Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Novel 2025 - Chapter 689
Chapter 689: Mystery (3)
No. 777, Macairo’s Storage Box.
It was one of the few consumable numbered items. However, even though it was a consumable item, it was completely different from Unnamed Divine Sculpture and Dragon Blood Wine.
The ones that allowed for mass-area heals or gave a strong combat buff were true one-use items, but this wasn’t like that.
In a sense, it’s similar to No. 7,777, Garphas’ Necklace.
When used, Macairo’s Storage Box would give a random item or a permanent buff—that was, if you ignored the very low chance of it being a dud.
“We’re seeing a lot of unexpectedly precious objects on this adventure.”
Starting from those countless precious material drops, we got the Siege Slaughterer, and now the “mystery box” as well. In terms of a regular labyrinth exploration, we were continuously getting luckier and luckier items.
This was why people were drawn to exploring the unknown.
“So what we get is random? That sounds pretty fun! Let’s roll our dice now!”
The one regretful part about all this was that every time we got a piece of loot, we had to compete for it since I was working with Baekho’s team now. If I had brought my clan members here, I would’ve been the one to distribute this as I wished.
“It’s been a while since I’ve rolled dice. This is exciting.”
“Baekho… How about we all roll our own this time? I want to roll as well… And your luck is pretty bad.”
“Me? My luck is bad?”
No one answered.
“Whatever. Everyone can roll their own this time.”
After it came to that, we quickly rolled dice without hesitation.
“Bahahaha! If we were going for low-rolls, you would’ve been first and second place!”
Baekho and I both got five.
Ah, “both” as in that was our numbers combined.
“A total of eleven… I-I’ve won!”
In any case, the result was that GM won the dice roll and obtained the mystery box.
“What are you doing? Aren’t you going to open it now?”
“R-right now…?”
“Wow, look at this guy’s manners. Then were you not going to open it?”
“Hahaha! Sir Havellion! Don’t be like that and open the box. We would at least have some entertainment, no?”
GM seemed to want to open the box privately when alone, but the others couldn’t hold back their demands, which he soon abided by.
“Alright, then… I will open it.”
GM put his hand on the box, looking pretty nervous. A moment later, the black box slowly began to float into the air.
[Yurven Havellion has used No. 777, Macairo’s Storage Box.]
From where it floated in the air, the sides of the black box began to open one by one in an unfurling motion.
Shine.
Soon, the object inside the box revealed itself.
“…Armor?”
It was armor.
“Was there a numbered item like this…?”
One I had never seen before.
[No. ????, Dragon Plate of Aegis is created.]
Describing the appearance of the armor was simple enough.
It was a jacket-type armor only covering the body—the farthest away from the adjective “fancy.” Rather than steel, it was closer to a gray color, and there wasn’t a single ornament on it. No gems, engravings, or imprints.
However, maybe that was why…?
…It looks like a set item.
It suited No. 3, Wall of Aegis, pretty well for some reason. And when I placed the shield next to it, the color seemed to match somewhat as well.
It’s about time I changed my armor…
I was still wearing the lithium breastplate. Since my stats were high and enough for my current goals, I figured that rather than waste money upgrading my armor, I would just wait around until something fitting appeared.
For some reason, though, I was drooling.
I knew nothing about that armor, but you know. It was something that came out of the mystery box, so there was no way it was worse than a lithium breastplate that cost only a few million stones—
“Wh-why are you looking at it like that…?”
What? Was I not allowed to look at it?
“Can I wear it once?”
“…Pardon?”
“No one here wears armor other than me, anyway.”
“N-no? After hearing about what Ms. Flyer is doing, I should also hold onto one backup piece of—”
Hoh? What kind of wizard wears heavy armor? Wizards should just wear things like cloth armor.
“So let me just wear it once. Did I say I would steal it from you or something?”
GM couldn’t bear my close-up glare and ended up nodding.
“And we’ll need to test out the armor anyway.”
“Yes… Then… You’re just going to try it on, okay…?”
“Have you ever seen me lie?”
Although by all appearances, it looked like I stole it from him, it wasn’t a bad deal for GM either. It was a mysterious piece of armor, to begin with. Someone needed to equip it and check its abilities.
And if my combat power increases, it’s good for the team as well, right?
Aures was the only other person who could wear heavy armor, but due to the mechanics of his skill, he opted against it. To put it simply, I was the only option left.
[You have equipped No. ????, Dragon Plate of Aegis.]
Oh? Right off the bat, the feeling of wearing it was pretty good.
[Overall Item Level has increased by +13,600.]
And I didn’t know if it was just a feeling I got, but I felt much stronger as well.
[You have equipped two or more pieces of Relic of Aegis.]
[A piece of the soul resonates. (2/3)]
[All regeneration speed is greatly increased.]
[The equipment is bound to the wearer.]
…Huh?
What was that? It felt like the armor just got stamped onto my skin…
“Not bad.”
But in any case, even though I was wearing it for the first time, the armor didn’t feel uncomfortable. It felt like it had become a part of my body as soon as I wore it.
As I stretched while wearing the armor, Baekho looked at me with a baffled expression.
