Barbarian in a Failed Game

Chapter 23. Darkin Subjugation (3)

The final stage of Act 5, Darkin subjugation campaign, is particularly challenging due to Darkin’s workshop situated underground, a fortress impregnable in its own right.

Players are incessantly bombarded by the monsters of Necar Mountain, dark mages, and devil worshippers. After struggling through these obstacles and somehow making it into Darkin’s subterranean workshop, players are greeted by a vast underground cavern that moves as if it were alive, hordes of undead charging from every direction, and formidable named enemies.

Most players have met their match here and succumbed to frustration.

‘I too, was fed up with the countless retries.’

Perhaps it was Ron’s strikingly accurate intuition that led him here, to this sense of déjà vu after defeating the elderly dark mage. Maybe the landscape, having been witnessed through a monitor hundreds of times, has filled his mind with an inexplicable certainty, although many things about Necar Mountain have changed by now. Maybe…

‘The memories of the characters I played could be related to this feeling of déjà vu.’

For now, those thoughts were pushed aside. Using the hammer borrowed from Ron, Khan tapped on the ground while diligently using his search skill which had proven useful lately.

[Search (D) – 19%]

As expected, signs of life were detected beneath the ground. Without hesitation, Khan shattered the floor with his hammer.

“Waaarghh!”

Although not entirely familiar with the detailed storyline due to his habit of skimming through it, Khan remembered one important fact—

‘Darkin’s underground workshop merely occupied an ancient ruin that existed long before his arrival.’

Given it was mentioned in the map’s description, there was no mistake.

The critical point was that this underground facility, created by humans, was more unstable than expected. In Act 5, Darkin had used demonic power to address these issues.

Now, without the necessary strength, Darkin couldn’t even hope to replicate such feats. Unless one had reached the heights of a Grand Mage, on par with the ‘Masters’ of the Wizard Tower, a demon wouldn’t lend a part of its body.

“The ceiling is collapsing…!”

“Move! You’ll be crushed to death!”

What started as a small crack rapidly expanded until the entire floor Khan was standing on, or rather, the chamber’s ceiling, gave way.

To those below, it was a disaster. For Ron, who watched from the sidelines, it was an almost dream-like spectacle.

The barbarian warrior responsible for all this slowly made his way down.

“Let’s go, Ron.”

“Yeah, okay.”

The space below the broken floor was familiar territory for Khan.

The corpse disposal site. If one had entered through the conventional route, this area would be swarming with hundreds, if not thousands, of undead.

Now, however, there were no intact bodies left. All were crushed beyond recognition when the ceiling collapsed.

“Bro, are you sure you’re not a giant’s descendant or something?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Because, who else could bring down a floor with a hammer… How strong are you?”

Ron, who had been aware of Khan’s strength, having seen him effortlessly handle Nero, mutated by dark magecraft, and even smash the monastery’s ceiling with a leap, was still astonished.

‘I know people can be strong, but this…’

As Ron inwardly marveled, Khan too couldn’t immediately answer the question of how strong he was. ‘I’m not even sure myself.’

Khan’s current strength stood at 59.

This was a figure not easily compared with many of the characters he had raised in the past.

Granted, Khan had a preference for agility-based warriors, but in ‘Midland Quest,’ reaching a strength of 59 as a human warrior would require being at least level 40, provided one had the right skill set and equipment buffs.

Certainly, this didn’t mean Khan could be compared to a level 40 character from ‘Midland Quest’ since power in the game greatly depended on skills and equipment configurations.

If Khan were to face one of his level 40 characters now, he’d likely be defeated without much struggle.

‘But if we’re talking pure strength…’

“I’d say I’m about as strong as a weak ogre.”

“Since when do weak ogres exist? They can demolish walls with their fists and kicks.”

“Well, they do exist.”

“Have you seen one?”

‘Just killed one recently. Kid.’ Khan inwardly swallowed these words as he looked around.

He was familiar with the layout of the underground workshop but acknowledged the significant differences between the future and the present.

