Surviving the Game As a Barbarian [EN]: Chapter 314

“Alright, everyone, have a drink! It’s on me, so don’t hold back! Hahaha!”

Time passed, and after the labyrinth closed, Amelia and I joined the after-party. It was held at the same pub run by the Rainwales sisters’ foster father.

“Haha! Iron Mask! Do you remember what that guy said when his guts were spilling out? He was like, ‘S-save meee!!’ Uh… not funny…?”

“Not funny at all.”

“I, is that so…?”

After giving a serious look to Dumbo, who was trying to be friendly, I got up from my seat.

Then, I headed over to Felix Barker.

“Yo, Iron Mask!”

“Barker.”

“Haha, you can just call me Felix, you know?”

“Nah, this is fine.”

“Want a drink?”

“Sure.”

I sat next to him and started drinking, and he kept talking to me non-stop.

Most of it was about praising my achievements.

The Fashion Barbarian strategy worked as expected.

No, it was even better than expected, I should say?

From what I heard, the ‘warriors’ I trained and distributed to each team had a higher success rate than me.

Well, it was inevitable.

I was always wearing a helmet, true to my nickname ‘Iron Mask.’ It was only natural that those who showed their faces would appear less suspicious.

“This is revolutionary! How is it that they trust us more easily than when we used kids as bait!”

“So, we don’t need bait anymore?”

“Hmm, I don’t know. It’s still too early to say. We don’t know how long this method will work.”

I subtly floated the idea, but the clan leader had no intention of letting go of these sisters.

He does have an eye for talent, after all.

“Besides, the Rainwales sisters, especially, have considerable talent. If we train them for a few more years, they’ll become great assets.”

So, he has no intention of letting them go easily.

‘Sigh, I can’t just kill him here.’

I quietly clicked my tongue.

In fact, Felix Barker was the biggest obstacle in our plan.

Well, to be precise, one of the essences he possessed was the problem.

A Rank 4 rare species, Seamerchant.

A rare ‘neutral’ monster that can be encountered with extremely low probability while sailing in the 6th floor’s Great Ocean.

It doesn’t usually attack first, and if you pour a certain amount of magic stones into the sea where it’s swimming, it will throw you a top-tier equipment material called Bluestone as a reward.

Of course, it’s a monster, so it can be hunted, and if you break through the extremely low probability, you can get a unique active skill called [Unhealthy Contract] from its essence…

‘I heard only the older sister is bound by the contract.’

This [Unhealthy Contract] is the problem.

Because of the vicious contract he placed, we must break it to save Laura.

‘Ha, how did this precious essence end up with this guy…’

Feeling annoyed, I asked Felix Barker.

“By the way, how did you get the Seamerchant’s essence? I know it’s a very rare essence.”

“Ah, that? Why are you asking all of a sudden?”

“I’ve always been curious. I just couldn’t ask before because we weren’t close.”

“Hahaha! So, does that mean we’re a bit closer now?”

I shrugged, avoiding the answer, and he, taking it as he pleased, started telling his story with a hearty laugh.

“It was when I was still doing clan activities on the surface. I was so young back then…”

Cutting out the unnecessary details, his story can be summarized as follows:

During clan activities, a Seamerchant dropped an essence, and he, blinded by greed, stole the test tube containing the essence.

“I was planning to put it up for auction and make a fortune when things calmed down. I thought I could live without worrying about money for the rest of my life!”

However, Felix Barker’s crime, which was based on wishful thinking, was exposed not long after.

Therefore, he fled to Noahark.

In the process, he couldn’t sell the essence in the test tube and ended up absorbing it himself…

“Bjorn.”

When the conversation reached that point, Amelia approached me.

“Ah, Emily…”

“I was thinking of heading back soon.”

“Oh, really? I’ll get up first then.”

As I got up and asked for his understanding, Felix Barker gave a sly smile.

“Hehe, have a good time!”

Looking at that smile, I thought.

I hope the day comes soon when I can smash this guy’s head.

***

Thud.

Arua Raven closed the book she had been reading all night.

Then, she stretched and got up from her seat.

She noticed the items piled up in one corner of the lab.

They were Bjorn Yandel’s belongings.

“Now… I have to deal with these too…”

Raven let out a long sigh.

Time was truly cruel.

At first, she thought there might be some great secret and looked through various books. But she found nothing, and as the days passed, Raven gradually faced reality.

Perhaps that was her true nature.

Emotions were temporary.

No matter how angry or sad she was, eventually, after time passed, she would find herself thinking rationally.

Bjorn Yandel was dead.

So now, these items should be sold for money, and then the rest should be divided according to what was written in his will.

Instead of staying up late reading books.

That was what she had to do.

However, the more she thought that way, the more she felt an unknown sense of self-loathing.

That was why she had been reading books until just now.

Bjorn Yandel’s death had changed Misha and Erwen’s world. The two of them would never be able to live in the same world as before.

But what about herself?

“Haa…”

She had started eating every meal a while ago.

Because she was worried about ruining her health.

Looking for secrets in books was also not as desperate as before.

Because she thought nothing would change even if she did.

And that wasn’t all.

She also drank tea, and when her seniors from the academy spoke to her, she would force a smile and have a conversation.

And Raven knew.

If this time continued, she would eventually return to her normal life.

She was like a match that could burn brightly but couldn’t burn for long.

‘It’s not like… I didn’t like him…’

She also liked Bjorn.

Not in a romantic way, but she felt the most human affection for him.

She learned a lot, and it was fun to be with him.

It was the first time she had been so emotionally affected since ‘that woman’.

