Surviving The Game As A Barbarian [EN]: Chapter 687

Confusion rippled across everyone’s faces, as if they were all in sync.

However, before jumping to conclusions, we decided to hear Baekho’s side of the story first.

“Me?” he asked.

“Yes, tell us what happened. There might be some information that could help us understand the situation,” I replied.

“I don’t really have anything like that… After waking up in the Poisonous Lava Zone, I wandered around to see if anyone else had fallen there… After a quick look, it didn’t seem like anyone was there, so I just crossed over to the Primordial Land, you know?” he explained.

There weren’t any other helpful clues after that.

He said that he found the cloth tied up a few days after entering the Primordial Land, and other than rushing to the monument, nothing else happened…

“But guess what? When I arrived, there were signs that someone had been there, but no one was around?” he added.

Baekho explained that there was even a strange entrance that hadn’t been there before, and seeing that our traces led there, he had just entered.

“Ta-da! That’s the end of my story!” he concluded.

Baekho, who had been stretching as if he was waking up, suddenly changed his expression and scanned us, asking in a low voice, “So, where’s our archer?”

“……”

“Did he die?” he asked bluntly.

His direct question left me speechless.

It’s not like it was my fault.

“Mr. Briat has died,” I stated.

“How?” he asked.

“I found his body on the way to the Primordial Forest after we got separated. It seems he was attacked by a monster,” I explained.

“……Is that so?” Baekho fell silent for a moment after that.

Of course, that silence didn’t last very long.

“Hmm, still, if only one person died, that’s a pretty good outcome,” he said, regaining his usual energy as if nothing had happened.

“Everyone must have had a hard time? Honestly, I thought everyone except the Baron and our grandpa might have died,” he continued.

“……”

“But what are we going to do without the archer? He was a bit timid, but he was really skilled,” he mused.

I couldn’t understand what was going on in his mind.

Is this guy really okay?

He was a companion he had been with for at least three years, wasn’t he?

I couldn’t understand, but that was the end of the story about Briat.

“Anyway, that’s not the important thing… So, what happened? None of us tied the cloth?” I asked.

“That’s right. Unless Baekho, you’re playing a prank,” Aures added.

“Why would I play such a prank? Ha… This is really something that could make a ghost cry,” Baekho retorted.

Well, I don’t know.

Is it really something that could make a ghost cry?

“Could it be… is there a traitor among us?” Baekho’s eyes started to bulge.

***

“It’s not me! I’m really innocent! There’s no way I could come up with such a complicated plan!” Aures immediately started defending himself as soon as he received Baekho’s gaze.

This isn’t some mafia game.

There was no reason to waste energy on useless things, so I quickly intervened in the situation.

“How about we stop suspecting our companions?” I suggested.

“Why? Isn’t this a reasonable suspicion—” Aures began.

Reasonable suspicion my ass.

“If none of us tied the cloth, shouldn’t we suspect someone else first?” I countered.

“Someone else…?” Aures asked, confused.

“Have you already forgotten? We’re not the only ones in this area,” I reminded him.

Baekho, who seemed confused by my words, opened his mouth slightly as if he had realized something.

“Ah! That bastard who lured us here! That, that, that name… Han… what was it? Ah, right! Daylan! Han—!” he exclaimed.

“Stop,” I quickly stopped him before the name, which was like a symbol of misfortune, could be completed. This time, Jaina spoke up from the side.

“But that guy is already dead, isn’t he?” she asked.

“That’s right! We defeated him after he turned into Bayon, and didn’t Lord Ruin Genesis even dismantle him?” Aures agreed, as if he had been waiting for it.

Without me having to step in, the Old Man of Destruction spoke.

“I also agree with the Baron. Wasn’t he the one who seemed to have planned to lure us here? Han—.”

“Try to use his title if possible,” I interrupted.

“……?”

“The two of you weren’t particularly close, were you? You should keep your manners,” I explained.

The old man gave me a look that seemed to say, ‘What nonsense is this?’, but he didn’t seem to want to argue.

“…Anyway, my opinion is that it’s highly likely that we met someone of unknown identity who was disguised as a man named Daylan,” he stated.

“Then what is the purpose of that unknown someone?” Jaina asked.

“I don’t know. However, we’ll naturally find out as we investigate this place. Why he called us here,” the Old Man of Destruction replied.

As the Old Man of Destruction said, we would find out eventually.

We were already trapped here, and all we could do was continue to explore this mysterious space.

“Okay, so that’s pretty much settled. We’ll search this space while being careful of that mysterious bastard. Right, Baron?” Baekho asked.

“That’s the gist of it,” I confirmed.

“Then let’s go quickly? We might meet him if we go. That son of a bitch,” Baekho said and approached me as if to hurry me along.

When I didn’t move and stayed still, he tilted his head.

“Why aren’t you going down… Ah, right. When we met earlier, you were coming up here, weren’t you?” Baekho finally realized something was strange and asked me the reason.

That’s one of the reasons why there shouldn’t be too many boatmen [a reference to the saying ‘too many cooks spoil the broth’].

The others just followed me when I insisted, but it didn’t seem like he would.

“I thought something might come out if we went up. I thought we should check it out,” I explained.

After adding a suitable explanation, Baekho seemed to think for a moment and then slapped his knee.

“You never know what might come out if you go up… Ah! Now that I think about it, this is similar to the ‘Golden Ruins’!” he exclaimed.

Ha, is it because I played the original mode for so long?

This guy, who cleared the cheat map, surprisingly knows a lot.

“Heh, so that’s what you were aiming for? Then I acknowledge it. It’s worth checking out!” he said.

