Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Novel 2026 - Chapter 546
Chapter 546: Ghost (4)
The morning following my visit to the community board, I felt a deep exhaustion as I opened my eyes and began my daily routine.
To put it simply, I ate breakfast.
“Here, here. The food is here!”
Things had changed from back when the three groups were moving together without a plan. We had something like formations and positions for everyone outside of combat as well now. For instance, a total of four people were assigned to meals and provided for everyone each day. Oh, and the one who oversaw the meals was Missha.
“How is it? Does it suit your tastes? Since it’s breakfast, I put in a little less spice.”
“Other than the fact that there isn’t much meat, it’s fine.”
“Ah…meat…”
“I was joking. We need to save the meat since we don’t know what will happen.”
After the meal ended, I approached Versyl, who was in charge of inventory and checked on our food situation with her.
“We have enough to feed all thirty-eight people for sixty-one more days. If we downsize everyone’s portion starting now, we might be able to increase the day count by about four days.”
“No, that’s fine. If we reduce it any more here, how are we going to fight?”
We had about two months’ worth of food left.
Honestly, this was thanks to the Armin Adventurer Group coming in with a considerable amount of food. The Hektz Clan, on the other hand, had been shipwrecked, had used up all their food, and was panicked. Our Anabada Clan had prepared enough food to feed our seven members for four months.
The eighty-sixth day…
If this were a regular labyrinth floor, it would mean that the seventh floor had already closed and ten more days had passed on top of that.
However, we were still inside the labyrinth.
At this rate, I can’t be sure we’ll be able to get out even on the two-hundredth day.
Of course, that didn’t mean I was worried about our food situation. Soon, new adventurers would come down here with their supplies, and if that wasn’t enough, we could hunt while casting distortion magic on the monsters.
Just like in Ice Rock.
“Anyway, got it. If someone says they need something other than food, give it to them without reserve.”
“I’m doing that even now. Ah, also…”
“Yeah?”
“…No. I’ll tell you later when I become more sure of it.”
For some reason, I could tell what she was about to say. She probably wanted to tell me that our group had an evil spirit spy. But if she were to say that to me, she would need to reveal the fact that she was an evil spirit as well, so she was hesitating.
“Really? Then I’ll be going.”
“Okay.”
After checking on our inventory, I went to ask if anything happened during the night. The person I went to see was the leader of the guard patrol, Amelia.
“Nothing special.”
Although our conversation always ended like that, this was something I couldn’t afford to skip. You never knew when enemies might appear in the labyrinth. And we couldn’t be sure we were safe even if we were hidden away from the outside world.
Inside this unknown area where anything could happen, we needed to be vigilant in all things.
Like this.
“However, the warrior of the Hektz Clan, Vilkus, seems to have reached his limits. I don’t think he’s sleeping well these days.”
The expedition group’s security detail was honestly more of a patrol group that stayed awake at night to watch out for anything that happened while the rest were sleeping. They were made up of six people, and the old man who had been part of the palace’s investigation unit acted as Amelia’s right-hand man.
“Got it. I’ll go and talk to him myself later.”
“Then I won’t worry about him.”
“Huh?”
“You’re like an idol to the warriors. And he’s someone who seemed to respect you even more, so the problem should sort itself out.”
After talking with Amelia in the morning, I went to visit the wizard trio of the Armin Adventurer Group.
“From what I heard from Emily, you up all night doing research again. Were there any results?”
The three of them acted as the research group of our expedition team. The monsters’ corpses, essences, the summoning books of the library, the summoning altars, the stone gates that summoned monsters, and so on—everything we discovered inside the labyrinth was being processed by them.
“Uh… I don’t think a ‘result’ is what we have…”
“We found a peculiar figure in the blood sample of Hipramajent…”
“If you give us a bit more time and funding…”
But for some reason, they always looked nervous whenever I asked them about their progress. I told them multiple times that I wasn’t rushing them, but their reactions never changed.
Was it a habit they got from the magic tower?
“Hehe, the Lord Baron is the person in charge.”
