Thirty minutes earlier.
An open space on the outskirts of the village.
The wind blew harshly, slapping against my cheeks.
I looked down at the single potato in my hand.
It was a shabby potato, wrinkled and caked with dirt, but this was my...... No, the barbarians' future!
This one small tuber was the lifeline that would save both me and the barbarians.
“Good! Time to begin the operation!”
I pulled a crude stone knife from my waist.
The instincts I had developed handling ingredients countless times in the kitchen as a fairly skilled chef in my previous life returned to me.
Although what I held was a lethal weapon made by grinding down a river stone, my hands were delicate.
- SHNK. SHNK.
I checked the potato's eyes and divided it into exactly five pieces.
“Whew......”
I straightened up and looked around.
This place, a short distance from the village, was an open patch strewn thickly with gravel.
I rolled my shoulders as though warming up.
CRACK. My joints snapped back into place with a pleasant sound.
In my previous life, I had limped badly on my right leg.
The aftereffects of polio had been shackles that followed me my entire life.......
'This is amazing.'
But things were different now.
The solid firmness of the earth beneath the soles of my feet.
'So this is what it was like for other people to live with a body like this.'
I felt elated for no reason.
I picked up and threw the fist-sized pebbles that caught my eye.
Whoosh, whoosh.
The stones flew as lightly as feathers and embedded themselves far away.
Even a large boulder came free from the ground when I gave it a grunt and put some strength into it.
'I'm insanely strong.'
I hummed a tune.
I liked the smell of earth.
I was happy to have a healthy, sturdy body.
After wrestling with it for about thirty minutes.
Before I knew it, a perfectly square patch of level ground had been revealed amid the pile of rocks.
Land perfectly straight, with no error in length or width. The truth was...... I was a bit compulsive about these things.
“Good. Now, reclamation.”
I placed both palms on the barren ground.
The land was part of why barbarians did not farm.
It was dead ground, where not a trace of life could be felt, but I had a skill.
'Farmland Reclamation.'
I called out the skill's name in my mind, but nothing changed.
Instead, a red system message appeared before my eyes.
[The body and mind of a barbarian reject magic.]
[You cannot use skills unless you shout the Warrior's Roar.]
“......This is humiliating!”
I bit my lip. Of course it would not be that easy.
I looked around. Fortunately, no one was watching...... But when it came time to say that word out loud, my face grew hot for no reason.
This sense of humiliation was something I could not overcome, even though I had assimilated to a barbarian's body; I still possessed a modern person's mind.
“B-Barbarian......”
My voice came out no louder than an ant crawling. There was no response.
“B...... Barbarian?”
I tried shouting a little louder, but it failed again.
Shit.
At thirty-two years old, I had to shout the name of my own race in an empty field.
But then an image of myself shivering in the cold and starving to death soon came to mind. I squeezed my eyes shut and shouted.
“Barbariaaaan!”
My resounding cry tore through the canyon's silence.
At that moment, hot energy poured through my palms and into the ground.
RUMBLE—!
As if answering, the earth trembled.
The wasteland where gray dust had been blowing began to change into glossy black soil, centered on the place where I touched it.
It was exactly large enough to plant five potato pieces.
[The skill ‘Farmland Reclamation’ has succeeded!]
[Cultivation Slots : 0/5]
[Tip : The number of cultivable slots increases as your level rises.]
“Holy shit.”
I shouted in surprise, even though I was the one who had done it.
It really was completely a game.
As I dug into the soil while humming a cheerful tune, soft, moist black earth moved aside.
An even depth. Even spacing.
I had never farmed before, but perhaps it was because my class was Farmer. My body moved on its own.
I carefully laid down the seed potatoes, then covered them gently with soil as though tucking them beneath a blanket.
Now I only had to shout once more and use Growth Acceleration.
I drew a deep breath again.
“Izak?”
“Kuhk, hack, cough, cough!”
At the sudden voice from behind me, something went down the wrong pipe, and I had to cough madly.
When I whipped my head around, Malko, the ugliest barbarian in the world, was standing there.
He had told me at the storehouse earlier that his name was Malko...... What kind of name was Malko? Even his name was ugly.
Malko's gaze was fixed on the mound of soil I had just covered at my feet.
“Izak...... bad barbarian!”
“Huh?”
