Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Novel 2026 - Chapter 554
Chapter 554: Deja Vu (3)
“…Tell me more. What happened?” Before I made my final decision, I asked for the full details.
“Oh, that?” Raven said absentmindedly. “He disappeared on the day we had to set out, so the commander personally went looking for him. When they did find him, he made excuses about getting a stomachache or whatever to say that he couldn’t go. He whined so much that a wizard ended up being called to check him.”
“To what…?”
“I heard that they used magic to check what was in his stomach, but they couldn’t find anything wrong with him. So with that as evidence, they threatened to punish him for attempted desertion, and he ended up joining the force…”
“…And then?”
“Because that news spread around, the people in the expedition group don’t see him in a good light. From what I could tell, the people from the same church don’t even treat him like a person.”
“I see…” I trailed off, sighing. I shouldn’t have asked. Since he’d tried so hard not to join the expedition force, his gut feeling must’ve activated.
Ba-dump!
Hopefully, I wouldn’t have to suffer like I did in Ice Rock, right?
***
After setting out from Stone Island, our four boats arrived on Library Island, and after doing a quick overview of our formations, we immediately went down the stairs. Squad 4 was at the front for that formation, so only us thirty-eight were standing on the frontlines.
Maybe that was why, but I felt a little uneasy about all this. Still, I quickly shook my head to erase the thought.
…The reason they’re putting us at the front is because we were here first.
Yeah, yeah. We weren’t being used like fodder. I would’ve done this even if I was the strategist… But why did my back feel so prickly?
…Damn those palace nuts.
Berzak and Ice Rock—I had already been hit hard on my back twice from the palace, so I really couldn’t trust these bastards.
“We’ve arrived.”
Since I was more wary of my back than my front, we ended up arriving down at the open underground library before I realized it. The books had also been cleaned up from last time.
“(… You’re here? You’re earlier than I… Huh…?)” Hamsick had come to greet us but tilted its head when it noticed the expedition group behind me.
I sighed. Why was this guy out here?
I quickly shooed it with my hand to tell it to hide itself, but Hamsick still didn’t seem to understand what I meant. Then, I pointed to the expedition group with my thumb and pointed to Hamsick with my finger before slowly drawing a line across my neck.
They weren’t as kind as I was. They would, without exaggeration, cast magic on Hamsick as soon as they saw it and kill it before proceeding with anything else.
My message seemed to have been received. “(Squeak!)” After Hamsick realized what I meant, it squeaked before quickly running away.
“Your Lordship,” someone called immediately after, “did something happen? I thought I heard a horrifying scream from somewhere.” The people from the main expedition group finally closed the distance between them and our Squad Four.
Nice, it looked like they didn’t see Hamsick. “It’s nothing.”
“Pardon?”
“I don’t know why, but you sometimes hear sounds like that when you’re here.”
“Ah, I see. Understood, I will relay that.”
With that, the expedition group shouldn’t find it suspicious if they heard sounds when I met Hamsick in secret to talk to it. Well, if they wanted to investigate the sound, they could find its source, so I would need to be careful.
“So this is the place you spoke about, Baron Yandel.”
“What do you think?” I asked, not giving anything away.
“What do I think? What I think doesn’t matter. Alright, let’s not waste any time and get on with our work. We are not just here on an adventure. This is a holy duty bequeathed to us by the palace.”
Wow, look at this palace nut over here.
Jerome then gave orders to the deputy commander, who proceeded to shout out an order to the rest of the group. “Attention! We will now start by investigating the area. Each squad, go and search everything here!”
And with that, they began their reconnaissance.
I approached Jerome and asked, “You said we don’t have time to waste, so is there a reason to search the area? We’ve already done that before.” My first thought was that just like how I didn’t trust the palace, Jerome might not trust me.
“Oho, our expedition group is made up of only the exploration experts handpicked by the palace. I am not ignoring your capabilities as an adventurer, Baron Yandel. However, just sit and watch. We may find something new.”
Hearing what he said, though, he was just blatantly looking down on us.
What exploration experts?
I could only see a combat squadron made up of mostly knights and priests with some wizards who were also part of the army. “Do as you wish, but we’ll stay here,” I said dryly.
“Sure. There’s no guarantee that you’d find anything new that you didn’t find before.”
…Should I just hit him once?
That thought seriously crossed my mind, but I held back with superhuman patience.
“…Nothing new has been found.”
“Nothing here either.”
In the end, the exploration attempt returned with nothing, and only then did we begin clearing out the library.
“I think we should proceed as you said initially. Unlike you, we have the capability to clear out even the last bookshelves.”
Even though he was annoying until the end, he still showed proficiency when the battles truly began.
“So it’s like this.”
After using the summoning books a few times, he quickly restructured the formations and effectively assigned the two hundred or so members. A few dozen people stayed near the bookshelves to carry the books to us, and twice as many people stood at the stone gate on standby to hunt the monsters that appeared.
“This will take too long.” Jerome felt that even this was too slow, and he pulled out a secret weapon. “Ebost. Increase the pace.”
