Surviving the Game As a Barbarian [EN]: Chapter 685

It’s true I’m a demon, but I have no memories of that world.

Why is it that as soon as I heard this, the famous saying, ‘I drank, but I didn’t drive drunk,’ came to mind? It sounded so absurd at first, but after a moment, it hit me like a bolt of lightning.

“Could it be… did you revive with the Stone of Rebirth?”

If that’s the case, it would explain things. There are several conditions to using the Stone of Rebirth, but the biggest penalty is, of course, ‘memory deletion.’ I also had an experience where I revived a comrade, only for their affinity to drop to 0, causing them to leave the team and wasting the Stone of Rebirth—.

“Stone of Rebirth…?”

But what’s with this reaction?

“I don’t know what you mean, but it has nothing to do with the Stone of Rebirth.”

“Then why don’t you have any memories?”

Jaina’s hand tightened at my question.

“I… I gave all my memories of that world to Karui before. That’s why I don’t have any memories.”

Ah, I see. I was completely sure it was because of the Stone of Rebirth. This is a bit embarrassing.

‘…You can even give away memories, huh.’ Thinking back to when I played as a priest of Karui, it’s not entirely impossible. When all attempts failed and it was close to ‘game over,’ he would always make an offer. He’d say he’d save me if I gave him something in return….

The price was always random, and the options were incredibly diverse. All affinity with all characters would drop to 0. He’d take away one of my possessed essences. There were even cases where he demanded permanent physical damage or the life of another NPC [Non-Player Character]. ‘The most ridiculous one was when he asked me to become a wanted criminal in the city as the price for saving me.’ At this time, the deal with Karui is absolute. Even if the price is paid ‘later,’ if you don’t keep your promise, the character will be punished by God and die. Anyway, that’s not the important thing….

“It must have been an emergency situation to give away your memories, right?”

As I muttered briefly, Jaina made a strange expression.

“Yes… it must have been. Probably.”

Hmm, this sounds like she’s just making excuses? I was wondering whether to press her further when, unexpectedly, she spoke first.

“That day, I paid the price twice. Once to move us all to a safe place… At this time, I lost my memories of the original world.”

“And?”

“The other time… I used it to save someone who was dying. Instead, I lost all memories of ‘that person.'”

“…Was it someone important?”

“I don’t know… but it must have been. Enough to pay such a price.”

“What happened to that person?”

“Nothing happened. They died in the labyrinth not long after.”

“…….”

“You don’t have to take it so seriously. Even when they died in front of me, I didn’t feel anything in particular.”

Listening to Jaina’s calm voice, it hits me even harder. Why people in this world call Karui an evil god.

“Then how did you end up with Baekho? Are you trying to return to your original world?”

“No, I’m not very interested in that world. I don’t remember anything anyway. Rather, this side is reality for me, and that side is like a dream.”

Although the process was quite different, in a way, it was a very similar case to mine. Is that why? At first, I was just planning to get information, but I’m becoming more and more curious about Jaina’s story itself.

“There’s only one reason why I’m with Baekho.”

“What is it?”

“Because I need to offer a huge amount of sacrifices to regain my lost memories.”

“I see…….”

As Jaina said, it’s not impossible to regain the price paid to Karui in [Dungeon & Stone]. You can even recover permanent physical damage if you offer enough sacrifices that Karui deems sufficient.

“I’m only with Baekho because it’s easy to get good sacrifices. There’s no other reason.”

Well, I never thought there would be such circumstances…. Since she said she wasn’t interested in her modern memories, it’s clear what memories she’s trying to regain. However, there is one question that remains.

“…Why are you going so far to regain your memories?”

She already has no memory of ‘that person.’ So she clearly said that she didn’t feel anything when they died. But why is this woman going this far?

“It’s just… it’s a bit frustrating.”

Jaina’s answer was very simple.

“The words and expression that person had when they died that day, I really don’t understand any of it. It’s so frustrating and annoying… Why? Is it weird?”

“…No, not at all.”

With that, Jaina’s detection spell caught the presence of a monster, and the conversation ended. We didn’t talk about that topic anymore. However, the story we had just shared kept lingering in my mind. ‘A demon who lost her memories…’ There are really all sorts of stories in the world.

***

KWA-AAANG-!

Apart from the characteristic of ‘Star Tomb’ where meteorites fall periodically, the climate of the Ancient Land changes every time. And in a very harsh way for people.

“Haa… haa….”

This time it was a heatwave. No, I’m not sure if this can even be described as a ‘heatwave.’

WHOOSH-!

Smoke began to seep out of the trees that couldn’t withstand the heat, and in severe cases, they even caught fire and burned fiercely. Even though I had fire resistance thanks to the Fire Orb, so I didn’t get burned or take continuous damage, there was no way to deal with the heat. If there was a mage, I’d ask them to turn on the air conditioner.

“…We’re surrounded.”

“What are we going to do?”

“It’s impossible to escape at our speed, so we have no choice but to fight.”

Even though we tried to avoid fighting monsters as much as possible, there were times when we had no choice but to fight. A tank and a priest. It’s not a good combination for hunting monsters, but we still managed to hunt them somehow. That’s because….

