Surviving the Game As a Barbarian [EN]: Chapter 602

When a guardian is defeated, the rift is cleared, and a portal opens. And if you go through that portal, you can return to the location where you originally entered.

Well, at least that’s usually how it’s been so far.

“Two portals…”

And they’re even red and blue.

It’s not like they’re pills or anything.

“If we choose the wrong one, will we end up in a strange place…?”

I’m getting a lot of thoughts because of this unexpected situation.

It seems like nothing goes normally on this first basement floor.

It’s like everything is shrouded in mystery.

‘This essence too…’

The portal that opened when the rift was cleared doesn’t disappear even after time passes.

Well, I don’t know if this rule applies here properly.

Anyway, I took my attention away from the portal for a moment and checked the essence.

“It’s truly a mysterious color…”

The Village Chief still had a curious look in his eyes.

Well, since he’s from a time before the Floor Masters and rifts, it must be his first time seeing a rainbow-colored essence.

“Baron, can you explain what kind of essence this is?”

“I don’t know.”

“Ah, so it seems the Baron is also seeing this monster for the first time?”

“No, that’s not it…”

Feeling frustrated, I couldn’t help but sigh and continued speaking.

“Soul Eaters don’t usually drop essences.”

It’s not just that I haven’t been able to get one yet.

Soul Eaters give a large amount of experience points. Even if I skip other monsters, I always hunt this one whenever I raise a new character.

But an essence has never dropped even once.

Even when I maximized the essence drop rate with Beginner’s Luck and Melton’s Soul Clover, it was the same.

So I thought, ‘Ah, this one doesn’t drop essences…’

‘I didn’t know there would be a way to acquire it like this.’

Then, what is the effect of the Soul Eater’s essence?

I think it will have at least one active skill, ‘Soul Soldier’ summoning… I’ll have to experiment after I eat it to know the details.

Ah, of course, I don’t plan on eating it myself.

“Gahwin! Wake up!”

I put Gahwin, who I had been carrying on my shoulder, down on the floor and gently tapped his cheek. Now that an essence has dropped, there was no time to wait leisurely.

The essence must be put into a test tube within 30 minutes.

“Gahwin! Gahwin! Gahwin!”

So I gradually increased the strength of the taps on his cheek.

I don’t feel good about doing this to someone who collapsed from pain, but…

Isn’t the essence more important than a person?

“Ugh…”

Fortunately, Gahwin regained consciousness when his cheeks were swollen.

“Ba… Baron? Wh-where is this…”

Gahwin spoke as if he was still dizzy, probably from the shock of the fall.

I briefly stated the key points.

The way to handle mages is similar anyway.

“While you were unconscious, the Soul Eater appeared as a guardian, and when we caught it, a guardian essence came out.”

“Wh-what?!”

As expected, Gahwin’s eyes immediately changed, and he jumped up. Yeah, how can a mage resist a new type of guardian essence?

“Ugh… I, I can’t get up.”

“Of course not. Your legs are so twisted. Even a barbarian can’t move with those legs—”

“…Hiiiik!!”

Gahwin made a strange noise as he finally checked his legs.

However, he seemed to think the essence was more important than his broken legs.

“Move me… move me to the front. I can’t walk.”

I took Gahwin to the essence as he requested, and then found the test tube and put it in his hand as he asked.

And how much time passed?

“Hoo… It’s done.”

The essence went into the test tube, and Gahwin carefully put the test tube into the test tube storage box, ending the essence collection.

“But… what are those portals…? Why are there two portals…”

“Ah, that? We have to think about that from now on. We don’t know yet either.”

“I, I see…”

“So, what’s your opinion?”

“If you ask me what I think like that—”

“Just say whatever comes to mind.”

“Hmm… First of all, I think one of them is definitely connected to where we were originally…”

Gahwin, who was just saying whatever came to his mind as I asked, suddenly trailed off.

And then he made a blank expression for a moment.

“The blue portal…!”

He shouted with conviction as if he had realized something.

“If we go through the blue portal, we can return to where we were originally!”

It seemed like the ‘intuition’ that had been sealed when he entered the Great Maze had been activated again.

“Then what about the red portal? Do you know anything about this one?”

“Th-this one, I’m not sure. It’s ambiguous. I feel like it’s dangerous… but it doesn’t feel like a bad choice.”

“It’s dangerous, but it’s a portal where we can definitely get rewards…”

“Uh… can you interpret it that way?”

Of course, I’ve been playing [Dungeon & Stone] for years.

