Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Novel - Chapter 734
Chapter 734: Clown (3)
A completely unexpected situation.
That was the only descriptor he could give to the situation, but he wasn’t going to just give up on it all and wallow in despair.
At least, that was Abed Necrapeto’s perspective on it.
But of course!
[Field Effect—Netherworld is applied.]
This was the Netherworld, a place that could only be entered when using the staff that was practically the graduation weapon of necromancers.
[Physical stats of all nonliving entities in the area are increased by 200%.]
[Physical stats of all living entities are decreased by 20%.]
A place that was paradise for necromancers.
[The undead do not die within this area.]
When undead creatures were defeated here, they would revive themselves after a short delay.
[You possess the symbol. Blessing of the Netherworld is applied to the character.]
And the character that held the Staff of the Netherworld was considered a nonliving entity that could never die here.
Well, there was a way around that, but that wasn’t the main point.
“Pshehe…”
Yeah, there was no need for him to be scared.
Step.
Even though that giant was exuding an aura like a freight train…
Step.
And even though he didn’t believe he could get through that barbarian’s absurdly high defenses to deal any real damage…
As long as I just have to survive…!
He was sure he could at least run away from him. After all, even though that barbarian had monstrously high defenses, he wasn’t that fast. Necrapeto had experienced for himself that during the chase not long ago.
Of course, the necromancer was also so slow that he nearly got caught…
“Oh, you’re smiling?”
But that was then and this was now.
His physical stats had increased tremendously since then, and his summons had become much stronger as well.
After logically analyzing the situation, he concluded there was no need for him to be afraid of the barbarian.
“Why? Can’t I smile? Pshe…”
It was natural that his surging confidence helped him relax a little.
“Well, it’s not that you can’t… But I’m amazed. You looked like you were going to be scared to death not long ago.”
“Nonsense… I was just a little surprised. Pshehe…”
His body reflected his heart as his hunched shoulders straightened out wide.
Positive thoughts begot more positive thoughts.
Once he started believing he had the upper hand, he began to see more and more things in his favor over the barbarian.
Twenty-four hours… That should be enough.
If twenty-four hours passed here without anyone dying, they would be returned to their original location. However, he had nothing to worry about.
Just until the captain gets here.
Before he got in Bjorn Yandel’s way, Necrapeto had gotten word that his captain had begun to move from where he was stationed in District 4 toward District 8. No matter how late he arrived, he would be here before the twenty-four hours were up, and that monster of a captain should be able to deal with that mysterious knight.
Anyone could defeat a monster in the labyrinth, but it was nigh impossible for anyone to defeat the captain.
If Necrapeto could survive somehow and return, that knight would be dead or gone, and the other team members would be in a defensive position, waiting for his return.
When that happened, even this tenacious barbarian wouldn’t be—
Dash!
Hey, he was still thinking here. What a rude barbarian.
Vwoong!
A dimwitted attack, with no technique to be seen.
“Pshe.”
After taking a gentle step back to easily dodge the attack, Necrapeto let out a chuckle.
“Slow.”
The barbarian must’ve been taken off guard.
How did he dodge so easily? He would’ve definitely gotten hit by that in the past…!
Heh heh, he still hasn’t realized it.
That foolish barbarian didn’t know anything about the Netherworld, and that difference in knowledge played right into the necromancer’s hands in this terrain.
Hmm… Maybe I should just use this opportunity to kill him?
It had only been just one singular attack he dodged, yet Necrapeto gained a lot of confidence from that exchange, and a fair bit of motivation to act too.
The Corpse Collector, Abed Necrapeto, slaying the Giant, Bjorn Yandel, in a duel? What an amazing story that would be!
Pshwoo!
Just then, green gas erupted from the ground between him and the barbarian, and the barbarian stepped back to dodge the attack.
The man didn’t think much of it. When a mysterious gas suddenly erupted from the ground, dodging was the obvious reaction.
But what was this?
“Huh? Why didn’t you get hit by it?”
