Chapter 527: Giant Island (6)

Translator: RaidenTL

Chapter 527: Giant Island (6)

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Between the black orbs and me clinging to his back, the Hipramajent ended up losing its balance and falling forward.

Boom!

The impact kicked up another cloud of dust.

Uraaaaaah!

"Behel—aaah!"

Even in that moment of chaos, I hit him over the head with my hammer, grabbed his ankle, and shoved him into the ground—anything to stop him from getting up.

"Wh-what kind of fight is this...?"

"Armin, can we even help at this point?"

"Let's just watch for now..."

I lost track of time as the dogfight continued.

[Erwen Fornacci di Tersia has cast Concentrated Fire.]

Bright light engulfed the tip of Erwen's arrow. With her MP now bottomed out after summoning the Elemental Ruler, Chaos Circuit had kicked in, and based on the intensity of the light, a full minute had passed since she began charging Concentrated Fire. She let the arrow fly, and for a brief moment, the entire world went white before—

Bullseye. Right in the middle of the giant's forehead.

The light had punched straight through, creating a hole in its head where its eyebrows would have been.

"...Is it dead?"

However, just like the gaggle of adventurers watching from a safe distance, I didn't lower my guard. We still didn't know anything about its passives. There were monsters out there who could survive even after getting their heads chopped off.

"I-It's moving...!"

I sighed. I knew this would happen.

Uraaaaaah!

The giant with a hole in his head lurched onto his side in a fetal position, roaring in pain. It was the same position he was in when we found him sleeping earlier. Thanks to that, I managed to figure out another one of his skills. Unfortunately for me, it wasn't a passive.

[Hipramajent has cast Curl Up.]

I never expected him to have that one, of all things.

I quickly barked another order. "Stop attacking!"

The reason was simple. Even if we hit him with everything we had right now, it'd be our loss.

[For three minutes, all of its Resistances increase by 20x.]

[For three minutes, its Natural Regeneration increases by 20x.]

[Until the end of combat, all of its stats significantly increase relative to the amount of damage it takes while Curled Up.]

In essence, this was an invincibility skill. It was one of the active skills possessed by Ogres, and was the reason that Ogre raids were so tricky. However, it did have a critical weakness when used by tanks. Although Curl Up was an S-rank survival skill, by the time the tank woke up from their nap, their allies would be long dead.

That, of course, didn't really matter to monsters.

One minute, two minutes...

As time passed, the hole in his head started to close, and after exactly three minutes, he straightened out and slowly rose to his feet. From what I could see, his other visible injuries had all been healed too.

Uraaah...!

After waking up, he tried to run away again, but...

No chance.

While he'd been curled up on his side, we bound his ankles together and got a wizard and a special ability user to restrain him with spells, and I actively put myself in his path to stop him in his tracks. In the face of our preparedness, he seemed to change his tune.

Boom!

The Hipramajent gave up on trying to run away and instead charged at me as if to say, it's either me or you, buddy.

Only then did this start to feel like a normal raid again. Maybe it was because my Threat Level had increased over the course of this fight, but his aggro was finally locked on me.

"Attack!"

Dozens of adventurers opened fire from their respective formations, and the giant used an array of skills to counterattack.

[Hipramajent has cast Roar of the End.]

[Hipramajent has cast Gravity Field.]

Those were the ranged attack and AOE crowd control skills that were mentioned in the village chief's book. Since I had prepared for them in advance, we didn't take any damage from them.

Fwoosh!

The wizards cast barrier spells to deal with the meteors falling from the sky, while the Gravity Field, which had a certain probability of sucking his enemies into his reach, was negated by our front guard being saved by the people behind them whenever they started to get pulled in.

[Myul Armin has cast Supersensitive Skin. The target will now take 30% more damage.]

[Jackson Janvil has cast Moving Target. If the target is attacked while it is moving, the next attack against it will deal triple damage.]

[Nua Merbochi has cast Precise Shot...]

After ten minutes of dozens of people battering it with attacks, the giant whipped out a new skill. However, this one wasn't a passive either.

[Hipramajent has cast Condense Body.]

It was instead a transformation skill.

Unlike Giantization, which made you bigger, this was a rank-three skill that halved your size and gave you additional bonuses ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠depending on your size afterward.

He's still bigger than me even with it active.

However, since I had experimented with using this skill in conjunction with Giantization in Dungeon and Stone, it didn't give me too much trouble.

"Stop attacking!"

You just didn't fight it. Unlike Giantization, this skill had a time limit.

Boom!

The giant's fists were twice as strong and twice as fast as before. However, I sent the other melee warriors back so they wouldn't get in the way and fought him alone.

