Surviving the Game As a Barbarian [EN]: Chapter 527

A very rare stat boost for a companion occurred. While Erwen was on a crazy solo run after eating the Essence of Chaos, this event was very positive for me. Well, the exact details will be known after the essence’s stats are properly investigated. I was about to approach Ainar and ask her in detail about the changes.

“Yandel.”

“…Huh?”

Feeling a strange chill, I turned around and saw Amelia, who was giving off a cold glare.

“I want to talk about what happened a little while ago.”

“Ah……”

Here it comes.

I thought she had just let it slide since she hadn’t said anything until now. Did she miss the timing because the essence came out and was just waiting?

“Ah! You mean what happened earlier!” I laughed heartily and approached Amelia, praising her for her contribution to the battle. “It’s all thanks to you and Misha that we caught this giant. If it weren’t for you two, he would have recovered again, and then the hunt would have failed! You’ve worked hard! Ainar! You should thank them too!”

“T-thank you!”

Even though Ainar and I expressed our sincere gratitude, Amelia’s expression barely changed.

“I see… so that’s how you’re going to play it.”

So, she read all my moves. This is a bit troublesome. I was trying to figure out a way to break through her gaze, which seemed unchanged yet slightly colder, when she spoke.

“Kalstein, why are you just standing there?”

Amelia was trying to corner me further by calling for reinforcements. However, this turned out to be a bad move.

“…Huh?”

“You should also express your opinion properly. If you don’t say you don’t like something, you’ll just end up suffering—.”

“Huh? I’m not particularly bothered by it though…?”

“…What?”

Amelia was taken aback by the very nonchalant answer and asked back. “What… what do you mean?” A question that felt like she genuinely didn’t understand. Feeling this, Misha looked at Amelia, then glanced at me and opened her mouth slightly.

“I… I feel like I was finally helpful… so I didn’t feel particularly bad or anything…” It was clear that she wasn’t making excuses or anything. She just seemed to be stating the facts as they were.

“Kalstein, you…”

“…Huh?”

“…No, never mind.”

Amelia closed her mouth tightly, looking like she had a lot more to say. Then, she looked at me, sighed deeply, and said only this. “Let’s stop here for today. I’ll be watching you, Yandel.”

It seems like she lost her energy after hearing Misha’s answer… Okay, then let’s end this issue here.

“Ainar, do you feel any changes?”

“Uh… I don’t really know yet! I think I’ve gotten stronger though.”

I put the remaining personnel on standby and began to check the newly acquired essence. First, let’s start with the active skill.

“Then, crouch down.”

At my command, Ainar crouched down without a word. It was a posture that perfectly matched what Hipramatrant had shown earlier.

“Now, use your ability.”

There was no need for long explanations.

「Ainar Fnellin has activated [Crouch].」

Unlike the first essence, Ainar, who had already eaten and used several essences, skillfully activated the newly acquired skill. Whoooosh-! A translucent yellow barrier rose up as if to protect the user, while still in the crouched position.

「All resistance stats are increased by 20 times for 3 minutes.」

「Natural regeneration is increased by 20 times for 3 minutes.」

「All stats are greatly increased until the end of the battle, proportional to the amount of damage absorbed while crouching.」

After conducting several experiments while [Crouch] was activated, the skill itself was identical to the ogre’s. I wondered if there might be some difference in the skill itself. ‘The increase in resistance and regeneration seems similar too.’ The fact that the stat increase proportional to the damage received while using [Crouch] doesn’t activate on people is also the same. It probably only applies to monsters, like in the game.

“Um… would it be okay if we helped you?”

While I was about to check the stat part, the three mages from the exploration team approached. “We brought an essence experiment kit when we came into the labyrinth this time… It won’t be as good as a laboratory, but it will be quite helpful.”

“Oh, in that case. I’ll take some help.”

