Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Novel 2025 - Chapter 669
Chapter 669: New World (4)
Our current situation was very simple.
Ba-dump!
First, after meeting a friend(?) of Lek Aures outside the city walls, we obtained information about a dimensional headstone from him. After we found the aforementioned headstone, we decided to take the portal and use it to return if we didn’t like whatever we saw inside.
“To put it simply, that bastard tricked us?”
Lek Aures’s friend, Dalan, had disappeared as soon as he went through the portal, and where we were on the other side, the headstone we’d need to return was nowhere to be seen.
We had no way out of here.
“Was his name Dalan? Was it Dalan?”
Not to mention, we didn’t have much information on Dalan. We weren’t even sure if that was his actual name. The one thing we did know was it was a supposedly “very common name” for Noarkans.
I couldn’t help but clench my fist. There was no telling whether his true name was that, but if it was…
It’s an L…
It would be my first time in a long while encountering another that.
Ba-dump!
I needed to stay focused. Only then would we be able to overcome this danger.
“He probably hasn’t been able to run far—”
Resolved, I lowered my voice and issued a command. “Stop moving.”
Baekho shot me a puzzled look as I stopped him from running after the one who had disappeared. However, no matter how overtly serious I appeared, it couldn’t be helped.
Ba-dump!
In my heart of hearts, I believed that we were in danger.
“Don’t be so reckless. We need to figure out where we are first.”
It was my rule when playing Dungeon and Stone. The first time I entered an unfamiliar place, I needed to stay on guard against everything. Truthfully speaking, even with my heightened caution, those first tries almost always ended in failure.
“Havellion, Bryat. Go and check our surroundings for any monsters or traps.”
I first commanded GM and the archer to survey our surroundings both on foot and using magic.
“There’s nothing.”
“I can’t detect anything either.”
Alright, in that case…
I approached one of the cave walls and tapped it with my hand, earning a muffled thud in return.
I don’t think there’s anything behind this wall…
I then carefully lifted my foot from where it was stuck in the ground and took a step forward.
Mud.
The ground was covered with a layer of mud, as if we were at the site of a landslide after heavy rain. It didn’t seem to do anything special like decreasing our movement speed. However, that wasn’t the real problem here.
“We need to get out of here, quickly.”
“Yeah? If we take the path in front of us, we’ll probably find something on the way—”
“If things go badly, the entire cave could be submerged.”
“Huh?”
Baekho tilted his head in question, and I pointed to the cave’s walls and ceiling. “Look. There are marks that show this place used to be filled with water.”
“Oh, there really are!”
“But isn’t that a huge leap in logic, to assume that we would get submerged in water again…? Wouldn’t it just make sense that there used to be water here, and now there isn’t?”
Huh? Why was he so optimistic all of a sudden?
“Do you know how big this cave is? What if we need to walk for three days and nights to just barely reach the exit? What if the middle of the cave is a maze of pathways and we spend a lot of time there trying to escape?”
“…So shouldn’t we have started moving already?”
Hmm… True. But before that, let’s set this right.
“Let’s make a new formation,” I decided.
“Formation…?”
“It’s dangerous to move as two separate groups in a situation like this. And on a path like this, where two sides are blocked off, a solid formation will solve half our problems before they’re problems at all.”
Although we had been moving together all this time, GM and I didn’t quite mix with Baekho’s team. Even so, going forward, that had to change.
“Havellion, Ruingenes, Jaina. From now on, you three will move to the center where you will be the safest.”
Our core individuals would be stationed at the center.
“Lek Aures, follow us from the back. An enemy could appear from behind us.”
“Haha, sure! Leave it to me!”
The sub-tank would be stationed at the back. In a narrow, hallway-type area like this, the rear needed to be defended.
I could handle the front by myself, anyway.
“Baekho, you’ll follow right behind me,” I ordered, “and Bryat, you’ll be right behind him. You can move further behind when we get into a battle, but you’ll need to scout before that happens, so you’ll stay at the front. Got it?”
