Surviving the Game as a Barbarian-Chapter 543: Ghost (1)

Madderkin Rilgrams.

‘I never expected it would be him...’

The moment I faced him, I felt neither gladness nor suspicion.

Only confusion.

“You... should have been killed by the village chief.”

“Eh...?”

He looked at me as if he didn’t understand my muttering.

Since it was like this, I continued.

“Killed by the village chief... what do you mean—”

“I saw a dagger with your clan’s emblem in their forge.”

“Ah...”

“Why was that dagger there?”

“I... don’t really know. But before leaving the island, our members traded with the locals. They gave away mostly useless items and got way too many magic stones in return.”

His testimony exactly matched the village chief’s answer to my suspicions.

Which only made things more confusing.

‘...The chief was innocent?’

Then what was I doing escaping the village?

Was I just making a fuss for nothing?

That thought came, but I shook my head to clear it.

Judgment can wait until hearing everything.

“Tell us. What happened to you after we left the island?”

“Eh? Ah... yes! Got it!”

He ran up with a face like “You came to rescue me!” but froze stiff when I coldly interrogated him.

“First, we left the island two days after the baron left.” ƒгeewёbnovel.com

Honestly, his story wasn’t much.

They left thinking to do something, but after experiencing that event once, they got scared and headed for the easier Library Island.

Like us returning to farm, he apparently felt the need to level up his team first.

But...

“It was a new creature. It had grotesque wings and a slime-like body, but all sorts of bizarre limbs grew on it.”

A new monster not even in my database.

It wiped out the Silver Lion clan and smashed their ship.

But just as Madderkin lost consciousness, drowning and presumed dead,

He woke up on Library Island.

His backpack caught on a rock, barely breathing.

“Since then... I thought it was too dangerous outside and went down here alone. Then... waited alone until someone came back here.”

Saving food as much as possible, fighting loneliness instead of monsters, he endured alone.

That was the story in summary.

“I see.”

It didn’t seem particularly sad.

From what I heard, as soon as the annihilation was decided, he abandoned his team and jumped into the sea.

‘Sounds plausible.’

If it’s the Madderkin I know, such a choice fits the situation.

But...

‘Information gathering ends here.’

I listened well.

Now it’s time to verify his story.

So...

“Versil.”

I ordered the mage to cast verification magic.

Unfortunately, it didn’t work well—he had strong anti-magic—but I didn’t linger and pulled an item from the pocket dimension.

‘A bit wasteful to use it here now...’

But it smelled suspicious.

“Madderkin Rilgrams.”

“Yes?”

“I’m going to check if what you say is true.”

No request for permission.

No choice for him anyway.

Click—

I activated ‘Distorted Trust’ immediately.

I expected to learn everything even if he hid something.

But...

“Well then, let’s start with a simple question.”

What now?

“Tell me, what’s your name?”

Like in the doppelganger forest, a simple test to check if the device works.

“...”

“...”

Why can’t this bastard answer?

Tick, tick.

A compass-shaped disc.

Only the steady sound of its second hand repeats.

The longer the silence, the denser the air felt on my spine.

But...

Ssss—

My warrior body calmly acted on instinct.

When I came to, my hand was naturally on the hammer handle strapped to my back.

Purely unconscious action.

Phew...

But touching the weapon calmed me down.

“Tell me, Rilgrams.”

I asked again.

“What is your name?”

He avoided my gaze.

His eyeballs, shifted far to the right, looked strange and eerie.

So...

“One last question.”

Not just resting my hand on the weapon—

I fully drew it and asked again.

“What is your name?”

“...”

Playing silent?

‘Just in case, let’s break all his limbs first.’

Once I finished the plan in my mind, I gripped the hammer tighter.

And just as I was about to swing—

“...Ah.”

He broke his long silence.

“I’m... caught...”

It was short, but somehow his tone changed.

And indeed it had.

“Caught. Caught. Caught. Caught. Caught. Caught. Caught. Caught. Caught. Caught. Caught. Caught.”

Like a glitched audio player repeating the same words, his eyes shook uncontrollably and his voice trembled with anxiety and panic.

He was clearly terrified.

“Caught. Caught. Caught. Caught. Caught—.”

“...Who are you?”

I grabbed his neck with one hand and lifted him up.

His words changed.

“What do I do?”

“...?”

“What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do?”

A feeling I’d never experienced.

