Surviving the Game As a Barbarian [EN]: Chapter 166

The moment the red essence floated up, the eyes of the explorers across from us, who were eager to go back and rest, sharpened. It was like a mirror; our expressions probably weren’t much different.

“…….”

A heavy silence fell for a moment. As explorers who were quick to judge such situations, the silence didn’t last long. The first to speak was the hammer warrior from the other side.

“An essence came out of the monster *we* caught?”

“Hey, Nelbo-ssi…….”

“Mage, stay put. I’ll handle this.”

So, this bastard is the leader. He seemed to have already decided what position he would take in this situation: to claim ownership of the essence. I chuckled. Honestly, I didn’t expect anything. They were the ones who couldn’t wait a few minutes and jumped into the fight, weren’t they?

I muttered briefly, “Prepare for battle.”

It was more of a statement to the other side than to my team—a declaration of intent that if they made unreasonable demands, they would see blood.

“Yandel-ssi…….”

Raven voiced his concern. It was a similar situation to the mage on the other side who was trying to say something to the hammer warrior, ‘Hey, Nelbo-ssi…….’ It seems that mages are averse to this kind of thing. Is it because they all grew up wealthy?

“Don’t panic. It’s just like five more humanoid monsters appeared.”

I summed up the situation in one sentence. Did they realize I was the leader then? The hammer warrior fixed his gaze on me and threw out a meaningful remark.

“You, you’re that guy from back then……?”

“Do you know me?”

The hammer warrior didn’t answer, but instead lifted the lid of his helmet. But the problem was, I still couldn’t recognize him at all. Have I ever met him before? There’s no way I could forget such thick eyebrows.

“……?”

When I glared at him with a puzzled look, the hammer warrior took off his helmet as if frustrated.

*Flash-!*

The white scalp shone under the light sphere magic floating in the air. Then I remembered.

“……Baldy!”

He was the guy I met when I went to negotiate with the regional manager the other day. He tried to catch me to farm contribution points. I never thought he would be disguised with a helmet.

“Pfft!”

For some reason, the other team members burst out laughing. The bald head turned red, probably from embarrassment.

“……Do you want to die, barbarian?”

The baldy said, putting his helmet back on.

“From now on, you better watch your mouth. The regional manager won’t be there to protect you.”

What is he talking about? If he knew my relationship with the regional manager, he would never say such a thing. Well, it doesn’t matter.

“You should be the one to back off. Unless you want to lose that head of yours.”

“So, you’re saying you’ll try?”

As I took a step forward, the baldy also took a step forward without backing down. The distance between us narrowed with the essence in between. The air grew heavy, and a coldness that couldn’t be cooled even by the heat of the canyon settled in.

*Screech.*

In front, the baldy’s archer drew his bow.

*Click.*

Behind me, Bear Uncle was heard loading his crossbow. A silence where we could hear each other’s breathing.

“…….”

It was like a tightly drawn string. The moment the string snapped, a storm of blood would begin. Both the baldy and I knew that. But…….

“Baldy, if you back down now, I’ll give you some magic stones.”

“You barbarian, you’re bad at math. We caught the monster. Of course, the magic stones and the essence are all ours.”

No one backed down. A top 30% explorer team that had climbed up to the 5th floor. Even though they knew that if even one of their team members died in the process of obtaining the essence, it would be a bigger loss.

*Clench.*

They gripped their weapons and narrowed the distance. Cold sweat ran down my back.

‘That bald bastard is so greedy.’

By convention, the ownership should be ours. He probably intended to follow that convention at first. He would have been willing to give up a magic stone coolly. Jumping into the fight was probably just an expression of his desire to go rest quickly. The problem was that the essence came out from there.

‘……Do we really have to fight?’

I slowly abandoned my weak heart and assumed the worst. The current situation is similar to a game of chicken. The first to back down loses. If everyone wants to be a winner, it will only lead to disaster.

“Baldy, this is my last warning.”

I don’t really like just talking, but this time I tried to talk one more time.

“Oh, I’m so scared I’m going to piss myself?”

The answer that came back was a refusal. With that, I made up my mind. If they really wanted it, I had no choice but to show them the end. If they didn’t even have that much resolve, they wouldn’t be able to survive in this ruthless world of explorers.

‘Now that it’s come to this, I should eat the essence first.’

Originally, the Ifrit’s essence was planned to be put in a test tube and sold. It wasn’t a very good essence for me, Misha, or Ainar. But…

*Step.*

Essence is something that will always help if you eat it. It’s better for me to eat it than to give it to that bastard. The cost of erasing the essence isn’t that high yet, so I can use it until I get my money’s worth and then throw it away. So, after eating the essence…….

