Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Novel - Chapter 604
Chapter 604: Commander (1)
“Aura isn’t used like that.”
Though the words had sounded so arrogant, when I saw the slash of the village chief’s sword, I realized that he wasn’t being arrogant at all.
It wasn’t the power of any essence. He just used his pure skill with the weapon and slashed once at the enemy. He slashed his target, more precisely than I had ever seen anyone do before.
“Tsk, I couldn’t kill him.”
After the blinding white light of the aura had slowly faded away, I noticed that the archbishop was surprisingly still alive. The trajectory of the sword had slashed away half of his body, but tentacles wriggled out from the sliced surface and began to move toward each other as if trying to stitch the two parts together again.
It was quite a disgusting scene, but the village chief didn’t even blink and asked me directly, “What will you do?”
Well, I guess it was a way for him to say that he had done his part.
“You won’t be able to go through the portal if you drag this out,” he warned.
I needed to quickly make a decision. If the village chief had completely failed, I would have jumped into the portal without a second thought, but I just couldn’t see this situation as a complete failure.
I walked past the village chief and stepped in front of the archbishop, then used my strength to push apart his body that had started to rejoin before ripping a scroll with high-ranking fire magic on it, burning his body.
“You didn’t hesitate… Now that I think about it, didn’t you clash with the archbishop once at some point?”
The village chief seemed to have some sort of weird misunderstanding. The reason I didn’t try to save the archbishop wasn’t because I hated him. It was because I thought there was no point in trying.
It’ll be difficult for him to return no matter what we try.
Even after thinking about this multiple times, the result was the same. The transformation of the archbishop into a priest of Karui was preventable because after one advanced, they would never be able to return to being a regular priest. However, a huge event like that being set in stone as soon as we entered the rift?
There’s no way.
The Dungeon and Stone that I knew wasn’t like that. Although this game seemed like complete bullshit when you didn’t know anything, the more I played, the more I realized that the only reason it seemed that way was because I didn’t have enough information.
Fwoosh!
Looking at the body of the archbishop that began to crackle with fierce flames, I looked back at the things we experienced.
I made a mistake.
I could make excuses and say that I didn’t have enough information, but a mistake had definitely been made. When our mental state had been contaminated, when I saw the archbishop and the village chief not being affected by it, I didn’t question it deeply and just ignored it. Really, though, he already hadn’t been in his right mind.
…Even with that flower as well.
A flower existed in this field that decreased the mental pollution level. However, at some point, the archbishop, who had taken it gratefully at the beginning, suddenly said he could endure by himself and gave us the flower instead. That should have been the sign I watched out for.
If we gave all our flowers to the archbishop and cared for him as much as possible, then what would’ve happened?
Maybe then, but it was pointless to question it now. Unless we entered this rift again in the future, this was something we would never learn for sure, anyway.
Still, I guess I got some new information now.
If I was still just playing this as a game as I did in the past, these pieces of information would be added to my notes about Basement Floor One.
When entering as a priest, it is possible to advance to a priest of Karui. For sacrificing my allies, most skills are learned from the beginning. I’ll think about how to use this later—
“Alright, then are you done confirming everything?”
“…Not yet.” I glanced at the portal that continued to shrink before looking back down at the archbishop. The tentacles that had wriggled as hard as they could in the flames had slowed their movements at some point.
“Are you thinking that perhaps something will happen when the archbishop dies?”
“Yeah.”
At my honest answer, the village chief let out a dry laugh. “It may not be my place to say this, but you are not of sane mind either.”
“Can I take that as a compliment?”
“Well, you are free to have your own interpretation—”
The village chief suddenly stopped talking in the middle of his joke. I didn’t need to ask him why.
[You have defeated the priest who had fallen to temptation.]
The burning archbishop finally stopped moving.
[Special Condition—Third Record has been met.]
His body turned into an array of light.
[No. ????, Flower Crown of Anguish, is created.]
Then, an unknown item was created where he had just been.
