Surviving the Game As a Barbarian [EN]: Chapter 269

The fierce waves crashed against the sea.

Currently, Arua Raven was flying above it.

It had been a long time since she had shouted at the top of her lungs.

“Mr. Ourikfrit! Hang in there! We’re almost to land!”

From the sky, she could see Abman being tossed around on a single plank of wood.

Her heart pounded every time a large wave crashed over him, but there was nothing more she could do.

‘I need to at least take care of Abman…’

The moment the ship was wrecked, all the other comrades were scattered and out of sight, and Abman was the only one she had found while searching around.

So, she kept following him to not lose track of his location, but…

“Huh?”

Whether he had lost his grip on the plank, Abman’s body disappeared below the surface of the water.

Raven urgently lowered her altitude.

But even then, Abman was nowhere to be seen.

“Mr. Ourikfrit! Mr. Ourikfrit!!”

She circled around the area for a long time, shouting, but there was no reply.

Her body trembled as if she was getting chills.

“…No, it’ll be okay.”

Raven forced herself to calm down, changed her mind, and moved towards the shore.

And…

“Found him!”

After searching every nook and cranny around the shore, she finally found the person she was looking for.

Abman, washed ashore by the waves, was lying unconscious on the sand.

“Whew.”

He was breathing properly, and his body temperature didn’t seem to have dropped too much.

First, she used fire-based support magic to dry Abman’s wet clothes and body, then waited beside him for him to wake up.

It was then.

“It’s not the side I was looking for, but…”

“…”

“This side isn’t bad either.”

A man appeared from the forest.

***

Blood rushed to my head.

Why does this guy have Raven’s ring? No matter how hard I try to think positively, I can’t imagine a good scenario.

But…

“Hey, why do you have Raven’s subspace ring?”

I ask, not letting go of the last thread of hope.

“Explain.”

I exerted superhuman patience, hoping that there was some misunderstanding I didn’t know about.

However, the answer I got was not what I expected.

“I’ll ask the questions first.”

Does he have no intention of letting me lead this conversation?

Then he chose the wrong time.

“Is that so?”

“I’ll ask again, you guys Rainwales—”

“Then die.”

I kick off the ground and move forward.

I decided that asking questions could wait until after I established dominance.

“…!!”

As my body, which had [Leaped] high, swelled up instantly through [Giantification], the guy took a step back and created distance.

But what to do about this?

「The character’s total weight is over 500kg.」

「The special terrain effect [Rebound] is additionally applied to the damage range.」

He can’t avoid this with that much distance.

KWA-AAANG-!

The ground rippled out from the point of impact.

“Ugh…!”

The guy, with a slender body like an archer, bounced up like a spring.

I didn’t miss the opening and immediately dashed forward.

And I quickly stretched out my barbarian-like hand.

It was at that moment.

「Nevarche Greenhop has cast [Emergency Escape].」

The guy disappeared like a mirage right in front of me.

There was no reason to panic.

Like moving the camera in a 3D game, I quickly scanned the surroundings in all directions, and I saw the guy 20 meters away.

Yeah, it was a blink skill after all.

He didn’t get far.

Tadat.

I adjusted my posture in mid-air.

It seems that he is a high-tier archer, as arrows were already flying towards me.

Whizz-!

Seeing the white light swirling around the arrowheads, it seems like he even used a skill on the arrows…

But there was no problem.

「The character has cast [Transcendence].」

The power of Bayon, obtained as a royal reward.

「The next skill used is enhanced.」

It wasn’t just a power I got to link with [Giantification] in the first place.

「The character has cast [Leap].」

「Due to the power of the Transcendent, the inherent abilities of the skill are unlocked.」

In short, Transcendental Leap.

The effect is quite simple.

「It can be used in mid-air…」

First, it can be cast even in an airborne state, greatly increasing its utility.

And…

「The movement time is greatly reduced.」

It gets faster.

Very much so.

Flash-!

The moment I kicked off the air with my foot.

I was already in front of the guy.

With all the effects of [Leap] on my body.

KWA-AA-AA-ANG-!

The guy’s body rose up again, unable to withstand the recoil.

I quickly reached out and grabbed the guy’s neck.

“Guh!”

The guy groaned as if in pain.

There was no room for sympathy.

Isn’t distance control the life of a ranged class?

If he couldn’t do that properly, he deserves to die.

“Die.”

I put strength into the hand holding his neck.

I wasn’t too worried about him escaping.

First of all, most blink skills have a fairly long cooldown…

And even if he escapes with another skill, I can just catch him again.

“Kuh-huh…!”

The guy’s struggles intensified.

If I put more strength here, his neck would break.

Then I came to my senses.

“Hey.”

Breaking his neck like this wasn’t a good choice.

At least I had to hear his story.

And if it wasn’t the story I wanted to hear, breaking his neck wouldn’t be enough.

Thud.

I released the hand holding his neck, and the guy’s body fell to the floor. I stepped on his abdomen to prevent him from doing anything stupid and lowered my upper body.

And after grabbing the guy’s wrist…

Crack-!

