Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Episode 839
Novel: Surviving Game as a barbarian(SGB)
Return 1
“Snrrrk… Huff…”
Before the dimensional collapse started again, I woke up Aynar, who was lying on the ground fast asleep.
“Aynar.”
“…Bjorn?”
“Stop sleeping and get up. We have something to do.”
“Ugh… I don’t know what it is, but let me sleep a little longer.”
“I said get up.”
“…A-Alright! I’ll get up, so stop poking me! I-It tickles!”
After I kept jabbing a finger into her side, Aynar finally sprang to her feet. If she’d just gotten up the first time I told her, I wouldn’t have had to resort to that.
“The situation has changed.”
At my words, Aynar immediately looked around, searching for monsters. Finding nothing, she turned back to me with a puzzled expression.
“What has changed?”
Instead of answering, I shrugged and pulled out an item.
Aynar immediately jumped in surprise.
“Ah! W-Wait, isn’t that the…!” Aynar exclaimed.
“You know what it is?”
“Nope! I just wanted to sound like I did!”
Figures. There was no way she’d recognize it. She hadn’t even been part of my party when I first obtained it.
“So what is it?It must be important if you woke me up for it!”
Her smug confidence was a little irritating, but losing my temper wouldn’t accomplish anything.
So I simply explained.
“It’s called the ‘Restrained Wish.'”
Aynar nodded and reached out her hand, but I immediately pulled it back.
“…I thought you were handing it to me.”
“I am. After you hear me out.”
If she used it without understanding what it did, the fault wouldn’t be hers. It would be mine.
Aynar had about as much caution as a child. And adults shouldn’t hand children dangerous things without explaining them first.
“Once you break this, you’ll be sent to a strange space. In there, you can choose one essence of rank 4 or below and exchange it for another essence of the same rank…”
After giving a brief explanation, I told her to choose Semura’s Essence once she got inside.
It was the best choice. It was rank 4, the highest this item could affect, and now that Aynar had switched to a spear, Repeated Slash was basically useless to her.
Simply put, there was virtually no risk to the reroll.
“What? Why does it have to be Semura’s essence?” Ainar snapped, looking offended. “Kiduba left me that essence! You know that!”
Ah. Right.
Now that I thought about it, Repeated Slash was something Ainar had inherited from her mentor and elder through a spiritual inheritance rite. For someone as sentimental as Ainar, giving it up probably felt unthinkable.
“Didn’t I tell you when you changed your main weapon to a spear that you’d have to replace that essence too?”
“…I-I don’t remember!”
She clearly did.
But seeing how stubborn she was being, it seemed her earlier enthusiasm had cooled off.
Still, this wasn’t a big issue.
It wasn’t my first time talking sense into a barbarian.
“This Essence is practically Kiduba’s soul itself! And you’re telling me to throw away his soul? Never!”
“When did I ever tell you to throw it away? I said to change it.”
“…Huh?”
“Only the ability he left behind will change! Think about it! If the power he left you becomes even stronger, wouldn’t his soul be happy as well?”
“Hmm… But still…”
“Is the Kiduba you know really the kind of petty warrior who’d be upset just because the form changed a little?”
“No! Never! Kiduba was a mighty warrior!”
“Then you can do as I said.”
“Got it, Bjorn! I’ll do it!”
Once she was convinced, I gave her a few more warnings before handing over the Restrained Wish.
Aynar was one of the most unpredictable people I knew, so I repeated the instructions several times just to be safe.
“Remember, Aynar. Pick the one holding a spear. If there isn’t one, choose whichever one looks strongest in a fight.”
“Oh! Got it!”
There was no turning back now.
Aynar crushed the Restrained Wish.
Crack!
…Why do I have such a bad feeling about this?
[Aynar Pheneline has used Restrained Wish.]
[Aynar Pheneline has been moved to the Room of Balance.]
***
Whoosh!
A burst of flame flashed through the stone chamber.
“Oh.”
After glancing around, Aynar Pheneline’s eyes began to sparkle.
Just moments ago, she had been consumed by guilt over erasing Kiduba’s essence.
Now her curiosity about the mysterious space had completely taken over.
“So that’s the stone door Bjorn mentioned!”
Aynar carefully examined the stone doors lining the room.
Partly because she was curious.
But mostly because if she picked carelessly and made a mistake, Bjorn would definitely scold her.
“This one’s Vertas!”
She recognized the first door immediately. It was the essence she had obtained herself.
Honestly, it didn’t seem all that useful, but having wings was undeniably cool.
“Good thing it’s rank 5…”
If it had been rank 4, Bjorn probably would have told her to replace it. Feeling relieved, Aynar moved on to the second door.
She recognized that one too.
“Lava Lord.”
It was the essence she had gained after Team Apple Narak fell apart following Bjorn’s disappearance.
Its ability, [Residual Heat], synergized with [Wildness Control] and [Blast Scars], helping her earn recognition as one of the Seven Powerful.
“This one’s rank 4 too…”
Aynar pressed her lips together regretfully.
Bjorn had warned her over and over, but she still couldn’t help hesitating.
“Can’t I replace this one instead?”
Of course, Bjorn would be furious.
She hadn’t really been listening, so she couldn’t remember the details. Still, Bjorn had said that removing Repeated Slash was better than replacing this one.
Something about how, if she got another fire-type ability after giving up Repeated Slash, Residual Heat might become even stronger.
Ah, so that was why.
Turn.
When Aynar looked at the third door, she almost felt like crying.
“So this… is Semura.”
The rank 4 monster, Semura.
She had never defeated one herself, but she had seen it in a book when she went to the library with Bjorn. It also matched everything Bjorn had described.
