Surviving the Game as a Barbarian

A large ship stood alone in the middle of the jungle.

First, I made everyone disembark, then dismissed the summoning. The ship was quite exhausted, so staying on it was difficult...

Well, even if that weren't the case, we had to get off quickly.

After all, you can't move around the jungle by ship—

"Mo-monsters...?"

"What? Monsters!!"

Inevitably, Hamshik showed himself, causing quite a commotion.

It was something we had to go through at least once.

When we transferred ships during the rainy season, I had carried him inside my armor, but I couldn't hide him forever...

However, the reaction was completely different from what I expected.

"W-what kind of monster is that...?"

"For a monster, it's... kind of cute?"

"It's a specimen I've never seen before."

This was different from the terrible reaction Hamshik had back at the library.

The squad all saw Hamshik's true form.

"...So this is what he looks # Nоvеlight # like."

Amelia, who had gone ahead to patrol around after disembarking, returned and stood beside me.

Her eyes sparkled as she looked at Hamshik.

"...Can I touch him?"

"Ask him yourself... no, first let's get the situation under control."

I quickly intervened and ordered Hamshik to lower his weapon.

"This creature is the one we encountered in the library and is not hostile to us."

"Y-you mean it's not a monster?"

"Well, I don't know about that, but I believe this one will help us escape from the basement first floor."

"Ah... so that's why we stopped by that island back then."

"So when are you going to lower your weapon? Should I order it again?"

"Ah, s-sorry!"

In a military group, the rule is to obey orders from above.

At my command as commander, the squad maintained wary distance but took no unexpected actions.

[...What's going on? I can't understand their words, but their gaze toward me feels a bit different than usual.]

"Oh, that. I guess everyone here can now see your true form properly."

[...What? But still, they're wary of me...]

"That's natural. Even if it's your true form, you're still a stranger to us."

[Ah... I guess that's true...]

Hamshik looked somewhat flustered, as if he hadn't considered this obvious fact.

And maybe because he had nowhere else to rely on, he clung tightly to my collar.

"Don't stay over there. Come here."

I grabbed Hamshik and placed him on my shoulder.

At first, he seemed surprised and tried to struggle, but quickly found his balance and curled up comfortably, as if he liked being on my shoulder.

'Feels like I'm raising a pet.'

Anyway, that settled the Hamshik issue for now.

"Scout captain."

I called out the short rank title, and Amelia finally took her eyes off Hamshik.

"How's the scouting going?"

"There's nothing around immediately nearby. The flying object you saw is also nowhere to be found, and the scouts' mages didn't find anything unusual."

"I see."

Okay, that means no immediate danger...

Tap tap.

After some thought, I ordered the deputy commander to set up camp first. Exploration was important, but rest and reorganization were even more urgent now.

Since every squad member was an expert, the camp was quickly established.

But...

"Everyone, gather here for a moment before resting."

I called the weary soldiers together.

Despite their exhaustion, there were no complaints. In a world where farewells were common, everyone already knew what was coming.

What I was about to do.

"Deputy commander, I leave it to you from here."

Passing the baton to the deputy, he skillfully recited the names, ranks, and reasons for the fallen.

Then...

"Archbishop Altvehimen, please."

The priest prayed for their souls, and the mage handed the cremated ashes to the closest relatives, ending the funeral quickly as if roasting beans over lightning.

"Those not assigned to guard duty, get some rest quickly! This might be the last chance you have! And don't forget your watch schedule!"

Without even the deputy commander's urging, the exhausted troops hurried to their assigned resting places.

Ah, of course, there were exceptions.

"Armin."

Muul Armin, leader of the Armin exploration squad.

He stood quietly in front of the place where the bodies had been cremated, though he would be assigned to guard duty much later.

"What about White Hext?"

"...Seems like he went straight to sleep."

"Well... he must be tired. But you?"

"...I should get some rest soon as well."

He said that, but I suspected he would return to the barracks much later.

Unlike the Hext clan, which had a somewhat corporate feel, the Armin squad had long-standing close bonds.

"Alright, go ahead first. You get some rest too."

"Yes."

I patrolled the camp.

Amelia, Elwen, Misha, Goblin, Versil... all seemed so tired they had already dozed off, and I slowly headed to my own barracks.

My private single-person barracks located at the center of the camp.

The deputy commander pleaded that if I stayed only with Squad 4, my closest comrades, others might feel uneasy, so I had my own place...

'They even put a foldable bed here.'

I chuckled quietly and laid Hamshik on the small bed.

"Good night."

For barbarians, a single blanket is enough.

The next day after the entire expedition rested fully, taking turns on guard duty.

We resumed the exploration in earnest.

Of course, with over a hundred people, we couldn't just start moving recklessly.

"Expedition leader."

"Yes?"

"...You know what this is about, right?"

"...Yes. I'll return safely."

I assigned a scouting captain to the leader, who was an excellent mage, so they could recon further.

Based on that reconnaissance, we held an executive meeting.

"We expanded the search radius widely, but no monsters were found."

"What about that temple we saw far away? Did you check there too?"

"Yes. We couldn't check inside the temple, but no monsters were found nearby."

"Why couldn't you check inside?"

"The entrance was blocked by some magical barrier."

"Magical barrier?"

I couldn't believe such a high-level mage was saying that, but the expedition leader answered confidently.

