Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Novel 2025 - Chapter 518
Chapter 518: One-to-One (1)
Hipramajent.
The chief had given it a rank two.
It had three confirmed special abilities, but any two of its abilities would be fine with me.
A rank two monster with Giantization…?
How could I let this go? What was important now wasn’t just any special ability, but the passive ability that came with it. If its passive skill was something useful for me too…
It’s like I’d be eating the Orc Hero essence.
Unfortunately for me, the book didn’t have any record of the monster’s passive skills. That was fair enough, considering how the record said they couldn’t kill it and instead ran away. It would have been difficult for them to check.
That woke me right back up.
As I thought through multiple scenarios and allowed myself to hope, I was suddenly struck by a different thought.
But…what will happen if I eat the same essence twice? Does only one work? Can I just not eat it?
Hm, for some reason…I suspected it would be the former. Still, if I could use both of them at once, it would be pretty fun. Being too optimistic about that wasn’t good for anyone, though, so I thought about the scenario in which things went wrong instead.
There was one big problem, and it trumped even the potential power of a rank two monster.
I can’t tell if this guy will spit out an essence or not.
The special characteristic about this floor was that there were two different types of monsters: the regular monster that spat out magic stones and essences and another type whose corpse didn’t disappear even after they died. These two types of monsters fought to the death whenever they saw each other. Thanks to this trait, about three days after the rainy season, the number of monsters decreased drastically.
And the whole place turns into a field of magic stones, or they say.
Collecting those magic stones and turning them into Life Water to drink was the way these people survived.
Ah, I’m getting sidetracked again.
I postponed my plans for Hipramajent and re-focused on reading the book.
I didn’t expect to see so many new types of monsters here.
The monsters I had seen until now were only the tip of the iceberg. In addition to the monsters that appeared during the “rainy season,” many washed up onto the island via ocean waves.
I should transcribe this somewhere after I’m done reading, in case I forget.
And so, I spent a long time sitting at the desk just reading books. At some point, I felt a presence from the door.
“Bjorn…”
“Missha? Didn’t you go out with Emily?”
“We’re done so we came back…”
I checked the time, noticing that a lot of time had passed. “Really? Then why didn’t you come tell me? If I knew you came back, I would’ve closed the book and come out to see you.”
“That woman…told me to leave you alone. To not disturb you since you’d be busy…”
“Emily?”
“…Yeah.” Missha nodded before beginning cautiously, “If you don’t mind, could we…have a chat?”
“Of course.” I left the book open and turned to talk with her. When a team member came to me to talk to me alone, it meant that they had that much of a reason to do so. “Is there a problem?”
“…Nothing like that.”
“Hm? Then what?”
“Just…from the moment we met again until now, I don’t think we’ve had a proper conversation…”
“Ah…”
As I opened my mouth reflexively, Missha mumbled quietly with a bitter tone, “You ask for a reason when I come.”
Even though I felt a stabbing throb in my heart, I had something to say as well.
“That day, you were the one who said we should stay allies.” When we reunited, Missha was the one who drew the line. That was why I tried hard to not cross that line. For a relationship with such a large gap, we needed time.
“Yeah…I did…”
After she threw that out, we didn’t talk for a while. A choking silence filled the room for a moment.
I was the one who ended up talking first. “…Is there anything that’s bothering you?”
At my cue to change the topic, Missha forced a brighter voice. “Ah, no… I’m just a little taken aback…”
I could understand that. The objects drifting above the ocean, the monsters who call themselves humans, and the monsters who rained down from the sky.
And even an ally of the Great Sage who ended up trapped in the labyrinth.
It was a newly discovered floor as well, and since we were experiencing many interesting things, it was understandable that she would be taken aback—
“Here I am…in the labyrinth with you again.”
Ah…so we were still on that topic?
Despite thinking that, I didn’t cut her off.
“So…don’t worry too much. I’m just really amazed…so I haven’t gotten used to it yet. Just a few months ago, I wouldn’t have been able to even imagine this happening…” She then glanced at me.
I smirked as I responded, “I’m not worried, so you don’t worry either.”
Missha stifled a laugh. “What is that supposed to mean…?”
“I’m not saying this just to say it. It’s real. Compared to Erwen, you’re not much.”
Yeah, how scary was that?
And though her situation had gotten better too, I had fought nearly every day with Amelia back then as well.