Malko shrieked in a trembling voice.
“You bad barbarian! Hide potato in dirt! Hide to eat alone! Bad barbarian!”
“Calm down! I'm not a bad barbarian!”
“Bad barbariaaaaan!”
The madman's shrieking voice seemed at least five times louder than mine.
“Chief! Chieeef! Report! I report bad barbarian!”
He charged off like a bull, bellowing at the top of his lungs.
His voice was so loud that the entire village seemed to hum.
I pressed a hand to my forehead.
I was screwed.
.
.
.
The present. The village square.
The atmosphere was beyond murderous. It was frightening.
Dozens of tribe members had formed a circle around me, and their gazes were fiercely hostile.
At the center stood Chieftain Jakan.
For some reason, he looked even larger.
Overwhelming pressure poured from his huge body.
“Is it true? Did you try to bury precious food in the ground and hide it?”
There was no rise or fall in Jakan's deep voice.
That made it even more frightening.
Whispers came from around me.
“Wicked barbarian.”
“Eating alone bad. All barbarians together.”
“Hiding in dirt cowardly. Coward not barbarian!”
It was unfair. I had done it so we could all live.
But I could not respond emotionally.
As I swallowed dryly and tried to speak in the most rational voice possible, a throbbing sensation came with a headache.
[Failure! The barbarian's body resists logical thought because your Mental Strength is insufficient.]
“No! I didn't hide it!”
A resonant voice burst from me.
Ah...... So this was how Barbarian Mind worked?
While I stood there flustered, Jakan looked at me as if to ask what it was, then.
“Farming! I planted it in the ground.”
“Farming?”
Jakan cocked his head.
The word was not in their vocabulary.
'Don't panic. Explain it calmly. Explain the principle of seed germination as simply as possible.'
I held up my fingers and gave a reliable explanation.
[Failure!]
“Plant one potato in ground, ten potatoes come.”
Damn it...... Along with pain as if a thick needle were stabbing my brain, a foolish explanation spilled out.
But they would be shocked. These barbarians, whose brains were muscle too, could not possibly have considered farming even once.
This was the wisdom of a modern man blessed with Intelligence 20.
Although I could not explain it properly because I was trapped in a barbarian's body.......
Just as I expected, they opened their eyes wide, their expressions startled.
With a proud look, I glanced around as I waited for the praise that would come back.
“BAHAHAHAHA!”
The laughter that someone let loose was the signal.
The barbarians gathered in the square began rolling around, clutching their stomachs.
“Dumb barbarian! Says one potato becomes ten!”
“BAHAHAHA! Stupid! Pitiful barbarian!”
“One potato becoming ten is magic! Barbarian can't magic! BAHAHA!”
Mockery and ridicule poured down on me.
To them, my words were either nonsense or a stupid lie.
The concept of investment and multiplication itself did not exist in their minds.
Perhaps that was only natural for people who devoured everything in sight and lived only for today, as though there were no tomorrow.
“No! It's true! Believe me!”
I raised my voice, but the laughter only grew louder.
That was when it happened.
“Quiet.”
The laughter in the square stopped dead at Jakan's single word.
The chieftain looked at me with an expression that had gone cold.
“Izak. You just lied.”
“N-No!”
“Stealing is bad too. But what is worse for a warrior is lying. That is something only cowards do.”
SHING—.
He drew the greatsword from his back and pointed its heavy blade at my neck.
“A barbarian does not lie. I will cut off the tongue that lied and the wrist that stole.”
This was crazy.......
But these barbarians were serious.
The barbarians around us stepped backward as though the Red Sea were parting.
A cold sweat ran down my spine.
How could they not know how to farm? How was I supposed to explain it?
'Think, think. Think, Kang Jin-ho.'
I desperately tried to explain something, but suddenly my vision spun violently and a ringing sounded in my ears.
In the end, my paltry Mental Strength of 8 could not resist Barbarian Mind, and bright red blood streamed from the inside of my nose.
Fine. All or nothing. If you cannot understand it, then.
I would follow the way barbarians thought too.
- THUD!
“......??”
“What! Suddenly bleed and died!”
“No. Got sick because lie!”
The barbarians murmured.
Jakan hesitated as well, but he did not lower his sword.
