thinking, but for now, be quiet."

"I get it."

What I have to do is becoming clearer.

I have to become strong.

So that it doesn't matter if these dogs high up try to kick away the ladder, I can still climb all the way up.

Only then can I protect my own rights like they're doing.

Of course, that shouldn't be a reason to concede today.

"Wait a moment."

"…?"

When I open my mouth, the attention of the two conversing with a softer atmosphere than before, gather on me.

"You can take the essences and numbered items. But we will have the rift stone."

"You're being greedy."

"Do you think a couple of barbarians are worth so much?"

Their eyes are very sharp.

Fuck, and here they were smiling so kindly just now when we first met.

Yeah, alright, I was just testing the waters.

"Fine, we'll give up on the rift stone. Instead, give us priority to up to two essences other than the guardian's."

"Alright. That much is fine."

"I agree."

As expected, Raven and the dwarf readily accede to my request.

This must've been their line in the sand.

At their level, essences other than from the guardian wouldn't have much attraction anyhow.

"Then shall we go?"

"Sure. My body is already sore from standing still for so long. Yeah! Ha ha ha ha!"

Once the haggling's over, the wizard bitch and the dwarf change back to how they were acting before, and smile cheerfully.

Adventurer bastards sure are scary.

How long had it been since we'd started climbing the mountain road towards the distant fortress that peeked between the ridges?

At the entrance to the fortress, we encountered two sculptures of demons with wings.

"Gargoyle statues."

Level eight monster, gargoyle statue.

It's usually quiet, but once an enemy comes into view, it turns into a tricky monster that starts off with ‘petrification'.

A general strategy would be to sacrifice one member to take the hit from ‘petrification', and the rest of the team then breaks the gargoyle statue to release the curse…

But we now had a wizard in our team.

"Kyaaaaah–!"

As the three of us including the dwarf neared it, the gargoyles opened their eyes and spread their wings.

My lower body turned to stone in an instant, but it didn't last long.

"Artena viar."

Raven recited the ‘curse removal' spell, and the battle began in earnest.

Ainar and I took on one, and the dwarf took on the other.

Clang!

The pint-sized dwarf swung his hammer like a madman and smashed both the legs of his opponent.

And once the gargoyle fell to the floor helplessly, he smashed its head with his hammer as if he'd been waiting for it.

Was that the dwarf's style?

To be honest, it was quite manly to start from the bottom and go up.

It was pretty plain, though.

"You guys are pretty good too!"

There wasn't much difference between us in the time it took to destroy the gargoyle statues.

We, too, were confident in melee combat.

「You have defeated a gargoyle. EXP +2」

The two gargoyles turned into light and disappeared, dropping magic stones, but there was no need to pick them up.

They floated upwards on their own, and shot into a huge burlap bag.

"I'll save the magic stones for now and distribute them afterwards."

"Thank you for doing that! Ha ha ha!"

The dwarf didn't seem worried about the wizard stealing the magic stones or anything.

Seriously, there was no way a wizard would be hung up on such a small amount of money.

"Then let’s go!"

The dwarf smashed through the old wooden door with his hammer.

Was this the start of the real dungeon?

A strange feeling was welling up inside me as I followed him inside.

"I’m going to need some light."

"Right."

A sphere of light floated above Raven's hand, illuminating the dark area.

This space we had just entered was the outer checkpoint.

A place for performing various administrative tasks, such as checking the luggage of the wagons coming and going, and verifying the identity of the passers-by before they entered the castle.

"Grrrrrrrr."

As if awoken by the light and the noise, rotten corpses began to rise up from the holes on the wall or from under the scattered furnitures.

"Deadmen."

Deadman.

An unranked monster that doesn't even spit out mana stones, let alone experience.

Even their bodies don't disappear after death.

Except when they drop an essence.

"They just bite and scratch as far as their attack goes, so I’ll save my magic."

There was no magical help, but it nevertheless didn't take long for us to clean up the whole room.

"Could Murad and Yandel please handle things over there while I open this door?"

"I’ll take care of it in a jiffy! Ha ha ha!"

As I followed the dwarf to the second floor, a space like a shared bedroom appeared.

As before, there were about ten deadmen, but since the space was larger than the first floor had been, the fight was easier.

