Chapter 8

I’m walking through a cave.

This time, there’s no wobbling.

「The character is wearing leather boots.」

「The total Item Level rises by +5.」

The boots almost fit. Thanks to that, I learned one more thing. Uncle’s feet were too big for his height. Anyway, they’re pretty sturdy, so stepping on a trap won’t hurt as badly as it did the last time.

「The character has equipped a two-handed hammer.」

「The total Item Level rises by +30.」

This hammer is made of solid iron and is about 1m long. Uncle needed both hands, but I can wield it one-handed.

「The character is wearing shoulder guards.」

「The total Item Level rises by +13.」

Steel pauldrons. I tied the laces a little loose and they fit just right. If I take off my jacket and put on just the pauldrons, I look like some ancient gladiator.

「The character is wearing a backpack.」

「Inventory expands.」

Now I no longer need to store the blood-stained mana stones alongside the bread, and moving around is much less cumbersome.

Chomp.

I take out some jerky and chew it.

I don’t have much of it, but it tastes better than bread.

I cut the rest with a knife and store it away so as to not get my drool all over it.

On this second day, I have graduated from my primitive lifestyle.

When you’re thirsty, just drink some water from the water bottle.

If you want to know the direction, just take out your compass, and if you want to know the time, just take out your pocket watch.

There’s even a bottle of potion to help you cope with any possible injury in an emergency.

Isn’t it a little ironic?

That after killing a person, I became able to live a little more like one.

「Bjorn Yandel」

Level: 1

Body: 25 / Mind: 37 (New +1) / Ability: 1

Item Level: 72 (New +48)

Combat Index: 81 (New +13)

Smash was a good technique to use with a shield, but a proper weapon boasted a different level of power.

Puff –!

A goblin turned into motes of light and disappeared with just a single blow of my hammer.

Had I known this would happen, I would have just picked a weapon at the start. After all, wouldn’t it have been fine if I just saved up money and bought the shield later?

Well, I didn’t know at the time that I could fight so well.

Was it because I transmigrated into the body of a barbarian?

When I fought, I felt like my body didn’t belong to me. It was easy to get used to it, but looking at this body that always exceeded expectations, I still couldn’t help but exclaim my amazement now and then.

“I’m feeling drowsy.”

Yawning, I picked up the two magic stones from the ground around me and put them in my bag.

This was the change that occurred on the second day.

The goblins started coming in twos.

Perhaps tomorrow, it would increase to three, and the same would continue until the labyrinth closed on the seventh day. Because that’s how it was in the game.

In that sense, it wasn’t particularly bad yet.

My combat power increased sharply with the new weapon, and thanks to the various consumables, my life instead became a little safer.

Things were going pretty smoothly.

‘Except for the fact that I keep closing my eyes.’

From yesterday until now, I kept constantly moving and fighting the goblins. But I’d only gotten around ten minutes’ worth of sleep, and one time I even fell asleep while standing up.

I really wanted to sleep.

I didn’t even want any luxuries like a blanket or a pillow. I just wanted to squat down and take a nap, even if it was on the bare stone floor.

Really, if things carried on like this –

“Oh, fuck!”

In my half-asleep state, I tripped over a stone.

Thankfully, things didn’t go as unluckily as was my usual. I would’ve been in real trouble had it been a trap.

“Let’s just get some sleep right here…”

Coming to a decision, I immediately leaned against the wall, with my shield and my hammer still in my hands.

Even though I didn’t have any night friends by my side…

Rather, this felt safer. If you’re going to be ambushed anyway, goblins are better for that.

You’re more likely to live if you get stabbed with the little carving knives[1] they carry around.

Unlike your head being pulped with a hammer while lying down.

Squelch –

Motherfucker.

I woke up to the sound of footsteps that had already become familiar.

Even when there had been no hide nor hair of them when I’d stood vigilant for no less than four hours. Now that I was sleeping alone, one showed up right away.

I could see why uncle told me not to drop my guard.

… Stubborn bastards.

I immediately ran over and shoved the hammer into the goblin’s head.

