[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-surviving-the-game-as-a-barbarian":3,"chapter-surviving-the-game-as-a-barbarian-surviving-the-game-as-a-barbarian-chapter-505":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"english","Surviving the Game as a Barbarian",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},1328182,1764,"Chapter 505: The First Basement Floor (1)","surviving-the-game-as-a-barbarian-chapter-505",505,"\u003Cp>Tadatada—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I ran through the cave with my new companions.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Staying far behind them, under the pretense of taking the rear.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I was chasing their backs.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Mister, can you explain? Why are we going to the 2nd floor?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The distance between us was unusually large for teammates.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, if I went all out, I could close the gap in a second.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yes, I could…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“To be precise, we’re going to the Goblin Forest, not the 2nd floor.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>An insurmountable distance seemed to stretch between us.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>‘I thought… things would go back to normal… eventually…’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She had tried to be patient, but her confidence was waning with each passing day.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The reason was simple.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She had seen it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[I think it’s better for you.]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[Yandel, don’t take this the wrong way. You’re in a very unstable state right now.]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Her first thought hadn’t been ‘I should have done that’.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It had been ‘I lost’.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She hadn't even considered her own feelings.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She had simply answered his question, trying to guess what he wanted to hear.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even that, she wasn’t sure of, due to the years they had spent apart.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[W-Well… I think… it’s better to… kill them…?]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She hadn’t even thought about what she wanted.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She had just blindly agreed with him. She hadn’t even considered what was best for him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Come to think of it, it had always been like this.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She had never questioned his decisions, never offered him advice.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She had been prepared to follow him, no matter what path he chose… but that was all.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>‘Amelia Rainwales.’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She felt a difference in their levels as companions.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She finally understood what it meant to be a true companion.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It wasn’t that her place by his side had disappeared while she was gone.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The place she thought she belonged… was nothing more than a storage compartment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“…Are you okay? You look pale.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She gritted her teeth as Amelia approached her, concern etched on her face.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I’m fine. Don’t worry about me.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It didn’t matter whether she had a place by his side or not.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It didn’t matter whether he acknowledged her or not.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[Because if you don’t, Bjorn Yandel will die.]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She had a mission to complete.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>______________________\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>About an hour after the start of Day 3.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Rumble!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The entire cave shook, and the crystals emitted a crimson light.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Dreadfear, the Lord of Terror, had been summoned somewhere on the 1st floor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It wasn’t surprising.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There were already eight raid requests filed with the Explorer’s Guild.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The problem was the timing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>‘Summoned after just an hour? How many teams are waiting for him?’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It wasn't something we, a team of seven, should be saying... but it seemed like there were more than eight teams waiting for Dreadfear.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Well, it was understandable.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Slaying Dreadfear, the Lord of Terror.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I had also considered the possibility that it might be the key to the hidden area when I was planning this expedition.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Unfortunately, the raid requests were already full.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Slaying Verzak, the Lord of the Abyss.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If that was the key, we didn’t stand a chance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>‘…I hope no one summons Verzak…’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I tried to be optimistic, but I couldn’t shake off my anxiety.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It seemed like there were dozens of teams waiting throughout the cave.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And if even one of them got greedy…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>‘Whatever, I’ll focus on my own task.’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I couldn’t go around persuading every explorer in the cave, so I just increased my pace.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And after a while…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>「Character has entered the 2nd-floor Goblin Forest.」\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>We reached the 2nd floor and then continued to the 3rd floor at maximum speed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>「Character has entered the 3rd-floor Pilgrim’s Path.」\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A vast floor with over ten different fields.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>We had entered through the Goblin Forest and were now heading towards the Sculpture Temple after passing through the Greentail Marshes, home to lizardmen. ꭆÃ₦ò𐌱Èʂ\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A field filled with the ruins of stone buildings.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was similar to the Pantelion Ruins on the 7th floor, but there was one key difference.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There were statues everywhere.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>All of them headless.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“This place always creeps me out.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“But there aren’t many people here.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Sculpture Temple was the least popular field on the 3rd floor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There was only one type of monster.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>「Character has slain a Nameless Statue.」\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Nameless Statue.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A 7th-grade monster that looked like a smaller, more agile Stone Golem.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>「The Nameless Statue has cast [Unanswered Prayer].」\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>…its skill was notoriously useless.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It consumed a lot of MP, but it rarely succeeded.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Well, it seemed to have a higher success rate for the monsters.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>「The Nameless Statue is imbued with a great power.」\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If the prayer succeeded, the statue would temporarily gain a random essence below 5th-grade.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That’s why it was so difficult to hunt.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Or rather, it was more troublesome than difficult.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>You had to deal with a different skill every time, and there were too many variables.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That’s why there were no explorers who settled here and hunted these statues.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The essence was garbage.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And if you were just after experience points, you could just kill one and move on.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>‘And the location is terrible.’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If you wanted to go to the 4th floor, it was much faster to go through the adjacent fields.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>‘Well, the material drop rate is decent.’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The only advantage of the Sculpture Temple was the ‘material’ drop.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If you used Distortion magic, there was a chance of obtaining a ‘Magic Crystal’, which could be sold for a decent price.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But it was more efficient to farm them on the 5th floor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Anyway, we were here for the ‘material’.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There was something else that dropped here besides the Magic Crystal.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Alright, let’s get to work!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>We didn’t have much time, so we started hunting immediately.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>「Bersil Gowland has cast the 6th-grade Space-Time magic [Greater Distortion].」