Click –
The line cut off.
There was silence inside the laboratory for a while.
Heck, even I had never expected this to happen.
I was just trying to sponge some money off her, but how could I have known that things would turn out like this?
‘Really, this lack of imagination seems endemic here.’
In fact, it wasn’t that she didn’t have any way to win the argument.
If she’d caught any of the ninth-grade adventurers scraping by hand to mouth and asked them the same question, they would’ve called it a lucky break.
Her argument definitely wouldn’t have gotten dismantled like this.
But instead, she ended up asking an adventurer who seemed capable even at a cursory glance.
‘If it’s her teacher, she’s talking about a master wizard. There’s no way somebody who has a personal acquaintance with someone like that could be some ordinary adventurer.’
This served as the decisive factor[1] that resulted in her defeat.
So now it was her time to reap what she –
“Chuckle! A barbarian beating a wizard in a battle of words, it seems you’re even more amazing than I’d heard, eh, friend?”
A white-haired old man with wrinkled skin opened the door without even knocking and entered the room.
Although his face showed his age, he had a straight waist without any sign of stooping that one might’ve expected.
After a moment of bewilderment at the sudden intervention, I was quickly able to infer the identity of this old man.
“Oh, I didn’t introduce myself yet. This old man is the master of the lady who you just made to cry.”
“I, I didn’t cry!”
Raven’s teacher.
In other words, the master of the great Artemion School, that independently owned a whopping five floors inside the tower.
He was as much a bigshot as the regional manager I’d met earlier – no, in some ways, he was even more powerful.
“Anyway, I heard you two talking by chance.”
“Eh? You heard us? I’m sure the soundproofing magic is still working –”
“Oh, it needs to be reinforced it a bit more. There’re a lot of gaps in the technique.”
From his way easy of speaking, he sounded like a normal old neighbour, but since he still sat in such a high position, I couldn’t help but feel a bit daunted.
After all, this disciple of his that I’ve been dealing with – he seemed to cherish her a lot.
“Haah, you completely smashed my magic circle. It must’ve been difficult to do that without me noticing, no matter what you say… Why were you trying to snoop?”
The old man chuckled.
“My youngest disciple brought in a boy for the first time. Plus, it’s been so long a barbarian’s entered here alive; wouldn’t you be curious?”
… Something was strange.
“Alive?”
As I mumbled unconsciously, the old man savagely grinned.
“Chuckle! They mostly come in as corpses! Or just their hearts get delivered!”
“…?”
“Look at your face, all red. It was a joke, a joke!”
Oh, I see.
Is this wizard humour?
I was also a barbarian who was an expert in reading the atmosphere, so instead of staring blankly, I gave a big smile.
“Hahaha! I want to smash your head!”
AKA barbarian humour.
“… Wh-, what?”
But why weren’t they laughing?
Oh, I forgot the punchline.
“Hahaha! It was a joke!”
Whatever bullshit you spout, you just have to tack on that it was all a joke at the end, right?
“So don’t look so red and smile. Old geezer!”
“Ol-, old geezer…?”
“Oh, that was a joke! Hahaha!”
“…”
The old geezer who happened to be the master of the Artemion School frowned at me as if he was uncomfortable with my sense of humour.
When I glanced at the side, Raven was also gaping as if she couldn’t believe what was happening.
“… Mr. Yandel, are you a crazy bastard by any chance?”
Was this her being respectful or rude?
It was confusing because of the mixture of tones…
‘I might’ve messed up a tiny bit.’
Seeing their expressions, I thought I might’ve exaggerated things a bit.
This wasn’t normal, huh?
A damned barbarian playing such a crazy prank in front of the head of a school inside the tower?
“Haah… I should’ve known, seeing what you did at the guild…”
But it was still a little sad.
It might sound like an excuse, but hadn’t this guy been joking about dead barbarians in front of a barbarian who somehow survived his imminent demise just this morning?
“I was feeling a bit sensitive, so I might’ve gotten defensive without realizing it. I apologize if I’ve offended you.”
It was quite a succinct explanation, but Raven shouted as if she didn’t accept it.
“You call that getting defensive?!”
“Offence is the best defence, after all.”
