Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Novel 2025 - Chapter 693
Chapter 693: Wolf (2)
As a woman creaked opened the front door and entered the building, the people gathered in the living room all got up from their seats.
“Emily…! How did it go?”
“Have you found it? Have you found a way yet?”
It had been almost four months since Bjorn Yandel went out to look for a way out of the city walls and disappeared.
At first, the people here expected him to have gotten caught up in something and that he would return late within a few days, but the situation changed after a week passed. As time passed and worry filled them, they even went underground themselves only to be met with the empty square.
From that point onward, they officially began a search mission for him.
“Yurven Havellion. What about him? Has he appeared yet?”
Even the whereabouts of the Magic Engineer, who had gone down to look at the magic circle under the introduction of Versyl were unknown, and they all grew even more nervous.
Of course, in the earlier days of his disappearance, most assumed that he had gone outside the city walls and would return soon enough. However, those opinions began to change the longer he stayed missing.
It was true that Bjorn had left the walls with the Magic Engineer. However, something unexpected had happened outside that was stopping them from returning. And in truth, it didn’t take long for that theory to become the dominant belief.
Not long after, the underground, which had been left barren, was teeming with the soldiers of the palace.
“I still haven’t found any way for Bjorn to return.”
Amelia had gone searching high and low to gather information as the representative of the clan, but she had only learned one thing: the teleportation magic circle in the underground city had been damaged.
It was information she gained nearly at her own expense by infiltrating the tents of the soldiers. Thanks to overhearing those pieces of information, she was able to formulate the reason why Bjorn hadn’t been able to return yet.
“I see…”
“Don’t worry. There were still some gains this time.”
“Some gains?”
“The way back is blocked, but leaving is still possible.”
“Really? Is that true?”
“Luckily enough, I’ve obtained a way to activate the magic circle as well. Though, we’ll only know if it is possible if you, Gowland, look at it yourself.”
Amelia then pulled out what looked to be a military document, and Versyl took it before quickly reading through it.
“It seems that the palace knew all about this magic circle. The activation method of the magic circle is written in detail here, just like a guide.”
“So? Can you do it?”
“Yes. With this, even I can activate the magic circle.”
Amelia nodded at Versyl’s confident answer. “That’s it, then.”
“What do you mean?”
“Be ready to leave in three days.”
Although the order was sudden, no one refuted her.
“Ooooh! So we’re finally going to do something!” shouted Ainar, who had been dozing off.
“Yeah… Since it’s already been a few months since he left home, we’ll just have to bring him back.” Missha nodded, strengthening her determination.
Versyl let out a tired sigh, as she had been the one put in charge of all administrative matters of the clan. “Yes. Will he know how tired I’ve been because he went up and disappeared after leaving all the work behind? From what I heard, even Ms. Shavin Emoor is going to kill him as soon as he comes back.”
“Let’s leave that all behind. This is a rare opportunity, right? For us to go save the captain.”
Hearing what the navigator Auyen said, Erwen closed her eyes and put her hand on her chest. “It was always Mister who came to save us and protect us.”
The Anabada Clan’s next expedition was decided.
***
Leyton Bryat was the archer of Team Baekho. Someone with a good personality and great skill.
If we were to presuppose that he was the traitor, there was one suspicious piece of evidence against him. It was the fact that he was also taking the role of the guide of our team.
“It’s not a monster. It’s a person.”
“There’s just one person… And surprisingly, it seems they are sleeping.”
Even though Baekho hadn’t been able to detect the person, Bryat was able to lead us to Hans L as his role intended.
Well, the unknown entity that had disguised itself as Hans L in a very natural way.
And when everyone was trying to stop Baekho from taking the dimensional headstone, he stayed silent…
Once I allowed the doubt to seep in, I became even more sure he was the traitor. That didn’t mean I was completely certain, of course, but—
Boom!
A sudden vibration rocked the earth.
I couldn’t tell which direction it came from. In situations like this, the agility-focused characters would normally give me the briefing, but there wasn’t anyone like that around me at that moment-two wizards, one priest, and two tanks.
“Where is it?”
“I think it came from that direction…”
“It’s far. I’ll need some time to confirm it using mana detection—”
Due to our shortage of expert opinions, we were hesitant to make a move, and the vibration returned.
Boom!
It was larger than before. Though, maybe because we were aware and observant of it…
“That way.”
However, I was able to detect where it came from and guided the other members in that direction.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
As we got closer, the vibrations and explosions grew clearer and clearer.
“…ah, you…!”
Even though it was faint, I also heard what sounded like someone talking. I could also easily recognize it as Baekho’s voice. The problem was…
“He’s fighting someone… Right?”
“Seems so.”
