Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Novel - Chapter 705
Chapter 705: Calm Before the Storm (5)
The Anabada Market which opened in the middle of the night stayed open for longer than I anticipated, finally closing only when the morning came.
This isn’t a bad way to go about it.
It wasn’t as if everyone obtained a core item for their uses from the market, but everyone was able to upgrade one or two things for themselves.
Doing this once raised the overall power of the clan by around 5 percent…
I had been having second thoughts because it felt like forced distribution at first, but I was glad I went through with it in the end. Plus, I could probably open another market like it later in the future.
“Heh… This is the first time I’ve seen distribution done like this, but I like it.”
“And isn’t it fun as well? Each person shares what they need with one another. It also feels like we’ve gotten closer.”
“This could become a tradition of our clan.”
Since the method had a positive reception among everyone present, we probably wouldn’t have any problems even if we continued to operate this Anabada Market.
Well, I still kept in mind the advice given to me by James Calla, who had been the vice-captain of a pretty large clan in the past.
“Still, we’ll need to be careful if our scale increases a bit more. Although we’ve only taken what we needed this time, greedy people could join our group at some point.”
Honestly, I was only keeping it in mind and wasn’t that worried yet. I wasn’t so easygoing as to let someone who would do such a thing be. And I wasn’t going to accept someone like that into the clan, to begin with.
“Alright! Even though you may be tired, gather around once more!”
Since everyone had woken up during the night, they had stayed awake for most of it, but it was expected of adventurers to be able to endure this much fatigue.
Since the day was bright, I continued with the next topic.
“There is something I must discuss with you all!”
It was a sort of executive meeting—ignoring, of course, that there were no executives to speak of given our clan’s low member count.
“As you all know, the magic circle that can take us back inside the city walls is broken for now.”
In any case, before I properly went into the meeting, I briefed all the members on our current situation.
The destroyed magic circle.
The characteristics of the monsters that existed outside the walls.
And even the existence of the monster that had made the Noarkans, who had gone out to explore the vast world, return to the city of their own volition.
As I went down the list of everything they needed to know, we naturally came to the part where I told them that if we could get the materials, GM would be able to repair the return magic circle.
“And by materials…which ones do you mean?”
“Ah, I’ve written down the ones we’re still missing. Do you want to take a look at it?”
“Yes, please.” After GM took out his notes and handed them to Lilith Marrone, she read them for a moment before nodding. “Then I don’t think we’ll have to worry about the materials.”
“Pardon? Is that true?”
“Yes. I knew that the magic circle was damaged before coming out, so I packed as much as I could. The only thing that I am missing from the list is the Pompura Spore… But if you need the spore for its mana stabilization properties, can’t you use Rapion’s Wind Crystal instead?”
“Yes, yes! That’s right! The wind crystal will work!”
Well now, how unexpected. From what I was hearing, it seemed that we could begin repairing the magic circle right here and now.
However, the problem was…
What should I do?
It only increased the number of options available to us. The decision to choose which path to take was still difficult. After all, the city didn’t particularly feel safe for me either now that I knew why Baekho was trying to return as quickly as possible.
“When the Noarkans finish their preparations, they are going to head straight to the royal capital of Karnon and kill the king of Rafdonia.”
Regardless of whether Baekho was in the city or not, an incident was sure to take place.
Since he said it’d be in a year nine months ago…I guess that means there are around three months left.
In any case, even if we could return right away, I couldn’t say for certain if going back to the city was the right decision.
But I’m not a fan of remaining outside the walls either.
In a sense, the world outside the city was more dangerous than inside it. That dangerous monster, which killed thousands of Noarkans without them being able to resist, could appear at any moment, for instance.
Stay outside the city? Or return to it?
In the end, we had to choose between those two options.
“Havellion, how long will it take to repair the magic circle if you start now?”
“It won’t take too long. A lot of time has passed already so Natural Regeneration should’ve progressed decently far.”
“Tell me the exact time.”
“It can be repaired within a week.”
Hmm, really?
“Then start right away. If you need Versyl’s or Marrone’s help, ask them.”
“Yes, understood.”
Still, I decided to give the order for the magic circle restoration. Whether we returned to the city or stayed outside, having the magic circle fixed was the right decision.
“Then we’ll end today’s meeting there. You can rest freely!”
Although it was earlier than expected, I quickly ended the meeting. I mean, we’d narrowed our choices down to two now. Before I decided on which one to commit to, I had someone I needed to speak with.
“Sven Parav.”
The paladin of the Reatlas Church. Goblin.
“Yes…? I don’t think I’ve done anything, though?”
When I called his name, he began to make excuses out of habit. His reaction made me wonder just what he was even up to.
But amazingly enough, he had a pretty unique talent.
“I’m not here to blame you for anything, so don’t worry.”
