Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Novel 2025 - Chapter 492
Chapter 492: Declaration of War (3)
It was two days after the labyrinth closed.
Did I sleep for over thirty hours…?
While the hidden piece at our expedition’s end was exhausting, I hadn’t exerted myself much in the labyrinth, so sleeping thirty hours was more than enough to feel fully refreshed.
Hoooooonk!
As I went down to the first floor, I saw Ainar still lying there on the sofa sound asleep in the same exact position I saw her in before I went to sleep myself.
She’s really good at sleeping…
My first stop was the kitchen to satiate my hunger. Luckily, all sorts of dishes were already cooked and ready for us to eat. Did Auyen prepare them in advance knowing that we would all head to the kitchen to eat something immediately after waking up?
…Forget being an adventurer, that guy was born to be a butler.
I stuffed my mouth with the ready-made food he prepared, marveling at Auyen’s talents, then went out the front door to check the mailbox, only to see that countless pieces of mail had arrived while I was asleep.
What is all of this…?
Sorting through them one by one revealed that most were letters of invitation filled with cajoling rhetoric and words of praise for my accomplishments, asking to meet with me. It reminded me of the old days. When I first started to gain fame, something similar had occurred.
…There are quite a few applicants to join our clan as well.
For some reason, people had taken a sudden interest in joining our clan. As I looked through their resumes, I was surprised to see that some applicants were unexpectedly talented. The most impressive of them was an older man who had made it to the ninth floor back in his prime, and since he was a high-ranking adventurer, he had a nickname, of course.
That’s too bad. If he wasn’t a tank, I would have accepted him…
I planned to grow our clan in the future, but for the moment, we only consisted of one team and weren’t looking for any tanks. Our second team would eventually have Sven Parav and Kaislan as tanks as well.
I should probably contact him again when I want to make a third team down the line.
Whatever the case, I was proud that such a high-ranking adventurer expressed their interest in our clan. I didn’t even need to scout him. I had grown so much since I was a part of Team Half-Wit, run by that dwarf.
…Back then I didn’t have much, but it was a lot of fun.
I continued to read through the mail with a smile on my face. Unfortunately, there weren’t any priests among the applicants.
I’ve reached this level of fame, yet they still don’t plan on asking first, huh? It’s like they’re saying if we want a priest, we have to go to them and make an official request.
It was mind-boggling to think that despite going through so much and gaining this reputation, not once did I ever have a priest officially on my team. Since potions don’t do much for me anymore, it would be nice to have a healer.
“…Huh?”
I was enjoying the refreshing morning wind as I checked the mail when suddenly, a letter caught my eye.
Count Alminus…?
As soon as I saw that familiar golden wax seal, I tore open the letter to check the contents. The letter started with the standard overly long introduction of noble households, but the main gist of the letter was what mattered.
I would like to resolve the misunderstanding between us. Please pay me a visit when you have time.
The count had extended an olive branch.
“Misunderstanding…”
Why did he suddenly change his tune? If I had to guess, it was because of the Stone of Honor. Witnessing my fame skyrocket much faster than he could have ever imagined, he must have judged that making an enemy of me would do him more harm than good. After all, this wasn’t a matter of money for him. It was purely a matter of pride. However, the possibility still remained that he was planning something.
Then I guess I should make an appointment to meet with him…
Since I had nothing to do until nighttime, I went back to my room to sleep. When it started to get dark, I headed outside only to see Amelia waiting for me. “Can we really not go together?”
“It’s fine. It’ll be easier if I go alone.”
“Alright, then.”
I put on an iron helmet and took off under the cover of nightfall to avoid attention as much as possible. My trip took me along the street until I reached a pub down an alley on the outskirts of Kommelby.
“It’s not even a construction site,” I grumbled to myself. Still, the building was old and on the verge of collapsing. The pub itself was closed and the signboard was rusty, looking as if it were about to fall off.
Creeeak.
The inside looked even worse than the outside. All sorts of building materials were scattered around, and the entire place was covered in dirt and dust-that was, except for one clear path that led further inside.
Those are footprints.
I meandered further inside, following them until I was eventually met with a staircase that led to the lower levels. At the bottom of the stairs, there was an iron door with no guard or the like in front of it. This place didn’t require such a system in the first place.
Now, what’s behind that door?
It was something I’d been curious about ever since I played the game. I went over to the door and used as much strength as I could to force it open.
Creak! Clang!
The door had fallen completely off its hinges connecting it to the wall. However, contrary to my expectations, the only thing behind the door was another wall.
How lame.
The fact that there was no hidden piece behind the door was disappointing. Still, not letting it get to me, I quickly took out the magic stone I had prepared in advance, placing it in a small groove next to the door.
Flash!
All of a sudden, I was standing in an entirely different location. The black market could only be reached through teleportation, which was why it had hundreds of entrances leading to it throughout the entire city.
