Chapter 526: Giant Island (5)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 526: Giant Island (5)
In the heart of the cave, I came face to face with a portal stone. The moment I lay eyes on it, I reached out to touch it as if possessed, but the stone didn't react.
"As I thought... your touch doesn't activate it either."
Well, I had figured that would be the case. We'd had to fulfill a special condition to open the portal to get here in the first place, so we'd probably need to do something special to get out as well.
Slide.
After checking the spot where the stone connected to the ground, I started digging into the dirt for clues.
I don't think there's anything written under here this time... Damn, then do we need to just wander around hoping to stumble into a hint?
Before anything else, I asked Wyatt some questions.
"Have you checked on the stone every day?"
"Yes. Since finding it, I've come here every day to touch it, but there's been no reaction."
In other words, it didn't seem like we needed to be here on a specific day to activate the stone.
"Have you seen anything strange or interesting on this island that you didn't mention during our conversation a few minutes ago?"
"No."
"If you've already found a portal stone, why did you sound so unsure earlier?"
That question had been on my mind for the past few minutes. From the moment we found him, his nerves were immediately noticeable, and he'd gone so far as to ask if there was even a way out of here. But why?
He seemed to choose his words very carefully as he said, "I'm not sure... if this stone even leads outside."
"Ah..."
I'd had the same thought when I first saw it. Since this was a mysterious new floor that had never before been explored, we couldn't be sure of anything. When we activated this portal stone, it could take us to the city or the first floor of the labyrinth... or it could lead somewhere entirely new.
Like a second underground floor.
But while we should definitely keep that possibility in mind, finding a way to activate this stone was our top priority. And there was only one way adventurers found answers to their questions: trying everything and seeing what worked.
"How many people know about this stone?"
"Everyone who's been in this cave knows about it."
Hmm, then I guess there's no point in trying to keep it a secret.
"Let's get back to the rest of the group."
At that point, I wrapped up my investigation into the portal stone and returned to my allies. There, I told everyone, including the members of the Armin Adventurer Group, about what Wyatt and co. had found. In situations like these, you wanted as much brainpower as possible dedicated to the problem.
"A portal stone with an unknown destination... At least we have a lead now."
"So everyone, feel free to chime in. What do you think we should try to activate the stone?"
"...Would killing that forty-yard-tall giant do something?"
"Something might be at the top of those bookshelves in the library..."
When I opened up the floor, Versyl shared her idea and everyone else followed suit. I noted every single one of them down in my mind.
"Maybe the chief might know something...?"
Yeah, that's another good idea.
Myul Armin, who was standing next to me, frowned in confusion at that suggestion. "Who is this... chief?" he asked hesitantly.
"We'll have to stop by that island at some point, so I'll explain it to you then."
"Right..."
And so, our brainstorming session came to an end. The wizards of the Armin group and a few others left to study the stone, and the rest of us lounged around in the cave resting.
On the next day, with twelve new, decent slaves in my party, I began our expedition again. We didn't have much time left.
It's already the ninth day...
Well, if I was counting from the day I first entered the labyrinth, today would actually be the fifty-ninth day, but the important thing was that it had been nine days since the labyrinth opened for the second time. Rainy season would begin after the fourteenth day of the cycle, so we needed to explore as much of the island as we could before then.
The rainy season will be a bit tricky...
I was already preemptively mourning the week we'd be stuck hiding. No, it wouldn't even be a week. There'd still be tons of monsters roaming around right after the rainy season, so it'd be impossible to go anywhere, and since we'd need to find shelter before it started, we'd need to stop our expedition early too.
"Yandel, what are we going to do for the rainy season? Are we going to spend it in that cave these people found? Or are we going to go back to that village?"
"I'm thinking about going back to the village. I have a few things I want to ask the village chief anyway, and if the Silver Lion Clan is still there, we'll be able to increase our numbers even more."
"Then we'll need to leave the island in three days. We need to take travel time into consideration."
