Surviving the Game As a Barbarian [EN]: Chapter 209

Thick bones instantly covered his entire body.

「Abet Nekrapeto has cast [Bone Armor].」

The man chuckled and stared straight ahead.

The fire that had clung to the bones quickly went out, but the flames remaining in the passage formed a wall, blocking the way.

“Hmm, I didn’t expect them to run away.”

Should I follow?

The man, who had been contemplating while looking beyond the blazing flames, soon decided to give up.

A way to make people angry.

It wasn’t that he was curious about the second one, but…

[…Captain, it’s a knight’s corpse.]

[So they’ve made their move here too. Everyone, be on guard from now on. There must be enemies nearby.]

Explorers were appearing from another passage connected to the second-floor portal.

There were about 20 of them.

Seeing that they were wearing the same emblem on their tops, they seemed to be a small clan…

“Tsk.”

The man clicked his tongue in dissatisfaction and moved his feet.

His mission in this operation was to stop anyone escaping through the second-floor portal.

Originally, it was a mission that the Dragonslayer was supposed to handle.

“That snake-eyed bastard is no help at all. No help.”

If only that guy had recovered in time, he could have focused on his specialty, mass slaughter, in the center as planned.

“Well, they’ll take care of the ones who ran away over there.”

There was no reason to chase after and kill the ones who had fled.

Just thinking about it was already a hassle.

I just need to do my job.

It was then, as he was moving towards the second-floor portal, that…

Zzzzzing.

The message stone in his pocket vibrated.

[Nekrapeto, what’s the situation there? Did you arrive at the target point safely?]

“Oh, Vice-Captain! Don’t worry. I arrived a long time ago, and now I’ve got it all blocked up so that not even a rat can escape. Hehehe!”

He spoke confidently, but the reply came after a long pause.

Strictly speaking, it wasn’t even a reply.

[…What’s with that tone? And what’s with that weird laughter?]

“Weird laughter?”

The man tilted his head at first, but soon realized the meaning of the words and chuckled.

“Ah, it’s just a habit, so don’t worry about it, Vice-Captain.”

[A habit?]

“Yeah, it’s a habit that comes out when I wear a mask.”

[…I don’t know what you’re talking about. Anyway, if anything seems off, contact me immediately.]

With that, the call ended.

The man tapped the skull mask he had received as supplies with his index finger.

Suddenly, the members of the Round Table came to mind.

‘The fox and the goblin must have joined for sure.’

I wonder how many of them will be alive and well enough to attend the next meeting?

I was already looking forward to it.

***

I’m running with all my might.

Anxiously wondering if that guy might be chasing after me.

“Haa, haa.”

It had been over 10 minutes since we started running through the passage.

“Did we lose him…”

Bear Uncle muttered.

It was a line that felt like a flag, so I felt uneasy for a moment, but I didn’t say anything.

I had similar thoughts.

‘To be precise, it’s not that we lost him, but that he didn’t follow us.’

Either way, it was clear that we had a moment to breathe.

“From now on, let’s slow down.”

“…Not running away anymore?”

“It’s not just that guy we need to be careful of.”

I’m currently in a misty crystal cave.

If we go too fast, it will be difficult to react to unexpected dangers in time.

The entire first floor is already a minefield—

“Bjorn, wasn’t it right to fight after all?”

Huh?

“What do you mean, Einar?”

“A corpse collector. It was an opportunity to make your name more widely known! But you ran away from that opportunity!”

Yeah, I wondered why he had been so quiet all along.

That’s what he didn’t like.

He tends to look up to me like some ancient hero barbarian.

An opportunity to gain fame, what a joke.

‘It’s a blessing that no one got hurt.’

The true value of a necromancer is revealed when they take out corpses from their subspace [a personal storage dimension].

Also, the corpse collector has the Numbers item that made his name.

A signature item similar to the Dragonslayer’s Dragonslaying Sword.

If that guy had taken that out, some of us would have surely died or been seriously injured.

But…

“Einar, don’t be stubborn.”

Before I could even step in, Misha coldly rebuked him, and Einar shrank back.

“I’m fine…! But I can understand as an adult. But what am I supposed to tell these young warriors…!”

Ah, now I see that was the real problem.

Einar goes to the holy land and talks about the explorations he’s been on with me every time.

It’s almost like he’s deifying me, which makes me feel embarrassed, but I’ve left it alone because I thought it was raising support within the tribe.

