Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Episode 266

Bug (5)

When I said it had been a long time, he laughed.

“No way, you remember me?”

He seemed surprised that I recognized him.

Well, our encounter had been brief.

I didn’t even have the mental capacity to hold a face-to-face conversation, let alone a full introduction.

But…

“Such memories don’t fade easily.”

How could I forget?

Dragging a bloody leg, crawling through a dark cave on three limbs during those days.

[Patzran, can you give me a potion?]

[It’s in case you can’t use divine power!]

[“You have plenty anyway. I’ll pay you back later.”]

[Tch.]

The guy who saved me, the swordsman from their team, threw a potion with a disgruntled look at the leader’s command.

It was a rare experience.

How often in life do you feel both humiliation and gratitude at the same time?

“As expected from a barbarian, you don’t forget a favor. That’s a warrior’s code, isn’t it?”

He misunderstood my words in a way that pleased him, a satisfied smile appearing on his lips.

I didn’t bother correcting him.

Well, it’s true that I felt grateful.

“Still, it’s surprising. I didn’t expect you to remember me either.”

“Not many can crawl that far with a body like yours.”

He looked me up and down as he said this.

“By the way, I didn’t expect you to be the Bjorn Jandel.”

He had already deduced my identity through my appearance without needing any introductions.

Whether this was a strength or a weakness, I wasn’t sure.

As I smirked, Raven approached from behind.

“Long time no see, Patzran.”

“Who…? Ah, Miss Raven?”

I was as surprised as the bewildered swordsman.

What? They knew each other?

“Yes… I heard you joined a team a while back.”

“It’s not a team anymore, it’s a clan. By the way, wow! I didn’t know you and Patzran knew each other, Mr. Jandel. What a coincidence!”

“Coincidence? We don’t even know each other’s names.”

When I interrupted the conversation with this remark, the swordsman chuckled and introduced himself.

“Malmeron Patzran.”

“That’s a strange name.”

“It’s one of the few families that still sticks to Central naming conventions. Just call me Patzran; that’s what everyone else does.”

“A family? Are you a noble, by any chance?”

“Noble? Hardly. Maybe a few thousand years ago.”

I understood immediately.

There were cases like this sometimes.

Before the world collapsed, some were nobles or royals. But after entering this city, they fell to commoner status.

Though they had no titles, they still maintained their legitimacy by appointing heads within their families.

“So, what were you doing in front of our ship?”

With the introductions over, Patzran moved on to the main topic.

I hadn’t done anything special, so I answered honestly.

“I was just taking a look around the island.”

“I see.”

Given my reputation and Patzran’s acquaintance with Raven, he accepted our words without suspicion.

Then…

“Nervio Fertia.”

He activated the magic circle engraved on the ship, summoning the docked ship back into his subspace.

It was a trivial action, but it bothered me.

“By the way, where’s the team that was with you back then?”

“They’re exploring the island.”

“Are they looking for something?”

“Well, I don’t think we’re close enough to discuss that.”

Geez, getting prickly already.

His curt reply drew a clear line, but I had a rough idea.

‘They docked the ship and sent one person back…’

They were probably looking for something.

Most summoning marks have a cooldown.

If they hadn’t found what they were looking for, they would have left the island immediately.

‘The fact that they unsummoned the ship means they found what they were looking for.’

So, what exactly were they after?

I had an idea.

I had aimed for the same thing when I reached the 6th floor this time.

‘If that’s the case, my plans might be messed up…’

I managed my expression to hide my frustration.

Maybe he was doing the same.

“Jandel, so how long are you planning to stay on this island?”

Patzran asked nonchalantly.

Sneaky bastard, trying to probe me.

“We’ll probably stay for a while.”

“A while? There’s not much here.”

“It’s our first time here.”

“Hmm, still, it might be worth checking out the next island… Well, never mind. You’ll figure it out.”

Patzran, who had been speaking with hope in his voice, suddenly thought he had crossed a line and corrected himself.

Yeah, who are you to decide where we go?

“Anyway, if you’re staying on this island, we might meet again a few times. See you later, Jandel.”

With that, Patzran wrapped up the conversation.

His intentions were obvious.

He probably wanted to hurry back and discuss our presence with his companions.

“Wait.”

When I called out, Patzran turned around, curious as to why I had stopped him.

I couldn’t just let him go.

This had been bothering me since earlier…

“It’s not just Jandel, it’s Baron.”

“…What?”

Seeing him tilt his head in confusion, I clarified once more.

“Baron Bjorn, son of Jandel.”

How dare he try to get chummy with me.

Did he still think I was that ground-crawling barbarian from back then?

****

“Well then, I’ll be going. Ahem! Lord Bjorn Jandel…”

Once Patzran hurried off out of sight, Raven sighed.

“Did you really have to do that, Mr. Jandel?”

It was obvious what she meant.

She thought I was too harsh.

But I squared my shoulders confidently.

“I didn’t expect him to use the highest honorifics.”

I didn’t make him call me “Lord Bjorn” or use overly formal speech.

But she questioned if it was necessary.

“Raven, I’m surprised by you. Where else would you find such a lenient noble?”

“Well, when you put it that way, I can’t argue. But this has never happened before. What happened between you two in the past…?”

Raven seemed to think it was personal revenge, but it wasn’t.

