Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Novel - Chapter 606
Chapter 606: Commander (3)
Tradition had it that a commander was always busy. They never had an opportunity to settle for an excuse. If someone died, if the plan went awry, if anything at all went wrong, the commander needed to take responsibility for all of it.
I’ll learn about the flower crown when she comes back with it…
That was why, after leaving Raven to deal with the flower crown, I immediately went back to focusing on reformatting the expedition group.
Clack, clack.
The current layout of the expedition group was simple: just four big squads. That was it.
Priests, wizards, and knights were distributed to each squad in relatively equal numbers, so the combat capabilities of each squad in turn were similar, and the roles they could fulfill were all pretty similar as well. Honestly, it felt like the expedition was randomly split into four groups so that they could each go and do their own thing.
Said arrangement had its benefits as well, of course. When necessary, a squad could operate effectively by itself, and if one squad was annihilated, the main expedition group could still function without a problem.
But it’s too militaristic.
We were currently inside the labyrinth. Although sacrifices were unavoidable, that didn’t mean we needed to assign our human resources with those sacrifices in mind.
Problem is, I don’t have the time to assign everyone properly.
I honestly wanted to combine the four groups and assign each individual their role, but there were far too many things I would need to change if I did that. It would take too long for everyone in the new groups to get familiar with each other, and more accidents were bound to happen while they did.
…Let’s just deal with the ranking system as originally planned.
The most effective way to deal with low-ranking individuals was to get a suitable person in charge of them and then drill that person instead—a command structure handed down from ancient arts of warfare.
With that, I erased the names of all the current leaders from the roster and rebuilt everything from scratch. Wizards, priests, ranged attackers, melee attackers, knights, tanks, support, noncombatants. After separating all members into their classes, regardless of their current squad, I elected overseers to be in charge of them and assigned them their duties.
Court wizard, saintess, bow master, master warrior, knight captain…
I just wrote down the titles that came to my mind. The names weren’t the important thing here, anyway.
Hah…then I’ve decided on each of them.
After deciding who the overseers would be, I created the subdivisions as well. For example, the wizards had research, investigation, and combat subdivisions. Knights had combat and administration, as well as an overseer for each, and so on.
Which one would Raven like more? Research or investigation? Hmm, I could ask her and decide on this later—
“Bjorn? Are you busy?”
“Missha? Why are you here?”
“It’s just…you always look so busy recently. I brought the fruit tea that you like…”
Oh, honestly, I was starting to crave something sweet as well.
After drinking about half of it in one gulp, Missha looked at me with expectant eyes for some reason.
I mean, I guess it wouldn’t be nice if I took her goodwill and didn’t give her anything in return.
“Thanks for that, Missha. For that, I’ll give you a position.”
“…Eh? I don’t need something like that—”
“You are now the chief secretary. Your duty is to do everything to increase the efficiency of the commander, and you can decide what that entails on your own.”
“Uh…? So you’re just saying you want me to bring you more tea later?”
Well, that was one way of looking at it.
When I nodded, Missha blushed a little after trying to refuse the position. “Well, if it’s something like that. Okay…”
I now had a cat secretary.
***
After formulating the new hierarchies, I opened a new leaders’ meeting. There wasn’t anything important to discuss, and it was more so that the new overseers could familiarize themselves with one another. I was curious if my system would work properly as well.
Not to say that there was literally nothing to discuss during the meeting, of course.
“How long until the research into the stone statue and the portal is done?”
While I had been stuck in my tent ripping apart and gluing together the expedition group, the wizards had diligently carried out their mission, and today was the day of their report.
“Ah, I will speak to that issue.” The head overseer of the wizards, Gahuin Versilius, stood at my question.
“Are you feeling alright now?” I asked.
“I’m feeling well after those few days of rest.”
As he said, he had been limping just a few days ago, but he was walking fine today. “That’s good to hear. So, speak, court wizard. How long until the stone statue research is over?”
“So…one thing before I give that report.” Gahuin Versilus asked me directly, “Just why am I a court wizard?”
Ah, that?
“This place isn’t even a palace to begin with,” he continued to protest.
