Chapter 594: RPG (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 594: RPG (2)
The sound of metal clashing with metal. The screams of pain and roars of anger. And a fountain of blood that covered my vision.
Pshwoo!
"Ack, my eye!"
I quickly wiped the blood away from my eye to regain my vision first. Once I did, I took a look at my surroundings. Just like in the coming-of-age ceremony, I didn't have time to close my eyes and collect my thoughts.
This was because I was in the middle of a battlefield.
"Ack—!"
"S-stop them! Push them back! Everyone will die if you let them through!"
The monsters fell on us like waves, and the hundreds of humans held back the monsters.
What the hell is this...?
I rushed to analyze the situation. I had entered what we assumed was the rift of Basement Floor One, and when I opened my eyes, I was there.
The village chief, the archbishop, Gahuin, Erwen... The allies I had entered together with were nowhere to be seen, and only the sight of dying humans filled my vision.
I needed more information.
It happened when I came to that conclusion and was taking in more of my surroundings.
"Bjorn Yandel...! Wake up! Is this how you're going to die?!"
The man whose eyes I met shouted at me while taking a sword out of a monster he had stabbed.
I could communicate with him.
That part was surprising, but something else surprised me even more.
"Bjorn...Yandel...?"
This guy knew my name.
What was that about? I could at least tell that he wasn't my enemy, so was he an allied NPC? But I had never seen a rift like this before.
"Damn it, you don't even know your name anymore...!"
The man frowned as the monsters got through the gaps and charged toward me.
"Get ahold of yourself! Do you want to die here?!" he shouted before stepping between me and the monsters.
Thanks to that, my mind began to clear.
Looks like he is a friendly NPC.
The humans weren't my enemies.
Soon after, I realized what I needed to do.
"What are you doing with that big body of yours?! Swing your hammer already...! Kill those monsters and save our allies!"
I needed to kill these monsters first. I could try to learn something else after that.
Such as, for instance, what I needed to do going forward.
"Behel—"
Ah, maybe I shouldn't do that? Just in case?
"Uwaaaaaah!"
Rather than the barbarian battle cry, I just shouted as loud as I could and ran forward. Since the monsters didn't look to be of high rank, I didn't use Giantization on purpose.
Crunch!
Even then, the head of the Troll was smashed with just one swing of my hammer.
"What the hell...!" The man, who was holding back his own Troll, looked at me with eyes wide in shock. "You... Were you hiding your true strength?"
His words conveyed his fear and respect. Honestly, I was feeling something similar.
...I killed it in one shot?
Sensing something was off, I swung my hammer at another Troll that was next to me.
Crunch!
This time as well, the Troll exploded in one hit as if it were jelly. To be honest, it was very surprising for me.
What the hell...?
Why was I so strong?
No, are these guys just weak?
Trolls usually didn't die so easily. Even if their heads were crushed, they were monsters who could regenerate with Super Regeneration. Of course, it was possible to get past their Super Regeneration with overwhelming instantaneous damage...
I don't think that's possible with my stats.
Then what was happening?
As I continued to swing my hammer at the waves of monsters, the answer naturally came back to me.
It wasn't that the Trolls had become weaker. They still had enough strength to throw a regular-sized man, and they could still use Super Regeneration when their head was damaged.
Crunch!
It was just that I had become absurdly strong.
Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!
The monsters fell away like autumn leaves with every swing of my hammer. However, that power didn't come without a cost.
"...Blood."
Blood was flowing out of my barbarian warrior's body which had been reinforced with multiple different layers of defense.
Of course, as long as I was alive, it couldn't be helped that I could also bleed. Also, the blood I was spilling wasn't major and all I could feel from them were slight pricks.
...I'm bleeding because a Troll bit me?
But a serious problem had occurred with my body.
[Your assigned role is Mercenary. All attack stats are increased threefold, but defense stats are decreased by 70%. Regeneration will increase relative to lost HP.]
I was screwed.
Not just screwed, but mega-screwed.
That was the first thing I realized after checking the changes that had occurred in my body.
Crunch!
In return for my damage increasing significantly, my body's resistances decreased significantly as well.
