Surviving game as a barbarian Episode 597

RPG 5

Honestly, I never expected this.

Who would have thought that the knight standing on the execution platform and delivering the emperor’s words to the gathered crowd would turn out to be the village chief?

‘No wonder I couldn’t find a way to escape on my own.’

Turns out, it wasn’t an unfair chapter, it was a chapter where we were supposed to wait for a comrade to rescue us.

As soon as the chief took off his helmet and swung his sword to cut the rope, I heard an outburst from below.

“Sir Saintred! Why in the world would you betray us…?!”

“…Sir?” I shot a glance at the village chief.

” I was a noble knight from the moment I woke up. I’ll explain later.”

With that, the village chief turned away from me and looked down at the square.

Whoooosh—!

The magic circle covering the square glowed even more intensely with time, and the chaos grew accordingly.

“Aaaaagh!”

“Out of the way!”

“Don’t push me! Aaaaaagh!”

A hellscape of panic erupted as the dense crowd tried to flee all at once.

Watching this, the chief spoke to me.

“Isn’t it amusing to see them struggle so desperately to survive?”

His words sounded like something only a psychopath would say.

But what followed was even more puzzling.

“And yet, this isn’t even a spell meant for slaughter.”

“…It’s not an offensive spell?”

“According to Sir Basilus, staging a massacre here would make it too difficult to handle the aftermath. But at the same time, I couldn’t possibly fight my way through that many people alone with just the two of you. This magic will solve that problem. It took a lot of effort to set up.”

“So… what kind of magic is it?”

The village chief answered with a smile that had become slightly less awkward now.

“You’ll see soon enough.”

Tch, this guy really never gives a straight answer.

“By the way, are you alright?” He asked, looking at me.

“Don’t worry. I won’t hold you back in a fight.”

“That’s a relief, but… I don’t think we’ll need to fight.”

“No fighting…?”

“Ah, looks like it’s about to activate.”

Once again, the chief ignored my question and turned his gaze away.

And in that instant—

Flash—!!

A blinding light engulfed the entire city.

The light was so intense that it sent sharp pain through my retinas.

By the time my vision slowly recovered, I finally understood what the magic had been.

“What the…? Let’s go. Everyone’s waiting for you.”

The square, which had been a scene of utter chaos, was now completely empty.

***
It was a teleportation spell.

No—more accurately, a mass teleportation spell?

Well, even that doesn’t quite explain it.

A standard mass teleportation spell can only transport up to 20 people at once.

Teleporting thousands of people simultaneously like that should be impossible.

But…

‘There was one similar incident before.’

It happened in the underground city of Noark.

A mysterious old man—possibly Auril Gavis—escaped the royal family’s encirclement by teleporting over ten thousand people away in an instant.

I’d only heard about it secondhand and had never witnessed it myself.

If I had to imagine what it looked like, it would’ve looked something like this:

“Hurry inside.”

After following the village chief, we eventually reached a safe house on the outskirts of the city.

Thud!

We entered an empty house and descended a hidden staircase beneath the floor. Only then could we finally remove the robes covering our faces.

“You said everyone was waiting?”

“Seems they haven’t arrived yet. They’ll be here soon, so sit down and rest for now.”

“Erwin, are you hurt anywhere?”

“I’m fine.”

 

I sat her down and checked her condition. And after confirming she was okay, I turned to the chief.

Because, seriously, I had been dying to ask this question..

“Why did you use teleportation magic on the enemies? Wouldn’t it have been much more efficient to just use it on us?”

Honestly, I was more curious about that than how he’d managed to pull off such a large-scale teleportation spell.

The chief answered as if it were obvious.

“Didn’t you know? Magic doesn’t work on witches. If it were just you, maybe, but with both of you, this was the only way.”

Huh, so that’s how it is.

I didn’t know that magic didn’t work on her.

“Is there any information you need to give me before the others arrive?” The village chief continued.