I opened my eyes to slits and checked my surroundings, then began trembling all over as I lay spread-eagled.
“Kuuuh...... Uuuh......!”
Perhaps because of the backlash of wringing my Mental Strength dry, it was not difficult to flop around like a freshly caught fish.
Remembering the zombies I had seen in movies, I threw myself into the performance with everything I had.
“W-What! Why are you doing that!”
At that exact moment.
SPRING! I leaped up like a coiled spring, and they staggered back in surprise.
I stared directly into Jakan's eyes. With my face drenched in blood, I tensed my abdomen hard.
“Barbariaaaaaaan!”
A thunderous roar bursting from my core swept through the square.
The Warrior's Roar.
Then, as though by reflex, the barbarians who had no idea what was happening shouted along.
“Waaah! Barbariaaan!”
“Barbariaaan!”
The instincts of warriors that made their blood boil.
The racial trait engraved deep in every barbarian's soul filled the square with the roars of excited barbarians.
“Quiet.”
“Barbariaaan!”
“Barbarian!”
Jakan spoke, but the excited barbarians were too busy pounding their own chests, headbutting each other's foreheads, and roaring.
It was sheer madness.
“QUIET!”
Jakan unleashed a lion's roar.
Only before his overwhelming presence did the barbarians finally quiet down.
I was honestly scared too, but if I stopped now, there was only death.
I rolled my eyes back until the whites showed.
Then, without even wiping the nosebleed dripping from my chin, I threw a hand toward the sky and shouted.
“I am! The great First Ancestor who flows in your blood! Lord Barbarian!”
“......!”
Jakan's eyes widened.
The barbarians around me gasped.
The First Ancestor, ‘Barbarian.’
The being whose name was also that of their race was a god incarnate to them.
An absolute authority they could never defy.
I continued to spew nonsense...... No, divine revelations.
“I have descended into the body of my descendant Izak! I have bestowed upon this child the wisdom to save the tribe!”
“......Wisdom?”
The tip of Jakan's sword trembled.
He was confused.
The Izak before him seemed crazy, yet not crazy at the same time.
Barbarians were weak against superstition.
And they were even weaker before an ancestral god.
“That's right! One potato becoming ten is my divine power! The one who doubts is not my descendant! He is a traitor!”
“T-Traitor? I don't want betray Lord Barbarian! I believe!”
“Potato becomes ten! I believe too! You believe too!”
Murmur, murmur.
The barbarians around me were beginning to be won over by my force of will.
But Jakan was not so easy to sway.
For a barbarian, this guy seemed to have an Intelligence stat of at least 10.
He stared at me, trying to distinguish truth from lie.
But my life was on the line too. With the resolve that I would die the moment I blinked, I stared him down.
After a long standoff, Jakan slowly lowered his sword. He did not sheath it completely, however.
“Prove it.”
His voice was low and cold.
“If you have truly received the will of the great ancestral god, show it to me.”
Having said that much, he growled.
“If those potatoes do not become ten...... then it will not end with one arm. Offer your life. That is the price for insulting the ancestral god.”
It worked.
At least I had saved my life for now.
Even as I swallowed dryly, I nodded arrogantly, still pretending to be the ancestral god.
“Good! I shall show you foolish barbarians who doubt my divine power clearly!”
Saying that, I led them back toward the field on the outskirts of the village.
There was the mound of soil that Malko had begun to dig up but left unfinished.
I took a deep breath.
Dozens of eyes were watching me.
Standing before the field, this time I shouted not as an act, but with genuine desperation.
'Growth Acceleration. Please......'
“Barbariaaaaaaan!”
As I activated the skill with a resounding roar, warm energy left my hands and swept over the soil.
Then the state of the potatoes buried in the ground appeared as a red timer before my eyes.
[Potatoes - 2 days 23:59:57 until harvest]
Haaah. It worked.
Three days. Exactly three days.
I turned around and declared to Chieftain Jakan.
“Three nights! After three nights, potatoes become ten!”
Jakan looked down at me in silence, then jerked his chin toward the guards beside him.
Rough hands bound my arms.
As they dragged me away, I looked at my precious potatoes buried in the soil.
Please grow well.
If you die, I die too.
And so, as soon as I came to this world, I became a barbarian imprisoned for getting caught farming.
No...... Was farming really this difficult?