Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Novel 2025 - Chapter 664
Chapter 664: Companion (3)
Bulging veins on his forehead. Heavy and rough breathing. The clenching of his jaw and fists.
Anyone could tell that Baekho was utterly enraged right now, yet the first thought I had when I saw him was that I barely recognized him.
“…Hah? Why aren’t you answering me? Was I right?”
It was the oddest thing.
Baekho was loose with his impulses and always did whatever he pleased while acting like the king of the world. So then, why did it feel so unreal for me to see him so angry?
The answer came to me after a moment of thought.
Now that I think about it…he hasn’t.
Surprisingly enough, I had never seen Baekho genuinely angry, not once in all this time. Even when we argued back and forth and threatened to kill each other, it felt more like he was playing a part. Like he had only threatened back because he had unspoken reasons to do so.
“Hah, I never thought I would be fucked over like this.”
This bout of anger was not the same.
Baekho believed that I had attacked him, and he was reacting accordingly with emotion to it.
I needed to gather my wits. After all, I wasn’t the one to have done it in the first place.
“Wait.”
But most important of all, I needed to understand the situation too.
“…The return magic circle is broken?”
If what he said was true, it was a huge problem for me as well. Although the magic circle had restoration magic applied to it, it would take at least one year for it to fully recover.
“…I caught you while you tried to run away, and now you’re acting like you have no idea?”
“We weren’t trying to run away.”
“Then why were you walking away?”
The GM carefully joined the conversation when Baekho retorted with that.
“That is because we found traces of someone being here before us. We moved away because the fact that the baron and I were outside the walls can’t be made known.”
“…Is that true?”
“I have no reason to lie to you. And if someone truly destroyed the magic circle with ill intent, we don’t have time to be arguing like this.”
“Hah… Really?”
After hearing the GM’s explanation, Baekho quickly calmed down. I wondered why he got so worked up if he was going to calm down that easily.
Ah, now that I think about it, this guy can detect lies.
Although it may not work for me, that ability probably worked fine with the GM.
“Mr. Baekho, they’re probably telling the truth.”
That was when the archer who chased after Baekho revealed himself and supported our claim of innocence.
“The scent from inside and the scent from these two are different.”
“…Really?” Baekho looked a little embarrassed as he took a step back.
“The scent leads in that direction.”
“Alright, let’s go.”
And then, Baekho’s body stretched and flung itself like a rubber band in the direction the archer told him.
We ended up not getting an apology after taking the brunt of his rage.
“Let’s go too.”
“Pardon…?”
But I decided to lift the GM and run in the direction Baekho had gone.
We needed to check it as well, after all. Check which bastard had pulled this on us.
As I ran as fast as I could, the archer from before ended up catching up to me before overtaking me. But even though he could’ve just left quietly…
“…Excuse me.”
Was it a rule for dex-based characters to be annoying?
Anyway, after running for a while, I came across Baekho and the archer standing in an opening in the forest. The two of them were bent down and looking at the forest floor.
“Looks like these guys planned this pretty thoroughly.”
“Yes. I suspect that they have planned this just for us.”
Baekho clicked his tongue. “Then it means our information got leaked… Who was it?”
“We encountered the baron’s party in the old Noark citadel not long ago. Maybe the information leaked from them—”
“Moron. It’s obvious the problem is from our side. You think that too, right, Baron?”
Well, I didn’t know what the full circumstances were, but if someone was aiming for someone, I figured that Baekho was the more likely target than me.
“So what’s that on the ground?” I asked.
“Ah, do you want to see it?”
I slowly walked up next to Baekho to see the remains of a corpse covered by the grass. The body was mangled. Half the bones were exposed beneath flesh and muscles that seemed to have been melted by something.
“…It’s suicide.”
As expected of a veteran wizard, the GM didn’t seem shaken at the sight of the corpse and mumbled as he took a look around.
Baekho also nodded in agreement. “Right? I’m sure you think the same too.”
“…This is a very common method of cutting off a potential tail.”
“Anything else you can figure out from this?”
“…They probably weren’t a wizard.”
“Probably. From what I can see from the skeleton, the left rib is less pronounced than what a wizard would have.”
“Yes, it’s a phenomenon that happens because we have larger hearts than the common folk.”
The two of them spoke as if it was all common sense, but it was the first time I was hearing about it.
The left ribcage is larger…
I didn’t know why, but I filed that piece of information away for later. It could become useful if I found myself alone at some point.
“I have a theory that the wizard this person came with returned to the city, and this person here was the one who damaged the magic circle.”
“And then he came all the way here to kill himself to remove any evidence?”
“Yes. Looking at the yellow powder that’s stained the leaves here, they’ve used a strong basic fruit powder. Ah, and the basic fruit powder is the main component of the item blue curse…”
“I know,” Baekho spat, voice frigid in his hatred. “It’s the thing the palace uses a lot.”
“…If the palace was really behind this, they wouldn’t have used this item.”
“We don’t know that. They might’ve wanted us to think this.”
In any case, the summary of the situation was simple: either Baekho Lee or me. This nameless corpse destroyed the magic circle to cause trouble for us.
“Ah, this is messed up. From what I heard from Gramps, this is going to take at least a year to fix.”
Whether we liked it or not, we would need to stay outside the walls until the magic circle was restored.
***
“I don’t think there’s anything else we can get from here. How about we return to where we were before? I want to check on the magic circle once as well.”
