Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Episode 81

Sewer (2)

“Rotmiller, can you sense if there’s someone inside?”

“The stench of sewage is too strong to distinguish anything.”

“I see, then I’ll go down first, and you’ll follow when I give the signal.”

A five meter pit resembling a water tank.

With my shield strapped to my back, I quickly descend the creaky ladder. After giving a hand signal, the rest of the group followed me down.

“This place is creepy.”

As the torchlight illuminated the view, I could see a passage that was impossible to see from above.

“From now on, you lead the way.”

I whispered quietly, trying to keep my voice from echoing, and led the man forward, clutching the rope.

After about a minute?

“Fuck…….

We saw piles of bodies stacked like old clothes.

Dozens of corpses, mummified like ‘Hanson’ who had been drained of life.

No wonder the stench of decay was especially strong.

“Wha… what is this…”

His startled appearance suggested this wasn’t the usual state of this place…

“Keep quiet and keep moving.”

I pushed the man’s back and continued forward, staying alert for any immediate responses.

That’s why I could react.

A click

The sound of a mechanical device activating, followed by a faint light seeping through the heap of bones.

Then, a deep voice echoed through the passage.

[Sabaeum, Vania, Hartia]

No need to see more.

One of the trap skills possessed by the priests of Carui.

Its effect sound was unique, commonly abbreviated to ‘Savaha’.

「Your character has entered the radius of [Call of the Evil God].」

Fuck, they set this up?

“Back off!!”

While warning my comrades, I yanked the rope, pulling the man towards me.

The reason was simple.

‘Savaha’ wasn’t the kind of skill you could block with physical resistance or a Lytianium shield.

“Eh, what?”

The man, now in my grip instead of the shield, made a stunned sound.

And at that moment.

Hundreds of Banshee-like spirits poured out from the other side of the passage.

“Ah!! Aaahhh!!!”

The man screamed and thrashed, but I didn’t let go, hiding my body as best I could behind him.

Lucky he was tall, otherwise, it wouldn’t have ended with just this damage.

「Your character has absorbed 102 wraiths.」
「Darkness resistance is above a certain level.」
「Effect reduced by 30%.」
「Your character’s maximum life force temporarily reduced by 29%.」

Vitality drains from my body as if a hole had been punctured somewhere. My skin becomes parched like that of a person who hadn’t drunk water for days.

Misha was the first to notice my change.

“Bjorn, are you okay?!”

She immediately ran to me to check on my condition.

She tried to give me a potion, but I stopped her and stretched out my cramped body.

My muscles ached from the tension.

‘Damn, that was close.’

[Call of the Evil God]

A trap-type skill that unleashes hundreds of souls in a particular direction when activated. The feature is that the maximum vitality decreases by the number of times the soul is hit.

Naturally, if the maximum life force reaches zero, it results in instant death.

Just like this man hanging from my hand.

“Is everyone okay?”

“Thanks to you blocking in front, we’re fine. But is he… dead?”

I didn’t bother to answer.

If he had survived in his bone-and-skin state, that would have been more surprising.

As I laid down the man I had been gripping tightly, the Dwarf muttered as if in shock.

“…I hate to say it, but it was good to put him in front.”

I agree.

And I’m not ashamed of that fact.

We are heartless explorers, after all.

“What do we do now? If there’s more of this, it’s too dangerous to go on.”

After a moment of thought, I decided.

“Let’s continue.”

To set up [Call of the Evil God], various materials are required, most of which are the vitality of people.

There were many corpses around…

But even so, there weren’t enough for hundreds, so it must have been a one-time setup.

‘Besides, I have a feeling that if we don’t deal with this now, it’ll become a headache later…’

No evidence, just a hunch.

Just as we were about to leave, the Dwarf handed me something.

“It’s not much, but I found this in his pocket.”

It was the identity card of the mummified man.

Why a fugitive would carry his ID was beyond me…

“Submit this to the administration later for additional reward… Wait, why does that look?”

I stiffened upon checking the ID.

[Hans Marcom]

…He was also a Hans?

Sigh, suddenly I feel uneasy.

After about twenty steps, we reached the hideout Hans E had mentioned.

It was better furnished than expected.

There was something resembling a bed, a table with leftover bread and coffee, and even a candle holder on the wall.

However…

“Hahaha, nobody’s here?”

“Hmm, either she left this place entirely or is just temporarily away.”

There was no sign of anyone.

And it didn’t seem like there were any hidden spaces.

“Stay alert. Someone might be hiding.”

We cautiously searched the area – under the bed, beneath the table, and even checked for hidden spaces in the walls.

After about five minutes of careful observation, the search was fruitless.

That was until Dwalki cast a spell.

[Leor Wuerv Dwalki has cast the 8th grade support magic [Magic Detection].」

[Magic Detection]

A search-type magic that reveals any magically tampered objects or spaces.

