Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Novel - Chapter 716
Chapter 716: Prison (3)
Raven’s account of what was happening on the surface had a thought racing through my mind.
I’m not too late, am I?
Of course, it hadn’t even been three minutes since I’d felt that explosive tremor. Even so, I couldn’t be sure if I was still in the “golden time” or if I had missed it. Although I didn’t know what their plan was, the explosion told me that plan had already been put into motion.
Maybe…
Maybe the golden time was before the plan even began. Maybe, they had already begun their escape and there wouldn’t be anyone present even if I went down to the lower floor. There was even the chance that I would meet them along the way and open myself up to a dangerous situation.
However, the thought only made me run down the stairs even faster.
I ripped open the heavy metal doors that were blocking each floor.
Not yet.
The closed steel doors gave me confidence and hope that they hadn’t begun their escape yet.
The second underground floor, the third, the fourth…
I quickly continued my descent.
There was still a chance I hadn’t missed that golden time yet.
Then, as I was rushing down the stairs, I heard a sputtering voice from behind me.
“M-Mr. Yandel…! Please wait…!”
She was the one who said we needed to run, yet she was worried enough that she followed after me.
We’re already nearly there, anyway.
I thought about telling her to go back up by herself, but we just needed to check on the situation below. If they were still in their shackles, all I needed to do was quickly go in there and deal with them. And if they were already freed…
Well, I should be able to buy enough time for her to escape.
Decision made, I ripped open the steel door leading to the fifth underground floor, not even taking a second to think about what was going on on the other side, just like a barbarian.
Crunch!
With my overpowering strength, the steel door crumbled away like paper.
The space beyond was quiet.
The fifth underground floor prison was laid out like a chessboard. Rather than torches that required constant upkeep, magic tools that emitted light were embedded in the ceiling, illuminating the area. It wasn’t that bright, just enough to drain the energy out of people under their dim shine.
Well, that wasn’t the important part.
Left, right, forward.
I had three choices I could make. Since I didn’t know where exactly the Noarkans were being held on the fifth underground floor, I needed to just run around and look for—
Step.
Ah, I guess I didn’t need to.
Damn it.
I sensed a presence and whipped to look in front of me. There, I saw a group that just turned the corner in the distance.
Clang, clang.
Two knights of the kingdom stepped in front of them with the clanking of their armor. It was like they were acting as guides.
“I knew you would come here.”
One of the wannabe escorts, Demon Eyes Banozant, followed after them.
“Pshe…”
And behind him were the rest of his subordinates.
Even though things weren’t going as I hoped, I accepted it as soon as I saw it.
Yeah, I was already too late.
From what I can see, they were stationed right in front of them and let them out as soon as their plan began…
However, I wasn’t too shocked. I hadn’t expected much on my way here to begin with. From my experience, if I felt like I might be too late, then that was exactly what I was.
But it’s good that I came here.
I needed to come here, anyway. It was clear that they would pull something as soon as they left this place. Optimistically speaking, the only thing I missed out on was extra time to beat them up before they got freed.
Maybe I hadn’t missed the golden time yet.
Step, step…
The terrain wasn’t too bad either.
Clench.
It would be possible for me to stop them at this stage. Stop them so they couldn’t go up to the city and enact their full plan.
I was still making up my mind and formulating a plan of action when the two knights who had been guiding the group turned to speak to the vice-captain. “As you know, our duty ends here. After this, Demon Eyes, you need to take care of the rest.”
From what I was hearing, it seemed that the knights only freed the group and weren’t planning on helping out any further.
“Haah, haah… M-Mr. Yandel?”
Raven then arrived with perfect timing.
Hmm, maybe “perfect” wasn’t the right word?
“If you stopped—*haah*—are you planning—*haah*—on going back…? Eek!” The hope in Raven’s eyes shattered into panic when she noticed the people who had been blocked by my massive frame. “H-how are they o-out of their cells…?”
Why are you even asking that?
They were outside because someone with deep ties to the authority of the palace let them out.
Looks like they had all their equipment returned too…
I did wonder why they were still on the fifth underground floor. It seemed they needed to take some time to reorganize the equipment that had been confiscated from them.