Puff –!

“Ga, gruck!”

A total of two shits had been creeping up on me, but the other guy immediately bolted once he saw his friend being smashed.

Yes, go, go.

I don’t even have the energy to follow you.

“Hey, you bastards…”

When I checked the time, less than ten minutes had passed.

In the end, I had no choice but to go back to the cave and keep hunting goblins.

Whenever I felt too tired and couldn’t take it any longer, I leaned against the wall and got a few winks of sleep.

There were a few occasions while I dozed off that made me almost faint with surprise, but it was only twice that I felt like I had one foot in the grave.

Once, when I felt a presence and opened my eyes, some bastard adventurer was quietly closing in on me.

When our eyes met, he gave an indifferent smile, then stepped back and disappeared.

… Even just thinking about it again, I got goosebumps.

In terms of surprise alone, the second occasion didn’t lose either.

Especially since it was an ongoing process.

「The character was attacked by a goblin while sleeping.」

For the first time, I woke up to actual pain, not a premonition of a presence.

A goblin appeared in front of me. Once I killed it with one swing of my hammer, the other bastard hightailed it.

“G, ggh!!”

I immediately identified the root cause behind the pain.

But, oh my God, there was a carving knife stuck between my collarbones.

… Shit, my left arm wasn’t moving well for some reason.

But after all, I was glad it ended with just pain.

Had I been a little shorter, or if that goblin could jump a little better, this knife would’ve been lodged in my neck.

Creak.

I clenched my teeth as I pulled the knife out.

Then, taking out the potion from my bag, I placed a few drops on the wound. By the time I closed the stopper and put the bottle back in the bag, the blood was bubbling and the wound was regenerating quickly.

Chiiiiiiiik.

Was the bastard who made the potion a psychopath or something?

Somehow, it hurt more than the stabbing itself.

“Ouch, hehehehe…”

After about five minutes, the pain went away.

Although the pain had woken me up abruptly, after the rush faded, my eyelids felt heavier than ever.

So much that my vision blurred if I stopped concentrating even for a single moment.

It was time to make the decision I’d been putting off.

Although my body was that of a barbarian and sensitive to killing intent, there was a limit to it. Didn’t I just wake up after being stabbed with a carving knife?

‘I need to take a break.’

I checked the time, and it had been about fourteen hours since I’d parted with uncle.

Perhaps the adventurers active on the first floor were also wandering around by now, again looking for night friends.

“Hey barbarian, are you looking for a night friend?”

This time when I roamed the area, it was the adventurers who took the initiative to speak to me first.

Also, very passionately.

“Hmm, you look pretty tired, don’t you? Will you come?”

“You can always trust a barbarian. If you join, we’ll have three people, so how about getting together?”

It was like being an in-demand whore.

Was it because this was the second day and everyone was looking the same?

Bastards who sniffed at my smell were nowhere to be seen. Or maybe the smell hadn’t been the problem in the first place?

Come to think of it, yesterday I’d been wobbling on my feet a bit, and drenched in about seven litres of blood.

“Oh? That’s unfortunate.”

Numerous love calls flooded in, but I refused them all and kept walking through the passage.

Haa, was there no strong barbarian anywhere nearby?

In fact, my best choice would be to find a fellow countryman to make night friends with. The problem was that, until the second day, I wasn’t able to smell even the faintest whiff of another barbarian.

“You are looking for your own people? Hmm, wouldn’t it be difficult?”

“Difficult? Why is that?”

“Even a barbarian who just finished his coming-of-age ceremony would go upstairs within two or three months. I don’t rightly know, but there must be less than a hundred on the first floor.”

As I kept exploring, it looked like barbarians were a rarity on the first floor. Seriously, it’d be strange to mess around on the first floor if you have a body like this.

99% of the adventurers I met on the first floor were humans.

“Why don’t you join us instead?”

“I’m sorry, but I can’t.”

“I see. I pray that Rafdonia will be with you on your journey.”

“Thank you.”

This man looked pretty trustworthy, but I ended our chat and moved on.

