Surviving the Game As a Barbarian [EN]: Chapter 262

A cave where crystals, densely packed on the walls, emitted a dazzling light.

It was a place I’d been to several times, but today it felt unfamiliar.

Well, it had been two months since I last entered, so I guess that’s to be expected….

‘There must be other reasons too.’

I looked around, clicking my tongue in disappointment.

First of all, there were only three of us, unlike usual.

Also, while it wasn’t as bright as midday, the surroundings were bright enough that we didn’t need torches.

In short….

‘It’s not a Dark Zone.’

The experience copy bug was fixed.

This meant it was no longer possible to start at the 2nd floor portal entrance using the dimensional instability phenomenon.

‘Do you know anything?’

I asked, pretending not to know, and Raven cautiously offered a guess.

‘I heard the royal family recently placed a large request with the Magic Tower. I’ve been out of touch lately, so I don’t know the details… but looking at it now, it might have been a portal stabilization project.’

Sigh, so that’s why the bug was fixed.

Still, thanks to the Soul Queens, I had prepared myself mentally, so I was quick to let go of any lingering attachment.

Well, what can you do? From now on, I’ll have to go the classic route.

I did get to enjoy the honey pot for a few months, didn’t I?

‘Let’s move on.’

After briefly looking around the starting point, I quickly took out my compass and found my direction.

After all, there weren’t many people entering this time.

If we did well, it might be possible to acquire portal opening experience without the bug.

‘Abman, summon Iron Bear. I plan to move a bit faster than usual.’

As soon as the bear uncle summoned his summon, Raven climbed onto it with practiced ease.

‘It would be nice if Ainar was this comfortable….’

Honestly, mages.

They’re always thinking about mounts, aren’t they?

‘Woo-oo-oong!’

Anyway, I took the lead, and Raven and the bear uncle followed behind.

The bear uncle, a tanky ranged dealer, took the rear position.

Goblins were no longer a threat, but….

You never know.

The most dangerous thing in the labyrinth was always people.

‘For now, it doesn’t seem like there are any Noark bastards….’

At first, I ran through the cave with tension, but soon I lowered my guard.

I sped up and encountered several explorers, but most of them were low-level explorers wearing lower-tier equipment.

And there weren’t many of them either.

‘Maybe it’s really possible to open the portal?’

As time passed, a sense of hope grew, but it was shattered the moment we reached the entrance to the Dark Zone.

‘It seems like we have company.’

A 9th-grade magic stone was lying on the path we were about to take.

It couldn’t have been Misha’s team that passed by first.

Erwen, maybe, but Misha and Ainar weren’t taught that way by me.

‘…Why are you picking that up?’

‘A 9th-grade magic stone is still a magic stone.’

Thinking back to the time when I had to crawl on all fours through this long passage, I couldn’t tolerate the act of throwing away a magic stone.

Back then, this small magic stone was my hope—

‘No, I meant I could have recovered it with magic.’

Oh, that’s true.

Wait, does that mean there wasn’t a single mage in the team that passed through here?

I thought they would be a top-tier team at this speed.

‘Riate.’

I lit the darkness with light magic instead of a torch and continued running.

After about 40 minutes, the portal appeared.

I wasn’t expecting anything, but as expected, the portal had already been opened by someone.

「Entered the Goblin Forest on the 2nd floor.」

I put aside my disappointment and stepped into the portal.

The promise was to wait above, no matter who arrived first.

‘…It’s strange, not just in the cave earlier, but something feels off.’

‘Yes. It was so fierce back then.’

The Goblin Forest, where there had been fierce battles between the Noark guys and the explorers of Lapdonia.

The surroundings were silent, and no one was in sight.

‘It seems Misha’s side isn’t here yet, so let’s wait for a bit.’

After that, we took some free time to rest, and I looked around and found traces of people nearby.

‘It seems like it’s from the people who came first. But why are you looking so intently?’

‘I just feel a bit uneasy for some reason.’

‘Oh, if Yandel says that, I suddenly feel anxious….’

What’s with her?

‘Don’t just stand there, everyone, sit down and rest a bit. We don’t know when the other team will arrive.’

Soon, we took out our personal chairs from our subspace and sat down.

Occasionally, goblins approached from afar, but there was no interruption to our rest.

Iron Bear took care of them.

***

‘Hey….’

A woman in her early twenties opened her mouth, complaining under the soft moonlight of the forest.

‘We’ve already come up to the 2nd floor, and there’s no one around, so can’t we summon our dragon?’

‘No. That size will definitely leave traces.’

‘Oh, come on, sis. Don’t be like that. How many summoners are there? Huh?’

‘Carmilla, stop it. Lord Rainwales said no.’

‘Hey, mister, why are you so quiet?’

‘Then act like I can be quiet. In the first place, why are you so tired? You were just sitting on my shoulder the whole time on the 1st floor—’

‘No, you smell like a bachelor. It’ll get on my clothes. It’s bad for my nose!’

‘…What?’

The warrior carrying the woman paused for a moment at the sharp remark, but he just sighed, as if it was a familiar occurrence.

‘Yeah, what can I say to you?’

‘Then don’t say anything from the start!’

‘Carmilla, I know you’re sensitive these days, but don’t keep acting like a child. I don’t care, but there are other people around.’

‘Seriously, lecturing….’

The woman called Carmilla muttered, pouting her lips.