“How is it?”

“It’s Vague.”

“Vague?”

“There’s a faint trace of magic from the floor… But it’s so faint. I might be mistaken.”

I checked the floor Dwalki pointed at.

As I’m not a mage, I couldn’t see anything unusual.

Nothing seemed out of place.

“Is there any other way to find out more about the magic here?”

“There isn’t. But if I were to guess, it seems like the magic might be hiding something beneath us.”

“Got it.”

After a brief question, I lifted my mace.

The Dwarf looked at me and asked,

“What are you doing?”

“I’m going to smash it.”

“Smash it?”

He looked puzzled, but I didn’t bother to explain further. If magical means were blocked, it was time for physical action, in true Barbarian style.

Boom!

The mace, now twice its previous size, struck the floor, causing it to tremble. But that was all.

“Bjorn, you can’t open a magical device like that.”

Dwalki, looking on, advised me, but I continued my mace assault.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The solid steel mace was intact, despite being repeatedly struck on the ground. The floor was slightly dented but unchanged.

So—

“Stop it. Didn’t Dwalki say that won’t work…”

I took off my breastplate, shoes, helmet, and put down my backpack.

Everyone looked confused.

「Character has cast [Giant Growth].」

「Character size increases, along with threat and physical stats.」

My body grew twice its size, and with it, my strength surged. The Dwarf still sounded defeated.

“Even if you’re strong, magic doesn’t work that way…”

Impossible, you say?

As a seasoned gamer and a current Barbarian warrior, I still find that hard to agree with.

If strength can’t break it—

Boom!!!

Then it’s just a lack of strength.

“???!”

Ah, of course, excluding ghost types.

“So it did work.”

“Dwalki, what happened? Weren’t you confident it wouldn’t work?”

“Uh, well… I don’t know myself. I’m not sure why this worked…”

Ignoring their murmurs, I checked the floor.

After a couple of hits, light seeped through and cracks began to form. On the third hit, the floor shattered, revealing a staircase below.

“A hidden staircase in a sewer…”

It was so deep that even when I dropped a torch down, its end was not visible.

It felt like an entrance to the underworld.

“Are we supposed to go down there?”

Misha looked at me with a face of dread.

Honestly, I wasn’t keen either.

I expected, at best, a small space to hide a person, considering it was a hideout…

‘But what is this?’

On one hand, I felt entangled in a troublesome situation, but on the other, curiosity sparked. After all, the sewer itself was a restricted area in the game.

Of course, I wasn’t planning to risk our safety for mere curiosity.

However…

“Bjorn, I can smell her faintly down there.”

“What?”

“It’s certain she passed through here. Not long ago, either.”

Damn, what should I do?

Should we just stop here and tell the others to handle it?

My dilemma deepened.

So, I asked Rotmiller for his opinion.

“Rotmiller, what do you think? Should we back off?”

“…I think it’s okay to check it out a little further. I don’t smell anyone else down there besides her.”

His response was somewhat unexpected.

Did my surprise show?

Rotmiller smiled wryly and added.

“Somehow, I don’t feel it’s too dangerous.”

Hmm, relying on his intuition stat, huh?

I didn’t disregard his words, despite the lack of concrete evidence.

‘His hunches tend to be quite accurate.’

In fact, when Hans E was hiding, Rotmiller accurately sensed it.

Did he hesitate to go to the hideout because he sensed danger? If that was the case, his solo dissent during the majority decision made sense.

‘Intuition… might be more useful than I thought.’

I made my decision.

“Rotmiller, lead the way. If you feel anything suspicious, we turn back immediately.”

Rotmiller’s intuition seemed trustworthy.

“Vice-Captain, the ‘door’ has been destroyed.”

A subordinate’s report made a man frown.

A subterranean refuge built thousands of years ago, in the days before Raphdonia was more than just a lord’s castle.

And there, the city of ‘Noarark’ was established.

Most of the entrances to this place are constantly guarded by members of the unit.

But…

“Destroyed? An attack by the royal family?”

“It’s unlikely.”

“…Explain.”
Urged by the man, the subordinate elaborated.

“It’s an old door, forgotten since the Carui Church incident. The last scout’s report mentioned a vagabond using it as a hideout”.

“Hmm.”

The man stroked his chin, a habit when deep in thought.

“It’s unlikely the royal family would bother us now… But we need to confirm the intruder.”

“Yes. Which unit should I contact?”

“Do we need to send a unit?”

He asked back, glancing at a woman beside him.

She was conversing with him until the subordinate’s report interrupted them.

The barbarian she once spared had become a famous explorer in the city, an interesting story cut short…

“Amelia, you can handle whoever it is quietly, right? Could you go on our behalf?”

The remaining conversation could wait for later.

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