‘Let’s fight by pushing them off. I won’t be able to get their equipment, but winning is the priority right now.’

Okay, I’ve roughly finished organizing my thoughts. Now it’s time to put it into action. I was about to take a step and measure the angle.

“Stop it, everyone!”

“Yes. Yandel-ssi. Let’s put down our weapons first.”

Suddenly, the mages from both sides stepped forward, and the situation entered a new phase.

“Mage-nim? I told you to stay put?”

“Nelbo-ssi, stop using that tone. It doesn’t make you look cool.”

“…….”

“Answer.”

“…….”

“If you keep doing this, I won’t go into the labyrinth with you next time?”

“……I’ll stop.”

The baldy immediately backed down at the words of the mage who looked like a young boy. I wondered why the supreme, prickly mage had been staying still. He was just going along with the concept. I couldn’t hide my look of disgust.

‘A baldy and a show-off…….’

I didn’t even want to talk to him anymore. Anyway, after the baldy lowered his weapon and backed down, the tension eased.

“That emblem on your robe. You’re from the Artemion School, right?”

“Yes. You’re from the Warton School?”

“Hehe, that’s right.”

I also know about the Warton School. It’s quite a large school, but… I remember it more clearly because of its unique focus on water attribute magic.

“I’m Ephraim Bello.”

“I’m Arua Raven.”

The mages introduced themselves first. And unlike the explorers who drew their weapons first, the two had a brief introduction time.

“Is the Artemion Master doing well? I met him at the academic conference a year ago…….”

“Well, my teacher is the same as always. How about the Warton Master? Still doing that research?”

“Haha, of course. It’s our wish.”

A conversation that felt like ‘We’re all in this together!’ It was like watching the upper class. Since they were all acquaintances with one or two connections, they didn’t want to make things complicated.

“So, what are you going to do now?”

Raven soon got to the point.

“You know that asking for the essence of the monster we were hunting is an unreasonable claim, right?”

“Hmm, it doesn’t seem completely unreasonable. Conventions are just conventions. It’s clear that we were involved. The committee is likely to recognize it as a personal dispute between explorers.”

Unlike us, who were about to fight like beasts, the mages were trying to solve the problem through conversation.

“Conventions are just conventions, but it’s hard to look kindly on those who break them. But to go to the committee over just one essence, it seems more reasonable for you to give up?”

“That’s…….”

The other mage trailed off. It meant that our mage had won the argument.

“Yes, that’s right. So, I’m just going to give up. Actually, I didn’t like doing this from the beginning.”

So, it could be resolved like this.

‘Am I destined to be a barbarian?’

I lowered the mace I was holding. It wasn’t today, but there would definitely be a day when I would use it. That’s what the labyrinth is like.

***

“B, Bello-nim?”

“Are you going to keep being so pathetic?”

“Th, there’s a way that’s right for this industry…….”

The baldy looked at him as if asking him to reconsider, but the mage’s authority was firm.

“Then I was wrong about Nelbo-ssi. This isn’t about protecting our rights, it’s just greed, isn’t it?”

“…….”

“I think I’ve given you enough respect as a leader. But what’s the difference between this and being a plunderer?”

The baldy couldn’t say anything and just groaned at the mage’s reasonable words. I didn’t feel very good. I was secretly curious about how it would feel to smash that shiny head.

“Yandel-ssi, what are you going to do with the essence?”

While the baldy was being scolded by the mage, we discussed the disposal of the essence.

“Ahem!”

Ainar looked at me with a ‘look at me’ expression, but the decision was the same as before.

“Put it in a test tube and sell it in the city.”

“That’s good. Clean and simple.”

I’ll give Ainar a better essence later.

‘In the first place, I don’t have the money to give him the essence right now.’

Usually, when a team member takes an essence, they pay about half of the selling price. Well, I can put my and Misha’s share on debt…… It’s uncertain whether Bear Uncle or Raven would agree to that.

“Ainar, cheer up. If we sell that, we can get tens of thousands of cotton candies. Okay?”

“Te, tens of thousands!!?”

Ainar staggered at the overwhelming number, then regained his energy. He seemed to think it was okay too.

‘……But he has to pay back the money I lent him first.’

Anyway, after the discussion about the disposal of the essence was over, Raven put the Ifrit’s essence in a test tube, and we made way for them. But if we just passed by here, it would be the end.

“What’s your name?”

