Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Novel 2025 - Chapter 624
Chapter 624: District Seven (2)
After putting Subordinate G in the basement, we closed all the curtains and sat in the dark living room, then took a moment to freely share our thoughts.
“…The situation is bad.”
Versyl was the first to speak.
“Soon, they’ll realize that the patrol that found us has disappeared. When that happens, they’ll officially start searching the area. It’s only a matter of time until they find us here.”
Just waiting in this house was definitely too dangerous. Even we would have a hard time if we got surrounded.
It was the same feeling I got back during the Ice Rock Expedition. The high-ranking plunderers of Noark, including Orcules, weren’t to be underestimated.
Since they continued on to clearing the eighth floor after that, they should have gotten much stronger since then too.
I nodded, agreeing with Versyl’s assessment. “Don’t worry. I’m not planning on hiding here forever either. We need to quickly find a way to get out of here.”
“That’s a relief to hear.”
With District Seven having been taken over by Noark, we needed to escape.
Our conversation naturally flowed with that goal as the main point.
“Aren’t they occupying not just District Seven, but District Thirteen as well? It would be difficult for them to manage that wide castle wall by themselves.”
“So you want us to find an opening in their formation and go through it.”
“That’s right! If we can get over the walls, then that’s where we’ll find our allies, right?”
Erwen suggested we force our way through their encirclement.
“How about we use the sewers…? The paths are narrow, so even if we get caught, we might be able to fight them…”
Missha spoke of another path.
“…How about we don’t try anything annoying and just hide? If we hide here for a few days, the palace forces might be able to come save us…”
Ainar suggested just bunkering down due to her decreased Aggression levels.
“Auyen, tell us your ideas as well. Don’t just stay quiet.”
“Pardon? Me?”
“I’m not asking you to get a ‘right’ answer out of you. Just speak your mind and share what you would do if it were up to you. Don’t feel pressured either.”
“If I had the strength to… I would’ve gone to save the people.”
“The people…?”
“Yes… Most of the adventurers of District Seven have been taken as hostages…”
And navigator Auyen gave quite an unexpected answer as well.
As our attention fell on him, Auyen became startled and started to babble, “O-of course, I’m far from a hero like that…! P-please ignore what I said!”
However…
“It’s not a bad idea.”
Auyen’s idea seemed to have struck a chord with Amelia as she looked at me while saying, “Yandel, maybe this is an opportunity. They don’t know that we exist. They’re only aware of the forces of the palace situated beyond the walls.”
“So you’re saying we should use this opportunity to attack them from the inside.”
“That’s right. If we succeed, it’ll be a great accomplishment. Two cities of Ravigion and then some were taken over by a foreign adversary. You might even receive recognition greater than the nobles who stopped the Heretical Duke during the Iron Wall Rebellion.”
What Amelia said held some truth as well. In the long history of Rafdonia, there were only a handful of incidents as huge as this. If we succeeded, we would receive a myriad of rewards, and I could even aim for a promotion to my noble rank. My standing in the nonhuman noble alliance of Melbeth would increase greatly as well.
“…We’ll need to get a bit more information on this. Auyen, go grab the guy from the basement.”
I fell into deep contemplation.
***
After being freed from where he was locked in the basement, Subordinate G gave us the whole truth as if he were really on our side. Thanks to that, we were able to learn more about the current state of District Seven.
“The adventurers are imprisoned all over the district in small groups.”
The adventurers, who possess multiple times more combat power than ordinary citizens, and who usually worked as the guards of the city, were being held in three major spots.
The underground prison of the Adventurers’ Guild branches.
The underground prison of the temples of the Three Gods Church.
And the underground prisons of the Public Peace Agency of District Seven.
Really, those three covered the bases, but there were actually dozens of locations where they were being held. There were multiple temples and Adventurers’ Guild branches in District Seven, and the Public Peace Agency also had multiple lower-level branches as well.
“Since so many adventurers were taken hostage, this was the only way to imprison all of them…”
However, it was still too early to say if this was good or bad for us.
Since they are all so spread out, it might be easier for us to save any specific one of them…
But on the other hand, it was obvious that our intrusion would be noticed after hitting only a few locations. No matter how fast we moved, we couldn’t do anything about the distance between the prisons.
“But the upside is our forces will grow stronger every time we visit one.”
“P-pardon…?” Subordinate G stuttered. “A-are you perhaps planning on saving them…?”
“Why are you curious about that?”
In any case, the next piece of information we received was the routes of the patrols, including the number of soldiers stationed on the walls. Well, it wasn’t like a low-ranking soldier like him could tell us everything in detail.