“Can’t you just make something up?”

“That’s! A warrior does not lie!”

“Tsk! Are you going to keep talking back?!”

Misha strongly scolded him, and Einar shut his mouth.

His slumped shoulders made my heart ache for some reason.

A barbarian’s charm is always their confidence.

After a moment of thought, I opened my mouth.

“Einar, we didn’t run away.”

“Huh?”

“He ran away from us.”

A common barbarian-style mental victory.

“W-What do you mean? Don’t tease me… I’m not that thoughtless!”

Um, I didn’t know that.

I spoke again with a serious expression.

“I’m not teasing you. Einar, a wise warrior must also know how to choose the place to fight. We rushed back to stand on a battlefield that was advantageous to us, and he knew that and ran away.”

Einar frowned as if in agony, then cautiously asked.

“Is that… really true?”

I was worried, but thankfully it seemed to work. After I nodded firmly, Einar became cheerful again.

“Mr. Yandel…”

“What, do you have something to say?”

“No, it’s just… I think a leader should be someone like you.”

Raven shook his head, sending me a strange look.

It seemed that my comforting Einar, who was in despair, was quite impressive.

“Then let’s keep moving.”

I ended the small talk there and carefully moved through the passage again, being cautious of my surroundings.

Our destination was the center of the first floor.

I judged that a bloody storm would be raging there by now.

“Wouldn’t it be better to break through another portal?”

“It won’t be much different over there anyway.”

I cleanly gave up on the option of heading to the second floor.

Wasn’t the corpse collector standing guard on the path to the goblin forest?

‘He’s probably trying to block the portal.’

If my guess is correct, there’s a high possibility that a strong person of a similar level is waiting at the other portal as well.

“In that case, I’ll follow your judgment. Yandel, you have a good sense for this kind of thing.”

How long had it been since we pushed through the fog?

Clank, clank.

About 10 people appeared from the front.

By the time we sensed their presence, we were already within each other’s line of sight.

Fortunately, they didn’t seem to be enemies.

“…Knights.”

They were all wearing knight armor, and each armor had the emblem of their respective families.

Well, it’s not impossible to fake that if you really wanted to…

“Explorers, raise your wrists so that your identification tags are visible.”

Judging by that arrogant tone, they seemed to be the real deal.

So, I showed my wrist identification tag as instructed and asked.

“Is the identification tag meaningful in this situation?”

That was the information I was most curious about.

The knight replied briefly.

“To some extent.”

“I’d like to hear more details.”

“There was someone who attacked us with our identification tags. We suffered quite a bit of damage because of that.”

“I see.”

“If your curiosity is satisfied, lower your weapons and stick to the wall. Until we pass by.”

After that, the knight spoke menacingly, and I obediently followed his instructions.

The atmosphere was really intense.

I wondered how many battles they had fought to get here, all the knights were soaked in blood.

Still, I had to ask more questions.

“Can you tell me exactly what the situation is right now?”

“…That’s a suspicious question.”

“We ran straight to the second floor as soon as we started, so we don’t have any information from inside.”

“Hmm.”

The knight stopped walking and stared at me.

A gaze that seemed to be judging whether my words were true.

I was starting to think that I shouldn’t have asked because of that unsettling gaze.

“Hello. I am Arua Raven, a mage from the Artemion School.”

Raven stepped forward, revealing his identity.

“If you doubt our identity, we can prove it with magic—”

“Stop, don’t come any closer. If you don’t want to die.”

“No, I—”

“Do you think there are no mages in Noahrc?”

Raven couldn’t say anything and shut his mouth at the knight’s murderous tone.

“…”

“…”

A heavy silence began to fill the air.

“Sir Garfizel, they can’t be from Noahrc, so you don’t have to worry about that.”

A knight from the rear intervened, and the situation reversed.

“How can you guarantee that?”

“Because he’s a pretty famous explorer.”

“Hmm, this guy?”

The knight, who seemed to be the leader, tilted his head as he looked at me, and I did the same.

“…Do you know me?”

“Of course I do.”

The knight who received my question raised the front of his helmet.

Then, a face I remembered appeared.

So, his name was…

“Kals Erimore?”

“It’s an honor that you remember me. It’s been a while.”

Kals Erimore.

A knight from the Martoang barony whom I had met at the count’s estate.

