Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Novel 2025 - Chapter 629
Chapter 629: Abandoned City (2)
District Fourteen, Prison Camp Bifron. Originally, it was a city district of Ravigion, but it was now a prohibited area that didn’t even have a Dimension Square anymore.
It was also one of the candidates for our escape route. There was a way to get to District Four by first traveling through Bifron.
“But the protection magic circle being used in Bifron makes it difficult to cross the wall using ordinary means.”
“That’s fine, If you use the secret entrance in the sewers, you can enter even while the protection magic circle is still operating.”
“Something like that exists…?”
“Yeah, I was once banished for twenty days and stumbled across it.”
Amelia was the one who told me about the passage.
“Oh, then! I remember! I was really worried about you…”
Despite having secured passage into Bifron, that route wasn’t our final choice. There were countless soldiers even in the sewers, after all. Because of that, I concluded it would be better to aim for the walls. If we were going through the sewers, we wouldn’t need to go to Bifron in the first place when we could just head straight to the city.
Most importantly, there was something wrong with Bifron.
“W-we’re going to Bifron?”
“…I’m not that keen on going there.”
“We don’t even have antidotes with us!”
I needed troops to carry out my escape plan, but most adventurers were uncomfortable going to Bifron. To be fair, I would react the same way if I were told to enter a radioactive area without a hazmat suit.
…And I can’t tell them that the Witch’s poison isn’t present right now either.
Although I knew that nothing was amiss beyond the walls, I couldn’t tell them that. There was a stark difference between a circulating rumor and an official confirmation straight from a noble’s mouth.
…Well, technically it’s not like there isn’t any poison whatsoever there.
Every day, someone from Bifron got sick because of the Witch’s poison and died. If things were truly normal outside the walls, then how could this be?
The palace is probably feeding them poison or something similar.
Anyway, the plan to go through Bifron was rejected for those reasons.
However, our situation changed since then.
“Behel—LAAAAA!”
After letting out my battle cry, I ran down the sewers.
The low ceiling prevented me from using Giantization and thus, my full strength, but it didn’t bother me too much. I wasn’t the only one hindered by the terrain.
Boom!
Our enemies needed to be wary of the tunnels collapsing just as we did so they couldn’t use any destructive magic or abilities. Plus, since we were in an enclosed space, I didn’t need to worry about being attacked by dozens of people at once.
For a shield barbarian who was pretty close to a perfect build, I could handle that much at least. But still, they were merciless.
Didn’t you say you wouldn’t stop us from going to Bifron?
Did that promise only hold for that small group of soldiers on the walls? Or was it because they couldn’t communicate clearly that the message wasn’t relayed properly to us?
Whatever the case, the soldiers stationed in the sewers attacked us as soon as we entered.
“D-don’t stop me and step aside! Stay back!”
“Ack!”
I stood at the front alone and foraged the path ahead toward the hidden entrance, but we still had injuries on our side. The layout down here was similar to the first-floor Crystal Cave. The sewer tunnels tangled in on themselves like an ant hill, meaning that attacks came from both the front and the back. There were bound to be some Injuries.
Not to mention, not everyone was at an elite level, unlike the group at Ice Rock. There were low-ranking adventurers active on the third floor and below, and they were finding it difficult to survive with their own strength.
Ba-dump.
The sudden urge to calm myself with a smoke break struck me, even though I’d never smoked before in my life.
…How many people died?
Sacrifices were inevitable in this savage world.
I knew that better than anyone, and yet, my heart was always heavy whenever I needed to make decisions like this.
The Noarkans were the bad guys. I did nothing wrong.
Even as I told myself that, I couldn’t help but think.
…If I had just gone through the wall when they opened the way for us, the people here wouldn’t have died.
I didn’t regret making the decision itself, of course. Instead, I steeled myself, determined to work harder in the future. All I needed was to get stronger. If I were, then I wouldn’t have needed to give anything up here.
I used my shoulder to push forward with my shield. I had repeated this maneuver multiple times against multiple adversities, yet something about it felt a little different now.
