Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Novel 2025 - Chapter 681
Chapter 681: Butterfly (1)
Splash!
The boat slowly moved forward, wading through the starlight waves.
“Oh, monsters aren’t coming out to get us anymore. Looks like we don’t have any aggro on us.”
“Baekho, what does ‘aggro’ mean?”
“Ah, how many times do I have to explain it to you for you to remember?”
The boat was so peaceful that it was hard to imagine we were just in grave danger.
“I am relieved that you are alright, Lord Baron.”
“Yes. It’s a relief you’re fine as well.”
With his MP recharged, the GM came to check on my condition and talk to me, but Lek Aures let out a loud laugh and interrupted us.
“Hahaha! I believed that he would wake up fine! There is no way the Immortal Giant would die in a place like this!”
“What do you mean by…Immortal Giant?”
“Ah! That’s your nickname I just made up! Isn’t it cool? And it fits you great!”
“He’s just blabbering again. Why are you taking him so seriously? Just ignore him.”
GM awkwardly nodded at Baekho’s advice, and Aures dropped his head as if hurt by the comment.
That, of course, didn’t last long.
“Gods! Why did I enter a team like this? No place treats warriors worse than here!”
Aures kicked up a fuss again like lowering his head only served to build up momentum.
The archer, carefully observing the surroundings from the front of the boat, changed the topic. “By the way, it’s two people this time.”
There was no need to ask what he meant by “two people.” The priest Jaina and the Fallen Gramps. The two of them had fallen asleep due to the field effect.
“Baekho, are we going to continue our search like this?”
“Well… I don’t know. Go ask the baron over there. He’s our new super cool and rad leader.”
“Rad…? What do you mean?”
“Ah, whatever. Just go and ask the baron.”
“…If you sit and watch, I get the sense that Baekho is the one who is actually more nonsensical than Aures.”
“Huh? What did you say?”
“Nothing,” the archer quickly replied, stopping his grumbling at Baekho’s weird word usage and instead approaching me. “So, what are your plans, Lord Baron? Are we going to continue investigating the Dreaming Pond, as initially planned?”
Hmm, well…
To be honest, it had been something I had been thinking over for a while…
Alright, I’ve decided.
“We’ll postpone our investigation. I think it’ll be best if we actually investigate the Dragonskull Mountains first.”
“Dragonskull Mountains…” The archer fell in contemplation for a moment, then nodded. “Not a bad choice. And our boat somehow ended up in the mountain range’s vicinity as well.”
“And since the Draizen appeared near the waterfalls, we’ll be hard-pressed to investigate there. I’d say that investigating the Dragonskull Mountains first and returning here when things settle down a little will be the best choice.”
I looked at Baekho with eyes that said he should make his grievances known if he had any about this plan, but he just shrugged as if to tell me I could do what I wanted.
He’s acting cool for nothing.
If he had something else he wanted to do, he would’ve opposed my decision first without hesitation.
In any case, after we decided on our destination, everything progressed smoothly. We continued to steer our boat toward the Dragonskull Mountains, and since we didn’t move that fast, there weren’t any monsters appearing around us either.
“…Hmm?”
There were, however, moments of danger in the middle of the trip.
“It seems everyone other than you fell asleep,” Fallen Gramps notes.
Excluding the two of us, everyone else in the party had fallen asleep due to the field effect.
Just what is the probability of this?
I couldn’t help but get nervous. Having more than half the party fall asleep at once was very rare in the Dreaming Waterfalls.
Was this…an ominous premonition?
I stayed wary of my surroundings and steered the boat.
But honestly, the awkwardness was what was going to kill me. The silence was so uncomfortable that I nearly wished monsters could come out so we could fight them.
In the end, I was the one who spoke first.
“Hey.”
As I called for him with a simple word, Fallen Gramps turned around from where he stood. I wondered if maybe he should be at least saying something in return rather than just staring at me, but if this geezer knew about things like that, we wouldn’t be in this situation in the first place.
I decided to use this opportunity to ask him a question I had been holding in.
“What is fate?”
“That is quite the general question,” he commented.
“When you saw Erwen last time, you said she had the most fate after me. I’m curious what you meant by that.”
“Now, she had lost most of her light after staying close to you.”
“Enough. What is this fate thing you keep talking about?”
When I didn’t let up, Fallen Gramps looked down at the starlight waters that flowed below us.
“There are many different powers in the world. Magic power, divine power, mana. Not just those that are known conventionally, but even rage, love, and other such emotions could become origins of power that have the potential to be considered ‘resources.’”
“…So?”
“Fate has a quality that is difficult to define, but I believe that fate is also one of those powers that can be used. Even more so because it wears down the more you use it.”
“It wears down?”
Fallen Gramps nodded. “Fate is not infinite. Most people live with only a few fates to their name. And even that number decreases with the choices they make.”
Hmm, I was lending him an ear because I assumed he was going somewhere, but this just sounded like a sermon from a pseudo-cult.
I protested, “Wait, I think you’re getting off topic.”
“But you were the one who asked me what fate was.”
“I am only curious about what you said about Erwen.”
When I once again emphasized the main point of the conversation, Fallen Gramps actually answered what I was curious about.
“Erwen Fornacci di Tersia, is it…?”
“Yes. What did you mean by what you said to her?”
“It is as I said. She had the most fate after you. This is why I tried to eliminate her if possible.”
“But you failed.”