“It really did go as you said it would,” the village chief mused.
It was a flower crown you would wear on your head made of black and white flowers. The colors weren’t split down the middle, but alternating between the two.
“Do you know what this is?”
“I don’t.”
I thought it was a numbered item at first, but to my knowledge, there were no numbered items that took on the form of a flower crown. Then what was this?
…I’ll look into this later.
After grabbing the flower crown, I checked on the portal. Thankfully, we still had time. The red portal hadn’t shrunk at all, and the blue portal was about a third of its original size.
“If you would take my advice,” the village chief began, “I suggest you take the blue portal. I am useless at this stage.”
“Useless?”
“I don’t have time, so I’ll give a short explanation. The way I moved my mana to use aura just then is far and away different from how the original owner of this body used it. Due to a dissonance in technique, my entire body is broken.”
So the power did come at a cost. Even while feeling a little relieved, I was also a bit frightened of him. If he put in the time to alter his body to how it had been, he would be able to use this technique whenever he wanted.
Anyway, I can think about that later…
The advice the village chief gave me was simple. It would be possible for me to take the red portal, but after I did, I would need to endure all the trials by myself.
Will that be possible?
I assessed my situation with cold logic.
The priest who had infinite divine power had become corrupted and died, and the wizard became unfit for battle and had to be sent out first. On top of that, the knight who was stronger than anyone lost his power.
Vwoong!
We had somehow ended up opening the portal, yes, but it was only because we got lucky. It was far from a proper execution of a strategic rift clear.
I needed to accept this.
Honestly, since this was the first time I had attempted this rift, it may have been expected…
“I will leave this place.”
But I failed in clearing the rift of Basement Floor One.
***
It was just in the blink of an eye.
When I opened my eyes again, I had already returned. Not to the middle of the Great Demon Realm where the air itself was stagnant, but instead, the space filled with the guardian stone statues.
“Yandel!”
“Bjorn!”
“…Captain!”
As soon as I left the portal, everyone called me in their own way and approached me.
“Thanks for your concern, but we’ll talk later.”
It was nice to see them welcome me back, but I had something I needed to check first.
“Mister! How could you throw me like that!”
Firstly, Erwen was fine. Her shrunken stature had returned to
normal as well.
“What about Gahuin?” I asked.
“He’s being healed by the priests.”
Thankfully, it seemed Gahuin was fine as well.
I didn’t know how badly he was injured, but it was still just physical damage. It shouldn’t be so severe that he would die under the attention of several priests—
“Your Lordship!”
At that moment, someone called for me.
“What about the commander? Where is the commander?”
Zylan Ebost. The younger brother of Baron Ebost, and the deputy commander of this expedition group.
“Why is he not out yet—?”
I cut the deputy commander off and told him the reason the village chief wasn’t coming out. “Count Saintred has died.”
It was what he wanted as well. He said something like this was the most natural way for him to exit the scenario.
“This is honestly better. I was hoping I could return to the city soon, but I needed a reasonable excuse to do so.”
When I first heard him say that, I couldn’t truly believe him, but after some thought, I realized it was an important issue for the village chief.
I mean, he couldn’t just kill himself for no reason, and dying to a random monster was pretty difficult as well. Everyone would have a hard time believing it. Even if they did, this would remain on his record as something suspicious. And the village chief had no intention of letting go of the life that “Jerome Saintred” had created for him.
“Our opponent was a priest of Karui who held immense power, enough to single—handedly defeat a Lord of the Floor. He fell after buying us time to escape.”
From the perspective of the village chief, facing an overwhelming enemy and dying honorably was the best outcome.
“A priest of Karui? Is this perhaps connected to why Archbishop Hesteia isn’t coming out as well?”
“I’ll discuss the details later. Before that, I’m curious about something…” I didn’t look just at the deputy commander but at everyone else near me. “How much time has passed?”
“Today is the thirtieth day on the dot.”
“A month…” It did seem like everyone looked completely different when I returned.
But this isn’t too bad.