Necessity was the mother of discovery.
The aforementioned was openly shocked. “Pardon? We can only use one book at a time, so increasing our current pace is—”
“So find a different method.”
Zylan Ebost quickly recovered himself after hearing such a nonsensical order and found a clever way befitting his station as deputy commander.
“If we can decrease the time the door takes to open and close, we could increase our pace even further.”
“So?”
“How about we destroy the stone gate?”
It was a method that made even the barbarian standing next to them jolt upright in surprise. However, Jerome seemed satisfied with the plan, as he nodded. “It holds some promise. Proceed with it immediately.”
At the given order, the magic troop of the expedition group gathered in one place, and the dozens of wizards initiated a group spell.
“Mairti Esta Pioryuiev du Teila!”
The spell I heard them cast was something I had never heard of before.
Where would I have seen rank 1 attack magic?
[Gahuin Versilus has cast the rank 1 attack magic Orb of the New World.]
When the spell was completed, the magic circle shone with blinding light. The surrounding mana grew so dense that even the barbarian warriors, who were numb to most magics, could feel its presence.
It was impossible to see it with my eyes. The ray of light shot forward in an instant. Something was fired, and then, I could only sense that something had collided.
Fwoosh!
When I opened my eyes, the wind blew toward my face, so hot that I thought it’d scald me.
However, I didn’t have time to focus on that sensation.
“…Thankfully, it succeeded.”
The huge stone gate that was nearly five stories tall was destroyed without a trace and only an endless void remained in its place.
That…worked…?
It felt like my mind had opened.
The stone gate was successfully destroyed, and because of that, the summoning process was accelerated as well.
“Without the door, we can kill them as soon as they are summoned. Good work, Ebost.”
“I was only following the command of the palace. It is nothing worthy of praise, commander.”
The two who had eliminated the summoning wait time through the use of brute force continued their conversation as if it was the most natural thing.
In the end, I had to step forward. “Wait, look over there! It’s already starting to reform itself.”
This was the nature of the labyrinth. Just like the crystal cave on the first floor, the labyrinth naturally regenerated every structure within it except for a few select areas. To put it simply, the wizards of the expedition group had just performed a rank 1 wasted action.
“Is that a problem?” However, Jerome’s expression suggested that he didn’t understand what I was trying to say, so I also kindly explained my thoughts unbecoming of a barbarian. However, that explanation was also a wasted action. “Even if you say that, I don’t see the problem. If it reforms, don’t we need to break it again?”
“Huh…?”
“Judging by the rate of its recovery, I don’t think we’ll need to use another rank 1 spell this time.
And since we have many wizards, they can take turns keeping the gate broken.”
“…Uh.”
“We’re currently fighting monsters who aren’t strong enough to force our wizards into battle, correct?”
Uh…that was true.
“Then did that answer all your questions?”
“Yeah. I’m good.”
In the end, I had no choice but to accept it.
The one who was lacking…was me…!
Just as how the one with more power could accomplish more things, the one at a higher state of being could look down to see more options. The reason I couldn’t think of this method and said that it was an impossible task was that I lacked strength. The strength of imagination was connected to strength itself.
That’s why there is power in the power of imagination.
A wisdom of the ancients, so to speak.
I was sure that people had already figured this out thousands of years in the past.
“Then we shall resume the mission!”
In any case, irrelevant to my present revelation, Jerome didn’t waste a single second and continued to farm. Perhaps it was to be expected from someone who received an order directly from the palace, but thanks to his seriousness, our clear speed was unbelievable. Even though I had said we farmed like a factory before, our new rate was incomparably faster than before.
“Ignore the mana stones! We’ll pick them up later.”
The expedition group didn’t pick up the mana stones nor did they check who an essence would belong to whenever it dropped. Since most people attacked from range, no one accidentally picked up an essence and when melee warriors were needed, those who had their essence slots fully filled stepped forward to form the line.
We’re at rank 4 in just one day…
To be precise, we had gotten to the point where we were seeing one or two rank 4 monsters when it hadn’t even been sixteen hours since we got here. It was nearly five times faster than when the thirty-eight of us farmed.
“We can proceed normally from tomorrow onward. And tell the magic troop that they don’t need to stop the gate from regenerating.”
“You mean…”
“We’ll stop here. Prepare to camp.”
We had even eaten food in rotation per squad to keep the hunting going, and that finally came to an end as we prepared for our long rest.
After a long day of hunting, the expedition members made camp with practiced ease, and during the downtime we now had, a familiar face came to greet me. “Haha, are you busy?” said Melend Kaislan, the knight I had worked with during the Ice Rock expedition.
“Even if I was, I would make time for you.”
“That’s an honor to hear.” Kaislan grinned as he pushed out his fist, and I bumped it with my own in greeting. We had given nods of recognition to each other whenever we walked past, but we hadn’t had the time to talk like this.
“I didn’t expect it to take this long for us to find the time to talk.”
“There’s a saying that you will experience hell when you work under Count Saintred… I didn’t know it would be at this level, though.”