Then, Demon Eyes Banozant pushed past the two knights to step toward me. Quietly, he asked, “Are you going to stop us? By yourself?”
Well.
“What do you think?” I countered with a smirk.
He just silently observed me. The look in his crescent-shaped eyes sent disgust rippling through me. It was like he didn’t even view me as a person.
However, maybe thanks to the lesson I gave him not long ago, he seemed to have gotten the memo this time.
“Hmm, from what I can tell, you will make a foolish decision this time as well.”
Well, I couldn’t agree that it would be “foolish,” but since he correctly guessed what my next actions would be…
Rather than answer him with words, I raised Wall of Aegis, then activated Giantization, blocking off the only exit to the surface with my entire body.
“Mr. Yandel… Aren’t you being too reckless—”
I cut off Raven’s anxious ramble. “You can go up first. I’ll stop them here. There’s no reason to put you in danger too.”
She took a moment to respond. “Argh, are you going to keep being so annoying? If I was going to do that, I wouldn’t even be here in the first place.”
“Uh…”
“You’re going to stop them, right? Stop them so they can’t go up to the surface and try to do something bad.”
“That’s…”
“I’ll help you. I won’t be of that much help right now, but I’ve learned quite a few support spells during my time in the military.”
“Hmm…”
I couldn’t hear any hint of hesitation in her voice.
Although my heart flooded with warmth, I couldn’t help but wonder.
What should I say to her? Should I just keep declining her and say I didn’t need her help? Or promise her to pay her back later?
I didn’t think for too long.
“Raven.”
“Yes?”
“Thanks… For everything.”
I didn’t get a response to my genuine comment of gratitude, but I didn’t ask for one in the first place. I probably would’ve been more embarrassed if she answered.
And our opponents were looking at us like we were weird as well.
“Are you done? Pshe.”
Stop snickering, you bastard.
I stared ahead as the Noarkans slowly approached me.
The Corpse Collector, the Wailing Witch, the Demon Eyes, and many other individuals that I didn’t know the name of but was sure were powerful, including Glasses.
How long can I hold them here?
I let that passing thought fully come and go through my mind.
“Behel—LAAAAA!”
Come. I don’t know what your plan is, but I will never let you—
Another explosion boomed from above, causing the underground space around us to shake.
The rumbling was incomparably stronger than before. The earlier shock had already damaged the pillars holding up the place, and it wouldn’t have been odd for them to begin collapsing at any moment.
Rumble!
And now, they seemed to be on the verge of crumbling away.
“Randolf, has the mass teleport been prepared?”
Huh?
“Yes. The mana negation field has also been undone, and we can activate it at any moment.”
What?
“Activate it.”
“But if we do that, we won’t be able to carry out our plan of freeing the other criminals here.”
“It’ll be a strategic loss if we lose any more time here.”
“Understood.”
The two of them openly conversed as if no one was listening before blue light suddenly began to shine from below them.
It was clear what the situation was.
Wait, so they didn’t stay on this floor to get their equipment?
There was no time to explore the question. At this rate, they would just disappear from in front of me.
The weakness of mass teleport was that it had a long activation time and could be disturbed in the meantime. However, from what I could tell, the spell was already ready to activate.
However, that didn’t mean I could give up.
I kicked off the ground and charged at them. Although I was a tank, as one of the strongest adventurers, closing a distance of this scale wasn’t that difficult.
That was, of course, only if no one tried to stop me.
[Roland Banozant has cast Green Demon Eyes.]
Even as a barbarian the size of a tank was barreling at them, the vice-captain remained calm as his irises were dyed green.
Vwoong!
A translucent green wall formed between us, blocking my path.
Bang!
Even when I slammed it with my hammer, the wall showed no signs of cracking. Nothing changed when I switched to No. 687, Siege Slaughterer.
Boom!
I continued to slam down on the impervious wall as the shaky ceiling began to fall on us.
The building, I realized. It could collapse at any moment.
Despite that, I continued to swing the iron mace without a second thought.
Shimmer!
The blue light from beyond the wall grew brighter and brighter, signifying that the spell was nearly complete.
Bang!
Still, I didn’t give up.
Demon Eyes then spoke to me as if I was a child doing something unwise.
“Baron Yandel. Now’s not the time to be doing this. Stop wasting your strength on useless endeavors and hurry along now.”
