Chapter 5: The Awaited One Comes Not, Meanwhile I Am a Barbarian

The scene shifts. We find ourselves in "Firstia", the town that serves as the initial base for players just starting Shangri-La Frontier. With the arrival of the summer break season, the servers had been reinforced to accommodate thousands of new players. In this mundane town, which lacked any particular landmarks, it was there.

"Whoa... You can tell just by looking that that’s high-level gear..."

"I've seen that emblem on the net. If I recall, that's the hardcore raiding clan..."

"Didn't that clan require you to be at least Level 90 to even take the entrance exam?"

"Then why is such a hardcore player in the starter town... Whoa, it looked this way!"

Encased from head to toe in platinum full plate armor, with a cloak fluttering from the back bearing the emblem of a wolf holding a sword in its mouth. While beginners typically hung their weapons from their belts, this player had a greatsword floating against their back as if held by some invisible force. This player, whose appearance was clearly not that of a beginner, stood still, staring intently at the newly logging-in players as if searching for someone. Mistaken for a story-relevant NPC, the Platinum Armor was accosted by players trying to talk to it or asking for screenshots. Though it struggled to deal with the attention, it persisted in waiting. However, after about two hours of real-time passed, it seemed to give up and walked away.

"This is a problem... I couldn't have predicted this..."

Apparently, you can only save your game at inns in towns or similar locations. Since I had no intention of logging out for a while anyway, I continued to wander the forest, hunting monsters one after another. However, two problems arose.

First: Equipment Weight. Unless an item is exceptionally large, most can be stored in the inventory. However, if you exceed a certain amount, a negative modifier is applied to your actions. I collected twelve Goblin Hand Axes, used up four, and just got another drop. The moment I placed this ninth axe into my inventory, I felt a sluggishness in my movements, as if I were wearing heavy winter clothes.

For the time being, aside from Goblins, I defeated horned rabbits (Almiraj), the other titan of Adults-Only Fantasy alongside Goblins known as the pig-men (Orcs), and a rare bipedal rabbit known as the Head-Hunting Rabbit (Vorpal Bunny). The Vorpal Bunny seemed to aim exclusively for the neck with every action, reeking of critical hit mechanics. However, an enemy with a one-track mind is a sitting duck once you get used to its patterns, even if it is a rabbit. That said, the "Vorpal Chopper" (Deadly Kitchen Knife) that the Vorpal Bunny drops—with a perceived drop rate of about 5%—was a fairly capable weapon. Compared to the initial Mercenary's Twin Blades, it is generally superior across the board. Furthermore, it has an added effect that grants a bonus to critical damage, which matches my combat style perfectly. I also leveled up. Both in terms of items and experience points, the Vorpal Bunny is quite a delicious enemy.

PN: Sunraku LV: 12 JOB: Mercenary (Dual Wielder) Money: 9,000 Mani

HP (Health): 30 MP (Magic): 10 STM (Stamina): 25 STR (Strength): 10 DEX (Dexterity): 15 AGI (Agility): 25 TEC (Technique): 20 VIT (Vitality): 1 (2) LUC (Luck): 55

Skills:

• Spin Slash
• Screw Pierce
• Knuckle Rush
• Tap Step
• Flash Counter

Equipment:

• Right/Left: Mercenary's Twin Blades
• Head: Gazing Bird Mask (VIT+2)
• Torso: None
• Waist: None
• Feet: None
• Accessories: None

For now, I'll save the Vorpal Chopper for when the Mercenary's Twin Blades break. In this game, leveling up gives you points to allocate to your stats. Reaching Level 12 gave me 55 points, and I decided to dump about half of them into Luck. My impression so far? Well, the change in drop rate is within the margin of error, but I do feel like items are dropping slightly more often.

Then there are Skills. I gained two from leveling up, and one I learned spontaneously while parrying a Vorpal Bunny's attacks and swatting it out of the air. It seems there are skills you can learn by fulfilling conditions other than just leveling up. My impression after using the skills is that they grant a sensation of "certainty" in your brain, telling you, "Move like this for this skill." Some older games forcibly moved your body to match the skill motion, but since that could be exploited in various ways, the mainstream method now is "Thought Guidance"... or perhaps that sounds too sinister. Let's call it "Thought Assistance."

The two skills I knew from the start have large wind-ups. They are effective against enemies of my size or smaller and have high DPS, but they leave me open. Among the newly learned skills, Screw Pierce has a fast startup; it's a compact attack with high single-hit power... but the fact that it can't be spammed means it's not really my preference. Tap Step is a skill that adds a modifier to evasion maneuvers, and Flash Counter, in contrast, adds a modifier to counters performed from a parry.

To conclude, I have to say that the only skill currently useful to me is barely Screw Pierce. The initial skills are too slow to see any use, and the evasion/parry skills are covered sufficiently by my own Player Skill. Compared to the multitude of Trash Games where the game balance is so bad it transcends "love it or hate it" and lands squarely in "garbage"—where enemies don't have hitboxes, enemies clone themselves infinitely, or enemies refuse to die—these small fry mobs are so merciful it brings tears to my eyes. They don't clip through you. They don't glitch-multiply. They die properly when killed. It is precisely because Trash Games fail to meet even these minimum requirements that their bugs aren't funny.

Let's return to the topic at hand. The first problem was the inventory capacity getting tight. This could be solved by consuming the meat items... but that consumption brings us to the second problem.

"I blundered... I never expected that I couldn't eat it raw."

Apparently, in this game, meat items cannot be used as hunger-recovery items unless they are cooked—at the very least grilled or boiled. No matter how many times I tried to eat the raw meat, my appetite dampened, and the system physically prevented me from putting it in my mouth. And the biggest problem: Sunraku has no means of creating fire. My MP, which hasn't budged from 1 since Level 1, clearly indicates that I have not learned a single spell.

"At this rate, I might respawn via starvation..."

I would at least prefer to die at the hands of a monster and respawn that way, but getting killed by a Goblin would be irritating. On the other hand, respawning from starvation is too stupid. As I was pondering what to do, I heard the voice of another person—something that felt strangely nostalgic.

Author's Notes & Lore

Starting Fire: Just for the record, if you buy a "Flint" which is available at any tool shop in the game (with a success probability for lighting), you basically won't have trouble with fire.

Translator's Remarks

• Adults-Only Fantasy: Sunraku uses "Otona Fantasy" to describe Goblins and Orcs. In Japanese internet slang/subculture, this implies the "darker" (often sexual violence) tropes associated with these monsters in adult media. He uses it here simply to describe their grotesque design.
• Barbarian (Banzoku): In the title, Sunraku refers to himself as a Banzoku (Barbarian/Savage). This contrasts with the "Civilized" waiting person. It also references his lack of fire (civilization) and his half-naked appearance.