Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Episode 827

Every Man for Himself (4)

Even after picking up the special mage, Elvain Cutter, our situation did not change all that much.

“Behel-LAAAAAA!”

I kept charging through the monsters and moving from map to map.

The only real difference was that the trip became a little easier than when Rayner had been my only passenger.

First, I was able to form a Bonding Magic contract.

[Elvain Cutter has cast the rank 4 spatial magic Blessing of Distortion.]

[Your character receives a Medium Evasion bonus.]

A good number of the monsters’ basic attacks and skills started missing me.

[Elvain Cutter has cast the Level 3 spatial magic Escape Route.]

And whenever the monsters packed the path too tightly, he created a magic door on the other side, letting us slip through as if using short-range teleportation.

If anything, in this profession, the worse someone’s personality was, the more likely they were to be a capable explorer.

This was a harsh world where one careless word could get you smeared across the labyrinth wall. The fact that he had survived this long with that awful attitude was proof enough of his skill.

Anyway, that was not the important part.

Thud!

My heavy footsteps echoed as I ran through the collapsing labyrinth.

And so, the same scene repeated itself again and again.

Just as I had picked up Rayner and the special mage, I continued picking up survivors.

“What are you good at?”

“Stealth, assassination, poison… I mainly use a dagger, and I’m a rank 3 explorer…!”

“Tch, a thief…”

He probably wouldn’t be much help in the current situation. He was practically a freeloader.

Still, his rank was fairly high, so there would probably be a chance for him to prove useful later.

“Get on!”

And so, I took him with me.

“Y-yes!”

As expected of a thief, he was quick to understand the situation, and after that brief introduction, he smoothly landed on my shoulder.

And after some more time passed…

“I-I see someone…!”

We found our fourth passenger not long after the third. This time, it was a woman.

Her outfit was rather unusual. She wore a white cape with slightly burnt edges, and the only thing in her hands was a small stringed instrument that looked like a harp.

“You use an instrument as a weapon? What are you?”

“Ah, I serve Lord Heindel—”

“What? A priest?”

This was an insane pickup. Since she used an instrument, did that mean she belonged to the Three Gods’ Choir?

Among priests, that put her in the top 0.1%.

“Get on, quickly!”

“…Huh? Kyaaah!”

I immediately placed her on my shoulder before anyone could snatch her away.

With the choir member added to the group, the stability of my barbarian tank mode rose to a completely different level.

[Maria Shur Eloyd has cast Melody of the Moon.]

[While the melody continues, all resources consumed by characters within range are reduced by half.]

She could use one of the five strongest holy spells in Dungeon and Stone.

[Maria Shur Eloyd has cast Full Moon Wolf.]

[While the melody continues, the mental stats of all characters within range are greatly increased, and the duration of all negative status effects is greatly reduced.]

On top of that, she also worked extremely well with Rayner, our support-type ability user.

Thanks to them, we were able to move faster and much more safely.

However, as if my luck had finally run out, we did not find any more survivors after the fourth one.

And then…

Creak!

The second wave ended.

***

Clack!

The pebble I had tossed carelessly rolled across the ground.

That was the sign that the chaotic second wave was over and the stable period had arrived.

Of course, that did not mean we were somewhere completely safe with no monsters around.

Still, for the next eight hours at least, we did not have to worry about being swallowed by the dimensional collapse.

Once the reality of our safety sank in, the tension finally drained from our bodies.

“W-We survived.”

“Lord Jandel, thank you from the bottom of my heart. I will never forget this kindness.”

My four passengers collapsed onto the ground.

Naturally, the brief silence did not last long.

“Um… what do we do now?”

The priestess addressed everyone.

“What’s your name?”

“I am Maria Shur Eloyd, a humble servant of Lord Heindel.”

Eloyd…

She had spent the entire journey singing, so we never got a chance to exchange names.

As for the thief, he had wisely kept his mouth shut.

“Ah.”

Only then did I realize a massive mistake.

I immediately turned to the thief.

“More importantly, what’s your name?”

“I am Creed Ellen!”

“Phew…”

So he was not a Hans.

The thief looked puzzled by how relieved I seemed, but I paid it no mind.

“I am Elvain Cutter. My uncle is Baron Cutter. A pleasure to meet you, Lady Eloyd. Or perhaps I may simply call you Miss Eloyd?”

“Ah… yes. Whatever is comfortable…”

“Heh heh, then you may simply call me Elvain.”

Unlike how he treated Reiner, he was being oddly friendly toward her.

Or maybe he was just acting that way because she was pretty.

I could not say for certain, but Eloyd completely ignored the special wizard’s attempt at courtship and immediately returned to the matter at hand.

“More importantly, shouldn’t we discuss what we’re going to do from here?”

“What is there to discuss? We’ve already been saved.”

“Saved…?”

“Exactly. Meeting Lord Jandel means we’ve already secured our ticket to survival.”