She didn’t like this whole situation.

‘By the way, why do we still have to do this mission? Everyone else abandoned us and ran outside, and we haven’t heard from them. Does killing that explorer change anything?’

‘…They must have their reasons. We did get a message a few days ago.’

‘Ah, yes. That message where they just said what they wanted and hung up after 10 seconds?’

Carmilla spoke sarcastically, and the archer frowned.

‘They asked for understanding on that matter. They said it’s impossible to communicate for long because of the barrier. But they said they have a way to get us out, so let’s just focus on our work—’

‘Naive. Don’t you think it’s a lie?’

‘…Then why did you come all the way here, Carmilla? Why aren’t you in the city?’

‘That’s….’

Carmilla trailed off, biting her lip.

How could she say it?

That she threw a tantrum because she didn’t want to go, but she was scared of what that woman might do, so she followed along.

‘Ah, what’s going on?’

Feeling irritated, she spoke sharply to the archer again.

‘By the way, Nevarche, what happened to that Destruction Scholar? You were the last one with him.’

‘I told you. The Destruction Scholar talked to ‘that one’ and then disappeared somewhere—’

‘Everyone, stop.’

The woman leading the way stopped, and the archer also stopped talking and changed his expression.

‘Amelia, is something wrong?’

‘The trap I set near the portal is gone.’

‘That means someone came up to the 2nd floor. Judging by the time, it must be a high-level explorer…. Maybe more explorers entered than we expected.’

‘Nevarche, do you have any teams in mind?’

‘I don’t know. But it wouldn’t be a large clan. They wouldn’t move without certainty.’

‘I see.’

Carmilla blurted out at their conversation.

‘But does it matter who it is? I don’t understand why you’re curious about that.’

‘…That’s not wrong, for sure.’

At her words, Amelia seemed to ponder for a moment, then muttered quietly.

‘But for some reason, I’m bothered by it.’

‘Huh? What did you say?’

Amelia shook her head.

‘…It’s nothing. Let’s move again.’

***

‘Mister, did you wait long? Sorry. We started in the south area, so it took a bit longer.’

After waiting for about two hours in the forest, Misha’s team arrived on the 2nd floor.

So, we quickly resumed our movement.

After all, more than ten teams had already passed through here while we were waiting.

‘It’s not as empty as I thought it would be.’

The 3rd floor portal we arrived at later was, of course, already opened, and the same was true for the 4th floor, which we reached after 6 days.

‘At least we can eat properly now.’

We had been running all day without eating properly, so we replenished our stamina and cleared the trials.

Unlike usual, we were a party of six, but the speed was actually slower.

This was because the trial difficulty increased with six people.

The increased number of monsters was fine, but in the case of the Wisdom Trial, where we had to pass through a maze, the map became much larger, which took much more time.

‘But is it thanks to her racial stats? She’s definitely better at finding the way than I am.’

Erwen, who had received scout training from her sister, was better at finding the way than I expected.

If I relied on experience and knowledge, Erwen was more of a type who relied on her senses to find her way. Her night vision was also much better, so she could spot traps from afar.

‘From here, I can find my way even without Abman. This is the right door, right? I can hear the magic power fluctuations from beyond the door.’

She even had such high sensory stats that she could find the portal connected to the 5th floor without the Guide talent.

She shouldn’t have gotten hearing as a bonus from the essences she ate.

‘Is it just something she was born with?’

Anyway, we arrived at the 5th floor portal around the start of the 19th day.

‘It’s about a day later than usual.’

If there had been seven of us, it would have taken much longer.

From that point on, the waiting time for each trial itself would increase.

Oh, by the way, this is proportional to the number of people.

It’s not for nothing that large clans choose to split into teams of five and meet on the 5th floor.

‘Aruru, but why don’t people in the lower floors meet on the 2nd floor like us and hunt?’

‘They have to divide one person’s share, and it doesn’t pay off in the lower floors. Also, to split into two teams, you need a guide on each side. There are many non-combat personnel among the lower-level explorers, right?’

‘Hmm! I see!’

‘Um… I get it now! You didn’t understand at all, but you just nodded, right?’

‘Oh, you’re a mage after all!’

‘Both of you, stop joking around and go to sleep.’

Since it was time to camp anyway, we rested on the safe 4th floor and entered the 5th floor together early in the morning.

「Entered the Great Demon Realm on the 5th floor.」

The 5th floor, which we had arrived at after a long time, looked a bit different from usual from the start.

It was exactly what I had expected.

‘It’s nice and quiet.’

The clans that always arrived first, took their places, and controlled the hunting grounds were nowhere to be seen.

Also….

‘Oh! Over there! It’s an Istoltos!’

The monsters that we couldn’t even see unless we paid money to a clan were freely roaming the field.

‘So, this is what it was like when there were so many monsters.’

The bear uncle said, looking dejected.

Well, this uncle had been active on the 5th floor for a long time.

He had a lot of bad feelings towards the clans, so he must feel strange.

‘Yandel, what do you think? This state won’t last, will it?’

‘Yeah, it probably won’t last long.’

I answered honestly.

Even by next month, large clans would start entering the labyrinth one by one. And as more time passed, newly formed clans would fill the empty spaces again.

‘So, let’s stop sightseeing and move on. This kind of opportunity doesn’t come easily.’

There were monsters that would be difficult to catch if not now.