This was my theory, which I’d clung to all my life since my early childhood.
‘So how do I follow up?’
At a glance, I noticed that the old man was still standing still with a blank gaze.
As the silence continued, I was beginning to become genuinely concerned about my future well-being.
“Heh heh heh heh! That was great, my friend, great!”
The old man suddenly started talking.
I didn’t know what he was going on about, but I went with the flow and laughed along.
“Ha ha ha ha ha!”
“Heh heh heh heh! You’re funny, my friend, very funny!”
Anybody could tell that this old man was forcing himself to laugh, but…
If I did it right, I might be able to cross the bridge like this.
“Don’t worry about it! The old man is different from those other little bastards who’re sensitive to every word.”
Although he probably still had some resentment left, from the way his lips were trembling…
But there was no need to bring attention to that.
‘I can roughly guess what kind of a character he has.’
I had a sense of how to deal with it.
“Haha! Do you have some barbarian blood in you? I take back calling you ‘old geezer’! To think you didn’t even bat an eye at barbarian-style humour! This is my first time seeing a wizard as spry as you!”
Although wizards were scarce and hard to see in the first place –
But who cared about that?
“Chuckle, I’m not that old in the fist place. Somehow, it feels like we get along a little bit!”
“I agree!”
The bloody atmosphere seemed to dissipate.
Seeing us going haha hoho, Raven made an absurd expression.
“Haah… What is even going on?”
Well, I didn’t know either.
And I was sure that even this old man had no idea what he was doing right now.
“I am Bjorn, son of Yandel! Great wizard! I want to know your name!”
“So you’re Bjorn Yandel! After seeing all those other little bastards for so long, you feel like a breath of fresh air! Good to meet you! This old man is Deian Tveherion!”
For some reason, the old man introduced himself in a loud voice.
However, the veins sticking out on his neck would make any observer worry about his health…
Let’s pretend I didn’t see anything.
“Awesome! That’s the majestic voice of a real man!”
I, Bjorn Yandel –
– Was a barbarian who understood the mores of society.
“So, what I told those little bastards back then was –”
“Awesome!”
“Huh? I didn’t say what I told them yet –”
“Must’ve been awesome!”
After a few minutes of such entertaining conversation –
Perhaps the old man regained his sanity after getting his fill of blowing his own trumpet.
“So, what do you think Aruen should do?”
“Aruen?”
“Oh, that’s the nickname of my youngest disciple.”
Arua + Raven = Aruen?
This kind of culture seemed to be multiversal.
“Anyway, those five million stones earlier, if this old man –”
“No bargaining.”
Social life mode, off.
Seeing me stop talking, the old man clicked his tongue.
“Hnn, tch, who’s talking about stiffing you? Rather, if it’s fine with you, this old man would like to replace it with something else… “
Then it was different story.
“Something?”
“This.”
The old man put his hand inside his robe and pulled out a box the size of a palm.
However, I was more interested in his robe than the box itself.
‘Is there a subspace attached to the robe?’
Umm, I wonder if he’d give it to me if I asked for it…?
“What’re you staring for? Come on, open it.”
I opened the box and glanced inside as instructed. A ring lay inside.
“It’s an item called the Ring of the Frost Spirit.”
“Ring of the Frost Spirit?”
The old man continued to explain, but I didn’t need to listen.
Because I already knew what it was.
“Even though it’s from the 9000s, every adventurer knows. How precious a numbered item is.”
Numbered items.
They are only dropped by rift guardians, and each one has its own special ability.
In fact, except for ‘production’ and ‘discovery’, in [Dungeon and Stone], the only other source of equipment is numbered items.
Of course, most of them are expensive regardless of their number.
But…
“You’re really lucky. People usually can’t get their hands on it even if they want to –”
“Well, it’s not something anybody would actually use.”
No. 9425, Frost Spirit Ring.
Frost Spirit Ring, which can only be dropped from rifts below the third floor, has only one unique ability.
It’s not an ability that helps in battle, it just seals one of the essences absorbed by the wearer.
Of course, stat changes are still applied, and only the skills are sealed…
‘In that case, it’s cheaper to remove the essence from the temple.’
Consider the facts.
Levelling up becomes astronomically difficult as you go higher.