「Jaina Flyer casts [Rotten Wind].」

「Deals continuous dark damage to enemies within range and reduces physical resistance.」

The priest is not a typical priest, and….

「The character casts [Swing].」

I’m not a normal tank either.

CRACK-!

We can handle monsters below Rank 4 easily. Well, it’s very slow though.

KOO-OONG-!

“That’s Bartanus over there!”

“Get on my back!”

Anyway, even while fighting, if a monster of Rank 3 or higher appeared, we quickly ran away. As a priest and tank combination, it wouldn’t be impossible to catch them if we continued fighting for several hours, but that’s only if it’s a one-on-one fight. In the first place, it’s not worth catching them over several hours.

‘…Huh?’

When I, who was walking ahead, suddenly stopped, Jaina asked the reason in an anxious voice. Instead of answering, I pointed to one spot with my hand. A roughly torn piece of cloth was hanging from a tree. A trace of a person that I hadn’t noticed when I passed by here before.

SWISH.

I reached out and unfolded the tied cloth, and there were letters written inside.

[If you see this… …, … monument.]

The middle part was blackened by the heat, so I couldn’t read the contents, but I immediately understood what they were trying to convey.

“They’re telling us to go to the monument in the center of the Ancient Forest.”

Baekho, Old Man of Destruction, the archer, and GM [Game Master]. It seems that one of these four went to the monument in the center and left this message on the way….

“Why four people…?”

“Do you think Aures would have left this?”

“Ah, I understand.”

“Anyway, if we go to the central monument, we can meet at least one more person.”

It was a piece of good news. That’s because, except for Aures, the rest are all dealers [damage-dealing characters]. No matter who is there, the combination of DPS [Damage Per Second], tank, and healer will be complete. Then, the stability and movement speed will increase much more.

“Let’s move quickly.”

“Yes.”

I thought that we might get separated, so I moved as fast as possible. And….

1 hour, 2 hours, 3 hours…. While we were continuing our forced march without any rest. Suddenly, a familiar man’s voice was heard from the empty air.

“…L, Lord Baron?”

Whoa, you scared me. I almost swung my hammer without realizing it.

“…Havelion?”

When I looked at the place where the sound came from, GM’s figure appeared as if the stealth magic had been released. Surprisingly, we encountered a comrade before even reaching our destination….

“Lord Baroooooon!!!!”

I lightly moved aside to avoid the GM who was running to hug me and asked.

“Did you tie the cloth to the tree?”

“Ah, no. I also found it recently and was following it!”

Hmm, is that so? Somehow things are going smoothly. If this is the case, it means that there is one more comrade waiting in front of the monument who tied the cloth. The number of people instantly changes from two to four.

“How did you get—.”

“We’re almost there, let’s talk when we arrive.”

I was curious about GM’s situation, but since the destination was not far away, I focused on moving with my senses wide open. And after about 30 more minutes.

“What is this…?”

When we pushed through the bushes, the monument buried in the crater could be seen in the distance. But the problem is….

“W, was that there originally?”

“There’s no way.”

There was another structure that was hard to identify in the place where only the monument should have been. A structure that looked like only the door part of a temple was taken out and installed on the bare ground. There are stairs going down, but it’s dark even when you check it up close, so you can’t see the inside well. Also….

“The letters there are red… wasn’t that not like that before?”

“Yes! I’m sure of the monument as much as I investigated it. There was no such phenomenon.”

The first line at the top of the monument, which had uninterpretable hieroglyphs, was glowing red. What kind of situation is this? I’m confused, but the biggest question was different.

“…But why is no one here?”

We came here following the message left on the cloth, but there was no one waiting here.

“Let’s wait first. Maybe they went out to tie more cloths around.”

“Yes… then I’ll investigate the monument. I’m detecting a flow of magic that’s different from before….”

“I’ll go check out that structure. I feel a very familiar energy.”

“Familiar energy?”

“It’s hard to explain, but just know that it’s an energy related to an ancient being.”

“…Okay.”

As the two began their investigation, I guarded the surroundings and observed their investigation process. And….

‘Why isn’t anyone coming?’

It was a time when I was starting to think that waiting here for three days was meaningless.

“It seems I’m not too late.”

The Old Man of Destruction appeared from afar, looking leisurely. It was hard to believe that he had been wandering around the 9th floor alone for more than three days, as he looked so fine. ‘…Is he a mage who can solo to some extent?’ It’s amazing, but there was something I had to ask before talking about his skills.

“Did you hang the cloth?”

“…Cloth?”

He reacted as if he didn’t know anything, so when I told him about the cloth tied to the tree, the Old Man of Destruction replied that he had not seen anything like that.

“I just came here thinking that at least one person would come if I was in the center.”

“So you don’t know who tied the cloth either.”

“No, that was probably Baekho.”

“How are you so sure?”

“Aures wouldn’t have done it, so there’s only one person left.”

“Huh? But it could have been Mr. Briat who left it.”

When GM asked, tilting his head, the Old Man of Destruction muttered in a firm tone.

“Mr. Briat is dead.”