‘Following the path left from the corpse storage leads to the guardian’s room. Destroy the demon disguise there, backtrack, and take the right route selecting paths 3-1-2-1-1 to reach the boss room…’

Thus, it would be a stretch to compare the future underground workshop that Darkin had further expanded and complicated with the guise of a demon. Which way to go from here… After much deliberation on the spot, Khan made his decision.

“We’re going to take the left path.”

***

Aries, having entrusted the priests of the Nordic monastery with rectifying the events of the last night, ascended Necar Mountain with Jerome and Jan in tow. A middle-aged gentleman with specks of gray in his hair, the gray tower’s mage Jerome. Beside him, a young mage with a timid impression flicking anxious glances around, the magus’s disciple, Jan. Aries, with platinum hair bobbing lightly, took the lead of the trio with a small frame, and their advance was unstoppable.

Even the monsters that had annoyingly clung at the foot of the mountain fled in terror from the massacre wrought by the paladin and mage. Moreover, even the labyrinthine environment deep within didn’t pose a substantial obstacle.

“I smell something this way.”

“Hmm. This seems to be a mark engraved with dark magic. It appears Darkin and his rabble resorted to measures to overcome the environment here. The quality… isn’t bad, not as good as mine, of course. I’ll interpret it quickly.”

With the paladin’s ability to track the stench of dark magic through the divine power of justice and the magus recognized for his worth in the magic tower, finding Darkin’s workshop was embarrassingly easy.

“What is this scene all about? Why is the ground collapsed?”

“Well, I’m not sure. How would I know something even my master doesn’t?”

“My disciple, a mage must constantly ponder and reflect.”

“But master, you asked me without thinking… Oh, no!”

Aries, half-listening to the banter between the two priests, approached the scene of disaster. The only one capable of such an act… was Gordi Khan, his brutish companion.

“We’re going this way.”

“Might this not be an overt trap? Perhaps it would be wiser to cautiously open an entrance and enter.”

“It’s not a trap. It was done by my companion.”

“Companion…? You mean you’ve been working with a greenskin, not a human?”

“A barbarian, unhumanlike.”

Aries replied nonchalantly and followed the path Khan had created. The debris from the collapsed ceiling piled up unstably, seeming dangerous, but for a paladin, it wasn’t a significant cause for concern.

“Stay close to me, my disciple.”

“Yes… Ugh!”

Jerome, symbolizing the gray tower, gently applied a manipulation spell to himself and his disciple, settling down softly.

“A fork in the path. Left and right. Better rely on your sense of smell here, huh?”

Aries nodded and closed her eyes. The pervasive stench of decay and dark magic in this underground workshop momentarily made her dizzy, but she maintained her concentration relentlessly. The divine power of justice was not kind. Initially, she had fainted from the horrendous stench of dark magic, and facing multiple demon worshipers felt like torture.

She was after all, a human handling the power of a god. Encountering difficulties in adjustment was inevitable. Naturally, Aries could now, albeit not skillfully, control the divine power at will well enough to distinguish between the equally noxious scents of dark magic and trace its flow in reverse.

“To the right.”

Soon after discovering a terrible stench presumed to be Darkin’s, Aries grimaced and signaled the direction.

“Are you alright? You look… Pa, Paladin!”

At Jan’s inquiry, Aries shook her head and silently headed to the right, with Jerome rolling his eyes at his disciple’s clueless demeanor before following Aries.

“Let’s stick together!” greeted by a dark, long corridor, the party ventured down the right path. The lanterns lit at regular intervals brightening the path revealed the visibility was shorter than expected, eliciting a startled “Uh-” from Jan.

“This. Feels like dark magic, master.”

“An attempt to spread a curse of suggestion in the form of mist, an insignificant trick.”

With a wave of his hand that Jerome found bothersome, visibility improved. Jan sighed in relief, while Aries, unfazed, continued ahead. A low-level curse, after all, couldn’t infringe upon a paladin’s body.

