Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Episode 847

Waves 5

We spent the fifth safe period in the Primordial Land.

Monsters periodically wandered toward our base camp and harassed us, but aside from that, nothing noteworthy happened.

I didn’t sent out a search party, and unlike the group of knights from before, no survivors came looking for us on their own.

Rip!

And so, the sixth wave began.

We started on a relatively decent battlefield—the Land of the Dead on the second floor—and continued fighting against the endless waves of monsters, surviving one battle after another.

Then…

“Four dead! Our current number is fifty-five!”

The wave ended with four more deaths.

The overall difficulty of this wave felt lower than the previous one, yet we had still lost one more person.

It was not simply because of bad luck.

In truth, I had a feeling everyone was exhausted.

Several days had already passed since the dimensional collapse began, and everyone had been fighting almost nonstop.

“What will you do this time?”

“Send out a scouting party. We have some room in the group now,” I ordered.

“Understood.”

I sent out scouts during the safe period, but they did not find any other survivors.

Naturally, they did not find Missha either.

Where is she?

Please.

I could only hope that she had found a group of her own and was safe. Every time that worry began to bloom in my mind, I forced myself to crush it down and move forward.

There was nothing else I could do for now.

Rip!

And with that, the seventh wave began.

To summarize, many things happened during that wave. Many accidents occurred as well.

But if I were to speak only of the result…

“Twelve dead… Our current number is forty-three!”

It was a disaster.

This was one of the highest death tolls we had suffered in a single wave, second only to the fourth.

Fwoosh!

This time, there was less sobbing and grief around the flames.

Yes, they were definitely still there, and the weight of those emotions felt no lighter than before; they simply did not dwell on that sadness for long.

The living had to keep living.

Before the overwhelming demand of survival, everything else had to be sacrificed.

When the empty flames finally died out, a heavy silence settled over the group.

That was how difficult this wave had been.

I did not send out a scouting party this time, and no other survivors stumbled upon us while I slept.

Misha was not here.

As everyone focused on resting, the safe period passed quickly, and the next wave began.

Rip!

With that, we reached the eighth wave.

By now, there were no more words of encouragement, nor any complaints of exhaustion.

With both body and spirit pushed to their limits, everyone silently took their places in formation the moment the wave began.

Just when would this damned collapse end?

No one dared to dwell on that question.

They simply hoped it would end before the tenth wave.

I was half-dazed, moving almost entirely on instinct.

Then, when I suddenly came back to my senses, the area around us had gone quiet.

At some point, the monsters surrounding us had turned into piles of mana stones. Only then did I realize that quite some time had passed since the last teleport.

Tap, roll…

The small stone I threw flew a short distance before landing and rolling across the ground.

It was the signal that the eighth wave had ended.

However, the relief did not feel as sweet as it should have.

So it’s still not over…

Only after seeing me throw the stone did the other survivors realize that the wave was over.

One by one, they dropped their weapons and collapsed to the ground.

Honestly, I wanted to do the same.

Step.

But before that, there was something I needed to confirm.

“Armin, how many?”

“Three dead… Our current number is forty!”

So another three had died.

We had not even encountered any Rank 2 monsters, and our field luck had been good, so I had secretly been hoping for better.

Everyone’s at their limit…

Even with the periodic rests during the safe periods, fighting for their lives over and over again was bound to take a toll on their bodies.

And that was not even considering the mental strain.

Even the wizards, who would normally have started meditating to recover their MP the moment the safe period began, were simply collapsing to the ground and falling asleep.

“Does anyone have an axe?! Even a blunt weapon is fine! Can anyone lend me a spare?”

“My wrist guard is broken…”

The state of everyone’s equipment had worsened as well, to the point where people had to borrow gear from others just to properly prepare themselves.

Of course, there was not enough to go around.

“We’ll go prepare…”

The priests had grown familiar with the procedure too. Without me needing to say anything, they began preparing for the funeral.

And then…

Fwoosh!

The empty flames flickered once more.

The priests offered the same kind of prayers as before, and the exhausted explorers still made sure to attend the ceremony.

After the funeral ended, everyone returned to their own places and rested.

“I will form a search party. Please rest.” Armin said.

“No. There’s no need.” I replied.

“Pardon? Ah, are you perhaps planning to go personally…”

“Nothing like that. This time, we won’t scout at all.”

At my words, Armin tilted his head as if he could not understand.

His confusion was only natural.

Our numbers had fallen considerably from the sixty people we had before, and we still had no idea how long this dimensional collapse would continue.

We had not sent out a search party during the previous safe period either because everyone had been too exhausted.

Logically speaking, we should have gone scouting this time.

The problem was…

It just had to be the Great Demon Realm.

The location of our eighth safe period was the Great Demon Realm on the fifth floor.

Badump!

The very floor where I had last seen the Lord of Tears, Tetraseia.

***

Lord of Tears, Tetraseia.

