Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Novel 2025 - Chapter 662
Chapter 662: Companion (1)
The curse of the Witch which covered the world since ancient times was akin to a sort of radiation. After the curse was put on the world, the entire continent became a dead land where no life could grow. Only Rafdonia was able to avert that catastrophe…
Only Rafdonia, at least as far as its citizens knew.
However, there was no such thing as the Witch’s curse outside the walls. In fact, the curse that we thought of as the Witch’s curse did not exist at all.
“The outside world is perfectly fine. Plants are growing and if you get close, you can see bugs eating grass. Same with wild animals.”
Just as some Noarkan player said on Ghost Busters, the world outside wasn’t filled with death.
Well, that doesn’t mean it’s in a normal state either.
I stood at the edge of the cliff and looked out into the gray world. Only the sun that rose in the distance burned bright, leaving me unsettled.
“…So the world never became normal.”
Just as the GM said, the world was far from normal. However, that only gave me more questions. The palace had never said a single word of truth.
What radiation nonsense…?
There was no poison tainting the air. No, the world had ended differently.
Not to say I knew why the palace hid the truth—
“I think I now understand why the palace twisted the truth.”
“Hmm?”
The GM lowered his telescope—Where did he get that from?—as he continued, “How could they tell the citizens living inside the walls? The fact that this world is heading toward destruction.”
“…What do you mean?”
“Look down there.” The GM pointed to the boundary between the gray waves and the land as he handed me the telescope. “It’s very slow, slow enough that it is difficult to make out with the naked eye, but the area is slowly expanding.”
Looking at the place he pointed to, I could see that the gray color was slowly encroaching on the land.
“The problem…is that it probably isn’t like this just on this side.”
“What does that mean?”
“The ones who left the castle walls, didn’t they return to the city not long ago? This is probably happening on the opposite side of the continent as well.”
“But why would they have a reason to return to the city? If it’s like you said, wouldn’t the city fall first?”
“Well, maybe they have some information that we don’t have. Hmm, maybe even if the boundary crosses over the city, it might not be able to penetrate the protection magic circle.”
He was making a pretty un-wizardly and baseless prediction.
But he’s probably right.
The Noarkans did invade the city. It meant that Rafdonia held a way for them to survive. What I didn’t know, though, was what exactly that was.
I’ll have to figure out the rest myself by adventuring.
I went down to the beach with the GM and investigated quite a few things, but unfortunately, we didn’t find much. To summarize the few findings we had…
Boom!
First, that gray land was death. No matter what object touched it, as soon as it made contact with the boundary, it lost its color and froze like a stone.
Also, I hadn’t tested it with a person yet. I wondered if one could endure it if they had enough Mana Resistance, but I wasn’t brave enough to test it myself.
“It’s…a corpse.”
The second thing we found was a skeleton in a cave by the beach. It seemed to be at least a few years old, but there was nothing else we could discover even after looking around the area.
And most important of all, the third discovery.
“At this rate, it’ll take ten years for the erosion to touch the outer wall of District Ten.”
If the gray boundary continued to encroach onto the land at the same pace, the calculations dictated it would take ten years to reach the city.
Well, there wouldn’t be any problem if it couldn’t penetrate the protection magic circle that covered the entire city.
“Let’s stop our investigation here and go back.”
“Are we returning to the city?”
“We can’t stay here forever. Don’t you want to go home?”
The GM’s eyes went wide at my smirk like he couldn’t believe I would say something so normal.
“So? Do you not want—”
“No! Let’s go! Quickly!”
Wow, it was a little sad how enthusiastic he was about going back. I thought he and I had gotten a little closer.
“Sure. Let’s go.”
After leaving the beach, we continued toward the walls and talked with each other.
“Havellion, isn’t it a little weird?”
“What do you mean?”
“The fact that no one knows about this yet. I’m pretty sure you can see what the outside world looks like from atop the walls of District Ten, but I don’t think I’ve heard a single rumor about it.”
“So… I suppose you’ve never been atop of the walls, Lord Baron?”
