Surviving the Game As a Barbarian [EN]: Chapter 317

“This fucking shit!” I opened my eyes and immediately sat up. My vision was blurry, and my nose was filled with a smoky scent. And the outside of the window was unusually noisy. “Those in the streets will be considered rebels. Everyone, get inside the buildings!” Oppressive shouts erupted from all directions. “Kyaaaaak!” Occasionally, screams could be heard, and every time a loud ‘Kwaaaang!’ exploded in the distance, a subtle vibration traveled through the bed. So, what the hell is going on? I need information. Therefore…… Thud, thud. I forced my body, which felt weak, to move towards the window. The moment I opened the window wide, a cloud of black smoke rushed in, causing me to cough dryly. “Cough, cough.” Even while coughing, I quickly scanned the outside. Soldiers were patrolling the smoke-filled streets, controlling the citizens. And…… ‘So, there really was a fire.’ In the distance, I could see the city engulfed in flames. It was the eastern district, which was also Orculius’s base. Although it was quite far from my current location, the entire city was filled with smoke due to the large fire, as expected of an underground city with poor ventilation…… Kwaang! Kwaaang-! Considering the intermittent artificial explosions, it didn’t seem like a simple fire. “This is driving me crazy… What the hell is going on?” I pressed my throbbing head with my hand. It felt like my head was working several times slower than usual. Perhaps it was the residue of the poison Amelia had given me. ‘Right, I was poisoned…….’ My mind snapped back, and the events before I lost consciousness flashed like a panorama. ‘What the hell is she thinking? And where did she disappear to now?’ I don’t know. But the more I thought about it, the more I focused on one thing. It was the same as the day I first woke up in this body. Putting everything aside, what do I need to do right now? The answer came quickly. “The drawer.” Amelia told me to open the drawer. Perhaps there might be an explanation for this situation there. I closed the window and headed to the bedside. In the bedside table drawer, which was kindly already open, there was only a single note with a few lines left. “Ha…….” The note began with a short apology, saying she was sorry. It didn’t take long to read it all, and as soon as I finished, I tore the note to shreds. Even then, my anger didn’t subside. ‘I can’t believe the D-day was today.’ Amelia tricked me. It wasn’t written in the note, but the reason was obvious. Her goal was to prevent me from interfering with the past any further. She must have judged that the future might change if I did. ‘Ha, I didn’t know she was the type of character to act so impulsively…….’ My head was throbbing, but I tried to calm myself and checked the time. [04:31] Four thirty-one in the morning. I had been asleep for about six hours since I drank with Amelia, which was a little after 10 PM. ‘Okay, so what should I do…….’ I closed my eyes for a moment and organized my thoughts. The note Amelia left said that she would handle the rest alone, and that when I woke up, I should find the fragment of the record and return. Looking at the state of the city, it certainly didn’t seem difficult to infiltrate the lord’s castle. But…… ‘That’s ridiculous. So, what, she’s going to stay here alone?’ I still don’t like this approach. However, contrary to those feelings, I also had this thought. What would happen if I really did nothing? Would the future change in some way? “……Whatever, let’s get out of here first.” I ended my contemplation there. And I quickly put on my equipment. I judged that there wasn’t much time, so I could think about the rest while moving. Squeak. I hurried towards the lord’s castle. *** Smoky air. After passing through the soldiers who were busy controlling the civilians on the streets, I soon arrived at the lord’s castle. However, the castle gate, which was already firmly closed, could not be opened even with the lord’s faction’s pass. “The lord has ordered that no one be allowed inside. And it’s been a while since the mobilization order was issued, why are you only arriving now?” “……I was sleeping.” “Then go to the eastern district now. After checking, it seems that your clan has already departed a long time ago.” Ugh, how annoying. “Okay. Good work.” I turned away without any regrets and left the front of the castle gate. It’s not like there’s no way to get in just because the gate is closed. Barbarians don’t ask for permission. ‘With all this smoke, I should be invisible.’ After moving along the castle wall for a while, I made sure no one was around and [Leaped] high to jump over the wall. However, unfortunately, there was someone right on the other side. “Wh, who are you!” A soldier on patrol was shocked to see me fall from the sky. Thud-! Before it got too noisy, I quickly silenced him and ran towards the inner castle. As Amelia had said, that it would be like an empty house on the day of the operation, there were no particularly threatening figures inside the castle. Only patrolling soldiers. Probably, the main forces were fighting the forces in the eastern district, which Orculius had occupied. “Enemy!” Thud-! “An enemy has infiltrated!” Thud-! Thanks to that, I quickly skipped this section. However, the problem was from the inner castle. Kwaaang-! The moment I smashed the door of the inner castle and entered the first floor alone, explorers with ferocious expressions surrounded me. ‘Right, even if it’s an empty house, they would leave this much behind, huh?’ Elite troops who had been granted knighthood. Thanks to visiting the lord’s castle countless times over the past few months, I even recognized some of them. “……Iron Mask, why are you here? Not in the eastern district where the battle is taking place?” “Ah, I just have something to talk about with the lord.” “I can’t believe you were Orculius’s lackey.” A bald guy, whose name I couldn’t even remember, glared at me with eyes full of anger, as if he had been betrayed by a trusted comrade. I didn’t feel any guilt. I wasn’t Orculius’s lackey, and…… I had never thought of these guys as comrades in the first place. “Whatever, come at me.” “I don’t know what kind of audacity you have to crawl all the way here alone, but this is your—” What are you talking about, you’re just a bunch of level 5s. I told you to come at me, why do you keep talking? If you’re not coming, I’ll go. Kwaang-! Without wasting time on meaningless conversation, I immediately activated [Giantification] and [Leaped] into the middle of their formation. And…… “Behel—raaaaaaaaaa!!” Thanks to [Giantification], I made my already monstrously sized hammer about three times bigger with a combination of [Transcendence] and [Swing]— Whoooosh-! I spun like a top and swung the hammer. It was called, Whirlwind. I took it from the game I liked the most before I got addicted to [Dungeon & Stone]…… Its characteristic is that you can enjoy a refreshing sense of impact and sound while your body is rotating. Just like this. Kwa kwa kwa kwaaaaaang-! The glass-bodied ones burst like balloons the moment they were hit by the hammer, and some with sturdy bodies were sent flying and crashed into the walls. It was a predictable result. The hammer I was holding now was not an ordinary weapon. ‘I was clearly building a tank, but how did it end up being a setup where my damage is better than my tanking?’ No.87 Crawl’s Demon Crusher. A double number item with a 500% damage increase option when using blunt weapon skills. In short, just by holding this weapon, the power of the level 3 skill [Swing] increases fivefold. There’s no way anyone could withstand that. Ah, of course, it’s meaningless if they dodge it. “Wh, wh, what the…….” Those who had flattened themselves on the floor to avoid the hammer looked up at me with bewildered faces. Among them, some regained their senses and counterattacked. Arrows. Fire. Lightning. Axes. I checked their weapons and chuckled. ‘How come none of them are using swords?’ That’s the funny thing about Noark. Just because they’re knights doesn’t mean they can use aura. They’ve only been recognized for their loyalty and received a title, and the number of real knights who can use aura is probably one in a hundred. ‘So, those guys were all dragged to the front lines.’ After that, I continued the battle by manually slamming the hammer down on each one. Even the warriors who had their whole bodies covered in heavy armor quickly lost their minds and fell to the floor when I activated the 50% armor penetration option with ‘Slam’. About five minutes passed like that? The battle ended with the remaining few fleeing. I didn’t bother chasing after them, and I skipped looting. There wasn’t enough time, and…… I had been steadily accumulating loot in my subspace ring for months, and now there was no space left. ‘……Ha, I have to take this hammer back somehow.’ Even with those thoughts, I quickly resumed moving. My destination was not the upper floor where the lord’s study or office was located, but the underground shelter that Amelia had told me about. Tada da dat. I found the stairs leading down to the basement and ran down them, then stopped. It was because someone was coming up from below. “I wondered what the commotion was upstairs…….” Coincidentally, it was someone I had met once before. The knight who had come to recruit us on the lord’s orders. So, his name was…… “Iron Mask, why are you here?” Rick Omanus. He drew his sword as he looked at me. *** There wasn’t even time to make an excuse like I had accidentally taken the wrong path. Whoosh-! His judgment was so quick that the moment he saw me, he infused his sword with aura and prepared to engage in battle at any moment. It was after that that he tried to talk. “Answer me, Iron Mask. The reason you are here. And furthermore, how you knew about this place.” To answer the question, Amelia told me. Even if no one knows about the underground shelter now, that won’t be the case in the future. “You’re not going to answer?” At that, my heart began to beat rapidly. Thump- ‘Knights’ are the counter to tanks. Tanks are usually slow despite being sturdy, but aura ignores defense. Furthermore, tanks have low damage, making it difficult for them to harm knights. I could see that from the battle with the ‘Serpent Knight’, a former knight turned plunderer, whom I had met in the Crystal Cave. His arm was cut off like tofu. All I did was take advantage of that gap and cling to him like a cicada. The main contributor to the victory was Raven’s magic. Thump-! Moreover, the situation now is clearly different from then. A one-on-one situation with no allies. I haven’t even touched my aura-resistant setup yet. But…… Thump-! The rhythm of my heartbeat shortened, and strength entered the hand holding my weapon. It wasn’t a physical change due to fear. It was natural to feel this much tension before a battle. “So, you’re not going to answer.” “…….” “I’ll cut off your arm first.” Rick Omanus then took a knight’s stance. I answered. “Try if you can.” Yeah, it’s about time I took down a knight.