A month was a long time. Unlike the upper floors, considering the underground floor’s time flowed the same as the city’s, it was even longer. However, it was still better than the worst-case scenario.
Excluding Erwen and I, the others stayed there for over half a year.
To think about it another way, I could take this as us saving five month’s worth of time. Though, of course, it was a definite loss on my end. From my perspective, it had only been around a week inside the rift.
“Then please tell me. What happened inside—?”
Hey, why was this guy so impatient?
“I need to check something before that,” I stated, pointing with my finger. Although it had dropped lower on my list of questions due to its relative level of importance, I had been curious about this as soon as I returned. “Has that stone door remained closed this entire time?”
“Yes. As soon as the five of you went into the portal a month ago, the portal disappeared and the stone door also closed.”
I had woken up in the middle of the stone chamber. The small portal that had transported me had disappeared as soon as it spat me out.
…So I’m sure that I came out here after defeating the guardian, so why did no exit open up?
It was quite a conundrum for me. I’d believed wholeheartedly that when we cleared the rift and came out here, a way out of this stone room would be created.
What is it? Is it because I didn’t choose the red portal? Then do we need to start over from the guardian stone statues and attempt that all over again?
My swirling emotions combined with many different theories that complicated my mind.
Rumble.
But then, as if to make fun of my impatience, the shut stone doors slowly began to open.
***
There was a secret room beyond the stone door.
Three stone statues about the size of large figurines were lying on the ground, and there was a singular portal floating in the middle of the room.
Seems like that portal will lead us to the outside…
And honestly, the wizards who walked in after me, and everyone who was standing behind them, looked on at the portal with desire and hope. I supposed it was to be expected since they had stayed here for over a month at this point.
“Raven! I’ll give you the authority, so take the wizards and investigate this place. Check what that portal is, what these statues are, and if there is anything that’s hidden here.”
“…Eh?”
“Oh, and deputy commander! Go and gather the leaders together. I’ll tell everyone what happened inside the tent.”
It was such a natural overreach of my authority, but no one challenged my orders. A few people who were adept in politics. just looked at me with worry in their eyes. It may be obvious, but Raven was one of those people.
Is this okay?
Don’t worry, and just do what I told you to do.
That silent conversation happened with just the looks in our eyes as I left the stone room.
While the deputy commander was facilitating the leader meeting, I spoke with my allies. I also didn’t tell them anything about the rift during that talk.
“Why are you hiding it from us…?”
“I’m not hiding it. I just can’t be bothered saying the same thing twice. You will be coming with me to the meeting and listening in as well.”
“Is that…something you can just do?” Amelia understood that I was only the leader of the Temporary Squad 4.
“We’ll know when we get there. So, how about you guys? Did anything happen?”
After hearing their side of the situation, the time soon came for the meeting to begin. We went over to a huge military tent that could hold over thirty people.
“Ah, Lord Baron, you’re here. But they…” The deputy commander’s words trailed off as he spoke from his usual seat.
“I told them to come in with me. Is there a problem?”
“…No. It’s fine. The goal of this meeting is to just hear what happened inside that place. But please understand that there are no more seats that can be given.”
I guess he was still a noble even without a noble title. He was saying he would kick them out as soon as the meeting officially began.
“That’s fine. They can just listen in while standing. Are you guys fine with that?” I waited a beat, then declared, “Seems like they are.”
With that, I stepped into the tent, and the empty seats grabbed my attention even more. There were two left for the taking.
Step.
One was the commander’s seat at the head of the table. And the other was my designated seat opposite the deputy commander’s.
Step.
It may be very obvious, but the seat I would sit in today was already decided.
Clack.
As soon as I put my butt down onto the seat, a shockwave went through the eyes of the other leaders. The same went for the deputy commander. He tried his best to remain calm as he asked, “Can you…explain what you mean by this? Lord Baron?”
I responded with a smile. “What do you mean? You already know, deputy commander. You already know what this means.”
It was time to use the True Barbarian Commander mode.
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