Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Episode 794

Skull Island (1)

We wandered aimlessly around the centre of the island.

Crunch! Crunch! Crunch-squeak!

Of course, we took out any monsters that appeared along the way.

The only reason I said we were wandering aimlessly was because we hadn’t engaged in any proper battles.

“……This is boring.”

“Yeah… I’m starting to think doing paperwork would be more fun than this.”

The average rank of monsters that appeared on Skull Island was 6, but even that’s an inflated number due to a few rare high-level entities. Usually, the ones we encountered were Level 7 or 8. There aren’t any new species here either. The only thing that has actually given us any decent experience so far is the Skeleton Ghost.

“I hope the monster you spoke of shows up soon, Captain.”

Even Auyen, who wasn’t a combatant, had slipped into the same mood, which only proved how dull it was to wander around like this with no clear purpose.

At first, they were all fired up because of the competition…

Well, it wasn’t hard to understand.

It had already been two days since that encounter.

“…You don’t think they’ve found it yet either, right?”

“They haven’t. If the cave had opened, we would’ve noticed from here.”

“Is it possible they have a way to hide it?”

I almost dismissed Raven’s question with a scoff, but thinking about it, it wasn’t entirely impossible.

“I mean, they had those with them too. And quite a lot of them, at that.” Raven insisted

“Ah, that…”

The “thing” Raven was referring to was a Numbers Item. We couldn’t be completely certain they had it, but the chances were high that they did.

“Yeah. Didn’t you agree too, Mr. Jandel? Without that item, it wouldn’t make sense for them to stay hidden from us.”

Well… that’s true.

Detection was only a secondary skill. Since Erwin and Amelia were primarily combat-focused, I could excuse them for not picking up on our opponents. But Beleg, who joined us this time, is an explorer with the nickname ‘The Tracker.’

In other words, he’s a detection specialist. Yet they discovered us first and managed to hide the presence of so many people without anyone noticing.

So how was that possible?

After a long conversation with Beleg, I came to one conclusion.

It was all because of their gear.

There was an item I strongly suspected.

No. 16: The Ebony Insignia.

When equipped, it provides a massive buff to the wearer’s stealth skills, boosting their stats while hidden, granting advantages during ambushes, and more. It was essentially a graduation level item for assassins.

In any case, the item had two key traits that were worth noting in this situation.

If you wore it and stayed still, you would enter a state of absolute stealth.

And—

When its active ability was triggered, it created 29 temporary tokens. Anyone who equipped those tokens would gain the same effect.

If they used that, then hiding that many people would make sense.

Looking back, they had all been standing still at the time. They only revealed themselves when we reached the cave entrance, and some of my other clan members even said they spotted similar insignias on them.

The problem is… to hide all ninety of them, they’d need at least three of those. It wasn’t so much about how they managed to obtain something so valuable, but about the kind of person this Golden Ghost was, to have secured three of them in the first place. No matter how I looked at it, their intentions didn’t seem..

If this theory is true, I’m more curious about something else.

“Viscount Jandel.”

At that moment, Beleg suddenly stopped walking and whispered to me.

“I told you to call me Captain.”

“…People are approaching.”

“How many?”

“Six.”

There was no need to ask who they were.

Most likely one of the teams under the Golden Tree Clan.

“If we continue like this, we’ll run into them.”

Still, this situation was a bit unexpected.

In the past two days, we hadn’t crossed paths with them once. Even when our routes overlapped, we sensed each other from afar and avoided contact.

“Looks like they have business with us. We’ll wait here for a bit.”

After waiting a short while, a team of explorers wearing the Golden Tree Clan’s emblem appeared.

And then—

“…Jandel?”

“Abman.”

A completely unexpected reunion.

I had seen him briefly when we faced off in front of the cave, but it wasn’t a situation where we could exchange proper greetings.

Anyway, once I realised what was going on, I couldn’t help but laugh dryly. Judging by how flustered he was, it didn’t seem like he had come looking for me on purpose….

“Looks like you got lost.”

“…That’s not possible. We were just passing through.”

Hmm? Given his abilities, it was obvious he was their team’s scout.

Back when we were Team Apple Narak, we already had a proper scout, yet I still had to learn navigation from Rotmiller.

Well, looking back, that worked out for the best…

“Ugh… again?”

One of his teammates sighed.

But it felt different from when we used to sigh back in Apple Narak.

Ours had been mixed with affection.

“Didn’t you hear the captain? He said to avoid contact as much as possible.”

“Ah…”

“Did you do this on purpose? Trying to meet your old friend and chat?”

“N-no…! Of course not…! This is just a coincidence!”

“What coincidence? This is just your incompetence.”

With that, the air instantly froze with awkward tension.

