Surviving the Game As a Barbarian [EN]: Chapter 596

Honestly, I didn’t expect that at all.

That the knight delivering the emperor’s message to the crowd in the square, on the execution platform, would be the village chief.

‘No wonder I couldn’t find a way to escape on my own.’

Looking back, it wasn’t an unreasonable situation, but one where I had to wait for my companions to rescue me.

Swish-!

As soon as the village chief, having removed his helmet, swung his sword and cut the ropes, a commotion erupted from below.

“Sir Saintred! Why on earth did you betray us…!!”

“…Sir?”

“You were a knight from a noble family all along. I’ll explain the details later.”

With that, the village chief shifted his gaze from me and looked down at the square.

Swaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-!

The glow of the magic circle covering the square intensified, and the chaos among the thousands of people also escalated.

“Aaaah!”

“Get out of the way!”

“D-don’t push! Aaaah!”

A hellish scene unfolded as thousands of people, crammed into a tight space, desperately tried to flee the square all at once.

The village chief observed this and said to me,

“Isn’t it fun watching them struggle to survive?”

A chilling murmur that would make even the most hardened psychopaths blush.

However, his next line was a bit puzzling.

“Even though it’s not a magic for killing.”

“…It’s not an attack magic?”

“Sir Besilus said that if we caused a massacre here, it would be difficult to manage the aftermath. But I can’t escape with just the two of you through that many people, can I? This magic solves that. It took a lot of effort to set it up.”

“So… what kind of magic is it?”

To my question, the village chief replied with a smile that no longer seemed forced.

“You’ll see if you watch.”

Ha, does this guy ever give a straight answer?

“By the way, are you okay?”

“Don’t worry. I won’t be a hindrance in a fight.”

“That’s a relief, but… actually, there won’t be any fighting.”

“No fighting…?”

“Oh, it seems like it’s all done.”

The village chief, once again avoiding a direct answer, turned his gaze away from me.

And at that moment.

Flash—!!

A huge flash of light engulfed the entire city.

A light so intense that it caused sharp pain in my eyes.

When the light gradually faded and my vision returned, I finally understood the nature of the magic.

“What are you all doing? Let’s go. Everyone’s waiting for you.”

The square, which had been a scene of chaos, was now empty.

***

It was teleportation magic.

No, should I call it multi-teleportation magic?

Um… actually, that doesn’t quite explain it either.

The maximum capacity for multi-teleportation magic is usually 20 people.

It’s impossible to send thousands of people at once like that.

But…

‘Something similar did happen once.’

It was what happened in the underground city of Noark.

There was an incident where a mysterious old man, presumed to be Auriel Gavis, escaped the royal family’s siege in an instant with over ten thousand people.

I’ve only heard about it, not seen it myself, but…

If that had unfolded before my eyes, wouldn’t it have felt something like this?

“Let’s go inside.”

Following the village chief, we arrived at a residence prepared on the outskirts of the city.

Thump-!

We entered the empty house, went down the stairs hidden in the floor, and only then could we remove the robes that had been covering our faces.

“Everyone was waiting?”

“It seems they haven’t arrived yet. They’ll be here soon, so sit down and rest.”

“Erwen, are you hurt anywhere?”

“I’m fine.”

First, I sat Erwen on a chair and checked her condition. After confirming that she was okay, I spoke to the village chief.

Because I was dying of curiosity since earlier.

“Why did you use teleportation magic on the enemies? It would have been much more efficient to use it on us.”

Actually, I was more curious about this than how he could use such large-scale teleportation magic…

The village chief answered casually, as if it were nothing.

“Didn’t you know yet? Magic doesn’t work on witches. I might have been able to manage with just one of you, but to escape with both of you, this was the only way.”

Oh, so that was the situation.

I didn’t know that magic didn’t work on them.

“Is there any information you need to tell me before the other two arrive?”

“Not really.”

“Then wait a moment. We can talk about the backlog later.”

Since I don’t have a habit of repeating myself, I followed the village chief’s advice and waited while resting.

And how much time had passed?

“I apologize. I felt like someone was following us, so I took a detour and was a bit late.”

