Chapter 272: Defense (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 272: Defense (2)
On the eastern shoreline, reefs poked up out of the water here and there. These were the same reefs we had been pushed into by the rough waves, smashing our boat.
"We're here."
The sandy beach was already half underwater and filled with monsters. The standard marine monsters on the sixth floor were Ranemut Warriors and Shamans. Conch Horns spat venom from a distance. Garbels had the unique characteristic of spawning up to three more Garbels when killed.
"Bjorn, I'll help too." Ainar took a step forward, expressing her concern at the hundreds of monsters.
Just stand watch, will you?
"No need."
"What? But..."
No buts. Oh, come to think of it, I never got the chance to show this to her after I got this essence.
"Don't worry. I can handle this much on my own." I slung my mace over my shoulder like a hitter with a baseball bat. "Erwen."
"Yes, what shall we do this time?"
"Wind."
I whipped out Elemental Barbarian (Wind) Mode.
[Erwen Fornacci di Tersia has cast Elementalization.]
A sharp wind wrapped around my body and began to swirl around my skin.
[The Elemental of the Wind dwells in your body. All damage you take will be adjusted for by improved dodging. Damage received from magic is doubled. You have received a bonus against Penetration and Cutting Damage. Your Agility stats have risen significantly.]
The abilities of this mode were simple. You got a speed boost, and it allowed you to take on the role of a dodging tank. For a damage dealer, it increased your DPS a whole lot. Of course, the biggest benefit lay elsewhere.
[The range of all of your attacks is tripled.]
This was the biggest distinction of Elemental Barbarian (Wind). When this mode was activated, normal hits were swapped out for wide-range damage. Put simply, that meant even a Blunt Weapon Warrior like me could make area-of-effect attacks.
"Kweeek!" Sensing something off, the monsters around me went into a frenzy and started swarming me, but I held my position and waited for the right moment. There was no need to swing twice, right? Just one proper hit should be enough.
Transcendence.
The moment I determined that enough monsters had gathered in one spot, I immediately used Transcendence.
[You have cast Swing.]
In the same way a skilled swordsman might swing his sword, I swung my mace in a controlled arc.
Whiiip! Whooom!
With a gust of wind, the mace in my hand lengthened like a Yeoui Staff and increased in size proportionately. This was Transcendental Swing with its tripled damage range and the reason why truly ridiculous plays became possible toward the latter half of Dungeon and Stone. The damage for most moves was multiplied.
Kwaaang!
Whew, that's a ringer.
When I finished my Swing, I scanned my surroundings with satisfaction.
Yeah, that's the stuff.
There were no monsters standing.
"Bjorn! How did you do that? Teach me too!"
"Ask Erwen to help you next time."
"I can do that as long as Erwen is there?"
"Yeah, something similar, at least," I absentmindedly answered Ainar, who was impressed by my new combo, before looking out at the sea. Thanks to that effective blow, most of the monsters on the beach had been cleaned out.
"Mister, the waves! The waves are rolling back!"
As we waited on the empty shore, the waves suddenly rose high like a tsunami.
[The first Fury of the Sea has begun.]
This happened when the mini-boss of the first wave appeared.
"Siren! It's the Siren Queen!" Priestess Ersina shouted upon catching sight of the monster surfing down the waves. As an adventurer who had been active on the sixth floor for a long time, it seemed she knew about this monster as well. "Why is a rank-four monster here on this island?"
Why do you think? Because one of you guys triggered the event.
"Everyone, get behind me. Erwen, you get ready to fight."
"Okay."
"What about me? Do I just keep watching?"
"For now. I'll call on you if necessary, so wait."
"Okay!"
After doing another basic tune-up on our formation, the Siren Queen was finally in front of us. "Kyaaah!" With a pretty face and a screech that was very much the opposite, she stabbed the trident in her hand forward.
Bang!
Since she was a rank-four monster, even a regular hit from her was quite heavy. There was another reason she was rank four, though.
[The Siren Queen has cast Song of the Sea. Your stats have decreased.]
She had an aura that reduced your stats the longer you were exposed to it.