“It’s just a title, so don’t think about it too much. I need something to call you by, no?”
“Sure, but why did you choose that as the name…” he mumbled with a hint of dissatisfaction, but I didn’t have any intention of changing the name. I also didn’t get why he wasn’t that fond of it.
Court wizard. Honestly, it sounded like a cool profession.
When I shot Gahuin a glare to stop complaining, an old man with gray hair and wearing a white robe spoke gently. “Sir Versilus, it’s as the baron says. It’s only a name. What is important is its essence… And isn’t a court wizard better than a saintess? Bahaha.”
The person who had spoken was the archbishop of the Tovera Church and also the one who was in the position of saintess for the expedition. Since the archbishop saw no reason to complain about his own, worse position, the court wizard lost all excuse to complain and began his report instead.
“I will now deliver an update on our progress. First, we didn’t find anything more in the stone room—just the three stone statues and the portal.”
“And?”
“The portal remains unchanged from what was reported previously.”
“As in, there’s a good chance it connects to where we entered, but it’s too early to be sure?”
“That’s right. Even as we investigate the nature of the portal, we have no way of knowing where the other side will be. However, we have learned quite a few things about the stone statues.”
“Go on.”
Gahuin Versilus took out three stone statues the size of large-scale figurines and put them on the table. One of the stone statues was dyed black.
Again, I prompted, “What happened?”
“During our research, we used one of the statues.”
“…Used?”
“To skip to the result, this statue is similar to those Guardian stone statues. A rift is opened when it is used.”
“You mean the small rift where only the Guardian appears?”
“That’s right. Do you see this indent here? If you put in a rift stone here, a portal will open for around thirty minutes.”
“Have you entered it?”
“The portal disappeared thirty minutes after being produced in the middle of our research, so we weren’t able to confirm what was on the inside.”
Huh…so I guess we just wasted one?
I felt a wave of disappointment for an instant, but I felt better after Gahuin’s explanation continued.
“It doesn’t seem like these statues are one-use only. Do you see this black one here? As time passes, color is returning to it from the bottom up, like this.”
Oh, so it was an item with a cooldown?
“And although we didn’t enter the portal, we learned quite a number of things from the outside. This is just a theory that hasn’t been tested yet…” He went on to wax eloquent, explaining everything to me in difficult words before ending off, “And at the end of all that, we learned something. The portal that opened from this statue was very similar to the coordinate waves that the Bloody Citadel produces…”
The conclusion was as thus:
“The rift stone we used to activate this stone statue was the rank 9 rift stone obtained from the first-floor rift. We believe that this isn’t a coincidence.”
In a nutshell, the rank of the Guardian would be determined by the rank of the rift stone sacrificed to the stone statue. Of course, that was all just a theory.
“Deputy commander, do we have more rift stones among our reserves right now?”
We checked the rift stones we had, but unfortunately, the only ones in our possession were below rank 6. There weren’t many cases where you needed to take rift stones into the labyrinth, so it was understandable. Honestly, just having those few around proved how much the palace had prepared for this expedition.
I guess it’s a lower-quality Rift Maker…
Speaking of, there was something similar to the stone statues among the numbered items.
No. 18, Rift Maker. The item could open a rift when a rift stone was put into it. Put around ten rank 9 rift stones into it, and it would randomly open a rift in the floor you were on. You did need to be on the floor whose rift you were looking to clear, but even with that downside, high-ranking rift stones weren’t required. Also, it opened a real rift, so it was overall a net benefit to the user.
Well, there is a possibility that this thing will also open a real rift…
However, I had a hunch that these stone statues operated like the Guardian stone statues and would open a smaller rift with only the boss inside.
“I see, good work. I understand the basics of how it works, so I’ll hold onto these stone statues.” After putting the three statues into my pocket, I checked on the other reports. “What about the essence of the Soul Eater?”
“We didn’t make any new discoveries. As it’s an essence, we really can’t know until someone absorbs it…”
“So you’re saying we need to feed it to someone if we want to figure out what it does. Got it. I’ll think more on this.”
“As you wish.”
“I’m getting hungry. Everyone other than the research department head can go and rest.”
