Chapter 2

002.

30 minutes earlier.

An open lot on the outskirts of the village.

The wind blew fiercely, striking my cheeks.

I looked down at the potato in my hand.

It was an unimpressive potato, shriveled and covered in dirt, but this was now my…… no, the barbarians’ future!

This single small tuber was the lifeline that would save both me and the barbarians.

“Good! Let the operation begin!”

I pulled a crude stone knife from my waist.

The sensation of having prepared countless ingredients in the kitchen as a fairly skilled chef in my previous life returned to me.

Although what I held was little more than a weapon made from a sharpened river stone, my hand movements were delicate.

- Slice. Slice.

I checked the potato’s eyes and divided it into exactly five pieces.

“Whew…….”

I straightened my back and looked around.

This place, a short distance from the village, was an open lot covered in gravel.

I rolled my shoulders as if warming up.

Crack, crack, the sound of my joints settling into place was refreshing.

In my previous life, I had limped quite badly on my right leg.

The aftereffects of polio had been shackles that followed me my entire life, but…….

‘Amazing.’

Now, however, things were different.

The firmness of the earth transmitted through the soles of my feet.

‘So this is what it was like for other people to live in bodies like this.’

I became excited for no particular reason.

I picked up the fist-sized stones that bothered me and threw them aside.

Whoosh, whoosh.

The stones flew as lightly as feathers and crashed far away.

Even a large boulder came loose from the ground when I grunted and put some strength into it.

‘Awesome strength.’

I hummed to myself.

I liked the smell of dirt.

I was happy to have a healthy, sturdy body.

After struggling with the ground for about 30 minutes,

a perfectly square patch of flat land had emerged among the piles of rocks.

Perfectly straight ground with no difference in width or length. Actually…… I was a little obsessive-compulsive.

“Good. Now for reclamation.”

I placed both palms on the barren earth.

The land itself was one reason the barbarians did not farm.

It was dead soil devoid of any trace of vitality, but I had a skill.

‘Farmland Reclamation.’

I called out the skill’s name in my head, but nothing happened.

Instead, a red system message appeared before my eyes.

[A barbarian’s body and mind reject magic.]

[You cannot use skills unless you shout the Warrior’s Roar.]

“……This is embarrassing!”

I bit my lip. Of course nothing could ever be easy.

Looking around, thankfully there was no one watching…… but when I actually tried to say that word aloud, my face inexplicably grew hot.

Even if I had supposedly assimilated with a barbarian’s body, this embarrassment was something my modern mind simply could not overcome.

“B-barbarian…….”

My voice came out as faint as an ant crawling. There was no response.

“Bar…… barbarian?”

I shouted a little louder, but it still failed.

Damn it.

Thirty-two years old, standing alone in an empty lot shouting the name of my own race.

But when I imagined myself soon shivering from the cold and starving to death, I squeezed my eyes shut and shouted.

“BARBARIAAAAN!”

The thunderous roar tore through the silence of the canyon.

At that moment, scorching heat poured from my palms into the ground.

Rumble-!

As if responding, the earth vibrated.

The wasteland covered in gray dust began turning into rich, glossy black soil, centered on the spot where my hands touched.

It was exactly large enough to plant the five potato pieces.

[Skill ‘Farmland Reclamation’ succeeded!]

[Cultivation Slots : 0/5]

[Tip : As your level rises, the number of cultivation slots available will increase.]

“Holy crap.”

Even though I had done it myself, I shouted in surprise.

This really was completely like a game.

Humming cheerfully without even realizing it, I dug into the ground, revealing soft, moist black soil.

The same depth, the same spacing.

I had never farmed before, but was it because my class was Farmer? My body moved on its own.

I carefully placed the seed potatoes down, then gently covered them with soil as though tucking them beneath a blanket.

Now all I had to do was shout one more time and use Growth Acceleration.

I took another deep breath.

“Izak?”

“Guh, cough, cough cough!”

A voice suddenly came from behind me, making me choke and cough violently.

I whipped my head around, and there stood Malko, the ugliest barbarian in the world.

He had told me his name was Malko when we went to the warehouse earlier…… but seriously, Malko? Even his name was ugly.

Malko’s gaze was fixed at my feet, on the mound of soil I had just covered.

“Izak…… bad barbarian!”

“Huh?”

Malko shrieked in a trembling voice.

