Barbarian in a Failed Game

018. The Fallen One(1)

Artifacts.

Otherwise known as relics of ancient times, essence of advanced magic, the eternal homework for modern mages…

Just hearing about them brings the smell of money; these objects are treasures from the peak era of the magic civilization.

Artifacts could absorb and store mana from the natural environment without the need for magic stones, imprison the power of transcendents in minor ornaments, or process the corpses of transcendent species to fully harness their power while alive…

Truly, artifacts are called the products of unfathomable mysteries, and the magical tools of today are but mere imitations of these artifacts.

‘This one is almost the lowest quality among artifacts… hardly different from a pseudo-artifact, but…’

Its performance was unmistakable.

The artifact obtained from the dark mage Devin, ‘Shield of the Abyss’, disperses the absorbed shockwaves in all directions.

Zzz-crash! Bang! Bang!

The bodies of the mercenaries flew in every direction, struck by the shockwave that hurled back the force of their own crossbow bolts and the weight of the iron nets they shot.

It was impossible for ordinary human bodies to withstand it.

Crr-ack… The tattoo of a shield on the right side of his chest burned as if on fire.

Khan laughed nonchalantly as he cut the iron chains binding Ron with an axe.

“Oh, my poor body…!”

Ron, now freed, whimpered needlessly. Always so carefree.

Khan snorted lightly and faced the only mercenary still standing upright.

“Got anything else prepared?”

Clench. Grind. Nero grinded his teeth at Khan’s question.

‘I was genuinely curious. No need for the temper tantrum.’

Nero, with an expressionless face, removed a piece of metal lodged in his left shoulder without a word and pointed his sword silently.

He didn’t care that taking hostages and setting traps had been ineffective.

“An artifact, huh. Now I understand. You’ve been running wild because you have such a treasure.”

“What are you on about, you little brat.”

“But it ends here. Your artifact too will need time to recharge. A mana-less lowly race like yourself.”

‘Listening hurts the barbarian’s feelings.’

Despite the heavy hit to the ego, Khan realized why the other was so full of himself.

Did he think he could win without the artifact?

What kind of confidence was that… Did he have a secret weapon?

For Khan, who still had things to hear from Nero, this confidence was quite annoying.

‘Well. Guess I’ll find out if I give him a good thrashing.’

But he didn’t overthink it.

After all, Khan couldn’t imagine a scenario where he’d lose in a one-on-one fight, unless he was ambushed by many.

The thought of interrogation after the fight seemed more troublesome than the fight itself.

That was fine too… Khan knew his negotiation tool, his fist, usually did the job quite well.

Thump.

Naturally, Khan made the first strike.

He rolled forward to close the distance and suddenly swung his arm that was hidden behind his back – whoosh! The hand axe cut through the air with a fierce gust.

Nero countered by thrusting his sword with both hands.

As expected, he stood no chance in terms of strength.

The moment they collided, Nero’s upper body jerked significantly, and Khan smashed down the axe from above to below.

Cling! Clang! Clang! Clang!

The battle was one-sided.

Khan’s strikes, powerful enough to shatter rocks, could be performed dozens of times over.

Unless it was an imperial knight, a magus from the Magic Tower, or a legendary swordmaster known as the Sword Ghost, standing against him one-on-one was implausible.

Nero, bravely clashing swords with Khan, swayed back and forth like a reed. Yet, like a reed, he did not break. A tough little one.

Khan blew a whistle, surprised. Now, he was even curious to see how long the other could last.

‘Should I use a bit more power?’

After closing the distance, Khan, who had been swinging his axe using only the motion below his shoulders, changed his approach.

He smoothly stepped forward with his left foot as the pivot, twisting his waist and tilting his upper body backwards.

Then he struck.

Boom──! Crasssh!

“Oh?”

“Grrrgh…!”

Nero, pushing up against the sky-like axe with his sword’s tip and guard, groaned under the pressure.

Blood leaked from his eyes and ears, perhaps due to internal bleeding from the pressure.

Yet, he did not fall.

Instead, the ground beneath Nero, unable to withstand the shock, crumbled.

‘What the… This guy is really tough?’

At that point, Khan was the one who was surprised.

It was a strike that would have shattered the arm of even an orc if not at full power.

He had succeeded in taking the hit through brute force alone, relying on his sheer physical mass. Even by conservative estimates, he was possessed of strength surpassing that of an orc…

Perhaps it would be understandable if he were a knight or a paladin who wielded mystical forces like aura or holy power.