"Kyaaaak!"
I couldn't tell what the exact numbers were, but the second stage of Evolving Shell, which should activate from having 350 Physical Resistance, wasn't activating.
[Your Physical Defense stat is above 70. You gain 50 percent resistance to bladed weapons.]
It wasn't just physical resistance either. Even when I used Scales of Greed, I didn't go into Barbarian-Dragon mode.
To put it simply, my mana resistance had also dropped by quite a bit.
Damn it...
The skills that used my defense stats to boost themselves were operating at less than half capacity. Still, I figured I should be thankful they weren't completely useless.
Dash.
My warrior body, which had been much slower compared to my allies, was moving much more lightly and nimbly.
His words conveyed his fear and respect. Honestly, I was feeling something similar.
...I killed it in one shot?
Sensing something was off, I swung my hammer at another Troll that was next to me.
Crunch!
This time as well, the Troll exploded in one hit as if it were jelly. To be honest, it was very surprising for me.
What the hell...?
Why was I so strong?
No, are these guys just weak?
Trolls usually didn't die so easily. Even if their heads were crushed, they were monsters who could regenerate with Super Regeneration. Of course, it was possible to get past their Super Regeneration with overwhelming instantaneous damage...
I don't think that's possible with my stats.
Then what was happening?
As I continued to swing my hammer at the waves of monsters, the answer naturally came back to me.
It wasn't that the Trolls had become weaker. They still had enough strength to throw a regular-sized man, and they could still use Super Regeneration when their head was damaged.
Crunch!
It was just that I had become absurdly strong.
Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!
The monsters fell away like autumn leaves with every swing of my hammer. However, that power didn't come without a cost.
"...Blood."
Blood was flowing out of my barbarian warrior's body which had been reinforced with multiple different layers of defense.
Of course, as long as I was alive, it couldn't be helped that I could also bleed. Also, the blood I was spilling wasn't major and all I could feel from them were slight pricks.
...I'm bleeding because a Troll bit me?
But a serious problem had occurred with my body.
[Your assigned role is Mercenary. All attack stats are increased threefold, but defense stats are decreased by 70%. Regeneration will increase relative to lost HP.]
I was screwed.
Not just screwed, but mega-screwed.
That was the first thing I realized after checking the changes that had occurred in my body.
Crunch!
In return for my damage increasing significantly, my body's resistances decreased significantly as well.
"Kyaaaak!"
I couldn't tell what the exact numbers were, but the second stage of Evolving Shell, which should activate from having 350 Physical Resistance, wasn't activating.
[Your Physical Defense stat is above 70. You gain 50 percent resistance to bladed weapons.]
It wasn't just physical resistance either. Even when I used Scales of Greed, I didn't go into Barbarian-Dragon mode.
To put it simply, my mana resistance had also dropped by quite a bit.
Damn it...
The skills that used my defense stats to boost themselves were operating at less than half capacity. Still, I figured I should be thankful they weren't completely useless.
Dash.
My warrior body, which had been much slower compared to my allies, was moving much more lightly and nimbly.
[You have cast Swing.]
[Your strength stat is above 1,200. You deal double damage to enemies with HP over 90 percent.]
A grand shockwave was created with each cast of Swing. I could tell that its effect had been unlocked.
I'll think about this later.
After finishing my cursory investigation of the changes to my body, I focused my attention on the battle against the monsters.
Well, at this rate, I didn't think it'd be too difficult to cleanly sweep away the monster here.
But I don't know what might happen, so let's try and keep as many humans alive as possible.
I fought more actively to protect more of the NPCs, and my unbelievable strength was carried out from my hammer onto these monsters.
Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!
The refreshing texture of clean and powerful hits that I hadn't been able to feel while nurturing my shield barbarian coursed through my hand.
...Maybe I'm not that screwed.
I didn't turn into a useless character like I thought. Still, having to worry about attacks I would usually ignore was starting to pile on the stress.
Man... It's a pain, but also somehow comfortable as well...
"I-It's done...!"
"We're alive, we're alive...!"
"Yeaaaah!"
