Surviving the Game As a Barbarian [EN]: Chapter 423

Sealed active skills.

Needless to say, it’s one of the worst penalties.

Well, even so, it seems better than being blind like James Kala.

‘I’d rather have lost an arm like old man Didi.’

A penalty that greatly reduces combat power, to the point where I think having one arm unusable would have been better.

But there’s nothing I can do.

What can I do when the dice rolled this way?

I can only hope that their dice rolls were just as bad.

‘Besides… my penalty is the only truly bad one.’

In fact, the [Soul Extraction] pattern is quite tricky.

Especially for positions like ability users or mages. As a damage dealer, I would have gotten a lot of last hits, and now I have to fight and win alone without the frontliners I’m always with.

But…

‘Fortunately, everyone has been living kindly, I guess.’

Both priests survived without any issues.

All but one of the four mages woke up, and among the ability users, only Akuraba is still stunned.

‘Perhaps the fact that they were mages who had spent a long time in the Magic Tower worked in their favor.’

Even this much is a success in this gamble.

Although we’ve been through thick and thin together on the same expedition, I have no idea what kind of lives these people have lived before.

Thud, thud.

The sound of heavy footsteps echoes through the ice cave.

As I move as far away from the entrance of the glacier’s eye as possible, I feel movement on one of my shoulders.

“Mister…”

“You’re awake…”

Feeling a deep sense of relief, I carefully put Erwen down first.

She wobbled a bit, but she was able to balance herself, so it seems her legs weren’t affected by the penalty.

“How’s your body? Is anything wrong?”

“I don’t know…”

Erwen looks somewhat dazed.

Did something happen inside?

I don’t know, but I didn’t ask further.

For now, figuring out what the penalty is should be the priority.

‘Damn it.’

I was dreading the worst of the random penalties, and I let out a big sigh.

‘The eighth one…’

Unfortunately, Erwen was also unlucky.

「All resource recovery of Erwen Fornacci di Tersia is restricted.」

No resource recovery.

In other words, it means that now she can only consume MP or natural power, and it won’t be replenished.

“…Unless it’s a moment when you need to protect yourself, save your strength as much as possible.”

“Yes… I’m sorry…”

“There’s nothing to be sorry about. That’s just how things turned out. It’s a relief that you woke up.”

Anyway, as time passed, those who had been stunned woke up one by one.

“I apologize for the trouble. I will walk on my own from now on.”

Fortunately, Meland Kaislan received a minor penalty.

“Ugh…! Why is this…”

Ravienne, who had a weapon usage restriction, trembled as if she had been electrocuted when she tried to touch her sword.

“Um… why isn’t anyone talking?”

Tsion Iriburn, the archer from Team 2, lost his hearing.

And…

“It was… a terrible place.”

Akuraba with a pale face.

‘Is it two left now…’

About 25 minutes after the [Soul Extraction] pattern started, there were two people left.

Amelia and McKelly Leiathers, the mage from Team 2.

“Please, please, hold on…”

As time became tight, the members sent anxious glances towards the two who were still asleep.

I felt like I was going crazy too.

‘Why isn’t she waking up…’

She definitely didn’t die inside.

If she had, her heart would have stopped already.

Thump, thump.

Time passed as if my heart was being squeezed.

How much more time had passed since then?

“Ms. McKelly, there’s only one minute left. Please, hold on…”

One minute left until the end of the [Soul Extraction] pattern.

“Umm…”

“…Emily!”

Amelia finally opened her eyes.

And…

“…Damn it.”

The other one couldn’t open her eyes.

***

18 survivors.

However, the number of people capable of fighting is much smaller.

Many members, including myself, have received significant penalties. In fact, it’s safe to say that our combat power has been reduced by more than half.

However…

‘I wonder how they are doing over there.’

As the saying goes, happiness is a relative value.

The same goes for misfortune.

「The Glacier Mage Cariadea gains new power proportional to the total amount of souls absorbed.」

Now, 30 minutes have passed and the second phase is over.

I wonder how many of them survived, and what kind of penalties the survivors have.

‘Whatever, I just hope that the survivors all die fighting the boss…’

Tsck, realistically, that’s not going to happen, right?

Cariadea isn’t a monster that chases you outside the glacier’s eye.

The place where we were fighting was the top of the glacier’s eye.

I don’t know how many woke up, but by now, they’ve all left the glacier’s eye.

‘Dragon Slayer… I wonder what happened to that guy.’

Well, I don’t know.

He was the one who killed the ancient dragon who played the role of the dragonkin elder. He said he barely killed it by ambushing it back then, so even if it was weakened by half, there’s a possibility that he couldn’t win.

In the first place, he wasn’t just going to fight the ancient dragon, right?

I don’t know, but he must have killed thousands of them—.

‘No, wait a minute.’

As I was thinking about the Dragon Slayer for a moment, my body suddenly stiffened.

‘Damn it, then that means Dwarki also appeared in that bastard’s field, didn’t he?’

Should I say that I suddenly felt really bad?

At the same time, I also thought.

Those people who appeared in my illusion, weren’t they also precious people to someone?

‘……Is it because of [Soul Extraction]? I’m overthinking it.’

I stop my thoughts and open my eyes.

Whoosh-!

A flame emitting warm heat.

The priest knelt in front of the flame and recited prayers, and the members each had a moment of silence while listening to it.

That’s the only positive thing in the current situation.

It means that we have enough time to hold a funeral for our dead comrades.

Crack, crack, crack-!

The flames, fueled by the mages’ firepower, quickly melted the flesh and skin, and the remaining bones were distorted with magic, then the warriors crushed them into small pieces and stored them in pouches.

Hoping that this would be a small comfort to his bereaved family.

“……”

With that, the short funeral was over.