Since I found out that how expensive of a barbarian’s heart was, I couldn’t help but suspect every one of the adventurers.

Click.

I took out the compass.

I’d been moving south ever since I got it, but I still wasn’t out of the Goblin Zone.

I could feel just how big the first floor was.

‘… Should I give up looking for my own people?’

My worries didn’t last long.

I decided to stop looking for needles in a desert, and made a more realistic plan.

I’d look for a night friend even if they weren’t of my own people.

But not humans.

I’d search for the demihumans who were less than 1% of the population.

A fairy who valued ​​promises, or a dwarf with as arrogant a personality as a barbarian would be the best…

It didn’t matter much as long as it was a non-human race.

Unlike humans, these races had longer lifespans.

Given enough time, they had the potential to climb all the way to the top, so they would be less likely to get blinded by short-term gains and hurt a fellow adventurer.

Having made that decision, I kept wandering around the cave for about an hour.

And…

「You encountered an injured fairy stranger. 」

I finally found one of the demihuman races that I’d been looking for.

The moment our eyes meet, the air grows heavy with a strangely suffocating silence.

“…”

The pointy-eared fairy sitting with her back against the wall just stares at me without saying a single word.

Were you also sleeping alone without a night friend?

Her catlike glowing amber eyes show embarrassment, but also a keen vigilance.

Just looking at her makes me want to pass by and disappear, but…

Seuk.

As our silent confrontation stretches out, the fairy finally gets up from where she’d been sitting with a nervous face.

But her posture is unnatural.

Upon closer examination, there’s a wound on her stomach.

“You’re hurt.”

It’s not deep, but it’s a long cut.

Not something that could be caused by the little carving knives carried by the goblins.

I quickly come to a conclusion.

“Was it a human?”

The fairy doesn’t answer.

She’s afraid.

Yeah, I can see where she’s coming from. I’d be scared too if some random stranger much bigger than me passed by while I was injured.

Isn’t she even a woman, on top of that?

Her body is tiny too. Maybe around 160cm?

Anyway, this isn’t a bad situation –

“Please spare me.”

Yes?

“Please, just once, uncle barbarian. I have a younger brother in the city that I need to take care of.”

I did wonder how this plot was going to develop.

The fairy kneels down to her knees without any regrets.

At some point, even moisture had formed in her eyes.

“I beg you.”

What the hell, where did your spirit as a fairy go?

To be honest, I’d thought she would be the cool beauty type.

Because most of the fairies in the game had that kind of tone and personality.

Hooo, if I’d known she’d be this kind of a character, I would’ve approached the situation completely differently.

Let’s clear up the misunderstanding before things get worse.

“I have no intention of killing you.”

Make eye contact and speak with a clear pronunciation.

The eyes are the windows to the soul, so given some time to calm down, she’ll know that I’m being sincere –

“… Must you do this, uncle barbarian?”

– Yup, that’s not gonna happen.[2]

I’m having an identity crisis right now.

Isn’t this a highschool drama, with a savage delinquent bullying the girls in front of the school? With me being the savage, obviously.

“Just once, please, let me go just this once.”

As my silence stretches, the fairy takes a step back. The fear in her eyes deepens as she opens up her front collar.

It’s not funny.

What kind of life do these barbarian bastards lead? What’s their usual image like, that she’s doing this shit?

“Hooo…”

I can’t help but sigh.

What do I do?

Would this misunderstanding be cleared up if I showed her that I’m not that kind of trash, with actions rather than words?

… That seems feasible.

“Start treatment first. We can talk later.”

I step back, take the herbs and bandages from my bag and throw them at her.

“This is a lychee leaf…?”

I see, so this is a lychee leaf.

In the future, I can use it with peace of mind.

I was worried that it might be poisonous, so I couldn’t use it even though I got injured earlier.

Editor’s Notes:

[1] 조각칼 (lit. carving knife) usually means engraving knife used in sculpture. However, it is also a term used in archelogy to mean a prehistoric tool for carving flint.

[2] 개뿔 (lit. silver horn), means something that’ll never happen, bullshit.