Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Episode 840

Return 2

The moment Aynar used Restrained Wish, the shattered gem burst like fireworks and scattered clusters of light.

Then…

Nothing.

Shhhh…

As the glowing particles faded and their colors drained away, Aynar, who had been staring blankly into space, slowly came back to her senses.

“Ugh…?”

“So you’re back.”

“B-Bjorn…?”

“Pull yourself together and tell me everything that happened in there. From the beginning.”

“Uh… ah… j-just give me a second…”

…Huh?

Why did she still look so dazed?

I was dying to know what essence she had brought back, but I forced myself to wait.

Minutes passed.

Even though it was obvious she’d fully recovered, Aynar still refused to speak.

…Why won’t she look me in the eye?

Like someone who had done something wrong.

A possibility suddenly flashed through my mind, and I lowered my voice.

“Aynar… can you swear on your honor as a warrior that you followed my instructions exactly?”

“Huh? I-I…”

She hesitated before suddenly forcing out an awkward laugh.

“Th-this isn’t the kind of thing you swear on a warrior’s honor over, right? Hahaha… hehe… Bjorn, you’re… you’re funny.”

That was all the confirmation I needed.

“So… you ignored what I told you.”

“N-No! It’s not that I ignored you! Th-the situation was just a little… different…”

“Tell me everything that happened. Don’t leave out a single detail.”

I cut off every possible escape and began questioning her. Aynar seemed to realize she wasn’t getting out of this and reluctantly recounted everything from the beginning.

I had planned to listen without interrupting.

I failed.

“…You skipped Semura and chose one of the combination essences I made for you? Just because you had a feeling?”

“I-I already told you! It wasn’t just a feeling! It was my instinct! I knew something good would happen if I picked that one!”

…So she claimed.

“Haah…”

A heavy sigh escaped me, but I didn’t scold her any further.

What was done was done.

Besides…

For some inexplicable reason, her instincts always seemed to pay off.

At this point, the only thing I could do was hear the rest of the story and decide whether her reckless choice had actually benefited her.

After all, I never would have imagined my own vampire essence would turn into an ogre essence.

Maybe those combination essences had hidden potential as well.

“So what appeared after you chose it?”

“Bartanus and Hell Smith appeared!”

So the available essences had been upgraded to rank 3…

The Room of Balance was far more mysterious than I’d thought.

“And both of their gems were rainbow-colored!”

“What?”

A rank 3 guardian essence?

This was even crazier than my case.

For me, the choices had been two Rank 4 Guardian Essences and one regular Rank 3 Essence.

No, wait.

‘Then that means…’

“The last one unfortunately wasn’t a Guardian! It was a monster I’d never seen before…”

“So! What did you choose?”

“…I chose the monster I’d never seen before! It wasn’t a Guardian, but it had a spear… Y-You told me to choose the one with a spear, Bjorn!”

“I’m not scolding you, so be quiet and explain what the spear-wielding one looked like first.”

“A-Alright!”

Realizing she wasn’t being scolded, Aynar finally relaxed and described the creature in as much detail as she could.

The moment I pieced together her description, a chill ran down my spine.

“…Titanus.”

A rank 2 monster.

“Oh! You know it?”

Of course I knew it.

In fact, she should have known it too.

Titanus was the base monster that evolved into the Heavenly Spearman, Milayel—the very monster that had dropped the Verdant Giant Spear on the first underground floor.

“Ah! I didn’t realize! It looked a little different! It was wearing armor!”

After explaining what Titanus was, I asked one final question.

“What color was the gem?”

“Yellow.”

I was speechless.

…And on top of that, she had obtained Return of All Things.

Just what kind of absurd luck did this woman have?

I forced myself to stay calm despite learning that Aynar had come back with a rank 2 essence.

After asking which combination essence she had sacrificed and piecing together everything she had told me, I finally figured it out.

‘…She erased [War Machine] and [Indomitable Soul].’

At least she hadn’t gotten rid of the one with [Focus Strike].

It might only be a Rank 5 skill, but just like [Gigantification] was core for a shield barbarian, this was a core skill for a spear barbarian.

‘Now that she has [Return of all Things], she’ll finally be able to use [Focus Strike] properly.’

Ultimately, the fact that she hadn’t erased [Repeated Slash] brought far greater benefits.

…Though I’d still make her replace it once we got back to the city.

That discussion could wait.

What fascinated me more was something else.

How had a rank 2 essence appeared?

The mechanics of the Room of Balance suddenly became far more interesting.

If I could figure out the rules governing it, there might be a way to exploit them.

Could a combination essence automatically count as two ranks higher?

If that were true, then combining three rank 3 essences and using Restrained Wish might even let someone gamble for a rank 1 essence…

…No.

That was probably wishful thinking.

Dungeon and Stone was never that generous.

Restrained Wish originally only allowed rank 4 essences to be rerolled.

Still, there was one inconsistency.

The combination essence Aynar had chosen consisted of two rank 4 skills but only a rank 3 stat.

…Hmm.

Maybe the system simply treated the entire combination essence as rank 4?

I’d have to test that theory another time.

“Bjorn!”

“Hm?”

“What are you thinking about so hard? Stop spacing out and tell me already! What does my new ability do? You know what it is, don’t you?”

“Ah, that?”

I gave her a brief explanation of her newly acquired skill.

“First, the passive ability.”

(P) Worshipper — All strengthening effects received from external sources are doubled.

Any buff applied to her—as long as she wasn’t the one casting it herself—would have twice the normal effect.

In simple terms, if she fought alongside a priest or someone with support-type abilities, her combat strength would increase dramatically.

“…Huh? That’s all?”

Aynar tilted her head, clearly unimpressed.

