Barbarian in a Failed Game

The Carius Sea.

Known as the Endless Sea, its boundaries remain a mystery even today. Across the vast waters that ancient great mages gave up trying to conquer, a small dot was cutting through the ocean’s expanse. This small dot was the dwarf pirate ship carrying Khan and his companions.

“This is really amazing.”

Leaning against the railing, Ron marveled at the crashing waves. Although he had been seeing this sight for days, it never ceased to amaze him.

Ships typically are heavily influenced by their environment. Yet this dwarf-made ship ignored both wind and waves, sailing in the desired direction at the desired speed.

“Amazing? This isn’t even a proper dwarf ship. It’s just a failed product. From what I can tell, it looks like the apprentices cobbled it together and passed it off.”

If it were up to me, it wouldn’t be this small. Dwarf William snorted as he kicked the ship they were on. His rough treatment showed he considered it junk.

“We reinforced it with wyvern bones, but don’t get too comfortable. If sea monsters show up, things could get troublesome.”

“Are those giant fish really something to worry about? They just seem a bit stronger or larger at most.”

“That’s because you haven’t seen real sea monsters. The monsters in the Carius Sea are the real deal. Imagine huge creatures that could swallow dwarves whole, swarming by the hundreds and crashing into the ship. This small ship would be shattered in moments.”

Ron gulped at William’s words. That sounded truly horrifying.

“If their size were the only problem, we’d be lucky. Some have teeth that gnaw through defensive spells, and others shoot actual water cannons from their mouths. The wyvern bones can’t guarantee our safety.”

“… We better hope we don’t encounter them. Even Khan can’t do much underwater.”

Fortunately or unfortunately, their ship didn’t get wrecked by a swarm of sea monsters. Not even the dwarf pirates, who were supposedly more common than sea monsters, showed themselves.

In the silence akin to the calm before the storm, their ship entered the waters of the Sea Dragon Archipelago.

『Level: 34』

Meanwhile.

After slaying the elf elder, Khan had leveled up. Despite this, he felt an almost alien sensation within his body, as if something significant was about to change upon reaching the next threshold.

He was nearly halfway through to gaining another level, and there was a foreboding sense that passing this final step would bring some transformation. Considering the crucial mission ahead, this gave Khan a mix of excitement and unease.

Unable to identify the source of the strange sensation within him, Khan frowned as they entered the Sea Dragon Archipelago.

‘It’s absurdly vast.’

Just as the Carius Sea was an unknown expanse to many on the continent, it was also an enigma to players. The main quest was so demanding that it left little time for full conquest of such a large sea. Most players only traveled through areas directly related to their quests.

Khan was no different, but he did have some knowledge about the Sea Dragon Archipelago. There were real dragons living in the Sea Dragon Archipelago.

‘Perhaps the entire Sea Dragon Archipelago itself is…’

He caught himself from delving too deeply into that thought. Awakened from his deepening musings, Khan found Ron approaching him with questions about their next steps.

“Hey, what’s the plan now? It looks impossible to search every inch of this place.”

Ron was right. It was impossible to search the entire Sea Dragon Archipelago. Covering thousands of kilometers of this vast archipelago with just one ship was out of the question.

Khan, knowing the vastness of the area, never intended to search it all from the start.

“Run the ship.”

“Huh? Run it? How…?”

“The ship. Make as much noise and go as fast as you can.”

They have to come out.

***

The fleet from Paradise raced towards the Sea Dragon Archipelago at an incredible speed. It was a large fleet with more than a hundred elf hunters on a dozen ships. Nearly half were spirit masters, while the rest were hunters skilled with both sword and bow from the six families.

Even a dwarf pirate ship wouldn’t dare to challenge such overwhelming strength and numbers. Leading the fleet was an elder from the Isa family.

The failure at Paradise Bank meant both the Eiwass and Isa families had to bear responsibility. The Eiwass family paid with Uruz’s life, leaving the Isa family elder, the sixth branch, to face the consequences next.

Of course, there was a possibility of returning alive.

‘How likely is it to survive provoking the monster of the Sea Dragon Archipelago?’

Even dwarf pirates wouldn’t stand a chance against that monster in the sea. Unless the mothership, Gigantus itself, set sail, the short-lived dwarf pirates couldn’t possibly even know about the monster’s existence, let alone confront it.

‘I can only hope the artifact granted by the Tree of Memory proves useful.’

“Sixth branch, we are nearing the Sea Dragon Archipelago.”

“Cease the use of spirit magic. From now on, do not provoke the monster of the Sea Dragon Archipelago.”

If you wish to return alive. The sixth branch’s tone was extremely detached, even when talking about survival. She seemed to regard her own life as if it were someone else’s, and most elders were similar to her in this regard.

Spending most of their time within the Tree of Memory, their emotions eroded, and their zest for life gradually faded. Elders who shared longer periods with the Tree than her often had nearly indistinguishable personal identities.

‘Uruz, that colt-like fellow, was the sanest among us.’

She had faint memories of more joyful times spent with Uruz, who, unlike the other elders, was richer in emotions. Perhaps they had been lovers centuries ago.

But buried within the Tree of Memory, it hardly mattered now. The sixth branch felt no desire for revenge and turned her attention to the Sea Dragon Archipelago that stretched before her.