I was much more grateful for being saved back then.

However, that was then, and this is now.

“Raven, there’s a big difference between me allowing casual speech and him assuming it without asking.”

Even after becoming a noble, my speech with comrades and acquaintances hadn’t changed.

That was because I told them not to.

But what about Patzran?

Though it wasn’t my place as a barbarian to say this, he naturally assumed he could speak informally from the get-go.

“Sigh, so you did it to maintain noble dignity? You’ve really become a proper noble now, huh?”

What is she talking about?

“I’m not a noble, I’m a clan leader.”

“…What?”

“It means that wherever we go, I represent all of you. Should I have just laughed it off, showing consideration to an explorer I barely know, just because you know him?”

“Well…”

More importantly, it seemed like their team had objectives overlapping with ours, so we were bound to cross paths again.

That’s why I switched to the Noblesse Barbarian mode.

Starting off being underestimated was not ideal for the long run.

“…I’m sorry for the sarcastic remark. I wasn’t thinking straight.”

Raven hung her head low and apologized, a trait I admired in her.

One of her strengths was admitting her mistakes and apologizing sincerely when she was wrong.

“That’s fine. Let’s forget about it.”

I put the incident behind me like a true barbarian and asked something that had piqued my curiosity.

“But I didn’t know, Raven. Do you dislike nobles?”

“No? Not at all.”

Hmm, really?

It didn’t seem that way with the sharp sarcasm earlier.

Oh, could it be that she was close friends with that guy?

Maybe she was upset seeing me scold him?

Thinking it was a plausible guess, I asked again, but Raven shook her head.

“Oh, that’s definitely not it. I’ve only met Mr. Patzran a few times at banquets…”

“Hmm, then why were you so upset?”

“I wasn’t really upset…”

“But it’s true you were different from usual.”

Raven didn’t answer easily.

It wasn’t that she found it difficult to talk, but more like she herself didn’t know the reason.

“It just felt a bit off. I guess I didn’t want Mr. Jandel to be like that… No, what am I even saying? I don’t know either.”

Raven seemed confused.

I chuckled because I thought I understood what she meant.

Even I would feel strange if Aynar suddenly became authoritative.

Yes, the pure-hearted brain of a barbarian is indeed charming.

“Ugh, both of you, stop it! What’s with this weird atmosphere?”

Misha interrupted our awkward conversation, shifting the topic naturally.

“So, what’s the plan now? There’s still a lot of the island to explore.”

“Actually, I was thinking of wrapping up the island tour.”

We had a rough idea of the island’s size and confirmed that there were other people here besides us.

Potential competitors who might have visited the island for the same purpose.

“So, what’s next?” Raven asked.

“We head inland.”

We couldn’t be explorers if we backed down just because there were competitors.

***

Farune Island.

Located closest to the starting island, it was a popular hunting ground.

Though the monsters were all below level 8…

The abundance of insect-type monsters made it quite profitable.

Well, profit-wise, that is.

“Erwin, fire! Fire! Hurry!!”

“Y-Yes!”

“Spit, spit! Ugh, I think it got in my mouth!!”

“Aynar, a magic stone just came out of your mouth! Did you kill it by chewing it?!”

The 8th rank insect-type monster “Krumbi,” with a body larger than a human head.

And the swarms of bugs it summoned.

Every time Erwin, who controls fire spirits, or Raven’s area attack was unleashed, magic stones poured out,  but no one looked pleased.

I wasn’t any different.

‘It’s more disgusting than I thought.’

Even with my strong stomach, it was hard to bear.

Sticky fluids covering my body.

The nauseating smell of roasted insects.

Ugh, I didn’t want to know such a smell existed in the world.

“I didn’t hear there would be this many monsters, but since there are no people around… Eeek!”

“Don’t talk! It’ll get in your… Ugh!”

Despite experiencing the worst moments of their lives in real-time, my companions didn’t suggest turning back.

For a simple reason.

“It seems you were right, Bjorn.”

“Yes. There must be something on this island. Otherwise, those with good ships wouldn’t have come here.”

Of course, we weren’t planning to just follow them and figure out what it was.

I already knew what it was…

Besides, our clan wouldn’t stoop to such tactics.

So, we decided to search diligently on our own.

Assuming something was hidden on this island.

‘Thanks to that, it won’t look suspicious when we find it later…’

The problem was Patzran’s team.

The hidden piece of this island is an event that affects the entire island.

‘If there are no more people besides us, then there are 11 in total.’

It wasn’t the highest difficulty of 15 people yet, but 11 was still quite challenging.

‘That’s probably why they wanted us gone. It would be easier for them to proceed with the event without us.’

I’m a bit curious.

How did they find out about this hidden piece?

Is there a player on their team?

Or is Patzran himself a player?

‘I guess I’ll find out when we meet again—’

It was while I was thinking about this.

“Mister.”

Erwin stopped the group.

“Someone’s fighting over there.”

She pointed towards the center of the forest.

Given her much better hearing, she couldn’t be wrong.

“Looks like Patzran’s team is hunting. Hmm, if we run into them here, they’ll probably think we’re following them and misunderstand—”

“No. They’re not hunting.”

“What do you mean they’re not hunting…?”

Erwin’s eyes glinted sharply.

“They’re fighting. People against people.”

She meant a PK (Player Kill) was happening.

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