“Yes. I understand what you’re asking.”
I took a deep breath. Then, since our basic formation was done, we should get moving—
“Lord Baron?”
As soon as the formation was settled, Baekho approached me, looking as if he had something to say.
“There are more of my team members here than yours, so shouldn’t I be the one giving out the orders…?”
Ah, so that was what he was dissatisfied with.
“And isn’t this your first time outside the walls as well? If we just carry on with what we’ve been doing and I lead, a lot of things—”
Well, if you wanted that, you should’ve done it better. Did you think I was taking the wheels because I wanted to?
“Baekho Lee. The situation has changed.”
We weren’t simply outside the city walls. If that was all this was, I would’ve trusted Baekho to make the decisions since he had more information than me.
Confused, he asked, “What’s changed?”
However, there was a definite difference this time.
“This is your first time here too.”
Not a single one of us was familiar with this place. On top of that, my instincts were telling me that where we were was very dangerous.
Yet this guy was asking me to hand him the steering wheel?
“We don’t have any information about this place, and that makes us vulnerable to any new variables that we might encounter. In situations like this, being able to make decisions on the fly is what counts.”
“So?”
“A time like this calls for the most qualified person to take the lead.”
Although I explained it in a roundabout(?) way, in the end, I was just saying that I would make more correct decisions than he could.
Naturally, that wasn’t something Baekho was willing to accept.
“Most…qualified? You are?” He was looking at me in bewilderment.
I didn’t avert my gaze. “Why? Do you think I’m not?”
“No. I don’t think you are.”
A smirk stole across my face at Baekho’s immediate, utterly unhesitating response.
I mean, really now. Why was Baekho Lee acting up so much?
Anyone could tell by now. I had opened the Gate of the Abyss on the original mode after countless hours of gathering and compiling information, and grinding to find every crumb of info I could. Baekho Lee, in turn, was a retired soldier who wouldn’t have even come to this world if not for his cheat version. It was obvious who was more qualified between the two of us.
I took a step toward Baekho and spoke with a lowered voice. “I will ask only once, Baekho Lee… Do you really think you are the most qualified person here?”
Surprisingly, he didn’t answer immediately this time around.
He knew it just as well as I did. That there was a definite difference between the two of us, too clear for him to try arguing otherwise.
I stared unflinchingly at him, making it clear I would press the issue until he answered. Then finally, Baekho averted his eyes and shrugged.
“Fine… You can do it. You’re the most famous adventurer in Rafdonia. Let’s see your skills.”
Yeah, you should’ve done that from the start.
***
Putting Baekho in his place…was what would have happened if he weren’t so peaceful about it. With our argument resolved, we officially began moving, and I began to hear some whispering behind me.
“Just who is Baron Yandel…?” Aures asked. “For a guy like Baekho Lee to be overpowered…”
“I was surprised too… I never thought that Baekho guy would back off with his tail between his legs…” GM whispered back. However, that didn’t mean Baekho didn’t hear them.
“Huh! Am I a snake? What’s with this talk about my tail?! I’m just curious why he’s so confident in himself!”
“…Ahaha.”
“Baekho! I didn’t say anything!”
The two of them quickly shut their mouths when Baekho made his annoyance known.
Even though that was funny, I decided to give the two a warning.
“Be quiet. Nothing may be happening right now, there is no guarantee that will be the case forever.”
“O-of course!”
All of them were elite adventurers, so then why were they all so annoying? It would’ve been nice if everyone were like Amelia. If that were the case, we would be super effective no matter what we did.
“It’s faint, but I can sense some airflow. It seems there is an exit nearby, fortunately.”
Around twenty minutes into our travel, our archer Bryat spoke up. We did find an exit not far from there.
“It’s dark…”
Our vision didn’t improve just because we exited the cave. It was very dark, reminiscent of the labyrinth.
