Chapter 528: Escape Plan (1)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 528: Escape Plan (1)
It had been a while since one of my allies got an upgrade. Erwen had gotten a lot stronger than the others after consuming the Essence of Chaos, so this was a very favorable turn of events for us.
Well, I guess I'll only know for sure after we finish testing out how much stronger she is now.
I was about to walk up and ask Ainar if she'd noticed any changes when Amelia spoke.
"Yandel."
"...Hm?"
I felt a chill run down my spine, and when I turned around, I saw Amelia glaring at me with ice-cold eyes. "I want to talk about what just happened."
"Ah..."
The time had finally come. I half-thought she was going to let it slide entirely since she didn't say anything earlier, but it seemed she just didn't get the chance to speak up before the essence dropped.
"Ah! About what happened!" I gave a cheerful laugh and walked over to Amelia to compliment her on her role in the fight. "It's all thanks to you and Missha that we were able to kill that giant. If not for the two of you, it would've healed itself again, and then the raid would've failed! Good work! Ainar! You should thank them too!"
"Th-thanks!"
Even as Ainar and I offered our sincerest thanks, Amelia's expression remained stony.
"I see... so that's how you want to play this."
Okay, so you already saw right through me. This presents a bit of a problem.
I got to work trying to figure out how to worm my way out of this as her cold eyes grew even colder.
"Karlstein, why aren't you saying anything?"
In an attempt to push me even further into a corner, Amelia called for backup. However, this ended up backfiring on her.
"...Huh?"
"You need to speak up too. If you don't like something, then you need to say so. Because if you don't, you'll be the one to suffer in the end—"
"Huh? But I don't really mind...?"
"...What?" Amelia asked, taken aback by her nonchalance. "What... What do you mean?"
Her tone suggested she genuinely didn't understand what Missha was saying. Missha must have picked up on that as well, because she blinked at Amelia before glancing at me and quietly admitting, "It's... I... I finally felt like I was being helpful... So it didn't really bother me..."
Everyone could tell that she wasn't just making excuses for me. She was genuinely speaking from the heart.
"Karlstein, you..."
"...Hmm?"
"...No, never mind."
Amelia seemed to have a lot she wanted to say to that but she instead shut her mouth. She then looked at me and let out a big sigh. "I'll back off for today. But I'm watching you, Yandel."
It seemed she lost momentum after hearing Missha's answer.
All right, then I guess that problem's been dealt with.
"Ainar, do you notice anything different?"
"Uh... I don't know yet! I think I got stronger."
I got the other members of the group to patrol the perimeter and began assessing the new essence. I first started with her active skills.
"Then lay down on the ground."
As soon as I gave the order, Ainar curled up on her side without complaint. It was the same position the Hipramajent had gotten into during our battle.
"All right, now try using your skill."
I didn't need to say much more than that.
[Ainar Fenelin has cast Curl Up.]
Ainar had absorbed quite a few essences at this point, so she was able to activate her newly acquired skill without issue.
Fwoong!
A yellow, translucent barrier covered her body.
[For three minutes, all of her resistances increase by 20x.]
[For three minutes, her Natural Regeneration increases by 20x.]
[Until the end of combat, all of her stats significantly increase relative to the amount of damage she takes while Curled Up.]
After running a lot of tests with Curl Up, I concluded that the skill itself was identical to the one you got from an Ogre. I'd been wondering if there was anything different about it.
The Resistance and Regeneration stats attached to the essence seem pretty similar as well.
It also seemed that she didn't get a stat boost when a human attacked her while in Curl Up mode. That part probably only applied to monsters, just like in the game.
"Excuse me... could we perhaps be of assistance?"
Just as I was about to assess her individual stats, the trio of wizards from the Adventurer Group who had been working together the longest approached us.
"Um...when we came into the labyrinth, we brought an essence test kit with us... so even if it's not as precise as running tests in a proper lab, it should still be quite helpful."
"Oh, well. If you're offering, I'll take it."
That would definitely be more precise than letting her punch me to test her strength, so I let the trio have at it.
Sometime later, with the added caveat that it was impossible to know the exact numbers and that there could be a few special stats the kit didn't pick up, they announced that the general stat profile had come back.
Strength (High), Natural Regeneration (High), Physical Resistance (High), Mana Resistance (Medium), Bone Strength (Medium), Lung Capacity (Medium), Vision (Low), Patience (Low), Mana Sensitivity (Low), and...
"She also has one weakened stat."
One minus stat.
"A weakened stat? Which one? Tell me," I demanded.
With a glance at Ainar, the wizard hesitantly said, "It's Aggression."
The stat was one I never expected.
"Aggression..."
Now that I thought about it, Ainar was strangely calm right now. Usually, she would've complained that these tests were boring and run off to find some monsters so she could test her new essence herself in a fight.