As it turned out, we had only three days left to explore this island. That was a tight schedule, but since we had a lot of people now, the amount of ground we could cover had increased significantly. It felt like wandering around and exploring the open-world map after turning auto-farming on.
"A group of Trolls on our right...!"
"Teirun Ervwias!"
Boom!
The mob monsters under rank five were reduced to flecks of light by our long-rangers before they could even approach me. This was the reason that adventurers operated exclusively in clans on the higher floors. The more members you had, the easier your quests would be.
Of course, this came with the fatal flaw of having to split the loot that much more.
"Sheritun, how is the map coming along?"
"Pretty well. Would you like to take a look?"
Also, I wasn't the one making the map anymore. It seemed the Hektz Clan's archer was several times better than me at it, so I left her to it.
We even had dedicated scouting parties now.
After giving Mihail Lectus, the one who had been a palace investigator, a few people to lead, he scouted the surrounding area and delivered the following information:
"Your Lordship, there are three Nelfardons about three minutes in front of us. What shall we do?"
Was that even a question? Three Nelfardons that could all use Giantization?
"Will going around them eat up a lot of our time?"
"Not at all."
"Then we'll take a detour."
Yeah, that's another good idea.
Myul Armin, who was standing next to me, frowned in confusion at that suggestion. "Who is this... chief?" he asked hesitantly.
"We'll have to stop by that island at some point, so I'll explain it to you then."
"Right..."
And so, our brainstorming session came to an end. The wizards of the Armin group and a few others left to study the stone, and the rest of us lounged around in the cave resting.
On the next day, with twelve new, decent slaves in my party, I began our expedition again. We didn't have much time left.
It's already the ninth day...
Well, if I was counting from the day I first entered the labyrinth, today would actually be the fifty-ninth day, but the important thing was that it had been nine days since the labyrinth opened for the second time. Rainy season would begin after the fourteenth day of the cycle, so we needed to explore as much of the island as we could before then.
The rainy season will be a bit tricky...
I was already preemptively mourning the week we'd be stuck hiding. No, it wouldn't even be a week. There'd still be tons of monsters roaming around right after the rainy season, so it'd be impossible to go anywhere, and since we'd need to find shelter before it started, we'd need to stop our expedition early too.
"Yandel, what are we going to do for the rainy season? Are we going to spend it in that cave these people found? Or are we going to go back to that village?"
"I'm thinking about going back to the village. I have a few things I want to ask the village chief anyway, and if the Silver Lion Clan is still there, we'll be able to increase our numbers even more."
"Then we'll need to leave the island in three days. We need to take travel time into consideration."
As it turned out, we had only three days left to explore this island. That was a tight schedule, but since we had a lot of people now, the amount of ground we could cover had increased significantly. It felt like wandering around and exploring the open-world map after turning auto-farming on.
"A group of Trolls on our right...!"
"Teirun Ervwias!"
Boom!
The mob monsters under rank five were reduced to flecks of light by our long-rangers before they could even approach me. This was the reason that adventurers operated exclusively in clans on the higher floors. The more members you had, the easier your quests would be.
Of course, this came with the fatal flaw of having to split the loot that much more.
"Sheritun, how is the map coming along?"
"Pretty well. Would you like to take a look?"
Also, I wasn't the one making the map anymore. It seemed the Hektz Clan's archer was several times better than me at it, so I left her to it.
We even had dedicated scouting parties now.
After giving Mihail Lectus, the one who had been a palace investigator, a few people to lead, he scouted the surrounding area and delivered the following information:
"Your Lordship, there are three Nelfardons about three minutes in front of us. What shall we do?"
Was that even a question? Three Nelfardons that could all use Giantization?
"Will going around them eat up a lot of our time?"
"Not at all."
"Then we'll take a detour."
We didn't need a Nelfardon essence, and since we already got EXP for them in the library, we avoided them like the plague.