I can tell right away.

***

Thanks to Gahwin, the choices have narrowed down to two.

…Actually, if you think about it, there were two choices from the beginning.

Safely go out through the blue portal.

Take the red portal and challenge for additional rewards.

Before making a choice, I was given information that would allow me to make a proper judgment.

So, which one should I choose?

‘Considering that clearing the first basement floor is the top priority, it’s not bad to just go out from here…’

Just because we entered the rift doesn’t mean we should forget.

Our goal is to escape the first basement floor, and the rift is just a stepping stone for that.

And the rift has already been cleared.

But…

‘It feels a bit anticlimactic to just eat one Soul Eater essence and go back…’

I haven’t been here for even a week, but the three of them, including the Village Chief, have been trapped in this rift for over half a year. It was a huge rift.

And this is all the reward?

I don’t know what the Soul Eater essence’s performance will be, and even the Archbishop has disappeared after changing jobs to a Karui Priest.

“It’s time to decide. You decide. I will follow you anywhere.”

“Me too.”

The Village Chief and Erwen passed the decision-making power to me, and Gahwin urgently tried to persuade me.

“Baron, let go of your greed. We’ve already lost the Archbishop, so going further from here is excessive. Who knows what’s beyond there?”

Gahwin’s words made sense.

But it’s not just my personal greed that’s making me do this.

Additional rewards beyond that portal?

Good. Whatever it is, it will be helpful.

But it doesn’t matter much if we don’t get it.

The part I’m expecting from that red portal is something completely different.

‘If we go over there…’

Maybe we can get one step closer to the secret of this labyrinth.

It might help us escape the first basement floor.

Also, and this is the most important thing…

‘It’s too easy.’

The difficulty is too low.

Well, we did lose the Archbishop in the process…

Even considering that, it doesn’t make sense.

‘…It’s still unsettling.’

Based on my experience, there’s usually a trap mixed in these situations.

Therefore.

“Let’s put the decision on hold for now.”

“Hold… you mean?”

“If we go back like this, we still don’t know what will happen to the Archbishop.”

“That’s true, but…”

Gahwin trails off.

It was like he was nodding at the words ‘we still don’t know,’ but in fact, both Gahwin and I knew.

That if we go back like this, there’s a high chance that it’ll be the end.

“But it can’t be helped. There’s a sacrifice in everything. In fact, several people have already lost their lives since we came down to the first basement floor… If we die here, even those sacrifices will become meaningless.”

There was no logical error in his opinion.

Well, it’s not like I didn’t feel his petty mindset of prioritizing his own safety in that line.

Actually, I’m petty too.

“Regardless of the Archbishop’s life or death, I think we should look around and investigate before going through the portal. There must be something we missed while coming here.”

Four canyons.

The field debuff that messed with our minds.

The Lord of Silence and the Karui Priest.

The boss fight that ended so anticlimactically.

Somehow, we cleared the rift and opened the portal, but there are too many parts I missed. And if we leave now, we might never find out about those parts.

“…Do we really have to do that? I can’t even move properly right now.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll carry you and protect you.”

“Haa…”

Having seen countless sighs, I immediately knew that Gahwin’s sigh meant agreement.

Okay, so the persuasion is over…

“Okay, let’s go now.”

After memorizing the location of the portal one more time, I started moving with the Village Chief in the lead.

“Isn’t this… the direction where that monster was earlier?”

“That’s right.”

The place where the Lord of Silence, Siliet, was buried.

Before the full-scale exploration, I was thinking of going back there first.

Well, Gahwin is here now.

“That ‘intuition’ is still working well, right?”

“For now… it is.”

“We won’t be able to talk when we get close, so investigate as much as you can. Don’t be too scared since you can’t even move.”

“I, I will…”

Gahwin seemed like he wanted to go back and dive into the blue portal right away, but there was no way a guy who couldn’t even walk properly could escape from my shoulder.

And so, we entered his territory.

「The character has entered the range of [Silence].」

「All essence skills are sealed.」

Seeing that the sound was being erased, it seems he’s still alive, thankfully.

In fact, the Lord of Silence, who was buried in the debris, appeared soon after.

“…”

“…”

He was still just looking at me with powerless eyes, and I strode up to him and bent down so that Gahwin could see him well.

“…!”

Gahwin, who was trembling at first, reached out and touched his skin after realizing it wasn’t dangerous.

And how much time passed?

Tuk tuk.

Gahwin tapped my shoulder, signaling that he wanted to leave.