However, if you wear this ring, all of the skills you’ve acquired from an essence will be completely lost.
The skill slots disappear altogether.
Adventurers, considering their future, would rather choose to erase the essence at the temple and eat a new one, instead of wearing this ring.
“But it must be a very useful thing for you, isn’t it?”
Well, there was some truth to that.
Stats are more important in the early game than skill combinations. Moreover, even though the corpse golem has poor skills, its stats are quite high.
‘If I take the ring off at any time, I can use the skills again, so it’s not a bad item by itself.’
I finished my mental calculations.
In fact, I never even considered rejecting in the first place.
That’s because this ability was only a fraction of the true value of this ring.
‘No matter what, since you haven’t mentioned it at all… You really don’t know about ‘that’, do you?’
Wizards were the best intellectuals in this worldview.
However, in the ‘Blood Citadel’, Raven had no idea how to obtain the ‘Tear of the Goddess’ hidden under the statue. That was what convinced me.
Yes, in my eyes, they were all newbies.
What could be easier than playing with a newbie?
“What’re you so worried about? To be honest, this ring isn’t worth five million stones. But it’s not something you can get even if you want to.”
“Right.”
I nodded as if in agreement.
Even in the game, the auction house price was only about 1.5 million stones, but numbered items hardly ever went up for sale, so I got my hands on this ring less than once in ten.
‘But did I get such a precious thing just like this?’
In the first place, I’d never expected to get the full five million stones.
This old man also took this out with the intention of foisting some useless stuff off me.
He was probably laughing at me inside, calling me an idiot barbarian.
“Thank you, I got something good. I’ll use it well.”
Uhm, and I was in the exact same situation.
“Chuckle, think of it as a gift from an old man.”
I thought, as I looked at the old man who smiled kindly.
If I did well, perhaps there’d be a lot more things I could mooch off him in the future.
As much as possible, I wanted to stay friends in the future.
“Mr. Yandel, a lot has happened today, hasn’t it? You must be tired. Shall we meet again in two days for the rest of the discussion?”
“I was just going to say that.”
After a quick arrangement of the detailed time and place, Bjorn left the laboratory.
After that, Raven looked into her master’s eyes.
“I’m sorry, Master, because of me…”
“It’s fine, it was something that’d have gotten sold anyway. That barbarian, he might get quite heartbroken when he finds out later how much that ring costs.”
“… Is that so?”
Fortunately, he didn’t seem to be particularly angry with Bjorn whom she’d brought here.
So Raven could more comfortably try and confirm what she was curious about.
“But why were you like that today?”
Her teacher’s attitude today was very abnormal.
He usually hated rude people.
And he’d never joke about his fellow mages, either.
“Oh, there’s just something I need to check.”
“Check?”
“You don’t need to know.”
She shut her mouth with a subdued expression.
Clearly her master had some kind of intention behind matching Bjorn’s pace, but…
Since he’d spoken like this, there was no way for her to find out the details.
“Anyway, he’s an odd duck. He’s so unique that I’m kind of looking forward to what he does next. I hope I’m on the right track…”
“Are you going to keep doing this? If you’re going to tell me, just tell me!”
“I’ll tell you later, when the time is right. Oh, and make sure you write down what happened with that barbarian and give me a report.”
“Aren’t you going to tell me why?”
“I’ll tell you once I’m sure.”
Her teacher left the laboratory with a gentle smile as usual.
Looking at the empty place, Raven felt a bit uncomfortable.
‘What the hell is teacher thinking?’
She wondered if bringing Bjorn here had been a mistake.
Because the people her master had such interest in never ended up well, from what she remembered.
‘Oh, but maybe Mr. Yandel will be different?’
Thinking of the mess he’d left at the guild as just a rank nine adventurer, she became somewhat anxious.
‘Ah, I’m just overthinking it. The Magic Tower isn’t as small-time as them.’
The tower was completely different from the guild.
It wasn’t a place that could be shaken up by a single barbarian.
Certainly, indubitably.
Editor’s Notes:
[1] 패착 (pachak) is a term that comes from Go, meaning the move that was the root cause of a defeat. It’s used in more modern contexts these days, like in strategy games.
