Chapter 5 - Give and Take (1)

Give and Take (1)

Looking back, I was a pretty funny guy.

Although I always thought of life as boring, I never once considered suicide.

That feeling of boredom was just an emotion in the end, and to me, life was more precious than anything else.

In many ways, I simply found things not worth the candle.

That thought still persists.

That’s why…

Crawling in the dark on three legs.

I know what you’re thinking, but I’m actually being quite literal.

Currently, I am crawling on the floor with three legs, shuffling my completely shredded right foot.

If someone sees me now, I’m sure they’ll think of an abandoned dog with a broken leg.

How do I know that?

‘Because that’s what I’m thinking right now.’

This sweetness came at the price of giving up my human dignity.

First of all, it doesn’t hurt because you don’t have to use your injured foot, and you can move faster than before.

Second of all, there is no way you’ll step on another trap.

In return, my elbows and knees hurt, but just this much…

Is within the limits of what I can bear. I can endure.

What can’t you do to survive?

I can even gobble up dog shit with a smile if that’s what it’d take.

Well… if I take a bit of time to prepare my heart, it will definitely be possible.

‘But what happened to that uncle?’

‘Uncle’ is just a word I assigned arbitrarily.

I don’t know the person’s gender, age, or name.

I’m just guessing by his way of speaking.

The image in my mind is that of a thiryish white guy with glasses, for some reason.

Or not.

「 [Bleeding] continues. 」

Anyway, what happened to that person who woke up in the body of Kadua’s son Oreum? Did he die? Or, did he wake up again in his original body?

It’s a question I’ve been holding on to since I opened my eyes.

Even if I intentionally try not to think about it, the worse things get, the more I think of him.

「 [Bleeding] continues. 」

It’s a bit clearer now, the reason why humans believe in religion.

The reality is that it is too difficult to be alone.

When despair strikes, you need a place to turn your thoughts to. Just like I am doing right now.

「 [Bleeding] continues. 」

「 [Bleeding] continues. 」

「Warning: The character’s health is below 5%. If not treated promptly, the character might die. 」

After that, I kept crawling while thinking about this and that.

It’s faint, but I can feel the surroundings getting brighter.

This is a positive situation in many ways.

At least you’re going in the right direction, and my hypothesis that the whole of the first floor couldn’t be this dark is correct.

Let’s just go somewhere bright.

Because there will be people there. Give them this mana stone and ask for help. Then somehow…

‘That’s some funny shit, you hare-brained idiot.’

As I was whispering words of encouragement to myself and grasping at imaginary carrots, my other self appeared.

‘You idiot asshole, think practically. You’re asking them to help you in exchange for a loaf of bread. Who knows if they’ll just take the shield and the mana stone, and kill you.’

Is this guy me?

This is one smart bastard.

‘What would you do if you met another goblin bastard before finding a human in the first place? Is that skull just for show or is there a brain inside? Huh?’

I can’t tolerate any more insults.

‘Well, then, what else am I going to do? I still have to continue. At least I’ll be able to see the path ahead. Even if a goblin did pop out, wouldn’t it be better than fighting here in the dark?’

‘… True enough.’

My other self agrees, and my head is quiet again.

I kept crawling.

“Kahahahahaha… …”

I’m going crazy.

No, I may have already gone crazy.

After all, I shed so much blood, right?

Since before, my consciousness kept dividing into two, then merging back again, and my thoughts have been slowing down.

Like some kind of a feedback loop.

A bit more of this, and I’m sure I’ll never be able to open my eyes again.

“Kahahahahaha… …”

I laughed out loud.

I really didn’t have the energy to spare, but I still laughed.

At some point, the surroundings had become brighter.

In the distance, at the end of the passage, I could see a crystal shining brightly.

On top of that, I saw the figure of a man standing in front with a torch.

I didn’t mistake a goblin for a human.

Indubitably, it was a human form.

“He… lp… … .”

I wanted to shout something, but my voice wasn’t working.

I crawled desperately, blinking my eyes hard.

What is this?

The human form came closer, as if teleporting.

Surprised by that fact, I blinked again.

「 [Bleeding] continues. 」

He was closer this time.

About five or six people were standing in my front.

Was I seeing things? I closed my eyes again and opened them.

「 Achievement complete 」

「 Condition: Health drops to 2% or less. 」

「 Reward: Permanently increases Mind by +1. 」

Then I saw a blond man with his knees bent.

