Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Episode 808

Final Day

When struck by the special skill Omens of Corruption, one of the target’s essence abilities could be warped in strange ways. In my case, the ability affected was Bayon’s Transcendence.

At least Storm Gush was spared…

Even if I had avoided the worst-case scenario, I still couldn’t help feeling bitter.

Transcendence was a vital combo skill that not only strengthened Giantification, but also several of my other essences. While it was not quite as vital as Giantification, this essence had still earned its place in the final build of the shield barbarian.

I wonder how it changed…

The thought that it might have warped into something bizarre and turned me into a trash character was seriously getting to me. Even so, I could not check it right away, no matter how badly I wanted to. After being hit by that skill, the corrupted ability became unusable for 180 days.

‘Today is the 33rd day of the expedition…’

If we returned to the city on day seventy-five as planned, that would only be forty-two days. Since the corruption timer only counted time spent inside the Labyrinth, the days outside would be skipped.

Even after spending another seventy-five days on the next expedition, I’d still have three days left.

In other words, Transcendence would only become usable on the expedition after that, and only then would I be able to see what had changed.

“Captain, the island is in sight.”

Just as I stood on the deck lost in thought, our destination finally came into view.

The island looked almost unreal. The sky above it was stained red, lava poured into the ocean and hardened into black stone, and dark crimson smoke shrouded the entire landmass.

“We’re disembarking!”

From boarding the ship to reaching the island, the journey had taken approximately three hours and fifty minutes. In total, we had saved about fifty minutes compared to our first trip to the Secret Base.

“Good work, Auyen.”

“Thank you…”

After using his abilities for the entire journey, Auyen looked terrible. He was hunched over and staggering, as if a few more spells would push him straight into soul exhaustion.

“You can relax now.”

“Pardon?”

“Aynar!” I shouted instead of explaining.

The moment I called her over, Aynar seemed to understand what I wanted. “Got it! I just need to carry him, right?”

“Pardon? I-I’m fine—!”

“Haha! Don’t worry about it! I’m used to carrying people!”

Good. That solved Auyen’s mobility problem. And since Orb of Fire had been active from the moment I first arrived on the island, there was no need to cast it again.

“We’ll move as quickly as possible from here,”

Since the clan members had rested during the four-hour voyage, we were able to sprint across the island. Our destination was the center of the island, where Amelia had last been seen.

However, as we searched the surrounding area, it became clear that Amelia was not the only one in danger.

[Status Effect Eternal Scorch is applied]

「The character will continuously take fire damage, and this fire damage will increase as time passes.」

The damage from the field effect was still low enough that I could ignore it.

[Time until death: 05:50:17]

Even so, there were less than six hours left before Terminus took effect, so we had to move quickly if we wanted to reset everyone’s time.

“Raven, Marone. From now on, use distortion magic on every monster we fight.”

While focusing on movement in a breakthrough formation, we hunted every monster we encountered using ‘Distortion’ magic. The monsters would not drop any essences, but there was a chance they would leave behind corpses we could harvest.

“Ah! It worked!”

Instead of turning into particles of light and disappearing, the dead monster collapsed to the ground. It was a clear sign that the distortion magic had succeeded.

Soon after, though, the corpse was consumed by flames and reduced to ash.

And then…

Vwoong!

A red mirage rose from the remains and floated into the air.

“It looks like an essence…?”

“That means it worked,” I explained.

In the game, this item was called Original Sin. I had no idea why it had such a name, but consuming it produced two effects.

[The character has consumed Original Sin. Fire Resistance is permanently increased by +1.]

[Status effect Terminus is reset. You will die in 24 hours.]

It increased Fire Resistance by +1 and reset the Terminus applied by the field effect, giving us another full day to live. The Fire Resistance boost only applied the first time it was consumed, but that was not what mattered here.

Since this world didn’t have a cursor you could hover over a status icon to see the remaining time, I planned to have everyone reset their timers one by one whenever they were fed Original Sin.

“It feels strange,” Marone murmured. “Seeing this and knowing exactly how much time we have left. Don’t you think so, Mr. Parab?”

“Haha, yes… That’s true.”

“How nice would it be if we could see it like this in real life too?”

Parab flinched. “Pardon?”

“Our remaining time. I was thinking how nice it would be if we could always know how much time we had left. It was like that earlier too, wasn’t it? When I thought everything would end in one minute… I was just so flustered. It made me realize there were so many things I hadn’t done in my life…”

“…It certainly would be nice. If we knew exactly how much time we had left, we wouldn’t leave so many things unsaid.”

“Say? Not do?”

“Ah! Haha… I was just giving an example!”

Even in the middle of all this, Marone and Parab were flirting with each other. Come to think of it, Parav had volunteered to carry Marone when we were discussing how to move around earlier…

Do these two have something going on too…?

There was no way to know for sure, but honestly, I decided to leave them alone. In the past, I definitely would have been cautious about emotions and relationships forming within the party. Feelings could create unexpected variables, after all.

But recently, my thoughts had changed.

“You might not get a second chance…”

Erwin tilted her head. “Did you say something, Mister?”

“Just talking to myself.”

After brushing off her question, I turned my attention back to Marone and Parav. I had no idea what their relationship would become, but I did not want to interfere. Either it would work out, or it would not.

I just hoped they would not end up with regrets.

With that, I pushed the thought aside and focused on the mission again, continuing toward the center of the island.

[Aynar Pheneline has consumed Original Sin. Fire Resistance is permanently increased by +1.]

Then, around the time we had obtained four Original Sins and reset everyone’s Terminus timer, I suddenly heard a voice that drew my attention.