I’ve finally come here.
I was now in a small stone room. Inside the room was another door that connected to a hallway with the number 217 written on it.
Shit. 217 is pretty far from the main street.
I figured I should just start walking there and went to approach the door.
Thud.
Suddenly, the door flung open from the other side, and three masked, big men entered the room.
Hm? How strange. There wasn’t any escort service in the game.
“What can I do for you?”
“…Did you damage the door before you came here?”
“Oh, that?” I never imagined that they would have already noticed that, but I answered honestly, “I was curious what was behind the door.”
“…You need to come with us.”
“What if I don’t want to?”
“I didn’t ask. I was telling you!” When Big Guy A raised his voice at me, the other two behind him started to draw closer to me. I felt a twinge of regret.
Maybe I shouldn’t have broken that door. I just wanted to take a look at what was behind it while I was there.
Well, what could I do? I was just going to have to adapt to the situation.
Thud.
I swung my arms, pushing the two men who were approaching me aside. It didn’t take much strength. It was like I was swatting away a mosquito. However, even after the two men were pushed into the wall, they didn’t rush in at me in retaliation.
Instead, they cautiously kept their distance. “You’re an adventurer?”
“Is there a problem with that?”
“The only problem here is you. Looks like we’re going to have to do this the hard way.”
“Oh, really now?”
As I cleaned my ear with my pinky finger, Big Guy A spoke to me in a deep threatening tone. “Judging by your build, you must be a barbarian or beastperson. Is it your first time here?”
“How’d you know?”
“Because if you knew anything about this place, you wouldn’t have done something so reckless.”
It was a bit disheartening to hear him say that. Was there anyone who knew more about the black market than me?
Thud.
Before we started, I decided to take off the tight and stuffy helmet that was bothering me. There was no real reason to hide my identity any longer.
“…So you were a barbarian.”
Contrary to my expectations, they didn’t recognize me. That didn’t really matter, though.
Shiiiink!
Big Guy A quickly unsheathed his sword, showcasing his aura. Luckily for me, our current location wasn’t anything like the cave I was trapped in before. Now since I could properly use my skills, something like aura didn’t pose any threat to me.
Fwit!
Perhaps because we were in a tight space, he tried to stab me rather than slash. I didn’t have anywhere to dodge, so I simply reached out my hand to grab his blade.
The reaction of these aura-using bastards was the same every damn time-that look of shock and confusion on their faces and the slight trembling of their blades. I grinned as I quickly tugged on the sword.
Punch!
I then promptly shoved my fist straight into his face.
Alright, that’s one down.
“…R-reinforcements!”
As soon as he collapsed, the other two tried to retreat for reinforcements. I quickly ran after them, grabbing them both by the backs of their necks in unison and shoving them into the wall on either side.
These two weren’t all that impressive.
I shook the blood off my hands. The blood was a mix of these three guys and of my own. I ended up getting a pretty deep wound when I grabbed his sword, probably because I didn’t use Giantization. Well, it was whatever. With my Natural Regeneration, the wound would heal over time. It wouldn’t even leave a scar.
“Now, let’s go and take a look.”
Before heading out, I squatted down and took off the mask that Big Guy A was wearing. Well, it was more like I brushed aside the smashed pieces of the mask that remained. Unfortunately, it was impossible to make out the features of a guy whose entire face got smashed in and was covered in blood.
“…I never imagined that the security of this place would be so high,” I muttered under my breath.
Suddenly, in a waning voice, he responded, “B-Bjorn…Yandel…?” It would seem that after getting punched in the face, he finally came to his senses and remembered who I was. “Wh-what is…someone like you…doing here…?”
“Got a problem? I just came here for some business. Since you’re still awake, let me ask you a few things. Where is the head of this-?”
What the?
He fainted.
After leaving him there on the floor, not feeling guilty in the slightest, I headed out into the hallway. Some onlookers had gathered in front of the stone room, flinching and taking a step back. Their clothes suggested they were customers rather than employees here.
They wouldn’t know even if I asked them…
“Over there! What’s going on?” Another large man appeared around the corner. He ran toward us after noticing that a crowd was gathering and beelined for the open door to see that bodies were lying there on the floor. “Wh-what is this…?”
His reaction made me feel like the culprit of a thriller movie.
I quickly grabbed the back of his head, lifting him off the ground. “…Ahh!”
“Where should I go to meet with the head of this place?”
“I can’t tell you…”
“But if you don’t, you’ll die, you know?”
I tried threatening him, but he simply closed his eyes as if accepting death. “K-kill me… That would be many times better than becoming a traitor…”
“Ah, is that so?”
Thud!
I let go of his limp body, which tumbled onto the floor of the hallway. Obtaining information through intimidation wasn’t going to work all that well, then. That wasn’t a major issue either.
Ring! Ring! Ring!
