Surviving the Game As a Barbarian [EN]: Chapter 665

What was my relationship with Lee Baek-ho?

From GM’s perspective, it was probably a question he’d been holding back, finally deciding to ask. It seemed like there hadn’t been a good time to ask before.

It also looked like he’d been thinking about how to bring it up.

“It’s not that I’m questioning you, but I’m just curious. You two went out to talk earlier…”

“So?”

“It’s just… the way that man speaks so formally to you, Lord, is a bit strange…”

That was probably the key point.

Why would the arrogant Lee Baek-ho treat me with such respect and use honorifics?

He must have been dying of curiosity.

‘He even knows how Lee Baek-ho and I first met.’

Thinking about my first encounter with Lee Baek-ho still makes me shudder.

Back then, GM, disguised as Hans I, had approached me, and Lee Baek-ho clashed with him. I happened to witness the scene and got caught in the crossfire.

‘I thought he was a total psycho back then…’

Just out of curiosity, Lee Baek-ho grabbed me in a place full of royal knights, asking if I was a player and threatening me.

‘That was already a few years ago…’

Realizing how much time had passed, I slowly opened my mouth.

“Well? It’s not exactly a good relationship. We were enemies when we first met, after all.”

“Hmm, enemies, you say…?”

“Yeah, some weirdo suddenly fell from the sky and tried to kill me. He suddenly disappeared right in front of me, though.”

“…That happened?”

GM tilted his head, acting as if he had no idea what I was talking about. It was a bit funny, but I didn’t show it and continued.

“The next time I met him was at the Gnome Tree.”

“The Gnome Tree… you say…”

“Yeah, I was there on a request with my companions, and I ran into him again by chance. Then, a lot of things happened… and there was a bad history with my companion too.”

I roughly summarized the rest, not wanting to risk any contradictions by making up a clumsy lie.

He probably already knows about Misha anyway.

“You mean your companion…”

“It’s a bit hard to explain in detail, but there were several deals made in the process, and things are somewhat settled now.”

“Settled, you say…”

“It’s more like a truce. Both he and I know that we’ll get hurt if we mess with each other. So, we’re being careful.”

GM looked slightly surprised at my words.

It was like he was thinking, ‘That Lee Baek-ho?’

It also seemed like he didn’t realize my strength was that high.

‘Come on, that’s a bit disappointing.’

I embellished the story a bit to make an excuse, but it wasn’t a complete lie.

I’m not confident that I can beat Lee Baek-ho in a one-on-one fight.

But I’m not confident that I’ll lose either.

Anyway.

“You asked what our relationship was earlier, right?”

I looked at GM, who nodded, and I summarized my relationship with Lee Baek-ho in one sentence, clearer than anything else.

“For me, Lee Baek-ho is…”

This time, I didn’t need to lie.

Right now, we’re just not drawing our swords because we have things to use each other for.

There’s no more room for confusion.

“A guy whose head I need to crush someday.”

Lee Baek-ho is an enemy.

***

“Is that all you were curious about?”

“Yes… He’s a dangerous person, after all. I needed to know your relationship with him first.”

“Is that so?”

“I’m relieved to hear that you’re not on his side. He’s someone you shouldn’t get involved with… Ah, but I guess you know that too, Lord.”

Did he sense my sincerity in my last declaration?

GM didn’t doubt my hostility towards Lee Baek-ho at all, and he seemed satisfied with that feeling.

‘Well, it’s natural for him to be relieved, right? If I said I was close to Lee Baek-ho here, he wouldn’t have anyone to rely on.’

Anyway, after finishing my conversation with him.

This time, Lee Baek-ho called GM out.

“Hey, you, come here for a second?”

“M-Me?”

GM flinched as if he had been called out by a school bully.

He looked at me as if asking for help.

“What’s going on with my companion?”

“Oh, Lord, don’t worry. I won’t hurt him. He’s the only one who can fix the magic circle, do you think I’d do that?”

Well, I’m not worried about that.

It’s just that GM kept giving me those looks, so I couldn’t ignore him.

“…Have your conversation in a visible place.”

“Okay, sure. Hey, is that okay with you?”

“…”

After the situation was settled, GM followed him like a cow being led to the slaughterhouse, and they started talking.

‘Maybe I should learn lip-reading later when I have time.’

Because the sound was blocked, I couldn’t hear what they were talking about.

But just from the atmosphere, it seemed like Lee Baek-ho was complaining about something, and GM was awkwardly laughing and making excuses…

‘Come to think of it, their relationship wasn’t good in the end…’

GM had expelled Lee Baek-ho from the community, and because of that, Lee Baek-ho had held a grudge against him.

Well, I don’t know if they’ve met separately since then.

‘It ended sooner than I thought?’

Surprisingly, their conversation ended quickly, and GM returned with a somewhat drained look on his face.

“What did you talk about?”

“There was a bad incident in the past… so I was explaining about that… hahaha…”

Tsk, he can’t tell me.

I’ll have to ask Lee Baek-ho about it later.

“Then let’s go to sleep quickly, it’s almost morning, so we won’t be able to sleep much.”

“Yes… then please rest well, Lord.”

After that, everyone got some short sleep without any other incidents, and the next morning, they immediately started preparing to activate the ‘portal’ that Lee Baek-ho had mentioned.

“A dimensional stone…?”

“It looks similar, right?”

“Are these hidden all over the continent…?”

