Surviving the Game As a Barbarian [EN]: Chapter 673

One of the fields in the 9th floor Star Tomb, the Poisonous Lava Zone.

As it’s the highest level, its danger is incomparable to the lower floors, and there are also annoying field effects here.

‘Poison resistance at 0.’

Even if I’ve raised my resistance enough to gain immunity to poison, it’s useless here.

‘MP natural recovery disabled.’

Well, it’s not completely impossible, but anyway.

With a 99% reduction, it’s easier to think of it as if MP doesn’t recover at all.

Of course, this can be addressed with skills like my [Soul Dive] or a method within the field, but…

The real headache is something else.

「Warning: Be careful of explosions!」

All sorts of things explode here.

Just like this.

“Uh… the ground is swelling…?”

“It’s going to explode! Everyone, get away!”

Fwoooosh-!

Even while walking, poisonous lava erupts from the ground and explodes.

“…Wait a minute! The monster’s body is swelling!”

“No time to talk, get away!”

Even monsters we were fighting would suddenly explode like a bomb right in front of us.

Fwoooosh-!

Explosions would occur in the air without any warning.

And the biggest problem here is…

Shhhhhhh-!!

When something explodes, thick poisonous liquid scatters everywhere.

「The character has been poisoned (medium).」

It’s not the highest level of poisoning, just medium, but that doesn’t really matter.

Because poison resistance is fixed at 0 here.

Chiiiiiiik-!

Ugh, it stings like hell.

In my normal state, my resistance would adjust it to a low level, and it would quickly wear off on its own.

“Detox.”

Without saying much, I briefly state my need, and the GM rushes over to cast a spell. And the same goes for Jaina, our party’s only healer.

“Heal.”

“…I’m okay.”

As you can see, in the ‘Poisonous Lava Zone,’ the roles of mages and priests are crucial.

To avoid increasing the poison level, you need to detoxify periodically, and you also need to continuously manage HP loss from the poison.

However, this creates another problem.

“Oh! Lava fruit! There’s lava fruit over there!!”

Lava fruit.

A fruit that grows on small trees occasionally found in the Poisonous Lava Zone, with only three fruits on each tree.

By the way, eating this restores your depleted primary resource.

“Jaina, Havelion, Gramps! Share it among yourselves!”

It goes without saying, but the lava fruit had to be given to the healers and mages first.

“Um… Baekho? My soul power is also running low, so I can’t use my abilities…”

“So what?”

“Wouldn’t it be possible to give me just one? If this continues, I won’t be of any help in battle-”

“You just need to get hit anyway, you’re being too greedy?”

“…”

As most of the lava fruit found went into the mouths of the healers and mages, the MP of the other roles continued to deplete.

Ah, except for me, of course.

「The character has activated [Soul Dive].」

「Soul power is regenerated in proportion to the soul power consumed.」

Thanks to the Deep Sea Giant’s active skill, I was able to periodically recover MP and maintain a certain amount.

Unlike Rex Aureus, who chose [Giant’s Blood].

“…I’m truly envious, Baron Yandel.”

You should have eaten the green essence too.

How important is MP in this game?

“The Baron is doing all the main tanking anyway. You just focus on being a sub-tank in the back. Don’t covet things like lava fruit. Got it?”

“Understood…”

Aureus, looking dejected, retreated.

However, it wasn’t just him who was in a bad situation; everyone was.

“I don’t know how long it’s been since I’ve just shot a normal arrow.”

“It’s the same for me, so stop complaining, okay?”

“…Ryo, Ryokai.”

“What’s with that pronunciation? Are you a pro-Japanese? It’s okay, not Ryokai. Got it?”

“Baekho… but what’s a pro-Japanese?”

“It’s a thing, there is such a thing.”

Lee Baekho and Briat were fighting monsters with only normal attacks to save as much MP as possible.

In terms of chess, it was like starting without rooks and cannons, but… what’s a little funny is that they were still able to hunt.

「Defeated a Popensis. EXP +7」

Well, it gets incredibly difficult from rank 3, and if a rank 2 appears, there’s no choice but to run away.

‘…Luckily, I haven’t seen any rank 2 yet.’

Is it because the most dangerous northern part of the Poisonous Lava Zone is blocked?

The rank 2 monsters I was worried about haven’t appeared.

Thump-!

Of course, that doesn’t mean we can let our guard down.

“Baron, it seems like we’re pushing it too hard. How about we go out for a bit and rest?”

“…Let’s do that.”

While exploring the Poisonous Lava Zone and filling in the empty parts of the map, we took breaks outside the zone whenever it got too overwhelming.

It was a common tactic we used when exploring the 9th floor.

The field effects are removed the moment you leave the area.

‘…This is a tactic we can use because we’re only exploring the southern edge.’