From there, we killed what we needed to kill and avoided what we needed to avoid, and our efficiency allowed us to explore an even larger area than we would have otherwise.
I think we can safely say we've seen all there is to see in the south.
After mapping out about 90 percent of it, we decided to leave the southern part of the island and head to the eastern region.
Sometime later, some news arrived just as I was contemplating if we should return to our hideout or make camp here for the night.
"Lord Baron."
Mihail Lectus came back from his patrol, looking harried.
"About four minutes away from us, there is a Hipramajent. The giant is sleeping by itself."
Hmm... what to do?
***
Hipramajent.
While we were sailing here, we ended up running into one and having to make a quick getaway when he called for his friends.
I remembered that in the chief's book, the entry about Hipramajent mentioned it was first discovered with half its body submerged in the ocean. That was why I assumed it was an aquatic monster...
But it looks like these guys don't just live in the ocean.
Considering we found one on land, they were probably amphibious.
Anyway, that wasn't the important thing here.
"It's alone?"
"Yes, at least it was when we saw it."
"Survey the surrounding area while making sure not to wake it. He could have allies backing him up like last time. I'll decide our next steps based on what you find."
"Understood."
I gave Mihail Lectus orders to conduct a careful search and then began thinking things over as I waited for him to return.
Although my drive to kill the monster had dropped as soon as I realized that it was the type to leave behind a corpse rather than an essence, I still figured I should kill it at least once. As long as I was on this floor, I would probably have to face one of these things again at some point.
It's better to get experience fighting one while it's alone.
Finding out what passives and yet-unknown active skills it might have would be useful for gauging just how dangerous these were in the grand scheme of things.
"There isn't a single monster within a mile of it."
Thus, when our scouts returned with that news, I began prepping for a raid. We made some new formations and came up with some backup plans in case he tried to run away like last time.
"All right, let's go."
Finally, the only thing left was to fight him.
"A-Already?"
"He could wake up at any moment. Or his friends could come back."
Maybe it was because we were talking about a monster estimated to be around rank two, but a few of our members seemed hesitant to go fight it. However, I felt that dragging this out any longer would be a waste of time.
Sneak.
After that, we moved as stealthily as we could to his napping spot and formed a wide circle around him.
We didn't need a Nelfardon essence, and since we already got EXP for them in the library, we avoided them like the plague.
From there, we killed what we needed to kill and avoided what we needed to avoid, and our efficiency allowed us to explore an even larger area than we would have otherwise.
I think we can safely say we've seen all there is to see in the south.
After mapping out about 90 percent of it, we decided to leave the southern part of the island and head to the eastern region.
Sometime later, some news arrived just as I was contemplating if we should return to our hideout or make camp here for the night.
"Lord Baron."
Mihail Lectus came back from his patrol, looking harried.
"About four minutes away from us, there is a Hipramajent. The giant is sleeping by itself."
Hmm... what to do?
***
Hipramajent.
While we were sailing here, we ended up running into one and having to make a quick getaway when he called for his friends.
I remembered that in the chief's book, the entry about Hipramajent mentioned it was first discovered with half its body submerged in the ocean. That was why I assumed it was an aquatic monster...
But it looks like these guys don't just live in the ocean.
Considering we found one on land, they were probably amphibious.
Anyway, that wasn't the important thing here.
"It's alone?"
"Yes, at least it was when we saw it."
"Survey the surrounding area while making sure not to wake it. He could have allies backing him up like last time. I'll decide our next steps based on what you find."
"Understood."
I gave Mihail Lectus orders to conduct a careful search and then began thinking things over as I waited for him to return.
Although my drive to kill the monster had dropped as soon as I realized that it was the type to leave behind a corpse rather than an essence, I still figured I should kill it at least once. As long as I was on this floor, I would probably have to face one of these things again at some point.
It's better to get experience fighting one while it's alone.