Click –
The line cut off.
There was silence inside the laboratory for a while.
Heck, even I had never expected this to happen.
I was just trying to sponge some money off her, but how could I have known that things would turn out like this?
‘Really, this lack of imagination seems endemic here.’
In fact, it wasn’t that she didn’t have any way to win the argument.
If she’d caught any of the ninth-grade adventurers scraping by hand to mouth and asked them the same question, they would’ve called it a lucky break.
Her argument definitely wouldn’t have gotten dismantled like this.
But instead, she ended up asking an adventurer who seemed capable even at a cursory glance.
‘If it’s her teacher, she’s talking about a master wizard. There’s no way somebody who has a personal acquaintance with someone like that could be some ordinary adventurer.’
This served as the decisive factor[1] that resulted in her defeat.
So now it was her time to reap what she –
“Chuckle! A barbarian beating a wizard in a battle of words, it seems you’re even more amazing than I’d heard, eh, friend?”
A white-haired old man with wrinkled skin opened the door without even knocking and entered the room.
Although his face showed his age, he had a straight waist without any sign of stooping that one might’ve expected.
After a moment of bewilderment at the sudden intervention, I was quickly able to infer the identity of this old man.
“Oh, I didn’t introduce myself yet. This old man is the master of the lady who you just made to cry.”
“I, I didn’t cry!”
Raven’s teacher.
In other words, the master of the great Artemion School, that independently owned a whopping five floors inside the tower.
He was as much a bigshot as the regional manager I’d met earlier – no, in some ways, he was even more powerful.
“Anyway, I heard you two talking by chance.”
“Eh? You heard us? I’m sure the soundproofing magic is still working –”
“Oh, it needs to be reinforced it a bit more. There’re a lot of gaps in the technique.”
From his way easy of speaking, he sounded like a normal old neighbour, but since he still sat in such a high position, I couldn’t help but feel a bit daunted.
After all, this disciple of his that I’ve been dealing with – he seemed to cherish her a lot.
“Haah, you completely smashed my magic circle. It must’ve been difficult to do that without me noticing, no matter what you say… Why were you trying to snoop?”
The old man chuckled.
“My youngest disciple brought in a boy for the first time. Plus, it’s been so long a barbarian’s entered here alive; wouldn’t you be curious?”
… Something was strange.
“Alive?”
As I mumbled unconsciously, the old man savagely grinned.
“Chuckle! They mostly come in as corpses! Or just their hearts get delivered!”
“…?”
“Look at your face, all red. It was a joke, a joke!”
Oh, I see.
Is this wizard humour?
I was also a barbarian who was an expert in reading the atmosphere, so instead of staring blankly, I gave a big smile.
“Hahaha! I want to smash your head!”
AKA barbarian humour.
“… Wh-, what?”
But why weren’t they laughing?
Oh, I forgot the punchline.
“Hahaha! It was a joke!”
Whatever bullshit you spout, you just have to tack on that it was all a joke at the end, right?
“So don’t look so red and smile. Old geezer!”
“Ol-, old geezer…?”
“Oh, that was a joke! Hahaha!”
“…”
The old geezer who happened to be the master of the Artemion School frowned at me as if he was uncomfortable with my sense of humour.
When I glanced at the side, Raven was also gaping as if she couldn’t believe what was happening.
“… Mr. Yandel, are you a crazy bastard by any chance?”
Was this her being respectful or rude?
It was confusing because of the mixture of tones…
‘I might’ve messed up a tiny bit.’
Seeing their expressions, I thought I might’ve exaggerated things a bit.
This wasn’t normal, huh?
A damned barbarian playing such a crazy prank in front of the head of a school inside the tower?
“Haah… I should’ve known, seeing what you did at the guild…”
But it was still a little sad.
It might sound like an excuse, but hadn’t this guy been joking about dead barbarians in front of a barbarian who somehow survived his imminent demise just this morning?
“I was feeling a bit sensitive, so I might’ve gotten defensive without realizing it. I apologize if I’ve offended you.”
It was quite a succinct explanation, but Raven shouted as if she didn’t accept it.
“You call that getting defensive?!”
“Offence is the best defence, after all.”