We were nose to nose as our eyes met, but he broke our gaze after only a curious look and observed the surroundings without asking anything.

Rather than listening to another, he was making a judgment based on his own experience and intuition.

As a veteran, he quickly came to a conclusion.

“You’re a rookie.”

Fuck, if you understand then help me, you bastard.

As you can see, I’m a fucking barbarian with just a shield, and all I have is a goblin mana stone to exchange for help with this shredded leg.

I’ll give you all of this if you want. So… …

“Amazing. How did a newbie manage to get here faster than us?”

I quickly opened my mouth to answer. But what came out was a sound similar to a cough or a spit.

“Grrreu… …”

No, to be honest, it sounded more like a goblin, but… …

It was enough to let them know that I was in a situation where I couldn’t answer.

Soon, the blond asked a colleague.

“Priest Ersina. Could you please treat this kid?”

Priest? Are you saying there’s a priest in your party?

I stared at the sides with the fervent eyes of a man seeing a miracle. And indeed, there was a priestess in a white robe.

The priestess, who made eye contact with me, spoke bluntly with her beautiful lips –

“I will decline.”

Eh? What?

“I see. All right then.”

What all right? Why are you agreeing?

This is horrible. Fuck, I don’t know why I’m being treated like this even after I finally reached here.

And during such a moment when the tantrums in my heart were swelling up –

“Parthran, may I have a potion?”

“Isn’t that for when you can’t use your divine power?”

“You have a lot of them anyway. I will pay for it separately after we exit.”

“Sheesh.”

A man with a sword at his waist clicked his tongue and pulled out a potion from his bag, throwing it.

My heart sank seeing my sole lifeline being treated so casually.

Tuk.

Fortunately, the blond caught the potion properly.

“It’s not as good as divine power, so this will hurt a bit.”

The blond opened the stopper and sprinkled half the bottle’s contents on my wound, and poured the other half directly into my mouth.

Quickly, I felt an unbearable wave of pain.

Is this the kind of sensation when all the pain accumulated in the body without realizing breaks out at once?

「The body regenerates rapidly due to the recovery (medium) effect. 」

It felt as if my whole body was melting.

This was the reason why potions could not be used mid-battle in the game.

I thought it was just something prohibited by the system, but it turned out that it reflected the ground reality very well.

Shit.

“ Heuk, heuk, heuk, heuk… …”

How many minutes had passed?

The pain gradually subsided, and I began to feel better.

“Now, can you tell me, barbarian? How did a rookie like you get here before us? If you know a new passage, I want to buy the information.”

Indeed, was that his purpose?

I don’t feel bad. Rather, it’s reassuring to think that he treated me well because he had a purpose.

There is nothing more sinister than good intentions without any concrete cause behind them.

Still, I’m a little bit sorry for him.

I don’t know any secret passages.

“… I was here as soon as I entered the labyrinth.”

I honestly told them my circumstances.

The blond tilted his head and then nodded with an understanding expression.

“Surely… … I’ve read it in a book. Occasionally, there are cases of dimensional instability.”

My heart was pounding heavily.

I asked as if I might have misheard.

“You’re seeing this for the first time… …?”

I couldn’t believe it at all.

Hey, there’s a priest in the party, and there’s even a wizard. It means that they are decent enough, at least in the middle class.

But for the first time?

“Yeah, in the book, it’s a case that might happen once a century. That somebody falls in the outermost zone like this.”

Oh, I see. It’s something that might happen once a century at the most. And that’s what I experienced when I first entered the labyrinth.

Now I see why the other barbarians didn’t carry any torches.

Who would worry about being struck by lightning just because it’s raining?

“Looking at it, this seems like an unprecedented experience, but it must have been a disaster to go through such a rare event.”

The blond looked at me with a sad gaze.

“It wasn’t the information I wanted, but it was interesting nonetheless. Let’s just go and forget about the value of the potion.”

Although his tone was a bit unfortunate, he seemed to be basically a good guy.

“Oh, and remember to take the shield over there.”

I looked where the blond was pointing and saw a shield that had fallen to the floor. The distance was about 20m. I thought I’d tied it properly at my waist, but it seemed to have fallen off.

“Then let’s go.”

They passed me by without even letting me say thank you.

In the labyrinth, time is money, so it wasn’t hard to understand.

No, it was close to a miracle just to have spent so much time for me in the first place.

I stared at the place they left for a moment, then quickly ran and picked up the shield fallen on the floor.