“Bad barbarian! Hid potatoes in dirt! Hid them to eat alone! Bad barbarian!”

“Calm down! I am not bad barbarian!”

“BAD BARBARIAAAAAN!”

The voice of the man shrieking like a lunatic seemed five times louder than mine.

“Chief! Chieeeef! Report! Report bad barbarian!”

He charged off like a bull while screaming at the top of his lungs.

His voice was so loud that the entire village seemed to vibrate.

I pressed a hand to my forehead.

I’m screwed.

.

.

.

Present time. Village square.

The atmosphere was beyond vicious. It was terrifying.

Dozens of tribe members surrounded me in a circle, their gazes fiercely hostile.

And at the center stood Chief Zakan.

For some reason, he looked even larger than before.

An overwhelming pressure radiated from his massive frame.

“Is it true? Did you try to bury and hide our precious food?”

There was no rise or fall in Zakan’s low voice.

That made it even scarier.

Whispering could be heard around me.

“Bad barbarian.”

“Eating alone is bad. Barbarians all together.”

“Hiding in dirt is cowardly. Cowards are not barbarians!”

This is unfair. I did it so we could all survive.

But I could not respond emotionally.

I swallowed dryly and tried to speak in the most rational voice possible, but a throbbing sensation struck my head.

[Failure! Due to insufficient Mental Strength, the barbarian body resists logical thought.]

“No! Did not hide!”

A booming voice burst from my mouth.

Ah…… so this is how Barbarian Spirit works?

As I stood there flustered, Zakan looked at me as though asking what it was, then.

“Farming! Planted it in ground.”

“Farming?”

Zakan tilted his head.

Because that word did not exist in their vocabulary.

‘Don’t panic. Explain it calmly. Explain the principles of seed germination as simply as possible.’

I held up a finger and began explaining confidently.

[Failure!]

“Plant one potato in ground, get ten potatoes.”

Damn it……! Along with pain like a thick needle stabbing into my brain, an idiotic explanation flew from my mouth.

But they would be shocked. These muscle-brained barbarians had probably never once considered farming.

This was the wisdom of a modern man with an Intelligence stat of 20.

Even if I could not properly explain it while trapped in a barbarian body…….

Just as I expected, their eyes widened and their faces filled with surprise.

I looked around proudly, waiting for the praise that was surely coming.

“Puhahahahaha!”

Someone’s burst of laughter served as the signal.

The barbarians gathered in the square began rolling around while clutching their stomachs.

“Stupid barbarian! Says one potato becomes ten!”

“Puhahaha! Idiot! Pitiful barbarian!”

“One potato becoming ten is magic! Barbarians cannot magic! Puhaha!”

Mockery and ridicule poured down on me.

To them, my words were either nonsense or a stupid lie.

The very concept of investment and multiplication did not exist in their minds.

Perhaps that was natural for people who devoured everything they saw and lived only for today as though tomorrow did not exist.

“No! It is true! Believe me!”

I raised my voice, but the laughter only grew louder.

That was when it happened.

“Quiet.”

At Zakan’s single word, the laughter in the square stopped instantly.

The chief looked at me with a cold expression.

“Izak. You just lied.”

“N-no!”

“Stealing is bad. But something worse for a warrior is lying. Only cowards do that.”

Shing-.

He drew the greatsword from behind his back and pointed its heavy blade at my neck.

“Barbarians do not lie. I will cut off the tongue that lied and the wrist that stole.”

Crazy…….

But these barbarians were serious.

The surrounding barbarians retreated as though the Red Sea were parting.

Cold sweat ran down my back.

How can they not know what farming is? How am I supposed to explain this?

‘Think, think. Think, Kang Jin-ho.’

I desperately tried to explain something, but suddenly my vision spun violently and a piercing ringing filled my ears.

In the end, perhaps my tiny, pathetic Mental Strength of 8 could no longer resist Barbarian Spirit, bright red blood trickled from the lining of my nose.

Fine. Nothing left to lose. If you people cannot understand,

then I will think like a barbarian too.

- Thud!

“……??”

“What! Suddenly bleeding and died!”

“No. Got sick from lying!”

The barbarians murmured among themselves.

Zakan also paused, but he did not lower his sword.

I cracked my eyes open slightly to check my surroundings, then lay spread-eagled while making my entire body tremble.