“I finally found you.”

“Huh?”

That voice was definitely…

“Emily…?”

Amelia appeared with a sly grin. “What? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

I was caught off guard. Just as she said, it really felt as if I had seen a ghost. Honestly, I had not expected to find her this quickly.

Wait, did she find us instead?

I had no idea Amelia had been searching for us. If Arta had not told us, I would not have even known she was on the island in the first place.
“What happened?” I asked. “Why are you here?”

“Something happened outside.”

“Is it the Golden Tree Clan?”

“No, nothing to do with them.”

“What? Nothing?”

“They left the island immediately after realizing we caught their spy. I waited in case they came back, but I saw nothing until I came here.”

Everything I had expected turned out to be wrong. I had just assumed she must have come because of them.

“If it wasn’t because of them, then why did you come in here?”

At my question, Amelia gave an answer I never would have expected.
“The Lord of the sixth floor has been summoned.”

What?

Although the news was shocking, it also explained everything else.

“So the moment you realized a Floor Lord had been summoned, you fled here.”

“Yes. It would be dangerous if I got caught up in it alone. And when I calculated the time, it was also around the time you guys would be returning.”

After hearing the detailed reason Amelia had entered this place, I found myself nodding.

As expected, she was the only one I could feel at ease sending out into dangerous waters.

Her judgment was frighteningly fast and accurate.

“Well done.”

Most Floor Lords affect the entire floor.

A representative example is Riakis of the 3rd floor.

The moment it appears, it blocks inter-floor portals and changes the entire field.

The 6th floor lord is the same.

In the case of the 6th floor, the portals do not get blocked. However, once it was summoned, no matter where you were in that vast open sea, there was no avoiding its effect.

Well, strictly speaking, you’re only affected when it uses that skill, but anyway.

I was planning to just go outside in case of emergency, but that option was no longer going to work…

Even though one of our escape plans had vanished, the situation was actually better for us overall. In a way, we had unknowingly taken refuge in the safest possible place. Had we remained outside, we almost certainly would have been caught up in whatever disaster the Lord of the Floor had stirred up.

“…At any rate, I’m glad you’re safe. Let’s talk while we move away from here for now.”

“Why out of here?”

“We might run into something troublesome if we stay. Though we do need to defeat that thing eventually… But first, we should prepare.”

“Ah, I see. Understood.”

After joining up with Amelia, we first moved as far away from the center of the island as possible before continuing our conversation.

“Did things go well over there? I was worried something might have gone wrong because I wasn’t there.”

“Ah, that…”

“Was there a problem?”

“There were some problems, but in the end, it went well. Ah, and an essence dropped too.”

“A Level 1 dropped…? Impressive. I don’t know who will get it, but if the people in the city find out, there’ll be an uproar.”

“No, that won’t happen.”

Amelia looked at me in confusion after I cut her off. I simply grinned and gave a small shrug.

“You don’t like standing out, do you?”

For a moment, she only frowned as if she had no idea what I meant. Then her eyes widened as the meaning sank in.

Someone let out a long whistle.

It was Kaislan.

“I’m so jealous,” Raven muttered. “Imagine having a man who would hand you a Level 1 essence as a gift. Why don’t I have someone like that?”

“Ms. Raven,” Marone said carefully, “aren’t you unable to use essences because you’re a mage…?”

“That doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy studying them.”

Erwin let out a small scoff. “A Level 1 essence isn’t that special. Mister gave me a floor essence.”

“R-really…? Both sound amazing…” Misha said timidly.

The other members started to make a fuss, whistling and teasing, but Amelia herself didn’t seem to care about the noise. She just looked at me intently before speaking.

“Thanks. I’ll use it well.”

Just seven short words.

Her reply was blunt and restrained, yet it carried real weight. To me, that brief sentence felt more sincere than a hundred flowery words.

Of course, her stone-faced composure did not last very long. At first glance, Amelia seemed cold and unreadable, but once you got to know her, she had a surprisingly childish side she could not quite hide.

“So, what kind of ability does this essence have? And how can it link with my other essences?”

“Ah, ask Raven about that.”

“Hm? Me?”

“I’m sure you’ve already organized all the necessary information.”

“Uh, well, I did, but… Ugh! Fine! Here.”

Amelia took the skill document from Raven. After reading through it and absorbing the information, she came to me with a few questions.

“But what’s this one? The name sounds pretty cool. Oho, Final Day, huh?”

I had no idea what part of that sounded cool to her, but I still explained, “You don’t need to worry about that one for now. The activation conditions are so strict that you might go your whole life without ever using it.”

“Really? Looking at these conditions, I guess it would be hard to use without preparing for it first.”

“Yeah, so—”

“Final Day.”

Seriously, that curiosity of hers.

She was never satisfied until she tried something at least once. Still, there was no way it would activate just because she said the name.

Flash!

Or at least, it should not have.

“Huh?”

What?

Booooooom!

“Bjorn! There! Look at the sky over there!”

Why were meteorites falling from the sky?

BAAAAAAANG!

I had no idea what was happening, but after seeing the startled look on Amelia’s face, I became certain of one thing.

“…Did I mess up?” she asked awkwardly.

Things had gotten completely out of control.

[Amelia Rainwales has cast Final Day]

[For the next 24 hours, random attacks will fall within an area of 6 miles.]

Continue reading more chapters at henprogressive.com

Please join here, I need supporters to help me continue translating Surviving game as a barbarian and Lee Gwak
If it doesn’t work support me here buymeacoffee.com/hennoveltranslations. There are advanced chapters for supporters as well.