Unlike the treacherous waters of the Carius Sea known for their roughness, this was the only area that remained eerily calm. The realization that this was due to a single entity had once filled her with awe.

A being capable of perfectly controlling the climate and natural environment of such a vast region.

‘If a single entity can control an area this large, how different is that from being a God?’

And now, she was here to provoke that entity. The thought made the sixth branch smile. What a fitting final entertainment for the end of one’s life.

“Sixth branch! Ahead, there’s a dwarf ship…!”

Just then, a spirit master from the Isa family who had contracted with a mid-tier spirit urgently reported the anomaly.

The sixth branch swiftly dismissed her smile and, with sharper eyes than anyone present, absorbed the surroundings into her mind’s eye.

It didn’t take long for her to see what the spirit master was talking about.

“What is that?”

“It’s a dwarf…”

“Don’t state the obvious.”

Why is a dwarf pirate ship causing a ruckus in the Sea Dragon Archipelago? Cracks appeared in her composed expression.

The relationship between the dwarves and Paradise was on the brink of collapse. There had been numerous secret clashes, each side on the verge of declaring all-out war.

Naturally, Paradise closely monitored the movements of the dwarf fleet. The Tree of Memory herself had confirmed that Gigantus had not shown any movement.

In the midst of all this, the dwarf pirate ship appeared in Sea Dragon Archipelago, causing a commotion as if to provoke some entity.

“…Increase speed.”

As the Sixth Branch, who had opened one eye, closed it again and gave the order, the elf spiritists who had retracted the power of spirits began to summon the wind once more to propel the ship.

‘The commotion has already begun.’

It was known that the monster of Sea Dragon Archipelago punishes those who disturb its rest, but the punishment from an entity that controls the environment so perfectly was bound to be extraordinary in scale.

The elf fleet, which had already entered Sea Dragon Archipelago, was inevitably caught up in the situation. In that case, it was right to perfectly accomplish the given mission.

Conscious of the object held in hand, the Sixth Branch awakened the high-ranking spirit.

“Break those noisy ones.”

The spirit, with a dragon-like head, the body of a lion, and two pairs of membrane wings, was as large as the rocks of Sea Dragon Archipelago.

When the spirit, resembling a type of dragon, flapped its large membrane wings, it seemed as if a massive boulder was swimming through the sky. The spirit opened its jaw wide.

Kwaaaak!

As the breath imbued with the energy of frost was unleashed, ice crystals fell from the sky like snow. However, it did not manage to hit the dwarf pirate ship moving at full speed.

But that was only a matter of time.

The breath exhaled by the spirit froze even the sea, and the dwarf pirate ship, which had to navigate around both the reefs of Sea Dragon Archipelago and the icy patches created by the spirit, would soon find itself completely immobilized.

“Sixth Branch! The main island of Sea Dragon Archipelago is right ahead!”

Thanks to the almost infinitely supplied energy of the Sixth Branch, the frost spirit continued to unleash its breath, pressing the dwarf pirate ship.

As the elf fleet exhibited extraordinary maneuvers by the power of spirit magic, they reached the main island of Sea Dragon Archipelago. The Sixth Branch kicked into the air.

The spiritists of the Eiwass family raised her body into the air with wind, and she gracefully landed, running at incredible speed toward the center of the island.

‘To keep the monster of the archipelago rampaging, this item is necessary.’

The words of the Tree of Memory echoed in her mind. It was essentially an order to go and die, but the Sixth Branch had no doubts.

‘It’s done.’

In an instant, the Sixth Branch, who had sprinted to the center of the island, buried the palm-sized jade stone into the ground.

This object, made by an alchemist—a short-lived species from the outside world—was said to be a kind of stimulant that would make the monster of Sea Dragon Archipelago rampage excessively.

The corners of the Sixth Branch’s mouth twisted grotesquely as she successfully completed the mission given by the Tree of Memory.

While there was a high probability that she herself would die, she was more interested in how many short-lived beings would lose their lives due to the disaster she would trigger with her own hands.

Most of the elders of Paradise were like her.

‘Frost Spirit.’

To see the monster with her own eyes, the Sixth Branch was about to attempt to resonate with the Frost Spirit, which was attacking the dwarf pirate ship from afar.

At that moment.

Bang!

Something came rushing from afar and passed by the Sixth Branch in an instant. Feeling an immediate threat to her life, she urgently threw herself to the side, but whatever it was had already gone past her.

‘A surprise attack?’

No.

The opponent had no intention of attacking her. If they did, she would have been helpless in her current state, unable to summon the spirit. So, what was the opponent’s purpose?

The Sixth Branch, who had urgently turned around, widened her eyes. A short-lived being with ash-gray skin, reminiscent of a greenskin, was holding the ‘stimulant’ she had just buried in the ground.

“Stop─!”

The Sixth Branch urgently called for the Frost Spirit along with a threat. She intended to summon the spirit before the unidentified gray greenskin could do something foolish.

However, the next action of the gray greenskin was beyond all her imagination.

Boom──!

With a loud noise and a cloud of dust, the short-lived being turned its back and fled altogether, leaving the stunned Sixth Branch who belatedly shouted.

“This, this insane short-lived being is stealing…!”