Just as I was starting to get used to the body and battle here, I came to my senses and saw that all the monsters had died and the humans were letting out victorious shouts and cheers from around me.
Hmm, now what?
It looked like I killed everything I needed to, but I couldn't get a sense as to how this quest would proceed. As a result, I didn't gather around everyone else and instead chose to watch them from a bit of distance.
"Yandel...! Yandel! Are you alright?"
One man stepped over the corpses of the monsters and approached me. It was the man who had been concerned about me and tried to protect me when I first opened my eyes here.
Slowly, I answered, "I'm not hurt too badly."
"Good, that's good!" The man checked my body before letting out a sigh of relief. However, it seemed that he belatedly had a question for me. "By the way, what was that strength you showcased before? You're a pretty big guy, so I thought you would fight well...but I never expected it'd be like this!"
"Uh..." How should I respond to him? Should I just give him a random excuse?
The man seemed to catch himself when he saw my hesitation before lowering his head. "Ah...excuse me. There must be a reason for someone like you to be working as a mercenary."
"Thank you...for your understanding."
"Let's go. Although I want to rest now, we'll need to help clean up if we don't want to look bad in front of those imperials."
Although our conversation was short, I obtained two more pieces of information.
Mercenary...and an empire...
What storyline was this rift trying to tell?
Since I didn't know anything, I followed after the man and moved with him. The place we were in looked to be the middle of a ruined city.
[You have cast Swing.]
[Your strength stat is above 1,200. You deal double damage to enemies with HP over 90 percent.]
A grand shockwave was created with each cast of Swing. I could tell that its effect had been unlocked.
I'll think about this later.
After finishing my cursory investigation of the changes to my body, I focused my attention on the battle against the monsters.
Well, at this rate, I didn't think it'd be too difficult to cleanly sweep away the monster here.
But I don't know what might happen, so let's try and keep as many humans alive as possible.
I fought more actively to protect more of the NPCs, and my unbelievable strength was carried out from my hammer onto these monsters.
Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!
The refreshing texture of clean and powerful hits that I hadn't been able to feel while nurturing my shield barbarian coursed through my hand.
...Maybe I'm not that screwed.
I didn't turn into a useless character like I thought. Still, having to worry about attacks I would usually ignore was starting to pile on the stress.
Man... It's a pain, but also somehow comfortable as well...
"I-It's done...!"
"We're alive, we're alive...!"
"Yeaaaah!"
Just as I was starting to get used to the body and battle here, I came to my senses and saw that all the monsters had died and the humans were letting out victorious shouts and cheers from around me.
Hmm, now what?
It looked like I killed everything I needed to, but I couldn't get a sense as to how this quest would proceed. As a result, I didn't gather around everyone else and instead chose to watch them from a bit of distance.
"Yandel...! Yandel! Are you alright?"
One man stepped over the corpses of the monsters and approached me. It was the man who had been concerned about me and tried to protect me when I first opened my eyes here.
Slowly, I answered, "I'm not hurt too badly."
"Good, that's good!" The man checked my body before letting out a sigh of relief. However, it seemed that he belatedly had a question for me. "By the way, what was that strength you showcased before? You're a pretty big guy, so I thought you would fight well...but I never expected it'd be like this!"
"Uh..." How should I respond to him? Should I just give him a random excuse?
The man seemed to catch himself when he saw my hesitation before lowering his head. "Ah...excuse me. There must be a reason for someone like you to be working as a mercenary."
"Thank you...for your understanding."
"Let's go. Although I want to rest now, we'll need to help clean up if we don't want to look bad in front of those imperials."
Although our conversation was short, I obtained two more pieces of information.
Mercenary...and an empire...
What storyline was this rift trying to tell?
Since I didn't know anything, I followed after the man and moved with him. The place we were in looked to be the middle of a ruined city.
"Priest! This way, sir priest!"
Roads were filled with the corpses of humans and monsters. Soldiers carried the injured to different places, and someone walked through the streets, shouting desperately for an ally.
"That man...!"
"He was amazing back then."
"Not even those knights were as good as him..."
Although the street was chaotic, just walking through it got eyes on me.