“Um… what are you two talking about…?” Jaina asked, confused.

“It’s something. You guys just follow us,” I replied.

Anyway, our opinions matched, and after that, we continued to climb the stairs with Baekho joining us.

10 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes…

How much more time had passed?

I didn’t know exactly, but I started to wonder if maybe this place was different from the labyrinth and no ‘events’ would occur.

Thud.

Finally, the stairs ended, and a narrow passage appeared.

“…Huh?” Aures exclaimed.

“There really was an end…? I thought it would be an illusion or something,” Jaina added.

“What’s going to come out…” Baekho muttered.

The atmosphere seemed to be asking for an explanation, but when I started walking through the passage without a word, everyone quietly followed.

Thud, thud.

After about 10 meters, the dark vision disappeared, and a stone door appeared at the end.

I thought I should give a brief briefing before entering, but I decided to skip it.

‘They can easily take down even 3rd-grade monsters, so why bother?’ I thought.

The Golden Ruins, one of the rifts in the 4th floor.

It wasn’t even the guardian of the rift, but a hidden mid-boss, so the battle itself shouldn’t be difficult.

“Then let’s begin,” I said.

After giving that much of a hint, I immediately took out my hammer and struck the stone door.

And…

Kwaaaang-!

The stone door shattered into pieces with a single blow.

‘…What is this?’ I thought, dumbfounded.

In the game, it had quite high durability.

Even though I was raised as a damage-tank barbarian, I thought I would have to hit it at least five times to break it.

Swaaaah.

The GM removed the dust with wind magic, securing our vision, and I carefully stepped inside and looked around.

First of all, the terrain was a square-shaped chamber.

It was much better than the narrow passage, but it wasn’t very wide. Also, the walls were covered with eerie paintings, and…

Thud.

In the center, there was a 3-meter-long golden coffin.

It was a piece that could be found by going up the stairs in reverse.

Thud.

If you open that coffin, a 4th-grade monster named ‘Makairo’ appears as a mid-boss.

If you defeat it, you get a combat buff that lasts until you leave the rift, and if you’re lucky, you can get a very unique numbers item…

Thump.

I kicked the lid of the coffin, making it fall off, and quickly stepped back to create some distance.

Kwaaaang-!

As I raised my shield and prepared for battle, everyone else took their stances.

But…

“……”

“…Wasn’t something supposed to come out?” Jaina asked.

Even after the dust had settled, the boss monster showed no signs of appearing.

‘What is this now?’ I thought.

I covered my upper body with my shield and slowly approached the coffin, and when I stared blankly inside, Baekho cautiously approached and muttered, “What, is it already dead?”

Inside the coffin, there was only a skeleton that had turned completely white.

***

The bones were laid out in a lying position inside the coffin.

As I stared blankly at them, Baekho called out to the Old Man of Destruction.

“Grandpa, let’s loot it first. Even if the most valuable eyeballs have rotted away, Makairo’s bones should be a pretty good item, right?” he asked.

“It’s not needed. These bones are already worthless,” the Old Man of Destruction replied.

“What are you talking about?” Baekho asked.

“The value of monster bones lies in the magic power preserved within them. But…” The Old Man of Destruction picked up a bone and continued, “No magic power can be detected here. This is now worse than a goblin bone. It’s already so decayed that it can’t even be used as a staff.”

“…It’s the first time I’ve ever seen a creature’s bones where nothing can be felt. It usually takes more than just time for the magic power concentration to reach 0,” Jaina commented.

“In that sense, it might be worth taking a few. As this friend said, it’s a very unusual case,” the Old Man of Destruction said and put a few large bone fragments into his bag, and the GM followed suit and took a few pieces.

“Wow, so all we got after coming all the way here are a few bone fragments that are worse than goblin bones?” Baekho asked.

“Unfortunately, yes,” I replied.

“Why did it become like that?” he asked.

“Well, if we were to make a guess, there are two possibilities,” the Old Man of Destruction said, holding up two fingers.

“One is the cause of this monster’s death. Sometimes, this phenomenon appears in corpses where life force and magic power have been absorbed by black magic or Karui’s power [Karui is likely a reference to a specific power or entity within the story’s universe],” he explained.

“So, the bastard who lured us here could be a black magician or a Karui lackey? Okay, got it. Then what’s the second one?” Baekho asked.

“It’s when a very long time has passed since the corpse was created. Originally, all byproducts of living things decay or corrode over time, and their magic power scatters,” the Old Man of Destruction explained.

“Then what about making equipment out of bones? I heard that the one that came out at the auction was used by a super famous explorer from thousands of years ago and sold for a very high price,” Baekho asked.

“That’s because it was processed with magic to prevent the magic power from scattering,” the Old Man of Destruction replied.

“So, how much time has to pass for the bones to become this trash state?” Baekho asked.

“There happens to be a specimen being experimented on at the Magic Tower on that topic,” the Old Man of Destruction said.

“Ah, you mean the goblin bones from J Metal. I heard that it’s been exactly 4,000 years since the experiment started last year,” Baekho said.

“Is that so? But there’s still magic power left,” the Old Man of Destruction replied.

The bone story suddenly became long, but the main point was just one thing.

“In short, does that mean this guy could have died more than 4,000 years ago?” Baekho asked.

“If it wasn’t due to black magic or something like that,” the Old Man of Destruction added.

Of course, neither was something to worry about right now.

How would we know how it died, or how long ago it died?

‘…It’s too bad that we didn’t get the buff?’ I thought.

And I was secretly expecting it.