Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Episode 115

Reunion (3)

Day 9, Afternoon.

[You have entered the Pilgrim’s Path on the 3rd floor]

After searching the northernmost part of the Land of the Dead for over a day, we finally discovered a portal and reached the third floor.

“…… Next time, I won’t enter without a scout.

Even though I concluded that the two of us could reach the 3rd floor via the Land of the Dead route, but…

The absence of a scout still significantly impacted us.

If we hadn’t secretly followed a group of explorers who happened to be passing by, we’d still be wandering around.

“Nyang, this place always feels so dreadful no matter when I come.”

Anyway, after all that traveling, we arrived at the Dark River Estuary.

This place marks the third floor’s start on the Land of the Dead route, characterized by its dozens of shallow streams branching out in all directions.

Oh, and the stench of a sewer is a bonus.

“Then let’s go.”

Without a scout, I kept glancing at my compass, moving in the ‘northeast’ direction.

Soon after, we reached a dead end.

In other words, we now have to cross this murky river.

“…Can’t you carry me across, Nyang?”

Tsk, always looking for the easy way out.

“…Just this once.”

“Really, Nyang? Thank you!”

I hoisted Misha onto my shoulder and crossed the river.

The river was about 5 meters wide, and the water came up just below the knees.

Carefully crossing the river to avoid falling, we once again found damp ground stretching out before us like a path.

However, just as we were about to continue.

[Grumble! Grumble!]

[Gargle!]

It seemed like monsters had followed us, lured by the sound of us crossing the river

“Bjorn, look, it’s a Frogmen.”

Frogmen.

A level 8 monster that walks on two legs and closely resembles a frog.

It uses something like a harpoon as a weapon.

They might seem insignificant due to their small size, but they’re incredibly agile, and many explorers have been swiftly killed by them for carelessness.

Their skills are also quite annoying.

‘…What a hassle.’

These creatures are not a good match for me.

My mace could smash the skull of a Deathfiend in one blow…

But it’s meaningless if I can’t hit them.

Whoosh-!

The Frogmen easily dodged my mace by leaping through the air and stepping on it again.

Even when I dashed forward and tried to hit it with my shield, it made no difference.

[Attack deflected by [Rotten Slime]

My shield made contact with the creature’s body, but instead of a solid hit, the Frogmen slid away like it was sliding on ice.

[Gargle!]

Having fun?

Fuck.

These creatures have an absolute evasion against blunt weapons, making them a troublesome enemy regardless of their level.

But it wasn’t a problem since Misha was here.

“Nyahhhhh! Get out of the way!”

While I was being toyed with by the Frogmen, Misha began to seriously draw her sword and dance through the battle.

[Grumble-!]

Despite the Frogmen’s considerable evasion ability against weapons…

Misha was a Frost Swordsman, after all.

[Gack?!]

Not only was its thigh sliced open, but its lower body also froze solid.

Thump.

The little frog that had been hopping around without a care in the world fell to the ground.

“Misha, wait!”

“Hm?”

“I’ll handle this.”

Thwack-!

Phew, that’s a stress reliever.

Although magic is usually the best way to deal with these monsters, the fight wasn’t too difficult given the disparity in our levels.

[Gargle!]

[Grumble! Grumble!]

After dealing with the Frogmen we kept moving.

How much time had passed?

[22:57]

Checking the time, I started looking for a place to camp. Not just because of the fatigue, but also because this place requires taking forced breaks at set intervals.

“Bjorn, the water’s rising, isn’t it, Nyang?”

“I’m already looking, so don’t rush me.”

After about 30 minutes of searching, we found a resting point. Unlike the Dark River Estuary, this was a soft, non-sticky hillock with a hint of red.

It seemed all the nearby explorers had already gathered, with about thirty people having settled at the point.

‘We’re late, so all the good spots inside are taken.’

With no other choice, I settled for a spot by the water’s edge, where the stench of the sewer hit directly. The ground wasn’t damp, so hopefully, the water wouldn’t rise this far.

Before laying down the blanket, as I was drying my wet legs, the water level in the river began to rise quickly, right on cue.

[00:00]

Okay, it’s midnight now, so it shouldn’t rise any further. For the next 6 hours, this situation should remain, so I first put Misha to sleep.

Many teams didn’t set up a night watch due to the number of people around, but…

But you can never be too careful.

‘We ran into Hans a few days ago, better be cautious.’

Just as I was rummaging through my bag for some snacks,

“Ha ha ha! Cheer up, buddy! Has there ever been a tree that doesn’t fall after ten chops?”

“But… as you know, she—”

“Hey, everyone’s trying to sleep here, can you keep it down?”

