Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Novel 2025 - Chapter 504
Chapter 504: Age of Exploration (5)
Did you know what was most important when lying? It wasn’t creating a logical, sensible excuse, nor was it the effort and time you took to build up a sense of trust.
It was your expression.
“Th-this… This is a misunderstanding!”
How was I supposed to believe what he was saying with that expression on his face?
“I j-just didn’t realize I got blood splatter on me, and…”
Sometimes, you would come across professional liars who were even able to control the muscles on their faces. Fortunately for me, this guy wasn’t one of them.
“I-I’m telling you… This is a mistake—!”
“Then tell me. I’ll hear whatever it is you have to say.”
There was no need to keep beating around the bush. I quickly called on Versyl to cast verification magic on him.
“…This man. He’s stronger than he looks.”
Sadly, the magic failed. That type of spell didn’t work if someone’s Mana Resistance or Spirit stat was above a certain level. Well, it was somewhat expected. This clan had more than twenty members. Even if I didn’t recognize their name, it would be stranger if their captain wasn’t this strong.
“What should we do now?”
What should we do? There was really no need to keep trying to get an honest answer out of the guy, not when there were several other witnesses present.
“Try it on that guy.”
I quickly pointed to an archer who was giving off weak vibes. Versyl went over to him as she cast verification magic once more.
“It worked.”
Yeah, I knew it would work on him. “Alright, you over there.”
“Yes, Your Lordship…”
“Tell me. What happened here?”
The archer paled. His eyes darted back and forth between me and his captain, unsure how to answer. “Uh…well, we were, uh…”
It was time to raise the whip. “Seeing that you can’t speak properly,” I drawled in a frigidly serious tone, “I’m guessing that I didn’t misunderstand the situation?”
The captain looked toward the archer and nodded his head. “Jason, you can tell him.”
“Okay…I’ll tell you, then.”
When the captain gave permission, the archer finally opened his mouth. Listening to the story, it seemed that I did somewhat misunderstand what had happened. To sum it up, it was true that these guys found this place first. However, shortly after, a team of six adventurers approached them, and a fight broke out.
“Were they going for your achievements?”
“It’s not like that, but…”
“Stop skirting around the issue, and tell me straight.”
“Well…”
It would have been great if those six adventurers hadn’t seen them, but unfortunately, they were quick to notice that their clan had found something. Well, that was at least what they thought. Afraid that they would run away and leak information, the clan subdued them.
“That’s when the incident occurred.”
“What incident?”
“While subduing them, they violently rebelled and ended up killing one of ours first…”
Thus, it led to a full-on battle where the group of adventurers met their end here in the dark cave.
“What about their bodies?”
“…After taking off their equipment, we melted them with a solution.”
I see. No wonder there was a strange smell in the air.
“Everything I said is true. Please believe me.” They attacked us first, so—”
What is this guy saying now? “If you guys were the ones who were caught, would you have been subdued without trying to put up a fight?
“But we…” Perhaps the archer knew he couldn’t answer that question without lying. He quickly clammed up.
Finally, the captain who had been silent the entire time spoke up. “What did we do that was so wrong?”
“What?”
“Do you think those six guys are any better? If we were the ones down in numbers, they would have killed us and stolen our discovery.”
So that was what he wanted to say so badly. Not that he was completely wrong, but…
“That’s why no one can blame us for this. Not even you, Baron Yandel!” their captain yelled at me fearlessly as he tried to convince me through logic.
“So what you’re saying is that there will be no problem if I kill you all here, right?
According to your logic, no one can blame us, after all.”
When I quickly refuted him with his own logic, his eyes opened wide open in disbelief. “But if you did that, your reputation—!”
“What? Are you going to go around spreading rumors as a ghost?”
It was then that he seemed to realize it: Baron Yandel wasn’t as noble a man as the rumors claimed.
“Whatever,” I said in conclusion, swiftly ending the conversation now that I’d listened to what they had to say. “That’s enough.”
I gathered my team for a meeting, with only one item on the agenda to discuss.
“What do you think we should do with these guys? Don’t let it show though. Just tell them what you think.”
“I’m for killing them.”
Erwen was the first to give her opinion, absent of any hesitation. Following her lead, the other members began to also voice their opinions.
“Missha, what about you?”
“I’m not sure. I guess killing them…would be better…?”
“I also agree with Ms. Karlstein.”
Missha and Versyl were also on the side of killing them. Auyen and Ainar wanted to keep them alive.
“I’m also on the side of keeping them alive.”
Unexpectedly, Amelia voted for keeping them alive.
Hearing that, I couldn’t stop myself from asking, “What’s the reason?”
“If we want to hold them accountable for their actions, it’s only right to leave it to the guild to handle.”
What’s with her…? I never expected such a model-student answer to come out of her mouth.
I stared at her, completely dumbfounded, as Amelia turned away from my gaze.
“And…I thought it would be better for you.”
“…What?”
“It’s just my opinion, so don’t worry about it too much.”
“No, that’s not it. I’m just wondering what you mean by it would be better for me?”
When I asked her seriously, Amelia thought about it for a moment before finally admitting, “Yandel, don’t get offended and just hear me out. You are in a very unstable state right now.”
“…Unstable?”
“Have they hurt you? Did they try to kill you? No, they haven’t. And even if we don’t kill them now, it’s not like they will pose any threat to you in the future. Yet, right now you’re still looking for a justified reason to kill them.”
