The Story Of The Second Son Of The Baron Family [EN]: Chapter 6

Baron Family’s Second Son – Episode 6

Battles occurred every other day since that day. Fortunately, only blue alerts sounded, perhaps because it was after a large-scale attack. Thanks to that, I was able to gain experience in a ‘relatively’ relaxed environment. As the calendar pages turned, Baron Battery, the leader of the support troops, returned to the Imperial City.

“Don’t worry. I will definitely deliver your letter to Baron Dragnil, and I hope to see you next time.”

“Thank you for your help.”

I sent letters to my parents, my brother, and my sister with that envoy. The content was that I arrived safely and that I was holding up reasonably well. There were some lies mixed in, but what is a lie compared to alleviating my parents’ worries? Afterwards, thanks to Group A being pushed to a later rotation, I had time to start the research I had been putting off to adapt.

“It works?”

A tightly closed box. When the box was opened, a stone engraved with ‘Burst’ appeared. It was proof that engravings could be made if the existence of an object was recognized, even with distance limitations, and without directly touching or seeing it.

“Is the only remaining task to experiment on living things?”

There was no need to do that experiment on my own body. There were plenty of things to use as experimental subjects here.

“Oogoochyoogoo.”

Immediately, I headed to the livestock pen where edible livestock were kept. Since they were raised for consumption, a few could be easily obtained with a simple request.

For a proper experiment, it would have been more accurate to use monsters similar to humans – orcs, lizardmen – but the Terra Barrier’s situation was not relaxed enough to capture monsters alive.

Even if there were any available, the supply was not sufficient enough to reach a newbie like me. That’s why livestock. Anyway, it only needed to belong to the category of living things.

Oink, oink-

Unfortunately, I didn’t have much time. Even if the rotation didn’t change, I didn’t know when a yellow alert would sound, and even with a blue alert, it was common for the rear groups to be replaced if the battle dragged on. It wouldn’t be strange if I had to go up to the barrier right now. Therefore, it was necessary to finish the experiment as quickly as possible.

“I’m sorry for what I’m about to do to you…”

I prepared two pigs. One would be engraved with the rune of Pain, and the other would be left untouched as a control. If I had time, I could have prepared other engravings to observe the reactions, but since I didn’t have time, there was no better engraving to elicit an immediate reaction.

Oooo, oooo-?

As mana was consumed, the engraving began to be etched on the pig’s back. I didn’t want to cause unnecessary pain – it is said that pigs that die in pain don’t have good meat – so I used only the minimum amount of mana to engrave the rune. From the moment the last stroke of the letter was drawn, from the moment the letter began to glow with mana, a reaction appeared from the pig that had been leisurely eating.

Oink-!

The pig rubbed its back on the ground, complaining of discomfort. Even though the pig next to it was eating without any difference, only the pig with the engraving was complaining of pain.

“Whether it’s living or inanimate, there’s no problem with the engraving process itself.”

The engraving itself disappeared quickly. It was natural since I used such a small amount of mana. I wrote down the contents I had confirmed through several experiments in a notebook.

The duration varies depending on the amount of mana consumed to engrave the rune, and the increase or decrease in effect also affects the duration. Unfortunately, only one engraving can be etched at a time, and most of the contents were just reaffirmations of what I already knew, but some of the contents were what I wanted to confirm through experiments, so it was a fruitful experiment.

“I think I can engrave a rune without much mana consumption at about 30cm… If I can engrave this on the enemy during battle?”

Weakening the enemy as well as strengthening myself is a way to win. Weakness to a strong enemy, Slow to a fast enemy. In addition, Cowardice, Turbidity, etc. could neutralize strengths or highlight weaknesses. Strength, Speed, Recovery, etc. could make allies stronger. It could be a significant factor in battle and my own secret weapon.

“If I weren’t at the Terra Barrier, I could have focused only on research, but I can’t help it.”

Even the squad leader, Ild, comes up to the barrier every time to focus on commanding, so I, who haven’t been here for long, couldn’t leave the front lines for research. In the end, I had no choice but to make the time allocation even tighter for research.

#

I achieved a small result, but the effect was not significant. First of all, the engraving on the body had the disadvantage that mana consumption was extreme in order to see the effect properly. Fortunately, the Engrave of Absorption was a little helpful when recovering mana. I was prepared to consume mana in order to increase efficiency, but if I lost more than I gained, it would be better not to do it.

At the end of the rare peace at the Terra Barrier, what woke me up from my sleep was the loud ringing of bells.