Instead of his neck, I grabbed and broke the wrist of the hand with Raven’s ring.

“…!!”

The guy couldn’t even groan from the great pain and rolled his eyes.

It wasn’t something I needed to worry about.

I’ve been patient enough, haven’t I?

“Where did you get this ring?”

I asked the same question to the guy again.

Before, there was a tragedy where we were just throwing questions at each other, but this time it was different.

“W-what the heck are you talking about since earlier!”

The guy answered me.

It wasn’t a proper answer, though.

“Just answer the question.”

“Kuh-huh…!”

“Where did you get this ring?”

I asked, and then I scanned the guy’s paper-thin body. I had already broken his wrist, but there were still many parts left to break.

And did he know that?

“K-Kerman Magic Workshop in District 7!”

The guy shouted urgently.

“I bought it at Kerman Magic Workshop!”

It was a completely unexpected kind of answer.

“…What?”

I froze, as I was planning to proceed to the next stage of interrogation if he said something ambiguous like he found it by chance, or that he took it but didn’t kill her.

“You bought it…? Not that you took it from Raven?”

“I don’t even know who Raven is!”

His voice sounded genuinely wronged.

He doesn’t seem to be lying, but…

Still, you never know.

He could be a really cunning guy who came up with this lie in the meantime, right?

“Agh, aagh!”

I grabbed the guy’s dangling hand and took off the ring.

Then I opened the subspace and searched inside.

Equipment, consumables, and items that seemed to be personal belongings were inside.

After checking a few things, I took a deep breath.

‘What, it’s really not Raven’s?’

It’s not Raven’s ring.

As proof, the magic reagents that should be there are missing. There’s no way he would have thrown away all the expensive magic reagents on the ground after taking the ring.

‘Ah, now that I think about it, Raven also said she bought it from a magic workshop…’

Yeah, I believed it.

Of course, what kind of woman is she?

There’s no way she would be defeated so easily.

“O-oh, is the misunderstanding resolved?”

Ah, uh…

“Yeah, it turns out this is the ring you bought.”

Like a true barbarian whose greatest strength is honesty, I coolly admitted that I had misunderstood. And I took my foot off the guy who was writhing with his wrist broken.

“B-but why didn’t you give it back and put it in your pocket…”

Well, that’s that, and this is this?

Now this ring is mine.

Originally, people from Noark are treasure goblins, right?

“Do you have any complaints?”

“…”

The guy expressed his lack of complaints about my actions with silence.

In short, the transfer process was also over.

Since I even got permission, I stripped off the guy’s weapons and equipment and put them into the subspace, and with this, the preparations for non-violent dialogue were complete.

“Who are you?”

I started with his name and then asked about his personal information and what had happened on this island.

He didn’t want to die yet, so he spilled everything.

His name was Nevarche Greenhop.

“Your face looks familiar for some reason…”

“That’s because we met once before.”

“What? You and I? When?”

“When there was a fire in the imperial capital, Karnon.”

When I heard that, I remembered.

When I encountered the Ruin Scholar there, there was a lackey-like kid who was following behind the Ruin Scholar.

‘I didn’t know that was him.’

Anyway, it’s not important.

It seems he didn’t know what the Ruin Scholar and Baekho talked about after they left.

“Now, tell me everything that happened today.”

After that, I was able to hear the behind-the-scenes story of the incident that I hadn’t heard from the priestess.

First of all, what these guys were aiming for was the blonde.

“That guy was originally from Noark. But he betrayed the lord and stole the treasure before running away.”

“W-wait a minute. You’re saying Drowes was from Noark…?”

“That name is fake in the first place. It was very difficult to find him because he changed his face and hid.”

The priestess, completely out of her mind, stared blankly into the air, as if she couldn’t believe the past.

Well, I guess I would be the same.

If someone told me that Misha was an evil spirit or something.

“So, what happened to him?”

“He died.”

“Are you sure?”

“It was right there. You can see the traces of Lady Rainwales disposing of the body.”

Indeed, there were traces of some liquid melting in the place the guy pointed to.

Wow, that’s brutal.

“So, what were you doing that you only appeared now? Where are your comrades?”

“One other person and I left the group to chase after those who escaped. I got separated from the person I was with in the middle of that.”

Well, okay. So, he chased after them, failed, and came back to find this, huh?

‘Wait a minute, then who the heck caused the event?’

A question suddenly popped up, and I asked indirectly who broke the island’s offerings, but I didn’t get the answer I was hoping for.

“The sea becoming like this…? I don’t know either. While I was chasing them, the ground suddenly shook, and the surroundings became dark.”

Huh, he doesn’t know either?

This makes me feel uneasy again.

As I stood still, organizing my thoughts, the guy cautiously asked me a question.

“So, what happened to Lady Rainwales? Was there no one here when you arrived?”

That question he asked when we first met.

Well, is that why he answered all my questions so diligently?

I’m not sure, but just as I was about to answer the question.

Tadat.

Two figures appeared from beyond the bushes.

“Erwen! There! It’s Bjorn!!”

“Ah, Uncle! You were here!”

It was Ainar and Erwen.