That seemed to be the situation.
At first, I just assumed Baekho was throwing a tantrum and destroying everything because he couldn’t hold back his fury.
“Hey, you son of a bitch! When I catch you—!”
From what I heard him say, he was clearly chasing someone.
With that, we increased our pace and ran as quickly as we could to the source of the commotion. I banged into the corner as I took the turn at full speed.
Flash!
Then, a bright light flashed in front of my eyes like a nuclear bomb had gone off. Rather than critically thinking about it with my head, my instinct as a tank acted first.
[You have cast Giantization.]
I quickly increased the size of my body to block the narrow pathway and held up my shield to protect my upper body.
Boom!
A formless mass of energy blasted my body with intense heat. It felt like my entire body was melting.
Like wearing sunscreen, the part I blocked with my shield was relatively fine, but when the light began to die down, smoke began to waft up from my heated armor. It felt like a bolt of lightning was traveling up my spine from my foot, but I checked the condition of those behind me first.
“Is everyone alright?”
“I-I’m fine… Ack!”
What the? Were they severely injured?
As I was about to turn around to check on them, I heard Fallen Gramps say, “Everyone is hurt, but nothing serious.”
People of his personality type were helpful in situations like this exactly for that reason. In emergencies, a concise and clean exchange of information was necessary.
I left my worries about those behind me and dashed forward. Although some sections were molten and destroyed, the structure of the walls was largely intact, just left smoking. It was something that surprised me since we had tested this once before.
Stellar Extinction couldn’t destroy the building we were in. Although there were a few weak points that could be physically destroyed, they were only a very small minority.
Well, I think he used a different skill this time.
Just how many lethal attacks did this guy have hidden?
As I turned another corner, I spotted Baekho standing there, panting for breath.
“Baekho.”
He sensed my presence and heard my voice, then turned around to say nonchalantly, “Ah, you’re here…?”
“Talk. What’s going on here?”
“It’s nothing much. I just tried to kill a rat bastard, but with how fast it was… I ended up getting angry and going overboard.”
“Rat bastard…?”
“But I don’t know if I got it or not. Do you want to come with me? Let’s check if I got that rat or not.”
“Step forward.”
“Ah, Roger that!”
Even while joking, Baekho hurried in front of me, and I followed him for around a minute.
“Whoa, it’s alive even after getting hit by that?”
All that was left of them in the empty hallway were bloodstains. The blood splatters led all the way to the other end of the path.
“But I don’t think it’s gone too far.”
Baekho grinned before slowly following the blood trail.
One step, two steps, three steps…
He stopped tracking it around three minutes in. The drops of blood had stopped.
Shouldn’t we try and see where it ran off to, rather than follow it slowly like this?
I was the one getting impatient, but Baekho just scanned our surroundings calmly.
“What are you doing? We need to track it down quickly—”
“Baron, did you know?”
I tilted my head as I listened to the question that cut me off, and Baekho explained, “In the world we used to live in, there is a creature called a chameleon. It’s pretty interesting, changing its skin color to match its surroundings to help it when it’s hunting.”
I wondered what nonsense he was talking about, but it didn’t take long for me to understand his intentions. In the first place, Baekho didn’t call me Baron unless we were in the company of others.
“But… the more I look at this guy, the more I’m reminded of the chameleon.”
Baekho threw a punch at the empty wall.
Crunch!
A crunch that sounded nothing like hitting a wall echoed out, and simultaneously, the “rat bastard” who had been hiding with invisibility showed itself with a pained gasp.
“Got you.”
Looking down with a frightening smile, Baekho lifted the rat by its collar.
Its body looked to be that of a regular male’s. And since we couldn’t see any fur or its ears protruding, it looked to be a human as well, though its body was covered with a ragged robe.
A wolf mask…?
That was the one thing that caught my attention. We could figure out more about him going forward—
“What’s this now?”
The body fell limp as if going unconscious. However, as I looked closely, I could see dark-colored blood dripping out of his mouth.
I was caught off guard and quickly put my hand up to his throat to check his pulse, but I couldn’t feel anything.
“It’s suicide…”
Baekho smirked before turning his head to look at me.
“Baron.”
He used that same title again, the one he never used unless someone else was around.
“No matter the world you go to, all small animals have something in common. Do you know what that is?”
Even though I had a feeling I could guess what he would say next, Baekho unfortunately didn’t give me time to answer him.
“When they get in an unfavorable situation, they all play dead…? Like this.”
Baekho threw another punch at the stomach of the corpse.
The man fell to the ground and writhed, gasping as he curled inward like a bug, Baekho reached out with his hand.
“Alright, let’s see who this is.”
It was time to take off the mask.