Barbarian’s Dark Fantasy Strategy Guide

Chapter 1: Strange Encounter （1）

Pandora Continent, northern part, the small village of Windfall.

The atmosphere here was heavy and somber.

The village’s outskirts, the public cemetery.

The villagers ceaselessly dug graves and buried the bodies. Even before they could fully cover a grave with dirt, another cart arrived, laden with corpses.

The bodies were all in a gruesome state.

Some were crushed as if under a boulder, others bore clear marks of being ravaged by wild beasts. The villagers, with grief-stricken faces, began digging the next pit.

Meanwhile, in the village square, mercenaries were gathered.

There were more mercenaries from outside Windfall than from the village itself, signifying that the situation had escalated beyond their ability to handle it alone.

The guild master spoke to the mercenaries.

“An ogre has made its nest.”

At those words, the smiles vanished from the mercenaries’ faces. It was the name of a high-ranking monster, rarely heard of in a peaceful countryside village.

A monster capable of taking on a dozen trained soldiers single-handedly.

“How many?”

“One.”

“What? Just one caused all this chaos? I thought Windfall had some reputable mercenaries.”

The tension among the mercenaries from outside eased somewhat. However, the guild master’s expression remained grim.

“Dozens of Windfall’s soldiers and mercenaries who thought the same are now being laid to rest in the cemetery.”

“No way. Dozens were killed by a single ogre?”

“According to the mercenary who returned alive…… it might be a Commander-level.”

“C-Commander-level?!”

The place was in an uproar.

Now, the deaths of dozens of soldiers finally made sense.

“Hey, hey! We didn’t hear anything about that!”

“We came here because the reward was 5 silvers!”

“We came all this way, and you’re trying to pull a fast one on us?!”

The mercenaries expressed their displeasure.

The bounty for the monster subjugation was 5 silvers.

It was a reward barely enough for subjugating a few high-ranking monsters.

“Of course, now that the situation has escalated, the reward has also been adjusted accordingly.”

“It should be! We’re risking our lives here!”

If it was a Commander-level, the reward should be at least doubled to match the market rate. However, the words that came out of the guild master’s mouth far exceeded the mercenaries’ expectations.

“This morning, the Lord adjusted the amount to one Doren gold coin. In other words, 1 gold.”

“What……!”

A whopping ten times the market rate.

This was the amount one would receive for subjugating a Centurion-level monster, not a Commander-level.

The atmosphere in the square instantly flipped.

Now, no matter how dangerous the opponent, it was worth risking their lives. 1 gold was enough to live comfortably for almost a year.

The quick-witted mercenaries swiftly calculated.

From the Commander-level onwards, it was impossible to face a monster alone. Then, they had to form a party with the most skilled individuals and the minimum number of people to maximize their share of the reward.

“Hey, you’re Sharpshooter Bill, right? I’m Fang Kyle. You don’t happen to not know me, do you?”

A mercenary with daggers strapped to him spoke to a crossbow-wielding mercenary, acting familiar. The crossbow mercenary immediately grasped his intention.

“I’ve heard rumors that you’re the most skilled in Windfall. Nice to meet you, Kyle.”

“Indeed. It makes sense for gold-level mercenaries like us to team up.”

The two men shook hands amicably.

“Kyle, you’re from Windfall, so you must know the terrain well, right?”

“Of course. Just trust me and follow me.”

“But it’s still not enough with just the two of us.”

“I know. We don’t need many, just one more, a body to buy us time from the front.”

“Do you have someone suitable in mind?”

“Look over there.”

Fang Kyle pointed with his chin.

When Sharpshooter Bill turned his gaze, he saw a man who stood out among the mercenaries.

His physique was far superior to others, and his toned and well-defined muscles were like those of a tiger, possessing both strength and agility.

“Is that…… a barbarian from the north?”

“Seems like it. I heard they were wiped out, but I guess there were survivors.”

It was a well-known story that barbarians were beings who fought against countless demons beyond the mountains. If he joined the party, subjugating the ogre would be a piece of cake.

Kyle approached the barbarian and patted his shoulder.

“Hey, you.”

“……”

The barbarian silently looked down at Kyle.

For a moment, Kyle felt a chill down his spine as if he had spoken to a wild beast.