This was my theory, which I’d clung to all my life since my early childhood.
‘So how do I follow up?’
At a glance, I noticed that the old man was still standing still with a blank gaze.
As the silence continued, I was beginning to become genuinely concerned about my future well-being.
“Heh heh heh heh! That was great, my friend, great!”
The old man suddenly started talking.
I didn’t know what he was going on about, but I went with the flow and laughed along.
“Ha ha ha ha ha!”
“Heh heh heh heh! You’re funny, my friend, very funny!”
Anybody could tell that this old man was forcing himself to laugh, but…
If I did it right, I might be able to cross the bridge like this.
“Don’t worry about it! The old man is different from those other little bastards who’re sensitive to every word.”
Although he probably still had some resentment left, from the way his lips were trembling…
But there was no need to bring attention to that.
‘I can roughly guess what kind of a character he has.’
I had a sense of how to deal with it.
“Haha! Do you have some barbarian blood in you? I take back calling you ‘old geezer’! To think you didn’t even bat an eye at barbarian-style humour! This is my first time seeing a wizard as spry as you!”
Although wizards were scarce and hard to see in the first place –
But who cared about that?
“Chuckle, I’m not that old in the fist place. Somehow, it feels like we get along a little bit!”
“I agree!”
The bloody atmosphere seemed to dissipate.
Seeing us going haha hoho, Raven made an absurd expression.
“Haah… What is even going on?”
Well, I didn’t know either.
And I was sure that even this old man had no idea what he was doing right now.
“I am Bjorn, son of Yandel! Great wizard! I want to know your name!”
“So you’re Bjorn Yandel! After seeing all those other little bastards for so long, you feel like a breath of fresh air! Good to meet you! This old man is Deian Tveherion!”
For some reason, the old man introduced himself in a loud voice.
However, the veins sticking out on his neck would make any observer worry about his health…
Let’s pretend I didn’t see anything.
“Awesome! That’s the majestic voice of a real man!”
I, Bjorn Yandel –
– Was a barbarian who understood the mores of society.
“So, what I told those little bastards back then was –”
“Awesome!”
“Huh? I didn’t say what I told them yet –”
“Must’ve been awesome!”
After a few minutes of such entertaining conversation –
Perhaps the old man regained his sanity after getting his fill of blowing his own trumpet.
“So, what do you think Aruen should do?”
“Aruen?”
“Oh, that’s the nickname of my youngest disciple.”
Arua + Raven = Aruen?
This kind of culture seemed to be multiversal.
“Anyway, those five million stones earlier, if this old man –”
“No bargaining.”
Social life mode, off.
Seeing me stop talking, the old man clicked his tongue.
“Hnn, tch, who’s talking about stiffing you? Rather, if it’s fine with you, this old man would like to replace it with something else… “
Then it was different story.
“Something?”
“This.”
The old man put his hand inside his robe and pulled out a box the size of a palm.
However, I was more interested in his robe than the box itself.
‘Is there a subspace attached to the robe?’
Umm, I wonder if he’d give it to me if I asked for it…?
“What’re you staring for? Come on, open it.”
I opened the box and glanced inside as instructed. A ring lay inside.
“It’s an item called the Ring of the Frost Spirit.”
“Ring of the Frost Spirit?”
The old man continued to explain, but I didn’t need to listen.
Because I already knew what it was.
“Even though it’s from the 9000s, every adventurer knows. How precious a numbered item is.”
Numbered items.
They are only dropped by rift guardians, and each one has its own special ability.
In fact, except for ‘production’ and ‘discovery’, in [Dungeon and Stone], the only other source of equipment is numbered items.
Of course, most of them are expensive regardless of their number.
But…
“You’re really lucky. People usually can’t get their hands on it even if they want to –”
“Well, it’s not something anybody would actually use.”
No. 9425, Frost Spirit Ring.
Frost Spirit Ring, which can only be dropped from rifts below the third floor, has only one unique ability.
It’s not an ability that helps in battle, it just seals one of the essences absorbed by the wearer.
Of course, stat changes are still applied, and only the skills are sealed…
‘In that case, it’s cheaper to remove the essence from the temple.’
Consider the facts.
Levelling up becomes astronomically difficult as you go higher.