Now that I thought about it, it seemed that there was some infamy to Jerome’s name among the soldiers.
“So, what happened with you?” I asked. “Did the palace order you to join?”
“That’s right. Heh heh, it seems they want to use me for all I have before I am discharged. Well, since one of the goals was to save you, Your Lordship, I wasn’t too fussed about it.”
“Discharge? Did you put in a request?”
“I gave in my discharge form over a month ago. It takes quite a while for it to get processed…but I’m hoping it’ll be done by the time this expedition is over.”
“I see…”
“But what’s with your expression?”
“It’s nothing. I’m just thinking about what to eat for supper.” I brushed over it, hiding what I was really thinking. It was just that after hearing that Kaislan was “forced” to come here before he got discharged reminded me of the time at Ice Rock.
Marrone would’ve been put in the expedition group if there was something else going on…but I should keep my eye out still.
Rather than just dismissing everything as a coincidence, I needed to keep the worst-case scenarios in mind.
“Sir Kaislan! We finally meet!”
After that, Versyl, Erwen, and Amelia also approached to exchange greetings with Kaislan.
Then, a new face appeared.
“My apologies. This is the archbishop’s first time at camp, so I had to help out…
I wanted to come right away but ended up being late.”
It was Goblin, Sven Parav.
As soon as he came, Versyl approached him with a glare. “You’re here.”
“I-it’s been a while, Ms. Gowland…”
“Yes. It certainly has been a ‘while,’ Sir Parav.”
Even though they met at the Round Table not long ago, they were still acting like this. Since I knew everything, it was cute to see them interact.
“Could everyone step aside for a second?” I called out.
“Yes, of course. I also can’t stay long since the church—”
“Except you, Parav.”
“…Pardon?”
After the greetings were over, I moved everyone away and had a one-on-one talk with Parav.
“So…” he began nervously. “Is there something…?”
“You didn’t want to join the expedition group so you faked a stomachache, didn’t you?”
“Did you hear that from Sir Kaislan as well?”
“No, I heard it from someone else.”
“…So, you heard it from the Wizard of Gold.” He seemed to have reached that conclusion knowing that Raven had gotten on my boat.
But I didn’t care about that part.
“Why did you do it? Did you have a ‘weird feeling’ again?”
“Well…it’s a little different…”
“Different? Tell me in detail. I trust your instincts.”
“I… I don’t know how to explain this…” Parav hesitated, then let out in a quiet and dejected voice, “I think…that I received an oracle…”
What…?
In this world, gods existed. The people here sometimes heard the voice of the gods or received a prophecy. They were sometimes given sacred items to help carry out these so-called prophecies.
But that wasn’t the main point here.
I couldn’t help but burst out, “You received an oracle…?”
“P-please keep your voice down! Everyone will hear you!”
An oracle wasn’t something just anyone could receive. That was why those who were blessed enough to hear the voice of the gods were called ‘saints’ and ‘saintesses’ in the city.
But this bastard’s a player.
Sven Parav was an evil spirit who came from Earth, and the Three Gods Church was as serious about hunting down evil spirits as the palace was. And yet, this guy ended up getting an oracle from the head of those three gods even though he was an evil spirit.
“…Are you sure? About receiving…that.”
“Th-that’s what I’m thinking for now.”
I paused, unsure. Just what were these gods thinking?
Then again, there was also a time when I received a sacred item that helped me just barely return when I nearly died to the Dragon Slayer.
“So, what was the oracle? What did you hear to make you go to such lengths?”
“Um… So…”
I quickly tried to confirm the contents of the oracle, but an interruption unfortunately cut our conversation off.
“Sir Parav! The archbishop is looking for you! Come quickly!”
“Ah, pardon…?” He glanced over to me to see my reaction in his indecision, but when I gave him a nod, he quickly answered, “Ah, yes! Understood!” With that, he returned to where the church members were.
…I can hear the details later.
It was a shame I couldn’t hear it right then, but I closed my eyes and chewed on my jerky to satiate my hunger as I began planning for tomorrow.
I can’t sleep.
Some time into the night, I got up to go drink water or do something, but I felt a gaze from afar. I whipped my head around to look, ignoring the watch who were on guard, and spied Hamsick hiding in the distance behind a bookshelf.
“Ahem…”
“Your Lordship, where are you going?”
“I can’t sleep. I need to work off some energy, but it’ll wake the people if I do it here.”
“Ah, sure…”
I gave a general excuse to the soldiers on watch and approached the bookshelf. When I did, Hamsick whisper-shouted, “(Who… Who are those crazy humans?!)”
“(Uh… They’re people from the kingdom… But they won’t cause harm to you, so don’t—)”
“(Not cause harm to me…?!)” Looking at the stone gate that hadn’t fully recovered yet, Hamsick clenched its furry hands. Its voice turned sorrowful. “(Not just once, why…? Why do I have to experience something like this a second time…? Why are all humans like this…?!)”
I had nothing I could say.
“(I’m a barbarian, though…?)”
Nothing, except that.
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