Surviving The Game As A Barbarian [EN]: Chapter 83

Thud.

As the Barbarian collapsed, kicking up dust, Amelia Rainwales, teeth gritted, hunched over.

‘The price of carelessness, huh.’

Her ribs were broken.

The blood-soaked skin was stinging, no, burning.

Her internal organs felt badly damaged as well.

‘I don’t even know how long it’s been since I’ve been in this kind of situation.’

Her body would recover on its own soon enough.

But the pain, which she felt for the first time in a long while, was too vivid.

She had prided herself on being used to pain.

Chuckling.

A hollow laugh escaped her lips without her realizing it.

Even if it was the result of her own arrogance.

It was absurd to think that a three-month-old Barbarian had created this situation.

‘He’s a fascinating one.’

It wasn’t just about the abilities he possessed.

His instantaneous judgment, and the boldness and decisiveness to put it into action.

Above all, his will to live.

A thought suddenly crossed her mind.

‘If we had met a little later… the result might have been different.’

Of course, that was unrealistic.

She had grown up being told she had the best talent, and she had been going in and out of the labyrinth for a full 20 years.

But…

‘The fact that I’m even thinking that is the problem. It means he’s that dangerous.’

It had only been a month since their first encounter.

Time enough to enter the labyrinth only once or so.

And yet, how had this Barbarian changed?

The Barbarian, who couldn’t even touch her clothes, had brought her to this state.

Chiiiiiik-!

Even though his neck was completely severed, he didn’t die, and his body began to regenerate.

Amelia slowly walked towards him.

Thud-.

There were many abilities that had the effect of overcoming death, like [Source of Darkness].

But that didn’t mean they were invincible.

Just look at this Barbarian.

Thud-

His head was completely smashed, leaving him completely defenseless.

[Eternal Life] was activated, and he was recovering quickly?

It would take a tremendous amount of time to recover from this level of injury, and if his soul power ran out, even that would be impossible.

In other words.

If she wanted to kill him, she could do it anytime.

But without hesitation, she put away her dagger and took out a potion.

No matter what anyone said,

‘It’s clear they’re not the ones sent by the royal family, so there’s no need to kill them.’

She wasn’t a murderer.

***

There was a hint.

The voices that came from both the front and the back at the same time.

If I had been a little smarter and calmer, I might have been able to recognize the variable of [Self-Replication].

If that had been the case, Plan A and B would have been a little different too.

‘Well, even then, the result would have been the same, I guess.’

Feeling a strange sensation as if my fragmented mind was being reassembled, I slowly opened my eyes.

“What a monstrous regeneration.”

The first thing I saw was the psycho bitch.

“To recover completely with just one potion.”

“Po, tion…?”

I croaked out, raising my upper body.

Only then did I notice that my head area was very wet.

It didn’t seem to be all blood…

Could it be that this woman had poured a potion on me?

“Why the hell—”

“Why didn’t I kill you?”

I nodded.

Well, I was glad to be alive…

But honestly, I was sure I had died the moment I lost consciousness.

The woman looked at me with an annoyed expression.

“You… you haven’t changed at all, now or then.”

“What…?”

“Then and now, why do you always rush at me as soon as you see me? I never thought I’d say this, but usually, wouldn’t you think of resolving things through conversation first?”

She had a point.

It was all because of my habit of always assuming the worst-case scenario.

I replied in a calm voice.

“If you were planning to kill me, I thought that was the only way.”

When there was even the slightest opening.

Before the paralysis poison spread any further in my body.

I judged that I had to make a move.

The woman just let out a short sigh.

“Why? I clearly let you live and sent you away last time, didn’t I?”

Her voice was still blunt, but it sounded a little resentful.

But I was the one who was really resentful.

“Didn’t you say it yourself? That you couldn’t let me go since I found out about this place.”

If she hadn’t said that, Plan C, which was to beg for my life, would have remained Plan A.

Did I want to fight a monster like this?

“I clearly remember saying I couldn’t let you go ‘just like that’.”

It was the same thing.

Since the woman had been showing a receptive attitude since a while ago, I asked more boldly.

“So, what are you going to do with me now?”

“I don’t intend to kill you. So, get your hand away from there.”

I stopped my arm, which was slowly moving towards my mace.

And I said firmly.

“It’s a misunderstanding.”

“A misunderstanding?”

“I didn’t think of ambushing you with this. I just—”

“You were just preparing for when my mind changed?”

…Well, yeah, that’s it.

The best defense is offense.

When I didn’t affirm or deny it, the woman stared down at me.

With a look as if to say, ‘What kind of crazy bastard is this?’

“You really haven’t changed at all.”

With those words, the woman spat on the floor.

For a moment, I thought she was the rowdy type, but upon closer inspection, it was blood, not spit.

My aggressive defense before I passed out must have done some damage.

“…You didn’t take a potion?”

“It’s my constitution.”

“I see.”

It was a brief explanation, but I held back my words.

There were some essences that would actually penalize you when you took a potion.

Anyway, back to the main point.

“Barbarian, eat this.”

The woman took out something like a pill from her pocket.

The dark, murky thing looked like a cat had thrown up its food.

“What is this…?”

“It’s a medicine made by an alchemist from Noah Arc. If you take it, it will erase your memories for one hour.”