The man couldn’t understand what the barbarian was talking about and tilted his head. “What are you talking about?”
“Wait, do you not know? Wow, I mean, I don’t really want to be the one to tell you…”
It was as if he knew what that gas was.
The man sensed something was off but still asked for clarification just in case. “Do you perhaps…know where we are?”
“How wouldn’t I know? It’s the place your staff called us to. The Netherworld. And I get cursed if I get hit by that gas, and you get blessed when you do.”
Necrapeto was lost for words at the barbarian’s concise explanation.
“What the? Did you actually not know?”
Obviously, he did. He was just surprised that the barbarian knew about it.
That was why his words failed him for a moment. However, he realized that there was no point leaving the conversation there.
“O-of course I did. Maybe you know a ‘little’ about the Netherworld considering how famous it is.”
“Oh, then shall we continue?”
The barbarian didn’t seem to want to hold a long conversation either as he began to charge after letting another battle cry.
“Grrrk!”
The sight of that barbarian charging in had him immediately wanting to run away, but the necromancer planned on exchanging a few blows to see if there was a fight to be had or not. He instead took out the corpses from his sub-space that he was most confident in.
“Wow, a Barrier trait? How much did you work on this one?”
The barbarian immediately saw through the trait of No. 3, the one the man had created after countless Remodels.
“This one’s easy with its weakness-right over here.”
Crunch!
No. 3, despite possessing damage immunity, was attacked in its only weak spot and fell apart powerlessly.
H-how does he know?
It would revive itself soon enough thanks to the field effect, sure, but Necrapeto’s surging confidence plummeted immediately, and his uneasiness began to skyrocket instead.
Of course, even through that, he tried to remain as hopeful as he could be.
“I can just tank the Divine Punisher trait.”
Crunch!
“Yeah, and that Musician trait needs to go with first.”
Crunch!
Yet that barbarian moved as efficiently as possible, as if he held all the knowledge of the world.
“Oh, a Netherworld Flame? Easy.”
The barbarian periodically slammed his hammer down on the field monsters that raised the dark attribute in the area, and also sometimes struck the ground whenever it sometimes popped up.
Why is he hitting those?
“Ah, did you not know? These increase your resistances if you hit them.”
He even knew about the hidden secrets of the Netherworld, ones that even the man himself didn’t know about even though he had visited this place countless times.
Boom!
When he attempted it once for himself, it felt like his skin had hardened a little in response.
Ba-dump!
The feeling of “something is wrong” continued to grow and grow in his heart. However, he didn’t give up. The man pulled out his trump card when the time was right.
“S-still, you won’t be able to block this!”
“Oh, so you’re finally going to summon it?”
“Wh… What?”
“What, weren’t you going to summon the Netherworld King?”
He was right.
When the person who possessed the Staff of the Netherworld entered the Netherworld, and that condition was met, they could summon a special field boss.
That was what the man was planning on doing at least. However…
Ba-dump!
How did this barbarian know about all that? It was as if he had been to the Netherworld countless times.
“Ah, it’s no use even if you know!” Necrapeto shouted. “It’s not something you can so easily block!”
He raised the staff high regardless, then targeted the moon high in the sky and cast Call of the Netherworld once more.
“I can smell the scent of the living.”
The voice of a transcendent being echoed out through the entirety of the Netherworld.
Even while knowing that he was an ally, Necrapeto felt a chill go down his spine when he heard that voice.
He clearly remembered how the members of Orcules, who had challenged him for his position during that supposed “competition” in the past, all had died out from just a single attack from the Netherworld King.
However, that didn’t fill him with much confidence either.
Bjorn Yandel. A guardian who was skilled enough to be one of the best at what he did even when looking at the entirety of Rafdonian history.
Not even the Staff of the Netherworld would be able to kill him with just one attack, probably.
But I’ll be able to wound him severely.
