Surviving game as a barbarian Episode 665

Companion 4

An uneasy companionship that began outside the walls.

Nevertheless, it had its advantages. After all, I’d already been handed a piece of valuable information before our journey had even begun.

“Where this place is… hmm, would you like to take a look at the map we made?”

Baek-ho had been outside the walls before me.

Unfortunately, the quality of the map he made wasn’t very good. It looked like one of those maps made before the discovery of the Americas.

Well, it’s not like I’d have done any better myself.

Anyway—

“…What’s this outline? Looks familiar somehow.”

On the map, which was still a work in progress, had an odd border line running across it—something that looked suspiciously like the borders dividing nations on a world map.

“Ah, that marks the terrain that matches the Dark Continent on the 7th floor.”

…No wonder the shape of the border line looked familiar.

It was the shape of the Dark Continent.

“Amazing, right? Normally in the labyrinth, this is where the coastline ends and you can’t cross over, but here, the land continues beyond it.”

Baek-ho’s map was surprisingly impressive.

The clown had said that the outside world resembled the Dark Continent, but that turned out to be only part of the truth.

The Dark Continent was located in the southeastern part of the continent, and the northern and western parts of the continent were still full of uncharted, unknown lands.

“What’s this circular mark here?”

“Ah, that? It’s an island.”

“An island……?”

“There’s that one island on the 6th floor, right? The one with some strange, unknown monument erected in the center.”

“Stagnelius Island?”

“Ah, yes, yes, that one. The terrain is very similar to that island. The monsters that appear also match.”

“Is that so…….”

A strange coincidence… It felt too unsettling to dismiss it as just that. An island that should be in the middle of the ocean is landlocked here. Could this be linked to the hidden truth of the world I had yet to understand?

I couldn’t tell, but at least my knowledge was growing.

“Then we must be in the eastern part of the Great Forest.”

Baek-ho cheekily corrected me. “Technically, it’s the southeastern part, but that’s just a minor detail, so I’ll ignore it.”

“So, where are we planning to go from here?”

“Here.”

He pointed to a spot beyond the Dark Continent, somewhere deep within the uncharted lands.

“Most of the materials that guy mentioned earlier can be found here.”

“And how long will that take?”

“On foot, maybe… half a year?”

“…What?”

So by the time we got there and back, a whole year would have passed?

What kind of nonsense was that?

When I frowned, Baek-ho just grinned playfully.

“Don’t worry. We’ll be taking portals along the way. We should get there within a month.”

“Portals…?”

What is he talking about now?

“It’s similar to the military lift platforms in Raphdonia. It connects specific points to specific points.”

It’s literally a new world.

The more I hear about the outside world, the more I feel like I’ve gone back to being a newbie. It feels like I’m playing a whole new game.

“Alright, let’s get moving. We’ll aim to reach the portal by tonight, so everyone keep up.”

…This makes it feel like we’re taking a bus or something.

***

In [Dungeon & Stone], ‘time’ is very important.

That’s because in the labyrinth, each floor has a set time when the field closes.

If you can’t use time efficiently, it naturally becomes impossible to go up to higher floors……

Whoooooosh-!

In a sense, this was one of the perks of being an “agility-type” character.

Explorers, regardless of their position in the team, must master their own ‘Movement Mechanism’, and most agility-based characters naturally complete theirs.

Unlike strength-based characters.

‘Sigh… It’s just me again.’

Thud! Thud!

 

As I made my way through the forest, I kept slipping into moments of self-reflection.

I still hadn’t completed my movement system.

Well, at least my stamina and energy stats were high enough that I didn’t tire easily…

Thud! Thud!

But my movement speed was much slower than that of other classes.

Like right now.

Whooooom—!

[Hiiiiiing!]

The GM was using his levitation magic combined with other spells to fly quickly, while the healer, Jayna, was riding a summoned mount at a leisurely pace.

And……

‘…This is kind of humiliating.’

I was barely keeping up from the back, and it was obvious that the whole party could move faster, but was deliberately slowing down for me.

Unspoken pity—how delightful.

“Hahaha! How amusing! It’s been ages since I met someone slower than me!”

…Damn it.

This guy’s a tank. How the hell did he master movement so fast? Shouldn’t he be focusing on getting sturdier instead?

Tch.

As I clicked my tongue in frustration, I looked at the woman seated leisurely on her mount ahead.

‘A contract monster… So she is a Karui priestess.’

Her mount gave away her class, but that didn’t matter. She wasn’t trying to hide it anyway.

“Hah, we made it before dawn.”

After travelling through the deep, dark night, we finally reached our destination and allowed ourselves some rest.

“Let’s rest here for the day. It seems we have less time to recover our mana than we thought…”

“No need to change the schedule. We’ve got Havelion now, don’t we?”

“Oh, that’s true.”

“Havelion, come here. Let’s sync our mana waves beforehand—it’s safer that way.”

“Huh? Oh, y-yes!”

While everyone took a moment to rest, the Ruin Scholar signalled the GM and the two of them synced up in a way that was hard for me to understand.

And……

“Can we talk for a moment?”

Without saying a word, Baek-ho appeared and gestured for me to come with him.

“Don’t you think it’s fate? I never thought I’d end up traveling with you like this.”

“…”

“Ah, don’t worry, no one will overhear us!”

“Ha…”

 

After quickly glancing around, I let out a sigh and glared at Lee Baek-ho.