His smiling, crescent eyes weren’t even looking at me but beyond my shoulder. Though there was normally no reason to pay attention to his words, I knew what he was saying.
“I heard that you treasure your allies dearly.”
Rumble!
The ceiling officially began to crumble on top of us.
A huge pane of stone slammed into my shoulder. I stopped swinging my iron mace at the sensation. I needed to concede the point that I could no longer stop them from teleporting out of this place. However, I need to say this much at least.
“I don’t know what you are planning. But it will never work out like you want it to.”
Barbarians were a race who specialized in messing things up.
“I’m looking forward to it,” he responded.
Stop acting cool about it.
Well, whatever.
I had said what I wanted to.
I immediately turned around and dashed toward the stairs where Raven was.
A bright flash of light erupted from behind me for a moment, but I didn’t turn around to check on them. It was obvious that no one would be there anyway. My highest priority was to get Raven and evacuate to the surface—
“Mr. Yandel! The stairs leading up are blocked!”
“What?” As I grabbed Raven in my arm and checked the stairs, I saw that the path leading up had indeed collapsed. I couldn’t help but let out a sigh when I looked at it, but that didn’t mean I could give up.
Then do I need to move each piece one by one while climbing?
I didn’t even have time to properly think. I immediately ran as far as I could up the stairs and went to move the debris blocking our way with just my bare hands.
“Mr. Yandel, it’s already too late!”
Too late, she said. Well, it might seem that way to her.
“So what? You want to just die here?” I demanded. For a K-barbarian like me, giving up was—
“No, not that! Let’s go down! We can use mass teleport to get out as well!”
Oh. I guess that’s another path we have?
“Just buy me time until I can complete the spell!” she argued.
Why hadn’t I thought of that? And why did I jump to using my body first?
Though I was embarrassed at the thought that my brain had become like a true barbarian’s, that didn’t change the fact that her idea was probably the best shot we had.
Rumble!
I ran down the collapsing steps until I finally found stable enough ground to stand on.
“That way!” Raven shouted, pointing toward the farthest corner from the entrance. From what I could see, two heavy pillars had fallen onto each other, creating a space that just so happened to be big enough to hold two people.
Alright, I concluded, still running down the corridor. If I just hold it up from below, we should be able to stay safe until the spell is—
“Huh?”
“Eh? Kyaaa!”
The floor collapsed.
Thud!
When I woke up, an unfamiliar ceiling greeted me.
Well, waking up was the probably wrong way to put it. The barbarian body wasn’t so weak that I would fall unconscious just because I fell a little after the floor collapsed beneath me.
My heavy footsteps had further destabilized the ground beneath us, which caused it to open up due to all the cracks that were already in it, and as I was falling, I had twisted my body and then fallen on my back to protect Raven from getting injured.
Like a playback in slow motion, I saw everything happen in my mind. However, there was one question I had.
“This is…”
I needed no explanation to know with every fiber of my being that this place was safe. For some reason, even as the floors above us continued to collapse, this place below that I had fallen into was calm without a hint of rumbling. The only sign of collapse I saw was the small opening in the ceiling that I had fallen through.
“The…sixth underground floor?”
The underground prison of the palace definitely ended on the fifth floor. It was like that in the game, and there weren’t any steps that led below the fifth underground floor either. I hadn’t heard anything about the prison being expanded either.
No, more importantly…can this place even be called a prison?
It was a huge cubic space. There weren’t any iron bars nor even an entrance that led to this place. In fact, the only thing present was a cube at the center of the room.
It was like a matryoshka, a box inside a box. Just what was this place?
I could tell instantly that it wasn’t anything ordinary.
“Raven, get up. Quickly.”
To get my answer, I quickly woke up the wizard. Thankfully, the fall had only knocked her unconscious, and she was quick to wake when I shook her.
“Th-this is…”
“We fell into this place. Is there anything I should know about?”
At my request, Raven looked around the area in a daze before locking eyes with the cube at the center of the room.
“Do you know what that is?” I asked while shaking her shoulder again.
Raven answered with a hint of uncertainty. “I-I don’t know what it is, but…”
“But?”
“I…think there’s a portal inside there?”
Just where were we?
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