In the world of ‘Midland Quest’, there weren’t many pure human NPCs who boasted such stats.

And most of them were named characters who occupied at least a line in the story.

‘Is this guy one of those types?’

Even without the power of aura or holy might, hardening one’s body to steel through physical training alone wasn’t impossible.

Unlike humans on Earth, who have their limits despite intense physical conditioning, there were not a few monsters in this world capable of splitting large rocks with their sheer physical strength.

Meaning, it was possible to catch up to naturally exceptional beings like greenskins, beastmen, or barbarian of the frost through training.

Of course, not just anyone could achieve this. It required an innate talent and bone-grinding effort.

But the figure before him didn’t seem to fit that mold. A hollow chestnut. Balloon muscles inflated by injections.

Those words flitted through Khan’s mind.

Not without reason.

Nero’s body had solid, nimble muscles befitting a mercenary, but that was just about it. Just at the level of a well-trained mercenary.

“Argh. Aaargh!”

Suddenly, Nero began to have a convulsion.

Simultaneously, an ominous creaking sound emanated from inside his body, and his limbs’ muscles rapidly swelled as if pumped full of steroids.

‘What the hell, is this guy actually on drugs?’

“God Almighty, mercy on us!”

From behind, Ron gasped in shock. It was a natural reaction to seeing a longtime friend turn into a bizarre creature.

Khan was equally surprised.

“Your insolence ends here! Barbarian! I’ll finish you off along with that senseless fool─!”

Nero’s limbs, having completed their transformation, were now thicker than Khan’s, while his torso remained slender, creating an odd and grotesque form.

However, the monstrous strength emanating from him was no laughing matter.

Affected by the mutation, Nero began to flail his limbs wildly.

Khan, rather than recklessly engaging, lightly leapt back to create distance.

“Don’t run away!”

Nero’s eye were entirely white, signaling that he had lost all reason.

Watching from behind, Ron suddenly stood up.

Even for a barbarian warrior hailed as a hero of reversal, going against Nero, who had become like an experimental creature of a dark mage, seemed hopeless.

Indeed, Khan appeared unable to mount any significant counter against Nero’s fierce attacks.

“Where did that momentum go! Barbarian!”

“Khan…!”

Woosh!

Nero’s fist hammered into Khan’s chest, lifting him briefly into the air. Nero didn’t stop there and jabbed his foot forward like a spear.

A tearing sound followed immediately, clearly indicating a fatal blow.

‘Damn it!’

Ron hesitated no longer. Realizing he was no match yet driven by indignation, he clenched his fist and charged.

After all, Khan had appeared to save his life, so he was rightfully obligated to help.

“Aaargh!”

Luckily, until Ron swung his fist, no one noticed him.

Thanks to Khan’s sizable bulk obscuring the view, Ron, appearing from behind Khan, struck Nero squarely with his fist.

The result was astonishing.

Nero, transformed into a terrifying creature, fell away as easily as a doll with its strings cut.

‘What the hell, am I that strong?’

Even Ron couldn’t believe it, staring dumbfounded at the fist that had dispatched Nero.

Then, as if realizing something, he gasped.

“Could it be… chosen by the gods. This Ron, with his iron hammer!”

Such stories were occasionally heard.

A common farmer chosen by the temple becoming a hero, a warrior swearing no oath of allegiance yet gaining aura to avenge against demons, a swordsman achieving enlightenment in dire moments and being recognized as the empire’s Sword Saint, and so on.

Ron realized that he had become the protagonist of such rumors. Even the gods were moved by his quest for justice!

“What are you doing, you.”

“Eh?”

“What are you doing waving your fist around like an idiot.”

The one to snap Ron out of his self-enchantment was his barbarian friend, Khan, whom one would have thought half-dead.

“You! You’re alive?!”

“What kind of madman. Would I have died then?”

“But you were hit by Nero’s kick…”

“What are you talking about getting hit.”

“Thank goodness!”

Relieved at his friend’s miraculous survival, Ron was about to embrace Khan.

Naturally, before he could, he was stopped by an object thrown by Khan.Ron recoiled in shock as something squishy and a sticky liquid touched his face.

*Slap.*

“Damn it!”

Ron was horrified to discover that what had touched his face was someone’s foot.

It took him a moment to realize that the foot belonged to Nero.