“So don’t be too concerned about me and do what you want. Everyone gets closer by fighting. Really, the amount of times I fought with Amelia and Erwen—”
“By the way, what’s that book?”
I wanted to talk about the stories involving Erwen and Amelia as well, but I ended up getting cut off. “Huh? Oh, this is… It’s a book the chief wrote. It’s a record of all the monsters he encountered while living on the island.”
“Ah, really? That’s good. I’m sure it’ll be helpful for the exploration we’ll be doing.”
Although the topic abruptly changed in the middle of our conversation, I didn’t feel that bad. We went on to talk about the island and whether Chief Bruingrid really was the ancient hero, and other casual topics in the same vein. It was a genuinely relaxing conversation, one I hadn’t had in a long while. Sitting here talking, it really felt like we returned to the past.
“Yandel, are you still busy? We want to start getting together to share the info we got today.”
Amelia knocked on the door and Missha left.
I heard someone say that you’re a traitor. What’s that about?
I ended up not being able to ask that question today either.
***
One day, two days, three days…
Time passed quickly after we came to the village.
During that time, our routines were simple. I would talk with the chief or read the books written by him to gather information. Amelia would walk around the village with Erwen to see if there were any hidden facilities or locations. Versyl took Auyen and Missha to research the people’s behaviors—their culture, organization, and soldiers. As for Ainar…
“Then I’ll be going!”
Ainar ran around like a kid who just got off school for the day.
“Where are you going today?”
“I have a mock fight with Itapia in the morning. Then after that, I’ll go to the forge and they told me I can watch them make weapons. And then I’ll meet Kagudidi and go visit the underground storage. Got told I would be surprised when I see what’s in there. I’m looking forward to it!”
I couldn’t understand how she made so many friends in such a short amount of time.
“Ms. Fenelin…you’re incredible. Even though they look different and there’s a language barrier, you’ve already gotten so close with them.”
“Haha, that’s much too much! And why are words so important? We warriors can talk with each other just by gestures!”
“W-well now? Even so, creating such detailed schedules seems impossible…”
“That’s because you lack sincerity! Wizard, don’t just read books all day! Try focusing on someone’s words while looking into their eyes! Then you will hear their truth!”
“Ah, I see…”
It was a bizarre scene of a barbarian teaching a wizard.
Still, since making friends without using words was something only Ainar could do, I just left her to do her own thing.
“Agh, I’m late! Okay, I’m going!”
“Sure, just don’t get into any trouble. When you come back, tell me in detail what you saw in the underground storage!”
“Got it!”
Ainar was the one who left the house first early in the morning, and the others gradually made their way out to do their own thing. When afternoon came, we all gathered in the house given to us by the village chief and shared what we learned for the day.
“I discovered a peculiar place today. It’s about fifteen minutes from where the chief’s house is, but there is a building that looks like an ordinary home. However, there’s lots of security around the place. I think I can get in without them noticing, but I wanted to hear your thoughts first.”
“Don’t push yourself. We need to be careful at least until the rainy season is over.”
“I went to the Silver Lion Clan. They’re much more unstable than I expected. The relationship between those who ran away and those who got caught are fracturing more and more as time goes by.”
“I guess we won’t have too easy of a time exploring, even after the rainy season ends. Auyen, do you have anything to share?”
“I just It’s… I felt it for a while now. He… Bruingrid… They call him the village chief, but he’s no different than a king in this village.”
“I would wager that he’s seen as more like a god than a king. When the chief decrees something, everyone follows his words without question.”
“Let’s end our meeting there.”
And so, with our meeting over, everyone returned to their own rooms to sleep. That was our routine for the last few days.
Of course, there were small changes in our set routines as well.
On the fourth day of the rainy season…
I had finished reading all the books the chief wrote as a hobby, so I left my room to walk around the village instead like the others. We couldn’t really afford to keep me, the only one able to converse in the ancient language, stuck in a room forever.
While strolling about the village, I crossed paths with the monster kid, Marupichichi, for the first time in a while. Most people here avoided any conversation with me, but thankfully, this guy’s attitude toward me was different.
As we chatted, I heard a legend among the villagers.
“(Did you know? A long time ago, a huge dragon used to live on the island!)”
A huge dragon…
Day five.
I followed Ainar and was introduced to her friends, but unfortunately, I didn’t get along with them as well as Ainar. They all found it difficult to get close to me even though they were close enough with Ainar to punch each other as jokes.