I mean, I supposed it was to be expected considering my performance during the battle? I still didn't know what my decision to keep as many people as possible alive would lead to.
"What are you doing? Start lifting! We need to get the debris out of the way so the horse carts can come and go! Ah, I guess with your skill, you don't really need to care about what the imperials think?"
"No, it's fine. Let's work together..."
"A young man with a deep heart. You'll become big in the future."
I still didn't know this man's name, but I kept my wits about me and followed his advice to help the recovery. During that process, I learned a few more things.
One: Both of us were mercenaries hired by the empire.
Two: Today was the first time we met each other, and we shared our names before the battle began.
Three: Fortunately, this man talked a lot.
In a nutshell, it became much easier for me to obtain information.
"Hah... I haven't worked as a mercenary for a long time, but it's my first time seeing such an odd event. Monsters, forming groups to attack the city like this... I don't know what this world is coming to."
"Hey, do you know what year it is?"
"Hmm? Let's see... Since last year was the year of the moon, this year is probably the year of the sun."
However, while he spoke a lot, he unfortunately didn't know much.
"Do you know any more details?" I coaxed. "Like how many years of the year of the sun it has been."
"...What kind of mercenary goes around remembering something like that? It's not like we're those nobles who take lessons in history."
Unlike the old vampire, this mercenary didn't even know what year today was.
"Then what about the name of the emperor? Do you know that?"
His alarm rendered him silent for a second. "Shush! B-be quiet! Do you want to die?"
"No. So do you know?"
"Of course, there's no way I wouldn't know something like that...!"
Alright, so he didn't know. I got the feeling that the other soldiers here would answer the same way, so I decided to focus on something else. It would be weird if I kept trying to probe him on that.
After silently working on clearing out the debris for a bit longer, I tried to naturally bring up another topic.
"Do you know how the war against the witch is going?"
At my investigation masked as small talk, the man tilted his head in confusion. "Witch? What do you mean? Are you saying there are female wizards waging war in some other territory?"
"No, I thought I heard something like that. It's fine if you don't know."
It seemed that this period was before the witch appeared. If that wasn't the case, there was no way he would mistake a witch for a regular female wizard.
"Priest! This way, sir priest!"
Roads were filled with the corpses of humans and monsters. Soldiers carried the injured to different places, and someone walked through the streets, shouting desperately for an ally.
"That man...!"
"He was amazing back then."
"Not even those knights were as good as him..."
Although the street was chaotic, just walking through it got eyes on me.
I mean, I supposed it was to be expected considering my performance during the battle? I still didn't know what my decision to keep as many people as possible alive would lead to.
"What are you doing? Start lifting! We need to get the debris out of the way so the horse carts can come and go! Ah, I guess with your skill, you don't really need to care about what the imperials think?"
"No, it's fine. Let's work together..."
"A young man with a deep heart. You'll become big in the future."
I still didn't know this man's name, but I kept my wits about me and followed his advice to help the recovery. During that process, I learned a few more things.
One: Both of us were mercenaries hired by the empire.
Two: Today was the first time we met each other, and we shared our names before the battle began.
Three: Fortunately, this man talked a lot.
In a nutshell, it became much easier for me to obtain information.
"Hah... I haven't worked as a mercenary for a long time, but it's my first time seeing such an odd event. Monsters, forming groups to attack the city like this... I don't know what this world is coming to."
"Hey, do you know what year it is?"
"Hmm? Let's see... Since last year was the year of the moon, this year is probably the year of the sun."
However, while he spoke a lot, he unfortunately didn't know much.
"Do you know any more details?" I coaxed. "Like how many years of the year of the sun it has been."
"...What kind of mercenary goes around remembering something like that? It's not like we're those nobles who take lessons in history."
Unlike the old vampire, this mercenary didn't even know what year today was.
"Then what about the name of the emperor? Do you know that?"
His alarm rendered him silent for a second. "Shush! B-be quiet! Do you want to die?"
"No. So do you know?"
"Of course, there's no way I wouldn't know something like that...!"