"We investigated, but couldn't figure out how it worked. We just assume it's similar to the dimensional disruption phenomena often found at rifts."

"Dimensional disruption phenomenon... Ah, no need to explain; explorers would know what that is."

The dimensional disruption phenomenon is basically a 'barrier.'

Like at the witch's hut or the blood-red fortress.

Though the portal leads you inside what looks like another world, a surrounding barrier is in place that can't be broken no matter what you do.

"In any case, if that's true, forcibly breaking in is impossible."

"Yes. It's possible the terrain itself is inaccessible."

"No, I don't think so."

"Yes...?"

"...I just have that feeling."

I avoided going into detail in a barbarian way but had some basis for that feeling.

Strictly speaking, it was statistics, not evidence.

'We've seen places where you can't get out past a certain boundary, but we've never encountered any structure completely sealed off from entry.'

It's more likely that you enter by fulfilling some condition.

"...So, can I continue reporting?"

"Yes, go ahead."

After that, the leader reported everything they saw or learned while scouting.

No insects were found in the jungle.

Plants usually found in the dark continent were growing.

Rusty iron scraps were found on the ground.

Such seemingly trivial information could be useful someday, and I recorded it carefully.

I made a decision after all reports were finished.

"Prepare for deployment after the meeting."

"Are we going to the temple?"

"Yes."

Since the temple was the only place found nearby, I planned to go myself and check it out.

If it wasn't dangerous, we'd expand the search radius again from there.

'No matter what, making a map first is the best.'

Thus, the exploration began.

Over a hundred people maintained formation as they crossed the jungle, eventually reaching the temple.

There were dozens of stone buildings, with a huge temple in the center.

"Hmm... somehow this looks familiar."

"Me too. It feels like somewhere I know."

"When was the last time I visited a place like this?"

Judging by the squad's reactions, I knew I wasn't mistaken.

"...Panthelion Ruins."

"Huh?"

"The ruins we saw there gave off this exact feeling, didn't they?"

"Oh! If those ruins were still intact, I think it would look just like this!"

If my guess was right, the place we were at was the Panthelion Ruins in the 7th floor of the Dark Continent. Or more precisely, a prototype of that place.

"Well then, let's check the temple first."

So, we headed straight to the temple as soon as we arrived.

The central staircase wasn't very high, and the entrance was located roughly at the level of the third floor.

It was a stone door that looked like it could open sideways or up and down.

"Expedition leader, is there any other way to get inside?"

"No. The dimensional disruption phenomenon isn't limited to this stone door but seems to cover the entire temple..."

"I see. Then you don't need to participate in the exploration; just keep investigating the temple."

"Baron... no, Commander, where are you going?"

"Not now. I plan to expand the search radius around here for a few days. It's easier with a map."

I left the investigation to them and concentrated on making a map.

Each squad sent several members to widen the search radius, prioritizing map creation.

After a week-long search, we didn't learn much.

'It's huge.'

Unlike rifts where dimensional disruption is visible near the edges, this place is enormous.

And...

'A river.'

A river flows east of the temple.

Assuming this was the Panthelion Ruins, this could be the Aribeona river mouth...

'But it's quite different.'

It was so different from the Aribeona river mouth I knew that I'm still confused.

'We'll decide later whether to search beyond the river...'

Though exploration and investigation had been slow, Raven's research department, where he served as head, made an unexpected discovery.

"These iron scraps found in the forest... they're not ordinary iron."

"A new kind of metal?"

"Yes. I don't even know if this can be called metal. Rust corrodes metal, but no metal in this world decays like this."

Showing me the sample, it looked like rotten flesh, blackened and giving off a foul odor.

"You can see the corrosion shrinking its size."

"...A strange metal indeed."

At first, I just reacted mildly, but Raven's next words changed my perspective.

"But... when I saw this, it reminded me of something."

"What?"

"The study of alchemy. Apparently, alchemy was originally a science aimed at creating 'humans'."

I'd heard that story before.

Nowadays, alchemy is just a technique to use magical stones to create resources.

"So?"

"I was interested and studied it before. Do you know why ancient alchemy failed to create humans? Because it couldn't create flesh."

"Flesh?"

"Yes. Flesh, skin, muscles... those things. So no matter how you breathe life into it or do whatever, it wouldn't become human. Unless it was a magical golem with a soul. You know about the Melt-Eye statue, right?"

"The steel golem that protected the palace during the Iron Wall Rebellion and was destroyed?"

"Yes. Melt-Eye is a representative golem made by inserting a human soul. But making golems with souls is now illegal, and no one dares research it."

Oh, I didn't know that.

"...Enough, so what are you trying to say?"

I asked bluntly, and Raven looked embarrassed but summed it up in one sentence.

"I just wonder if such metal existed back then, maybe those things could have been possible."

It was an unsettling story, sticky in my mind, and kept coming up again and again.

Maybe we had just discovered a new material that could be useful someday.

"Raven, research it well. Think about where and how it could be used."

"Yes."

That was the end of my conversation with Raven, and as time passed, my interest in the new material naturally waned.

But...

"Commander!"

A few days after that story, I was abruptly woken by an urgent report.

I was stunned and frozen.

"Humans!"

"...?"

"An unidentified group of humans was discovered near the river mouth!"

For some reason, the first thing that came to mind was the conversation I had with Raven.