For now, we returned to the entrance of the cave upon the GM’s request. There, Baekho’s allies were waiting for us at the entrance.
“Gramps can follow us and the rest stay here. Alright?”
“Sure, that works! I’ll make sure no one else enters, so don’t worry!”
Including the Gatekeeper, there was the archer and the mysterious new ally. Those three were stationed at the entrance while the GM, Baekho, the Fallen Scholar, and I entered the cave in a two-by-two formation.
“Hmm, maybe we were swept up in the fate of this friend.”
After hearing the situation, the Fallen Scholar mumbled something cryptic again but didn’t say much else. Neither the GM nor I said anything else either.
Um, the mood was pretty awkward.
Baekho also kept his mouth closed, seemingly having a lot to think about, and the uncomfortable silence ended up lasting until we reached the magic circle.
“…They’ve done a thorough job with this.”
There were craters and black burn marks, as if a dynamite had been activated here.
“Gramps said we’ll just have to sit here and wait, but what do you think?”
“I am of a similar opinion. Although there is a way to accelerate the regeneration process—”
“What? There is a way? Tell me.”
“In our current situation, it’s closer to impossible—”
“Oh, I’ll make that decision, so just tell me.”
Baekho spoke with an oppressive tone and glared with furrowed brows, but the GM quickly began to tell him everything he needed.
After quietly listening to him, I understood why he said it was closer to impossible.
Elder Lich’s force core.
Soul Wonder’s mana core.
Ghoul Lord’s life stone, and so on.
All the materials he needed were drops that could only be obtained in the labyrinth. And naturally, even if people walked around with mana stones, there wasn’t anyone who would have those drops on their person around here.
“Hah… Why are they all cracked mats? I have materials that sell easily like Ogre tendons.”
“…That is why I told you. Realistically, it’s impossible—”
“Hmm?” Baekho hummed offhandedly. “But I don’t think it’s completely impossible, no?”
The GM tilted his head at that, and the Fallen Scholar explained, “Well if this is the first time you have journeyed here, you may not have seen them yet.”
“…Not have seen what?”
“There are monsters outside the walls as well.”
That was the first time I was hearing about it.
***
Monsters existed outside the walls. From what I heard, it seemed the said monsters had a few characteristics.
One: For some reason, monsters didn’t appear anywhere near Rafdonia.
Two: When they were defeated, they always dropped materials, and if they were hunted with distortion magic, they could drop essences or even mana stones.
Three: As a trade-off for their low numbers, the monsters were more intelligent than the ones in the labyrinth.
Those were the three major points; from what I could tell, the second point was the most important.
“…You can get their materials, guaranteed, if you defeat them?”
“That’s right. It’s the complete opposite of inside the labyrinth.”
Baekho had been able to live outside the walls and easily obtain the drops of the monsters. With limited inventory space, he only looted expensive materials like Ogre tendons.
This is nuts…
A chill went up my spine.
A hunting ground where distortion is successful if you just kill it?
In a sense, it was more shocking than the essence factory on the underground floor. I mean, just by hunting and selling monster materials, you could gain an incredible financial advantage.
And you can bypass the low drop rates every time?
For me, it was the most enticing part. After all, barbarians were a race as obsessed with materials as wizards were. To earn our Spirit Imprint, we needed the drops of monsters.
Which means I might be able to pick up the materials for the ninth stage on the way.
Although it was unfortunate that we got stuck outside the walls, it was a great opportunity to level up my Spirit Imprint which I had neglected for a—
“So, Baron? What thought’s got you smiling like that?”
“…It’s nothing.”
“Alright, then let’s get moving. I’ll give you a proper introduction to my allies later. It looks like we’ll have to work together for a while.”
Work together for a while… “Sure.”
This was Baekho Lee I was dealing with, so I was still uneasy. But thinking about it logically, moving together was the right call. First and foremost, this guy knew more about the outside world than us two. It made more sense for us to travel with them for the time being.
“You’ve met Gramps, me, and Aures here last time, so I don’t need to introduce them…”
Baekho gave a short introduction of his allies as we stepped out of the cave.
“This is our archer. His name is Leyton Bryat.”
He seemed to be human, but he said his skills were as good as an elf’s. He did add a comment after looking at me.
“Ah… but I guess he’s not as good as the elf archer on your team.”
Yeah, how could you beat the one who could command the Elemental Ruler and the one I had fed the Floor Essence to?
“…It’s good to meet you. I have heard about you a lot from Ms. Karlstein.”
“Yeah, good to meet you.”
I just ignored Bryat’s shy handshake and went on to the next person. I had heard about this archer from Missha as well, and I wasn’t that interested.
The same couldn’t be said for that mysterious new ally.
“Ah, and this is the healer of our team…”
“I’ll introduce myself.”
The new person whose face was hidden behind a robe cut Baekho off and stepped forward. She didn’t seem to want to show her face still and continued to cover her head with the hood.
…I did wonder, but she is a woman.
I noticed she was pretty short.
“I am Jaina.”
“And?”
“That’s it?”
I guess that was fine, but that tone of hers reminded me of Raven.
Well… Was this just how short people acted?
As I smirked, team Baekho’s tank, Lek Aures, laughed loudly as he approached me.
“Bahaha! I don’t know how long it will be, but let’s work well together, Baron!”
I might be able to stay friendly with this guy for the time being.