“Even if you tell us that…it’s difficult for us to truly be relaxed.”
“Yes, and if we’re too relaxed, the results won’t come in quickly.”
Well, if they said that, there wasn’t much I could say in return.
In any case, hearing the report of the research team concluded my morning work.
“Alright, if everyone’s digested their food, return to your posts!”
It was time to start working again. Everyone ate their fill and even had time to let it get absorbed.
“Summon the monsters!”
Let’s get to work.
The routine following the morning routine was also very simple.
We gathered the books that we had chosen the night before and hunted through them all.
Splash!
Mana stones exploded out, and whenever an essence dropped, we would stop summoning for a bit to check on what the essence was. We didn’t even have to use a primitive method like trusting the words of the witness for this work anymore. We had set up a recording crystal above us so the entire hunting ground was being recorded.
“It’s a Katanda essence.”
“A green Katanda essence would be Prophane Prophecy, right, Your Lordship?”
“We don’t need it.”
“I see. Then who among the rest needs this essence?”
After an essence’s identity was confirmed, I held the first-pick authority, but if I refused, then another person on the waiting list got it. If no one on the waiting list took it, it was discarded.
“Isn’t this surprising? It’s a rank 4 essence, yet no one wants it.”
“Even some of the rank 3 essences are being discarded, so it’s not that surprising.”
“Since we could get an even better essence if we waited a little, there’s no need to be hasty about the ones we can see in front of us.”
“Heh heh, leaving the essence in front of us to prepare for the future. No one would believe us if we told them after we got out of here.”
“We’re not even putting them in the magic vials. It’s such a shame. These essences are so expensive…”
“The baron said we needed to be sparing with our magic vials. I believe that is the correct choice.”
Unexpectedly, the adventurers seemed even happier whenever an essence was discarded.
It was because hunting paused until the essence naturally disappeared. Well, that didn’t mean they were just sitting around resting.
“What are you doing? Gather the books we used while the essence is disappearing!”
I used even those windows of time efficiently, sending the troops to the bookshelves to gather the summoning books. When we had enough books around, we began our feast again.
In that way, we farmed diligently as the days passed.
Ten days after arriving at the library island and beginning our farming, we got an excellent drop.
“…Lord Baron?”
“We’ll take this one.”
We finally obtained an essence after passing up dozens of others.
Spear Dipper.
It was the rank 3 monster that could be found at an extremely low probability in a special area on the sixth floor’s Great Sea.
Naturally, the owner of this essence had already been decided.
“Ainar.”
“Oh! Nice!”
As I called her, Ainar, who had been eyeing the essence the whole time, quickly ran up to it. She was using the spear now, so she seemed quite expectant after I declared that we were taking it.
However, just giving it to her here wasn’t that fun…
“Wait.”
“Ugh…! Why? Why are you making me wait?! You’re going to give it to me any—”
“Hmm?”
She went silent.
Yeah, you should’ve been like that in the first place.
“Eat it.”
“Yahoo!”
As soon as I gave my permission, Ainar ran into the essence. Even though her Aggression had bottomed out, was her greed still pretty high?
[The essence of Spear Dipper has permeated deep into Ainar Fenelin’s soul.]
The light of the essence was absorbed into Ainar’s body. Her eyes opened wide, apparently enjoying the feeling, before she shouted like an addict, “What’s this?! No way! It’s been a while since I’ve felt this much stronger…!”
Well, that would be the case. In the first place, this guy’s stats were all focused on the physical. That said, the skills were where the real importance lay.
[(P) Speciesist—When attacking a target that isn’t of the same species as you, increase damage scaling with time in battle. When attacking the same species, reduce damage instead.]
One was a perfect passive to match Ainar’s Slayer imprint.
[(A) Trident—When using a spear to attack, deal the same damage to two more adjacent targets.]
The other was an active skill with no cooldowns and a low MP cost. It meant that the skill itself wasn’t all that powerful, but if you filled your characters with only powerful skills, they would fall apart.
Trident was going to be the bread-and-butter skill that would replace her Repeated Slash.
