Surviving the Game As a Barbarian [EN]: Chapter 132

The 4th floor of the Sky Tower was structured like a stage. After completing a trial, a door would open, and you’d choose one of three stairways to advance to the next stage. There were four types of stairways in total: Courage, Wisdom, Endurance, and Fate. Until now, we hadn’t chosen the Stairway of Fate even once. Its appearance rate was less than 5% compared to the others, and it had too many unpredictable variables. There was simply no need to choose it.

Until all three doors showed the ‘Fate’ option.

“Hmm, can’t we just pick any of them? Nothing bad has happened before. It was just a normal monster appearing, and then it was over,” Misha said.

Of course, choosing Fate wasn’t always dangerous. As Misha said, most of the time, even if you chose Fate, you’d still experience trials of Courage, Wisdom, or Endurance. However…

“It seems Misha was lucky. According to the books, the trials that appear are random,” I said.

The problem was that there was a 20% chance you’d experience a different type of trial instead of the usual three. In the game, there were 32 types of these alternative trials. They could range from being sent back to the 1st floor, encountering a grade 5 monster, or suddenly being trapped in a secret room.

‘They were ridiculously difficult, the rewards were stingy, and many were outright designed to screw you over.’

So, unless you were aiming for a specific reward, if you were just here to hunt, Fate was a trial you had to avoid at all costs. Well, the situation was a bit different now, though.

I was organizing my thoughts when…

“Bjorn, why are you just standing there?” one of my teammates asked.

The others, who were discussing what to do next, wanted my opinion.

“We’ve all agreed that it’s better to just go in somewhere. It’s a waste to throw away the remaining days like this,” another added.

I nodded in agreement.

“That’s true.”

We were deep into the 4th floor. At our current hunting speed, we could mine up to 300,000 stones in four days. Not divided by five, but per person. Since most of our time since entering the labyrinth had been spent traveling, each day here was directly linked to our total income. It was natural for them to think that way.

‘There’s no way they know what this means.’

On the 4th floor, the Stairway of Fate never appeared three times at once. If it did, it meant only one thing: we’d reached a special stage. And that meant we could enter one of three hidden fields.

‘……The probability is one in three, huh?’

I looked at the three doors and pondered which one to choose. Then, I realized something and chuckled.

“Misha.”

“Huh?”

“Why don’t you choose where to go?”

If I chose, it was clear it would either work or not.

***

Misha looked at the other team members as if asking for their opinion. However, all three of them just shrugged, as if they trusted her choice.

“Ah, this is so burdensome…” Misha sighed, then glared at me and approached one of the open doors. Based on the stairs we came up, it was the door directly in front.

“I’m just saying, even if a weird monster suddenly appears, I don’t know anything!” Misha said, trying to avoid responsibility. The dwarf chuckled.

“Hahaha, what are you talking about? Are you trying to avoid responsibility?”

“……What? You crazy dwarf!”

“Hic, Hicurod, stop it. Misha is having a hard time…” Dwarki said, trying to mediate.

The same bickering pattern that repeated three times a day for Team Half-Pint. I sighed and looked to the side, making awkward eye contact with Rotmüller, who smiled back.

“Alright, everyone, why don’t we stop and go?” Rotmüller took the lead to calm the atmosphere, and everyone stopped talking and stood in formation.

Bang!

The door closed, and darkness fell. It was so thick that it was hard to see even an inch ahead. Everyone was momentarily flustered by the sudden change, which was different from any trial of Courage, Exploration, or Endurance. Rotmüller muttered briefly, sharing the most important information when faced with an unfamiliar situation.

“There are no enemies right now.”

The presence or absence of enemies. Rotmüller first informed his companions of this and then warned them.

“Stay still. There might be traps.”

He was an excellent scout. He must have assessed the situation in a short moment and decided what needed to be done. Of course, the dwarf was no different.

“Bjorn, I’ll take care of the rear, so just focus on the front,” he said, his voice serious, completely devoid of laughter. The moment these two spoke simultaneously, the darkness around us lifted.

Straight passages branched out in all directions like a maze. Torches hung on the walls at regular intervals, creating an eerie atmosphere. I quickly checked my surroundings and came to a conclusion.

[The character has entered Larcaz’s Maze.]