[The Siren Queen has cast Vortex.]
Also, every time this monster dealt a regular blow, it threw out a vortex that stole a set amount of MP from you.
[The Siren Queen has cast Proof of Loyalty.]
And then, each time that ability was in cooldown, it summoned rank-five monsters—not just one or two, but dozens at once.
It's a typical shaman-type debuff boss monster.
As I thought, it wouldn't have been an easy fight—if we hadn't encountered her right here, that is.
"Behel—aaah!"
The main challenge posed by the Siren Queen lay in numbers. Usually, it was normal for there to be hundreds of sirens guarding her. However, she was alone when she first arrived on the island. Of course, she could make copies of herself if left alone.
I didn't come all the way over here for nothing.
To defeat her before she evolved into a raid boss, I abandoned my search for my clanmates to come here.
"I-I will help, so give me a weapon! A rank-four monster is impossible for you guys to handle alone!" It seemed we didn't look all that trustworthy, considering the suggestion we got from Nebarce, but I just let it go in one ear and out the other.
The same went for Ainar. "What are you saying!? Bjorn is a great warrior!"
"Great or not, that is not a monster that three people can kill on their own—"
"Bjorn, can I rip off this guy's mouth?"
"If he talks smack again."
"Okay!"
"Ask Erwen to help you next time."
"I can do that as long as Erwen is there?"
"Yeah, something similar, at least," I absentmindedly answered Ainar, who was impressed by my new combo, before looking out at the sea. Thanks to that effective blow, most of the monsters on the beach had been cleaned out.
"Mister, the waves! The waves are rolling back!"
As we waited on the empty shore, the waves suddenly rose high like a tsunami.
[The first Fury of the Sea has begun.]
This happened when the mini-boss of the first wave appeared.
"Siren! It's the Siren Queen!" Priestess Ersina shouted upon catching sight of the monster surfing down the waves. As an adventurer who had been active on the sixth floor for a long time, it seemed she knew about this monster as well. "Why is a rank-four monster here on this island?"
Why do you think? Because one of you guys triggered the event.
"Everyone, get behind me. Erwen, you get ready to fight."
"Okay."
"What about me? Do I just keep watching?"
"For now. I'll call on you if necessary, so wait."
"Okay!"
After doing another basic tune-up on our formation, the Siren Queen was finally in front of us. "Kyaaah!" With a pretty face and a screech that was very much the opposite, she stabbed the trident in her hand forward.
Bang!
Since she was a rank-four monster, even a regular hit from her was quite heavy. There was another reason she was rank four, though.
[The Siren Queen has cast Song of the Sea. Your stats have decreased.]
She had an aura that reduced your stats the longer you were exposed to it.
[The Siren Queen has cast Vortex.]
Also, every time this monster dealt a regular blow, it threw out a vortex that stole a set amount of MP from you.
[The Siren Queen has cast Proof of Loyalty.]
And then, each time that ability was in cooldown, it summoned rank-five monsters—not just one or two, but dozens at once.
It's a typical shaman-type debuff boss monster.
As I thought, it wouldn't have been an easy fight—if we hadn't encountered her right here, that is.
"Behel—aaah!"
The main challenge posed by the Siren Queen lay in numbers. Usually, it was normal for there to be hundreds of sirens guarding her. However, she was alone when she first arrived on the island. Of course, she could make copies of herself if left alone.
I didn't come all the way over here for nothing.
To defeat her before she evolved into a raid boss, I abandoned my search for my clanmates to come here.
"I-I will help, so give me a weapon! A rank-four monster is impossible for you guys to handle alone!" It seemed we didn't look all that trustworthy, considering the suggestion we got from Nebarce, but I just let it go in one ear and out the other.
The same went for Ainar. "What are you saying!? Bjorn is a great warrior!"
"Great or not, that is not a monster that three people can kill on their own—"
"Bjorn, can I rip off this guy's mouth?"
"If he talks smack again."
"Okay!"