Crunch!

Every time I got hit, I felt my bones cracking under my skin.

Sparkle!

But we had medics on our side now—one priest and one healer. And thanks to Restorative Power, a special stat I got from phase seven of the Immortality Imprint, their heals were supercharged and healed my body almost immediately no matter how much I got hit.

Well, the pain was a different matter entirely, of course.

"Aaagh!"

Still, I just needed to hold on until...

[Condense Body has been deactivated.]

When Condense Body finally ran out of juice, he returned to his original size, and the other melee warriors rushed in on cue and resumed their attack.

While he'd been curled up on his side, we bound his ankles together and got a wizard and a special ability user to restrain him with spells, and I actively put myself in his path to stop him in his tracks. In the face of our preparedness, he seemed to change his tune.

Boom!

The Hipramajent gave up on trying to run away and instead charged at me as if to say, it's either me or you, buddy.

Only then did this start to feel like a normal raid again. Maybe it was because my Threat Level had increased over the course of this fight, but his aggro was finally locked on me.

"Attack!"

Dozens of adventurers opened fire from their respective formations, and the giant used an array of skills to counterattack.

[Hipramajent has cast Roar of the End.]

[Hipramajent has cast Gravity Field.]

Those were the ranged attack and AOE crowd control skills that were mentioned in the village chief's book. Since I had prepared for them in advance, we didn't take any damage from them.

Fwoosh!

The wizards cast barrier spells to deal with the meteors falling from the sky, while the Gravity Field, which had a certain probability of sucking his enemies into his reach, was negated by our front guard being saved by the people behind them whenever they started to get pulled in.

[Myul Armin has cast Supersensitive Skin. The target will now take 30% more damage.]

[Jackson Janvil has cast Moving Target. If the target is attacked while it is moving, the next attack against it will deal triple damage.]

[Nua Merbochi has cast Precise Shot...]

After ten minutes of dozens of people battering it with attacks, the giant whipped out a new skill. However, this one wasn't a passive either.

[Hipramajent has cast Condense Body.]

It was instead a transformation skill.

Unlike Giantization, which made you bigger, this was a rank-three skill that halved your size and gave you additional bonuses depending on your size afterward.

He's still bigger than me even with it active.

However, since I had experimented with using this skill in conjunction with Giantization in Dungeon and Stone, it didn't give me too much trouble.

"Stop attacking!"

You just didn't fight it. Unlike Giantization, this skill had a time limit.

Boom!

The giant's fists were twice as strong and twice as fast as before. However, I sent the other melee warriors back so they wouldn't get in the way and fought him alone.

Crunch!

Every time I got hit, I felt my bones cracking under my skin.

Sparkle!

But we had medics on our side now—one priest and one healer. And thanks to Restorative Power, a special stat I got from phase seven of the Immortality Imprint, their heals were supercharged and healed my body almost immediately no matter how much I got hit.

Well, the pain was a different matter entirely, of course.

"Aaagh!"

Still, I just needed to hold on until...

[Condense Body has been deactivated.]

When Condense Body finally ran out of juice, he returned to his original size, and the other melee warriors rushed in on cue and resumed their attack.

Boom!

One of the giant's ankles was completely shattered at this point, and he was forced onto his knees. The melee warriors took advantage of the opportunity to attack his vitals.

In an instant, the giant suffered a near-fatal blow.

"It's nearly over!"

"Keep it up and don't let your guard down!"

As victory showed signs of gracing us with its presence, the other adventurers started to become more and more confident, but in contrast, I started to grow more and more anxious.

It had already been twenty-five minutes.

Curl Up's cooldown is thirty minutes.

In just five minutes, he would use Curl Up again, and we would need to repeat this entire process.

Honestly, at that point, we would need to consider this raid a bust. Since we hadn't rationed our MP this time around, we'd take even longer to take him down once he was healed up.

If the lesson we learn here is just that we need more people on damage-dealing duty, we'll definitely be able to kill this thing the next time we meet another one... But I still don't want to fail here. Should I use that?

It didn't take long for me to come to a decision, and even less time for me to jump into action.

"Missha! Emily! Combine!"

Unfortunately, the two people competing for the first- and second-place DPS slots in my party didn't seem to understand what I meant.

"...Huh? C-Combine?"

Missha, a longsword in each hand, blinked at me in confusion, and Amelia just looked at me like I was speaking in tongues.

I mean, you should really be able to read my mind by now.

"Just get over here!"

Still, despite the hiccup, when I called for them, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠they immediately ran to my side. Since I couldn't grab anything else with stuff already in my hands, I dropped my hammer and shield.

"Huh?"