“Oh, and the civilians would be grouped up near the walls. I heard they’re holding on by slowly freeing them whenever the pressure from the palace increases too much…”
Still, there was a difference between not knowing something and knowing at least a bit about something.
“Alright, then go back to your home.”
“…My home?”
“Auyen will guide you.”
After putting Subordinate G back in the basement, we resumed our meeting.
“From your expression, I can already tell that you’ve made your decision.”
“…Can you really?”
“Somewhat. So, what will you do?”
I could tell that this was more of a rhetorical question, so I didn’t drag it out and immediately answered her. “We’ll save the hostages and escape the city together.”
“Plan?” Amelia asked curtly.
I answered without a hint of hesitation. “We’ll have to think about that now. Everyone, together.”
I only made that decision because I concluded that it was doable, I hadn’t made a detailed plan yet. Plus, the more the merrier when it came to strategizing details like that.
“Alright, then let’s begin.”
With that, our plan-setting meeting was underway. We spent time deciding which prisons to attack first and which routes to use, and we discussed if it would be best to go through the castle wall for our escape or if we wanted to use the sewers. That, and if we chose the walls, then which part of the walls to take.
Eventually, the plan started to take shape.
“But…”
In the silence of a short pause in our discussion, Missha carefully spoke up.
“Isn’t it…a little odd?” she mumbled to herself.
At that, Erwen asked with a displeased tone, “Odd?”
“I mean…what do the people from Noark want? There are a few things I just don’t get.”
“Isn’t what they want obvious? They just want to steal what is ours and they want themselves to become the masters of the world.”
“That’s true…but this is too reckless.” Missha quickly continued, saying, “They should know that no matter how long they resist using these hostages, they’re only delaying their defeat. Then why did they invade us?”
Erwen couldn’t give an easy answer to that question.
To be honest, everyone here had questioned what Missha brought up at least once after coming here. With their current structure, Noark could never win. Even if they had ten times the number of hostages with them, the palace wasn’t afraid to spill blood if need be.
And there’s no way that Noark doesn’t know that.
The invasion could only end with their defeat.
So then, why did the Noarkans do something so foolish? Did they just not think that far ahead?
No, the probability of that was close to zero.
“It’s also odd that they aimed for two districts at once. They’re so unstable that holding just one district would be difficult…”
“And there’s Bifron between District Seven and District Thirteen, so it’s even more difficult to defend their territories.”
“…That’s right. So why did they do this? Are they aiming to do something in Bifron?”
“I don’t know yet, but it’s clear that they’ve got a plan in motion.”
Yeah, at this point, it made more sense that they were moving with a hidden goal.
“Then what about them taking those hostages?”
“They need the time to carry out their plan.”
“Then we’ll need to move as quickly as possible. We don’t know what the situation will come to and what they’ll do if we give them the time.”
Really, seven heads were better than one.
As we continued to hash out points, we realized that we were also on a time limit. We couldn’t know for sure how much time we had, but everyone at least understood that we would need to move quickly.
“…Then our plan of attack is set. Did everyone memorize everything?”
“No, I’m not—”
“You’re fine, Ainar. You can just sit next to Versyl.”
“Oh! Really?”
Yeah. I never expected you to memorize this anyway.
The best course of action was to just put Ainar next to someone smart.
“Then our preparations are complete. Let’s get going.”
We finished our preparations and were about to set off when Ainar spoke up.
“Bjoooorn! The basement! What about that guy in the basement? You swore that you would save him!”
I sighed. Why was she so good at remembering useless things like this? Maybe she had a gene that made her never forget any oaths even though she couldn’t remember other things properly.
I couldn’t break my oaths in front of Ainar without problems arising, not when she didn’t know I was a player. However, the situation obviously didn’t turn into a huge problem this time either.
“What’s the problem? Didn’t I save him?”
“…Huh?”
“Then do I need to keep him around, continue feeding him, and take care of him forever?”
“Uh…not really…”
“Then it’s fine. Leave him be. He’ll do fine on his own. And if he starves to death, then that’s his fate.”
“Oh…really?”
“Ainar! Stop saying useless things and stand next to Versyl! That is your place!”
“Got it!”
Alright, with that, Ainar was convinced.
Creak, boom!
Alright, let’s go.
***
After leaving the damaged building, we moved as stealthily as possible to avoid the patrols. Based on their movement, our presence hadn’t been revealed yet.
“This way.”
Amelia was designated as our guide. She was our resident expert for things like stealth and infiltration. We stopped when she told us to stop and moved when she told us to move, and eventually, we arrived at our destination exactly at the time we estimated during our planning.
“Just like that guy said, there aren’t that many guards here.”
We were at the great temple of Reatlas I had visited often. It was the starting point of our rescue campaign today.
