Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Novel 2025 - Chapter 496
Chapter 496: Quest (1)
Marco Toweo got his first job working in the kitchen as a teenager. Ever since then, he had taken an interest in cooking and honed his talents, until finally at thirty of age, he opened his first, small store under his name two years ago down on Ravigion Boulevard. He was also the husband of a beautiful wife and the father of two kids, and though he still felt like a kid on the inside, he did his best to become the breadwinner for his family without any complaints. Whenever he felt he was being wronged, he held it in, and if could hold it in no longer, he would go far away from anyone else to let out his pent-up frustrations, before heading back home as his regular self.
“Ahhhhhh!”
By the time he came to his senses, he was already climbing up the stairs and yelling out alongside countless barbarian warriors.
“Today! We conquer the magic tower!”
Those words were what brought Marco Toweo back to reality. At that moment, he was shoulder-to-shoulder with the very barbarian warriors he never imagined he would be involved with in his lifetime. Not only that, he was running straight toward a wizard who could easily defeat them all with magic. He finally remembered where he was.
The magic tower…
It was the place he had seen from afar all his life yet never once entered. How did this happen?
As he continued to climb the stairs with countless other barbarians pushing him from behind, he had a thought.
Yandel! Bjorn Yandel is leading thousands of barbarian warriors to the magic tower!
The rumored hero, Bjorn, son of Yandel, turned out to be an incredible person.
Seeing him in person was exhilarating and intoxicating. It felt as if his presence alone had an aura that made it impossible for anyone to stop him in his tracks.
These people! They are wizards who made illegal commissions through the black market for the hearts of barbarians!
The hero’s powerful words in the square sent Marco’s heart racing for the first time in a long while. Before he knew it, just like the rest of the crowd, he was also raising his voice and bellowing at the magic tower. Yeah, it was definitely back then that he’d joined them.
“A b-barrier…!”
“What do we do?”
“What do you mean?!”
But how did he end up here? It wasn’t like he would be of any help in the first place.
“Just break through it!”
“Raaaaaah!”
He always did his best to make sure no harm came to his family, so why was he suddenly following them up the stairs now?
Slam! Slam! Slam!
A wall made from barrier magic blocked their path. “Baron Yandel. Stop! This is as far as you go!” From beyond the translucent barrier, a wizard arrogantly yelled at them.
Slam!
As if he didn’t hear them, Bjorn continued to wield his hammer. Watching him up close, Marco realized.
“Chieftain! You can’t break through magic like—”
“Didn’t I tell you before?
“…What?”
“If you can’t break through something, that just means you aren’t strong enough!”
There was only one reason why he ended up here.
“I am! And we are strong…!”
Because that man was strong.
Crack!
No matter what stood in his path, he did his best to break through it and push forward.
“Th-the barrier is breaking!”
Marco wanted to see it. Even though today’s trek might just be one of the many rugged paths that man conquered during his life, and even if he couldn’t do much to help that man on his journey…
Ba-dump!
He wanted to see it at least once.
Craaaaaaaaaaaaaash!
The Giant. Bjorn, son of Yandel.
He wanted to see what that man was made of.
***
The magic tower, home to the most important subjects of this kingdom—the wizards—had never once been subjugated despite its long history and was, thus, considered an impregnable fortress.
I, however, disagreed with that.
What do they mean impregnable? It’s just because no would-be invaders had a reason to try and conquer it.
The tower was an organization entirely composed of wizards, meaning it completely disregarded the balance between damage dealers and tanks. Though the different types of magic prepared by the wizards were a pain in the ass to break through, it was nothing close to impregnable.
What’s more, they don’t all seem to be on the same page.
Right now, justification and public opinion were on my side. Since the magic tower was composed of hundreds of different schools with varying fields of interest, many of the wizards present didn’t bother stepping forward to stop me despite the invasion.
“Don’t stop us! We only want the criminals!”