"What are you doing—?!"

With my now vacant, massive hands, I grabbed Missha and Amelia by their waists.

Swoosh.

Then I took up a stance while holding the two of them like swords—Barbarian Samurai Mode.

"Yandel! Are you—?!"

Amelia seemed to have finally realized what I was going for.

"Just keep your aura up. I'll do the rest."

"Stop! Have you lost your—?!"

"Missha, you too. Keep a good grip on your swords."

"Huh? O-Okay!"

All right then, now that I had permission, I began to swing my Missha Sword and Amelia Sword.

Why weren't they able to land any critical hits on the giant earlier, you might ask? Simple. It was because the giant was so tall that they couldn't reach its vitals.

But this changes things.

Stab!

My Amelia Sword plunged deep into the giant's skin. The blade itself was short, but that didn't matter since the aura was long.

Plus, it wasn't like I only had one sword.

Slash!

My Missha Sword sliced some skin off the giant's neck. Although she lacked some of Amelia Sword's lethality, Missha Sword had a different upside: she was an ice type.

Boom!

One of the giant's ankles was completely shattered at this point, and he was forced onto his knees. The melee warriors took advantage of the opportunity to attack his vitals.

In an instant, the giant suffered a near-fatal blow.

"It's nearly over!"

"Keep it up and don't let your guard down!"

As victory showed signs of gracing us with its presence, the other adventurers started to become more and more confident, but in contrast, I started to grow more and more anxious.

It had already been twenty-five minutes.

Curl Up's cooldown is thirty minutes.

In just five minutes, he would use Curl Up again, and we would need to repeat this entire process.

Honestly, at that point, we would need to consider this raid a bust. Since we hadn't rationed our MP this time around, we'd take even longer to take him down once he was healed up.

If the lesson we learn here is just that we need more people on damage-dealing duty, we'll definitely be able to kill this thing the next time we meet another one... But I still don't want to fail here. Should I use that?

It didn't take long for me to come to a decision, and even less time for me to jump into action.

"Missha! Emily! Combine!"

Unfortunately, the two people competing for the first- and second-place DPS slots in my party didn't seem to understand what I meant.

"...Huh? C-Combine?"

Missha, a longsword in each hand, blinked at me in confusion, and Amelia just looked at me like I was speaking in tongues.

I mean, you should really be able to read my mind by now.

"Just get over here!"

Still, despite the hiccup, when I called for them, they immediately ran to my side. Since I couldn't grab anything else with stuff already in my hands, I dropped my hammer and shield.

"Huh?"

"What are you doing—?!"

With my now vacant, massive hands, I grabbed Missha and Amelia by their waists.

Swoosh.

Then I took up a stance while holding the two of them like swords—Barbarian Samurai Mode.

"Yandel! Are you—?!"

Amelia seemed to have finally realized what I was going for.

"Just keep your aura up. I'll do the rest."

"Stop! Have you lost your—?!"

"Missha, you too. Keep a good grip on your swords."

"Huh? O-Okay!"

All right then, now that I had permission, I began to swing my Missha Sword and Amelia Sword.

Why weren't they able to land any critical hits on the giant earlier, you might ask? Simple. It was because the giant was so tall that they couldn't reach its vitals.

But this changes things.

Stab!

My Amelia Sword plunged deep into the giant's skin. The blade itself was short, but that didn't matter since the aura was long.

Plus, it wasn't like I only had one sword.

Slash!

My Missha Sword sliced some skin off the giant's neck. Although she lacked some of Amelia Sword's lethality, Missha Sword had a different upside: she was an ice type.

Crack.

A frigid layer of ice formed over the wound. When I hit the same spot again, the ice shattered and the giant took even more damage.

He hadn't even flinched when I was swinging my hammer at him earlier.

Is this... what it feels like to be a DPS...?

I felt a fire ignite in the depths of my heart.

"Behel—aaaaaah!" I roared, swinging my swords around in a frenzy. Then, out of nowhere, a thought struck me.

Wait a second. Since Missha used two longswords, and Amelia used two daggers...

"Four Sword Style...?" I mumbled.

For some reason, Amelia Sword turned her head to glare at me with murderous intent. "...I'll kill you."

Tsk, so she was a cursed sword.

I was kind of worried about what she would do after that ominous comment, but Amelia diligently flared her aura in time with my swings and used her own hands to attack whenever I got her close enough to the target.

One minute, two minutes, three minutes...

Uraaaaaah...

After taking multiple stabs to the neck and heart—

Boom!

—the giant let out a groan as it finally collapsed, just forty seconds before Curl Up's cooldown clock zeroed out.

Turn.