One of the members of this group, Gahwin Besilus, arrived. He glanced at me and Erwen and spoke cautiously.

“More importantly… Baron, are you really the Baron?”

“That’s a strange question.”

“Haha, you really are the Baron. That’s a relief.”

A conversation with a hint of awkwardness.

“Really the Baron?”

“Ah, until then, the Baron was acting like a completely different person. He didn’t even know that this place was inside a rift—.”

“Haha, everyone except me has already arrived.”

At that moment, the last member of this group arrived.

Eden Hesteia, the Archbishop of the Leatras Church.

“I’m sorry for being late. Infiltrating wasn’t difficult, but my equipment is so heavy that it wasn’t easy to carry.”

Having said that, the Archbishop grabbed the subspace bag [a bag that can store items in a different dimension] on his back, turned it upside down, and shook it.

Thud thud thud.

The items that poured out like a waterfall and took up most of the floor were none other than my equipment.

Ha, I was worried about how to find them again, but I didn’t expect them to have taken care of this separately.

“I’ve checked several times, so I don’t think there are any missing items… but just in case, Baron, please check one more time.”

I rushed over and put on the equipment I needed and stored the items I needed to store.

Fortunately, nothing was missing.

I’m a barbarian who follows ancestral spirits, but this time I couldn’t help but say it.

“May the star that rises at twilight guide us…”

“Haha, I’m smiling to see the Baron so happy.”

“Now that everyone’s here, let’s get to the main point.”

The village chief, regaining the atmosphere that was about to fall apart, asked me.

“So, what happened to you two? Tell me everything from start to finish.”

Erwen and I briefly summarized what happened in Chapter 1 and Chapter 2.

We woke up on the gallows, and then the other three also shared their experiences and information.

Everyone had different starting points in Chapter 1.

Let’s start with the non-magician Gahwin Besilus.

“The place where I woke up was a magic education institution. There were some incidents, but to cut to the chase, when I stopped the monsters on the day of the practical training, the imperial family awarded me a medal. And that evening, a letter arrived from my hometown. The letter said that the imperial army had attacked the village and that my younger sister had gone missing. The sender… was said to be my friend, but it was someone I didn’t know.”

Anyway, as soon as I read that, Chapter 1 ended.

“It was a vast wilderness where sand was flying. That’s where the three of us met.”

Gahwin, who had moved on to Chapter 2, was able to join the village chief and the archbishop.

“To explain this part, we need to tell our story first.”

The story of the village chief and the archbishop was also simple.

The village chief started as a knight of a noble family, and the archbishop started as a priest belonging to a temple, and they each experienced their own incidents.

And…

“At the end, a letter arrived in Sir Besilus’s name. It was a letter requesting help, saying that his younger sister was in a difficult situation. From the context, it seemed that the three of us were close friends.”

As expected, as soon as they read the letter, Chapter 1 ended.

With all three of them together, Chapter 2 began.

The main event of Chapter 2 was a group of pursuers who were secretly following them.

“It wasn’t too difficult to defeat them… but when we arrived at the rendezvous point written in the letter Sir Besilus received, no matter how long we waited, you didn’t appear.”

While they were waiting indefinitely in the desert city, which was the rendezvous point, the imperial army came to them.

“They told Sir Besilus that his younger sister was a being who would destroy the world. If he wanted to stop it, he should help them.”

Of course, there was no option to refuse.

As soon as they heard that line, Chapter 4 began.

From then on, the mission of the chapter was clear. When the empire gave an order, they carried it out.

Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7…

They participated in the war against the monsters and made achievements.

However, they were never able to catch us and join us.

“We were almost there. This time, we can catch them and talk to them. Every time I thought that, things would go wrong like a ghost, and we couldn’t meet.”

Nevertheless, the chapter continued to the next, and each time, time flew by and information was updated.

The younger sister was being called a witch, and I was a follower of that witch.

That’s how we got to Chapter 11.

“I woke up in this city. A large number of soldiers were surrounding us. It was after we broke through their encirclement and escaped that we found out how we got into this situation.”

The witch and her follower were caught.

Therefore, the empire was trying to abandon them.