Larcaz’s Maze. One of the three hidden fields belonging to the Sky Tower. A key characteristic was that even guides couldn’t use their abilities in this maze. And…

[Field Effect – Guardian of Balance is granted.]

[The stats of the entrants are adjusted equally.]

The total stats of the characters were redistributed according to the number of people.

“Wha, what is this! What is it! Did I choose the wrong one? Rotmüller!” Misha looked at Rotmüller with anxious eyes after checking her surroundings. However, there was no way he could answer.

“I’m sorry. I don’t have any information about this phenomenon either.”

“Me, me neither. I’ve never heard of a phenomenon that leads explorers to a place like this during the trials of Fate.”

“Ugh, it’s not dangerous, is it…?” Everyone shut their mouths at Misha’s words. It was a natural reaction. Ironically, the most frightening thing for an explorer was the unknown.

“……”

A cold silence descended. However, it didn’t last long. The guys who were silent a moment ago started talking urgently as if it was a lie.

“……How about we just stay still? There are only 4 days left, so we can just hold out.”

“We don’t know about this space yet. If it’s a space with a structure similar to a rift…”

“Then that means we’ll be trapped here forever in 4 days!!”

All sorts of speculations and anxieties poured out. Well, I didn’t know about the 5th floor where information sharing was almost non-existent, but how could they have known they’d fall into a place like this on the 4th floor?

“How about we check our condition first?”

“Huh?”

“Misha, do you feel any different?” I pretended not to know and first induced them to check their condition.

“Ah, now that I think about it… I feel strangely lighter?” Misha’s reaction was hesitant.

“Hmm, I don’t know. Isn’t it just a delusion?” The dwarf, who had exactly average stats among the group, didn’t feel any change, unlike Rotmüller or Dwarki.

“It’s not a delusion. There’s no way I wouldn’t notice this much vitality in my body.”

“Me, me too. My magic power has increased a lot. I think I can even use a grade 6 magic with this much, but what on earth is going on…” Dwarki said.

What was going on was exactly what was going on. It all came out of my muscles. Even though there were only three essences, they were all essences with ridiculously high raw stats. Damn communism.

‘How much muscle loss is this…?’ I placed the suddenly heavier mace on the floor to distribute the weight. The first one to notice this action was Misha.

“Bjorn? Are you sick?”

“My body is weird. I keep feeling like I can’t use my strength.”

“What?” While Misha was approaching me worriedly, Rotmüller made a guess.

“There must be some kind of condition. It’s not a space where everyone just gets stronger.”

“Condition? What condition makes me weaker and you guys stronger? This is unfair!” I asked back, subtly throwing out a hint. Then, as expected, Rotmüller made a pretty plausible hypothesis. No, was it even a hypothesis at this point?

“Maybe our stats are mixed up with each other…”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“It’s not certain yet, so I’ll tell you when it’s sorted out.”

Well, at this point, it seemed like he’d explain what this was to them without me having to step in. I slowly moved on to the next thing. Time was running out to keep messing around.

“Then what are we going to do now?”

“Bjorn, what do you think?”

“I think it’s right to explore this place and find a way out.”

“Why?”

I answered without a moment’s hesitation.

“If it’s a place that others don’t know about, that means the rewards are that much greater, right?”

“That’s a very explorer-like point of view,” Rotmüller said.

I proudly puffed out my chest at his comment. No matter what you say, the ultimate goal of an explorer is money, isn’t it? In fact, the motivation was also clear.

“Well, it’s a bit much to just stay still when we might be trapped here in four days…?”

“Hahaha, aren’t we explorers? It would be good to explore the surroundings, even slowly,” Dwarki said.

Even the eyes of the three who were anxious and uneasy were filled with a small amount of enthusiasm. Of course, Dwarki’s words were decisive.

“Ah, ah! I just had a thought, maybe this place is a setup left by the last Great Sage!” he exclaimed.

“What? Are you talking about Gavrilius’s setup?” Misha asked.

“Certainly… that’s a possibility. The fact that three Stairways of Fate appeared at the same time, and this strange phenomenon,” Rotmüller added.

Gavrilius’s setup. In simple terms, it’s what these people called what I called the ‘Hidden Piece’. The dwarf shouted with ambition.

“Right! After all, this is a place we entered from the 4th floor. No ridiculous monsters will appear!”