“Then…is it perhaps because of that?”
“Yes. Are those ‘feelings’ of yours still the same?”
Sven Parav had an intuition that was pretty close to foresight. It wasn’t an absolute sense of the future or anything, but he had a miraculously precise intuition for things that concerned potential dangers that might come his way.
Then what about this time?
“Well… I don’t know yet for sure. I haven’t sensed anything for now…”
“I see.”
“If I get a feeling like that, I’ll definitely come and inform you first.”
“Sure, got it.”
Although it was a shame I couldn’t get the input of his intuition before making the call, another part of me was also relieved.
Not yet…
Because it meant it wasn’t time yet for the contents of the record to come true.
***
One day, two days, three days, four days…
“It’s all done. Now, we can return to the city if we just activate the magic circle.”
Time passed quickly, and on the seventh day, GM informed me that the magic circle had been fully restored.
Also, he looked pretty excited when he conveyed that message to me. He seemed overjoyed at the prospect of being able to return home after such a long journey.
“Pardon…? What do you mean?”
“It’s as you heard. We won’t be returning immediately.”
“What?”
As the person who had dragged GM away from his life a shut-in loner out of the city, I felt a little sorry for him, but it couldn’t be helped.
“If we aren’t going back…then what are you planning?”
“We’ll continue to be on standby here.”
“Could I hear the reason for that?”
“I can’t tell you yet. I’ll give you the answer when I become a bit more sure of it.”
I didn’t even give him a proper answer as I maintained the standby mode.
One day, two days, three days…
One week, two weeks, three weeks…
We really didn’t do anything and spent all that time bored while on standby.
However, that period of time only felt like the calm before the storm to me. Although it wasn’t as accurate as Sven Parav’s, my intuition was telling me something.
Ba-dump.
There was a great uneasiness in the air.
Fwoosh!
It felt like something huge could happen at any moment.
A month passed.
Fwoosh!
When the second month came and went, the calm wind suddenly began to blow rough gusts.
With that, the sky immediately began to darken.
Vwoong!
As if the end was nigh, storm clouds began to converge and coalesce into one huge cloud.
“I-is it about to rain?”
“I don’t think it’s anything like that…”
“Does anyone here know why the weather’s like that?”
The party members began to clamor at the sudden changes in our environment, and I looked for one member in particular among the crowd of people standing outside their tents.
Sven Parav.
It wasn’t difficult for me to find him.
As I entered his tent, I could see him shivering like a sick man with the blanket pulled over his head.
I could tell as soon as I saw him.
“B-baron…”
Sven Parav’s intuition had finally activated.
“W-we need to get out of here! Ah, no… Get out of here and go where…? Th-there’s no place to run to…?”
The problem was, it was my first time seeing him so thoroughly lose his cool.
“Calm down and talk,” I commanded. “What do you mean there’s no place to run to?”
“W-we’ll die! Even if we stay here…! Even if we leave and go to the city…!”
Although he was shaking hard as he sputtered out the words, the content was simple enough.
It didn’t matter if we were outside the city walls or inside them. We would be in danger.
In other words, it would be a red zone no matter where we went.
Ba-dump!
Just what was about to happen?
No, first of all, if nothing was going to work, what was I even supposed to do here?
“Yeah…”
Even as my frustrated heart began to thump with rage, a part of me calmly accepted it.
“Just my luck, you know.”
It was impossible to avoid the event this way in the first place.
I was planning on staying outside as long as possible before going back to the city if the Lord of the Floor appeared and continuing to stay outside if it didn’t, but this wasn’t a storm I could avoid in the first place.
“Ah, ah…! Ah…!”
I looked at Sven Parav as he began to go beyond mere shivers into full-on convulsions, and in my heart, I quietly made my resolution.
“Yandel! Now’s not the time to be here! Come outside!”
Whether it’s a storm, a lightning bolt, or a flood. Or something even more unbelievable.
“Something’s approaching us from… Mr. Parav! A-are you okay?”
Come at me.
Because I’ll never give up.
“Captain! Give us an order…!”
Kaislan had even entered the tent to look for me and requested an order.
“I’ll leave Sven Parav to you,” I said. “I don’t think he’s in a state where he can move unassisted.”
“Understood.”
When I finally went outside, I could see the rest of the members had packed everything up and were ready, waiting for my command.
“Emily, what’s the current situation?”
“A powerful mana reaction can be detected over that way. The mana waves themselves match up to a monster’s, though I can’t be certain of it.”
“Why?”
“The reading is too large for it to be a monster. Not even a rank 1 monster would give a reaction like this.”
“I see…”
“It’s approaching us at a rapid pace, so you need to make the decision quickly.”
Okay, in that case…
I looked around at the members who were waiting for me to give the order.
