Surviving as a Barbarian in a Fantasy World-Chapter 365: To the White Snowfield (4)
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Chapter 365: To the White Snowfield (4)
Although Ketal had said that, it didn’t mean they were only fighting all the time.
Fighting was the highlight that decorated the end of the festival.
Until then, they ate, laughed, chatted, and sang like ordinary people.
“Waaah!”
“Hahaha!”
The barbarians danced, laughing loudly.
Helia watched them in a daze.
It seemed like an ordinary scene you could find anywhere.
But this was the White Snowfield.
And they were the Ashen Barbarians.
She realized once again that she was among legends.
“Here. Eat this!”
Hecate handed something to Helia, who had been staring blankly at them.
“Can you even fight with that scrawny body? You need to eat well, put on some weight, and build muscles!”
“Oh. Thank you.”
Helia reflexively accepted what was handed to her, but as she looked at it more closely, her face stiffened.
“…….”
It was something with red, fleshy tissue.
Even though it had been boiled, it still wriggled as if it were alive.
No matter how she looked at it, it didn’t seem like something edible.
Helia hurriedly glanced at Ketal, but Ketal simply nodded silently.
She couldn’t refuse their kindness.
Clenching her eyes shut, Helia took a bite of the strange thing.
The texture was chewy.
It felt as though it was squirming alive inside her mouth.
She almost spat it out but forced herself to chew thoroughly and swallow it down.
Thankfully, it wasn’t poisonous.
However—
“Ugh…”
It tasted utterly awful.
It was terrible to the point of being unbearable.
What’s worse, a slimy, mucus-like substance clung to her tongue and wouldn’t come off.
She wanted to drink water, but in this snowy field, finding liquid water was extremely difficult.
In the end, Helia bowed her head, barely suppressing her nausea.
Serena was in a similar state.
She had stuffed her mouth full of something and was on the verge of tears.
“No matter how much I chew, it won’t go down…”
Ketal, too, chewed on the squirming substance like them.
It was horrible, with a texture that made swallowing unthinkable.
‘It’s been a while.’
Before he started cooking, the barbarians had always eaten things like this.
Until he settled in, it had been sheer torment.
Ketal swallowed something.
Soon, the fighting began one by one.
The barbarians grabbed suitable opponents and raised their axes.
Fierce battles broke out across the snowfield.
Helia groaned at the sight.
“There are so many hero-class warriors…”
On the surface, there were barely a dozen of these rare, powerful warriors.
Here, they were as common as ordinary soldiers.
They clashed weapons and unleashed overwhelming power.
The snowfield trembled and vibrated just from their battles.
And among them, Hashuwalt was being dragged around here and there.
Since a rare outsider had entered their domain, the barbarians didn’t let him go.
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He desperately tried to fend off their attacks.
‘He won’t die, will he?’
With Hashuwalt’s strength, he should survive.
While she stood and watched, the barbarians who had been glancing around started approaching Ketal.
“Oh, King! Fight with me!”
Their sparkling eyes were fixed on Ketal.
Ketal nodded and picked up his axe.
“Fine. Come at me.”
And Helia and Serena watched as every barbarian, even those with the power of heroes, was defeated by Ketal.
The two were at a loss for words.
The day after the festival ended, they left their huts.
The barbarians were already awake, wandering around.
Looking at their faces, Helia doubted her own eyes.
“…They all seem completely fine.”
Yesterday’s battles had been incredibly intense.
There were many whose limbs were on the verge of being severed, who had axes embedded in their bodies, or who coughed up blood mixed with their innards.
But now, they all looked perfectly fine, walking around as if refreshed.
“They’re tough beings. Broken limbs or exposed guts aren’t enough to kill them. They heal in a matter of hours,”
Ketal said nonchalantly.
“Now that you mention it, even the outsiders seemed to recover very quickly.”
No wonder they could fight so fiercely.
Helia tilted her head as she looked at the barbarians.
“I don’t see some of them around.”
Ketal replied indifferently.
“If their heads are cut off or their hearts are destroyed, they die. They’re not immortal. About five died this time. That’s fewer than usual.”
“……”
It really was a fight where they killed each other.
Helia was genuinely horrified.
Ketal glanced at the half-fainted Hashuwalt in the corner.
“At least he’s alive.”
He looked relatively unscathed.
It seemed he had somehow endured the barbarians’ onslaught.
Ketal then approached Hecate, who looked quite refreshed, having released much of her tension in battle.
“So, chief!”
“You’re the chief. Just call me Ketal.”
“Ke-Ketal! So what are we doing next?”
“First, we need to check something.”
He intended to confirm with his own eyes the outcome of the battle between the elders.
“You know the elders’ fight has ended, right?”
“Yes. The world shook, and then it ended. When I went to check, I found the corpses of the two elders. I don’t know where the third one went.”
“Take me there.”
Hecate nodded.
They followed her through the snowy field.
Deeper into the wilderness, where even the power of heroes couldn’t fully protect their bodies from the cold.
A harsh, abandoned land.
When they arrived, they saw it.
A site of magnificent destruction.
The remains of two massive corpses were scattered there.
“Ah…”
“Ugh…”
Helia, Serena, and Hashuwalt gasped.
What lay there was nothing more than mere shells.
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And yet, an unbearable sense of revulsion and rejection overcame them.
Just knowing such beings had existed was hard to accept.
Ketal frowned.
“They’re really dead.”