Anyway, how much time had passed since we started exploring the Poisonous Lava Zone?

The map of the Poisonous Lava Zone was almost completely filled, and I was starting to think that the Hans effect might be over, when.

“A monument! It’s a monument!!”

A monument similar to the one we saw in the Ancient Land was discovered.

“…There are some unknown drawings on it!”

“Those aren’t drawings, they’re letters.”

“Hahaha! This mage friend is funny! Do you think I’d fall for that even if I’m uneducated? How can that be letters!”

“…”

It was similar to the one we saw in the Ancient Land, but it was still something we found after a very long time, so we stopped exploring and started investigating the monument again.

However…

“The letters on this monument are different from the one in the Ancient Land, but the content is unreadable, so it’s meaningless… The rest is the same. We can’t get any information other than that it’s hard.”

The investigation that failed last time was unlikely to succeed this time. At least, based on our previous experience of wasting time, we were able to finish this investigation quickly.

“So, there’s nothing more we can find out?”

“Yes, that’s the case for now.”

Therefore, without wasting any more time, we just recorded the location of the monument in detail on the map and moved on.

After that, we wandered around to fill in the empty parts of the map.

And…

“In the end, we didn’t find anything except for one monument.”

With that, the exploration of the Poisonous Lava Zone ended.

“So, what are you going to do now?”

I chuckled at the words of Briat, the archer who also worked as an explorer.

What else would I do?

There are still two more places we haven’t explored.

“We’re going to the Dreamfall Waterfall.”

I really don’t want to go there, but there’s no other choice, is there?

***

「The character has entered a special area.」

「Field Effect – Dreamfall Waterfall is applied.」

***

Dreamfall Waterfall.

This field is practically the final trial of the 9th floor Star Tomb.

That’s because the portal to the 10th floor is beyond here, and…

‘It’s a pain in the ass.’

That’s the only way to describe the concept and difficulty of this field.

「The character periodically falls asleep.」

Just one line, a single field effect.

However, when you play, there’s nothing more annoying than this.

Swoooosh.

A calm lake that shines brightly as if it contains the Milky Way.

We are sailing on it.

Along with three sleeping companions.

“Three people have fallen asleep this time.”

“Jaina, Gramps of Destruction, Havelion. Of all people, these three most important ones are out.”

“We can only hope that no one else falls asleep until these three wake up.”

“That’s assuming all three of them wake up.”

The moment you enter this lake, characters periodically fall asleep.

Of course, it’s not like you just sleep and relax; you have to fight illusions alone inside.

In a way, it’s similar to the [Soul Trap] used by Cariadea, the special boss of Ice Rock…

‘The biggest difference is that even if you can’t wake up on your own, you can be woken up from the outside.’

Like the lava fruit in the Poisonous Lava Zone, there are items in the Dreamfall Waterfall that can wake up sleeping companions.

The problem is that they are much harder to find than lava fruit.

Shhhhhh.

A boat slowly moves across the picturesque lake.

By the way, this boat belongs to Lee Baekho.

I thought about taking out my boat, but after trying his last time, his boat was a little better.

It’s a very slight difference, but it’s there.

I didn’t want to take out my boat and have it break, which would cost me repair fees, so I boarded without complaint.

“Baekho, can’t you speed up a bit?”

“What did you hear when we passed through here last time? They said that monsters would appear if we sped up.”

“Ah, that’s right. I forgot.”

That’s one of the annoying things about Dreamfall Waterfall.

It’s not impossible to speed up, but if you do, the monsters that are sleeping peacefully underwater will wake up and attack.

The only way is to take a specially made boat and move quietly and quickly, but…

‘His boat doesn’t have that either.’

Well, even when exploring the 9th floor, you wouldn’t come to Dreamfall Waterfall unless you were going to the 10th floor. And even if you did, you could just move slowly.

“Anyway, be quiet. It’ll be annoying if monsters appear because you’re making noise.”

“Ah, understood…”

Aureus lowered his voice, afraid of being scolded by Lee Baekho, and the archer Briat quietly approached me and asked.

“Baron, what if we don’t find anything in Dragon Bone Mountain either?”

“Then we’ll have to investigate under the water here.”

“…From then on, the difficulty will really increase tremendously.”

“We can only hope that doesn’t happen.”

“Yes…”

After that, we slowly sailed the boat, and we didn’t encounter any monsters.

A peaceful time that made us forget that it was a dangerous place.

Ah, of course, that was only for the people who were awake.

“Hah… I finally woke up. I thought I was going to die.”

“Gramps of Destruction, you just woke up from a good sleep, why do you look like that?”

“I just… had a bad dream.”

“Hee… you saying that makes me curious.”

As time passed, the GM started to regain consciousness, and soon after, others fell asleep.

“Now it’s Briat, Aureus, and Lee Baekho’s turn.”