Ron had thought Nero’s kick had torn through Khan’s abdomen… But, it turned out, the attack had not worked at all. Instead, Khan had viciously bitten off Nero’s foot below the ankle, inflicting a fatal wound on him.

Nero’s dismal defeat by Ron’s punch was a result of this.

All the talk of divine selection and awakening was just Ron’s misconception.

“Hmm. Hmph. I see.”

‘Is this guy really a veteran mercenary?’

The more Khan observed Ron, who seemed more and more like a fool, the more he clicked his tongue in disdain. The ‘Ron’ he met in Act 5 talked a lot but had a certain seriousness about him. This one just seemed idiotic.

“Ugh. Aaargh!”

“Khan! Look at that guy! He’s shriveling up!”

Ron, seemingly aware of the concept of embarrassment, tried to change the subject and turned their attention toward Nero, who lay crumpled in the distance.

Khan clicked his tongue again and looked down at Nero, who had begun to shrivel up like a deflated soccer ball.

Upon closer inspection of Nero’s bleeding ankle, one could see dark red veins squirming and spilling blood profusely.

With each spillage, Nero’s body grotesquely shriveled up more.

What was even more bizarre was that despite the excessive loss of blood, creating a large pool, Nero did not die.

“What the hell is going on with Nero? The way he’s turned into something non-human and is suddenly shriveling up… No, you wouldn’t know either. I expected too much from a barbarian friend. Ouch!”

Khan, unbothered by his racially insensitive comment, struck Ron on the back of his head as a form of retribution and marched forward to Nero.

Ron belatedly attempted to stop him, citing potential danger, but Khan showed no fear.

“See! I told you it’s dangerous! What if he turns into some strange monster?”

“No. This one’s just meant to die as is.”

“How do you know that?”

Ron’s eyes widened with curiosity at Khan’s confident tone.

A look questioning how a barbarian could know such things irritated Khan further, prompting another hit to Ron’s head.

“Ouch! Why hit me again?”

“Because it annoys me.”

The real reason was that Ron’s demeaning glance riled him up, but Khan didn’t bother explaining.

If you have a problem, be stronger. Instead, he gave an answer that would shut Ron up.

“This is black magic. Or… maybe more like science? Think of it as a sort of body modification. This guy used his own life force to enhance his body. He won’t last much longer.”

“That’s beside the point. You’re talking about complicated stuff, but how can that terrifying phenomenon not be magic?”

“…Because he’s capable of it. That guy.”

Khan mulled over a name he had buried in his memory. Eliya.

This man must have undergone a similar procedure as she did. Nero’s grotesquely swollen figure seemed to suggest a lower grade of body modification, but the essence was likely the same.

‘The one who defies death, Darkin Perayas’ appearing in Act 5 was both a necromancy champion and a pioneer in body modification.

Turning ordinary humans into orc siblings would be a piece of cake.

And.

The fact that Nero, leading the largest band of mercenaries in Nordic, had accepted Darkin’s body modification, proved that Darkin’s reach into the city was deeper than imagined.

‘This could get troublesome.’

Considering Nero had targeted him like a city administration’s hound, it was hard to guess how many of the city’s influential figures were in league with Darkin.

The city’s administrative officer and merchant lord who brazenly used Darkin’s name were almost certainly in on it. Maybe even the city mayor…

‘No, it’s all speculation until confirmed directly.’

Khan shook his head in denial of his own speculation, his eyebrows tdark mageing at the slight increase in his experience bar. Nero had died.

‘Had a lot of questions for him, too bad.’

The experience worth an orc. That was the end of a power broker who had swayed the might of an entire city.

*

*

*

Aries woke up to a foul smell assaulting her nostrils.

Despite her youthful appearance, she was no stranger to homelessness after roaming the Argon Kingdom for years. She wasn’t usually sensitive enough to be awakened by a mere smell.

The fact that she woke meant the current stench was no ordinary foulness.

“Black magic.”

The damp, heavy scent saturated with malice — typical of black magic — awakened her.

Just like when she had run out of the monastery chasing the scent of black magic, only to encounter Khan. Aries focused her senses while still lying down, tracing the source of the black magic.

Eventually, she got up with a stone-cold expression and stumbled upon a note at her feet while searching for Khan.

「Had to step out for a bit due to some work. Rest up and go fetch some holy water from the monastery later. I’ll pay you back for the errand later.」

As if responding to the absent Khan, Aries nodded.

Coincidentally.

The new destination she picked aligned with Khan’s errand.