“The third one, I have no idea where it went. Its presence has completely vanished.”
Hecate spoke with a puzzled expression.
Ketal knew where it was.
He completed his final check.
Returning to the hut, Ketal spoke to Hecate directly.
“Follow me.”
“What? The chieftain? No, you?”
“Yes. Follow me outside.”
“Uh… is there a reason for this?”
Hecate looked confused.
They were satisfied with their lives within the white snowfield.
They had never considered going outside.
Ketal opened his mouth.
“The old man… where do you think he went?”
“Where did he go?”
“…I’ve gotten used to being outside. Asking you guys like this won’t lead to any guesses.”
Ketal lamented lightly.
“The old man. The twisted one. He ran outside. And I’m going to kill him.”
“…Oh, ooooh!”
Upon hearing that, Hecate jumped up.
Her eyes flickered with enthusiasm.
“At last! At last, we’ll kill him! This is to make the white snowfield our territory, isn’t it? Of course, I’ll join you!”
“That’s not quite it, but whatever. Think what you like.”
“I’ll tell the tribe members right away! We’ll leave immediately!”
“There’s no need for everyone to go. Only those with a certain level of strength or above.”
Not all barbarians were strong.
There were also barbarians below the level of superhuman.
Based on Ketal’s judgment, only those at the upper limits of superhuman strength or higher would be of significant help.
“Roughly… just gather those who can withstand one of your strikes.”
“Got it!”
Hecate ran out and shouted to the barbarians.
“Who will follow our king to kill the old man?”
Of course, all the barbarians shouted in agreement.
When they narrowed it down to those who could withstand Hecate’s strike, about two hundred remained.
This meant there were two hundred top-tier superhuman-level warriors.
Helia’s face turned pale at the sight.
“Is… is this really okay?”
“It’ll be fine. These guys aren’t particularly interested in the outside world. Once the task is done, I’ll lead them back here, and it’ll be over.”
“Well, I hope so…”
It took just one hour.
That’s how long it took to gather those who would venture outside.
Normally, preparing for a long journey would require various procedures, but they were barbarians.
Hecate approached with an excited expression.
“We’re ready! Ah, but there’s one problem.”
“A problem?”
“We’ve run out of food. We’ll need to hunt a bit.”
“Ah.”
Ketal nodded knowingly.
“I’ll join the hunt. It’ll be done quickly then.”
“I-I’ll come too.”
Half-dazed, Hashuwalt gritted his teeth and spoke.
He was deeply shaken.
He had believed he could live without issue in the white snowfield, but that was only because he had stayed near the border.
Surviving in the heart of the white snowfield was nearly impossible.
Still, Hashuwalt didn’t want to accept this fact.
Determined to prove his strength by surviving in the white snowfield, he asked to join the hunt.
Understanding his resolve, Ketal nodded.
“As you wish. It’ll be a chance for you to face reality. Helia, Serena, you two don’t have to come. It’s quite dangerous.”
“Yes.”
“…Understood.”
Following that, Hashuwalt, Ketal, and the barbarians headed deeper into the white snowfield.
They soon reached a massive hole stretching beyond the horizon.
Looking down into the hole, Hashuwalt felt his breath catch.
“T-This is…”
Inside the hole was an octopus with thousands of writhing legs.
From the octopus emanated a terrifyingly powerful presence, one that assured Hashuwalt he would lose a hundred times out of a hundred if he fought it.
“This creature is an octopus. Like the rat or the snake, it’s a legendary being of the surface. It has a characteristic where its countless legs regenerate, so it’s not tasty, but it’s quite suitable as long-term preserved food.”
Ketal gestured with his eyes, and the barbarians grinned.
Without a moment’s hesitation, they leaped into the hole.
“Wahaha!”
“This time, I’ll kill it!”
[BUOOOOOO!]
A battle erupted between the hundreds of barbarians and the octopus.
Unable to intervene, Hashuwalt could only stare blankly at the scene.
Several hours later, Hashuwalt returned and quietly told Helia he would follow her back to the surface.
* * *
Once everything was ready, Ketal addressed the barbarians.
“Then let’s go, you bastards. If anyone causes trouble, I’ll kill them myself, so keep that in mind.”
“Don’t worry, chieftain! When have we ever disobeyed you?”
“That’s all I remember.”
Clicking his tongue, Ketal turned to Helia.
“Helia, I’m counting on you.”
“Yes.”
Helia nodded firmly.
That day.
The divine voice of Helia echoed from the white snowfield to the villages, towns, and kingdoms along the path to the Empire’s capital.
She warned them that unstoppable beings would be traveling through, asking them to vacate their homes and move far away.
Though startled, the people obeyed.
No one dared to ignore the words of the saint of the great sun god.
They hurriedly gathered minimal belongings and fled from the path.
The next day, upon returning, they saw their homes.
They were completely destroyed, wiped clean as if everything had been swept away, leaving not even roots behind.
Helia lamented.
“Oh, I’m so sorry, everyone who lost their homes.”
“It couldn’t be helped. We can’t predict how they’ll act when they encounter someone. Changing the route would have been even more dangerous, so we had no choice but to take a straight path.”
“We’ll have to offer them apologies and compensation.”
“I’ll help with that too,”
Ketal said with a sly smile.
“After everything’s done, that is.”
Leading the hundreds of barbarians, they arrived at the Empire’s capital.
Inside there was the old man.
Ketal muttered quietly.
“Let’s put an end to this.”
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