It was something I felt all the time, and yet this moment felt the heaviest and most frightening.
What was the right choice, and what were the wrong ones?
Ba-dump.
Even though no one could be sure of anything, I still needed to make the choice.
And that choice would determine the fate of everyone here.
“We’ll first head inside the cave. And after activating the portal, we’ll stand by and be ready to move into the city at a moment’s notice.”
As soon as I made my decision, the entire clan quickly moved into the movement formation and ran inside the cave, dashing down there as fast as we could. Soon enough, the repaired return magic circle came into view, which GM activated after an order from me.
Three minutes.
Since we had done all the preparations already, it decreased the time to open the portal to just three minutes.
Fwoosh!
So why did those three minutes feel so long?
“It’s approaching us even f-faster!” Lilith Marrone shouted as the mana detection radar she had set up near our camp picked up more signals.
The elite adventurers who had refined and honed their survival instincts after overcoming many hardships were all battle-ready with serious expressions on their faces.
Those shocking seconds repeated countless times, until…
“It’s done!”
The magic circle finally flashed with light as a portal opened in front of it.
“It’s here…”
Someone in the cave mumbled that, and the conversations between teammates stopped there. Everyone stowed their words, focusing intently on what was in front of them as they perked their ears.
Shrk, shrk.
Something was scratching the ground.
Fwish, fwish…
Its footsteps were heavy with water.
Screech!
The wind sounded like someone’s scream.
“Sight.”
As I gave that short order, Versyl, who was standing next to me, cast a light orb and lit up the other side of the dark tunnel. Thanks to her, we were able to figure out a few things.
Shrk, shrk.
Those were sounds made from the shackles on both its arms.
Fwish, fwish…
It wasn’t the splashing of its foot on the ground, but the sound of countless blinking eyes.
Screech!
Every time it took a step, countless spirits wailed in pain while flying around it.
“Yandel. We must not fight that thing.”
Amelia voiced her advice, born from her Crisis Detection skill, which allowed her to know how dangerous a monster was.
“Ah, ah…! Ahh…! Aaack…!”
And I didn’t even need to see Sven Parav’s pale face to know he was convulsing in pain and indecision.
Yet even without all that, I instinctively recognized it.
This was that monster.
Ba-dump, ba-dump, ba-dump!
And that monster was dangerous.
More dangerous than any other enemy I had fought until now.
But thanks to that, I was able to let go of my final bit of hesitation.
I thought about fighting this thing without returning to the city, but I swiftly gave up on it with a huff of breath.
“Everyone, take the portal and return to the city!”
GM, who was the closest to the portal, quickly jumped inside it at my shout, and more people followed him one by one.
“You’re going to follow, right…?”
Missha asked that question with uneasiness in her eyes.
“Mister, I’ll go with you.”
Erwen stubbornly made her will known.
“Bjorn! Can’t we just fight it? We might get something precious if we kill it…”
Ainar didn’t seem to even realize the situation we were in.
“What are you doing?!” I bellowed in rage. “Take the portal!”
Erwen and Ainar flinched, then immediately headed for the portal.
“Kyaaaaak!”
The issue was that my shouting seemed to have agitated that.
After having walked toward us all the time, the monster suddenly began to charge.
“Ahhh! N-no! No! No…!”
To make matters worse, Sven Parav began to panic right in front of the portal.
“W-we’ll die if we go there! I-I’m not going…!”
“What are you saying?! Then are you going to stay here by yourself?”
“Ahhh! Ah! Aaack!”
“Damn it! What’s with this strength…?!”
It seemed that even Kaislan wasn’t able to forcefully drag the paladin Sven Parav.
“It’s fine, Kaislan! Go in first!” I barked.
“But—!”
“Don’t worry, I’ll take him with me.”
With that, I sent Kaislan in first and was given responsibility for Sven Parav.
I glanced back to check on the monster.
“Kyaaaaaak!”
Thankfully, it wasn’t that fast.
Excluding this paladin and me, everyone had taken the portal already. After quickly calculating how much time we had left, I grabbed him by his jaw and forced him to look me in the eyes.
“Stop whining. I don’t want to go either.”
“Eh?”
“If you heard me, go in already.”
This guy was bothering a barbarian when time was of the essence.
“Ah! Aaack!”
I chucked Sven Parav into the portal.
It’s only me now.
I just needed to enter the portal. And thankfully, it wasn’t as if my feet refused to move at the final moment. It was just…
Leap!
I had a thought as I threw my body into the portal.
No, I remember the words the Earth Witch told me.
“You will experience much more hardship and sadness there.”
“Do you still want to go back?”
My answer to that was still the same.
Yeah.
mean, I was pretty used to it at this point.
[You are moved to Rafdonia.]
Let’s go.
Into the storm.
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