Surviving the Game as a Barbarian Chapter 84 Sewers (5)

Sewers (5)

Thud.

The mont the barbarian collapses to the ground, raising dust…

Alia Rainwales clenches her teeth and hunches over.

‘The price of carelessness.’

My ribs are broken.

My skin, splattered with blood, is not just stinging, but burning.

It seems like my internal organs are also badly damaged.

‘I don’t even rember the last ti I was in a situation like this.’

My body will recover on its own soon enough.

But the pain I’m feeling for the first ti in a long ti is so vivid.

I prided myself on being used to pain…

Smirk.

A hollow laugh escapes my lips involuntarily.

Even though it’s the result of my own arrogance…

…it’s ridiculous to think that a 3-month-old barbarian caused this situation.

‘He’s a strange one.’

I’m not just talking about his abilities.

His split-second judgnts, his boldness and decisiveness in putting them into action…

And above all, his will to live.

I even have this thought…

‘If we had t a bit later… the outco might have been different.’

Of course, it’s realistically impossible.

I’m the one who grew up being called the most talented, and I’ve been in and out of the labyrinth for a whopping 20 years.

But…

‘The fact that I’m even having that thought is the problem. It ans he’s that dangerous.’

Our first encounter was just a month ago.

It was a ti when he would have only entered the labyrinth once or twice at most.

But how has this barbarian changed?

The barbarian who couldn't even touch my clothes back then has put in this state.

Sizzle!

My flesh, which had its neck completely blown off, starts to heal without dying.

Alia slowly walks towards it.

Thud-.

There are several abilities like [Source of Darkness] that have the effect of overcoming death.

But that doesn't an they make you invincible.

Just look at this barbarian.

Thud-

With his head completely smashed, he's completely defenseless.

The fact that his body is rapidly recovering due to [Immortal]?

It takes an enormous amount of ti to recover from this level of injury, and even that becos impossible when Soul Power is depleted.

In other words,

If I want to kill him, I can do it anyti.

But she puts away her dagger without hesitation and takes out a potion.

No matter what anyone says...

'They're definitely not from the royal family, so there's no need to kill him.'

She's not a murderer.

______________________________

There were hints.

The voice that ca from both front and back.

If I had been a little smarter and calr, I might have been able to predict the variable of [Self-Replication].

Then Plans A and B would have been a bit different.

'Well, I guess the outco would have been the sa.'

I feel a strange sensation as if my fragnted mind is being reassembled, and I slowly open my eyes.

"What a monstrous regeneration ability."

The first thing I see is the psychopath bitch.

"To completely heal with just one potion bottle."

"Po, tion...?"

I cough and sit up.

Only then do I notice that my head area is quite wet.

It doesn't seem like it's all blood...

Could it be that this woman poured a potion on ?

"Why, the hell—"

"Why didn't I kill you?"

I nod.

Well, I'm glad I'm still alive...

Honestly, I was certain I had died the mont I lost consciousness.

The woman looks at with an annoyed expression.

"You... haven't changed one bit from before."

"What...?"

"Back then too, why do you always attack on sight? I never thought I would say this, but don't people usually try to resolve things through conversation first?"

She has a point.

It's all because of my habit of always assuming the worst-case scenario.

I answer in a calm voice,

"If you were planning to kill , I thought that was the only way."

While there was still a slight opening.

Before the paralysis poison spread any further.

I judged that I had to force a confrontation.

The woman just sighs briefly.

"Why? I clearly let you go last ti."

Her voice is still blunt, but sohow, I sense a hint of grievance.

But I'm the one who's truly aggrieved.

"Didn't you say yourself that you couldn't let us go after we learned about this place?"

It's the sa thing.

Since the woman seed receptive, I ask a bit more boldly,

"So, what are you going to do with now?"

"I'm not going to kill you. So get your hand off ."

I stop my arm that was subtly moving towards the mace.

And I say firmly,

"It's a misunderstanding."

"Misunderstanding?"

"I wasn't planning on ambushing you with this. I just—"

"You were just preparing in case I changed my mind?"

...Hmm, yeah, that's it.

The best defense is a good offense.

As I neither agree nor disagree, the woman stares down at .

It's a look that says, 'what the hell is with this crazy bastard?'

"You really haven't changed one bit."

She says and spits on the ground.

For a mont, I think she might be the rough type, but looking closely, it's not spit, but blood.

It seems like my aggressive defense before passing out did so damage after all.

"...You didn't drink a potion?"

"My constitution doesn't allow it."

"I see."

It's a brief explanation that's lacking, but I don't say anything more.

There are so essences that actually penalize you when you drink potions.

Anyway, back to the main topic.

"Barbarian, eat this."

The woman takes out sothing that looks like a pill from her pocket.

It's blackish and looks like cat vomit.

"...What is this...?"

"It's dicine made by an alchemist from Noark. It completely erases your mory for 1 hour after taking it."

"It erases mories...? Then why didn't you use it when we t in the Land of the Dead?"

"It's not sothing you can easily obtain. In the first place, I wouldn't have had it if it weren't for soone giving it to just in case."