After scouting the area from the second floor of the building opposite it on the street, we officially put our plan into action.
Well, I said that, but all I had to do was wait.
“We’ll be back soon.”
Amelia and Missha had stealth skills, and Erwen was capable of ranged assassinations. Those three special operations members left the building as a group.
A short while later, we received a signal. As we came down from the building and approached the main gate of the temple, we could see the ones who had been defending it had collapsed.
Pshhhhh!
After using Amelia’s adventuring gear to remove any traces of them, we entered the great temple.
Stab! Crunch! Pshwoo!
We followed after Amelia and continued with the operation. However, a long tail was bound to be stepped on.
“Looks like…we got found out, right?” Erwen mumbled.
Amelia furrowed her brow and nodded. “It seems so. Considering how noisy it’s become now.”
So she said, but I couldn’t hear anything with my ears. But that didn’t mean I could dismiss her statement.
“Then how did we get discovered?”
“Who knows? There are plenty of ways, and people with mystical abilities everywhere. Ask questions later, let’s increase our pace.”
“Sure.”
Damn, I honestly wished we could have finished our business here quietly and had some time left over.
“The palace! The palace forces are here!”
As we went underground to where the prisons were, the soldiers that had been crawling around the temple appeared and attacked us. Killing them all before descending the steps could have been a method we took, but that would have taken us too long.
“Yandel, we’ll deal with this place, so keep going.”
“Alright.”
After leaving my allies to deal with those on the surface, I quickly headed down.
The underground prison was more spacious than the building above. The prison warden role must be taken on by shifts one by one because I only found one person down in the prison.
“D-don’t come closer!”
The warden seemed to have heard the news from above as well, as he charged at me with his weapon.
Crunch!
I merely crushed his head with a swing of my hammer. The adventurers who were trapped seemed to also realize the situation.
“A rescue team…?”
“Why is there only one person…?”
“Wait…he looks familiar…”
“Baron Yandel! It’s Baron Yandel!”
“The giant is here…!”
The cheers echoed throughout the underground were loud enough to hurt my ears, but I took it in stride.
Yeah, it was great to hear that they at least had the energy to shout. I should use the opportunity to raise my favorability with them.
“Wait for me! I, Bjorn, son of Yandel, am here to save you!”
“Yeah! Wahoo!”
After declaring myself their savior, I approached the dead warden and reached for the keys on his belt—
…He doesn’t have any keys?
That was a little unexpected, but I didn’t panic. No problem was impossible to solve in the world.
If one had enough strength, that was.
Creak!
I gathered some of my strength, and the steel bars bent like spoons.
“Th-thank you! Thank you!”
“Did the palace send you, Your Lordship?”
“I heard that you went missing…”
The trapped adventurers walked between the bent bars and each asked a question. Although it was good to see them act friendly with me, I didn’t have the time to kindly answer all their questions.
“Right, right. I’ll explain everything later, so hold out your hands.”
“Oh…! Yes!”
I first undid the shackles on the adventurers’ wrists with my bare hands like I was cracking open nuts. Since they were magic tools designed to seal essences, their physical durability was pretty low.
“Once you’re free, hurry above ground and help the ones outside. Don’t block the way.”
“Uh…do you perhaps know where my equipment is…?”
“Go ask that outside. I don’t know either.”
“Okay!”
I solved all the problems with my strength without having to go on an annoying quest to find the keys, so it didn’t take long to free all the adventurers.
“Below us! The priests and wizards are imprisoned on the second underground floor!”
Oh, so there was a second floor. I did wonder why there were only ordinary adventurers here.
“I, Bjorn, son of Yandel, have come to save you all!”
And so, I went down to the second underground floor to gain their favorability again before beginning my rescue operation.
After I saved everyone and returned to the surface, I saw they had dealt with their problems there too.
“You’ve worked hard, Mister.”
“You guys worked harder. It’s fine. More importantly, priest! Is there any priest here of archbishop rank or above? The more the merrier!”
I summoned the priests among the saved adventurers. Fortunately, due to our location, there were at least a dozen priests of archbishop rank and above.
“…Were you perhaps hurt anywhere?”
“Nothing like that. We need your help for the next phase of the plan.”
“Ah, I see! We’ll help you with everything we have. But…what do you need us to do?”
“Pray for us.”
“And by praying…you mean…?”
Hearing the dumbfounded reactions of the priests, I replied with a grin. “I want to erase my essence. Right now.”
Yeah, to do something great, we first needed to get stronger.
***
[The Essence of Orc Hero that seeped into your soul was removed. Strength has decreased by -70. Dexterity has decreased by -35. Aggression has decreased by -40. Physical Resistance has decreased by -20…]
[The Essence of ??? has seeped deep into your soul.]