“Huh? No, I have been up there.” I explained to him how I saw nature stretch out in the outside world from on top of the walls at Bifron.
The GM nodded in understanding. “That’s because Bifron is a special case. All the other walls have illusion magic applied to them, but from what I know, Bifron is the only place in the city where that magic has a problem.”
“…Oh, Really?”
“It’s not something an outsider would know, so don’t concern yourself with it. Ah, and the soldiers and knights who patrol the walls of Bifron think the nature seen in the outside world is due to illusion magic.”
That was the first time I was hearing about it. Maybe it was to be expected of a wizard of such a high position and long lifespan. He knew a lot of things.
“But…don’t the holy lands also have illusion magic applied to them?”
Ah, that… “That’s true, but I didn’t think the walls would be like that too.”
The holy lands were situated outside the walls. In the history books, it was said that the palace respected the nonhumans and gave them their own lands so that they could live their lives in peace, but in truth, it was discrimination and segregation.
You could tell as much just by the invasion incident of District Seven. As soon as the Noarkans activated the magic circle put in place a long time ago by the palace, the holy land was completely cut off and isolated from the city—
I got sidetracked.
In any case, if someone walked straight through the holy land, they would at some point reach an invisible wall that stopped them from proceeding further. From what I remember, a forest filled the area beyond the boundary.
“Everything comes with an order. Warrior, it is not yet time to wonder what is beyond that.”
Thinking back, the shaman had said something pretty cryptic back then, but how about now?
I had grown incomparably stronger since then. Was it now time for me to wonder about the world outside the walls?
“Well… It’s understandable that you thought the holy land was a special case. The explanation they give is that the illusion magic was applied for the benefit of the nonhumans.”
“That’s why I’m suddenly curious about it. What’s it really like?”
“Pardon…?”
“Since we’re talking about it, let’s go check it ourselves. It’s on the way back too.”
Since the opportunity presented itself, we took a bit of a detour and moved closer to the walls.
“This is quite the difficult trek, what with the entire area around the walls being a forest.”
“Stop complaining and keep walking.”
As I consoled the GM who wanted to return home as quickly as possible, we eventually arrived at one of the six holy lands that existed in Rafdonia.
Tap.
There, an invisible barrier blocked us, as if telling us we weren’t allowed to approach any closer.
We were at the holy land of the elves located in District 9. It wasn’t difficult for us to look in from the outside.
…It’s just a forest.
Since this was the barrier situated at the outermost part of their holy land’s territory, we weren’t able to see the city of the elves or how they lived their life, but it was still interesting.
They’re huge…
The trees here were tall and beautiful, unlike any trees I had seen in the holy land of the barbarians. It was as if they had maintained and taken care of these trees for thousands of years.
“…We came here because you said we should check it, but what are you going to do now that we are here?” the GM urged me while I looked into the holy land with interest.
But at that moment, surprisingly enough…
“Huh?”
I saw something move within the barrier.
“Wait.”
“…Pardon?”
“Be quiet.”
I made the GM close his mouth and then stared deeper into the forest. There, I saw an elf appear from between the brush. The elf was silver-haired and seemed young, either a minor or someone who had just become an adult.
“He’s coming this way.”
The elf slowly approached in our direction.
“Can he see us…?”
I had wondered because he was heading straight to us, but it didn’t seem all that likely. If he saw someone standing outside the boundary, his expression wouldn’t be that calm.
After walking up to the barrier, the elf reached out with his hand and touched the wall as if to pat it. He then mumbled something. I wasn’t able to hear anything through the barrier, but the GM seemed to have some talent in lipreading.
“He’s saying he’s frustrated.”
“…You can tell just by looking at him?”
“It’s a trick I learned over time. And he didn’t use any difficult words either.”
Although the GM was smiling humbly, I was amazed. We were originally players, after all. The difference between knowing a spoken language well enough to understand someone and being able to read lips to understand them were completely different playing fields.
“Oh, he’s now mumbling to himself, ‘I wonder what’s outside…’”
Thanks to his handy translation, I was able to understand why the elf was making that expression.
“Curiosity is the greatest desire a person could have. I have a feeling that this young lad will one day make his name known all throughout the land.”