Lee Baekho collapses as if he’s fainted, unable to overcome the field effect.

Looking at him sound asleep, an impulse arises.

Wouldn’t it be easy to solve if I just threw him out of the boat?

‘…For now, getting out of here is the priority.’

I shake my head and throw away the urge that arose for a moment.

And how much further did I sail the boat, looking at the map, instead of Lee Baekho?

“Ugh… this is really disgusting every time it happens.”

“Yes… I thought it was an illusion on the 4th floor, but it’s not here.”

Starting with Lee Baekho, the rest of the people woke up, and then the next people fell asleep.

And…

‘What is this?’

They keep falling asleep except for me.

Well, falling asleep is completely random, so it’s not impossible, but…

‘Is there no harm in it?’

It’s a place where you only suffer if you fall asleep, so I just thought I was lucky and moved on—.

Thump-!

…No, isn’t this a dangerous situation right now?

From the moment that thought suddenly occurred to me, I became uneasy that I was the only one not falling asleep.

And that unease grew as time passed.

That’s because, surprisingly, the same thing kept happening, with everyone falling asleep except for me.

And that was almost until we reached the end of the map.

“Baron, why do you look like that?”

“…It’s nothing.”

If I say something, it’ll become a seed.

“Anyway, we’ll be arriving soon.”

I decided not to think about the uneasy thoughts anymore and focused on something else.

Shhhhhhh-!

After a little more time, the faint sound of water that I had been hearing gradually became louder, and soon, the reason why this place was called ‘Dreamfall Waterfall’ rather than ‘Dreamfall Lake’ appeared before my eyes.

“Wow, it’s a spectacle no matter how many times I see it.”

The end of the world as the ancients imagined it.

Water flows down through a huge hole in the center of the lake, forming a huge waterfall.

By the way, a gray boundary line was crossing this waterfall, so two-thirds of the waterfall was stopped…

“Don’t just look around, increase the output of the propulsion device. It’s okay if the sound gets a little louder from here. If we get sucked down, it’s over.”

“Yes sir.”

From here, our next move is to sail the boat and light up the entire map of the lake.

Therefore, just as I was about to move as planned.

“…Something’s coming from below.”

Gramps of Destruction, instead of the sleeping Briat, urgently muttered something.

I couldn’t hear it well at first because of the sound of the waterfall, but…

“Turn the bow!”

The sound and expression were enough to make me realize that something was urgent.

It was almost simultaneous.

[Kyahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh-!!]

A huge snake-shaped monster appeared, rising against the pouring waterfall.

The GM, who was always the first to explain, was also asleep, but the GM’s absence wasn’t felt much.

Because it’s a very famous one.

“…Dryzen.”

A rank 1 phantom species, Dryzen.

Like Cariadea, the Ice Mage, it’s a kind of ‘special boss’ that only appears in this area.

“We’re screwed, this is…”

This time, I didn’t even need to shout first.

Whoooosh-!

As soon as he saw the monster, Lee Baekho increased the output of the propulsion device to the maximum.

The noise became incredibly loud, but now was not the time to worry about such trivial things.

「Monsters that have been sleeping for a long time are awakening.」

Whether or not the mobs attack, if we stay here, it’s over.

「The character has entered the range of [Dreaming Pond].」

「All harmful effects and damage inflicted on Dryzen are nullified.」

We can’t kill that monster on our own, no matter what.

Even though it’s also a rank 1, it’s on a different level than ‘Kashan’ that we caught in the library.

In the first place, this is his home ground.

In fact, it’s not easy to guarantee that we can escape safely…

‘Could it be that the Hans effect is finally activating now…?’

A weak thought that began to dominate my mind at the same time as I discovered Dryzen.

“…Bullshit.”

I don’t care about Hans or anything else.

“Hoo…”

I take a breath and regain my composure.

From now on, I have to be on my toes.

Only then can I overcome this crisis.

As I was thinking that and making up my mind.

“…Huh?”

My head suddenly goes blank as if I’ve taken a sleeping pill.

And at the same time.

「Field Effect – Dreamfall Waterfall has been activated.」

My vision starts to spin, and at the same time, it becomes blurry.

It was the same sensation I felt when I passed through the Dreamfall Waterfall once before.

“Th…is… sh…it…”

I wondered why it hadn’t happened all this time.

“Why… now…”

With those words, my body, which had lost its balance, leans forward.

But, is it because of the shaking of the boat that had sped up?

Thud.

To make matters worse, my body, which was barely holding on to the railing, is thrown out as if it had been bounced off.

“Baron…!”

The surrounding sounds become faint.

Splash-!

My body, which fell below the surface of the water, quickly sinks.

But even in that urgent situation, there was nothing I could do.

「The character falls asleep.」

…Damn it.