Puff! Puff!

We cleared up the second floor in an instant and climbed the ladder to the roof to reach the third floor, without much conversation.

Waiting there for us were a dozen deadman soldiers wearing rusty armour, as well as a deadman commander with a slightly larger stature than the rest.

Calling him the first boss was a bit much…

Rather, he was an enemy that had to be beaten in order to progress further.

"It’s a bit bigger, but it's not that different from any other deadman, so let’s just get rid of it! Ha ha ha!"

Once again, we quickly cleaned up the surroundings, and riffled through the deadman commander's clothes to pick up a horn.

When we went back down to the first floor, the iron door on the other side had already opened.

"It’s very reassuring to have a wizard with us."

With light coming in from both directions, the room without a single window now became quite bright, but it was meaningless.

All the work to be done at the outer checkpoint was finished.

Now it was time to cross the 50m long bridge across the moat and reach the castle.

"Be careful of where you step, Mistress Raven."

"Ah, thank you."

The bridge ended in the middle, about 20m away from the gate.

It hadn't broken down with the years.

This was its original design. The other side of the bridge was hinged at the end and was raised at an angle. A drawbridge, that had to be lowered for people to pass.

Ppuuuuuuuuuuuuu!

When we blew the horn we'd obtained earlier, the drawbridge began to descend with the rattle of chains.

Of course, things weren't that simple…

「The water magic circle that has slumbered for a long time activates.」

"Bjorn! Water is rising from below!"

The moat surrounding the castle began to fill up.

Water began to rise from the furrows that had been dug around the fortress walls to prevent enemy invasion.

Or rather – it wasn't water, but dark, crimson blood.

This was why this place was called the ‘Blood Citadel'.

The sky was red and so was the earth.

But there was something else that added to this apocalyptic scenery.

"Bjorn! Hands! Over there, you can see hands over the water's surface!"

"Don’t be nervous, they’re just deadmen."

"Hey, who's nervous?"

As soon as blood rose to touch the bottom of the bridge, the deadmen who'd been struggling in the water, climbed up.

The drawbridge had not yet come down by even a fifth.

The concept of this part was simple.

– Hold on until the drawbridge comes down.

If it were a game, this message would've come out.

"Grrrrrr."

Nobody gave any specific instructions, but everyone knew how to respond – either by pushing the deadmen back down to the water or by knocking them down with a weapon.

Puff! Puff! Crunch–!

Although they were just deadmen, mere unranked monsters, they were quite a difficult opponent here on the bridge.

If you fell down, it was game over.

"It's all done."

After about a minute, Raven completed her magic spell.

"Uterna dart!"

If I were to translate the words directly, it'd be something like ‘blade storm'.

A strong gust of wind spread around us, in a dense formation, and mulched the deadmen in an instant like a blender.

Brrrrrrrrr.

The dwarf groaned as he looked at his legs which were stained with bits from the deadman corpses.

"… That’s great."

"It was just a few deadmen. "

Contrary to her humble words, Raven's eyes were full of pride.

But I didn't at all feel that she was being arrogant.

This wasn't an area that could be passed so easily without a wizard's AoE spells.

After that, we kept crushing the deadmen who occasionally climbed up to the bridge, and the drawbridge, which had been slowly descending, finally came into contact with the bridge.

Clang!

The first chapter of the Blood Citadel was over.

It'd been ridiculously easy so far.

Now that we'd crossed the drawbridge, three more chapters remained.

The urban battle in the outer fortress.

The dungeon in the inner inner fortress.

The demonic worship room inside the lord's castle.

"This is interesting."

Raven, entering the castle, looked at the ruins with shining eyes.

As if she was looking at a heap of treasures.

"Smithies, taverns, inns, churches, stables used by merchants… Most of these debris appear to be public facilities."

The dwarf grinned.

"Is that so surprising, Miss Raven?"

"Of course. Neither the mountain road we climbed nor the castle has any farmland or dwellings. Meaning there were no farmers. Aren't you curious? How could people survive in a fortified city built in such a remote mountain area?"

"Didn't they have an alchemist in this dimension as well? He could've changed mana stones to bread like we do. Haha."

"… Yes, that is the most popular hypothesis among the scholars."

