Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Novel - Chapter 560
Chapter 560: First Clear (5)
After the search and seizure of Hamsick’s home was complete, we ended up having a lot of time to spare, as unlike what we expected, there wasn’t much investigation to be done in the space beyond the stone gate.
“These are the objects we’ve found first, and I don’t believe them to all be ordinary.
Commander, please trust us. We will research them and figure out all their secrets.”
“…We will leave the library tomorrow, so unearth any clues you can before that time.”
“Understood!”
While the others were resting, the wizards of the expedition group gathered together and began a repeated series of trials on the items they took from Hamsick’s home. Not that I expected them to get anything from that, though.
And if they do find something, I should be able to sneak in a question to Raven about it.
With the interior of the library now turned into a research station, I could see Raven among the other researchers doing all sorts of experiments.
She looked happy.
Is that really that enjoyable…?
As a barbarian warrior, I couldn’t understand it, but I needed to respect it as a friend. Also, having a few people of her type nearby was pretty good as well.
And maybe because Versyl is a player, but she doesn’t show any interest in academics.
In any case, since we had free time until tomorrow, I just rested as I pleased.
“The squad redistribution is done. All soldiers, check your new stations in the poster created here!”
The redistribution of manpower for the expedition group was finalized sometime later. The seven people who died during the library battles, and the twenty-eight who died during the final fight meant that each squad needed to have members substituted to balance out their roles.
“Squad Four doesn’t seem to have changed at all.”
Since our squad had low numbers to begin with, there were no changes to our composition, while Squad One, Two, and Three each had some small changes.
Squad One, forty-nine people.
Squad Two, forty-nine people.
Squad Three, forty-nine people.
Each squad originally had sixty people, but they were now reduced to this.
Since our numbers were at thirty-seven now, there was only a ten-person difference between the squads.
“We will be holding a meeting! All leaders and officers of each squad must attend!”
Once the members were redistributed, we had another meeting. These guys really liked their meetings.
After spending my time doing whatever, I was the last to enter the tent when the meeting finally began.
“Only by your hard work and loyalty were we able to safely end our campaign in this library. Nia Rafdonia.”
“Nia Rafdonia!”
For some reason, Jerome led this meeting instead of leaving it up to the deputy commander.
“The wizards are busy with their research, but we haven’t been able to find a single hint as to our escape. We will be discussing this point further after their research is complete.”
“Then this meeting is…”
“It is to discuss the plan of what we will do after.”
With that, the main topic of our meeting was announced. Since we’d cleared the library, we needed to decide on our next destination. Naturally, all of the leaders’ attention fell on me. I was the one who had been here the longest, and since I was the one who supplied the map, they put great importance on my input.
Where would be best to go next…?
There were three candidates I could think of.
One: Giant Island.
It was possible to farm Hipramajent’s essence there, and a huge giant boss monster could be found there as well. Also, it had the portal headstone that connected to the second underground floor.
Two: Rainbow Island.
This was the island in the direction of the rainbow we observed when the rainy season came to an end. It was a complete mystery of an island, and my gamer senses were telling me that this island was the true core of Basement Floor 1.
Three: Chief Island.
There wasn’t much I needed to say about it. If my guess was right, this place had the portal headstone that connected to the first floor, and even if that wasn’t the case, I could tell that the village chief was hiding some big secret. If we could capture him and figure out what that was, it would be very helpful for our future adventures.
Hmm, what do I do?
I had confirmed the strength of the expedition group by fighting alongside them in the library. They were perfect, per se, but I had to concede that this was an impressive task force. Also, considering how this group was composed of knights, wizards, and priests who were more specialized in man-to-man combat rather than hunting monsters, I concluded that we could honestly burn down the village with the village chief inside in just one night.
But oddly enough, something’s just not sitting right with me…
I decided to follow my gut feeling again, laying out the map I got from Hamsick’s home before and pointing to an island. “…I think this place will be the best to go to next.”
It was the one island, other than Rainbow Island, we hadn’t been to yet.
“We’ll check this island first, and if there is nothing there or it’ll take too long to clear it, how about we immediately head for Rainbow Island?” I suggested.
To summarize, we would only go there to fill in the map before heading straight to Rainbow Island.
“I see. Thank you for your input, Your Lordship.” Jerome just nodded and accepted my words and didn’t give any clear confirmation of the plan. “What are you all doing? I didn’t call you all here just to only listen to the baron’s opinion. Anything will do, so state your own opinions freely.”
The other leaders began to share their thoughts, and Jerome intently listened to each one of them. At long last, he declared what our next destination would be.
“Tomorrow morning, we will head toward the island where this chief resides.”
I wondered why he even asked for my opinion if he was going to decide on his own, but I couldn’t fault him either. The reason we came to Library Island was because he followed my suggestion.
Hah, I guess not obtaining anything in the library was a big factor.
We had come here under my decision, but we weren’t able to obtain anything. In fact, we’d lost troops in the end. That was probably why Jerome made this decision now. We would capture the village chief to obtain information first to try and move more efficiently.
I guess it came to this in the end…
Excluding the fact that I felt uneasy for some reason, there was not much I could say to oppose this, so I didn’t say anything and accepted the decision.
Though I did, of course, have a question. It was something I wanted to ask earlier, actually.
“…Tomorrow?” I questioned. “It’s the rainy season right now, so what do you mean?”
It wasn’t the tail end of the rainy season either. Since it was only the second day, dangerous monsters would be falling from the sky at this point.
However, Jerome dismissed my worry. “You said you also had experience moving through the rainy season, Baron Yandel. There is nothing that says we can’t do that either.”
“Uh…but we moved when the rainy season was nearly over…”
“An overall investigation of this floor is also one of this expedition group’s missions.