With 4 days left until the labyrinth closed, Team Half-Pint’s last exploration began.

***

Larcaz’s Maze. When I left the choice to Misha, it wasn’t the hidden field type I wanted the most. Well, the final reward was the best of the three, but…

‘It’ll be hard to clear it in 4 days, as expected.’

The maze field took a long time. Finding the boss was one thing, but it took a lot of groundwork to defeat him with our current strength. Therefore, I decided not to overdo it either. Unlike their worries, it wasn’t a place where you’d be trapped if you didn’t clear it within the time limit like a rift… And even if you didn’t clear it, there were some attractive rewards scattered throughout this maze.

“Then let’s go,” I said. As planned, we formed a formation and stepped into the maze in earnest.

“It seems like we can keep going,” I said, taking the lead. Rotmüller followed closely behind, checking for traps. Ah, and the dwarf was at the very back, because this wasn’t a place where monsters only appeared from the front.

“Misha, don’t worry. I’ll protect you well from the side,” Dwarki said.

“What are you talking about? I’m the one who should be protecting you,” Misha retorted.

“Hehe, then let’s protect each other,” Dwarki replied.

“……What are you saying,” Misha muttered.

Anyway, that’s the kind of place it was, so our team’s two main damage dealers were located in the center. It was the safest place, and they had to provide support depending on the situation, whether it was the front or the back.

[Meeeek, Meeeek, Meeeek!]

About 3 minutes after we started exploring in earnest, a monster appeared from a fork in the road. It was the first reward of Larcaz’s Maze.

“It’s a monster I’ve never seen before. Bjorn, be careful,” Rotmüller warned.

The first monster we encountered. That alone was like a sweet rain for us, because [Dungeon & Stone] was a game where you could barely reach level 5 even if you defeated all the monsters below the 4th floor. Isn’t it contradictory? You needed to eat five grade 6 or 7 essences to hunt stably on the 5th floor, but you couldn’t reach level 5 unless you went to the 5th floor.

‘That’s why new players don’t appear.’

Ah, if you could go to the 5th floor, you weren’t a newbie, were you? I erased the unnecessary question and held the shield with both hands. It felt awkward without the mace, but with my current strength stat, it was too heavy to swing with one hand, so I just put it in my backpack. I decided it was better to leave the damage to the dealers.

[Meeeek!!!] The monster, which had been hesitating when it saw us from afar, let out a shriek and rushed at me. At the same time, Dwarki shouted.

“Ah, I saw it in a book! It’s a Baikundus!”

A grade 6 monster, Baikundus. It’s easy to imagine if you think of a bipedal mountain goat. Its height was about 2.5m, including its majestic horns. For reference, its weapon was a huge halberd held tightly in both hands.

Clang-!

The halberd slammed down on the shield, and its heavy weight was transmitted throughout my body. I thought it was a good thing I gave up the mace. If it was one-handed, it would have been hard to endure in my current state.

‘Damn it.’

Was it because I shared my precious physical stats with my companions? It felt like I was fighting a grade 5 monster, not a grade 6. Well, there was no difficulty in the battle itself.

[Riol Worb Dwarki has cast the 8th grade support magic [Ice Strengthening].]

[Riol Worb Dwarki has cast the 8th grade attack magic [Ice Lance].]

While I was taking the attack from the mountain goat’s head, Dwarki completed a single-target specialized attack magic.

“Bjorn!” Dwarki called me, and I immediately moved to the side as we had always done. Up to this point, it was the usual. But, what was this?

Pshoooot-!

The size of the ‘Ice Lance’ that passed by was different. The wind pressure it emitted was enough to make my skin feel cool. Naturally, the result was also different from usual.

Kwaaaang-!!

A collision sound that wouldn’t be strange even if a ‘Fireball’ had hit instead of an ‘Ice Lance’.

“Huh?” Misha, who was waiting for the right time for the next combo, made a deflated sound. It was understandable. The Baikundus, which was supposed to be a grade 6 monster, was already disappearing into light.

[You have defeated Baikundus. EXP +4]

Well, it was strange how much my physical stats had decreased. It was all converted into his magic power.

“Is this my magic…?” Looking at Dwarki, who was muttering, I realized. Here, he was no longer a half-pint. Which meant…

‘Then the story changes again.’

It wouldn’t be bad to aim for a clear.