Even from that short exchange, I could tell what kind of relationship they had with Mr. Bear.

And perhaps because he knew that, Mr. Bear glanced at us uncomfortably.

No—more precisely…

It was the expression of someone who didn’t want to be seen like this.

Well, I’d probably feel the same.

No one wants their friends or family to see them being belittled by their superiors, and what we were seeing now was likely only a fraction of what he endured regularly.

They were likely holding back because I was present.
It was a harsh truth that the most brutal and humiliating acts were carried out where no one else could witness them.
“Anyway, I apologize, Baron. We didn’t come to interfere… as you can see, this was his mistake.”

“…I have no intention of blaming anyone. Don’t worry about it.”

“That’s a relief. You heard him. Let’s go.”

I wanted to talk to Mr. Bear more, but given the situation, I couldn’t stop them.

I could force a short conversation if I wanted, but that wouldn’t be good for him.

They might accuse him of passing us information.

Just as I was about to send them on their way…

“…Tch. How did a loser like him end up on our team?”

That muttered remark was far too loud to be just to himself.

「Misha Kalstein has cast [Soul of the Glacier].」

With a single slash, an ice wall rose up in front of the group as they turned to leave.

“You… what did you just say?”

Misha had snapped.

***

The chill from the ice wall brushed against my skin with the wind.

It was an unexpected outburst, but for now, it was still manageable.

After all, she hadn’t directly attacked them.

The problem was that things couldn’t escalate further.

“Baron Jandel.”

The man who appeared to be the team’s leader addressed me instead of Misha.

“Should I take this as a violation of the agreement?”

His eyes were full of hostility, and honestly, it was absurd to watch.

After all, he wasn’t even a clan leader, just a team leader acting like this.

Just as I was about to step in and say something.

“Forget that! You, goblin-head! Answer me now! What did you just say to Abman”

“Not going to answer?”

The leader only glanced at Misha before ignoring her again, and Misha’s breathing grew rough.

Her hands trembled all the way to the tip of her sword.

It had been a long time since I’d seen her this angry.

“Answer me.”

Her words came out more clearly now, perhaps because her voice had dropped in pitch. Only then did the team captain respond, his tone just as irritated.

“Is this about calling him a loser?”

“You—”

“Hah. So it was true.”

“Take it back while I’m still being nice.”

“I don’t see what authority you have to demand that.”

“I know you were on the same team as Urikfrit before. But he’s a member of our clan now. I’d appreciate it if you didn’t interfere in internal matters.”

“So if he’s not part of your clan, it’s fine then? Abman! Come here! Quit that trash clan right now!”

“Stop it, Misha Karlstein.”

It wasn’t me or the team leader who interrupted her.

It was Mr. Bear.

His voice was so firm that Misha looked stunned.

“…Why?”

She didn’t understand why he had shut her down so coldly.

But he didn’t answer.

The team leader did.

“You said you were former teammates, yet you don’t even know this?”

“Urikfrit borrowed money from our clan. The labyrinth was closed for over a year, and his shop wasn’t doing well. He had no choice.”

“Hah! How much? We can pay it back—”

“Whether you repay it or not doesn’t matter. In exchange for the loan, he agreed to complete a set number of expeditions. This is his first. After this, he still has twenty-three more to go.”

“So… that’s why you treat him like that? Because he can’t leave…?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“That’s enough.”

I stepped in.

Misha looked like she had more to say, but I stopped her with a glance.

“I have no intention of interfering in your affairs, and even less of violating the agreement. So let’s end this here.”

“Much appreciated.”

As I stepped back, the team leader nodded, and it seemed like the incident would end there.

But perhaps she couldn’t let it go—

“…Why do you act like that?”

Misha called out to them again as they turned to leave.

Amelia tried to stop her, but this time, I stopped Amelia.

It didn’t look like Misha would attack them outright.

“I don’t understand what you mean.”

“I’m asking why you act like that. You’re teammates, aren’t you…? Then why do you look down on him and treat him like that…? Is that… is that fun for you?”

Her question was so pure that the team leader looked
momentarily stunned.

Then his expression hardened.

“How nice. You must be living in a world completely separate from ours.”

“…What?”

“We’ll be going now.”

With that, they disappeared back into the brush they had come from.

Misha bit her lip, still upset.

“Bjorn…”

“Don’t worry. I have a plan.”

“…R-Really?”

It wasn’t a plan I’d had from the start; I just came up with it now.

If that was the main quest, then I guess I’d just picked up a side quest. Whether Mr. Bear wanted it or not.

‘Once the Guild Master leaves, there’ll be one spot open, right?’

I simply can’t stand to watch this crap happen right in front of me.

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