It was much better than just saying that the strength had increased, so I readily entrusted Ainar to the three mages. And how much time had passed? Although the detailed values were unknown, and there were several special stats that the kit couldn’t capture. Still, approximate basic stat information was derived.

Strength (High), Natural Regeneration (High), Physical Resistance (High). Magic Resistance (Medium), Bone Strength (Medium), Lung Capacity (Medium). Vision (Low), Patience (Low), Mana Sensitivity (Low). And…

“There’s one weakened stat.”

There was only one minus stat.

“A weakened stat? What is it? Tell me quickly.”

At my urging, one of the mages glanced at Ainar and said. “It’s fighting spirit.”

It was a completely unexpected stat. But…

“Fighting spirit, huh…”

Come to think of it, Ainar is being unusually quiet right now. If it were before, she would have said to stop this boring experiment and go catch monsters to check.

“How much… how much has it been weakened?”

I asked for the detailed value, but the mage only replied that it was difficult to find out with the current equipment. Therefore, I decided to use a primitive method.

“Ainar! I’m bored, how about we spar?”

A barbarian never refuses a spar under any circumstances. In the first place, sparring is like playing. If you go to the barbarian-only accommodation, you can see warriors fighting each other in the open space from morning till night. But what is this?

“Spar…? Hmm…”

Not only did Ainar, a high-level barbarian, trail off as if she was reluctant. “…Let’s do it later! Later! Isn’t now the time to do research first!”

She’s refusing? ‘No wonder that giant kept running away…’ How much has her fighting spirit been reduced?

***

The explorer you saw yesterday is different from the explorer you see today. This is a common saying that expresses the sharp aspects of explorers, but it is also true in itself. To explore a labyrinth full of monsters, you have to eat essences, and it was very common for those essences to affect the explorer’s personality. Like Ainar now.

“Fighting? Well, I’ll do it if I have to… but is there really a need to go looking for it? It’s peaceful and nice right now…”

The barbarian female warrior, who until a few minutes ago considered defeating monsters and proving her courage as the joy of life, had changed in an instant.

“Battle cry.”

“…Huh?”

“Let out a battle cry. Do it.”

“Behel… Raaa… ?”

“This is a damn mess.”

This isn’t something to laugh off, the situation is serious. It wasn’t like there were no problems, but after all, Ainar’s greatest strength was her aggressiveness.

“Yandel… is it okay for her to be like that?”

“…Ms. Fnellin is kind of scary like that.”

Other companions who heard the weak battle cry also realized the seriousness and cautiously spoke to me. They must be worried because the melee dealer who should be fighting at the front is acting like that. However, there is no other way right now. The next essence to feed her has quite a bit of fighting spirit attached to it, so she’ll be a bit better if she eats that… ‘Is she going to stay like this until then?’ I’m really curious again. How much has her fighting spirit been reduced? Her basic tendency is aggressive, so it wouldn’t be like this with just a few dozen points reduced… ‘I’d say it’s at least over -100.’ In that sense, I was a little worried too. It was positive that it was a non-combat stat like fighting spirit that was negative, not strength or resistance, but there’s a limit to that. ‘…Isn’t that how I’ll become if I eat it?’ Even when I eat this essence, the fighting spirit 40 attached to the orc hero will have disappeared, so the change will be even more pronounced.

“What about the materialized ability? Is there no way to find out?”

First, I decided to find out what the passive was. “In the case of materialized abilities, it is difficult to find out with the experimental tools we have. However, we can find out what kind it is.”

“Do it.”

When permission was given, the mages approached Ainar with various experimental tools, and after about 30 minutes, they returned with the results. “The materialized ability seems to be of the support assistance type. The numerical change is greatest in that direction.”

“Not survival or defense type?”

“There are signals in that direction, but they are minimal.”

It was a completely different result than expected. I was secretly thinking it would be that way after seeing her not die instantly even after her head was pierced. [Last Stand], [Phoenix Heart], [A Close Call]… I was thinking of such candidates, but I never thought it wouldn’t be that. ‘Then what is it?’ Since I didn’t know, I proceeded with the test within the limits of what I could do right now.