I had so much I wanted to say, starting from how he had given me the wrong way for leaving the walls. However, I decided to keep quiet for now.

“But hyung, there’s something I’ve wanted to ask you since earlier. The GM doesn’t know you’re a Player, right?”

“Yeah. He doesn’t know, so just act normal like now.”

“Wow, if he finds out your true identity, his expression is going to be something else, I bet?”

Yeah… I was curious about that too, but it wasn’t worth finding out right now.

I was curious to see what kind of expression he’d make, too, but it wasn’t worth finding out right now. So pass.

“I have a question I want to ask too, is that okay?” I said

“Sure, go ahead.”

With his permission, I asked what had been bothering me.

“You said the Noark people entered the city just to survive.”

“That’s right.”

“What exactly did you mean by that?”

“Ah, that…”

“Come on, I’ve come all the way out here already—just tell me straight. Was it because of the ‘Gray world’?”

At that, Baek-ho looked thoughtful for a moment, then nodded.

“The gray world… that’s a pretty poetic, yet fitting way to put it.”

“Enough with that, just answer the question.”

“Actually, that’s not really related. It’s not even something that dangerous to begin with.”

“…What do you mean it’s not dangerous?”

“Anyway, forget that… The reason the Noark guys went back to the city, knowing they might die, is something else.”

Then Lee Baek-ho paused for a moment and looked at me.

What on earth does he want to say, taking his time like—.

“Because there’s a monster.”

“…Huh?”

“A really, really terrifying monster.”

Even with all that emphasis, I couldn’t quite grasp what he meant.

I shot him a look urging him to explain, and he shrugged.

“It doesn’t seem to have a specific habitat. It ended up appearing no matter where we went. Every time it appeared, thousands died without even putting up a fight…”

“Died…?”

“We’ve only figured out one thing so far. The more people there are around, and the longer those people have stayed outside the walls, the higher the probability of that thing appearing.”

As soon as I heard that, something about it felt off.

An odd sense of familiarity, like a half-formed idea that was just out of reach.

While I was trying to grasp it, Baek-ho spoke again.

“Don’t you think it sounds familiar?”

“…What?”

“The way it appears when certain conditions are met—it’s just like a floor lord, isn’t it?”

Ah. That was it.

That’s why it felt so unsettlingly familiar.

“So, are we in danger now?”

“Possibly. But what can we do? The path home is already cut off. Our group is small and we haven’t been out long, so let’s just hope for the best.”

Even so, I couldn’t shake off the unease.

I’ve always hated probabilities.

Zero and one are just different numbers. Once a probability exists, no matter how small, it’s no longer meaningless.

If something can happen, it will.

Maybe I’d be less anxious if I hadn’t heard this at all…

The thought crossed my mind, but I’ve always preferred knowing what’s coming to being caught off guard.

So I pressed him for more details about this ‘monster’.

“Actually, it’s not that it’s super destructive or overwhelmingly powerful or anything…”

“Yeah?”

“But you can’t deal damage to it. None. At all.”

“…What?”

“Exactly what I said. Whether you use magic, aura, or skills—it’s all immune.”

My first thought was simply: That’s impossible.

A monster that’s completely immune to all forms of attack?

“That’s why people call it the Grim Reaper.”

The name fit perfectly, an entity humanity had no means to resist.

“I see…”

“How about it, sends a shiver down your spine, doesn’t it?”

Hmm, well.

What should I say about this?

I felt fear, yes, but I also felt something else: an uncontrollable surge of curiosity.

It was an unavoidable instinct as a gamer.

Tch. There’s gotta be a way to counter it somehow…

There always was, after all.

No matter how unbeatable a monster seemed, hit your head against it long enough and you’d find the pattern.

In reality, though, brute forcing isn’t an option.

Even so, it was only natural that those thoughts led to the next.

“I wonder what it drops if you kill it…”

I muttered that without realizing, and Baek-ho tilted his head before his jaw dropped.

 

“Wow… You’re really a crazy guy too, hyung.”

…What’s he talking about?

Where else would you find a barbarian as sane and sound as me?

“Whatever. So, what’s the deal with that thing?”

“What thing?”

Then I changed the subject and asked a new question.

“You said something about an event happening a year from then.”

“Ah… that……?”

“We might not even make it back by then, so can’t you just tell me?”

“No. Because we might make it back before then.”

Lee Baek-ho cut off my follow-up question without hesitation.

But I was still able to gather some information from that.

‘So that’s what pissed him off.’

When the magic circle was destroyed, he was furious and tried to find a way back to the city as soon as possible.

This suggests it’s connected to that ‘event’.

And also…

‘He doesn’t want me to know the details.’

He thinks that if I know about the event, I’ll somehow interfere or cause trouble.

In other words, this event probably isn’t good news for me.

“Well, I’ll be going then!”

Just as expected.

The moment the conversation got uncomfortable, Lee Baek-ho ran away.

And then…

“Oh, you seemed to be doing something with the old man. Is it all finished?”

“Yes. Syncing our wavelengths doesn’t take very long.”

“I see.”

After wrapping up what he had to do, the GM came back and asked to speak with me in private.

“Would you happen to have a moment?”

OK, so it’s his turn now.

I pretended to be clueless and followed him until we stopped at a secluded spot. He cast a voice control spell and began to speak.

“Forgive me if this question is inappropriate.”

“Just get on with it, speak freely.”

“What is your relationship with Lee Baek-ho……?”

Sigh, how am I supposed to explain this?

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