Alright, so he didn't know. I got the feeling that the other soldiers here would answer the same way, so I decided to focus on something else. It would be weird if I kept trying to probe him on that.
After silently working on clearing out the debris for a bit longer, I tried to naturally bring up another topic.
"Do you know how the war against the witch is going?"
At my investigation masked as small talk, the man tilted his head in confusion. "Witch? What do you mean? Are you saying there are female wizards waging war in some other territory?"
"No, I thought I heard something like that. It's fine if you don't know."
It seemed that this period was before the witch appeared. If that wasn't the case, there was no way he would mistake a witch for a regular female wizard.
I continued to help with the cleanup and obtained more information.
"Everyone, stop for a moment!" A knight wearing the mark of the imperial army on his chest suddenly grabbed the attention of the mercenaries.
One mercenary in the crowd murmured, "It's not the guy we saw in the morning?"
"Didn't you know? That guy's already dead."
"Ah, so that's why a new commander... Oops, I'll stay quiet. I don't want to get randomly picked on."
The hundreds of mercenaries closed their mouths and looked on in nervous silence as they felt the pressure of the empire.
And then, the knight continued, saying, "I am looking for a mercenary by the name of Bjorn Yandel! From what I heard, he defeated hundreds of monsters by himself! Has anyone seen him?"
What the—why is he looking for me?
I instinctively took a step back, but I didn't have time to run away or anything like that. As soon as the announcement was made, everyone's eyes landed on me.
"Ah, so it's you. Could I talk with you for a moment?"
"...Sure."
I was a little uneasy at the sudden summons, but thinking about it, it wasn't something I needed to avoid. Since this was a knight, he would probably know more than the mercenaries. I planned on conversing with him to obtain more information.
"You're a mercenary, correct? I'll say this to you directly. I have a request I wish to impart to you."
I wasn't able to proceed with my plan of using small talk to naturally obtain information.
"Escort a girl. Help her reach her destination."
The moment I heard the knight say those words, the world suddenly turned black.
Hey, what's the point of even asking that question?
I didn't even say I would accept the request.
***
Plip, plop, plop...
I was in a dark cave where the sound of dripping water echoed out. Before I could even open my eyes, I felt a frightening presence next to me. Not just presence, but with a killing intent.
Fwip!
Something swung in the darkness. The estimated target was near my thighs. Even in the darkness, my barbarian body instinctively grasped whatever had been swung at me.
My heavy hands grabbed a thin wrist.
"Eup...!"
It seemed that whatever I grabbed had caused pain for the other being. I could tell that the sound was made by something very young.
My location changed after taking on the escort request... Then I guess this is the escort target.
After quickly coming to that conclusion, instead of retaliating, I tried to speak as calmly as possible. "Calm down. I won't hurt you."
I felt the wrist flinch in my hands. And then, after a long moment of silence, a voice was heard again.
"...Eh?"
Did its arm hurt or something?
Once I let go of the wrist, a very young voice echoed out from the darkness. "Um...are you M-Mister?"
It was a young voice that sounded multiple years off from puberty. However, that voice and the words she spoke both sounded very familiar to me.
"Are you Erwen...?"
"Y-yes! It's me!"
"I don't know what happened, but it's great that we've grouped up like this. It's dark now, so let's check the surroundings—"
"Ah, wait. I'll do it. But... Mister, you can't get surprised, okay?"
"Get surprised?"
"I just... Yeah..."
With those words, a flame far too small to light up our surroundings appeared from the darkness.
Fwoosh!
I lowered my chin quite a bit to look down and see, then stiffened like a stone when I saw her.
Under the flickering light, Erwen was looking up at me.
Erwen, in the form of a little kid who looked to be around the age of eight.
"You... What's with...?" I sputtered. "Why do you look like that?"
"I-I don't know! Wh-when I opened my eyes, I was like this..."
It was pretty interesting. So this was what she looked like when she was a kid. But her nose was pretty high even when she was—
"Mister...!"
Maybe I was staring too much at her?
Erwen— No, to be precise, Erwen-returned-to-her-childhood— Hmm, that was too long, so we should shorten that to—
"D-don't stare at me so much!"