"Just... how much lower is it now?"
I asked for concrete numbers, but the wizard replied that it was impossible to figure that out with the equipment they had on hand. So instead, I went with a more rudimentary method.
"Ainar! I'm getting bored. Do you want to spar?"
A barbarian never turned down a spar, no matter the situation. Sparring was like playing for us. All you had to do was head to an inn that catered to barbarians, and you'd be able to see a bunch of us fighting from dawn to dusk in the field next to it.
So what was going on?
"Spar...? Hmm..." Ainar, the most barbarian barbarian I'd ever met, didn't immediately take me up on my offer and instead hummed in thought. "...Let's do it later! Later! Shouldn't we finish the tests first?"
"All right, now try using your skill."
I didn't need to say much more than that.
[Ainar Fenelin has cast Curl Up.]
Ainar had absorbed quite a few essences at this point, so she was able to activate her newly acquired skill without issue.
Fwoong!
A yellow, translucent barrier covered her body.
[For three minutes, all of her resistances increase by 20x.]
[For three minutes, her Natural Regeneration increases by 20x.]
[Until the end of combat, all of her stats significantly increase relative to the amount of damage she takes while Curled Up.]
After running a lot of tests with Curl Up, I concluded that the skill itself was identical to the one you got from an Ogre. I'd been wondering if there was anything different about it.
The Resistance and Regeneration stats attached to the essence seem pretty similar as well.
It also seemed that she didn't get a stat boost when a human attacked her while in Curl Up mode. That part probably only applied to monsters, just like in the game.
"Excuse me... could we perhaps be of assistance?"
Just as I was about to assess her individual stats, the trio of wizards from the Adventurer Group who had been working together the longest approached us.
"Um...when we came into the labyrinth, we brought an essence test kit with us... so even if it's not as precise as running tests in a proper lab, it should still be quite helpful."
"Oh, well. If you're offering, I'll take it."
That would definitely be more precise than letting her punch me to test her strength, so I let the trio have at it.
Sometime later, with the added caveat that it was impossible to know the exact numbers and that there could be a few special stats the kit didn't pick up, they announced that the general stat profile had come back.
Strength (High), Natural Regeneration (High), Physical Resistance (High), Mana Resistance (Medium), Bone Strength (Medium), Lung Capacity (Medium), Vision (Low), Patience (Low), Mana Sensitivity (Low), and...
"She also has one weakened stat."
One minus stat.
"A weakened stat? Which one? Tell me," I demanded.
With a glance at Ainar, the wizard hesitantly said, "It's Aggression."
The stat was one I never expected.
"Aggression..."
Now that I thought about it, Ainar was strangely calm right now. Usually, she would've complained that these tests were boring and run off to find some monsters so she could test her new essence herself in a fight.
"Just... how much lower is it now?"
I asked for concrete numbers, but the wizard replied that it was impossible to figure that out with the equipment they had on hand. So instead, I went with a more rudimentary method.
"Ainar! I'm getting bored. Do you want to spar?"
A barbarian never turned down a spar, no matter the situation. Sparring was like playing for us. All you had to do was head to an inn that catered to barbarians, and you'd be able to see a bunch of us fighting from dawn to dusk in the field next to it.
So what was going on?
"Spar...? Hmm..." Ainar, the most barbarian barbarian I'd ever met, didn't immediately take me up on my offer and instead hummed in thought. "...Let's do it later! Later! Shouldn't we finish the tests first?"
...She refused?
I was wondering why that giant kept running away...
Just how much Aggression had she lost?
***
The adventurer of yesterday was different from the adventurer of today. That adage usually referred to the way an adventurer's personality could seemingly change at the drop of a hat, and it was pretty spot on in that regard as well. To get through this monster-filled labyrinth, you needed to consume essences, and those essences all too frequently affected the personality of the adventurers that took them.
Case in point: Ainar.
"Fight? Well, I'll do it if we have to... but do we need to go around looking for fights? I like how calm and peaceful things are right now..."
The barbarian warrior who just a few minutes ago had considered defeating monsters and proving her mettle her biggest joy in life had turned into this.
"Battle cry."
"...Hmm?"
"Shout out our battle cry. Right now."
"Behel... ahh...?"
"Damn it."
I couldn't even laugh. This was serious. Although she wasn't completely out for the count, Ainar's greatest strength was that recklessness of hers.
"Yandel... will she be all right?"
"...It's scary to see Ms. Fenelin like this."
My other allies came over to express their own concerns after hearing that lifeless battle cry. It was worrying to see our melee warrior, who was always the first to throw herself into the jaws of danger, suddenly lose her fighting spirit. However, there wasn't much we could do about it right now. Plus, since the next essence I was planning to give her would have a lot of Aggression in it, that should help.