Many of the schools that were unrelated to the incident simply closed the doors to their labs, waiting for the storm to pass. Still, there were many wizards who did step forward to stop us, since they couldn’t stand the idea of being disrespected by the barbarians.
Damn it. My casting was interrupted.
Most of the wizards of the magic tower focused on research, so they weren’t accustomed to battle. They had instead spent day after day trapped in their labs, studying magic and theory. It was unfair to expect them to perform like a battle wizard. Not only that, they also had another issue to contend with.
“…Master! L-let’s just burn them all! B-before they break through the barriers!”
“We can’t… Can’t you see?” Alongside the barbarian warriors who were storming through the magic tower was a group of civilians who had joined them.
“Master! They aren’t civilians. They’re just rioters!”
“We already received an official notice from the military. We are forbidden to harm any civilians.”
“But…we won’t last much longer in this state! They’ve already made their way up here!”
“…We just have to hold out a bit longer, until the military troops arrive. Then victory will be ours.”
Thanks to the civilians who joined us, the wizards were unable to use their greatest advantage, an AOE attack. Instead, they could only cast defensive magic.
[You have cast Swing. The destructive power of blunt weapons has increased significantly in proportion to muscle strength.]
Thanks to that, we were able to make our way up the stairs one floor at a time while smashing through the barriers they set up.
“…Dirty savages! You will regret this!”
The wizards we caught were tied up with a rope and made our prisoners.
“Bjorn! You go up! We’ll continue searching this floor!”
With each floor we went up, a few warriors stayed behind to search the floors for the remaining wizards.
“Ainar, only search through the schools that didn’t show up on the list later.”
“Huh? But those bastards might be hiding themselves there!”
“Just do it later.”
There was a chance that we might search the entire tower and not find a single criminal on our list. I also wanted to avoid making enemies with the other, innocent schools. Our accomplishments so far would be enough to instill a sense of fear into these wizards every time they come across a barbarian for the rest of their lives.
I have to make sure not to cross the line here. If I do, all of the schools within the magic tower may end up uniting, which will be a major issue for my future plans.
“Like I said, you can’t kill anyone. You can only capture them! Got it?”
That was why I continued to emphasize that fact whenever I could. If we broke through the floors and killed every wizard we encountered, we would be relegated to intruders without just cause.
Are we already on the thirtieth floor…?
As I continued to climb the tower, I was met with more barriers.
“It’s the baron! The baron is here…!” The wizards gathered behind the translucent barrier looked at me nervously. “Baron! Turn around right now! Do you know how many laws you’ve broken?”
Again, they tried to persuade me as they insulted my name. I didn’t plan on stopping just yet, though.
Crack!
I swung my hammer square into the barrier. After using Swing about ten times, the barrier slowly began to crack. However, I noticed that the higher I went, the stronger the barriers became, and that wasn’t the only bad news.
“Chieftaaain! The royal army! The royal army has arrived!”
Military backup had arrived. They showed up sooner than I had expected.
They must have gotten a deployment order the moment we entered the city…
Damn it. This city is unnecessarily fast when it comes to these things.
“It’s over! Lay down your weapons and give up, warriors!” The wizards brightened when they heard the report, then resumed yelling at us from beyond the barrier. It made sense. Even if we tried to bulldoze as far as we could, the royal army would stop us before we would conquer the entire tower.
Fine. That’s that, then.
Without warning, the barrier blocking the stairwell to the next floor was broken. The wizards, who had been trying to maintain it with their magic power, ran further upstairs in a panic, but the warriors were able to capture a few of them.
“Chieftain! What do we do?!”
“We have to go higher, quickly!”
Now that the military was getting involved, the warriors were getting worried.
However, I stopped our attack on the upper floor and gave new orders. “Bring me all the criminals we’ve captured.”
“O-okay! We’ll bring them here!”
We did the best we could. From now on, it was up to luck. If we were able to at least find one of the criminals on the list somewhere on the bottom thirty-one floors of the tower, then that would make my future plans much easier. At the same time, however, things would become a lot more troublesome if we didn’t.