“Not particularly.”

“Then let’s wait. We can discuss the rest later.”

Since I disliked repeating myself, I followed the chief’s advice and waited.

And after some time—

“My apologies. I had to take a detour because I felt like someone was following me.”

One of the members of our rift exploring group, Gahyun Versilius, arrived. He glanced at me and Erwin before speaking cautiously.

“By the way… are you really the Baron?”

“That’s an odd question.”

“Haha, then you really are the Baron. What a relief.”

There was something off about the exchange.

“What do you mean, ‘really’?”

“Ah, well, before this, you were acting completely unlike yourself. You didn’t even realize this was inside the rift—”

“Haha, it seems everyone else is already here.”

Just then, the final member of this rift exploration group arrived.

Eden Hestia, the High Priest of the Leatlas Church.

“Sorry for being late. Sneaking in wasn’t hard, but carrying all this heavy equipment took some time.”

As he spoke, he flipped his subspace bag upside down and shook it out.

Clatter—!

A mountain of my gear poured out like a waterfall.

Hah, I was worried about how I’d get it all back, but I never thought these guys would be on it that quickly.

“I checked multiple times, so nothing should be missing… But just in case, Baron, you should verify it yourself.”

 

I hurried over and quickly equipped the wearable items, storing the rest.

Thankfully, nothing was missing.

Though I followed the barbarian ancestral gods, I couldn’t help but say it, just this once.

“May the stars at twilight guide us…”

“Haha, seeing you so happy makes me smile too.”

“Now that everyone’s here, let’s get to the main point.”

The chief calmed the mood and turned to me.

“So what happened to you two? Tell us everything from beginning to end.”

Erwin and I summarized what had happened in Chapters 1 and 2—how we’d woken up on the execution platform—and then the other three shared their own experiences.

In Chapter 1, everyone’s starting points were different.

First, Vasillus, the old mage:

“I woke in a magical academy. Various events happened, but long story short, I was awarded a medal by the royal family for repelling monsters during a training session. That night, a letter from my hometown arrived, saying the Imperial Army had attacked, and my sister had gone missing. The sender claimed to be my friend… but I didn’t recognize the name.”

In any case, as soon as he read the letter, Chapter 1 ended.

“The next thing I knew, I was in a vast desert with sand swirling everywhere. That’s where the three of us met.”

When Chapter 2 began, Versilius reunited with the chief and the high priest.

“To explain this part, we’ll need to start with our story first.”

The chief and the high priest’s stories were straightforward as well.

The chief had started as a knight from a noble family, and the high priest as a priest serving a temple. Each had gone through their own events.

And then…

“Finally, a letter arrived in the name of sir Versilius. It begged for help, saying his sister was in trouble. Judging by the context, the three of us seemed to be close friends.”

Unsurprisingly, as soon as they read the letter, Chapter 1 ended.

The three of them began Chapter 2 together.

The main event of Chapter 2 was a covert pursuit squad that tailed them.

“Dealing with them wasn’t too difficult… but no matter how long we waited at the rendezvous point mentioned in the letter addressed to Sir Versillus, you two never showed up.”

While they waited endlessly in the desert city, the Imperial Army found them.

“They told Sir Versilius that his sister was an existence that would bring ruin to the world. If he wanted to stop it, he had to help them.”

Of course, refusing wasn’t an option.

The moment they heard those words, Chapter 4 began.

From then on, the chapter’s objectives were clear. Whenever the Empire issued orders, they carried them out.

Chapters 5, 6, 7…

They fought in wars against monsters and earned merits.

But no matter what, they couldn’t find us.

“Every time it felt like we’d finally meet, something would go wrong.”

Still, the chapters kept progressing, time passed rapidly, and their information updated.

The sister became known as the “Witch,” and I became her follower.

Eventually, it reached Chapter 11.

“We woke up in this city, surrounded by countless troops. We only learned what happened after breaking through their encirclement.”