The baldy stopped in front of me and asked. What is it? Is he telling me to be careful at night? When I looked down at him, he continued as if to say he didn’t mean that.

“No, well…… if this is a connection, shouldn’t we at least know each other’s names?”

Connection my ass. Still, I told him my name.

“I’m Bjorn, son of Yandel.”

“Bjorn, son of Yandel?”

The baldy tilted his head as if he had heard the name somewhere. He also revealed his name.

“I’m Meltason Nelbo.”

So, he wasn’t Hans Nelbo. Thanks to that, I felt a little relieved.

“Then go now.”

It was funny to shake hands and reconcile now, so I ended the conversation. The baldy walked away with a bitter smile. Starting with him, his companions also passed by us one by one. Shield bearer, swordsman, mage, archer in that order.

“…….”

The archer who was passing in front of me stopped when he saw me. It was a simple reason. I was glaring at him like crazy.

[Ah, I’m so tired, should we just catch it?]

If it weren’t for this bastard, we wouldn’t have had to go through this bullshit from the start. In some ways, this bastard was more annoying than the baldy—

“Hans! What are you doing? Why aren’t you coming?”

The archer avoided my gaze and walked away quickly. I froze like a stone.

“…….”

……Hans was there.

***

The 21st day dawned. It meant that it had already been four days since we entered the 5th floor. In the meantime, we constantly went down the path and hunted monsters. And Ainar also reached level 4.

‘……So, he’s leveled up to 4 in three labyrinth entries?’

In some ways, he’s growing even faster than me. I wish someone would give me a bus ride too. Anyway, we had some difficult situations while fighting monsters, but the exploration itself went smoothly. I wondered if something would happen because of Hans.

‘Maybe it ended with the essence coming out…….’

A hopeful observation. If you look at it point by point, it’s plausible. Although we managed to get through it safely, we almost had a 5:5 permadeath match. So, in short, it’s possible that it ended with the essence drop due to the Hans effect…… No, what am I even thinking?

‘Damn bastards.’

I don’t usually believe in jinxes. I really didn’t, until I met Hans.

“Yandel-ssi, can’t you stop doing that now?”

While we were stopped to update the map, Raven cautiously spoke to me.

“Stop what?”

“……I know you’re working hard, but you can’t go back by looking at that anyway, right?”

A mage-like line that values results more than effort.

“…….”

I couldn’t say anything back. I actually didn’t have the confidence to go back to where we were by looking at this. That’s how complicated the path of the Great Demon Realm was. It’s not just that there are many forks in the road, but there are also places where the path is cut off and you have to cross over with a rope. But…….

“If I keep doing it, I’ll get better. I’ll be better next time I come.”

I am the guide for Team Apple Naraka. I wanted to live as a barbarian warrior, but the cold reality led me down this path. Therefore, I have to practice this too. Rotmiller probably wasn’t that good from the beginning.

“Oh, well, I have nothing to say then…… But aren’t you tired?”

“Well, it’s annoying, but there are some fun parts too.”

There are fun parts. It wasn’t just a lie, it was the truth. Since this can also be seen as a spec [a skill or ability], I feel like I’m growing. There’s also the saying ‘prepare for the worst’. If I ever get stranded again like in the Witch’s Forest, this ability that I’m honing now will help me.

‘Above all, if I become a guide, it will be more natural for me to lead the team to where I want to go.’

“So, are we just going to keep going down today?”

“There’s no other way, is there?”

Orc colony, Witch’s Forest, Steel Rock Hill, etc. Just like the 3rd floor is made up of several fields, there are also fields with names on the 5th floor. Between these maze-like narrow paths, there are wide, disc-shaped terrains that appear like start points. There are also places where you enter through caves in the cliffs. So far, we have found three such fields. Well, all three had owners.

‘It seems like there are a lot more clans controlling hunting grounds than in the game.’

As someone who just entered the 5th floor, it’s very annoying. It’s not that I don’t have the ability to catch monsters, but my growth is being slowed down by people.

‘Damn realistic game.’

To catch monsters that only appear in the field, you have to pay a price to the clan that has taken the spot. Even if you pay, it’s just a one-time hunt for experience, so is it impossible to capture human nature in a game? The ladder-kicking [a metaphor for being held back by others] is several times worse than in the game. But…….

Try kicking me as much as you want. Do you think I can’t climb above this? I’ve been playing only one game for 10 years and mastered all the tricks and hidden elements. Especially the 5th floor, which was blocked for over a year, so I know every nook and cranny.

‘……If we’ve come down this far, it should be showing up soon.’

There are plenty of ways to get stronger.