“Ainar, it’s going to sting a little.”

“I don’t like pain…”

“That’s because there’s something wrong with your head right now.”

“Oh, is that so?”

In the end, I tested it by cutting off about one joint of my finger, but I couldn’t find any meaningful data. This was the same in the sparring that I persuaded her to do, even though she didn’t want to. “…The sparring is over.”

“Oh? Really?”

In the end, I decided to find out about the passive later when there was time left. It had already taken a considerable amount of time just to find out this much.

“Okay, let’s go.”

With that, the exploration resumed.

***

During the approximately three days we could stay on this island, we explored the island thoroughly without wasting any time. First of all, the top priority was to complete the map of the island. In the process, we naturally had to encounter numerous monsters, including Hipramatrant. In his case, we met him about eight times? Three times there were two of them together, so we skipped them, and twice we failed because he succeeded in escaping. As a result, we succeeded in raiding three more times. However, this time we didn’t even get a magic stone all three times. That’s because all the distortion magic failed. ‘Distortion magic has to succeed, and then there’s the probability of an essence coming out from there…’ I hadn’t thought about it at first, but I realized it anew. How lucky it was to eat the essence on the first try. The difficulty of obtaining essences from individuals whose corpses disappear was insane. ‘The essence is ‘beginner’s luck’, so I’ll let that slide, but if the distortion magic hadn’t succeeded… it wouldn’t have worked in the first place.’ Anyway, apart from that, as we fought Hipramatrant repeatedly, I learned more about him. ‘The village chief’s book says he’s estimated to be a 2nd grade…’ In my opinion, he didn’t look like a 2nd grade at all. In the first place, the size of the magic stone is almost the same as the top of the 3rd grade. Well, the minimum damage required to attack is high because of [Crouch]… Since his survivability is high, his attack power is low. That also has to be taken into account before grading. ‘Then… considering that they live in groups, would he be about a 2.7 grade?’ Well, I guess that’s about right. In the first place, it’s strange to be classified as a 2nd grade when there are no 2nd grade skills. Suddenly, I became a little suspicious of the truth of the information written in the village chief’s book, but I decided to see this as a special case. The book also said in advance that he wrote down what he heard and saw, not what he witnessed himself—.

“Finally… we’re getting out of this island.”

While I was organizing my thoughts while looking at the island getting further away, Wight Hekz approached me. “You look relieved? It’s not like we’ve found a way back to the city yet.”

“Still… it’s much better than being trapped on that island. At that time, I really didn’t know what would happen.”

I thought that it wasn’t any different now, but I didn’t say it. There are ups and downs even at the bottom. It’s much better now that we have something to rely on—.

——————————!

At that moment, a gust of wind blew from the island, and the ship shook violently. ‘What is it?’ I was about to call Erwen, who was on the observation deck. Then, Wight Hekz, who was next to me, pointed to one place with his finger. “T-there… over there…!”

Over there? What’s over there? I looked and tilted my head, wondering what the problem was, and my body froze. No, not just me, but all the explorers standing on the deck were the same.

“……”

“……”

In the center of the island, which was getting smaller in the distance, something was standing up and glaring at us. Even letting out a ferocious roar.

[WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO——!]

Fortunately, it was just yelling from afar, and it didn’t seem like it was going to run after us right away.

“W-what is that…”

Looking at Wight Hekz, who was completely out of it, I muttered softly. “It seems like that friend who died back then wasn’t seeing things.”

A super giant over 40m tall. Even among the floor rulers, there was no one of this size. With that size, I have no idea how to raid it. But, even so. Swishhhhh-! As the ship sped up as if running away from him and moved away from the island, I thought. ‘To escape this island, I feel like I have to catch that guy too…’ How should I catch him?