So it's a valuable item.

But I have another question.

It's definitely not sothing I should be saying in my current situation, but...

"Wouldn't it be easier to just kill , why go through such a hassle?"

There's a saying that nothing is more precious than a human life.

That saying only applies to the world I used to live in.

This is a world where there are countless things more valuable than a human life.

For example, even now, many people are dying on the surface because they can't pay their taxes.

In the midst of that...

'To go through the trouble of using a precious consumable to let us go...'

I say with certainty,

"There must be a reason why you have to do that."

"...Why do you think so?"

"If you kill the five of us, you'll get tens of millions of stones just from the equipnt."

The woman remains silent for a while at my sharp observation.

I thought I hit the nail on the head.

But the words that co after the silence are unexpected.

"What the hell do you think of ?"

"That's..."

As I'm wondering if I can be honest, the woman cuts off.

"You don't have to say it. I think I know."

It seems like she also has a guilty conscience.

But she doesn't want to make excuses, does she?

"Whatever, think whatever you want. It doesn't change anything."

The woman bends down and forces open my mouth, shoving the pill down my throat.

The pill lts away before I can even think of spitting it out.

Whoosh!

It feels like sothing is burning in my head.

It's a sensation completely different from pain.

"...Hey, this really just ends with mory loss, right?"

"If it didn't, would you have any other choice?"

Uh, she has a point...

I close my eyes, feeling speechless.

But then, the woman speaks as if she just rembered sothing.

"Ah, so what was the other one?"

Huh? The other one?

"The two ways to make soone angry."

Ah, that.

"That is..."

And I lose consciousness.

_______________________________

「The blessing of Lethe seeps into the character's soul.」

「This soul cannot be blessed. The blessing within the soul is removed.」

When I open my eyes, I'm in the sewer.

Our stripped equipnt is scattered around, and it's the sa for my companions.

Thud.

I use my hands as support and slowly get up, my body covered in filth. And as I'm gathering my equipnt and putting it back on, my companions also regain consciousness one by one.

Everyone looks confused.

"Uh, this is the sewer...?"

"Wh, what happened? We were clearly chasing after that evil woman..."

"Video recording device! Let's check the video recording dev... Damn it, it's broken!"

My companions, as the psychopath bitch said, don't rember anything.

It seems like their last mory is following Hans E to his hideout...

'...But why am I fine?'

Even when I try to recall my mories, everything that happened before I lost consciousness cos back clearly.

Why?

As I'm thinking about the reason...

'Wait, then what happened to that bitch?'

I suddenly rember Elisa and co to my senses.

'...Don't tell she took her alive?'

She's not around here.

Damn it, if I had known this would happen, I should have just killed her back then, regardless of the bounty—

"Everyone, look over there!!"

"Huh? Isn't that the woman?"

What?

I imdiately turn my head and see a woman lying on the ground a short distance away.

Her blonde hair is covered in filth.

It's the back of her head that I want to smash.

It's definitely Elisa.

"She's, she's dead!"

The dwarf rushes over and checks her pulse, declaring her death.

This only adds to the confusion.

"This is, this is unbelievable. Why don't we have any mories, and why is this woman dead...?"

"Dw, Dwarkey, don't tell that monster you ntioned appeared?!"

Various speculations run wild, along with bewildered voices.

Rotmiller, who was relatively calm, cos up with a plausible hypothesis.

"...I think it was all this woman's doing."

"What? This woman's doing?"

"We probably found this woman after chasing her. And we probably won."

Rotmiller presents Elisa's limbs as evidence for his claim. He says that unless it was my mace, it would be difficult to crush them so perfectly.

"Co, co to think of it, I can sense traces of my magic on this woman."

Dwarkey also finds traces of [Paralysis Poison] on the corpse, solidifying his suspicion.

Then there's only one question left for them.

"Then why don't we rember anything?"

Why did we lose our mories?

"If my prediction is correct, we were probably trying to capture this woman alive and take her back to the city. However... she must have pulled sothing when she regained consciousness."

It's a plausible story.

Even if I had lost my mory, I would have analyzed the situation in that way.

"Indeed... if it's the power of an evil god that little is known about, it's possible that sothing like this could happen."

"Hahaha! Still, seeing her dead like this ans we must have handled it sohow!"

"...Bjorn, what do you think?"

"Well..."

I contemplate for a mont and then answer.

Although the conclusion they reached and accepted is quite different from the truth I rember...

"I think Rotmiller is right."

There's no need to say anything more.

If it becos known that I didn't lose my mory, that psychopath bitch might co looking for again.

"Let's get out of here and visit the temple first. Not only have we lost our mories, but there might be sothing wrong with our bodies."

Everyone hurriedly prepares to leave at Rotmiller's worried words.

So I also end my thoughts.

'Sothing hidden beneath the sewers...'

A secret that exists in this world that I don't know about.

As a veteran player, it would be a lie to say I'm not curious...

'But I shouldn't go anywhere near the sewers again.'

After all, life is more important than curiosity.