“If you’re thinking of participating in this ogre subjugation, how about joining us? If you take the front, I’ll cover the rear, and we have crossbow support from behind, we’ll definitely succeed. Don’t underestimate us, we’re pretty successful gold-level……”

“Not interested.”

The barbarian turned his head indifferently, but Kyle didn’t give up easily.

“Hey, wait a minute! Don’t just turn me down, hear me out first. I’m not saying we should split the reward equally.”

“……”

“The front line is the most dangerous, so you can take half for yourself. Bill and I will split the remaining half. How about it, isn’t it a good offer?”

The barbarian only glanced down at Kyle with his cold eyes. Overwhelmed by his gaze alone, Kyle gulped.

The barbarian replied.

“It goes against my rules.”

“Rules?”

“I don’t share tasks that I can handle alone.”

◈◈◈◈◈◈ ◈◈◈◈◈◈ ◈◈◈◈◈◈

‘If you cut down a human, your heart will be stained with darkness, and if you cut down a demon, the darkness will be washed away.’

From the moment this ‘Ancestor’s Rule’ was born, we have always fought against demons. To prevent our hearts from being stained with darkness.

However, the world doesn’t operate solely on such simple principles. Sometimes, unavoidable situations arise, and there are times when important decisions must be made.

If you hesitate to cut down a human out of fear of being consumed by darkness, you cannot be called a true warrior.

Khalid said.

“Thanks to you bastards, my heart will be defiled again today.”

The barbarian mercenary said so and pulled out the arrow lodged in his shoulder with his bare hand.

“P-Please spare me……”

Fang Kyle, whose neck was grabbed, pleaded for his life in terror. Sharpshooter Bill, who had shot the arrow into Khalid’s shoulder, was already dead, his head split in half.

“Spare you? That’s an amusing thing to say. Do the humans inside the fence talk like that to someone they’ve stabbed with a sword?”

The tip of Kyle’s dagger was touching Khalid’s abdomen. No, it had pierced a little, about the size of a fingernail, but it was far from being a fatal wound.

Trembling, Kyle finally released the hilt of his dagger. It seemed like Khalid would swing his axe down much faster than he could push the dagger deeper.

Clang.

The dagger fell to the ground.

“I-I’m sorry. I was wrong! If you just spare my life, I’ll do anything you ask! I’ll be a porter, a servant, anything, please!”

“As I said in the village……”

Khalid raised his axe-wielding hand.

“W-Wait……!”

“I’m enough on my own.”

Crack!

Fang Kyle’s head was split in half.

It was just as I had heard.

The fenced-in humans think a human life is worth less than a gold coin. Judging by this, even if it were a silver coin, it wouldn’t be much different.

“To think I shed blood against such bastards. Gunnar would have laughed if he saw this.”

The wounds on his shoulder and abdomen weren’t deep.

However, it was a mistake that he was late in responding to the mercenaries’ surprise attack because the axe handle was broken.

“I’ll have to grow an eye on my back from now on.”

He, who had just crossed the mountains, was already beginning to adapt to the harsh realities of the world.

Khalid picked up the ogre’s head.

Inside the cave, the bodies of soldiers and mercenaries who had been killed by the ogre were piled up like a mountain.

“It sure ate a lot.”

Its appetite was incomparable to that of an ordinary ogre.

It was indeed worthy of being called a Commander-level.

It was a pity that so many people had died while the mercenaries were only blinded by money. No matter how important money was, what good was it if you ended up dead?

Khalid tied the ogre’s head in a bundle and slung it over his shoulder.

He didn’t forget to pick up the broken axe handle either.

And as he was about to leave the cave……

『Hey, wait!』

A voice suddenly echoed without any sign of presence.

Khalid was startled and looked around.

There were no survivors left in the cave.

‘Is it an auditory hallucination?’

Khalid tilted his head in puzzlement and turned back. But then, a woman’s voice was heard even more clearly.

『Take the dagger that fell at your feet too.』

‘What is this? Is it talking to me?’

At his feet lay the dagger of Kyle, who had just stabbed him.

『Yes, who else is here besides you? It’s a blue item. Can’t you see it glowing blue?』

The voice even read Khalid’s thoughts.

At first, he thought the voice was echoing from within the cave, but it wasn’t.

The voice was clearly resonating inside Khalid’s head.

『What are you doing, not picking it up?』

Khalid was flustered.

It was a strange phenomenon he had never experienced before in his life.