So that was the reason. Still, it wasn’t like I was some savage out for blood or something. “Emily, I think we’re on different pages here. I’m not—”
“Am I wrong?”
But I’m really not trying to kill them for the hell of it.
However, when I looked at Amelia to tell her that, I couldn’t get a single word out.
The look in her eyes wasn’t blaming or criticizing me. The only thing I found there was sincere worry.
“…I guess, in the end, there are three of us in favor of killing them and three of us in favor of keeping them alive,” she summarized. “So, Yandel. The choice is yours.”
What was I supposed to do?
To kill them or keep them alive. I never thought I’d have to agonize over such a problem for so long.
But in the end…
It was probably because of what Amelia said to me. After hearing her out, I also started to get worried for Hansu Lee, a regular person who had been trapped in the body of a warrior and forced to fight, to kill, for years in order to survive.
“You, the archer.”
“…Yes?”
I asked him one last thing. “Does anyone in your clan, including you, have any experience looting?”
“No, we don’t. We’re not that kind of clan. This time it’s just… Everyone was blinded by greed. We weren’t in our right minds for a moment.”
“He’s telling the truth.”
So that’s what happened.
“Versyl, get their testimonies one more time and make sure to use a recording crystal when you do it. Emily, search through their belongings for the victims’ ID cards. And make sure to grab everything that needs to be submitted to the guild as evidence.”
“That means…”
“We will leave it to the guild to judge whether or not you are considered looters.”
This was an annoying and troublesome way to handle things. Even though those thoughts filled my head at first, after making my decision and getting to work, everything went smoothly.
“Don’t get into any other trouble until the labyrinth closes. The guild will take over and investigate your actions this time around.”
“Of— Of course!”
Alright, then that was the end of that. “So, what did you find inside?”
“Th-there’s a stone inside.”
“A stone?”
It would be faster to just see it myself. While Amelia and Versyl took care of gathering testimonies and evidence, I approached the wall. The crack there was so small, I wouldn’t be able to crawl inside.
Why does it feel like they are discriminating against barbarians?
With that thought in mind, I slammed my hammer into the wall.
Boom! Crash!
Fragments of the wall broke apart and fell to the floor. After slamming my hammer into the wall a few more times, it eventually collapsed entirely, revealing a path.
“Oh! It looks just like the portal stone!”
“How interesting.”
“Then will it also open a portal if we touch it?”
At the end of the path was a large stone about ten yards away. I approached it with quick steps and reached my hand out to touch it, but no portal opened.
I had a feeling we found it too easily. Then does that mean there are special activation conditions?
Still, this at least seemed like the right place. After all, there was originally no secret area like this in the Crystal Cave. Not only that, but the broken walls were also not being restored.
That was exactly why the most basic method for searching for a hidden piece was destroying everything. If you broke something and it didn’t restore itself, then there was a high chance that you found a secret.
“Have you found anything?”
“Not yet…”
“I see.”
Once Amelia and Versyl finished gathering evidence and testimonies, they joined the rest of us inside to search around. The clan had apparently quickly run off once they were done.
“I-is it really okay to just let them go?”
“Yeah. I told them to not cause any more issues.”
Versyl then replied to me cautiously, “But are you really okay with that? They might spread information.”
That was true. Actually, I thought it would be cleaner to just kill them at the time, but… “That doesn’t matter.”
“It doesn’t matter?”
“A random clan was able to find this place before the third day. That means it wasn’t all that great of a discovery to make in the first place. They were mistaken to think it was a valuable piece of information. It’s only a matter of time before everyone else finds it as well.”
“That…makes sense.”
“So stop worrying about it. And Versyl, come over here. I want to see if you can detect any magic power around here. Something might be hidden.”
“Of course.”
We quickly finished our basic search with magic but unfortunately wound up empty-handed.
“Mr. Yandel, I think it would be better to leave this place already. I don’t think there is anything to be found—”
“Bjorn!” Ainar shouted, interrupting Versyl. “Something is written here!”
Suddenly, a clue was found in a completely unexpected place. Ainar quickly dug at the ground around the stone, revealing words that were hidden.
“Good job finding that.”
“Haha! A trained warrior’s intuition is no different than magic. This is one of the many reasons why barbarians are the superior race!”
I squatted down to read the text, ignoring Ainar’s nonsense.
“It’s in the ancient language…”
“That’s fine,” I said, distracted. “I can read it.”
“Y-you can read that…?”
Oh, didn’t I tell them? I guess it would be faster to just show them.
I quickly read aloud the ancient language that was written on the ground around the stone. “One star, one sun, one moon. Every creature that exists below, living here on this land, is the same. And I will look up at you.”
As soon as I finished reading it, Versyl and Erwen had twin expressions of disquiet on their faces.
“Mr. Yandel, this…”
“That’s what we heard before, right?!”
“Yeah.”
It was the text we’d seen written on the witch’s altar.
Sadly, Ainar didn’t seem to remember. “…What? Where did you hear that before?
What are you talking about?”
“Forget it.”
We continued to dig around the stone to see if there was anything else, but we weren’t able to find anything. Deciding that we found everything, we quickly covered the text with dirt again as we exited.
“This isn’t good. I can’t believe after all of that, we haven’t found a clue.”
Amelia seemed disheartened, but I didn’t feel that way at all. What did she mean we hadn’t found a clue?
“One star, one sun, one moon.”
It was basically feeding us the answer.
“We’ll head to the second floor now.”
If we hurried, we might be able to enter the hidden area this time.