Turn…
Aynar checked the remaining doors next.
There were two more, but she had never seen either monster before.
They looked like several monsters had been melted together, then forced into a single shape. Still, she knew what those doors were.
Of course, she knew what these doors represented.
“So these are the owners of the Essences obtained from Floor One…”
Customized Essences created through synthesis on the First Underground Floor.
Bjorn had told her to check whether those essences had doors of their own too.
Step.
Turning away from the doors carved with those hideous monsters, Aynar stood before Semura’s stone door.
But she couldn’t make herself touch it.
If she chose this door, Repeated Slash — the essence Kiduba had left her — would disappear.
As that thought crossed her mind again, a wave of sadness swept over Aynar.
She had too many memories tied to this essence.
Her very first battle had been fought using Repeated Slash. Then there was the moment she defeated Berthas and combined Repeated Slash with Blast Scars, feeling as though she had taken another step toward becoming a truly great warrior.
Whenever she felt discouraged, she would picture Repeated Slash defeating the former chieftain and use that image to push herself forward.
“I feel like… I’m going to cry…”
Of course, no tears actually fell.
Just as she said, she only felt like crying. Still, it was true that she didn’t want to erase this essence.
Maybe that was why…
Turn…
Her eyes kept drifting toward the other stone doors.
Berthas.
That one gave her cool wings, so it was out.
Lava Lord.
Bjorn had warned her several times not to erase that one.
But then…
Flash!
An idea struck her.
“Those ugly monsters…”
Bjorn had never specifically told her not to erase them.
He had only told her to check whether they appeared here or not.
He never said she couldn’t erase them.
“Oh?”
Once she thought of it that way, Aynar felt as if a new path had opened before her.
Of course, she knew Bjorn would scold her. He might even punish her if she chose one of them.
But so what?
“So what… if I get punished…?”
Come to think of it, she was already used to getting scolded!
Step.
Step.
As if possessed, Ainar walked toward one of the synthesized-monster doors.
A powerful impulse kept pulling her forward.
A vague intuition that choosing this would lead to something better than erasing Semura’s Essence.
She looked back and forth between the two combination-monster doors.
Then—
“This one’s carrying a spear… so it probably isn’t this one.”
She reached out and placed her hand on the other door.
[Essence of ??? has been selected.]
[Error.]
[The selected essence slightly exceeds the Room of Balance’s permitted rank.]
[The Guardian of Balance adjusts the transaction.]
[The maximum rank of selectable essences has been increased.]
[An essence beyond the Room of Balance’s original limits will never appear again.]
[This is an essence possessed by no one.]
[The Guardian of Balance acknowledges the essence’s extraordinary rarity and presents a new set of choices worthy of its value.]
Shwoosh…
As the stone doors slid apart, a new passage opened before her.
Without the slightest hesitation, Aynar strode ahead.
Beyond the corridor lay another stone chamber, almost identical to the last.
Fwoosh!
Flames flared to life once more, illuminating the room before her.
Excitement shining in her eyes, Aynar hurried over to inspect the three new stone doors.
“Oh! A spear!”
To her relief, one of the monsters carved into the doors was wielding a spear.
The only problem was that she had never seen the creature before.
“But it looks really strong…!”
With extraordinary self-control, Aynar somehow resisted the urge to charge straight through that door.
A thought Bjorn had drilled into her surfaced at the last moment.
She had to examine all the doors first.
“Let’s see…”
“…Oh?”
Now that she had calmed down, she took a closer look at the other two monsters and immediately recognized them.
“This is Bartanus… and that’s Hell Smith…!”
She even remembered their ranks.
Most warriors wouldn’t have known such things, but Aynar was a cultured warrior who could read and write—at least a little.
“Ooh! They’re rank 3…!”
A rank 3 essence was both rare and incredibly valuable, so her eyes lit up with excitement.
Then she frowned.
Something didn’t add up.
Actually, two things didn’t.
“Huh? But Bjorn definitely said…”
Only Rank 4 Essences should appear.
Bjorn had said it could only go up to rank 4.
Yet for some reason, a rank 3 essence was right in front of her.
And that wasn’t all.
“The color… i-it’s rainbow…?”
The gem embedded in the stone door was shining with rainbow light.
Aynar had no idea why.
“Didn’t Bjorn say rainbow meant a guardian essence?”
He had told her just in case, even though he had also said one would never appear here.
So what was this?
“Be…”
Aynar didn’t bother thinking too deeply about it.
Who cared why it happened?
“Behel—LAAAAAAA!”
Taking it as a blessing from the ancestral god, she let out a short roar of joy.
But soon, her excitement gave way to serious thought.
“B-but which one should I choose?”
Until a moment ago, she had been certain she would choose the monster holding a spear. But after recognizing the monsters carved into the other doors, she started to waver.
After all, she didn’t have a guardian essence yet.
She had even earned the nickname “Spear God” among the Seven Powerful, so shouldn’t she have at least one guardian essence?
That thought kept circling in her head.
Still…
“H-he told me to pick the one holding a spear…”
As a wise warrior, Aynar once again summoned an almost supernatural amount of discipline and forced down her growing desire.
Then—
Step, step.
Aynar stood before the spear-wielding monster whose name she didn’t even know and took a deep breath.
This strange experience had been fun.
“So… Bjorn already knew about a place this incredible…”
The corners of her lips twitched upward, but she forced the smile back down.
“Bjorn… honestly…”
A moment later, the warmth in her expression vanished, replaced by a resolute calm.
[The Essence of Titanus has fused with Aynar Pheneline’s soul.]
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