Finding out what passives and yet-unknown active skills it might have would be useful for gauging just how dangerous these were in the grand scheme of things.
"There isn't a single monster within a mile of it."
Thus, when our scouts returned with that news, I began prepping for a raid. We made some new formations and came up with some backup plans in case he tried to run away like last time.
"All right, let's go."
Finally, the only thing left was to fight him.
"A-Already?"
"He could wake up at any moment. Or his friends could come back."
Maybe it was because we were talking about a monster estimated to be around rank two, but a few of our members seemed hesitant to go fight it. However, I felt that dragging this out any longer would be a waste of time.
Sneak.
After that, we moved as stealthily as we could to his napping spot and formed a wide circle around him.
However, the moment our long-rangers and wizards started prepping our first big attack, something happened.
Rgh...?
The giant, who had been curled up enjoying his nap, suddenly woke up and looked right at us. We had used magic to smother any sound we could possibly make, though, so he couldn't have woken up because we were too noisy.
...Can he detect magic?
In any case, since he was already awake, there was no need to be quiet anymore.
[You have cast Giantization.]
I also chain-cast Transcendence to get even bigger.
"Behel—aaah!"
Then, before he could get to his feet, I slammed my hammer down on his shin.
Boom!
The attack wasn't strong enough to break his bones, but it was enough to make him lose balance before he could stand up.
Thud!
As the large giant fell back down to the ground, it kicked up a dust cloud that blocked our line of sight. But this was a small inconvenience that occurred frequently during combat.
Whoosh!
The wizards, who had been on standby in the back, used wind magic to clear away the dust, and after our vision was restored, I charged toward the giant and swung my hammer into his chin.
Uraaaaaah!
His massive eyes met mine in a glare and he roared down at me, so loud that I could feel the air around me vibrate.
Yikes, that scared me.
All of the hair on my body stood on end, which was a bit of a blow to my pride.
"Uraaaaaah!" I roared back, glaring him down. And while I wasn't really thinking when I did it, this had the unintentional side effect of bolstering our team's morale.
"Wh-what are you all doing? Start attacking!"
"Calm down and stick to the plan!"
Wyatt Hektz and Myul Armin snapped out of it first and barked commands at the other members, and soon, ranged support in the form of arrows and other offensive abilities was raining down on my opponent. Most of them weren't able to do as much damage as my massive hammer swings, but they were enough to buy me time.
[Sharlot Emblut has cast the rank-two attack spell Spear of Annihilation.]
The trio of wizards from the Armin Adventurer Group, who had been working together the longest, cast a joint spell.
Stab!
A huge white spear sank into the giant's belly.
I was honestly a little surprised.
It didn't go all the way through?
How much Mana Resistance did this guy have? I was curious about his base stats, but that wasn't what I needed to worry about right now.
"Barbarian, don't go wild this time. Let's slowly wear it down—"
"Behel—aaaaaah!"
Amelia, Ainar, and some of the other melee warriors closed in on the giant as well, attacking him relentlessly. We mostly aimed for his ankles. This was an order I had given everyone beforehand. After all, we knew this guy had a habit of running away. We needed to render him unable to move as early into the battle as possible.
"He's standing up!"
"Get back!"
Although we were pummeling him as hard as we could, he eventually ended up stumbling to his feet.
Uraaaaaah!
Then, with a roar, he began to run in the opposite direction.
Seriously, how is this guy such a coward?
I still couldn't believe it, but I didn't intend to let the same thing catch me off guard twice.
We aren't in the ocean anymore, you know.
[Erwen Fornacci di Tersia has summoned the Elemental Ruler of Darkness, Dicloe.]
With a flick of Erwen's wrist, orbs of black light rained down on the battlefield like missiles. Surprisingly, the guy kept running for a while despite the barrage, but even he hit his limit eventually.
Thud! Boom!
I ran up to him in a flash and latched onto his staggering form.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Even though the Elemental Ruler of Darkness was still hitting him—and by extension, me— with everything it had, that wasn't an issue. As the saying went, if you didn't have the right essence for the job, use an item.