“Isn’t it still night right now? We’ll see something when the sun rises.”
Baekho tried to downplay it, but I would not indulge him.
“I don’t think it’s dark simply because it is night.”
“Sorry?”
“Look, the light isn’t able to spread properly. Like we’re inside the labyrinth.”
“Uh… I guess it does look like that?” Only then did Baekho Lee frown as he also noticed the difference in the darkness. “Uh… Then is there a possibility that we’re inside the labyrinth?”
“Well… We’ll have to wait and see.”
“Okay. I’ll just trust in you, Baron. You’ll figure everything out yourself, right?”
…Was this guy a primary school student?
Since he came to this world much earlier than I did, his true age was much higher than mine.
“Sure. I will figure it out so be quiet.”
As I put my index finger up to my lips, Baekho scrunched his face with dissatisfaction. I simply ignored his reaction and just focused on what I needed to do.
I mean, we moved out of one field and onto another. Naturally, we needed to scout our surroundings first.
“I don’t…see any water.”
I had been expecting to find a lake or a river near the cave, yet there was not a single source of water near us.
So then, how would the cave fill up with water? Even if it rained here, I didn’t think the water would just pool inside like that.
There’s a different reason for this…
I churned it over as we explored. We took a long walk around the entrance of the cave to make a simple map of the place, and we even made a mark on the cave entrance so that we could return to it at any time if need be.
“Havellion, what’s our current time?”
“It’s 9:18. The sun would’ve risen by this time.”
“Alright, I see…” So even after a long time had passed, our surroundings showed no signs of brightening. “The chance of this not being ‘outside the walls’ has increased.”
“Are you saying…we’re inside the labyrinth?”
“Well, the possibility does still exist.”
No one said that it was nonsense or that I was being delusional. After all, Auril Gavis had also used a dimensional headstone outside the walls to make a portal that connected to the labyrinth—
“Baron, look at this!”
The archer Bryat summoned me out of the blue. I quickly approached what he was looking at, and there, I saw an artificial structure that I hadn’t been able to see from my position.
“A headstone?”
Of course, the headstone that Bryat had discovered was completely different from a regular dimensional headstone. It was huge, closer to something like the “monument” on the first floor’s Crystal Cave.
“Havellion, can you read what it says?”
“No. This is the first time I’ve seen symbols like this.”
On the headstone were multiple symbols that looked like hieroglyphs, and even I, who could translate the ancient language, couldn’t read them.
“Investigate it for now. It might be a structure where you need to pour mana into it.”
“Yes. Understood.”
After leaving GM and the Fallen Scholar to investigate the headstone, I checked the work-in-progress map one more time. Other than the fact that there were multiple huge craters around us, we were in a by-the-books forest with nothing else to show for it.
It’s getting to the point where just choosing a direction and moving that way might be more efficient, I thought as I waited for the wizards to finish their investigation.
Flash!
Then, the world suddenly flashed white.
Rumble!
A huge clap of thunder roared out as if the sky were about to fall on us.
Fshhh!
Heavy drops of rain began to fall from the sky.
If someone saw just that, they might assume this field was filled with intense weather phenomena.
“Kieeeeek!”
Fortunately for us, monsters began to appear as soon as the rain fell.
“There! The monsters are coming from that direction…!”
They were the first monsters we’d encountered since coming over to this side. Thankfully, there weren’t any monsters I’d never seen before.
Hmm, then again, I couldn’t be sure if that was something I should be thankful for or not.
“Brakiaistello! They are rank 5 beast-type monsters who use fire-and water-type abilities!” GM shouted out in summary of the monsters he was seeing as he rushed to stand.
It wasn’t as if GM said anything wrong either. But unfortunately, he left out one crucial detail.
Brakiaistello.
Although they were just random rank 5 mobs…
“The Tomb of Stars…”
They only appeared on the ninth floor.