This time, it was far too easy.
“What the hell?!”
“Back! Go back…!”
As long as I had the Wall of Aegis, there was no way for them to stop me in this one-way passage. How could they stop a barbarian that just charged forward because he couldn’t take damage?
“Yandel! Stop!”
I only stopped when I heard Amelia call out to me.
“We’re here.”
I didn’t even realize we had arrived.
***
Things got easier once we reached the secret entrance that led to Bifron. There weren’t any soldiers waiting for us in the secret passage, and they had apparently given up on chasing us, seeing no one come behind us. Thanks to that, we could slow down and move at a slightly more leisurely pace.
“How much damage have we taken?”
Versyl gave me a report, as she was in charge of the general management of our forces. While she didn’t know the exact number of casualties, she did give an important piece of information.
“It seems that the adventurers of rank seven and below took the most damage. I made them standby in a relatively safe place…”
“I see.”
“Still, thanks to you opening up the way, we were able to minimize our injuries.”
Just the estimated number left a bitter taste in my mouth. I should have been used to it, but maybe I too was getting old. Those numbers didn’t look like simple numbers anymore.
“…Yandel, what are you thinking about?”
“Nothing.”
In any case, after using the secret passageway to travel for a while, we were able to enter the sewers of Bifron.
“Yandel, it’s a person.”
As soon as we entered the area, we encountered another person. Thankfully, he wasn’t a soldier of Noark.
“B-boss?”
And surprisingly, he was someone I knew as well.
“Boss…? Wait, are you…?”
As I reached out and grabbed his head, the mask fell off and the familiar jellyfish haircut revealed itself.
“…Jingjing?”
“Y— Yes! It’s me! Jingkasar Feljain! Your loyal right hand, boss!”
I didn’t know if he was my right hand or if that was his real name. What I did know was that this was the guy who did everything I told him to when I stayed in Bifron a few years ago.
And that it was good to see him.
“So what are you doing alone here?” I prompted.
“Well… I sensed that something bad was going on. So I was looking for a way to escape Bifron.”
He knew that the secret passage existed thanks to me. I’d taught it to him, telling him I could return any moment. Since I’d been so busy, I never ended up returning.
Given the circumstances, it seemed that he remembered the entrance and had been looking for it himself.
“Did you abandon your subordinates and escape by yourself?”
As I narrowed my eyes with disdain, Jingjing waved his hands and made excuses. “No, not at all! I’ve changed a lot since then!”
Hmm, was that so? Well, it did look like he lost more hair than the last time I saw him.
“And what could I do by surviving alone in the first place? How many days would I have left to live…? After finding the passage, I was thinking of going outside and checking on the news!”
“Ah, so that’s how you changed…”
“Eh? Then how else would I have…?”
“It’s fine. I’ve got a few questions for you, so just answer me.”
Since I found a native in the sewers, I quickly checked on the situation of the city. I had half-assumed the Noarkans had invaded this place as well.
“Noark…you say? Oh, are they the ones making all that ruckus?”
Jingjing didn’t even know that the incident that the Noarkans had caused. Did the palace not tell them anything?
“Well…there was a bit of commotion. The soldiers locked the doors of the inspection office, and after they told us to stand by, we didn’t hear from them. However, I could hear a lot of fighting from the wall…so the citizens were very uneasy.”
That was too pitiful, even for Bifron. If a war broke, shouldn’t you at least tell the residents?
“I see. So you weren’t trying to escape, but trying to check on the news from the outside.”
“Yes… I didn’t know that was going on outside. N-Noark invading us… Uh, how bad of a situation are we in?”
“District Seven and District Thirteen have been taken over by them. And we’ve just barely escaped District Seven.”
Jingjing’s jaw dropped. “Th-that…!”
Two city districts had already been taken over, but I didn’t have the time to let him recover from the shock.
“Follow me for now. We’ll talk on the way.”
We kept moving while I got information from Jingjing. I asked if any suspicious people had appeared recently and about any changes to the city after I left.