Shouldn’t we at least experience this rainy season properly once?”
I felt it every time, but these guys were tough beyond expectation.
***
Excluding the wizards who were busy with their research, everyone went to sleep.
Only a few people on the night watch quietly moved about in this dark morning.
I, however, was inside my blankets and staring up in a daze. I had slept in the afternoon after the meeting was over so I didn’t feel sleepy at all. Sensing that I wouldn’t be able to sleep even if I forced my eyes closed for a while, I spent the time collecting my thoughts.
Defeating the rank one monster for the first time.
Dozens of dead soldiers.
The missing golden book and Hamsick.
Our next destination was decided during the meeting.
A lot of things happened today, and there were a lot of things still left to consider as well.
I’m worried about what Jerome Saintred said too.
The commander of the expedition group had stated this today: No matter how many people died, if I could be taken out alive after the expedition was over, the mission would be a success. Thanks to that, my worries about whether or not what happened at Ice Rock would repeat settled a little.
If he was planning on killing me, getting more casualties in Squad Four would’ve been more strategic for him.
However, Jerome’s actions were the complete opposite. He did something he would’ve never done if he was scheming something against me. That was why I couldn’t help but become even more curious.
Why is the palace trying to save me? I’m a thorn in their side, so wouldn’t it be better for them if I die here?
I had no way of knowing. The more I thought about it, the deeper and deeper I fell into doubt and analyzing the inconsistencies.
It pushed me to get up from my makeshift bed and move around to refresh my mind.
“Lord Baron? Where are you going?”
“I can’t sleep. So I’m going to move my body a little.”
“Ah, I see. Understood.”
After informing the night watch, I walked around the edge of the large library, figuring that maybe I would be lucky enough to meet Hamsick again.
In just ten minutes, I heard a familiar sound from nearby.
“Squeak…!”
“(…Hamsick?)” I whispered in the ancient language.
“(Here! This way! Come up this way…!)”
After glancing around a little to see if anyone was looking at me, I climbed the staircase to the second bookshelf as quietly as possible. Hamsick was hiding in one of the empty slots where a book had been taken out.
“(Why are you here only now…?!)” it demanded.
“(Oh, I was waiting for nightfall.)”
“(Your body…is your body okay? I saw that you were hurt pretty badly…)”
Uh…I didn’t expect it to ask me that straight up. “(…I’m all healed now, so don’t worry.)”
“(How could I not worry?! Someone qualified finally appeared!)”
I tilt my head unconsciously. “(By qualified…do you mean for the golden book?)”
Hamsick had told me in the past that it couldn’t give me the golden book because the item was something that had to be saved for someone qualified to receive it.
“(That’s right! The moment you defeated Kashan, you became qualified!)”
So as I thought, clearing the library was the qualification I needed.
Although the joy of having my guess confirmed rushed through me, I had a question. “(Wait, then is everyone here qualified for it now?)”
“(Huh? Not at all! You’re the only one who got the qualification!)”
“(Hmm, really?)” Then what was the condition that needed to be met? Was it having the greatest contribution in the battle? If that was the case, that still didn’t make sense why it would be me.
Well, that wasn’t important right now.
“(So? If I have the qualification, what happens now?)”
When I made it obvious that I was expecting a reward, Hamsick rushed to say,
“(Here, take it! This book is now yours.)”
It was the golden book with a boring story written inside. I had been wondering if I would be able to see more now that I was qualified and quickly opened the book.
“(…It’s the same as what I saw before.)”
“(Really?)”
“(What do you mean, really? If I’m qualified for it, shouldn’t you tell me how to use the book or something? Are you done after giving me the book?)”
“(Uh…yeah?)”
I sighed at its expression. Hamsick seemed to have no idea how to use the book either.
Honestly, that sort of outcome wasn’t uncommon. Dungeon and Stone was just that much of an unkind game. It never told you anything outright, and that was why the users needed to test all sorts of things in order to figure out the uses.
…I think something might happen if I put this book on the altar.
There were a few use cases I could think of, but I couldn’t test them at this point. If something appeared because of it, the rewards would go to the palace. In the end, there was only one path I could take.
“(Anyway, thanks for giving this to me.)” I took the golden book from Hamsick and hid it safely in my subspace. “(So, is there anything else?)”
“(Hmm?)”
“(You know, giving me a blessing or unique equipment or something.)”
“(You’ve already taken everything. My fountain pen and those precious books I’ve been keeping…!)”
Ah, that’s right.
A moment of awkward silence passed between us, and I quickly changed the topic.
“(Right. I don’t know if you knew, but we’re leaving tomorrow morning.)”
“(You’re…leaving…?)”
“(We have things we need to do. I don’t know when it’ll be, but I’ll definitely come back, so don’t feel too lonely.)”
“(Who’s going to feel lonely?! Don’t misunderstand…that’s better for me, hmph!
Now I can rest properly in my own home!)”
I gulped. Judging by the way it spoke, Hamsick still didn’t know what happened to its home.
“(…Why are you quiet all of a sudden?)”
“(I-it’s nothing. I’ll go now. I’m hungry…!)” I gave a natural excuse and quickly returned to the camp.
The next morning, all the members of the expedition group packed up camp and got ready to leave the library.
“Excuse me…Lord Baron…?”
The goblin paladin, Sven Parav, came to me with a surprising bit of news early in the morning.
“Yesterday night…she showed me the future again.”
“What did you see?”
“Well…” Parav hesitated for a long while before clenching his eyes shut and explaining what he saw in his dreams. “You were surrounded on all sides by the expedition group…and you were being brutally executed by them…”
The goddess had declared a time limit against me.
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