“Didn’t you say you only got curious about things you can handle?”
“Yes. That is why I said he would become a great person. Because people like me can’t help but be curious.”
Heh, he was pretty good at yapping. As expected of a wizard.
“In that sense, if this has sated your curiosity as well, how about we start moving again, Lord Baron?”
“Sure, let’s go.”
I smirked at the GM’s request, but only for a moment.
I looked back at the silver-haired elf on the other side of the barrier one last time before turning around.
Hmm, I think he reminds me of someone…
Well, we’d meet again one day if we were meant to.
***
As always, our path back was just the same one we took to get here, but in the opposite direction. However, after walking through unfamiliar terrain for a few days together, the GM and I talked a lot during our return journey and got a bit closer. It seemed he no longer found it difficult to talk to me.
“So, what about you, Lord Baron? I’ve heard many scandals about you in the city.”
“They’re all false rumors.”
“Hmm, from what I heard, there’s definitely one—”
“Looks like you’re having a good time?”
“Haha… M-my apologies.”
Now past the point of small talk, he began to periodically ask about my personal life, something which he seemed to have been quite curious about.
“So… What is your goal, Lord Baron?”
“Are you messing with me?”
“N-no, it’s not like that. I’m genuinely curious. You always dive head first into danger and lead a busy life.”
“…Don’t have one.”
“Pardon?”
“I’ve never had any grand goal or anything like that. My survival, and the survival of my people—I guess you could call that my goal.”
The world operated on the principle of give-and-take. Since I answered him honestly, it was time for me to ask a personal question about him as well.
“Then what is your goal?”
“My goal?”
“Yeah. Since you’ve asked me that question, you probably have a clear goal of your own.”
The GM hesitated for a moment before slowly revealing, “There…is someone I want to meet again one day.”
As a fellow player, I figured that meant his goal was to return to our original world, and the motivation to do so was “someone.”
A family member…?
With no way of knowing for sure, I acted unaware and just nodded. “I see. I don’t know who that is, but I hope you can meet them one day.”
“…Thank you.”
“Stay strong.”
I smacked his shoulder in a show of support. The GM tried to evade me but still smirked, amused.
“Ignoring this ‘culture difference’ that I can’t understand… I think you’re a good person, Baron Yandel.”
Then, he said something that I couldn’t quite tell was praise or an insult.
It wasn’t like I didn’t understand what he meant, however. Even the natives were sick of me, so from the perspective of a player, how weird would I be?
Still, that hurts a bit.
Would these people have been different if they started as a barbarian as well? I was sure that 100 percent of them would’ve acted the same as I do now.
…Probably.
“Then let’s rest here for tonight too.”
“Yes. That sounds good.”
Once the light of day had gotten sufficiently low, we found an open area that had fewer trees around and laid down on our sleeping setup.
At this rate, we’ll be able to return to the city tomorrow afternoon.
As I closed my eyes and went over the plan for tomorrow, I suddenly heard an emotional voice from beside me.
“The sky.”
“Hmm?”
“The sky is the same, no matter the world.”
To be honest, I felt the same way whenever I camped outside. If I just looked up only at the night sky, it was like I could be anywhere in the world right then.
However, the GM seemed to have caught himself after saying that, as he quickly added clarification I didn’t ask for.
“Oh, I meant between inside and outside the worlds.”
“Yeah. It really is the same.”
We continued to silently look up at the sky.
Maybe it was because he spent all his time stuck in his magic tower, but it seemed that he was reminiscing about his past as he lay down in the open air. Back during his time as an adventurer going in and out of the labyrinth, this would’ve been his life.
“Lord Baron.”
“What?”
“Didn’t you say you were interested in the school of magic I first enrolled in?”
“I did. But I didn’t ask more because you drew the line saying you didn’t want to talk about it.”
But why? Do you want to talk about it now?
As I threw that comment at him, the GM chuckled bitterly. “True. It’s not that interesting of a story either, but…”
It seemed that today was that day for this guy.
A day when you would tell your story to anyone willing to listen.