Like, say, No. 12: Trust—the best of the double-digit Numbered Items.
[You are taking damage from an ally you are Bound to.]
[The Light of Trust protects you from the damage.]
With this item, tactics like this were on the table too.
However, the moment our long-rangers and wizards started prepping our first big attack, something happened.
Rgh...?
The giant, who had been curled up enjoying his nap, suddenly woke up and looked right at us. We had used magic to smother any sound we could possibly make, though, so he couldn't have woken up because we were too noisy.
...Can he detect magic?
In any case, since he was already awake, there was no need to be quiet anymore.
[You have cast Giantization.]
I also chain-cast Transcendence to get even bigger.
"Behel—aaah!"
Then, before he could get to his feet, I slammed my hammer down on his shin.
Boom!
The attack wasn't strong enough to break his bones, but it was enough to make him lose balance before he could stand up.
Thud!
As the large giant fell back down to the ground, it kicked up a dust cloud that blocked our line of sight. But this was a small inconvenience that occurred frequently during combat.
Whoosh!
The wizards, who had been on standby in the back, used wind magic to clear away the dust, and after our vision was restored, I charged toward the giant and swung my hammer into his chin.
Uraaaaaah!
His massive eyes met mine in a glare and he roared down at me, so loud that I could feel the air around me vibrate.
Yikes, that scared me.
All of the hair on my body stood on end, which was a bit of a blow to my pride.
"Uraaaaaah!" I roared back, glaring him down. And while I wasn't really thinking when I did it, this had the unintentional side effect of bolstering our team's morale.
"Wh-what are you all doing? Start attacking!"
"Calm down and stick to the plan!"
Wyatt Hektz and Myul Armin snapped out of it first and barked commands at the other members, and soon, ranged support in the form of arrows and other offensive abilities was raining down on my opponent. Most of them weren't able to do as much damage as my massive hammer swings, but they were enough to buy me time.
[Sharlot Emblut has cast the rank-two attack spell Spear of Annihilation.]
The trio of wizards from the Armin Adventurer Group, who had been working together the longest, cast a joint spell.
Stab!
A huge white spear sank into the giant's belly.
I was honestly a little surprised.
It didn't go all the way through?
How much Mana Resistance did this guy have? I was curious about his base stats, but that wasn't what I needed to worry about right now.
"Barbarian, don't go wild this time. Let's slowly wear it down—"
"Behel—aaaaaah!"
Amelia, Ainar, and some of the other melee warriors closed in on the giant as well, attacking him relentlessly. We mostly aimed for his ankles. This was an order I had given everyone beforehand. After all, we knew this guy had a habit of running away. We needed to render him unable to move as early into the battle as possible.
"He's standing up!"
"Get back!"
Although we were pummeling him as hard as we could, he eventually ended up stumbling to his feet.
Uraaaaaah!
Then, with a roar, he began to run in the opposite direction.
Seriously, how is this guy such a coward?
I still couldn't believe it, but I didn't intend to let the same thing catch me off guard twice.
We aren't in the ocean anymore, you know.
[Erwen Fornacci di Tersia has summoned the Elemental Ruler of Darkness, Dicloe.]
With a flick of Erwen's wrist, orbs of black light rained down on the battlefield like missiles. Surprisingly, the guy kept running for a while despite the barrage, but even he hit his limit eventually.
Thud! Boom!
I ran up to him in a flash and latched onto his staggering form.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Even though the Elemental Ruler of Darkness was still hitting him—and by extension, me— with everything it had, that wasn't an issue. As the saying went, if you didn't have the right essence for the job, use an item.
Like, say, No. 12: Trust—the best of the double-digit Numbered Items.
[You are taking damage from an ally you are Bound to.]
[The Light of Trust protects you from the damage.]
With this item, tactics like this were on the table too.