Surviving the Game As a Barbarian [EN]: Chapter 547

Day 87 of dungeon entry.

While going through my morning routine, I received unusual news from Amelia.

‘A ghost, huh…’

Amelia couldn’t find anything when she checked, but there were more than one or two witnesses, so we couldn’t just ignore it.

Excluding Amelia, everyone in the guard team had seen it at least once during their night watch?

So, I called them all in for a brief interview.

“I felt something eerie and turned my head that way, and there, something with white hair was staring at me.”

Starting with Mikhail Lectus from the Royal Investigation Department, I listened to the testimonies of everyone who had seen the ghost, but surprisingly, they all saw different forms.

“What I saw was a beast monster with fangs sticking out this much…”

“Mine was a bit different… It was a man wearing tattered clothes. His eyes were completely black, and he was looking at me with resentful eyes, shedding tears of blood.”

“What I saw was like a slime. It was stuck to the floor as if it had melted, and it was approaching me from the darkness. But when I rubbed my eyes for a moment, it had disappeared. So, I just thought I was seeing things because I was tired.”

So many different accounts.

But there was one thing all the accounts had in common.

That was that it disappeared from sight when they looked away for a moment…

“Did you all see it yesterday?”

“No, the timings are all different. After Lectus mentioned it during his night watch yesterday, I asked everyone, and it seems everyone except me has seen it at least once.”

I see, so that’s how it is…

As I was stroking my chin and pondering, I heard something grinding next to me.

Crr-crunch, cr-crunch, crrr-crunch-!

The source of the sound was Ainar’s jaw.

Barbarians tend to clench their jaws too hard when they’re scared.

“G, g, ghosts… I, isn’t that dangerous…!!”

Come to think of it, Ainar has always been terrified of things like this.

Actually, most barbarians were like that.

They feel a physiological unease towards spirit-type monsters, and many of them even have such fear.

Later, I was curious and asked Raven about this characteristic, and I got this answer.

The blood of the barbarian race.

In other words, there’s a possibility that information about natural enemies that physical force doesn’t work on is engraved in their genes?

Due to the barbarian’s tendency to rely on instinct, such characteristics may be commonly manifested in many individuals, he said.

Well, that’s not what’s important right now.

“I smell something.”

“Huh? Smell? Is it the smell of meat…!!”

At my mutter, Ainar started sniffing around, looking around.

Is his desire for meat greater than his fear of ghosts?

It’s absurd, but I ignored it.

Because the smell I’m smelling right now isn’t that kind of smell.

‘Meat is good, but…’

There are things in the world that are more delicious than meat.

The smell I’m smelling is one of those kinds of things.

‘Hidden Piece.’

That which is so alluring that any user who has played [Dungeon & Stone] would be instantly captivated upon discovery.

But as soon as I heard about the ghost, I smelled that smell.

Slurp.

The smell of a Hidden Piece, full of milk and honey.

And it’s very strong.

***

Hidden Piece.

In this world, it’s called Gavrilius’s Legacy.

Having found countless Hidden Pieces while playing [Dungeon & Stone], I immediately started working.

First, what I needed most was information.

And a lot of diverse information that could be statistically analyzed.

“Time… you mean?”

“It was a little after 1 AM.”

“It was the first night watch… so it must have been around 11 PM.”

As a result of asking all the members who had witnessed the ghost, the ghost only appeared between 11 PM and 3 AM.

Is this really a coincidence?

‘No way.’

The time when the library’s ghost appears is between 11 PM and 3 AM.

“There! It was there. It was looking at me from there.”

“Mine was on top of that bookshelf…”

“In my case, it was on the staircase leading outside.”

The location seems to be random.

Well, should I say it’s not random, but the entire library?

“Mister, do you think that ghost might be one of Gavrilius’s arrangements?”

As I was diligently researching, Erwen looked at me with curious eyes.

No, it wasn’t just her.

“Well, for now, yes.”

When I gave an affirmative answer, all the explorers who were eavesdropping lit up their eyes.

“Gavrilius’s arrangement!”

“It was real!”

Not to mention the Armin Exploration Team, who specialized in finding Hidden Pieces, even the members of the Hecetz Clan had strong desires in their eyes.

Well, how can an explorer resist that?

“If… if we find the ghost, can we get treasure? I heard that people who found the arrangements became rich.”