“Well, I don’t know if there are more? I heard that the mysterious old man found this one… I haven’t seen any other portals connected to this one yet.”

The mysterious old man must be referring to Auriel Gavis…

“But it’s different from the dimensional stones we saw in the labyrinth, even though they look similar. It doesn’t just open when you touch it; you have to put magic power into it.”

Ah, so that’s why he was talking about magic power waves and stuff.

Originally, when multiple mages share magic power, they need to have practiced together often or prepared in advance.

“Then let’s start.”

“Yes…”

Soon, the Destruction Scholar and GM approached the dimensional stone, placed their hands on it, and closed their eyes.

And…

Whoooosh-!

The magic power, so dense that it was visible and emitting various colors, fluctuated.

Swaaaaaaah-!

The magic power that flowed in gradually condensed and took the shape of a portal that I often saw.

“I’ll go first, so follow me in. This portal will only last for about 5 minutes!”

As soon as the portal opened, Lee Baek-ho jumped in first, and his companions naturally followed him.

“Uh…”

“What are you doing? Not going?”

“Yes… I’ll go in first…”

Just in case, I sent GM through the portal first, and then I quickly stepped through it myself.

And…

Flash-!

I felt a floating sensation similar to when I used a portal in the labyrinth, and my vision returned.

I quickly looked around to check the surrounding terrain, and I froze in place.

Artificial structures in the shape of unknown spires.

A flat and even dirt floor that was easy for people to walk on.

Also, houses made of logs were lined up in a checkerboard pattern, and a half-collapsed wooden fence could be seen in the distance.

“A village…?”

“Ah, did I not mention it? This is where the Noah Arc people settled.”

It was the Noah Arc settlement.

***

As GM and I looked around in amazement, Lee Baek-ho shrugged and approached us, starting to introduce the Noah Arc settlement.

“It’s not comparable to a city, but it looks livable, right? There are houses, a wooden fence around the whole village, and several wells, so there’s no shortage of water. There are also fields outside the fence where they grew crops. It’s not a big river, but there’s a river to the east.”

Contrary to my expectations, the Noah Arc settlement was much more well-equipped than I had imagined.

I could have lived happily here, I guess?

Well, the problem is that ‘monster’ I mentioned before.

‘It’s completely a ghost town…’

The huge wooden fence surrounding the village was half-broken, and the houses that were standing also showed signs of damage.

Also, black bloodstains could easily be found everywhere…

“Ah, and this.”

Lee Baek-ho tapped the dimensional stone, which had now disappeared, and continued.

“They used this to open a portal to the labyrinth, but only that mysterious old man can do it, no one else can. Even our old man doesn’t know how to do it.”

“It’s not that he didn’t know. He figured out that it was a space-time magic.”

“Come on, that’s the same thing. Excuses…”

Lee Baek-ho teased the Destruction Scholar, but in fact, Auriel Gavis was the strange one.

He opened a portal that went straight to the 7th floor.

He teleported tens of thousands of people.

It always felt like that old man was playing with the rules of this world as he pleased.

“But why did they go into the labyrinth so much when they built this village so diligently?”

“Well, they had to eat, right? I heard they didn’t even pack enough food when they escaped, so they even ate monster meat until they got here?”

“…Didn’t you say there were fields?”

“Oh, they made those later. And even if they were fields, they were more like test fields? The crops barely grew, and it wasn’t nearly enough to feed all those people.”

“So, they needed magic stones?”

“Well, that’s probably the biggest reason, right?”

“It sounds like there are other reasons too?”

When I asked subtly, Lee Baek-ho shrugged again, as if it was nothing.

“Well, monsters appear here too, right? In the end, if they don’t collect essence, they’ll eventually fail. And… they must have been worried that the royal family would find them.”

Well, it makes sense when you put it that way.

The Noah Arc settlement was located in the ‘Gray Plains’ of the Dark Continent, which belongs to the 7th floor.

The monsters they encountered must have been quite high-level.

“Ah, of course, after that monster appeared, it all became meaningless. It came and ravaged the village several times, so even that stubborn lord changed his mind and decided to just go inside the castle walls?”

“I see…”

“Anyway, let’s stop with the questions here. Let’s get out of here quickly!”

After finishing the village introduction, Lee Baek-ho led us out of the village.

And…

“…It’s very different from the Gray Plains I knew?”

A field full of green grass that reached up to our waists stretched out into the distance.

“Ah! The labyrinth definitely has more of an end-of-the-world vibe, right? But the monsters that appear are all similar. The terrain itself is the same.”

“I-Is that so…?”

GM seemed flustered by Lee Baek-ho’s kind answer to his mumbling.

“Mr. Baek-ho, there are monsters ahead.”

Then, as soon as we left the village, the archer Layton Briat warned us, as if something had been caught on his sensor.

And at the same time.

“Kroaaaaaaar-!”

A monster that had been crouching in the bushes rose up and howled threateningly.

“It’s a Biterion. It’s a level 3 monster, belonging to the beast species. It doesn’t have any particular elemental weaknesses, and it has very high physical resistance. It’s better to use magic if possible.”

GM explained in a tone as if he was reading an encyclopedia.

I could roughly understand what he was like when he was an explorer in the past.

‘He’s convenient, but he would have been a bit tiring to travel with.’

Anyway, to add to GM’s explanation, the ‘Biterion’ is a rare monster that is only occasionally found in the Gray Plains.

And…

“Lucky.”

It drops the 8th stage material for the Undying Engraving.