I was the one holding and lifting his neck, but why did I feel so uneasy?

“What do I do? What do I do wh—.”

Then suddenly he closed his mouth.

And...

“...Ah.”

Slowly raising his chin, he looked at me.

His rightward eyes were now fixed on me.

He then slowly said,

“I understand.”

As if finally realizing something.

Feeling an unknown anxiety, I raised the hammer.

“What I have to do.”

With those words,

Booooom!

His body exploded in my hands.

The explosion itself wasn’t huge.

More like a slight sting on my hand that held his neck.

More like an allergic itch than a wound.

But that explosion tore his flesh into thousands of pieces, scattering bones.

“The cleric... is useless.”

Covered in blood and flesh, I stared blankly down.

After grasping the situation, I sighed deeply.

‘Damn, I messed up.’

I could make excuses, but in the end, I lost because I lacked imagination.

I always tried to expect the worst.

Yet I couldn’t predict this.

‘...No, how could I have?'

While blaming myself, I also wondered.

Could I have stopped this if I had known?

The fundamental question.

How do you stop an emergency escape?

It’s an unstoppable skill.

No god can pull a dead person back to life.

It’s theoretically the ultimate escape skill.

But the cost is your life.

‘Enough useless thoughts, let’s get organized.’

“Yandel...!”

“Don’t fuss, I’m fine. Wait, I need to think.”

I reassured my worried comrades and took time to analyze.

In short, it can be summarized in one sentence.

‘Something unknown pretended to be Madderkin Rilgrams.’

Then, who is the culprit?

There’s one suspect.

‘The village chief.’

More precisely, someone the village chief sent?

I don’t think the chief panicked immediately after being caught so easily.

Anyway, now that we have a suspect, next step is simple.

One of the basic elements of deduction.

‘Why? And how?’

Why and how did they do this? I considered many assumptions but this part remained deeply veiled.

‘To fool me into thinking the chief was innocent? Or maybe just to watch me closely...’

Purpose unknown.

‘What kind of thing would allow this?’

No essence fits.

Some skills let you possess others, but it’s very different.

Mostly the caster must be nearby, with visible threads linking body and caster.

So...

‘It’s not an essence.’

If anything,

‘A wraith.’

It would be closer to a ‘wraith’ in form.

Thinking that, cold sweat broke out.

After long discussions with comrades, we couldn’t discover more.

It remained a shaky hypothesis.

‘The village chief has means to possess others like a wraith.’

Better safe than sorry.

After the Madderkin Rilgrams emergency escape incident,

As soon as things somewhat settled uncomfortably, we led the group to investigate the library.

Two changes happened while we were gone.

‘The books... have respawned.’

The summoned books recharged.

When we left, most lower shelves were nearly empty.

Books strewn messily were now neatly organized, floor clean.

And...

‘The stairs ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) reset too.’

We had exhausted summoned books, linking stairs to upper shelves where grade 3 monsters appear, but the library was back to its initial state.

‘Hmm, so what’s the reset criterion? Time?’

If so, maybe the trigger is Woo-gi, but that’s unconfirmed.

“Yandel, it’s good news. We can farm essences more comfortably now.”

“Ah... yeah.”

It was a positive situation as Amelia said.

Though the stair reset hurt, farming theoretically became infinite.

But there’s negatives too.

‘With resets, it will be hard to reach the top shelves by simple grinding.’

Clearing Library Island is already hard with a time limit.

But complaints can wait until aiming for a clear.

‘I knew resets happened, so no more wasted time.’

I threw away all worries and focused on why we came here.

I’m actually suited to grind-heavy games.

Just zoning out clears all nonsense.

「Frost Wolf defeated.」

「Stone Golem defeated.」

「Hobgoblin defeated.」

「Ice Orc Warrior defeated.」

「Yeti defeated.」

「Riture Talismanist defeated.」

“...”

We divided into groups for hunting and farming and crazily farmed.

Grade 9, 8, 7...

The higher the shelves, the harder the monsters.

From when grade 4+ monsters appeared, we focused on finding specific monsters to summon.

Magic stones dropped.

Experience accumulated.

And...

“Essence!”

Essences for the Anabada members weren’t yet dropping, but a few dropped each day, and my team grew steadily.

Time passed...

“That’s enough! We’ll stop here today, rest up!”

Day 85 since entering the labyrinth.

「Character souls resonate, guiding them to a specific world.」

The day had come.