He was an apprentice, but still.

He was an unusual explorer, so we got along quite well.

I never thought I’d see him again here.

“So, who is this guy?”

“His name is Bjorn Yandel, and he’s more famous in the city by the alias ‘Little Vulcan’.”

As my identity was proven through my connection with Kals, the knight’s gaze towards me also changed.

“Little Vulcan… I’ve heard of him in passing. In high society, he’s called the Knight Crusher, a funny name, isn’t it?”

His gaze was far from friendly.

However, the suspicion that we were enemies had disappeared, so it was much better than before.

“So, can you tell me what the situation is now?”

The knight briefly explained the situation.

As soon as they entered the labyrinth, explorers from Noahrc attacked them from all sides.

Among them, there was someone with an identification tag, so they suffered considerable damage in the beginning.

After the fog appeared, they were gathering in the dark zone in the center, protecting the explorers and reorganizing their ranks.

“The dark zone in the center, are you talking about the place with the monument?”

“Yes, go there. If you can get there, you’ll be safe.”

That was good news to hear.

I grabbed the guy who was about to leave and cautiously asked.

“Are you guys perhaps going to the portal?”

“…Why are you curious about that?”

He was so prickly.

“Because we’re coming from that way.”

“Interesting.”

I told the knight who was showing interest the information I knew.

Well, we could say we were on the same side, right?

I couldn’t let them die in vain.

“There’s a corpse collector near the portal. So, if you see a corpse in the passage, be on guard. That means he’s found you too.”

Surprisingly, the knight listened to my words and nodded without question.

“In times of war, every piece of information is valuable. A corpse collector… Thank you for telling me.”

Surprisingly, the knight even thanked me and handed me a ring.

“If a knight suspects you, show them this and tell them I told you to. Then your identity will be guaranteed.”

“…I’ll make good use of this.”

“Then, I’ll be going, I don’t have time.”

As soon as I received the ring, the knight led his group and disappeared into the fog.

They didn’t seem as annoying as before.

Now that I saw it, he was a guy who knew his manners.

‘I guess there’s no size adjustment magic on it.’

I tried to put the ring on my pinky finger, but I gave up and gave it to Misha.

“Eh? Me? You want me to wear it?”

“It doesn’t fit my hand.”

“…W-Well, if that’s the case, I guess I have no choice?”

Misha soon held out her left hand to me, looking demure.

What is it? Does she want me to put it on for her?

“Ahem…”

I turned my hand over so that the back of my hand was facing down and placed the ring on it.

“You wear it.”

“Tch, you’re just shy.”

…What is she talking about?

***

After meeting the knights, we picked up the pace a little more. As we moved away from the outskirts and approached the center, the smell of blood became stronger.

“Here too…”

“Stop looking and keep moving.”

Corpses were visible every few minutes, no matter where we went.

Almost all of them were naked.

They were taking everything they could even in this situation.

Well, it was the same for us, so I couldn’t say anything.

“Yandel! It’s an ambush!!”

We had quite a few battles on our way here.

Was this the ninth time?

Once, they ambushed us when we turned around after checking their identification tags, and the rest all drew their weapons and attacked us as soon as we met.

Most of them were around the same 5th grade level as us, but…

There were no major problems yet.

“Behel—Raaaaaaaah!!!”

On average, we were quite strong.

We were slowly growing to the point where we could look at the 6th floor, and since we didn’t have a dedicated scout, our combat power was also high.

“Bjorn, what about the two who ran away?”

“Leave them. We don’t have time for that, so let’s just quickly grab their equipment and move on again.”

As the distance we traveled increased, the equipment piled up in the subspace.

It felt like we had entered a dungeon with an infinite PK [Player Kill] concept.

‘I didn’t expect to feel this much excitement on the first floor.’

My anxiety was slowly growing.

We’ve been moving forward without any problems so far, but how long will this last?

“Bjorn…”

“Don’t worry. We’re almost there.”

I tried not to show my anxiety and continued to lead the team forward.

And how long had it been?

“Stop.”

At an intersection with several forks, we encountered a group of unfamiliar explorers.

There were about thirty of them.

They seemed to be resting after a tough battle, but they immediately became wary and drew their weapons when they saw us.

Thump-!

My heart was pounding like crazy.

If they were from Noahrc, we were screwed—

“Oh…! Ah, mister?!!”

Then, a familiar voice was heard.