Ainar's threat must have been effective because Nebarce shut his mouth. Thanks to that, I was able to focus solely on the fight. The battle was being handled with just the following trio: a priestess for whom healing and blessings were second nature, an elemental archer, and a tank barbarian. Nevertheless, the boss fight went smoothly, which made sense considering our team was made up of a damage dealer, a tank, and a healer.
[Lairin Ersina has cast Blessing of the Sun. All debuffs of rank five or lower are removed, and stats temporarily increase in proportion to the debuff.]
The stat reduction spells were dismantled by the priestess at regular intervals.
Whiiip!
The Vortexes that stole MP upon landing a hit could just be dodged with the joystick.
It really is nice having high Agility.
The summoning move wasn't all that tricky to deal with, either. Erwen hovered around my head in Elementalization mode and kept killing the monsters off before their group could even reach ten in number.
"Behelahhh!" Plus, because my Threat Level was so high, there was no situation in which they ignored me and ran to the back of the group.
Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!
So all I had to do was put on the tank/damager hat and beat the queen up to end it all.
"Keeeeeek!"
The battle took about twenty minutes in total.
[You have defeated a Siren Queen. EXP +6.]
The Siren Queen had to be bashed nearly thirty times in the head before she finally disappeared in a burst of light. The essence I'd been hoping for did not appear.
If one with the summoning ability showed up, it could have sold for a lot of money. Ah, I guess it doesn't matter without a wizard or a test tube, anyway.
I let go of my disappointment and set down my mace. Erwen deactivated Elementalization and we both headed to the spot where the rest of the group was.
"...To think three people really can take down a rank-four monster." The priestess Ersina was still somewhat in disbelief.
Nebarce was in the same boat. "I'm sure I heard you were a rank-five adventurer..." He trailed off and gave me a curious look. "So, you were hiding your abilities..."
What was this guy talking about? I laughed as soon as I heard that, but I didn't bother to explain myself.
Funny. It's just that the ranking standards are super lax.
This was one thing I'd felt very strongly about ever since the game became my reality. Adventurer rankings here represented a very limited view of a person's abilities. The guild only gave out rankings based on the average rank of a person's essences; it didn't take the synergy of the essences into account. Nebarce himself was a prime example of that.
He is rank four.
This guy had the badge of a rank-four adventurer. Since he was from Noark, it wasn't a real badge, but he must have gotten to rank four himself. Even still, I'd owned him in ten seconds. Although my cultivation strategy was strong against people (especially long-rangers), all of that aside, he was just weak. In fact, most of the adventurers here were. Even though their ranks were high, their performances were poor.
In hindsight, the Dragon Slayer was similar.
Having been going on quests for a long time, his level was high and his essences were many, but that was all. There was no logic behind the essences he chose. To be honest, he could even be called a failed character by my standards.
He felt exactly like those guys who only played the game for a few days before calling it a flop and quitting.
More so than possessing high-ranking skills, in this game, you were stronger if you had lower-ranking skills that worked well together. Choosing a core skill like Giantization and evolving it in different ways until you were overpowered was a basic strategy of the game too.
The person with the strongest combination of essences was Corpse Collector.
While I was in the middle of getting my thoughts in order, I hurriedly turned my head in the direction of a sudden voice. "M-Mr. Yandel!"
Huh? Wait, that voice is...
"Raven! Abman!"
"Mr. Patzran, you're all right!"
Four men and women emerged from the tree line. Whew, all that was left now was Missha.
"Yandel, Erwen, Ainar, I'm glad you're all safe."
"Urakburak! I'm glad you're safe too!"
After running toward each other with grins and sharing a brief reunion, we quickly exchanged information.
"What happened?"
"Oh, that."
Raven's report was simple. She and Mr. Bear had linked up with Patzran and his team's wizard to travel to the center of the island together. Upon arriving, she spotted my memo saying that I was heading east and switched directions.
"But why did you arrive so late? I waited there for over two hours."
"Sorry. We got so lost on the way there..."
The reason was truly absurd. To think not a single one of those four people could find the way.
Well, two of them are wizards. And aside from using a sword, that guy doesn't seem to know much about anything else...