“Grrr…… uuuugh……!”

Maybe because it was a side effect of squeezing my Mental Strength completely dry, flopping around like a freshly caught fish was surprisingly easy.

Remembering zombies I had seen in movies, I put everything I had into my performance.

“Wh-what! What is wrong!”

The barbarians shouted in confusion.

And at that very moment.

I sprang upright like a coil, causing them to startle and step backward.

I stared straight into Zakan’s eyes, braced my abdomen, and shouted through my blood-covered face.

“BARBARIAAAAAAN!”

A deafening roar erupted from deep within my core and swept through the square.

The Warrior’s Roar.

Then the barbarians, wearing expressions of complete confusion, reflexively shouted along with me.

“Waaagh! BARBARIAAAAN!”

“BARBARIAAAAN!”

The instincts of warriors with boiling blood.

The square filled with the shouts of excited barbarians as the racial instinct engraved deep within their souls took hold.

“Quiet.”

“BARBARIAAAAN!”

“BARBARIAN!”

Zakan spoke, but the excited barbarians were too busy pounding their chests, shouting, and headbutting one another while roaring.

It was utter madness.

“QUIET!”

Zakan unleashed a lionlike roar.

Only under the pressure of his overwhelming presence did the barbarians finally quiet down.

I was scared too, to be truthful, but if I stopped here, there was only death.

I rolled my eyes back until the whites showed.

Then, without even wiping away the nosebleed dripping down my chin, I reached toward the sky and shouted.

“I! Am the great progenitor! Whose blood flows within all of you! Lord Barbarian!”

“……!”

Zakan’s eyes widened.

The surrounding barbarians sucked in their breaths.

The first ancestor, ‘Barbarian’.

That being, whose name was also the name of their race, was essentially a god to them.

An absolute authority they could never defy.

I continued spewing nonsense…… no, divine revelations.

“I have descended into the body of my descendant Izak! I gave this child the wisdom to save the tribe!”

“……Wisdom?”

The tip of Zakan’s sword trembled.

He was confused.

The Izak before him looked insane, but at the same time, perhaps he did not.

Barbarians were susceptible to superstition.

And even more so to ancestral gods.

“That is right! One potato becoming ten is my divine power! Anyone who doubts me is not my descendant! A traitor!”

“T-traitor? Do not want betray Lord Barbarian! I believe!”

“Potato becomes ten! I believe too! You believe too!”

Murmur, murmur.

The surrounding barbarians began to fall for my momentum.

But Zakan was not so easy.

For a barbarian, this guy seemed to have an Intelligence stat of at least 10.

He stared straight through me, trying to distinguish truth from falsehood.

But my life was at stake too. I glared back at him with the determination that blinking even once meant death.

After a long standoff, Zakan slowly lowered his sword. But he did not put it away completely.

“Prove it.”

His voice was low and cold.

“If you truly received the will of the great ancestral god, then show it to me.”

After saying that much, he growled.

“If that potato does not become ten…… then it will not end with one arm. Give up your life. That is the price for insulting the ancestral god.”

It worked.

At least I had saved my life for now.

I swallowed dryly, but still pretended to be the ancestral god and nodded arrogantly.

“Good! I will show my power clearly to the foolish barbarians who doubt me!”

With that, I led them back toward the vegetable patch on the outskirts of the village.

I could see the mound of soil that Malko had started digging up before stopping.

I took a deep breath.

Dozens of eyes were watching me.

Standing in front of the field, this time I shouted not as an act but with genuine desperation.

‘Growth Acceleration. Please…….’

“BARBARIAAAAAAN!”

When I activated the skill with a thunderous roar, warm energy flowed from my hand and swept across the soil.

Then the condition of the potato buried beneath the ground appeared before my eyes as a red timer.

[Potato - 2 days 23:59:57 until harvest]

Gasp. It worked.

Three days. Exactly three days.

I turned around and declared to Chief Zakan.

“Three nights! After three nights, potato becomes ten!”

Zakan silently looked down at me, then gestured with his chin toward the guards beside him.

Rough hands bound my arms.

As I was dragged away, I looked back at my precious potatoes buried beneath the soil.

Please grow well.

If you die, I die too.

And so, immediately after arriving in another world, I became a barbarian who got caught farming and thrown into prison.

No…… why is farming this difficult?