Barbarian in a Failed Game

027 Wagner (1)

[Act 2, Where the Dragon’s Trace Lies Buried]

─Failure will result in the destruction of the Argon Kingdom. Acceleration of the erosion of the Great Magic. Increased difficulty of subsequent scenarios.

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“Ah, there you were. I’ve been looking for you. Paladin Aries.”

“……?”

Aries, who had been handling tasks in place of the weakened abbot, due to the deputy priest, lifted her gaze from the papers.

“mage Jerome. What brings you here?”

The gentleman with streaks of white in his hair, Jerome, placed a chair in front of Aries’ desk with a faint smile and sat down.

“Just stopped by before leaving.”

“Did you finish your research?”

“For as much as was necessary. Proper research will resume after returning to the Empire’s Mage Tower. Well… to be more precise, it’s not me who’ll be doing the research. As you know, it’s not me who needs it, but the Mage Tower.”

“…….”

Aries neither affirmed nor denied.

Jerome still seemed to be under the illusion that Aries was privy to the secrets of the Mage Tower, but Aries had only lent her name to Khan.

Really, she knew little to nothing about the affairs of the Mage Tower.

‘Leave the mages to babble amongst themselves, and they’ll weave their delusions. If it’s awkward to respond, just listen quietly. Cheeky little ladys.’

Recalling Khan’s advice in her head, Aries simply nodded quietly.

“In return, they will pay a hefty price. The Mage Tower is clear in their calculations in such matters. You won’t have to worry about research funds for a while. Thanks to you and your colleague… Khan.”

Aries quietly nodded again.

“Though I’ve agreed to give that barbarian warrior more than enough.”

Jerome’s tone and expression conveyed a hint of bitterness.

Aries understood his feelings completely.

The shock of being verbally bested by a barbarian, scorned as a lesser race, must have been substantial.

“Khan has always been strange.”

“…He’s not your ordinary kind of strange. Actually, his skills are more so than his words. I’ve never seen a stronger warrior in my life, purely in terms of physical prowess.”

Jerome could still vividly recall – not that he wanted to.

‘A single strike.’

Yes, it was a single strike.

Jerome’s own spells along with the holy trials unleashed by the Paladin, taken head-on without significant injury by Darkin Perayas, was obliterated with a single punch by the barbarian, leaving not even a corpse behind.

It was as if the human body transcended the feats of mana.

Initially, he thought he was hallucinating due to the corruption of the “Hell Snake of Nebeda’s” black magic. But that wasn’t the case.

“Who could have predicted that mere punching could grind a dragon’s scales to dust, and just the aftermath could collapse a cavern?”

Recalling that memory, Jerome let out a bitter laugh. Remembering how he was nearly crushed to death under rubble.

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Boom──!!!

The sound was so loud next to him, Ron momentarily thought a dwarf cannon had exploded. The first to react was none other than Ron himself.

His unique senses screamed at him. If they did not flee immediately, they would die!

“Excuse me for a sec! Esteemed mages!”

“What the?!”

“Argh.”

Ron, who had been lying next to Jan and Jerome, grabbed each with an arm and hastily ran forward. Not back the way they came, but towards the direction of the Bone Throne.

“Lady Paladin and Boss, quickly follow! If you don’t want to die a pointless death after winning everything!”

Crack-crack-crack! Crackity crack!

As ominous sounds echoed from all directions, Khan, who had been inspecting Darkin’s corpse now turned into a pool of blood, got up. Damn, this is bad.

Due to repeated use of the leap skill starting from Nordic, his ankles hurt as if they were about to break.

His right shoulder was almost immovable from excessive use of the throwing skill.

The most serious was his left arm’s condition.

‘Shit. Hope it’s not completely useless now.’

There was no pain from the limp left arm. It was the cost of using an A-grade skill under significant physical depletion.

Most importantly, unlike in games where there’s a visible HP gauge, it was difficult to assess the exact aftermath.

‘At least the strength stat went up by one… That’s fortunate.’

The moment Darkin died, his level rose to 25. And there was still enough experience left to fill over half of the experience bar.

That alone was satisfactory, but perhaps due to the desperate use of an A-grade skill at the last moment, he acquired a naturally B-grade skill which instantly turned into A-grade, increasing his A-grade skills to two.

Considering the nearly 100% completion of his throw, it meant a total of three A-grade skills at his disposal.

“Then, that would make me nearly equivalent to a third act character in terms of resources I have.”

Honestly, the pain didn’t bother me in the slightest. This much was more than enough to pay back for all the hardships I endured just to bring down a single Darkin. If only I could heal my arm…

“First, I need to get out of here and then think.”