“Ahaha! Sorry! We’ll be careful from now on!”

A familiar voice carried over from a distance.

And before falling asleep, Misha, who had been rolled up in a blanket, suddenly sat up.

“Is that, Hikurod’s voice, Nyang?”

It seems I wasn’t the only one who thought so…

What are the odds of such a coincidence?
****
Encountering someone you know in the labyrinth is rare.

Firstly, each floor is huge, and because of the darkness in the labyrinth, even with a light, the visibility doesn’t extend beyond a radius of 10 meters.

Sure, ‘clans’ divided in multiple parties might arrange to meet at a certain floor by a certain time and proceed together…

‘Never thought it’d actually be them.’

Surprisingly, the voice did belong to the dwarf.

Dwalki and Rotmiller were with him too.

“Hikurod? Is that really you, Nyang?”

“…Misha? Bjorn? What! What are you doing here?”

“Wow, it must be fate that brings our team together like this, Nyang!”

What are the chances of reuniting by chance, without any prior arrangement?

“What about the commission? Didn’t you say you were on a commission? How did that go?”

Amazed by the incredible coincidence for a moment, the Dwarf then raised a question.
It must have felt odd to them.

After all, we had entered the labyrinth separately on an escort quest.

I brushed it off as we had previously agreed.

“Ah, that’s already finished.”

“Finished?”

“Our business was on the first floor. Our client returned to the city before the labyrinth closed”.

“Oh, is that so?”

The Dwarf nodded, seemingly satisfied with the explanation..

Now it was our turn to ask.

“What about you? Why are you here? I thought you’d only be on the second floor?”

As far as I knew, these three were supposed to be in the Desert of Rocks, handling a simple collection quest.

So, why were they on the third floor, especially in a place connected to the Land of the Dead and the Dark River Estuary?

“Ah, that’s because the Stone Golem’s core appeared sooner than we expected. We came here to complete another quest we had taken just in case.”

Though, if they had planned to go up to the third floor from the start, they should have mentioned it…

“Ha ha ha! If we had told you, you might have tried to stop us!”

Hmm, fair point.

A team composition of 1 tank, 1 mage, 1 scout does seem a bit risky. Not that us, a team of 1 tank and 1 melee fighter on the third floor, can talk.

“…So, what’s the quest?”

“It’s another collection quest. Just need to get two eyes of a Frogmen Shaman and that’s it. Since we’ve met here, care to join us?”

“How much is the completion reward?”

“2 million Stones. Of course, if you join us, the reward will be divided evenly among the five of us.”

400,000 Stones per person isn’t bad.

Selling other byproducts besides the eyes could increase the earnings.

Of course, there’s the question of whether we can actually take down a Shaman, not just any Frogmen…

Well, that’s up to luck.

“Let’s do it.”

Especially after running into Hans, roaming around with just the two of us felt risky. Besides, Misha and I wouldn’t be doing anything other than hunting Frogmen anyway?

If the quest finishes early, I might even propose moving to the fourth floor together.

“Ha ha, then let’s get some rest. If we keep talking, we might end up getting stabbed by someone.”

Seeing the glares from other teams trying to rest, we decided to end our conversation and get some sleep.

‘Thanks to this, we’ll get about five hours of sleep.’

That’s the advantage of having more people.

Shorter watches and more sleep.

[06:00]

As time passed and the 10th day dawned, the water level dropped, and we left the resting point.
Then, we dedicated ourselves to hunting around.

‘Having at least one scout really does make a difference.’

It dawned on me anew how much a scout improves the quality of life in the labyrinth.

“There’s a river that way, come here.”

Rottmiller leads the way along the optimal route, as if he’s memorized the entire terrain.

Despite wandering for so long, we didn’t have to cross the water more than three times

“Hmm, another miss…”

After another four hours and taking down one more shaman, we all felt a bit disappointed.

The body vanished without leaving anything behind, a downside of collection quests.

If you use the ‘Distortion’ spell on monsters, there’s a very small chance you’ll get the corpse intact…….

But then essence and magic stones don’t drop.

‘Phew, I’m already dreading the thought of doing all this manual labor in the future’

The more you progress into the game, the more you’ll need monster byproducts for things like crafting equipment and consumables.

Take soul engraving, for example.

Up to level 6, you can get by with money, but after that, you need to gather the materials yourself.

‘…Let’s worry about that when we get there. As long as we have money, we can just use the exchange or post quests for supplies.’

Anyway, travel became much easier, as did combat.

Rotmiller’s arrows, Dwalki’s magic,

And Misha’s icy swordplay.

“…I’ve been wanting to ask, but what’s going on here?”