Mr. Bear wasn't even worth mentioning. Yeah, it was only natural to end up lost with a team like this.
"But... Miss Karlstein?"
"Not here yet."
"Pardon? Not here yet...?"
"Don't worry too much. Aren't we only meeting just now too? She's fine somewhere else on the island." I tried to shake off my worries somehow and shifted my gaze.
Just like us, Patzran had finished greeting his teammate, Ersina, and approached me. "I heard from Ersina what happened."
"What happened...?"
"...Baronet Yandel. That you protected her this whole time. Thank you."
"We should help each other in times of trouble. Anyway, the blond—no, Drous. Did you hear about his identity?"
"Oh, about that... I did hear. It's hard to believe that Drous was from Noark. Regarding that, do you mind if I confirm a few things for myself?" Patzran then asked politely if he could speak to Nebarce, and I readily agreed.
"Make good use of it and then return it."
"Of course, I'll take good care of it."
Okay, then that's that sorted.
Keeping an ear on Patzran's conversation with Nebarce, I went up to Raven and whispered quietly, "Raven, no need to answer, just listen. Someone here has been conspiring with Noark."
Someone had betrayed their team and told Amelia they would be coming to this island today, someone whose identity only Amelia knew.
"I don't think they'll try to stab us in the back now, but just be aware. Let me know right away if you notice anything odd." As soon as I finished speaking, Raven nodded, her expression stiff. Well, then, now that the information exchange was over, I approached the wizard who was lying on the ground in exhaustion. "Hey, wizard. What's your name?"
I figured that I might be able to detect something strange about him if I talked to him. Yeah, that was what I was thinking.
"Ah, nice to meet you. I'm Aulock."
As the wizard stretched out his hand with a friendly smile, I froze. Priestess Ersina, swordsman Patzran, and even the female archer I hadn't met yet—although I didn't have any concrete evidence to help me determine who might be the traitor among the many suspects, a sudden certainty surged through me.
"Hans Aulock. Feel free to call me Hans."
Got you.
Ainar's threat must have been effective because Nebarce shut his mouth. Thanks to that, I was able to focus solely on the fight. The battle was being handled with just the following trio: a priestess for whom healing and blessings were second nature, an elemental archer, and a tank barbarian. Nevertheless, the boss fight went smoothly, which made sense considering our team was made up of a damage dealer, a tank, and a healer.
[Lairin Ersina has cast Blessing of the Sun. All debuffs of rank five or lower are removed, and stats temporarily increase in proportion to the debuff.]
The stat reduction spells were dismantled by the priestess at regular intervals.
Whiiip!
The Vortexes that stole MP upon landing a hit could just be dodged with the joystick.
It really is nice having high Agility.
The summoning move wasn't all that tricky to deal with, either. Erwen hovered around my head in Elementalization mode and kept killing the monsters off before their group could even reach ten in number.
"Behelahhh!" Plus, because my Threat Level was so high, there was no situation in which they ignored me and ran to the back of the group.
Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!
So all I had to do was put on the tank/damager hat and beat the queen up to end it all.
"Keeeeeek!"
The battle took about twenty minutes in total.
[You have defeated a Siren Queen. EXP +6.]
The Siren Queen had to be bashed nearly thirty times in the head before she finally disappeared in a burst of light. The essence I'd been hoping for did not appear.
If one with the summoning ability showed up, it could have sold for a lot of money. Ah, I guess it doesn't matter without a wizard or a test tube, anyway.
I let go of my disappointment and set down my mace. Erwen deactivated Elementalization and we both headed to the spot where the rest of the group was.
"...To think three people really can take down a rank-four monster." The priestess Ersina was still somewhat in disbelief.
Nebarce was in the same boat. "I'm sure I heard you were a rank-five adventurer..." He trailed off and gave me a curious look. "So, you were hiding your abilities..."
What was this guy talking about? I laughed as soon as I heard that, but I didn't bother to explain myself.
Funny. It's just that the ranking standards are super lax.