As I pondered, I noticed signs of the chamber beginning to collapse. Without hesitation, Khan hurriedly stuffed a red gem and a palm-sized golden scale into his trouser pocket and followed Ron’s lead.

Then, he caught sight of Aries, standing despondently as if lost in a trance.

Despite the urgency, Khan frowned and quickly made his way to her side.

“Excuse me.”

With a slight movement of his barely functional right hand, he grabbed Aries by the nape of her neck like one would catch a cat. Aries squirmed in response, but it was a feeble resistance.

“Erendal…”

Startled by her voice echoing faintly somewhere deep, Khan flinched but did not stop running.

“Hold your breath if you don’t want to swallow water!”

“Wait a moment…!”

Soon, they had passed the Bone Throne and reached a vast pool of blood. Ron shouted a warning before leaping into it, with Khan following suit without hesitation.

Splash.

Contrary to its appearance, the pool was deeper than expected.

While it wasn’t overly deep, swimming through it was challenging enough given the condition of their bodies.

“This stings terribly.”

After descending for a bit, they could see a passageway at the bottom amid the blood-red vista. It led to Darkin’s personal laboratory, known in the game as the reward chamber.

“Fortunately, it’s the same as in the game.”

Khan was relieved, yet utterly astonished by Ron’s unfounded intuition. Without any guidance from Khan, Ron had charged straight into the blood pool, finding their way to survival.

“At this point, it’s almost certain. The grade is unclear, but…”

Even at the lowest estimate, it would be an A. There was a significant chance that it was an S-grade skill.

“Midland Quest” didn’t have a Pathfinder build per se, but there were a few skills that could produce a similar effect.

“Is it the A-grade skill, Death Avoidance? Or the S-grade Pathfinder…?”

“Pffft! Ugh! Gag!”

“Cough… It’s my first time swimming in blood.”

“Swimming was all me, what are you on about? Mage, sir! I even gave up my precious hammer!”

“Could it be…?”

As soon as they reached the reward chamber beyond the underwater passage, Ron began to spew nonsense, prompting Khan to question his earlier conviction.

“Now, I can’t even be called Hammer Ron!”

“Calm down, I’ll buy you another one!”

“That’s the problem with mages! A warrior’s weapon is like their own limb! You lack sensitivity! Severely lacking!”

“Excuse me?”

Khan couldn’t help but grimace at the absurdity. Carefully setting Aries down, he asked,

“Do you feel better now? You seemed quite off.”

“Nothing.”

It was clearly not ‘nothing,’ as if she was signaling ‘I’m having a tough time’ but would get annoyed when pressed for details.

“Hmm. It’s probably best not to ask further, she’ll just get irritated.”

It was a lesson learned from past experiences. If she says it’s nothing, then so be it.

“Can you manage your injuries on your own? I need to check this place out.”

Aries nodded, her gaze suggesting she preferred to be left alone. Khan returned the nod.

Though Khan wanted to ask for ‘Heal’s Light,’ a Paladin who has used ‘Divine Incarnation’ would have cooldowns on all skills.

It would be a while before she could even fight properly, let alone offer blessings.

“Ugh.”

Khan was used to enduring pain.

Until he had sufficiently grown stronger, except for sleeping hours, his days were filled with brawls.

“Let’s see what we have here.”

Darkin’s personal laboratory appeared barren compared to its depiction in Act 5.

All that was visible were shelves, a desk, a chair, and magical items of indeterminable purpose—a space seemingly dedicated to research. The game had portrayed it as far more extravagant.

“This hardly seems like a reward room.”

Khan first inspected the shelves.

The man was proud of his dark magic and considered himself a disciple of the “Kirutz School,” hence nearly all his research was documented.

It also provided a reason not to keep him alive for the sake of interrogation.

“Could’ve at least labeled them. Useless bastard.”

He randomly picked up a journal from the top shelf. The messy scrawl took some time to decipher.

“The regenerative abilities of trolls—where does it originate? Despite numerous studies, a clear answer doesn’t exist. However, past experiments have narrowed down the possibilities…”

“The heart and blood. The heart of a troll can pump far more blood throughout the body than a human’s…”

The blood of trolls has properties unlike those of most humanoid species. Untreated troll blood acts more like a poison, with most humans unable to withstand its effects— their hearts and blood vessels cannot handle it….

“After 97 experiments involving various humanoid species and 150 subjects, it has been proven that the issue with troll blood is not its toxicity, but its excessively potent efficacy. The results show that if the heart of a living troll is transplanted into a living human and its blood is slowly administered then…”

“Ugh. Damn it.”

I quickly closed the journal, disgusted by its contents. This damned psychopath.

“He must have documented how he obtained the golden scales somewhere in here… Looks like I’m in for a long battle with this notebook full of scribbles.”