“Erase my memories…? Then why didn’t you use this when we met in the Land of the Dead?”

“It’s not something that’s easy to get. In the first place, I wouldn’t even have this if it wasn’t something I was given to use in case of an emergency.”

It was a precious item.

But there was another question.

It was definitely not my place to say this, but…

“Wouldn’t it be easier to just kill me? Why go through such a troublesome method?”

There’s a saying that nothing is more precious than a human life.

That was only true in the world I used to live in.

In this world, there are countless things more valuable than human life.

For example, even now, many people are dying on the surface because they couldn’t pay their taxes.

In the midst of all that…

‘To go so far as to use a precious consumable to let us live…’

I said with conviction.

“There must be a reason why you have to do that.”

“…What makes you think that?”

“If you killed the five of us, the equipment alone would be worth tens of millions of stones.”

The woman was silent for a while at my sharp observation.

I thought it was because I had hit the nail on the head.

But the words that came out after the silence were unexpected.

“What do you think I am?”

“That’s…”

As I was wondering if I should be honest, the woman cut me off.

“You don’t have to say it. I think I know.”

It seemed like she had something to feel guilty about too.

But she didn’t want to make excuses?

“Whatever, think whatever you want. Nothing will change anyway.”

The woman bent down, forcibly opened my mouth, and shoved the pill down my throat.

The pill melted away without me being able to spit it out later.

Whoosh!

It felt like a fire was rising in my head.

A sensation completely different from pain.

“…Hey, you’re sure I’ll just lose my memory and that’s it, right?”

“If not, do you have any other choice?”

Uh, if you put it that way, I don’t really have anything to say…

The woman chuckled as she saw me speechless.

“I haven’t heard of any side effects. So, rest easy, Barbarian.”

Well, if that’s the case.

Honestly, I wasn’t relieved at all, but I closed my eyes.

But then, the woman opened her mouth as if she had just remembered something.

“Ah, so what was the other one?”

Uh? The other one?

“The two ways to make people angry.”

Ah, that.

“That’s…”

I lost consciousness just like that.

***

「The blessing of Lethe permeates your character’s soul.」

「The soul is not eligible for the blessing. The blessing that permeated the soul is removed.」

***

When I opened my eyes, I was in the sewer.

The equipment that had been taken off was scattered around, and the same was true for my companions.

Thud.

Using my hand as a support, I slowly raised my filth-covered body.

And as I was picking up my equipment and putting it on, my companions also came to their senses one by one.

They all had confused looks on their faces.

“Uh, this is a sewer…?”

“Wh, what is going on? We were clearly chasing after that evil witch…”

“Video recorder! If we check the video recorder… Damn it, it’s broken!”

My companions, who couldn’t remember anything, as if the psycho bitch’s words were true.

From what I heard, their last memory was following Hans E to the hideout…

‘…Why am I okay?’

Even when I slowly retraced my memories, the events that happened before I lost consciousness were clearly vivid.

Why the hell?

As I was thinking about the reason.

‘Wait, then what happened to that bitch?’

It was only then that I remembered Elisa, and my mind snapped back to reality.

‘…Could it be that she kept her alive and took her with her?’

She wasn’t visible around here.

Damn it, if I had known this would happen, I would have killed her back then, regardless of the bounty—

“Hey, everyone, look over there!!”

“Huh? Isn’t that the woman?”

What?

As soon as I turned my head, I saw a woman collapsed a little ways away.

A blonde head covered in filth.

An adorable back of the head that made me want to smash it.

It was definitely Elisa.

“Sh, she’s dead!”

The dwarf, who had rushed over and checked her pulse, declared her dead.

This added to the confusion.

“It’s, it’s a mystery. Why do we have no memories, and why is this woman dead…?”

“D, Dwarki, could it be that the monster you mentioned came out?!”

Various speculations flew around along with bewildered voices.

Rotmiller, who had been maintaining his composure, came up with a plausible hypothesis.

“…I think it’s all this woman’s doing.”

“What? This woman’s doing?”

“We probably found this woman after chasing her. And we probably won.”

Rotmiller presented Elisa’s limbs as evidence for his claim. He said that it would be difficult to crush them so perfectly unless it was with my mace.

“Th, that’s right, I can feel traces of my magic on this woman.”

Soon, Dwarki also found traces of [Paralysis Poison] in the corpse, solidifying their suspicions.

Then, only one question remained for them.

“Then why don’t we remember anything?”

Why did they lose their memories?

“If my guess is correct, we were going to take this woman alive to the city. But… at that time, this woman regained consciousness and did something, I think.”

It was a plausible story.

I would have analyzed the situation in that way even if I had lost my memory.

“Certainly… if it’s the power of a little-known evil god, something like this might be possible.”

“Hahaha! Still, seeing her dead like this, it seems like we managed to resolve it somehow!”

“…Bjorn, what do you think?”

“Well…”

I pondered for a moment before answering.

The conclusion they had come to and accepted was quite different from the truth I remembered…

“I think Rotmiller is right.”

There was no need to say anything.

If it was known that I hadn’t lost my memory, I didn’t know when that psycho bitch would come looking for me again.

“Let’s get out of here and go to the temple first. Not only have we lost our memories, but there might be something wrong with our bodies.”