Even Ainar, who was afraid of ghosts, revealed his true intentions. Ah, but not everyone was blinded by it.

Just one person.

Only one person came to me and expressed concern.

“Yandel, it’s dangerous to think too positively.”

Amelia Rainwales.

My companion, connected by a bond that transcends time.

“Dangerous?”

“Exactly. It seems like you’re thinking too positively, unlike you.”

Ah, I think I know what she means.

Actually, I thought about it as soon as I heard about the ghost.

What if that ghost is a surveillance role sent by someone, and we just happened to find it?

‘For example, the village chief.’

Just like the incident with the Silver Lion Clan leader who made an emergency escape on the day we revisited the library.

It’s not good to only see the existence of the ghost as a positive thing.

In the first place, even if it’s not the village chief, it might not be a ‘positive’ thing.

“Emily, I understand what you mean. I’m keeping it in mind, so don’t worry too much.”

“…If that’s the case. I understand.”

“Yeah, thanks for telling me.”

My intuition was still telling me that the ghost was related to the Hidden Piece, but for now, I decided to be a little more cautious, as Amelia advised.

Assuming the worst in any situation is helpful.

‘Which one it is… I’ll know when night comes.’

After that conclusion, I returned to my main job and spent the day summoning monsters.

I spent the whole day fighting monsters, taking only the necessary breaks, but unfortunately, there wasn’t much to gain today.

‘Just one 4th-grade essence that I can’t even eat…’

Normally, I would have put it in a test tube, saying it was a jackpot, but now I’ve become someone who can’t be satisfied with just that.

‘Tch.’

The most disappointing thing is that I was lucky enough to find Bellarios again and caught two more, but no essence came out.

Still, at this rate, I think I’ll be able to get it before leaving the first basement floor. The frequency of them appearing in the books has definitely increased as the bookshelves have gotten taller.

‘Anyway, what should I do with the remaining essence slot?’

Currently, I have two essence slots left.

One of them is fixed with Bellarios’s essence, and Hipramant’s essence is planned to go into the Orc Hero slot later, so it doesn’t count.

I’m getting more and more worried about the remaining slot.

Because this slot isn’t fixed.

It was just something I thought would be good to fill in preparation for a possible conflict with the village chief, but I can’t get the graduation essences in the current state.

Unless another 8th-floor rift guardian like Milayel appears, whatever I eat, I’ll have to erase it in a few months.

‘……Let’s think about it as we see what comes out. There’s no urgent reason to rush right now.’

It would be different if I hadn’t gotten the Aegis Barrier.

Now that I’ve even obtained the graduation shield, there’s no reason to be impatient, even if it’s the village chief.

Thinking that, I ended my thoughts.

Tick, tock-

The library, where preparations for camping were completed after finishing the day.

[23:00]

Night had fallen.

***

11 PM.

It was the time when everyone in our exploration team, except for those on night watch, was sound asleep, resting up for tomorrow’s work. But surprisingly, there were quite a few people awake.

“The Great Sage’s arrangement…”

“Do you think that’s true?”

“Even if it’s not, I’m still curious. It might hold a clue to escaping this place.”

Like children who can’t sleep the night before a picnic, the explorers lay in bed, chatting with their companions. Seriously, just go to sleep already.

“Everyone, stop chattering and close your eyes! If too many of you are awake, it might not appear!”

After patrolling and catching those who were stubbornly staying awake, the library quickly became quiet. Well, the conversations disappeared, but it was far from silent.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

Snore-. Snore, snore-.

The sound of dozens of explorers snoring, some loud and some soft.

“It seems everyone’s asleep.”

“So, what are you going to do now?”

“What else? We have to wander around and look for it.”

After confirming that everyone was asleep, I led Amelia and Bersyl to patrol the surroundings. And then…

“So… we have to keep doing this until 3 AM?”

After about an hour of patrolling without finding anything, Bersyl spoke up. It didn’t seem like she was particularly dissatisfied with the patrol, but…

“How is Yandel doing these days?”

It seemed she was bored with the quiet. Well, I felt similarly, so I naturally accepted the signal for small talk.

“What do you mean, ‘How am I doing these days’?”

“Just in general. Everyone’s curious, too.”

“Curious about what, exactly?”

When I asked again, Bersyl glanced at Amelia, who was patrolling alone in the distance, and whispered softly.