“Bifron…? Oh! First, the resources we get from the distribution center are being distributed fairly to everyone as you instructed. No difference between adults and children.”
“Good work.”
“The mood’s changed a lot as well. Whenever something is left over at the distribution center, everyone goes to the guards to ask to trade it for a book…”
“You trade it for books?”
“Yes…and even if it’s not books, we teach the children all the skills we can without reserve.”
“Why?”
“We need to at least help the children live in the city, right? Although we don’t have many days left to live…”
I stopped walking and turned to face him. “What’s your name?”
“J-Jingkasar Feljain?”
“Jingkasar Feljain.” He flinched. It was the first time I had ever called him by name. “You’ve changed a lot as well.”
Jingjing only gave a self-deprecating smile. “Many years have passed, y’know.”
“That’s right.”
“Yes… I can tell just by looking at you, boss. I heard that you became a baron not long ago… Ah, here! This is the way to the square!”
After going up to the surface with the help of the native, a familiar yet seemingly different Bifron greeted me.
“…This place has changed a lot too.”
I guess I could say it became cleaner? Even this defunct Dimension Square looked in total disrepair when I came here in the past.
“It’s thanks to everyone’s efforts…”
I could easily tell that he was the one who put in the most effort.
“Mr. Feljain!”
“Wow! It’s Mr. Feljain!”
“Mister…! Huh?”
The children playing in the square greeted Jingjing as soon as they saw him.
Well, that was only because they hadn’t yet noticed me and the hundreds of adventurers standing behind—
“Don’t worry! This man here is Bjorn, son of Yandel, that giant baron!”
Huh?
“Whoa, really?”
“It’s the giant baron! Giant baron!”
“Wow!”
For some reason, the children became even more excited when they heard my name. To be honest, this wasn’t new for me. The children of the city liked big things and adventurers. After earning myself a bit of fame, I had many such eyes on me.
“Giant baron! Thank you!”
However, it was probably my first time hearing something like that.
“Thanks…?” I mumbled.
Jingjing responded with a bashful expression. “I’ve told the children many stories about you, boss. Telling them that you’re the hero who saved the city…”
“You did something useless.”
“The children need hope. And it’s not wrong to call you that, right? The reason Bifron’s changed like this is all thanks to you, boss.”
I cleared my throat. The only thing that had changed about him was that he got good at flattery despite being pretty bad at it in the past.
“We’ll stop here!”
Since we arrived at our destination, we reorganized our inventory. We laid the injured in the square to let the priest heal them, and I asked the ones who could move to take a look at our surroundings.
“Feljain, follow me.”
I took only Jingjing to the District Four inspection office. Unlike District Thirteen and District Seven, I thought that maybe I would be able to use this one to contact the city.
“…There’s no one here.”
How did this happen?
No matter how much I shouted and banged on the door, there was no reaction from inside. I thought maybe they were ignoring me because they thought I was a native of Bifron, so I even stated my name and title, but the result was the same.
“It’s already been a while since the inspection office here closed, so…”
“I know that the inspection office has closed.”
“Then why…?”
Because the situation called for it.
Even though the District Four inspection office was closed, I figured they might have someone stationed here given the circumstances.
I sighed.
Things had gotten more complicated. I thought that maybe after coming here, I could use this inspection office to leave for a safer city district, or make contact with the palace and hope for a better situation, but I had completely missed that aspect.
There are too many things I can’t understand.
Why was the palace only stationed on that side? If I were the one calling the shots, I would have opened the District Four inspection office before supplying soldiers directly into Bifron to push the frontlines of District Seven and District Thirteen.
…And what about the Noarkans?
I couldn’t understand what they were doing either. After taking over District Seven, they didn’t station anyone in Bifron. It was as if they were sure the palace wouldn’t invade from this direction.
However, as my questions grew, one thing became clear. There was a secret hidden here in Bifron that I didn’t know about.
Tap, tap.
I was going to figure that out now.