Ding ding ding ding-

There is only one case in which the bell rings at the Terra Barrier: when an alarm is sounded due to a monster invasion. It’s been almost two weeks since I came here, and now, just a few seconds after the bell rings, I wake up and put on my equipment without even realizing it.

Even if it’s a later rotation, the longer the battle lasts, the more mana the wizards consume. Depending on the case, we may have to take turns, so I waited in the room with tension, but it didn’t take long to realize that it was different from usual.

Ding ding ding ding-

‘Was the bell ringing this fast?’

The bell I had heard so far was like a mild coffee, but now the bell was like a strong espresso [TOP is used as a metaphor for strong espresso]. It was not a relaxed bell, but a very urgent bell. I could feel just from the sound that the soldier ringing the bell was ringing it with all his might.

[The blue alert rings with a little leeway. Ding- Ding- Ding- Ding- like this. About once every 2 seconds? In comparison, the yellow alert is extremely rough.

Because the soldier rings the bell with all his might without a set interval. Red alert? If the bell rings again when you go up to the barrier with a yellow alert, that’s a red alert.

If not, it’s a red alert from the moment you see a monster climbing over the barrier. Remember it well. It’s directly related to your life, but if you experience it a few times, your body will remember it even if you don’t want to.]

‘It’s not blue. It’s a yellow alert!’

It meant that an attack had begun that would make the soldiers of the Terra Barrier, who wouldn’t even bat an eye at a considerable number of monsters since the large-scale offensive less than two weeks ago, become urgent.

‘These damn guys.’

Really, they were damn guys. The monsters that have died since I came here would be enough to form a mountain, exaggerating a little, but more numbers come every day as if they were being churned out in a factory.

The one and only strongest power on the continent, the Bahamut Empire, gave up further territorial expansion for a reason, even though it was a cold and barren land.

Even if they went up beyond the Terra Barrier, they would lose more to protect that land than they could gain from it. In fact, if the Terra Barrier hadn’t had the blessing of nature in the form of high mountains, the empire’s northern border might have had to come down quite a bit.

“Damn it! I thought it would be quiet for a while, but they’re causing trouble in the middle of the night!”

“Move quickly! We need to get into defensive posture before the monsters get any closer!”

“Please let me sleep!”

Of course, the inside of the building was also a mess. The tranquility from just before had disappeared with all sorts of curses and shouts, and I also had to throw myself into the commotion. A place where everyone has to do their best to survive. That’s here, the Terra Barrier.

#

“When Group C comes up, Group A goes down!”

“You’ve worked hard. Leave it to me and go down and focus on recovering your mana.”

“Th, thank you.”

The battle that broke out in the middle of the night showed no signs of ending even as dawn was breaking. There were quite a few monsters flying in the sky, such as harpies and wyverns, which were rarely seen in blue alerts, and the fatigue felt was several times greater as one could be caught and dragged away by them in an instant if they only paid attention to the bottom of the barrier.

“Damn it. There’s no end to killing them.”

“But they’ll retreat when the sun is completely up.”

“I hope so, but it might not be. Do monsters even think and move?”

We couldn’t rest assured just because we came down from the barrier. Monsters like wyverns fly in the sky and invade the inside of the barrier. Even if it’s not a direct attack, they sometimes bring stones the size of people and drop them on our heads, so we moved to a safe place and faced a group of people who were tied up and guarded by soldiers.

“Those people are…”

“Is this your first time seeing them? They’re traitors. Cowards. Trash who betrayed their comrades, friends, and humanity because they were afraid of fighting monsters. No matter how scared and tired you are, don’t become like those guys. The end of traitors is terrible.”

The yellow alert meant that most of the Terra Barrier’s power had to be used to defend the barrier. As such, the inside was bound to be neglected, and those who took advantage of the gap to desert or hide without participating in the battle were those people.

“They’re unfortunate people.”

“Unfortunate? Do you think we’re here because we like it? We’re here because it’s something someone has to do, because our families are in danger if we run away. They’re just bugs who only care about their own lives.”

They must be scared. They must have wanted to live. But like Ild said, it’s something someone has to do. They abandoned their comrades and family as a result, so even if they are unfortunate, I don’t feel like I want to do anything for them. It’s not that we abandoned them, but that they abandoned us first.

“Ignore them and focus on recovering your mana. It would be nice if they retreated like this, but we might have to go up again.”

“Yes. I understand.”

Baron Family’s Second Son – Episode 6 – End