Nonetheless, delving deep into enemy territory was burdensome, whether the curse worked or not. The psychological pressure was bound to be intense. Jerome, perhaps due to his arrogant nature, appeared unbothered by the tension.

“There are no signs of battle… Did the paladin’s companion, who opened the way earlier, separate from us? Is he alright?”

“What is this nonsense you’re spouting. My disciple, instead of worrying about those trying to break through the floor, prepare your spells.”

“A spell?”

Jan was perplexed, not fully grasping his master’s words, when suddenly,

“Kieeeeek…!”

A bizarre wailing noise heralded the arrival of a person. No, not a person, but undeads filling the hallway to the brim, pressing forward.

The undead were each armed in different gear, and it was apparent to anyone that they had been mercenaries in their lifetimes.

“Mercenaries of the city… right?”

Crack─!

“Argh! Master!”

The heads of the undead at the front were crushed by an invisible grip. Jan shuddered at the horrific sight, and as Jerome’s hand moved again, the crushed heads were further smashed.

Jerome’s face remained utterly impassive as he stood there, massacring dozens of enemies. He simply waved his hand repeatedly, obliterating the corpses’ heads.

“May the Lord shine his light upon us.”

It was a soft prayer. What followed was a sword of pure white. Several rays of white light emanated from the paladin’s sword, slicing the corpses into pieces.

Such movement required a combination of strong physique and advanced swordsmanship.

Dismembering, crushing, obliterating.

Corpses animated by unholy necromancy couldn’t stop the paladin’s charge.

“Hyap!”

Thud! Clang─!

An invisible arrow launched with a somewhat depleted energy yell was Jan’s magic. The spell of the Gray Tower, rotating and compressing air to rip through the corpses from behind.

Yet, still.

“There’s no end to them…!”

The number of corpses filling the hallway, barely wide enough for four or five people to pass, didn’t seem to decrease at all.

“Are they trying to drag us into a war of attrition? Pointless.”

“We’ll run out of mana before that happens, Master!”

Jan groaned.

Whether they were corpses of knights or mages didn’t matter; they posed no particular threat to a party made of a paladin and a mage.

However, not only mana but also physical strength wasn’t infinite.

“Tch… annoying.”

“Why not sweep them all away in one go, Master!”

“If you wish to be buried alive here, feel free to do so. Foolish disciple.”

It was indeed a dire war of attrition.

Jan’s face, like a farmer repetitively harvesting crops, gradually lost any sign of tension.

Aries and Jerome were no different. While they didn’t let down their guard, they made occasional efforts to conserve strength for the upcoming battle with Darkin.

This too could be seen as a form of complacency, and simultaneously, it was Darkin’s intention to send such mediocre corpse soldiers.

Swoosh! Bang─!

“Ugh!”

“Paladin sir! Ah!”

Like a wave crashing into rocks, the corpses crumbled, revealing a dark spike that shoved Aries aside.

Startled, Jan was about to prepare a spell when Jerome’s spell exploded above them, causing him to fall flat on his back.

“Kieeek! Kiik!”

What Jerome shot down was a monster of a different form. Essentially human-shaped, but many aspects were different.

Some resembled massive beasts, while others had tentacles spread like wings in a bizarre form.

The monster struck by Jerome’s spell looked like a rat head Jan had encountered before.

“It seems like a chimera created using mountain beasts. Indeed. Body modification is something not even the tower’s technology can match in originality. Normally, there would be a rejection reaction.”

“M-Master. This doesn’t seem like the time to marvel!”

As Jan said,

The chimera, resembling a rat head with a gaping hole in its chest, staggered to its feet, baring its teeth.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Ahead, Aries deflected the chimera’s tentacles with his holy armor while busily parrying the beast-formed chimera’s claws.

And the number of corpse mercenaries continued to increase.

“I-Is this really okay…?!”

As Jan voiced his concern,

“Groooar──!!”

“Kiik!”

The monstrous creations, products of wicked techniques, signaled the start of the campaign against Darkin.