I lifted Amelia Sword, intending to put an end to this fight.

"...Why did you stop?"

Amelia turned to frown at me when I suddenly froze mid-swing.

I didn't answer.

Something occurred to me just as I was thinking that I needed to kill it ASAP. There were two types of monsters in Basement Floor One: normal monsters that dropped mana stones and essences, and special monsters that left behind bodies when they died. Hipramajent was the latter.

But if you cast distortion magic on a monster that drops mana stones and essences, you can make them leave behind a corpse instead.

Even wizards couldn't properly explain how distortion spells actually worked. Back in the old days when fire was first discovered, all people knew was that smashing together two flintstones made sparks—they didn't know why.

Which made me wonder.

What would happen if we used distortion magic on a guy who already leaves a corpse behind?

It was definitely worth testing out. We had already acquired enough samples from the last body we found anyway.

"Versyl! Cast Distortion!" I barked.

Less than a second later, a transparent layer of mana covered the giant's body. After confirming the spell had been cast, I quickly swung Amelia Sword and Missha Sword.

Stab!

As four blades simultaneously pierced its hide, the giant took its final breath before going limp. And then...

Sparkle.

The giant's body turned into motes of light.

[You have killed a Hipramajent.]

[No. 9999: Beginner's Luck has been activated.]

I didn't feel any EXP flow into me as the Hipramajent's huge body dissolved into twinkling lights. However, something dropped in the empty space it left behind.

Tap.

It was a huge mana stone the size of a fist. However, no one cared about that. What use was a mana stone when we were in here, anyway?

"...It's an essence."

"An essence!"

An essence had dropped.

Did Beginner's Luck kick in? I was only trying to test whether the corpse would disappear or not—I hadn't expected an essence to drop.

"Everyone back the hell up!"

As my voice boomed through the battlefield, the melee fighters who were stepping toward it as if possessed immediately flinched and backed away from the essence.

"N-No, I was just going to..."

"I don't care! Back up!"

Thanks to my shouting, the area around the essence quickly emptied. I took a moment to contemplate how to proceed. Although the essence was a welcome sight, it was also a slightly disappointing one.

It's... not green...

Since the Orc Hero's Giantization essence was green, there was a high probability that this essence wasn't Giantization.

Navy blue... Looks like it's Curl Up.

What should I do with this? Should I put it into a magic vial?

Damn. Giving this to Ainar would probably be our best bet, but... I don't know what the passive is, so I'm not fully on board with that idea either.

I mulled it over. Curl Up would be a great skill for Ainar. Every barbarian warrior's biggest problem—not dying after throwing yourself straight into danger—could be solved with just this one skill.

And if I give it to Ainar, she'd tell me what passives she got and let us test the essence's stats as well...

Plus, once you reached the ninth stage of the Immortality Imprint, there was a great combo you could use with this skill. In that sense, if I had Ainar take it, I could save the cost of a magic vial on top of everything else.

Hmm, what to do?

"Ainar!"

"Yeah?"

"Do you want this essence?" ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I asked for her opinion before anything else, but her answer was predictable.

"...I-I want it!"

"Even if we don't know what passive skills it has or what stats you'll get?"

"S-Still! I still want it!"

I guess... if the passives and stats are bad, we can get rid of them at the temple later. And I have a suspicion or two as to which passives it has.

"All right, you can take this one, then."

"R-Really?!"

"Anyone have a problem with that?"

I glanced at the Armin Adventurer Group since they had a right to a third of the loot, but Myul Armin didn't protest in the slightest.

"You have first pick, Lord Baron."

"That's true."

"And even if that weren't the case, I would've still told you to take it."

"Hmm?"

"...We're not that shameless."

Did this guy's sense of self-worth take a nosedive without me noticing? I had no clue, but since the owner of the essence was decided, I saw no reason to drag this out any longer.

"Bjorn... C-Can I eat it now...?"

"Yeah, go ahead."

When I nodded at her, Ainar excitedly rushed over to the essence to absorb it.

[The Essence of Hipramajent has sunk deep into Ainar Fenelin's soul.]

With that, Ainar Fenelin learned Curl Up.

Crack.

A frigid layer of ice formed over the wound. When I hit the same spot again, the ice shattered and the giant took even more damage.

He hadn't even flinched when I was swinging my hammer at him earlier.

Is this... what it feels like to be a DPS...?

I felt a fire ignite in the depths of my heart.

"Behel—aaaaaah!" I roared, swinging my swords around in a frenzy. Then, out of nowhere, a thought struck me.

Wait a second. Since Missha used two longswords, and Amelia used two daggers...

"Four Sword Style...?" I mumbled.