“That’s right. And the elf that I couldn’t kill on that day has grown into a powerful person titled the Blood Spirit.”
“Are you saying that’s all the power of fate?”
“Correct. Most people aren’t given a fate of that strength. Becoming a chef or becoming a scholar. Most people’s fates are only that level. They can never become a king or someone who leaves their names in the records of history.” The Fallen Gramps took his eyes off of the waters and turned to look at me. “Unlike you.”
I only sent him a confused look in response.
“With the size of your fate, you can do anything and become anyone. Even becoming the king of this city is not impossible for you… Of course, that is only under the assumption that you can survive with that fate which pulls strongly on you.”
“What do you mean, that fate?” I asked with a tilt of my head.
Fallen Gramps let out a chuckle. “Haha, don’t you know it? You have the fate to one day open the Gate of the Abyss. No matter how powerful your fate is, you cannot change its records. Well, you will know that best since you have experienced it already.”
Experienced it already…
It seemed that Fallen Gramps here knew that I had come back from the world of twenty years ago.
Well, he did move around with Baekho pretty closely for the past few years.
This was an admission our short conversation allowed me to catch.
Using the opportunity, I took a quick glance at our surroundings. It seemed that the rest of them were sound asleep, including Baekho, with no traces of them waking up.
“Belbev Ruingenes.”
“It’s been a long time since I was last called by my full name.”
“What are you scheming with Baekho Lee?”
“There is no such scheme to speak of.”
To be honest, even as I asked it, I didn’t expect to get an answer to my question. “I don’t believe that. Did you think I wouldn’t notice you trying to use me for some goal of yours?”
“Hmm… I don’t know what Baekho Lee may be thinking, but at least I am not trying to use you in any capacity. The reason I am moving with Baekho Lee is only because our goals aligned in a different respect.”
“Then… what is this goal that’s aligned between the two of you?”
Though I made it obvious I was trying to tease some answers out of him, Fallen Gramps just answered me without seeming to mind. “It is to return to the original world without opening the Gate of the Abyss. Baekho Lee calls that Plan B.”
“Ah…” I did remember Baekho talking about Plan B sometime in the past. Now that I heard it from him, it seemed that the Fallen Gramps really didn’t care about me and focused solely on completing a secondary plan.
“Returning without the Gate of the Abyss… Is that really possible?” I questioned carefully.
He responded without any hesitation. “It is possible. Theoretically.”
“Theoretically?”
“I have not been able to attempt it yet, as doing so requires quite a bit of preparation. And that preparation is the reason I am moving together with Baekho Lee.”
“…I see.”
“In any case, I don’t know if you will believe me or not, but I truly am not scheming anything concerning you, nor do I plan to. Though that may change if my plan fails.”
“Still, since you’re acting together with Baekho, don’t you know some things about his plan?”
“Not particularly. Although Baekho Lee must have thoughts of his own, I have not asked about them. It is a subject meant for my concern. Even if he were to ask me for help, I do not plan on helping him.”
“If helping him doesn’t advance your own plans, correct?”
“As you say.”
He could’ve just not responded to that last part, but the fact that he answered me honestly made me trust him a little more. It really seemed like he had no interest in me.
It was like the game of push-and-pull in dating. Now that he had turned his gaze away back down to the water and fallen into his thoughts, I inadvertently became more curious about his mindset.
Now that I think about it… This Gramps is an evil spirit too.
To be precise, he was an evil spirit from the previous generation. They were from a different world other than Earth and were called here through a method other than the game. Since our generations were different, I hadn’t personally interacted with them as much.
“Ruingenes, what was the world you lived in like?”
“The world I lived in…”
Fallen Gramps looked into the distance as if processing the question before he gave me an answer I could never have expected.
“I do not remember. I was called to this world when I was very young.”
“…What?”
“I discovered a book at the bottom of a dark cave, and I read that book nearly every day. Those are the only two pieces of memory that I can remember properly now.”
Was that the reason when I saw him twenty years ago in the community, he had the appearance of a young child?
Regardless, he pressed on to say, “When I opened my eyes, I had entered the body of an adult, and I used the knowledge of that book to survive. It then led to where I am now.”
It was my first time seeing a possession method like that. Most people became younger when they possessed a body in their twenties, but this was the complete opposite scenario.
Even though I became interested in the Fallen Gramps’s story, I had new questions of my own.
“Why are you so obsessed with returning, then?”
If his memories of that world were faint, then his nostalgia and desire for that place would be less as well. Why, then, was he still trying to return to his world?
Fallen Gramps just smirked at my genuine curiosity. “I will ask you this in return. Why are you not trying to return?”
Uh, well… “Because I like this world more?”
Although I could think of many reasons, that was the foundational one.
The world that I considered brutal and savage no longer felt savage to me. No, rather, when thinking about the dream world I experienced that was modeled after the modern world, the same thought struck me again and again:
How could such an unrealistic world exist?
“I am the opposite.”
“Hmm?” I hummed, distracted.
“I do not like this world. That is why I am trying to return.”
I couldn’t sense any emotion in his eyes or his voice. Just what had happened to this man?
Although my curiosity only grew, unfortunately, our conversation came to an end there.
“Ugh…”
“Seems they are beginning to wake up,” Fallen Gramps said.
Tsk, I could’ve probably gotten more out of him at the rate we were going.
“I will tend to Bryat, so you tend to Baekho Lee.”
Terrible timing.