Alright, then that’s Ainar done…
Of course, she had a lot of essences that needed to be switched out, but since she didn’t have any empty slots left, I didn’t need to focus too much on her until we returned to the city.
I have one left, Erwen has one, and Amelia has two…
These were the slots we could work to fill at this point, and if I factored in the number of the magic vials we still had left to fill, the number of essences needed only increased. It would be pretty nice if after we erased those essences, we could immediately fill the slots with the ones we needed after we got out of here.
…If possible, I should look for imprint materials as well.
The grade 8 materials needed for the Immortality Imprint were dropped by three different rank 3 monsters. Not to say there weren’t more materials needed, but…
I can buy them in the city with money.
Unlike the low-grade materials, the materials from rank three and up weren’t able to be bought, even with money. Even the grade seven material Soul of the Dead fell into that category. Although it was dropped from the rank four monster Lich, only one of them was up on the central exchange.
That was why since I couldn’t know if I would ever obtain one, I used all my money to buy—
[Ainar Fenelin has cast Trident.]
It was around the time Ainar had finished testing with the new essence she got and was getting used to her strengthened body.
“Captain!”
The only noncombatant among the thirty-eight people here, Navigator Auyen Rockrobe, brought a huge summoning book held in his arms and quickly approached me.
“I-I found it…! Finally!”
“Found what? Calm down before—”
“It’s a book that summons Bellarios!”
As soon as I heard the news, I closed my eyes and let out a long breath.
Finally, it was time.
***
Bellarios, a rank 3 monster that looked just like an eastern dragon. It was found in the Dragon’s Mountains in the middle of the Dark Continent. However, that place was now a warzone, so while it was possible to kill one of them, no one had been able to manage it yet.
“Versyl, call everyone at the bookshelves over here too.”
I had been looking forward to facing one of these from the moment I came to the library, so I quickly gathered our forces here and had a short briefing about how we would fight Bellarios.
Someone, however, was displeased by that.
“Excuse me…” Among the adventurers who were listening intently, someone carefully raised their hand.
“What is it, Ainar? Are you hungry?”
“That’s not it… I haven’t really gotten used to the new essence I got…”
“So?” I truly couldn’t understand what she wanted. “What’s better practice than fighting for real?”
That was something that any barbarian warrior would agree with.
“Well… I… Instead of fighting, just practicing feels better… And effective? I think. that’s also more effective.”
Ah, right. That damn Aggression.
“Can’t I just practice here while you’re fighting?” If there was even a sliver of desire to avoid fighting, she would try to avoid fighting.
Naturally, my answer was already set in stone. “No. You will join the battle this time.”
“…Got it.”
Seeing her look so down suddenly made me feel like the bad guy and question my resolve, but I coldly cut off those emotions as much as possible.
At that, Erwen approached and quietly whispered to me, “Mister… It’s a rank 3, but there won’t even be three monsters to fight, just two. Won’t we be enough for this?”
I didn’t know when the two of them got so close that she would support Ainar, but she wasn’t wrong. Ainar not joining the battle? It didn’t matter that much in this fight.
The problem is that other people will see that.
She was someone from my clan, and if I tolerated this and let her do as she wished, the other people who saw this would only become dissatisfied, even if they didn’t show it outwardly.
“The decision has already been made. Don’t try to dispute it.”
“…Yes. sorry.”
After sternly responding to Erwen as well, I continued the briefing. When I felt that every one of the members perfectly understood the information I was conveying, I put the summoning book on top of the altar.
Rumble.
The stone door that had opened over a hundred times today alone opened once more and two monsters appeared.
Fwoosh!
The goat-headed creature walked out with a bag carrying liquid that looked as red as lava slung over its back and a hammer held in hand.
Hellsmith.
The chieftain who had been nicknamed the Warrior of Flame had held this guy’s essence.
…And Bellarios.
As I looked at its smooth scales, I couldn’t help but lick my lips.
[Bellarios has cast Scales of Greed. Bellarios gains immunity to all magic damage.]
Give me that.
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