After ending the meeting there, I sent everyone out other than the research department head.
“Mr. Yandel, the reason you sent everyone out other than—”
“Not Mr. Yandel, but commander.”
Although we were still in a professional setting, the research department head didn’t even care about what I said and just pushed forward. “…Other than me because you’re curious about how much I figured out about that item, right?”
“Yeah. So did you get anything?”
At my question, the research department head, Raven, cast voice control magic before saying, “To be honest, I got a lot of research done.”
“Oh, really?”
“First, this flower crown is a numbered item.”
“A numbered item?” It was a hard fact to accept. I had memorized all the numbered items from No. 1 all the way to No. 9999. A flower crown like this didn’t exist among the numbered items. And Raven should know that just as well as I did.
In the end, I commanded, “Tell me more.”
“Since this is the first time anyone has come to this floor, the research equipment of the expedition group is really good.”
“So?”
“When I researched its nature, this flower crown does have the unique quality that all numbered items possess. And that’s why I decided to categorize this flower crown as a numbered item as well.”
“But it’s missing the most important thing: the number.”
“That’s true. So I tried to give it a suitable name…”
“What are you embarrassed about? Just say it out loud.”
“How about calling it…a secret numbered item?”
The name was pretty tame, considering it came from Raven.
“For some reason, I feel like as we explore more of the first underground floor, we’ll find more numbered items like this all with unknown numbers,” she rushed to explain.
“Sounds good.”
“Uh, then can I have that be the official name for these?”
“Sure.”
Raven’s expression brightened in an instant when I nodded. She looked to be imagining a future where people continued to use the name “secret numbered item” to refer to these.
I mean, I couldn’t understand what was so important about naming things, but whatever.
“The name’s fine, so tell me how it can be used.” I was honestly worried she had come here after only brainstorming what to call it, but thankfully, Raven was as serious about her research as she was about fame.
“I’ll only tell you what I am sure of. There might be a few things I haven’t figured out about it, so please keep that in mind.”
“I got it, so just tell me.”
“First, as soon as you equip this flower crown, you become immune to all negative mental effects.”
“Oh…”
The item’s effect was better than I expected. One piece of headwear that could give you complete mental resistance? Many high-level raids required adventurers to have high mental stats or equipment to bolster them, so this would be a pretty useful item.
Can I just go around wearing it…?
A flower crown on the head of a mighty barbarian went against the fantasy, but as a gamer, the effect was more important than appearance…
“Ah, and one more thing.”
However, after hearing the next thing Raven said, I let go of my desire for the flower crown.
“When you wear it, you become immune to divine power. You won’t be harmed by divine spells but you can’t be healed by them either. Naturally, you become unaffected by blessings as well.”
“Ah…” I honestly did expect a drawback.
I can’t use it.
I was a tank that needed to be healed on the regular, so I couldn’t use this gear.
“That’s all I could figure out for now,” Raven concluded. “I haven’t been able to figure out what using it does. But there is a higher chance that it doesn’t have much use outside that.”
“Good work.”
“I’ll take it with me and do some more research on it, just in case. That’s fine, right?”
“Of course. You can name it as well. If it’s a numbered item, it’ll need a name as well.”
She paused. “Can I really name it?”
“Of course.” Motivating a subordinate was also the duty of a high-ranking official.
“Ah, right. Mr. Yandel,”
“I told you to call me commander.”
“There were three stone statues in that stone room. You already know that it activates when you use a rift stone, and that the rift opened will most likely depend on the rank of the rift stone used, right?”
“Yeah?”
At that moment, Raven whipped out a rift stone. I couldn’t tell what rank it was, but I could immediately see that it was pretty big.
“This is the rift stone we got after we defeated that vampire Guardian at the first variant rift, the place where we met.”
“Ah, from all the way back then?”
“Yes. I didn’t really want to sell it, so I just held onto it…”
“So?”
Raven looked at me and pure curiosity laced her voice as she wondered, “What rift will open if we put this one into one of those stone statues?”
Uh…no clue.
After a long moment’s hesitation, I suggested, “Shall we try?”
I was pretty curious as well.
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