“It became clear what the goal of this trial was.”

The three of them infiltrated the prison to meet us.

It wasn’t their goal to rescue us that day, but they wanted to tell us the situation…

“As I said earlier, the you we met then was not you. So, we just told you our plan to rescue you on the execution day and left.”

The next situation was just a little while ago.

The long-awaited execution day dawned, and we, who had only finished Chapter 2, woke up in Chapter 11 and were finally able to join the three of them.

That was the story of the events that had happened so far…

“Still, it seems like we haven’t been trapped here for over ten years.”

Gahwin Besilus went into a frenzy at my short murmur.

“Man, aaaaah—!”

“…Huh?”

“Is that something you should say? Even if it’s not ten years, we must have been trapped here for at least half a year!”

“What? Half a year?”

According to his following lament, it has already been over a month since they started this Chapter 11.

It was a chilling story.

‘A rift where even the time ratio is arbitrary…’

I hope that when I go out, a few years won’t have passed.

Please, I hope that doesn’t happen again this time.

I’ve had enough of being left behind by time once.

“Sir Besilus, calm down. There are still many things to talk about.”

“…I got excited. I’m sorry.”

The village chief calmed the atmosphere and continued the conversation.

“Baron, this rift is different from ordinary rifts. Each of us has our own unique abilities. Before I ask about yours, I’ll explain our abilities first.”

“Ah, I’ll speak about my ability first.”

The start was Archbishop Hesteia.

“The power of divine spells is the same, but my divine power is almost infinite. No matter how many miracles of God I perform, grace overflows like a spring that never runs dry.”

In short, it’s an infinite divine power buff.

Well, it seems like there’s a handicap too.

“But instead, I cannot use any miracles on myself.”

A priest who can only use divine power for others.

“Then what about you, Count?”

“I’m much simpler than the other two. I’ve become about twice as strong in all aspects, and I haven’t found any restrictions yet.”

Um, a 200% increase in all stats with no penalties?

It’s a truly broken buff, but at the same time, it makes me uneasy.

‘If they’re giving us this much, what’s going to come out later?’

I’m already worried about the difficulty of the final boss.

Since this is also a rift, there will be a guardian.

“Anyway, then what about you, Gahwin?”

“I’ve been able to use new magic every time I’ve overcome a trial. It’s not like I understand it and use it… it’s more like a normal person tearing a scroll and casting magic.”

“New magic, you say?”

“Magic from ancient times that I can’t even dare to glimpse the principles of… magic that was lost a long time ago.”

Now it makes sense.

I wondered who used that magic that teleported thousands of people.

It was an ability I gained after entering this rift.

“Ah, and I have one more ability.”

“What is it?”

“Every time we enter a trial, I can intuitively know what we have to do.”

“That’s… well, it sounds like a good ability.”

I threw out a casual compliment and sighed inwardly.

It wasn’t a lie that it sounded like a good ability.

It was the opposite, in fact.

This unkind game is even giving us a navigation function for free… what is really going to come out?

“Then it’s our turn.”

After that, I also talked about our abilities that we had found out so far, and with that, the long information-sharing time was over.

“But… why has Lady Tersia been so quiet since earlier?”

“That’s… not something you need to worry about.”

“…Hehe, I was rude. I’m sorry.”

I thought it was unnecessary to be so harsh to the archbishop, who had a kind impression, but I didn’t bother to point it out.

‘Come to think of it, it’s a bit strange…’

Both when we were doing the boss run before, and after arriving at this rift.

Erwen was a little different from usual.

She answers questions kindly, but the number of times she starts a conversation and chatters has decreased significantly.

“Then, there’s still time before night, so everyone should rest.”

Hmm, she wasn’t usually this quiet.

***

「The role assigned to Gahwin Besilus is ‘Magician’.」

「He can use ancient magic.」

「The role assigned to Jerome Saintred is ‘Knight’.」

「All stats are increased by 200%.」

「The role assigned to Eden Hesteia is ‘Priest’.」

「He no longer consumes divine power.」

「He cannot use divine spells on himself.」

「All mental resistance values are fixed at 0.」