“How was it?”

The story I heard after quickly getting out of the area was simple.

“…First of all, I don’t think he’s our enemy. The moment I made eye contact, a warning bell rang in my head that I should never kill him.”

…Hmm.

“This is just my guess… but maybe the reason why the guardian was weak was all because of the Baron’s actions.”

“Because of my actions?”

“You said you could have killed him, but you just passed him by. I think that’s the reason.”

In other words, if we had killed him, we might have had a much harder boss fight.

‘If that’s true, it explains why the boss fight was easy…’

Then what about the Archbishop?

Suddenly, his eyes went crazy, and he changed jobs to a Karui Priest.

Is that an event that was supposed to happen?

Or was it a situation we could have prevented if we had handled it well?

I think it’s more likely the latter.

It’s too unreasonable if it’s the former—.

Kwaaaang-!

Then suddenly, an explosion occurred in the distance, and the ground shook.

The source of the explosion was the direction where the Lord of Silence was.

「The Sealer Siliet has died.」

What on earth is going on?

The answer to that question came from Gahwin’s mouth, who was on my shoulder.

“Th-the Lord of Silence is dead…”

The Lord of Silence, Siliet, has died.

And…

“We have to run away! It’s not the time to worry about whether we missed anything during the exploration!”

“Calm down for a moment and explain properly—”

“The portal is about to close!”

“What?”

There was no need to ask how he found out about that fact.

It must be his intuition working again.

“…Run!”

There will be enough time to think while we’re running.

First, I sprinted towards the portal with all my might.

“Mister! Behind you! The Archbishop is following us from behind!”

As expected, it seems that the one who killed the Lord of Silence was the Archbishop.

“How fast is he?”

“He’s about as fast as us… Be, be careful!”

Be careful of what?

I don’t know, but I slightly twisted my body.

And at that moment.

Thwack-!

Something sharp pierced my left shoulder.

The wound wasn’t that deep.

That’s because I was carrying Gahwin on the shoulder that was stabbed.

“…Cough, cough!”

The blood that Gahwin coughed up stained my upper body.

“Guh… huh… cough…”

Gahwin was having trouble breathing as if he was about to die, but there was no big problem.

Fortunately, the portal was right in front of us.

If we just get out of here, he can survive with the intensive treatment of many priests.

Yeah, so…

Tuk.

As soon as I arrived at the portal, I threw Gahwin’s body into it.

Whoo-oong-!

The portal was about half the size as before, but thankfully, it was working properly.

“Erwen, you go in too.”

“Mister! What about you—!”

I quickly threw Erwen into the portal before it got any smaller.

“What about you? Why aren’t you going through?”

“No matter how much I think about it, I don’t think this is the right answer.”

When I turned around, I saw the Village Chief with a frown and the Archbishop approaching from beyond him.

The Archbishop, whose spine was strangely bent, was floating in the air, buried in tentacles.

It was a gruesome sight that sent shivers down my spine.

“You, are you thinking of going through the other portal?”

“First, I want to check one thing first.”

“You’re still the same even in this situation. So, what do you want to check?”

“I remember you saying that if you went all out, you could kill the Archbishop… Is that still possible now?”

The Village Chief paused for a moment before opening his mouth.

“Well…”

He said that, but there was no hesitation in his eyes.

“There’s no one else to see but you. Anyway, no matter how damaged my body is, I’ll be fine after I die once…”

“Just get to the point.”

“Well, okay. I don’t think I can’t do it.”

The Village Chief shrugged and asked me a question.

“But why did you suddenly think of that? It would be easier for both of us if we just left like this.”

“Didn’t I say I had something to check? So, will you do it?”

“…Keep your promise.”

With those words, aura began to rise on the Village Chief’s sword.

Whooo-oong-!

The pure white aura that was also the trademark of Count Saintred.

However, the Village Chief’s aura was a little different from the original owner of the body.

‘What is that?’

The aura surrounding the sword kept growing.

As if there was no limit.

Whooo-oong-!

Even the Archbishop, who seemed to be rushing in, lost his mind and stopped moving for a moment due to the aura that was emitting a truly mountainous force.

And…

“How did he do that…? Can he really use his abilities from his past life?”

The words I muttered without realizing it.

“Well, you could say it’s an ability from my past life.”

The Village Chief chuckled and continued.

“The knights of this era are terrible.”

“…?”

“Aura is not supposed to be used like that.”

With those words.

——————!

A light flashed.

***

「Special Condition – The Third Record is fulfilled.」