"Ha ha! Is that so? Even the learned people seem to think the same way as me!"

"But, Mr. Murad, that's not the only thing that's interesting. Whether it's the long drawbridge or the high walls, this citadel is built very practically. Who was their enemy?"

Even the dwarf, who was amiable at first, became fed up with the lengthy conversation and retreated.

"I don’t understand why you're asking such a thing. After all, isn’t it all a created space?"

"It’s a created space, well, people who haven’t really learned dimensional theory might think so –"

"Stop it, Miss Raven. Monsters incoming."

As we were passing through towards the inner fortress, monsters began appearing before long.

From deadmen to skeleton archers and mages, ghouls, and even a level eight deathfiend.

The level of the creatures wasn't much different from the Deadlands, but there was a big difference in scale.

Each group included at least several dozens.

"Everyone, gather by my side."

Moreover, if you deal with one group, another group might hear the sound of fighting and rush in.

Within a minute of encountering the first group, hundreds of monsters surrounded the area.

But at that moment –

The ‘blade storm' we'd seen earlier swept through the surroundings again.

Sssshhhhhhhhhhh–!

Unlike a magic spell from some western educational institution[1], it couldn't transform everything in its path like before.

Some ghouls survived with only a severed limb, not to mention the deathfiend, which was the epitome of physical defence and natural regeneration.

But…

"Please take care of the remaining monsters."

The deadmen and the skeletons, that had accounted for more than 90% of the whole group, had been swept away.

"Ainar!!"

I shouted out loud, and Ainar ran with me.

The target was a deathfiend.

How to hunt…

There was no need to explain.

One glance at each other was enough.

"Behel-raaaaaaaa!!"

We'd been in hundreds of fights together by this point, and now we hardly ever made any mistakes.

Technique, (true) double barbarian tackle.

Thud!

The dwarf was amazed to see us grab both of the deathfiend's legs, topple it to the floor, then smash its head.

"… Is that how you normally hunt?"

His eyes were filled with some kind of question, like, ‘what kind of savages are these people?'

"Is there something wrong?"

"No, nothing. Very, very exciting, as expected from barbarians! Ha ha ha!"

I didn't have anything to be ashamed of, but it was a little ridiculous.

His fighting style wasn't particularly elegant or sophisticated either, after all.

"Raviod eheltun."

There were only seven deathfiends left, but when Raven cast the ‘curse of exacerbating wounds', it became even easier to hunt them.

A deathfiend, once its passive ‘preservation of the flesh' is sealed, isn't such a tricky monster to handle.

"I think I can see why everyone thinks wizards are great…"

Did she really feel the value of a wizard in just two battles?

Ainar was muttering in a frustrated tone.

Raven didn't respond at all, but when I took a peek, I could see her lips twitching.

She was apparently weak to praise.

The dwarf also added a sentence.

"Ha ha! Obviously, having a wizard changes the scope of what you can do."

I also agreed.

If we'd tried to conquer the ‘Blood Citadel' with a party of just five rookies, this kind of a head-to-head battle wouldn't have been possible.

Perhaps it would've taken tens of times longer, since we would've had to whittle down the number of monsters starting from the fringes.

"Hmm, well… that's why I study so hard. Of course, you also need talent."

Raven wiggled a little bit at the successive compliments.

Slowly, her character was becoming clearer.

A gifted wizard girl who pretended to be humble but loved to show off, and was passionate about magic and research.

I was starting to get a handle on how to deal with her.

"Then I’m going to go around for a while and get some research data. If it’s okay with you, could you all please help?"

"Thanks to Miss Raven, we finished with plenty of time left, so of course I should help. Ha ha ha!"

"Thank you."

Afterwards, we scoured the ruins of the city, collecting antiques, books, soil, metal, and the flesh and bones of the deadmen.

"Thanks to all of you, I finished early. Then let’s move on to the next one!"

I was stunned for a moment.

Eh? Wait, what do you mean, finished?

You beat all the monsters, you searched all around, so why not take ‘that' too?

"What are you doing there! Not coming?"

… Could it be that none of them knew about it?

The easy loot that dropped when you broke the fountain statue?

Editor's Notes:

[1] At a guess, this is a reference to Harry Potter.

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