He pondered for a moment and came to his own conclusion.

‘Indeed. Is this the devil’s whisper?’

『Devil? Did you just call me that?』

‘Get lost. I have no intention of selling my soul to you like that ogre.’

『Who are you calling a devil?!』

The voice snapped angrily.

‘It’s no use pretending. Whether you’re a devil or not, get out of my body right now.’

『Do you think I want to be here?! ……No, wait a minute.』

‘……?’

『Let’s talk outside first. I’m trying really hard to understand this situation too, you know? But before that, I think I’m going to go crazy because of the stench here.』

He had no intention of readily following the devil’s whispers, but he agreed to leave the place that reeked of rotting corpses.

As he reluctantly tried to leave the cave first, the voice stopped him again.

『Take the dagger, I said!』

‘Do you think I’ll use a dagger?’

『Who said you should use it? Take it and sell it. You’re a mercenary, aren’t you going to make money?』

Khalid picked up the dagger.

It didn’t seem particularly sharp or sturdy.

‘It doesn’t look like a valuable item.’

『The one who uses a white axe is looking down on a blue item. Oh my, and one of them is broken, isn’t it? Why are you carrying around something uselessly broken?』

To Khalid’s eyes, the axe and the dagger were all just dull pieces of metal. He didn’t understand what it meant by blue or white.

『Ah. Can only I see the glow? I guess so. Anyway, the ‘Runestone’ inside is worth a gold coin.』

‘Runestone? Is it a mage’s item?’

『That’s right. Look at the bottom of the hilt. There’s a pebble-sized stone embedded there, right?』

As it said, there was a round, smooth stone embedded there.

『It’s a Soundproof Runestone. It prevents noise within a 1-meter radius of the wearer from leaking out.』

‘Assassins would love that.’

『Right, you’re quick on the uptake!』

‘Was it because of this magic that I didn’t sense the dagger mercenary’s presence?’

What the voice said mostly made sense.

It was the first time Khalid had let his guard down against an opponent like this. However, if what the voice said was true, there were parts that didn’t make sense.

‘If it had this ability, there would have been no need to alert me by firing a crossbow.’

『The guy who shot the crossbow probably thought he could take you out with one shot.』

‘No, what I’m curious about is the intention of this guy named Kyle.’

『The guy with the dagger? Why him?』

‘I didn’t notice his presence until he approached me from behind. He had several chances to stab me. But he waited until I had definitely dealt with the crossbow mercenary.’

『As if he wanted you to kill him instead?』

‘……!’

Only then did Khalid realize Kyle’s true intention. It was a truly absurd reason.

‘Could it be, this guy…… abandoned his comrade for money?’

『It’s probably not just a possibility. If you had died, he would have stabbed the crossbow mercenary then. Either way, he could have the bounty all to himself.』

‘What an absurd fellow. Is a gold coin more precious than not only the lives of others but also his own life?’

Khalid felt once again that he needed to quickly adapt to the fenced-in humans’ perception of money.

『If your curiosity is satisfied, let’s get out of here quickly.』

As he stepped out of the cave, a lush forest stretched out before him. The sky was already dyed red by the setting sun.

『Crazy…… I didn’t realize it in the dark cave, but this is clearly not game graphics.』

Game? Graphics?

Khalid felt a sudden headache.

It was an unfamiliar term, but the strange sense of déjà vu that made him feel like he understood it somehow made him even more uncomfortable.

『What the hell is this…… Did I really come to a strange place?!』

The voice then started chattering like a broken dam.

Most of it was about lamenting its own situation.

Khalid didn’t listen very carefully.

Words like possession and character were things he didn’t want to hear or know about.

‘……It’s noisy.’

He didn’t care about the voice’s circumstances.

The only thing Khalid wanted to know was how to get rid of the voice.

Was it really a demon possession?

Or was it a mage’s trick?

The voice’s chatter showed no signs of stopping.

Finally, unable to bear it any longer, Khalid shouted.

“Shut up!”

His booming voice echoed through the forest.

『……』

Then, the voice disappeared as if by magic.

Khalid thought his sincere anger had driven away the demon.

It wasn’t actually impossible. In his homeland, there were countless stories of ancestors who had repelled the devil’s whispers in this way.

“That’s better.”

The barbarian mercenary, feeling much better, shouldered the bundle containing the demon’s head.