But just like back then, she was recovering.

And she felt guilty about the fact that she was recovering.

“…Let’s organize it first. I can sell it later…”

Raven muttered to herself as if reminding herself, and then began to organize Bjorn Yandel’s belongings in earnest.

First, she appraised the equipment and wrote down the appropriate prices, and then she organized the items that were in the subspace [a pocket dimension used for storage].

Then, one thing caught her eye.

“Huh? This is definitely…”

The golden mask.

An item that could be obtained in the first floor’s rift, ‘Crimson Citadel,’ but the exact method of obtaining it was erased from her Rift Compendium [a magical book detailing rifts] due to weathering.

“How did Yandel have this…?”

At one point, she suspected that Yandel had the Rift Compendium after seeing him use ‘Tears of the Goddess’ to defeat a vampire.

However, she dropped her suspicion after hearing him swear an oath as a warrior that it was just a coincidence.

But what was this?

“…Was he lying, perhaps?”

Maybe he had the Rift Compendium or had read it before.

She was about to think that when she remembered that her teacher had once suspected him of being an evil spirit.

‘Nah, what am I thinking again…’

Raven chuckled and continued organizing the backpack.

That was when it happened.

“What is this?”

Raven found a magic tool with an unknown purpose.

Looking at the spell, it seemed to be a magic tool that could do both ‘telepathy’ and ‘recording’…

Click.

Raven pressed the groove at the bottom.

Then, a voice began to play.

[Why are you so worried? They’re just NPCs anyway.]

[But, still, they’re the companions we’ve been with—]

[That’s ridiculous. Do you think they’d think that way if they knew your true identity?]

It wasn’t Bjorn Yandel’s voice.

Then, who were these two talking?

The answer came quickly.

[The one your companions thought was your friend is the real Hans. And as you know, the real Hans is no longer in this world.]

[But… I think they are my real companions.]

It was a conversation between Hans Krisen, whom they met in the Doppelganger Forest, and a dwarf from Noahark.

So, that was what they meant by weakness back then.

I can’t believe he still had this.

Anyway, I should reset it if I want to sell it later, right?

Whoosh.

Raven channeled magic power into the magic tool and grasped the circuit structure. It was an easy task for her, who had specialized in magical engineering.

‘It’s a method of pressing twice in a row and then pressing once for a long time.’

She had figured out the reset method she wanted, but she didn’t withdraw her magic power and continued to learn the circuit structure.

She was just going to look at it a little more because the structure was unique.

That was when she went deeper and read the residual magic power.

‘The maximum number of times you can play a recording is limited? Did they use a cheap core?’

Raven’s hand twitched.

“Huh?”

The magic tool could play a recording up to 100 times, and it would automatically reset when the limit was exceeded.

But…

‘There are only two plays left?’

The recorded number of plays was a bit strange.

It was too suspicious to be a simple error, so she channeled more magic power and examined it thoroughly.

And she checked the playback history.

“What…”

Except for two plays, the rest of the playback history was after they left the Doppelganger Forest. In other words, Bjorn Yandel had played the remaining 96 times.

“Why did Yandel play this conversation so many times…?”

She didn’t know.

However, Raven instinctively sensed that something was wrong.

At that moment.

Knock knock.

Someone knocked on the lab door.

Raven stopped what she was doing and opened the door.

An unexpected person was standing in front of her.

“Misha…?”

“Yeah… can I come in…?”

“Ah, yes! Of course. Come in! Just a moment, I need to clean up a bit…”

“You don’t have to be so considerate.”

“Yes… but why are you here all of a sudden…?”

Raven, flustered by the sudden visit, trailed off as she asked.

“I have something I need to tell you…”

She had an ominous feeling.

***

“More drinking again?”

“Ah, there’s nothing else to do…”

Amelia, who had returned to the dorm, glanced at me as she hung her coat on the hanger.

She’s giving me the eye.

How boring is it to be here alone?

“Did you get the settlement money?”

At my question, Amelia chuckled.

“Do you think I can’t even calculate that properly?”

“It’s not that, but you never know. They might have played tricks behind our backs…”

“Don’t worry. We got our share for sure. Well, not that it means much.”

“That’s true…”

Our goal isn’t money.

It’s not entirely meaningless, but money only becomes meaningful after we save Laura and find a way to return to our original timeline.

“So, what are we going to do? After talking to him, it seems difficult to cancel the contract and get her out before that incident…”

“Nothing changes immediately. We’ll keep trying. At least until a better method comes to mind.”

“Okay…”

It had been about two weeks since we returned to Noahark.

And during that time, we had been talking and discussing.

How to save Laura.

Even after days and nights of conversation, we couldn’t find a suitable answer.

‘Ha, I feel like something might come to mind if I just try a little harder…’

The more frustrating it became, the more I looked forward to midnight on the 15th.

I hoped that meeting Auriel Gavis again and getting information from other members might give me a good idea.

“Is it today?”

“It’s exactly two hours from now.”

At my answer, Amelia nodded, then went to wash up, and after she came out, she just chatted because she was bored.

And soon, that time came.

[23:59]

Ten seconds before midnight.

I closed my eyes and focused on the ticking sound of the clock.

Tick, tock, tick…

Soon, the tenth tick sound came.

And…

“…What.”

I immediately opened my eyes.

Tick, tock, tick…

The ticking sound continued in the silence.

“…Did we already go, perhaps?”

Amelia looked at me and expressed her doubt, but I just stared blankly at the clock.

Tick, tock, tick…

What, why isn’t it taking us?