It was definitely great to have survived… …

Still, something felt odd.

「Bjorn Yandel」

Level: 1

Body: 25 / Mind: 36 (New +1) / Abilities: 1

Item Level: 24

Combat Index: 68 (New +1)

“He was lucky, that barbarian.”

“Well, isn’t it a bit much to call that luck? Going through something like that your first time…”

As the blond answered with a vague smile, the swordsman snorted.

“Even without that, things would have been the same for someone who stepped on a goblin trap. He was lucky to meet us in the first place.”

“He was lucky to meet Drusz, not you. You didn’t even want to use the potion, did you?”

When the female archer, who had been listening quietly till now, intervened, the swordsman shrugged.

“Yeah, because you’ll find these guys all over the place. They don’t survive long anyway. Our priest must have thought the same, right?”

The priestess smiled bitterly and did not answer, and instead, the female archer spoke angrily.

“Lady Ersina would have treated him if it weren’t for the temple’s rules. No, without the potion, she might have just broken the rules. Do you think that everyone is like you?”

“Well, I don’t know about that. I see a lot of people who’re very different inside and outside.”

“… Parthran, you need to be more like Drusz, even if just a little bit.”

“For example, being considerate before asking about the secret passage?”

“Yes. I’ve heard that barbarians don’t like the help of others. Maybe that’s why he was so considerate upfront.”

“… Hey, don’t you think you’re talking me up too much?”

As the topic turned to him, the blond smiled awkwardly and scratched his head.

But he also did not deny the accusation.

“Ah, if you want to take the shortcut, you have to change directions here.”

“It’s nice to have a guide at the party, really.”

“Lady Ersina! Usually, the guides only know the direction to the portal. It’s just that Drusz is great. He’s memorized all the landmarks on the first floor.”

The swordsman shook his head, looking at the female archer.

“But where the hell does this trail of blood end? Haven’t we already walked quite a bit?”

“Yeah. I guess you’re wrong about that guy just being lucky. What kind of mental strength do you need to keep crawling for a distance like this?”

“Huh, what big deal is that… … Yeah, it should be around here.”

The party, that had been following the bloodstains till now, turned to a shortcut in the middle. And after about 15 minutes, they reached their destination.

“Looks like we were the first to arrive on this route. There’s a benefit to hurrying. Let’s get moving.”

When the blond placed his hand on the tombstone located in front of the dead end, an intense beam of light burst out and took the shape of a sphere.

It was a portal leading to the second floor.

“Wait.”

As everyone was about to throw themselves into the portal, the female archer stopped the party.

“Isn’t that what the barbarian must’ve been wearing earlier?”

“What?”

The party, looking at the direction the female archer was pointing, was momentarily speechless.

In the half-darkness under the light emitted by the portal, a blood-stained trap and a damaged sandal could be seen placed in a pile.

“… That should be it.”

The wizard made an interested expression, then created a new sphere of light and moved it over the passage.

Huuuuuung –!

The bloodstains that started from the trap continued along the curved passageway.

No matter how much you move the sphere of light, you can’t even fathom its end from this place.

There was a moment of silence.

“… Hey, Drusz. How far is it from here to where we met him before?”

“… If there are no shortcuts, likely about 15 km.”

“Heh heh heh, that body is like a monster. To keep crawling such a long distance alone in this darkness.”

The wizard just laughed, as if in surprise.

However, the swordsman next to him could not do that.

“… This is crazy.”

He felt it was a matter of the mind, not the body. He thought.

‘… How many hours must he have crawled in that situation? When you’re not even sure you’ll be able to meet someone and get help?’

He didn’t know.

But what is certain is, that barbarian was still crawling when they discovered him. He continued to move his arms and legs, almost unconsciously.

And then?

Unable to speak properly, he’d held out his hand.

He had been holding a small mana stone in his hand.

At the time, I didn’t think much of it, but now I think I know what that action meant.

‘I’m going to give you this, so help me.’

Other than that, I have nothing to offer in return.

So, while the barbarian had crawled that long distance, he had kept holding the mana stone tightly in his hand. So that if you meet someone by any chance, you can show it to them right away.

Soon, the man came to a decision.

“… I must take back what I said earlier.”

Just lucky?

Just another rookie who’ll die early?

How could that be?

He knows from long experience.

“Drusz, what was that barbarian’s name earlier?”

That kind of madman won’t die so easily.

No matter how hard or hopeless his circumstances may be.

Because he will never see death as an escape from his torment.