Surviving the Game as a Barbarian

Rafdonia (2)

After I returned to the inn, with a slightly tipsy Erwen in tow, I started observing her body from up close.

Of course, the oath I'd sworn on my honour with her sister was never broken.

Although I did wonder how much such an oath meant to me as a warrior in the first place.

"Erwen, loosen up a bit more."

"Ehh, even if you say that…"

Currently, I was forcibly stretching Erwen.

"Ah! My shoulders! I think my shoulders are going to fall off!"

"Hmm."

"I-, it's not even supposed to bend this way in the first place! Really!"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, yes! On the name of my clan!!"

As soon as I relaxed my grip, Erwen immediately flopped down on the bed.

‘Flexibility + 4' wasn't that obvious from the outside.

Well, hadn't the game been the same?

"Again, are you going to go again?"

"No. Rest for now."

[Dungeon and Stone] was a brutal game.

Just look at the stats.

Body, mind, and ability.

There are three main stats, but if you click the [+] button next to one, thousands of sub-stats come out.

For example, if the physical strength, a body sub-stat, increases, the weight that can be carried, physical attack power, etc. are corrected accordingly.

Flexibility?

Even if only slightly, evasion rate and critical strike rate increase.

Vision?

Ranged weapon attack radius and the character's visual range get larger.

Sense of smell becomes a factor to enhance any related ability, and accuracy rate is literally the accuracy rate.

Therefore, even if the body stat is the same at 50, the character's scope of action can be completely different depending on the finer details.

"…"

Note that I found all this out on my own.

It was information that neither the game production company nor any foreign users told me, so I had to repeatedly experiment numerous times and collect statistical data.

Just because I wanted to clear this game.

Fuck, I could've never dreamed back then that this passion would one day come back and bite me in the ass.

‘Hoo, I'm suddenly feeling pissed off again.'

Back again, I was an old hand in his ninth year, a true so-called rotten water.

However, there were some stats that even I never managed to find out the effects of.

A typical example would be the ‘obsession + 7' on the essence spat by the goblin archer.

Except for the fact that obsession was a sub-stat of mind, everything else was a mystery.

"Erwen."

"Uncle, I get so anxious every time you sigh like that, can’t you just stop talking?"

"Has anything changed since you came out of the labyrinth? Like, something keeps popping up in your mind. As if it’s hard to bear, something like that."

"… I-, I'm not sure? There's something, maybe?"

"What is it? Tell me."

"Sweets…? Yes, sweets. Now that I think about it, as soon as I came out, I bought a lot of sweets and wolfed it all down…"

"Did you usually hate sweets?"

"No, I liked them? Still, I think this was my first time eating that much in one day."

"Right."

Perhaps obsession just meant a desire to grow stronger.

So, there would have been no special function within the game.

Well, my thoughts were getting complicated.

Because this was a reality patch, and additional functions might have gotten tacked on to the detailed stats.

Same went for flexibility.

As in the game, the more natural the body's movements, the easier it would be to dodge. In the appropriate situation, you can even pull off some outlandish manoeuvre and inflict fatal damage on the enemy.

But is that all?

Greater flexibility can even make it easier to get into tight spaces, and better absorb shock on landing.

That was not so in the game.

So, in the future, I'd have to re-examine my nurturing method by synthesizing those aspects.

"Uncle, I’m sleepy now…"

Oh, did I let you rest too much?

Her eyes were already half closed.

I was going to check if there were any problems activating skills, cooldown timings, and stuff like that…

"I see. Go to sleep."

"Yes…"

I blew out the light.

And laid down next to Erwen.

Erwen didn't find it strange, and neither did I.

In the labyrinth, we'd both seen what there was to see, so it'd be funny to balk now.

Zzzzzz!

Just like that, my eyes too fluttered closed, and I slept again.

I remembered her sister's words not to sleep with her at the last moment, but…

Well, there wasn't any point worrying about it.

She probably didn't mean something like this anyway.

[07: 35].

I woke up fairly early in the morning.

I'd already slept for almost two days, so calling to too early now might've been a bit silly.

"Uncle, water…"

Erwen just woke up, so we had a quick meal on the first floor after washing our faces.

Then we headed to Erwen's place.

Because the city was so big, it took more than an hour just to get there on foot.

"I’m glad it’s still in the same area!"

I feel you.

If it'd been on the other side, it'd have taken a long time even in a carriage.

For a so-called fortress town, Rafdonia was really absurdly large.

"You must stay quiet. You understand? Because big sis is the only one who knows I'm working with you, uncle."

"Got it."

As I waited in an alley three blocks away from the hostel, Erwen trudged back laden with two backpacks.

The backpacks of the leader and the crossbowman who'd attacked us just before the end of the seventh day. The weapons that had been haphazardly shoved in were sticking out.

"Let me."

"Oh, thank you!"

Also, she had no idea about their specifications.

I guess everybody has to start somewhere.

"Weapons here, armours here, place tools and consumables separately."

"Yes!"

Returning to the inn, we started checking and organizing the items in our backpacks.

It took about an hour, but maybe because of all the loot? It was quite enjoyable.

Erwen and I sat side by side on the bed, looking at the neatly arranged items on the floor.

"Are you going to sell them all?"

"Except what's necessary."

"Then, can I keep the leather clothes and belt that you gave me?"

"Doesn't matter. If you take them from your share."

"Then please!"

After classifying what to sell and what not to sell, we went back to the city.

Except for tools such as watches and compasses, we decided to share expeditionary items and consumables such as potions, but sell almost all of the collected equipment.

It's better to exchange money and buy something else than to use something that doesn't fit.

It wasn't like I couldn't afford to, now.

"Here it is!"

The place we arrived at was a weapon shop that Tersia had informed me of.