This was one thing I'd felt very strongly about ever since the game became my reality. Adventurer rankings here represented a very limited view of a person's abilities. The guild only gave out rankings based on the average rank of a person's essences; it didn't take the synergy of the essences into account. Nebarce himself was a prime example of that.
He is rank four.
This guy had the badge of a rank-four adventurer. Since he was from Noark, it wasn't a real badge, but he must have gotten to rank four himself. Even still, I'd owned him in ten seconds. Although my cultivation strategy was strong against people (especially long-rangers), all of that aside, he was just weak. In fact, most of the adventurers here were. Even though their ranks were high, their performances were poor.
In hindsight, the Dragon Slayer was similar.
Having been going on quests for a long time, his level was high and his essences were many, but that was all. There was no logic behind the essences he chose. To be honest, he could even be called a failed character by my standards.
He felt exactly like those guys who only played the game for a few days before calling it a flop and quitting.
More so than possessing high-ranking skills, in this game, you were stronger if you had lower-ranking skills that worked well together. Choosing a core skill like Giantization and evolving it in different ways until you were overpowered was a basic strategy of the game too.
The person with the strongest combination of essences was Corpse Collector.
While I was in the middle of getting my thoughts in order, I hurriedly turned my head in the direction of a sudden voice. "M-Mr. Yandel!"
Huh? Wait, that voice is...
"Raven! Abman!"
"Mr. Patzran, you're all right!"
Four men and women emerged from the tree line. Whew, all that was left now was Missha.
"Yandel, Erwen, Ainar, I'm glad you're all safe."
"Urakburak! I'm glad you're safe too!"
After running toward each other with grins and sharing a brief reunion, we quickly exchanged information.
"What happened?"
"Oh, that."
Raven's report was simple. She and Mr. Bear had linked up with Patzran and his team's wizard to travel to the center of the island together. Upon arriving, she spotted my memo saying that I was heading east and switched directions.
"But why did you arrive so late? I waited there for over two hours."
"Sorry. We got so lost on the way there..."
The reason was truly absurd. To think not a single one of those four people could find the way.
Well, two of them are wizards. And aside from using a sword, that guy doesn't seem to know much about anything else...
Mr. Bear wasn't even worth mentioning. Yeah, it was only natural to end up lost with a team like this.
"But... Miss Karlstein?"
"Not here yet."
"Pardon? Not here yet...?"
"Don't worry too much. Aren't we only meeting just now too? She's fine somewhere else on the island." I tried to shake off my worries somehow and shifted my gaze.
Just like us, Patzran had finished greeting his teammate, Ersina, and approached me. "I heard from Ersina what happened."
"What happened...?"
"...Baronet Yandel. That you protected her this whole time. Thank you."
"We should help each other in times of trouble. Anyway, the blond—no, Drous. Did you hear about his identity?"
"Oh, about that... I did hear. It's hard to believe that Drous was from Noark. Regarding that, do you mind if I confirm a few things for myself?" Patzran then asked politely if he could speak to Nebarce, and I readily agreed.
"Make good use of it and then return it."
"Of course, I'll take good care of it."
Okay, then that's that sorted.
Keeping an ear on Patzran's conversation with Nebarce, I went up to Raven and whispered quietly, "Raven, no need to answer, just listen. Someone here has been conspiring with Noark."
Someone had betrayed their team and told Amelia they would be coming to this island today, someone whose identity only Amelia knew.
"I don't think they'll try to stab us in the back now, but just be aware. Let me know right away if you notice anything odd." As soon as I finished speaking, Raven nodded, her expression stiff. Well, then, now that the information exchange was over, I approached the wizard who was lying on the ground in exhaustion. "Hey, wizard. What's your name?"
I figured that I might be able to detect something strange about him if I talked to him. Yeah, that was what I was thinking.
"Ah, nice to meet you. I'm Aulock."
As the wizard stretched out his hand with a friendly smile, I froze. Priestess Ersina, swordsman Patzran, and even the female archer I hadn't met yet—although I didn't have any concrete evidence to help me determine who might be the traitor among the many suspects, a sudden certainty surged through me.
"Hans Aulock. Feel free to call me Hans."
Got you.