\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>「Bersil Gowland has cast the 6th-grade Space-Time magic [Greater Distortion].」\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>「Bersil Gowland has cast the 6th-grade Space-Time magic [Greater Distortion].」\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>We had enough firepower, so Bersil just focused on casting Distortion.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>「Character has slain a Nameless Statue.」\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>「Character has slain a Nameless Statue.」\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>「Character has slain a Nameless Statue…」\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>「….」\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>We smashed every statue we encountered.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But we still had some downtime, so we split up and started luring the monsters.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Behel—laaaaaaaaaa!!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Unlike humans, monsters would blindly charge at you if your Threat level was high enough.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>We lured the statues to the center of the field and then had Bersil cast Distortion before killing them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And while they were respawning, we moved to a different location and repeated the process.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>We divided the field into three sections and rotated, so we didn’t have any downtime.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>「Character has slain a Nameless Statue.」\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>「Character has slain a Nameless Statue.」\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>「Character has slain a Nameless Statue…」\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>「….」\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After a while…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>‘We’ve obtained six Magic Crystals.’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>…the item we were looking for finally dropped.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Bjorn! This! Isn’t this what you were looking for?!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A small stone fragment with an artificial pattern.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>「Character has obtained a [Nameless Fragment].」\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was the Sun pattern.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>______________________\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Nameless Fragment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>An item that could be obtained with a certain probability by slaying a Nameless Statue with Distortion magic.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It didn’t stack in your inventory, and it dropped with one of three random patterns.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And you couldn’t take it back to the city.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>‘I have the Sun pattern… so I need the Moon and Star patterns.’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I had a feeling there was a secret behind these fragments, so I had experimented with them in the past…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And now I finally had a use for them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“So you were after these fragments…?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Doesn’t it seem plausible? Star, Sun, Moon…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“…I don’t know, but it seems like a good idea. Time is a problem, but it’s not impossible.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>We had to farm the fragments on the 3rd floor and then return to the 1st floor before it closed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was a difficult task, but not impossible.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It would have been much easier if we had started on the 3rd floor instead of wasting two days on the 1st floor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“We might be able to do it next time.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As Bersil had said, it seemed unlikely that we would be able to enter the hidden area this time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It had taken us eight hours to obtain a single fragment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>‘Sixteen more hours for two more fragments.’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even if we assumed that the remaining fragments would drop without any duplicates, we didn’t have enough time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And it was difficult to increase our hunting speed any further.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>We had only managed to obtain a fragment in eight hours because we had been luring the monsters and using AoE attacks.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>‘And we can’t use Distortion once Bersil runs out of MP…’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Damn, it seemed impossible this time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I had thought we might be able to pull it off if we hurried…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Maybe I had been too optimistic—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Oh! Bjorn! Another one!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Huh?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I looked at the fragment Ainar had handed me.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>「Character has obtained a [Nameless Fragment].」\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was the Star pattern.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Which meant we just needed the Moon pattern.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>‘What? Ainar found another one?’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>‘Beginner’s Luck’ didn’t increase the drop rate of items…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But luck was like momentum.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I’m changing the plan.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“……?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Ainar will be in charge of slaying the monsters from now on. The rest of you will lure them towards her.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I decided to prioritize efficiency over speed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>We continued hunting, and after about five hours…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>「Character has obtained a [Nameless Fragment].」\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>…another fragment dropped.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“It’s the Moon pattern…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was time to admit it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Ainar.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Praise me all you want!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Barbarians are the superior race.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Wooooooooooooh!!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I didn’t stop Ainar from cheering. In fact, I activated [Gigantification] and tossed her into the air repeatedly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Wahahaha! Hahaha!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She seemed to be enjoying herself.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Kwang!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Okay, that settled the reward distribution.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I gathered my team and headed back.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Day 5, Day 6, Day 7…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>We were going backwards, a rare experience in the labyrinth.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thanks to Ainar, we could afford to take breaks and rest, managing our stamina as we traveled.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And finally, on the afternoon of the 7th day…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>We arrived at our destination.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The central area of the Goblin Forest.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The clearing near the portal to the Crystal Cave.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The same place where we had fought the three Noark explorers who had tried to block the entrance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“…What’s this?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The clearing was filled with explorers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Over a hundred of them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They didn’t look like the explorers who had given up on the 1st floor and come up here.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If they had, they would be gathered near the portal…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Flash!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>…and their condition wouldn’t be this bad.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Priest! Is there a priest?! Help!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Here, drink this!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What was going on?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As I approached the portal, the explorers started whispering.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The Giant…?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Wasn’t he on the 1st floor?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They were surprised to see me coming from the opposite direction.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Damn it, I had wanted to avoid attention…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But it was too late now.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I approached an explorer who seemed to be the most talkative and asked,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What happened?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He answered immediately,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“…Verzak! That demon appeared!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Damn it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“…….”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I had been too lucky.\u003C\u002Fp>",1851,"2026-06-05T19:33:16.156Z",1,"novelbin.me","6ff1ac5cd11bc582d458d80f436d0c6447aa4ef8713fc719800b84ebc7b98798","surviving-the-game-as-a-barbarian-chapter-506","surviving-the-game-as-a-barbarian-chapter-504",807,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fsurviving-the-game-as-a-barbarian-cover.jpg"]