Khan had a fundamental purpose heading to the western kingdom—the dragon scale fragments that fell in the Western Great Mountains. Darkin had undoubtedly used them to assume the form of a dragon.

The problem is, I can’t figure out what caused this iteration of Darkin to obtain them.

“It’s definitely something to do with my actions, but damn, I can’t figure it out.”

Is this the butterfly effect?

Given my nature, which detests even properly reading game texts, the prospect of spending all day with a book worsened my mood.

Then, pale-faced Jerome mumbled to himself after sneaking a peek at the journal’s contents.

“Interesting. An experiment possible only for a mage…”

“Interesting, my foot. The entire church would’ve cursed you possessed by a demon if they heard you.”

“Hmm. That would be problematic. Pretend you didn’t hear that. But it’s clear now.”

He might look like a dapper gentleman, but he’s just another crazy, no different from those mages…

“As a magus, one might wonder, but there’s no doubt that Darkin Pereyas is a considerable authority on human-related research. Just this journal alone, if taken to the Gold Tower, would fetch a hefty price.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“I am a magus. Naturally, I am very busy. The reason I accepted Dame Aries’s request, despite the risks, was because of my interest in Darkin’s research. After all, wasn’t it agreed upon to lend my powers?”

I understood Jerome’s intentions well enough.

“He wants all of this for himself but is too scared to outright say it.”

As I placed the journal back in its spot, I swallowed a meaningful smile. I had been wondering how to read and analyze all of this anyway…

Opportunity just rolled right up to me.

“The warriors of Frost Gorge do not disregard comrades who have fought and risked their lives. You made a courageous decision at the last moment. You deserve to have these.”

“I appreciate your words. Truly, it’s better for someone like you or Dame Aries to have it than a mage…”

Hold your horses, we’re not done talking.

“As you said. I have no need for Darkin’s research notes. The church might want it back, but surely the tower can handle that. As for you, little lady, we’ve already agreed, so no worries.”

“…What are you trying to say?”

“Damn, as if you weren’t sharp enough.”

Sensing something amiss, Jerome’s expression tightened, and Khan breezily continued.

“If we can agree on a fair price for the research notes and pay accordingly to me and Aries, we can settle this matter cleanly and without complaint.”

Of course, since the price isn’t fixed, we’d need to negotiate a bit…

‘I don’t often get the chance to swindle a mage. Might as well make the most of it.’

—

“Truthfully, it was quite sudden then, but that barbaric friend of ours was a bit over the top.”

“Khan is always like that.”

Aries shoved the paperwork to the side, observing Jerome’s expression, which seemed to harbor some complaints.

“Is there something on my face?”

The face of the mage plotting something cunning. Though he just seemed to be wearing a light smile, Aries couldn’t help but see it differently.

“If you really thought Khan’s demands were unjust, you wouldn’t have accepted them because, after all—”

“I’m a mage. It’s expected. Mages tend to be like that, mostly.”

“But you accepted.”

“Hmm. To me, it was a fair price. Considering what I could demand from the masters of the Gold Tower, it wasn’t a bad deal.”

Really now? Aries didn’t see it that way. Khan’s demands were admittedly burdensome.

“Marks of various spells engraved on a axe, sharing the findings from Darkin’s journal openly, information related to the Mythic Age…”

Jerome listed Khan’s demands in a murmur, like reciting a spell.

“The first isn’t too hard. Though acquiring such a weapon will cost a pretty penny, money is of no issue. The second, while sharing the tower’s research externally would be troublesome, considering my contributions, I could push for it.”

“And the last?”

“Sharing the tower’s speculation that the anomalies spreading in the northern kingdom are related to artifacts from the Mythic Age?”

The smile on Jerome’s face deepened as he spoke.

Had Khan been there, he surely would have brandished his axe, accusing the mage of weaving vile plots.

But Khan had long since left Nordic, heading toward the northern kingdom, accompanied by a competent guide and Jan, whom Jerome insisted on bringing as a communicator.

“I’m merely looking forward to it.”

“Looking forward to?”

Aries frowned, and Jerome, now wearing the gentle smile of a kindly gentleman, left a puzzling remark with a laugh in his voice.

“To everyone else, even the wisdom of the tower seem like an illusion, dismissing the Mythic Age as a non-existent era, yet here we have a great warrior, in human flesh, transcending the miracles of mana on a lone quest for the myth. Isn’t that a mystifying tale?”

And mages are, by nature, chasers of mysteries.

“Though the tower might call those who chase such tales as mystics and oddballs, perhaps I too have a streak of that oddball mystic in me.”

A spark of pure curiosity and ambition, bordering on madness, flickered in Jerome’s eyes.

“More than anything, I’m curious. The one called the dark mage of Loren, the most mystical being, I wonder what kind of person they are.”