The witch and her followers had been captured.

 

So the Empire tried to kill the three of them since they no longer had any use

“That’s when our mission became clear.”

The three of them infiltrated the prison to meet us.

Their goal wasn’t an immediate rescue—they just wanted to relay the situation.

“Like I said earlier, the ‘you’ we met back then wasn’t the real you. So we just told you our plan to rescue you on execution day and left.”

What followed was what had just happened.

On execution day, after we had experienced only two chapters, we woke up in Chapter 11 and were finally reunited with them.

That was the story so far.

“At least it wasn’t like we were trapped here for over a decade…”

At my muttered relief, Gahyun Versilius exploded.

“You, how dare you say that—!”

“…What?” I flinched at his angry words.

“How can you say that?! Even if it wasn’t ten years, we’ve been stuck here for at least half a year!”

“What? Half a year?!”

According to his complaints, even just progressing Chapter 11 had taken over a month.

A chill ran down spine.

‘This rift messes with time too…’

“It’s not like years will have passed in the present after we exit the rift, right?”

Getting left behind in time once was more than enough.

“Sir Versilius, calm yourself. We still have much to discuss.”

“…I lost my cool. Apologies.”

The village chief calmed the atmosphere and continued.

“Baron, this rift is different from normal ones. Each of us has unique abilities. Before we ask about yours, let us explain ours.”

“Ah, I’ll go first.”

High Priest Hestia started first.

“The power of divine spells remains the same, but my divine energy is nearly infinite. No matter how many miracles I perform, the blessings never run dry.”

In short, infinite divine energy.

Though there was a catch.

“But I cannot use any miracle on myself.”

A priest who could only use divine power for others.

“Then what about you, Chief?”

“My case is simpler than theirs. All my stats have roughly doubled, and I haven’t found any restrictions yet.”

Hmm, a no-penalty 200% stat boost?

It sounded ridiculously overpowered, but at the same time, it made me uneasy.

‘If they’re handing out buffs like this, what’s waiting for us later?’

I was already worried about the final boss’s difficulty.

This was a rift, so there had to be a guardian.

“Anyway, Sir Versilius, what about you?”

“With each trial, I’m able to use new magic. I don’t understand them, it’s more like a normal person tearing a scroll to cast magic.”

“New spells?”

 

“Ancient spells lost to time, ones even I can’t begin to comprehend.”

Now it made sense.

I’d wondered who could’ve cast that massive teleportation spell.

So it was an ability from this rift.

“Ah, and I have one more ability.”

“What is it?”

“Every time a trial begins, I know intuitively what we need to do.”

“Well… that sounds pretty useful.”

I offered him my congratulations, even as I sighed inwardly.

I wasn’t lying when I said it was a good ability—in fact, it couldn’t have been more true.

This unfriendly game was handing out something as useful as a navigation ability for free… Just what were we about to face?

“Now it’s your turn.”

I then explained the abilities Erwin and I had discovered so far, and the long information exchange finally came to a close.

“By the way… Miss Tersia, why have you been so quiet?”

“That’s… none of your concern.”

“…Ah, my apologies.”

I wondered if she really needed to snap at the kind high priest like that, but I didn’t press further.

‘Now that I think about it, it is strange…’

Back during the boss run and even after entering this rift, Erwin had been acting a little different.

She still answered questions politely, but she wasn’t as chatty as usual.

“We still have time before nightfall, so everyone should rest for now.”

Hmm… She’s never been this quiet before.

***

[Gahyun Versilius has been assigned the role of “Mage.”]
[Can cast Ancient Magic.]

[Jerome Saintred has been assigned the role of “Knight.”]
[All stats increased by 200%.]

[Eden Hestia has been assigned the role of “Priest.”]
[No longer consumes divine power.]
[Cannot cast divine spells on oneself.]
[All mental resistance is fixed at 0.]

Continue reading more chapters at henprogressive.com