Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Novel 2025 - Chapter 661
Chapter 661: Outsider (5)
As we walked past the wall inscribed with magic circles, the large, circular passage began to narrow.
“So… I’m not curious about the outside at all…”
Step, step.
“It may be best that you do your exploration with your other allies. We should return for today…”
Step, step.
“H-how could you do this?! Let go of me!”
I assumed he wouldn’t do anything, but the GM’s arguments grew harsher and harsher the further along he was dragged.
From the perspective of a barbarian, that was just cute, of course. It was like hearing the chirping of a baby chick.
“Yurven Havellion.” I let go of his arm and looked at him.
“…Why are you l-looking at me like that?”
“Give me a few days of your time. It’s fate that we met like this. Wouldn’t it be better if we got on more friendly terms?”
“If your goal is being social, then I can always give you more time, even without circumstances like this…”
Heh, always give me more time?
It was obvious that he was going to lock himself in his magic tower as soon as I let him go back.
“But it’s a little odd.”
“Pardon?”
“Why are you whining so much for me to send you back? You’re a true wizard. Aren’t you curious about the outside?”
“…I am only curious about things I can afford to handle.”
That reasoning left an impression on me. If someone wanted to live a long and uneventful life, closing their eyes and blocking their ears was definitely the best method.
…So this is the secret to how this guy was able to survive for so long.
Just that one sentence was able to get me one step closer to understanding what kind of person the GM was. Didn’t mean I was planning on letting him go any time soon, of course.
“Still,” I said, “help me out here, okay? At least for Versyl’s sake.”
What I said could sound like I was pleading by trying to appeal to his friendship with Versyl, but from the GM’s position, he would definitely take it as a threat.
“Urgh…”
“I’ll make you a promise. If something dangerous happens, I will protect you even if I have to throw my body in the way. Hmm? And it won’t take too many days either. I’m only planning on checking it out a little before coming back.”
“If you say so…”
With the carrot method implemented, the GM gave a defeated nod.
Alright, then that problem was dealt with.
“Then let’s keep moving.”
After coming to an agreement, we resumed our walk through the passage. The pathway stopped narrowing at some point, and after walking in that state for a little longer, the passageway opened up again and a slope appeared.
Whoosh!
As we climbed up the incline, I could feel the wind and light begin to trickle down toward us. It may have just been a gut instinct, but the nature of this place felt different from that of the city’s.
[You have entered a forbidden area.]
After fully stepping out into the open, I took a deep breath in before slowly taking a look around. In the distance was the setting sun, half-hidden behind a mountain range. A creek was dyed red by the sunset, and birds chirped in their nests above the trees.
“That should be Rafdonia…”
In the opposite direction of the sunset, I could see tall castle walls. They were so tall and so wide that it reminded me of the Great Wall of China.
It’s the first time I’ve seen it from the outside.
I had never once left the walls even when I was playing the game, so looking at Rafdonia from this angle was quite a new—
“Havellion, what are you doing?”
“I was taking a look at something. I saw letters I have never seen before…”
Unfamiliar letters?
I tilted my head and walked toward the entrance of the cave we had just come from. There, I found a mark made by a dagger of sorts on the wall.
I was here.
Baekho Lee, strong son of Korea.
I sighed. Why was I the one getting embarrassed looking at this?
I nearly let out a dry laugh but forced myself back and spoke as if I didn’t recognize it either. “…I don’t think it’s the ancient language. Interesting.”
“Yes. It is peculiar. I do feel like I have seen this somewhere before…”
So the GM didn’t know Korean. It was honestly understandable. If I suddenly saw Hebrew or something, I probably wouldn’t even be able to recognize which language it was, let alone read it.
I stared at Baekho’s mark in thought, the GM gave me some advice. “If you’re thinking about leaving your name here, I suggest not doing it. It will be proof that you were outside. If the palace sees it, it could be interpreted as treason.”
“…I wasn’t thinking about that.”
“That’s a relief.”
After seeing the GM nod, I quickly turned around and clicked my tongue.
Why did I suddenly want to leave a mark now?
***
From what Clown told me, the world outside the walls was very similar to the Dark Continent on the seventh floor. If that was the case, where were we right now?
I first needed to find something I could use as a reference.
If that’s Dragon’s Mountain… Is this near the Great Forest?
With that, I could guess as to my location. The Great Forest was located in the southeastern region of the Dark Continent. And since this looked to be a bit more east from the Great Forest…
So the eastern region of the Great Forest?
Of course, it was just a hypothesis. There was no way I could be sure of it. The atmosphere here was completely different from the labyrinth as well, so I really had no idea.
In any case, let’s just slowly try to learn about this…
“So… Where are you going to go now?” the GM asked.
“We’ll head toward the city.”
“Toward…the city?”
“Why did you make that face?”
“To be honest, I expected you to head straight into the forest, Lord Baron.”
Uh…
To be honest, I was interested in the forest as well. However, there was too much risk for just the two of us traveling so far, and there was something I wanted to check first around the castle walls.
“Just keep using detection magic and follow me. This is an unknown world. Remember that anything could appear.”
“Yes. Let’s move after I memorize the coordinates here, just in case.”