When I had explored the labyrinth through the Spirit Gate, it had been standing in the middle of the fifth floor’s Great Demon Realm.

For some reason, it had entered Phase 4 without a single wound on its body, and the area around it had been filled with the skeletal corpses of explorers.

I had even met its eyes while in my spirit form.

I did not want to think about it again.

Badump!

My heart beat quietly in my chest.

Is it still here?

Well, I had no way of knowing.

By this point, several waves had already passed, so it would not be strange if Tetraseia had been teleported somewhere else as well.

However, I could not be certain.

“A dimensional collapse does not mean the entire labyrinth is collapsing. It is only the space around us that is breaking down. It is as if the labyrinth itself is trying to drive out the invaders within it.”

If Elvain’s theory was correct, then explorers had to be nearby for monsters to be teleported as well.

Which meant there was still a chance that the floor lord remained here.

Either it had not encountered a single explorer all this time, or it had killed them instantly the moment it saw them, eliminating any chance for it to be teleported elsewhere.

Please, let my worries be unfounded…

But I knew better.

The greater the hope, the deeper the despair.

That was why I did not send out a scouting party.

It was a preventative measure. Rather than risk venturing out and encountering that monster, I decided it was far wiser to stay put and limit our outside activities during this safe period.

“…Care for one?”

At that moment, a piece of jerky suddenly appeared at the edge of my vision.

When I turned to look, I saw someone I had never expected.

“You’re… Kevron?”

The vice-captain of the Sawtooth Clan.

Ah, since the previous captain was dead now, should I call him the captain?

Well, that was not important right now.

“Well… I felt like I had barely seen you eat.”

…Huh?

Was it poisoned?

To be honest, the situation was so unexpected and unfamiliar that I could not simply accept it at face value.

“Ah… I apologize for disturbing your rest. I’ll be going now—”

“No, I’ll take it.”

I took the jerky from his hand and tossed it into my mouth.

But what the hell was this?

There was a flavor coming from the jerky that should never come from jerky.

“Strawberry flavor…?”

“It has been popular among explorers lately… Is this your first time trying it?”

“What a strange thing to be popular.”

“Haha, I also think it tastes strange.”

“Then why did you buy this crap?”

“Who knows? Maybe because I hate being left behind more than anything else.”

It was an unexpectedly serious answer.

Since I had nothing in particular to say, I simply kept chewing the jerky.

Chew, chew.

“So, what do you want?” I asked, getting straight to the point.

The vice-captain made a strange expression and said, “Nothing like that. I just thought you might be hungry, since you hadn’t eaten anything…”

…This bastard was serious.

“Haah…”

Whether he knew it or not, situations like this were my weakness.

That was why I bluntly changed the subject to something he might not want to continue.

“How many of you are left?” I asked.

“Seven now.”

“Really? A lot of you are already dead.”

My words could have sounded insensitive, but he answered just as bluntly.

“Yes. At this point, we’ll soon stop being a clan and become more of a party.”

Argh, seriously…

Why was this guy acting like this all of a sudden?

I continued to feel uncomfortable.

So uncomfortable that I could feel harsher words rising to my tongue. I was barely holding myself back from crossing that line.

Then, he suddenly said, “We don’t particularly resent you. Not me, and not any of the others.”

“What are you talking about? Why should I care how many of you die?”

“I’m serious. If anything, we should be grateful to you.”

I fell silent.

“Unlike what you said at the beginning, you didn’t treat us like disposable tools. You kept us separate at first, yes, but you didn’t even maintain that distinction during the next collapse.”

“…Looks like Armin acted on his own.”

At my mutter, the vice-captain gave a complicated smile.

“I also thought Mr. Armin had allowed us to move together in formation out of kindness. But from what I heard, you were the one who gave him that order. Am I wrong?”

Argh, how does he know that?

It did not seem like something Armin would have told him…

Then again, maybe trying to figure that out now was pointless.

“So, what are you really trying to say?” I asked.

“Even if you had not shown us that kindness, we still would not have resented you.”

I said nothing.

“Anyone with eyes and ears can see that you are the one trying hardest to save us. Harder than anyone else.”

Uh…

Thank you for the kind words, but at this point, I’m starting to suspect you’re just trying to flatter me.

So I blatantly changed the subject again.

“Well, this actually gets pretty good after chewing it for a while… But I still prefer normal meaty jerky.”

“I agree.”

“Looks like we have something in common. Anyway, bring me the regular kind next time you come looking for me.”

“Understood. Please enjoy your rest.”

With that, the vice-captain gave a firm nod and walked away.

Food brought sleep along with it, so I lay down wherever I was and drifted off.

And then…

One hour, two hours, three hours, four hours…

Time passed.

“Viscount…!”

I jolted awake at the sound of someone calling my name in panic.

For a moment, I feared that the Lord of Tears had appeared.

Thankfully, that was not the case.

However, it was still a meeting with an unwelcome guest.

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