However, if you wear this ring, all of the skills you’ve acquired from an essence will be completely lost.
The skill slots disappear altogether.
Adventurers, considering their future, would rather choose to erase the essence at the temple and eat a new one, instead of wearing this ring.
“But it must be a very useful thing for you, isn’t it?”
Well, there was some truth to that.
Stats are more important in the early game than skill combinations. Moreover, even though the corpse golem has poor skills, its stats are quite high.
‘If I take the ring off at any time, I can use the skills again, so it’s not a bad item by itself.’
I finished my mental calculations.
In fact, I never even considered rejecting in the first place.
That’s because this ability was only a fraction of the true value of this ring.
‘No matter what, since you haven’t mentioned it at all… You really don’t know about ‘that’, do you?’
Wizards were the best intellectuals in this worldview.
However, in the ‘Blood Citadel’, Raven had no idea how to obtain the ‘Tear of the Goddess’ hidden under the statue. That was what convinced me.
Yes, in my eyes, they were all newbies.
What could be easier than playing with a newbie?
“What’re you so worried about? To be honest, this ring isn’t worth five million stones. But it’s not something you can get even if you want to.”
“Right.”
I nodded as if in agreement.
Even in the game, the auction house price was only about 1.5 million stones, but numbered items hardly ever went up for sale, so I got my hands on this ring less than once in ten.
‘But did I get such a precious thing just like this?’
In the first place, I’d never expected to get the full five million stones.
This old man also took this out with the intention of foisting some useless stuff off me.
He was probably laughing at me inside, calling me an idiot barbarian.
“Thank you, I got something good. I’ll use it well.”
Uhm, and I was in the exact same situation.
“Chuckle, think of it as a gift from an old man.”
I thought, as I looked at the old man who smiled kindly.
If I did well, perhaps there’d be a lot more things I could mooch off him in the future.
As much as possible, I wanted to stay friends in the future.
“Mr. Yandel, a lot has happened today, hasn’t it? You must be tired. Shall we meet again in two days for the rest of the discussion?”
“I was just going to say that.”
After a quick arrangement of the detailed time and place, Bjorn left the laboratory.
After that, Raven looked into her master’s eyes.
“I’m sorry, Master, because of me…”
“It’s fine, it was something that’d have gotten sold anyway. That barbarian, he might get quite heartbroken when he finds out later how much that ring costs.”
“… Is that so?”
Fortunately, he didn’t seem to be particularly angry with Bjorn whom she’d brought here.
So Raven could more comfortably try and confirm what she was curious about.
“But why were you like that today?”
Her teacher’s attitude today was very abnormal.
He usually hated rude people.
And he’d never joke about his fellow mages, either.
“Oh, there’s just something I need to check.”
“Check?”
“You don’t need to know.”
She shut her mouth with a subdued expression.
Clearly her master had some kind of intention behind matching Bjorn’s pace, but…
Since he’d spoken like this, there was no way for her to find out the details.
“Anyway, he’s an odd duck. He’s so unique that I’m kind of looking forward to what he does next. I hope I’m on the right track…”
“Are you going to keep doing this? If you’re going to tell me, just tell me!”
“I’ll tell you later, when the time is right. Oh, and make sure you write down what happened with that barbarian and give me a report.”
“Aren’t you going to tell me why?”
“I’ll tell you once I’m sure.”
Her teacher left the laboratory with a gentle smile as usual.
Looking at the empty place, Raven felt a bit uncomfortable.
‘What the hell is teacher thinking?’
She wondered if bringing Bjorn here had been a mistake.
Because the people her master had such interest in never ended up well, from what she remembered.
‘Oh, but maybe Mr. Yandel will be different?’
Thinking of the mess he’d left at the guild as just a rank nine adventurer, she became somewhat anxious.
‘Ah, I’m just overthinking it. The Magic Tower isn’t as small-time as them.’
The tower was completely different from the guild.
It wasn’t a place that could be shaken up by a single barbarian.
Certainly, indubitably.
Editor’s Notes:
[1] 패착 (pachak) is a term that comes from Go, meaning the move that was the root cause of a defeat. It’s used in more modern contexts these days, like in strategy games.