The frantic ringing of a bell broke out as if war had begun. “Intruder! Intruder!” All sorts of guys rushed toward me.
“Behell—aaaaaaaaah!”
Well, if I beat them all up, surely the head of this place would eventually show himself.
***
[You have cast Giantization.]
[You have used a transformative special ability. Due to the Primordial Cell effect, Soul Power consumed by the skill has been halved, and your highest stat increased by 1.5X.]
***
The black market supposedly existed somewhere underground, but no one knew its exact location, as it was nothing more than a somewhat open secret in this world. I mean, if there was an underground building the size of three soccer stadiums combined, wouldn’t it have been discovered a lot sooner?
Ring! Ring! Ring!
Ahh, it’s too damn loud here. When the hell are they going to turn that off?
How much farther did I need to walk to reach the main street again?
This place is disgustingly large.
The fact that the building was massive also had its advantages, though. Unlike the cramped stone room from earlier, the height and width of each floor were astounding, letting me cast Giantization without any problems.
Stomp! Stomp! Stomp!
The people who ran down the hallway while I activated Giantization fell cleanly into two categories.
“R-run away…!” One was the customers who only came here to buy something and started to run away in fear the moment they saw me.
“Stop him…!” And two was the group of large men running straight for me to stop me.
I sensed it earlier when facing that aura-user, but the level of people down here was a lot higher than I had expected.
I’d say about the level of a fourth-floor adventurer…?
That was just their average, of course. Some would probably be fine even on the sixth floor. Even though I could infinitely regenerate my wounds, it was still dangerous for me to take on such a large number without support. Still, I felt as calm as if I was at a picnic. Because no matter what, they couldn’t kill me—not because of my strength, but for another reason entirely.
“S-stop! W-we have orders from above! We were ordered to capture him alive and to not hurt him as much as possible!”
“What? W-we have to capture him alive?”
So news of me has reached the upper level of this place.
Stomp! Stomp! Stomp!
I continued to run forward, destroying everything in my path. A trembling voice from off to the side made its way up to me.
“How? How are we supposed to capture a monster like that…?!”
Unfortunately for them, they were trapped by the poor orders of their superiors. I took advantage of that moment to create as much of a scene as possible. The few of them who didn’t back away in fear dropped their weapons and ran forward to subdue me. They were easy to deal with. Just running forward at full strength was enough to send them flying into the walls.
Smash!
Their willingness to obey the instructions from their superiors was admirable but also extremely shortsighted. Even if they attacked me with all their strength and all the troops they had, they’d never be able to subdue me without hurting me first.
“B-Baron Yandel! P-please stop! The higher-ups want to have a conversation with you—”
What are they talking about? I’m not going to stop now. This is way too much fun.
Since I was completely invincible, I decided to keep jogging as aggressively as possible.
Stomp! Stomp! Stomp!
None of their attacks ever landed a single scratch on my body. This was a heavenly experience. Even though I was just running forward, it was as if their attacks were being deflected on their own.
This must be what it feels like to be a martial arts master of Murim.
“Hahaha!” I excitedly continued my stomping stroll around the building.
“Shield Wall!” At some point, they began to use shields to try and hold me in place by building a wall. It must have been another order from above. If I end up dying, that would be the end of the black market, after all. This place was rumored to look down on nobles, but in reality, an organization like this couldn’t run above the reach of nobility.
“We’ve been ordered again. We can’t attack him no matter what!”
At least I now knew what the higher-ups of this place were thinking. They knew that if any harm was to come to me, this place would be destined for destruction. From their point of view, the only way they could have truly dealt with me was to kill me quietly without anyone watching. At this point, however, there were already countless witnesses.
“Hiding behind a shield? You cowards! Who is the leader in charge of this evil den?
Come out! I shall punish you in the name of Bjorn Yandel, on behalf of the royal family!”
“Th-that’s what we’ve been saying! Our leader wants to talk with—”
“Behell—aaaaaaaaah!”
After a good while longer of running rampant, the number of people deployed to their shield wall increased, bolstering the wall’s sturdiness. They even brought wizards and special ability users as well to cast support magic and debuff magic.
Slowly, I was overwhelmed by their numbers.
Thud.
When I finally stopped running for the first time, I looked behind me. From the front and behind, I was completely trapped by a shield wall made up of numerous people. It would be difficult for even me to break through all of them.
I sighed.
If I get caught like pathetic prey, he’s going to look down on me when I meet him…
After a moment of contemplation, the man who seemed to be in charge made his way through the shield wall. “…Baron! P-please calm down for a moment so we can—”
“There’s no place for conversation with evil bastards like you!”
“…But you have nowhere else to run!”
What was he talking about? Did these guys really not know what it meant to be a barbarian?
Alright, that’s enough thinking.
I swung my hammer as hard as I could, not toward the guys holding up their shields, but instead toward the wall on my left.
Craaaash!
When you were trapped, you just had to make a new road.