I sighed.
So what was the result?
“Bjooooooorn!” It didn’t take long before Ainar showed up. With one hand, she held three wizards by their necks as if she was showing off her prey—Extelin Flacco from the Mailen School, Mohilo Ostquin of the Bebektalt School, and Kuol Memendrick of the Ulters School.
One of them was not among the twenty-two wizards that I had named before. That didn’t matter now, though. I hadn’t listed all of them back then. If I had said all their names in advance, then I would have given them time to escape to a safe place.
“Well done, Kharon. Ainar.” I asked them if there were any difficulties while subduing them, but they said it wasn’t much of an issue. For some reason, all three of these guys didn’t try to run away, and instead just hid within their own schools.
It’s a shame we couldn’t find that bastard who made a commission for my heart.
But I can settle for this.
I’d end up meeting them eventually. In fact, everything we were doing now was a springboard for that goal.
“Th-this is a misunderstanding, Your Lordship!”
“We’ll know soon enough if that’s true. What’s the situation downstairs, Ainar?”
“The warriors are blocking them, but they won’t last long. When I was down there, they had already made it up to the fourth floor.”
“We’ll have to get started, then.” I activated the recording crystal ball that I prepared in advance then quickly looked around before handing it to a man when our eyes briefly met. He was an ordinary person who had followed us up to the thirty-first floor.
“What’s your name?”
“I-it’s Marco Toweo, Your L-Lordship!”
“Marco Toweo. I’ll remember that. Now, I have a favor to ask you. Can you stand over there and hold this? Make sure to hold it so it records my face and theirs.”
“I-it would be an honor! B-but…can a regular person like me do such an important task…?” He trembled, afraid of making a mistake.
I tapped him on the shoulder with a smile on my face. “I trust you.” I actually trusted him much more than my fellow barbarians. How could I give those barbarians such a delicate device that they had never held before?
“Marco Toweo,” I repeated, engraving his face and name clearly into my mind.
“…L-leave it to me!”
Now that I had found my cameraman, it was time to hurry up and begin the interrogation. Although this place was bursting at the seams with wizards, there was no need to drag one here to cast verification magic for us. I already had my own.
[You have used Misplaced Trust.]
I’d been able to clear out my pockets quite a bit recently, but this was still an item I had lying around that I’d been wanting to use.
“Extelin Flacco, Mohilo Ostquin, Kuol Memendrick.” I spoke as I looked down at the three wizards that were tied up. “Now, say it again. Has there been a misunderstanding?”
When these guys were first arrested, they screamed and yelled saying how they were being wronged, but now, their mouths were glued shut. They knew it was impossible to lie in front of this item. Their silence was proof. However, for the sake of having evidence, I needed a clear answer.
“You are being accused of treason.”
I tightened the leash to the point they couldn’t breathe, and their response came right away. “…T-treason? That’s ridiculous!”
It was difficult to remain silent when you were threatened with something that could even lead to the death of your entire family.
“I-I never committed treason. I never even thought of it. S-see how I’m answering you? Th-that means it’s the truth!”
The wizards quickly defended themselves as they glanced to the side, toward the crystal ball that was recording them. It was obvious they would be scared when I brought up treason.
“But your intentions were the same, no? Isn’t it true that you held hands with traitors of the empire?”
“Held hands with them…! I-I only made a comm—”
Right when they were about to answer, unfortunately, things were cut short.
Someone had rudely interrupted us.
“That’s enough, Baron Yandel.”
The grave voice reverberated around the entire floor. As he spoke, a magic circle was drawn on the floor and began to emit a blue light.
Step, step.
I turned my head toward the sound, to see an old man walking down the stairs. It was my first time seeing him, but I recognized him at first glance. He was the Master of the Lengman School and the third brother of Duke Kealunus.
“Teshelan Lengman Kealunus.”
It was the lord of this magic tower.