For some reason, Amelia Sword turned her head to glare at me with murderous intent. "...I'll kill you."

Tsk, so she was a cursed sword.

I was kind of worried about what she would do after that ominous comment, but Amelia diligently flared her aura in time with my swings and used her own hands to attack whenever I got her close enough to the target.

One minute, two minutes, three minutes...

Uraaaaaah...

After taking multiple stabs to the neck and heart—

Boom!

—the giant let out a groan as it finally collapsed, just forty seconds before Curl Up's cooldown clock zeroed out.

Turn.

I lifted Amelia Sword, intending to put an end to this fight.

"...Why did you stop?"

Amelia turned to frown at me when I suddenly froze mid-swing.

I didn't answer.

Something occurred to me just as I was thinking that I needed to kill it ASAP. There were two types of monsters in Basement Floor One: normal monsters that dropped mana stones and essences, and special monsters that left behind bodies when they died. Hipramajent was the latter.

But if you cast distortion magic on a monster that drops mana stones and essences, you can make them leave behind a corpse instead.

Even wizards couldn't properly explain how distortion spells actually worked. Back in the old days when fire was first discovered, all people knew was that smashing together two flintstones made sparks—they didn't know why.

Which made me wonder.

What would happen if we used distortion magic on a guy who already leaves a corpse behind?

It was definitely worth testing out. We had already acquired enough samples from the last body we found anyway.

"Versyl! Cast Distortion!" I barked.

Less than a second later, a transparent layer of mana covered the giant's body. After confirming the spell had been cast, I quickly swung Amelia Sword and Missha Sword.

Stab!

As four blades simultaneously pierced its hide, the giant took its final breath before going limp. And then...

Sparkle.

The giant's body turned into motes of light.

[You have killed a Hipramajent.]

[No. 9999: Beginner's ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Luck has been activated.]

I didn't feel any EXP flow into me as the Hipramajent's huge body dissolved into twinkling lights. However, something dropped in the empty space it left behind.

Tap.

It was a huge mana stone the size of a fist. However, no one cared about that. What use was a mana stone when we were in here, anyway?

"...It's an essence."

"An essence!"

An essence had dropped.

Did Beginner's Luck kick in? I was only trying to test whether the corpse would disappear or not—I hadn't expected an essence to drop.

"Everyone back the hell up!"

As my voice boomed through the battlefield, the melee fighters who were stepping toward it as if possessed immediately flinched and backed away from the essence.

"N-No, I was just going to..."

"I don't care! Back up!"

Thanks to my shouting, the area around the essence quickly emptied. I took a moment to contemplate how to proceed. Although the essence was a welcome sight, it was also a slightly disappointing one.

It's... not green...

Since the Orc Hero's Giantization essence was green, there was a high probability that this essence wasn't Giantization.

Navy blue... Looks like it's Curl Up.

What should I do with this? Should I put it into a magic vial?

Damn. Giving this to Ainar would probably be our best bet, but... I don't know what the passive is, so I'm not fully on board with that idea either.

I mulled it over. Curl Up would be a great skill for Ainar. Every barbarian warrior's biggest problem—not dying after throwing yourself straight into danger—could be solved with just this one skill.

And if I give it to Ainar, she'd tell me what passives she got and let us test the essence's stats as well...

Plus, once you reached the ninth stage of the Immortality Imprint, there was a great combo you could use with this skill. In that sense, if I had Ainar take it, I could save the cost of a magic vial on top of everything else.

Hmm, what to do?

"Ainar!"

"Yeah?"

"Do you want this essence?" I asked for her opinion before anything else, but her answer was predictable.

"...I-I want it!"

"Even if we don't know what passive skills it has or what stats you'll get?"

"S-Still! I still want it!"

I guess... if the passives and stats are bad, we can get rid of them at the temple later. And I have a suspicion or two as to which passives it has.

"All right, you can take this one, then."

"R-Really?!"

"Anyone have a problem with that?"

I glanced at the Armin Adventurer Group since they had a right to a third of the loot, but Myul Armin didn't protest in the slightest.

"You have first pick, Lord Baron."

"That's true."

"And even if that weren't the case, I would've still told you to take it."

"Hmm?"

"...We're not that shameless."

Did this guy's sense of self-worth take a nosedive without me noticing? I had no clue, but since the owner of the essence was decided, I saw no reason to drag this out any longer.

"Bjorn... C-Can I eat it now...?"

"Yeah, go ahead."

When I nodded at her, Ainar excitedly rushed over to the essence to absorb it.

[The Essence of Hipramajent has sunk deep into Ainar Fenelin's soul.]

With that, Ainar Fenelin learned Curl Up.