“Certainly, Lord Heindel’s blessing must be upon us… but shouldn’t we still prepare some sort of plan?”

“Hah. That’s exactly my point. What plan is there to make? Haven’t you seen what happened so far? We just keep running, and that’s the end of it.”

To be fair, Elvain had a point.

The running strategy had worked remarkably well so far.

The synergy between the passengers was also excellent, aside from the thief, making the group surprisingly stable.

However…

“We don’t have room to carry many more people. At most, maybe one or two.”

As expected of a priestess, Eloyd’s concern lay with saving as many survivors as possible. The special mage, with his elitist worldview, could not understand her perspective at all.

“Why do we need to carry them?” he asked.

She was left speechless.

“We can just leave them behind.”

It was an absurdly simple conclusion. If carrying more people was a problem, then the solution was simply not to carry them.

From that moment on, the priestess’s gaze turned noticeably colder whenever it landed on the special mage. She had already seemed wary of him when he first tried to befriend her, but this appeared to remove any remaining doubt.

Perhaps sensing that himself, he hurriedly added,

“Of course, we’ll make exceptions for people as important as you. And if there isn’t enough room, we’ll simply make room!”

As he said that, the special mage casually glanced in a certain direction.

“…May I ask why you’re looking at me?” Creed asked.

“Ahem. It’s nothing.”

The thief stared at him in disbelief, stunned by how shameless he was.

Still, knowing he contributed very little to the group, he wisely kept his mouth shut.

And then…

After that, nobody bothered speaking to the special mage for quite some time.

Naturally, the conversation shifted toward me instead.

“Does it matter what he’s saying? You’re the one making the decisions, Lord Jandel.”

“I would like to hear your thoughts.”

I hesitated for a moment, but in the end, I decided to tell them my plan honestly.

“Once we gather enough people, I’ll stop the running strategy.”

“Ah… May the moonlight protect us…”

Eloyd murmured a short prayer, apparently taking my decision as an attempt to save more people.

The special mage, however, could not understand it.

“To put yourself in danger for people you do not even know… You are quite strange.”

That was a shameless thing to say for someone who had been saved by that very strangeness. Still, maybe because he was so consistent in his nonsense, I did not feel angry at him.

It was more like…

Yeah, he really is special.

So I kindly explained my reasoning.

“This is the logical choice.”

Whatever the priestess might think, I valued my own survival more than saving others. That was exactly why continuing with the old plan was too dangerous.

“Pardon? I do not understand what you mean—”

“Do you remember how many times we’ve moved between floors?”

“Haha… I joined midway, so I cannot say…”

“I don’t know either.”

He went silent.

“But I know it’s been over a thousand times.”

From the 1st floor to the 10th, through hidden fields and rifts, we had charged all across the labyrinth in a single day.

That was extremely dangerous.

“There aren’t many, but some places in the labyrinth can kill us the instant we enter them.”

For example, one of the rifts on the 8th floor.

Three locations on the ninth floor, including the Lava Lake, the Edge of the World, and the Origin of Dreams.

On the 10th floor, there were five more.

Of course, those fields did not literally kill you the moment you entered them. But if you arrived without preparation, landing in any one of those nine places was basically game over.

There was also the special field called Hell…

And that place on the 10th floor too.

In the final obstacle before the Gate of the Abyss, there were tiles that could cause instant death. It was a trap where no amount of preparation mattered. The moment you stepped on one, you died.

I had experienced it myself.

When the dimensional collapse happened before, I had abandoned my party members and used a similar method to this one in order to save my main character.

But in the end…

During the third wave, I stepped on an instant-death tile and got a hollow game over.

From this point on, there was only one thing we could do.

“We had no other choice today, so we took the risk. But the best way to survive the collapse is to gather as many people as possible and hold out,”

The best outcome would be reuniting with my clan members.

“Hmm, when you put it that way, it makes sense. I understand!”

“We will also become a ray of hope to the explorers trapped in despair.”

“I will follow you no matter what!”

Thankfully, my passengers all readily agreed with me.

Well, the thief still said nothing. But since he was being carried, he did not really have the right to speak anyway, so I ignored him.

With that, our plan from here on was decided.

As for the next urgent problem…

Fwoosh!

The ball of light summoned by the mage could only illuminate a five-meter radius because of the thick darkness surrounding us.

The ground was covered in ordinary dirt and gravel.

I don’t see anything special.

I had been scanning the area while talking with the others, trying to figure it out, but nothing came to mind.

So I decided to ask the group honestly.

“Does anyone here recognize where this place is?”

Just where the hell had we ended up?

Continue reading more chapters at henprogressive.com

Please join here, I need supporters to help me continue translating Surviving game as a barbarian and Lee Gwak
If it doesn’t work support me here buymeacoffee.com/hennoveltranslations. There are advanced chapters for supporters as well.