Items for sale included a Japanese katana, two longswords, a crossbow, a two-handed hammer, two daggers, and three small knives.

"A total of 350,000 stones."

I'd been a tad worried because it was introduced via an acquaintance, but I just sold it all off because it gave better prices than any of the other stores I'd stopped by at for comparison.

"Wow…"

As soon as we left the store, Erwen let out the admiring exclamation that she'd been holding back.

I was feeling the same.

"Uncle, isn’t this a dream?"

Excluding the stolen mana stones, the money we earned from pure hunting for seven days was only around 100,000 stones.

But to compare that with 350,000 stones?

Besides, the armours hadn't even been sold yet.

… Now I could understand the look in those adventurer bastards' eyes when they saw us.

Equipment is money. A lot, too.

"Uncle, how much is my share then?"

Erwen's eyes were shining with a longing for wealth.

"Just wait, we've still got a lot left to sell."

The next destination was the armour shop, about a ten minute walk.

"Here are 180,000 stones."

There were more items, but the total value was less than the weapons.

The purchase price was low because it was difficult to sell used armour, which was a convincing enough reason.

Didn't we decide to just sell everything because of the size problem, too?

"I will sell them for that price."

"You sure have a refreshing personality, as expected of a barbarian. Please come again the next time you encounter something like this. I'll give you a good price again."

"I will."

After that, I stopped by at a general store and sold several items that had been judged unnecessary, and got a huge sum of 145,000 stones.

Well, it wasn't all my money.

"Take it, 45,000 stones."

"Uh? Isn't that a little too much?"

With her leather clothes and belt, 20,000 stones were subtracted, and exactly 7,000 stones were added.

It wasn't a freebie because she was pretty. It was her share of the mana stones from the samurai and the beanpole, divided 9:1.

"I don’t know exactly how much they'd be worth, so I took the two you gave as a guide."

"Oh, I see! Thank you!"

Anyway, after selling off everything, I checked my total assets, which now amounted to a whopping 1.4 million stones.

It was a bit, no, a lot weird.

I'd never had this much money in the first round, even in the game…

It was a good start.

"Then let's break up."

"Yes?"

Why do you look so surprised?

We've divvied up the money, so now it's time to go our separate ways.

I have a lot of work to do, because my plans have now gone awry because of you.

"Well, we can go to the central square together."

"Yes…"

Erwen's words faded into silence.

As we walked along the road like that, we arrived at the central plaza, which was a fork in the path.

"Huh? Why suddenly so many people?"

Unlike the last time I passed by, it was buzzing with activity.

Half the crowd were soldiers, and the other half were there to watch the criminals chained to the pavement.

No, calling them criminals might be a little too much, right?

"Uh, uh! Ouch! Whoa!"

They were not violent criminals such as murderers, rapists, or arsonists.

The crime of these people who were trembling in fear, gags in their mouths, was ‘tax evasion'.

In other words, because they had no money.

A young woman in her twenties, a man who was probably a father, an old man with wrinkled hands signifying the harshest of lives – were all sentenced to death.

"Start the execution!"

When the tax collector shouted that, the soldiers shoved the man's head under the guillotine.

And…

Thwock–!

With a gentle sound, the man's head was sheared off, and slipped into the wooden barrel in front.

Some of the nearby crowd soaked the bread they'd brought with the dripping blood and ate in a hurry.

"Hic!"

Erwen started hiccupping at the bloodshed that suddenly unfolded before her eyes.

"Damn, what is that! What are those people doing? Why would you dip bread in human blood?"

"There's a superstition that drinking the blood of someone executed by a tax collector will bring you wealth."

Erwen frowned as if she couldn't make head or tail of it. For her, it seemed to be more shocking than seeing a person's head being cut off.

"Erwen, how much is the first year’s tax?"

"It’s 700,000 stones, but depends on your race."

"Right."

It'd been 600,000 stones in the game.

There were some errors, but it was roughly consistent.

"Still, you don’t have to worry. Because you've already earned that much."

Yeah? Yes, that's true, but…

It's not something somebody with a bigshot sister should say.

Besides, I have no intention of saving this money for next year's taxes in the first place.

For a simple reason.

"Erwen, how much is the tax from the second year?"

"800,000 stones. And there's a fee when you exchange money."

Taxes continue to rise until a certain number of years are accumulated.

So now is the time to invest in yourself.

The first year, when fees are waived and taxes are relatively low, is the time for rapid growth.

"Ah! S-, please spare me!"

"Gag him properly this time!"

"Next month! I can pay the bill next month – uh, uh! Aaaahk!"

Anyway, I'm glad.

Aren't humans the most reliant on visual stimuli?

Thwock–!

Seeing it with my own two eyes makes me really feel it.

Returning to the original world?

Rather than such unrealistic goals, it's necessary to set clear intermediate goals and strive for them.

For example, assuming my life span is 90 years old.

When I said that I might have to spend the rest of my life here if I couldn't find a way back home –

‘How much money do you need?'

Well, I guess I'll have to do some math.

A house with a kitchen, medical expenses for when you're sick, and if you want to be able to relax with three puppies after retiring at the age of fifty…

"Sixth floor."

If you at least reach the sixth floor, the calculation shows that you can skimp and save enough before you retire.

Yes, therefore –

"Yes? What did you just say?"

"It's nothing."

Let's focus on reaching the sixth floor first.

Whether it's possible to go home or not –

Would be something to think about later.

「630,000 stones were transferred by Level 6 Adventurer Daria Wittember di Tersia. 」

「You have sold equipment.」

「You have sold equipment.」

「Total Item Level drops by -43. 」

「You have sold equipment.」

「You have sold…」

「…」

「…」

「TIP: The character's current total holdings are 1,403,520 stones. Use this to increase your character's Combat Index!」