Rotmiller expressed his curiosity upon seeing the frozen Frogmen, but it wasn’t really a problem.

[Frost Condensation] and [Ice Shatter] aren’t that conspicuous as skills.

“Oh, that? My spirit beast has evolved, Nyang!”

Misha replied naturally, as I had informed her beforehand.

“Ha, is that so? With this level of ability, you could even be promoted to level 6?”

“Miss Karlstein! Congratulations!”

Since everyone knew Misha had contracted with a cold-type spirit beast, no one doubted her.

After all, it probably didn’t even occur to them that it could be a lie.

‘Every time I do this, my conscience pricks me.’

But what can I do?

I must accept it.

Such is the fate of those who live as evil spirits.

“Rotmiller, it seems like the water level is rising, Nyang. Is it okay?”

“The safe zone is right next to us, so don’t worry.”

By the end of the tenth day, the water level was rising up, but thanks to Rotmiller, who had memorized the nearby terrain, we maximized our time hunting until the last moment before moving to camp.

“Uh…”

“Is this the right one? Did we actually get it?”

“It seems so.”

As soon as we resumed our exploration, we hunted down the first shaman we encountered and were stunned.

Despite being pierced by an arrow and falling, the body remained instead of vanishing.

“Ye, yes! It seems like having Misha with us really brings luck to our journey!”

“Hehe, you’re under her spell. In my view, it’s all thanks to Bjorn here. Luck follows him, you know?”

Regardless of Dwalki and the Dwarf’s antics,

We acquired the shaman’s body in just two days.

Hmm, maybe it was too early to say it’s been obtained, though?

“Um, but what do we do with this?”

“Wa, wait a moment. I’ll cast a preservation spell first.”

Dwalki used a ‘Preservation’ spell to prevent the corpse from decaying.
But that was the extent of it.

We couldn’t just stuff the entire body into a bag.

“Misha, you’re good with a knife, right? You can handle this, can’t you?”

“Wh, what are you saying, Dwarf! I, I’ve never done this before, Nyang! You should do it, especially since you took on the Stone Golem quest!”

“Well, that… for the Stone Golem, we only needed to extract the core…”

Even if we only needed the eyes, dissection was necessary.

And none of us, except for the jack-of-all-trades Rotmiller, had experience with such tasks.

“Step aside. I’ll handle it.”

Rotmiller sighed and skillfully began to dissect the Shaman’s body with a scalpel-like tool.
Hadn’t he done this frequently when he was part of the “Collection Team”?

“Rotmiller, you’re the best, Nyang!”

“Oh, I agree… uh, I’ll just look away for a bit…”

After about 30 minutes,

Under Rotmiller’s skilled hands, the Shaman’s body was meticulously divided into muscles, tendons, bones, and internal organs, all neatly placed into a box.

“What do we do now?”

The Pilgrim’s Path on the third floor closes after the 15th day, leaving us with three days to spare.

I seized the moment to suggest,

“Now that the quest is done, how about we head to the fourth floor?”

“Um, indeed… It would be a shame to end our journey on the third floor when we’ve finally all come together…”

“Rotmiller, what do you think? Can we make it to the fourth floor in time?”

Rotmiller closed his eyes as if calculating.

Given we had to traverse various areas to reach the portal in the heart of the Witch’s Forest within three days, it required some thought.

“It’ll be tight, but it seems possible.”

It was somewhat surprising.

Initially, we planned to just break through the rifts and hunt some monsters before returning to the city.

‘Plans never go exactly as intended, do they?’

Somehow, we ended up heading to the fourth floor.

****
The journey over the next three days was tougher than expected.

First, our sleeping hours were drastically reduced, and all our spare time was spent on the move.

And since we were practically on a forced march…

As the days passed, the faces of my companions grew increasingly weary from fatigue.

Yet, we managed to reach our goal.

[Your character has entered a special area]

[Field effect – Witch’s Forest is applied]

Passing through the Witch’s Forest for the third time.

The first time Misha and I came here, we suffered countless hardships and nearly got lost…

But with Rotmiller with us, there was nothing to fear.

“Everyone, follow closely.”

Given what happened last time, we connected ourselves with a rope and quickly made our way through the Witch’s Forest.

How much time had passed?

[20:31]

With a little over 3 hours left until the third floor closed,

“Good work, Rotmiller.”

We stood in front of a giant tower at the center of the Witch’s Forest, in front of a massive door that appeared to be the entrance, with a portal of vibrant colors before it.

“Now, let’s go in!”

We waited for the color of the portal to change as a precaution, then entered simultaneously.

“Ah, Mister?!”

A faintly familiar voice called out from a distance.