She simply didn’t understand what that description really meant.

In Dungeon and Stone, the shorter an item’s or skill’s description was, the more absurdly powerful it usually turned out to be.

Worshiper was exactly that kind of ability.

More than anyone, I understood just how terrifying the word double could be.

“Trust me,” I said, “it’s far stronger than it sounds.”

“I still don’t really get it… but okay! Then what’s the active skill?”

“It’s the technique Milayel used against you.”

(A) Return— Throw and retrieve your weapon. The thrown weapon will always hit. Upon retrieval, the skill’s power slightly increases until the end of battle. Each successful retrieval slightly increases this skill’s power for the remainder of the battle. If the attack deals piercing damage, the weapon is recalled immediately and half of the consumed Soul Power is refunded.]

Unlike the passive, this skill came with a lengthy description.

Even so, it was still a valuable skill.

It was an incredibly valuable ability.

On its own it seemed awkward to use, but every additional effect attached to it made it far more powerful than it first appeared.

“Ah! So I can use it like that!”

After explaining the basics of the skill, I was about to have her practice—

Crack!

—when spiderweb-like fractures spread across the air.

The sign was unmistakable.

The grace period had ended.

The dimensional collapse was beginning again.

“Looks like practice will have to wait.”

“Th-the Dimensional Collapse…!”

“Everyone, gather up!”

There was no better practice than using it in a real fight.

***

The Dimensional Collapse alternated between two smaller events.

Each wave began with the surrounding terrain changing, followed by hordes of monsters pouring in. Once a wave ended, there would be a brief lull before the next one began.

We were entering the third wave.

Our new battlefield was—

“The Dark Continent!”

“The Gray Field!”

“Everyone already knows what kinds of monsters live here, but don’t rely on that knowledge too much. We’re in the middle of a Dimensional Collapse!”

The Gray Field of the Dark Continent, located on the seventh floor.

The moment the third wave began and the survivors settled into formation, monsters emerged from every direction.

Rank 6 Void Ants and Hell Ghouls.

Rank 5 Mynums and Sleeping Bats.

Rank 4 Dark Crystals, Brass Executioners, Karpas…

There were plenty of monsters that didn’t normally belong in the Dark Continent, but fortunately, no rank 3 monsters had appeared yet.

“Perfect.”

I glanced at Aynar.

“Do exactly what I told you. And don’t get carried away.”

“Bethel—RAAAAA!”

The moment I gave the go-ahead, Aynar raised the Verdant Giant Spear and let out a battle cry.

Surprisingly, she didn’t charge into the enemy this time.

She didn’t have to.

She could test her new skill without taking a single step.

[Aynar Fenelin has activated Return.]

Fwoosh!

Driven by the strength of her arm rather than a bowstring, the spear shot through the air toward a rank 4 Brass Executioner.

The monster twisted aside with astonishing agility.

It didn’t matter.

A guaranteed hit wasn’t something you could dodge.

Like a missile tracking its target, the spear curved in midair before slamming straight into the Brass Executioner.

Thrust!

The blow wasn’t powerful enough to kill it outright.

But that wasn’t the point.

[A piercing wound has been inflicted.]

[Half of the consumed soul power has been refunded.]

[Aynar Pheneline has retrieved the Verdant Giant Spear.]

[Return’s effectiveness has slightly increased for the remainder of this battle.]

In the next instant, the spear flew back into Aynar’s waiting hand.

“Oh…! It really came back!”

It was impressive.

But that wasn’t what I wanted to see.

I was aiming for something much more.

“Quit fooling around and use it properly.”

“Ah! I just wanted to see what it was like on its own! I’ll do it for real this time!”

With that, Aynar settled back into her throwing stance.

Vwoong!

Unlike before, white light gathered at the tip of the spear.

It was the effect of the spear barbarian’s core skill.

Focus Strike.

A transformation-type skill that served as a trigger.

[The next attack will apply the effects of all piercing-type skills in your possession.]

Bathed in white light, the spear shot forward once again.

And then—

Fwoosh!

Two translucent spears appeared beside the thrown weapon.

The effect of Trident.

[Enemies detected near the target.]

Since monsters were packed tightly together, the original spear continued toward its intended target while the two phantom spears split off toward nearby enemies.

Stab!

The monsters tried to evade the spectral spears too, but it was meaningless.

The attack had been triggered by Focus Strike.

And now, Trident had inherited Return’s guaranteed-hit effect.

[Piercing damage inflicted.]

[Half of the consumed Soul Power has been refunded.]

[Piercing damage inflicted.]

[Half of the consumed Soul Power has been refunded.]

[Piercing damage inflicted.]

[Half of the consumed Soul Power…]

To my surprise, the refund activated three times.

In other words, this combo actually restored more MP than it consumed.

And that wasn’t all.

[Return’s effectiveness has slightly increased for the remainder of this battle.]

[Return’s effectiveness has slightly increased for the remainder of this battle.]

[Return’s effectiveness has slightly increased for…]

Three stacks of Return were applied at once as well.

“Oooh! Did you see that, Bjorn?! The rank 4 monster is already dead!”

Aynar hurled the spear again the moment it returned to her hand, and another rank 4 monster burst into light after its head was pierced.

If the enemy’s defense hadn’t been so high, three rank 4 monsters would have died at the same time.

Of course, the Verdant Giant Spear was doing a lot of the heavy lifting when it came to damage.

Still, this was her performance with only a handful of spear-type essences.

It made me look forward to what she could become later.

But that was a daydream for another time.

I raised my voice and charged toward the frontline.

“Bethel—RAAAAAA!”

Haah.

I just hoped nothing ridiculous happened during this wave.

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