The hot flames died down, and the body, which had been warm for a moment, cooled down in the cold wind.

So, it’s time to return to reality.

“…Yandel, what are we going to do now?”

Kaislan spoke to me, and at the same time, the members’ gazes focused on me.

That’s because the plan I told them was only up to this point.

Once [Soul Extraction] starts, the first people to wake up would take the rest and run away.

There were no instructions after that.

However…

“If we keep our distance like this, we might be able to survive until the closure date.”

Looking at his stiff expression while saying that, it seems that Kaislan already knows what I’m thinking.

Perhaps that’s why he mentioned it first, trying to be considerate.

So that it would be easier for me to speak.

“But Yandel, you must know. That even if we run away like that, the end will eventually be a dead end.”

“A dead end? What do you mean? Didn’t everyone survive now?”

One of the members raised his voice, startled by Kaislan’s words.

“You said we could survive until the closure date, right? Isn’t that enough? What are you even worried about?”

I’m sorry to those who thought this was the end, but we haven’t overcome the most important hurdle yet.

If we had, there would have been no reason for me to call it a ‘gamble’.

“……”

Kaislan looked at me and gave me a silent nod, and I smiled bitterly and stepped forward.

Yes, no matter how capable Kaislan is, I can’t leave even this to him.

“We are not going to run away like this. No, to be precise, we can’t run away.”

As soon as I finished speaking, the members’ eyes widened.

Looks of shock and question.

“…What’s the reason?”

It’s simple.

“Because the enemies that appeared behind us earlier are the Rose Knights.”

“Are you saying we won’t be able to shake off the pursuit?”

“No, that’s not it.”

“Then what do you mean…”

Everyone seemed to not understand what I was saying, so I continued.

If we were to return alive, the royal family would have come up with an excuse.

That something happened to the main force, so they couldn’t go to save us. But it was fortunate that we were able to return alive on our own.

They would have tried to cover up the truth, like trying to hide the sky with their palms [a metaphor for a futile attempt to conceal something obvious].

And…

Ignoring the truth.

That was our only way to survive.

“Ignore it? What do you mean by that?”

“If we pretend not to notice that we are expendable pawns, the royal family won’t take extreme measures.”

It may be cowardly, but that was my plan.

“But that method can’t be used anymore.”

“……”

“The moment the Rose Knights tell the royal family what happened here, the royal family will surely try to eliminate the threat.”

“…They might try to negotiate with us to silence us.”

Well, yes, that’s a possibility.

But…

“Do you really think so?”

There was no answer.

Only someone next to me asked a new question.

“So what are we going to do? If we’re not going to die here, shouldn’t we at least try to get out to the city?”

It was Puta Ricurburn from the Kealurnus Duchy.

I felt a bit proud and amused.

“I didn’t know that a guy who was giving up on everything would say something like that.”

“Because you dragged us all the way here by the collar. After all that hard work, do you think I’d give up here?”

Well, he was the guy who showed his determination by cutting off his own arm to get through the glacier’s eye.

It would be unfair to die like this.

I chuckled and continued.

“It was a compliment, so don’t take it too sensitively. And I never said I was giving up in the first place.”

“Ah…”

At my words, he opened his mouth in realization, and I quickly continued.

“Don’t worry too much, everyone. There’s a way.”

“A way?”

“Yes. If no one returns alive, who would know what happened here?”

Of course, they would be suspicious, but having a suspicion is very different from having actual evidence.

That’s why…

“From now on, we will kill both the Noark bastards and the Rose Knights.”

From now on, we are the ones who must.

Hide the sky with our palms.

***

Should we run away like this?

Or should we fight back one more time?

The agreement on that was reached faster than expected.

“I… I don’t know what the right choice is.”

“Haha, it’s nothing special. Most of the situations have been like that so far.”

“But in all those moments, he made a decision.”

“Believing in Bjorn Yandel’s choice. That’s my choice.”

“I feel the same way. You might think it’s a bit petty, but it’s more comfortable for someone like me to do that.”

After the expedition’s decision was made, everything became clear.

We wandered through the cave, casting detection magic in various places, and used distortion magic to hunt monsters for food.

“This… it’s more edible than I thought?”

The monster meat was surprisingly edible.

Well, there were some that were so bad that they were deemed inedible.

“The taste is secondary, but it’s a shame. If we took those byproducts, we could sell them for a high price.”

“There’s nothing we can do. We have to minimize our luggage as much as possible right now…”

We tearfully threw away all the expensive byproducts obtained through distortion magic.

We didn’t have the luxury of carrying such things while having to carry our companions who had difficulty moving.

About half a day had passed like that.

“Yandel-nim! Yandel-nim!”

Marone, the mage from Team 5, rushed over, calling my name urgently.

There was only one reason why she would be like this.

“Did the detection magic activate?”

“Yes, yes…! It activated!”

The news that Marone brought could be classified into three types.

First, one piece of good news.

“It was the Rose Knights. There were only ten of them!”

The number of Rose Knights has greatly decreased.

It seems that the damage was great since they were the kind of guys who kill as if it’s their daily meal…

“What was the condition of the remaining guys?”

“Well, that’s…”

The second was ambiguous news.

“Four of them are being carried by their companions because they are in bad condition. One of them is limping on one leg.”

Just like a third of our expedition suffered quite strong penalties, they also suffered considerable damage.

Does this mean that the penalty scores are tied?

Well, I don’t know what it’s actually like, so it’s too early to make a conclusion.

“That… ah, anyway, that’s not the important thing!!”

The third and final piece of news was bad news.

Not just ordinary bad news.

It was the kind of news that could be called the worst, literally.

“I, I don’t know why, but those people are moving together with the Noark people…!!”

Oil and water mixed.