“So, who is it?”

“No, please, can you use a subject?”

“Oh, come on… you know what I mean.”

Well, that’s true. It’s not like I’m oblivious. I chuckled and replied.

“It’s no one.”

“Huh? Really? I thought you were dating Raines, if no one else.”

“No way. We’re just colleagues.”

“Hee… Is that so?”

Bersyl said, sounding completely unconvinced, and then brought up another name.

“Then, what about Carlstein? You’ve been spending a lot more time together recently.”

“More time, huh.”

It’s just that we’ve become a little less awkward. That’s why we’ve been talking more lately. Mostly trivial things like whether the food is good or not, or telling her to eat her vegetables.

“Well, everyone is paying attention. After all, she’s the Baron’s only ex-lover.”

Ugh, being in the labyrinth for so long has made everyone only interested in this kind of thing. Small talk during patrol is welcome, but this topic was stressful, so I decided to end it here.

“That’s enough, be quiet. Everyone’s sleeping.”

They’re valuable personnel who have to work hard tomorrow, so they should at least sleep comfortably.

“……”

What, why isn’t she answering? Is she sulking? That thought crossed my mind, and I turned around.

“…Yandel.”

Bersyl, who was following behind me, stopped walking and murmured quietly, as if using ventriloquism.

“Over there, over there.”

Her head was facing me, but her eyes moved to the side, indicating the direction. I also moved my eyes in the same way to check the direction. And…

“Right? That’s the ghost people were talking about.”

“Well, I don’t know for sure, but it’s worth checking out.”

“…It’s kind of scary. They didn’t say it looked so gruesome.”

Hearing that, I couldn’t help but tilt my head. ‘Gruesome looking…?’ It seemed like Bersyl and I were seeing completely different things. ‘How strange.’ All I could see was a rat.

***

A mysterious creature living in the library. Its characteristics are that it appears between 11 PM and 3 AM, and that everyone sees it differently. It was a mysterious creature in many ways, but surprisingly, it wasn’t too difficult to capture.

「The character has activated [Eye of the Storm].」

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

It flew right into my grasp with one grab. [Squeak? Squeak, squeak—!!!] It was so small that I didn’t even need to use [Giantification]; it fit perfectly in one hand. However, at that moment.

[Squeak, squeak! Squeak, squeak!!]

The rat, screaming, began to turn translucent. Just as I was about to panic and crush it with my hand.

「Bersyl Gowland has cast the 8th-grade curse magic [Materialization].」

Bersyl responded in time, and the rat’s body returned to normal.

“What was that sound just now…”

Amelia, who had rushed over after hearing the commotion, frowned at me.

“Yandel, what’s that in your hand?”

“Well, what does it look like to you?”

“…Something very squishy and disgusting.”

“Really? What about you, Bersyl?”

“A man covered in filth… suspiciously similar to someone I know.”

“Someone you know…?”

“It’s someone Yandel doesn’t know.”

Hmm, I see… [Squeak, squeak! Squeak, squeak—! Squeak, squeak!!!] I smacked my lips and looked down at the thing in my hand. It looked like a normal rat to me. Or maybe like a hamster standing on two legs? The only difference was that, unlike Earth’s hamsters, it was very large. In fact, it was big enough to play a game of measuring height with a dwarf using acorns… [Squeak! Squeak—! Squeak, squeak!!!] Seeing it struggling so desperately, it even looked kind of cute. But that’s that, and this is this.

“First, let’s wake up the team… no, we don’t need to.”

Everyone on the team had already woken up from the commotion and was looking this way.

“…Is that the ghost?”

“It’s a truly gruesome form.”

“If I had seen that alone at night, I might have been terrified…”

Regardless of their reactions, I headed to the center of the library with the rat in my hand. And… Thud. I placed the rat on the altar where I usually put the summoning book.

“…This doesn’t work?”

Unfortunately, the altar didn’t react at all. Therefore… [Squeak, squeak! Squeak, squeak—! Squeak, squeak!!!] I was left with two options.

1. Just kill it.

2. Kill it after applying a distortion magic.

Which one should I test? I had to decide carefully since there was only one specimen. [Squeak, squeak! Squeak, squeak!!!] I was still pondering, having tied the creature to the altar like a lab rat. [You, you impudent thing!! Let me go right now! I said let me go!] …Suddenly, the rat started talking like a human.