“Whoa, the baron here just wears whatever without knowing what it is. What would you do if it’s a cursed item?”
I had nothing I could say. I never once felt any worry while handling it. As soon as I saw it, it felt like it was meant to be mine.
“In any case, you can check the capabilities of the armor later…” he concluded. “Let’s move first.”
“Sure.”
Honestly, I wanted to check the attributes of the new armor right away, but it would be a waste of everyone’s time to check that here.
“Right, right. Let’s get moving. If there’s a time limit gimmick to this place, things could get troublesome.”
I decided to look into the armor later and investigated the room one last time. However, we weren’t able to find anything in the end, and decided to walk down the stairs we had taken once more.
Step, step.
Although it took us multiple hours to climb up the steps, it didn’t take long for us to get back down.
We soon came to the last steps which led to a similarly narrow pathway, and a golden door was at the end of it.
“…The Golden Ruins?”
GM also seemed to recognize this place after seeing the golden door.
“Why are the Golden Ruins here…?”
“What are you surprised about? You’re acting like anything we encountered until now made sense.”
“That… That’s true.”
“Hey, I’m already ready to not get surprised even if the door beyond suddenly connects to a different area. That’s what being an adventurer is about,” Baekho said before walking forward and slowly opening the door.
“Yo, the fuck?”
He promptly froze on the spot and spouted off a random exclamation. I walked up to check on what made him say that, then ended up flinching myself.
It wasn’t connected to a completely different space like what Baekho said before.
“Why is everything open?”
Instead, there was nothing left to explore beyond the golden door.
***
Clearing the Golden Ruins was straightforward.
It began in a dense forest, and after completing a few missions there, a temple would appear. Upon entering that temple, something similar to the stairs that we just encountered would await us.
And then, it leads to this.
Just like this, the golden door would open to a main hall, and the clearing of the rift would officially begin.
Since it was a fourth-floor rift, it was a low-floor rift with a simple clear method. From the entrance, you just needed to enter the leftmost stone door to activate a mechanism inside. It would then summon a Guardian in the main hall and also open a sealed treasure room after clearing everything.
But everything, including the treasure room, is open.
Not to mention, when you entered after opening the golden door, a golden light should filter in from the ceiling and illuminate the surroundings, but that effect was missing as well.
“Whoa… What’s with all this dust?”
“It’s like we’re exploring an abandoned building!”
The ruins were covered in a thick layer of dust, and the walls that should have been shining with gold were damaged and cracked in multiple places.
“Get some light in first. I can’t see anything properly.”
At Baekho’s request, GM summoned multiple balls of light to light up the room, and we then began to carefully investigate the hall.
“As I thought, the treasure room is completely empty.”
The first place I checked was the treasure room that would be opened after defeating the Guardian of the Rift, Kalpion. Normally, three numbered items would be sealed here and you could choose one of them using a key obtained during the rift-clearing process. However, when we got there, it was empty.
“Should we check the snake room first or the mummy room?”
We investigated the left and right rooms, starting with the left one featuring the snake-type mid-boss.
…Even all the hidden secrets are completely gone.
From the Golden Marble that would appear after pressing the wall under the lion mural to the Eagle Candlestick hidden in the trap room, and so on. Even as we walked along the complex, maze-like paths, we weren’t able to get anything. The results were the same in the mid-boss room where the lever-locking mechanism was.
“It’s pretty spooky, seeing this much of nothing…”
The lever had been used, and the mid-boss was nowhere to be seen. The hidden secrets were taken from this place as well.
Unfortunately, the mummy room on the right wasn’t much different.
“At this point, I think we’ve investigated everything we could…”
“Haha! This is quite a problem!”
Even though we looked through the entire ruins, we couldn’t find anything. And this was a very big problem. Something needed to be here so we could at least do something.
It was like that in the game as well. The times when it was most difficult to advance within the game weren’t when you encountered a difficult problem. It was rather when you didn’t know what to do. If the player couldn’t find a path forward then, they would waste unnecessary time.
Just like us now.
“I…will go investigate the stairs again…”
“Me too. There may be a hidden path within the bricks, so I will check it over.”
Still, as top-level adventurers, they didn’t lose their morale and continued to look for work to do, but it didn’t mean much.
One day, two days, three days, four days…
Time passed and we began to lose things we could try investigating, and that began to increase the nervousness and unease of the group.
“…We’re not going to be stuck here forever, right?”
“Maybe it was trying to starve us to death.”
“I never knew someone could lose it from something like this…”
Everyone shared their weakest moment, and unexpectedly, the one who showed the most extreme reaction was Baekho.
“Fuck, what is everyone doing? If you have time to rest, look for a way out of here,” he berated the others with his sharp glare and words.
Why’s this guy’s mental fortitude so weak?
Still, I was relieved he didn’t direct that attitude toward me.
However, that ended a few days later.
“Baron, give me your armor.”
“…What?”
“I mean, we haven’t found anything here except that armor. Since we got it here, maybe the armor holds a way for us to escape?”
Although his attitude pissed me off a little…
If I didn’t let my emotions get in the way…
“…You’re not wrong.”
It sounded plausible enough.
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