Did the chief put out an order or something?
Even though I pressed on and asked them multiple times, I didn’t get an answer.
Day six.
In the morning, the captain of the Silver Lion Clan came to me to ask if they could join our expedition, and I refused.
In the afternoon, the other half of the clan came to me and asked for the same thing.
I refused then as well.
Day seven.
With our investigation of the village concluded, we stayed in our house to begin preparations for our expedition.
After today, the “rainy season” would end.
As we began to prepare for tomorrow, the chief called for us. He didn’t say much and just wished us the best of luck for tomorrow.
Day eight.
No, actually. If we went not by the rainy season but by the start of our adventure, it was the twenty-first day.
On that day, we left the now-familiar village and went up to the surface.
The island looked beautiful, even with all the grotesque corpses littered around.
Mostly because everywhere we looked, we could see magic stones. If they didn’t disappear after thirty minutes, then this place would be full of essences as well.
The chief told us that the magic stones would be picked up by the patrol, so we should leave them be, but the early bird gets the worm.
We took as many as we thought wouldn’t be noticed.
Day twenty-two.
The island was still riddled with monsters, so we used the village as our base and checked the surroundings.
While wandering, we picked up an essence.
It wasn’t from a fight. We really just picked one up. It seemed to have come from a fight between monsters…
I didn’t know which monster the essence came from, but since they were alive after the rainy season, they were probably decently strong.
I kept it in the magic vial for now.
During our journey, we did meet the Silver Lion Clan who had left the village as well.
They didn’t look so good.
Day twenty-three.
We went to the village to sleep through the night and went back up to the island surface as soon as the day broke. The Silver Lion Clan also remained in the village for that day.
I think they said someone died yesterday?
It seemed they were going to stay in the village until the island got cleaned up somewhat.
On the other hand, we increased our range of exploration.
Day twenty-four.
The village sent out their patrol to pick up the magic stones littered around the island.
For some reason, I felt a bit jealous.
How much was all that?
Day twenty-five.
The island returned to its normal state before the rainy season, so it looked like how we had first found it.
We looked around diligently the day after the rainy season ended, but I unfortunately couldn’t find a Hipramajent.
Did it die while fighting a different monster?
I asked the chief, but it seemed that unexpectedly, many monsters would choose to leave the island through the sea.
Day twenty-six.
Since there was not much we could do on the island, we left the island on a boat and began sailing again.
Day twenty-seven.
Before sunset, we found a different island.
Could we even call this an island, though?
Atop the wide expanse of silvery ocean water, there was a single huge tree standing upright.
It was wider than the monster island. Excessively tall as well.
I wondered if all the islands here were like this or not.
Day twenty-eight.
After we spent a night on our boat, we visited the tree island.
As we tied our boat to the root area of the tree and docked, vines grew from the bark and monsters emerged. They were new types of monsters I hadn’t seen in the village chief’s books.
We voted to name them, and we decided on Nanari in the end.
Day twenty-nine.
While spending the entire day traversing through the roots, we found a knothole that was bigger than a decently sized cave. When we entered it, we could see that the hole was deep and seemed to lead somewhere.
Was it a road of some sort?
I couldn’t know for sure, but even as we moved as carefully as we could, we continued to encounter new monsters. The fights were decently difficult. We recovered quickly thanks to potions, but Ainar sustained major injuries once.
Day thirty.
As we continued to explore the area, I began to seriously consider when the labyrinth would close.
Basement Floor 1, Records Archives. When was this floor’s close date?
Was I actually going to be stuck here and live here forever like the chief?
If that was the case, this was a big problem. We couldn’t live by eating mana water like them. We needed meat we could chew and swallow.
…Did we need to start rationing our food more?
Day thirty-five.
About six days after we ventured into the winding caves, we found an exit that connected to the outside. When we came out, we were in a place not too different from the roots we had been moving through.
Using a human as a measurement, it was about as big as a calf.
I couldn’t tell how long it would take for us to get to the top.
In any case, although I called it an exit, it was more like a window that we could use to peer outside, so we entered back into the cave to look for a different exit.
Unfortunately, we weren’t able to find another one on that day.
Since everyone looked tired, we created a camp and I fell asleep first.
And then…
I woke up with a start, eyes flashing wide open as if from a deep sleep.
[Your soul has resonated and is drawn to a specific world.]
For some reason, I was in my room.
“Wait, why am I here now?”
I was seriously confused.