“Oh, that’s good.”
We decided to turn away from the forest that looked too peaceful to be the Great Forest of the Dark Continent and headed east.
Why the hell is the map so big?
The sun had long completely drifted behind the mountains at this point, leaving us with a dark sky filled with stars overhead, but we still weren’t anywhere close to the walls.
Well, maybe we were around halfway there?
…I thought we’d get there in just a few hours.
We were in the highlands, and because of how tall the walls were, this ended up happening.
It was something like a mirage. No matter how far we walked forward, I didn’t get the sense that we were getting any closer.
“We’ll stop here for today. Let’s spend the night and move again the next morning,” I ordered.
We wouldn’t be able to see the walls when night truly fell, so I decided to set up camp for the night. If we moved without being able to see what was in front of us, we could stray from the path and end up wasting even more time.
“…It’s been quite a while since I’ve had to spend the night in a sleeping bag.”
As we lay down in our sleeping bags and looked up at the starry night, the GM talked to me.
What? Did he become sentimental after seeing the night sky?
Although I didn’t know what changed his mind, it was clear that this was the start of the small talk I was looking for.
“You were an adventurer in the past, right?”
“Yes. It’s already been seven years since that time, however.”
“… Why did you stop adventuring?”
“It’s just… A lot of things. I sensed I was at my limits as well…”
Considering how he batched all that into “a lot of things,” I could tell didn’t want to talk about the details. Or he was in a situation where he couldn’t easily talk about them.
As soon as he stopped being an adventurer, he went into the magic tower and stayed in there for seven years…
Although I didn’t know the GM’s situation, that didn’t mean I didn’t know anything about the traces he had left with the life he had lived. After all, I had done all the background research I needed to.
There’s definitely a reason he became a shut-in…
From what my gut was telling me, the reason probably wasn’t him, but some external factor. Either the palace or maybe even Baekho.
“Still, laying down like this brings me peace for some reason.”
“What’s this now? You were acting like I was dragging you to hell with how upset you looked.”
“I still am displeased. However, this one thing does make me feel better.”
“And what is that?”
“The fact that no one knows that I am here.”
Only then did I understand what he meant by the situation bringing his heart peace. He was probably being watched by the palace as well. He had even been ambushed by Baekho that one time when he left the magic tower for a short moment.
Would it be right to say he had even more enemies in the city?
I should never tell him that Baekho Lee is also outside the walls…
I was mindful not to say anything that could change his mind and continued the light conversation.
“Any lovers…? Since I am old, I have met a few women in my life… But none of them ended well.”
He was someone who didn’t like dating.
“The school of magic I first studied? That’s… I don’t particularly want to talk about that. My apologies.”
And unexpectedly, when he was in an awkward situation, rather than lying or trying to brush it off with vague comments, he was the type to face it head-on. Or maybe that was just the one thing that he hated talking about.
I should look into this more deeply later.
The school of study that he had first devoted himself to had fractured into several branches for one reason or another, and he ended up newly creating the field he was now in as a result.
However, regrettably, it was difficult to find any records of what that “incident” was.
Everything was treated as top secret for some reason. The only thing I knew was that the incident was regarding some forbidden magic.
Maybe I should meet and ask Mr. Kyle later. He should be knowledgeable in forbidden magic.
After that, we continued to talk about small things, and there were a few things that I realized during that time.
Baekho and I were similar in some ways. The fact that we weren’t on the side of the players, the side of the palace, or the side of Noark.
***
And so, the next day came.
“Did you sleep well?”
“My entire body is sore.”
“Here, drink some water. You’ll feel better.”
“…What does that have to do with being sore?”
“Don’t mind the small things.”
As soon as we got up, we had a light breakfast and immediately resumed our journey toward the walls.
“We finally made it.”
“What do you mean, made it? This is only the beginning.”
After arriving near the walls at sunset, we continued to walk along the outer perimeter of the wall.
I had seen a certain bit of information in a small selection of literature. “Rafdonia,” located at the edge of the continent, was a territory that lived off of imports and exports of trade and commerce.
Which meant there should be an ocean near Rafdonia.
Tap, tap.
An invisible barrier was formed all around the castle walls. I could feel it with a light tap of my hand. After following it all the way around and moving through the night, we arrived at the eastern part of Rafdonia, around District Nine and District Ten, before sunrise.
“We can’t see anything due to how dark it is. It will be daybreak soon, so let’s wait until then.”
“You must be tired. How about we take a nap before then?”
The problem happened after we woke up.
“Lord Baron…? Wake up! Wh-what is that…?”
“… Let’s get a bit closer.”
As soon as we awoke, we only lost ourselves to the scenery for a moment before we quickly headed toward it.
Then, both of us went speechless.
But first, to summarize the current situation… The ocean did exist.
At the edge of the continent, looking down from atop a cliff, we could see the ocean spread out far and wide.
Gray.
The problem was that the ocean was gray.
No, not just the ocean, but the sky as well.
The crashing waves.
The clouds in the sky.
With the gorge as the boundary, everything beyond it was lacking in color and motionless, as if it were a black-and-white photo.
Seeing this scene, the GM mumbled to himself in a daze, “…So the world never became normal.”