Baby Erwen covered her face with her two small hands.
***
[Field Effect—Role is in effect.]
[Erwen Fornacci di Tersia's assigned role is Young Girl. All stats are set to 10 percent. All healing and regeneration effects are decreased by 90 percent. Monsters will not attack this role.]
I continued to help with the cleanup and obtained more information.
"Everyone, stop for a moment!" A knight wearing the mark of the imperial army on his chest suddenly grabbed the attention of the mercenaries.
One mercenary in the crowd murmured, "It's not the guy we saw in the morning?"
"Didn't you know? That guy's already dead."
"Ah, so that's why a new commander... Oops, I'll stay quiet. I don't want to get randomly picked on."
The hundreds of mercenaries closed their mouths and looked on in nervous silence as they felt the pressure of the empire.
And then, the knight continued, saying, "I am looking for a mercenary by the name of Bjorn Yandel! From what I heard, he defeated hundreds of monsters by himself! Has anyone seen him?"
What the—why is he looking for me?
I instinctively took a step back, but I didn't have time to run away or anything like that. As soon as the announcement was made, everyone's eyes landed on me.
"Ah, so it's you. Could I talk with you for a moment?"
"...Sure."
I was a little uneasy at the sudden summons, but thinking about it, it wasn't something I needed to avoid. Since this was a knight, he would probably know more than the mercenaries. I planned on conversing with him to obtain more information.
"You're a mercenary, correct? I'll say this to you directly. I have a request I wish to impart to you."
I wasn't able to proceed with my plan of using small talk to naturally obtain information.
"Escort a girl. Help her reach her destination."
The moment I heard the knight say those words, the world suddenly turned black.
Hey, what's the point of even asking that question?
I didn't even say I would accept the request.
***
Plip, plop, plop...
I was in a dark cave where the sound of dripping water echoed out. Before I could even open my eyes, I felt a frightening presence next to me. Not just presence, but with a killing intent.
Fwip!
Something swung in the darkness. The estimated target was near my thighs. Even in the darkness, my barbarian body instinctively grasped whatever had been swung at me.
My heavy hands grabbed a thin wrist.
"Eup...!"
It seemed that whatever I grabbed had caused pain for the other being. I could tell that the sound was made by something very young.
My location changed after taking on the escort request... Then I guess this is the escort target.
After quickly coming to that conclusion, instead of retaliating, I tried to speak as calmly as possible. "Calm down. I won't hurt you."
I felt the wrist flinch in my hands. And then, after a long moment of silence, a voice was heard again.
"...Eh?"
Did its arm hurt or something?
Once I let go of the wrist, a very young voice echoed out from the darkness. "Um...are you M-Mister?"
It was a young voice that sounded multiple years off from puberty. However, that voice and the words she spoke both sounded very familiar to me.
"Are you Erwen...?"
"Y-yes! It's me!"
"I don't know what happened, but it's great that we've grouped up like this. It's dark now, so let's check the surroundings—"
"Ah, wait. I'll do it. But... Mister, you can't get surprised, okay?"
"Get surprised?"
"I just... Yeah..."
With those words, a flame far too small to light up our surroundings appeared from the darkness.
Fwoosh!
I lowered my chin quite a bit to look down and see, then stiffened like a stone when I saw her.
Under the flickering light, Erwen was looking up at me.
Erwen, in the form of a little kid who looked to be around the age of eight.
"You... What's with...?" I sputtered. "Why do you look like that?"
"I-I don't know! Wh-when I opened my eyes, I was like this..."
It was pretty interesting. So this was what she looked like when she was a kid. But her nose was pretty high even when she was—
"Mister...!"
Maybe I was staring too much at her?
Erwen— No, to be precise, Erwen-returned-to-her-childhood— Hmm, that was too long, so we should shorten that to—
"D-don't stare at me so much!"
Baby Erwen covered her face with her two small hands.
***
[Field Effect—Role is in effect.]
[Erwen Fornacci di Tersia's assigned role is Young Girl. All stats are set to 10 percent. All healing and regeneration effects are decreased by 90 percent. Monsters will not attack this role.]