Necrapeto decided to make his final decision after seeing what the first attack did against him. If it dealt considerable damage, he would fight more proactively and work on trying to kill the barbarian. However, if it ended up being just a flesh wound…
How the hell can I kill someone like that?
He would acknowledge that it was an impossible goal from the start and get to running away to buy time.
Fwoong!
So, what was the result?
“You who are living, answer me.”
The Netherworld King was beyond the adjective of “large.” It looked down on the world and asked a question.
“Why have you stepped foot on the land of the undying?”
It was honestly a pointless event. No matter what the living individual answered, the Netherworld King would slam his hand down in anger—
Pshwoo!
Huh?
What?
At that moment, the barbarian suddenly moved his body into the green gas that erupted from the ground. Necrapeto couldn’t understand it. He knew he would be cursed if he stepped into it, so why did he…?
It didn’t take long for his question to be answered.
“It seems I was mistaken.”
After saying that the Netherworld King disappeared without a trace.
“N-no! Netherworld King! H-he’s right there! The living is here, so please return! Come back here!”
Necrapeto kept shouting at the sky once he realized what had happened, but the Netherworld King showed no signs. of reappearing.
With that, a silence fell over the area.
Pshwoo!
After that, the gas geyser stopped emitting its green gas, and the barbarian walked out of it with a grin on his face.
“Looks like you didn’t know?”
It was such a casual question.
Necrapeto couldn’t believe what he had seen.
How the hell do you know that?!
It didn’t make sense how he knew. For the many times he had summoned the Netherworld King, not once did a victim try to avoid being attacked using this method, and it wasn’t even mentioned in the memoir of the last necromancer he knew to have possessed the Staff of the Netherworld. There was no way Necrapeto could have discovered that particular bit of information.
“H-how do you know all this?” Necrapeto said in feigned concession, and the barbarian just shrugged.
“Why should I tell you that?”
It was the phrase the barbarian often said to make fun of others.
“Getting hit is the way to learn things you don’t know.”
However, something about that sentence immediately tipped Necrapeto off.
Ba-dump!
It wasn’t the feeling that something had gone wrong, no.
Ba-dump!
This was the feeling that something had been wrong for a long, long time.
***
Under the green sky, I was running across a barren wasteland.
Dash!
In front of me was a quadrupedal chimera running away from me while carrying the Corpse Collector.
Tsk, did I push him too hard?
Firstly, the battle itself was quite simple.
Even with the Netherworld buff on the corpses, a necromancer was a class that focused on a battle of attrition.
Naturally, their most elite units couldn’t help but be individually weak in combat, and something like that had no chance of defeating me.
After all, the shield barbarian was a build that got stronger the more it got hit.
Also, since I had played as a necromancer before, my knowledge of the class was pretty detailed, and I had been to the Netherworld countless times as well, so nothing here was new to see.
[The accumulated damage has exceeded the threshold.]
The problem was that after I countered the Netherworld King as well, his fighting spirit seemed to have been crushed as he immediately began running away.
I think… it’s time.
Of course, I had no idea how many stacks I had accumulated. Thanks to just running through the army of corpses and letting them hit me, I probably got a pretty decent count of them.
Well, I guess I’ll know when I use it.
[You have used the Dragon Plate of Aegis.]
Immediately as I used the active effect of the armor, the spirit warrior that appeared behind me charged forward.
Although it wasn’t comparable to the Netherworld King I saw not long ago, it was still unimaginably big.
Necrapeto ended up turning around at the exact same time and shouted back at me, “Wh-what the hell is that?!”
Man, it wasn’t like he was a kid or anything. Why did he always ask these moronic questions and expect me to answer?
Getting hit is the best way to learn.
Vwoong!
With that, the spirit warrior took another step forward before swinging his huge greatsword.
The overwhelming size trivialized the distance between me and my target.
Boom!
A cloud of smoke erupted as the explosion rumbled out.
[Abed Necrapeto has cast Momentary Immortality.]
Alright, I should’ve gotten his life-saving ability with that, so the next one…
Grin.
Should kill him.
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