But she's going to stay like this until then.
I couldn't help but wonder, not for the first time, just how much Aggression she lost. Since she was already naturally aggressive, knocking a few dozen points off shouldn't have left her so docile.
Which means she must have taken at least a one-hundred-point loss.
If that was the case, that was even more worrying. It was a relief that a non-combat stat like Aggression had taken the hit instead of something like Strength, but it was still a critical blow.
...And I would've ended up like that if I absorbed it.
In fact, if I had been the one to consume it, the essence of the Orc Hero—and its +40 Aggression—probably would've been nullified entirely, so the change would've been even more noticeable.
"What about her passive skill? Is there a way to figure that out?"
I decided to set the Aggression issue aside for now and look into her passive.
"In regards to passive skills, it's difficult for us to identify those with what we have on hand right now. However, we can tell what type they are."
"Do it."
As I gave them permission, the wizards took out all sorts of testing tools and approached Ainar. About thirty minutes later, they came back with their results.
"It seems her passive skill is a support type. That's what the readings seem to suggest."
"Not a survival or defense type?"
"It's possible, but the data is a bit noisy."
The results completely defied my expectations. Considering he didn't die even after getting a hole drilled through his head, I'd been sure it would be either a survival or defense type. Final Stand, Phoenix Heart, Near Death Experience—I was convinced it would be something along those lines, but it turned out that wasn't the case at all.
...She refused?
I was wondering why that giant kept running away...
Just how much Aggression had she lost?
***
The adventurer of yesterday was different from the adventurer of today. That adage usually referred to the way an adventurer's personality could seemingly change at the drop of a hat, and it was pretty spot on in that regard as well. To get through this monster-filled labyrinth, you needed to consume essences, and those essences all too frequently affected the personality of the adventurers that took them.
Case in point: Ainar.
"Fight? Well, I'll do it if we have to... but do we need to go around looking for fights? I like how calm and peaceful things are right now..."
The barbarian warrior who just a few minutes ago had considered defeating monsters and proving her mettle her biggest joy in life had turned into this.
"Battle cry."
"...Hmm?"
"Shout out our battle cry. Right now."
"Behel... ahh...?"
"Damn it."
I couldn't even laugh. This was serious. Although she wasn't completely out for the count, Ainar's greatest strength was that recklessness of hers.
"Yandel... will she be all right?"
"...It's scary to see Ms. Fenelin like this."
My other allies came over to express their own concerns after hearing that lifeless battle cry. It was worrying to see our melee warrior, who was always the first to throw herself into the jaws of danger, suddenly lose her fighting spirit. However, there wasn't much we could do about it right now. Plus, since the next essence I was planning to give her would have a lot of Aggression in it, that should help.
But she's going to stay like this until then.
I couldn't help but wonder, not for the first time, just how much Aggression she lost. Since she was already naturally aggressive, knocking a few dozen points off shouldn't have left her so docile.
Which means she must have taken at least a one-hundred-point loss.
If that was the case, that was even more worrying. It was a relief that a non-combat stat like Aggression had taken the hit instead of something like Strength, but it was still a critical blow.
...And I would've ended up like that if I absorbed it.
In fact, if I had been the one to consume it, the essence of the Orc Hero—and its +40 Aggression—probably would've been nullified entirely, so the change would've been even more noticeable.
"What about her passive skill? Is there a way to figure that out?"
I decided to set the Aggression issue aside for now and look into her passive.
"In regards to passive skills, it's difficult for us to identify those with what we have on hand right now. However, we can tell what type they are."
"Do it."
As I gave them permission, the wizards took out all sorts of testing tools and approached Ainar. About thirty minutes later, they came back with their results.
"It seems her passive skill is a support type. That's what the readings seem to suggest."
"Not a survival or defense type?"
"It's possible, but the data is a bit noisy."
The results completely defied my expectations. Considering he didn't die even after getting a hole drilled through his head, I'd been sure it would be either a survival or defense type. Final Stand, Phoenix Heart, Near Death Experience—I was convinced it would be something along those lines, but it turned out that wasn't the case at all.
Then what is it?
Since we didn't know, I ran a test that I could do right then and there.
"Ainar, this will sting a little."
"I don't like getting hurt..."
"That's because you're not right in the head right now."
"Oh, is that so?"
I made a shallow cut on her finger but didn't get anything out of it. After that, I also got her to spar with me, but that didn't tell me anything either.
"...We'll end the spar there."
"Oh? Really?"
I decided to look more into her passive later when we weren't on a tight schedule. We'd already eaten into quite a bit of our time trying to figure it out now.
"All right, let's go."
With that, our expedition resumed.
***
We could only stay on this island for about three days, so we explored it as thoroughly and efficiently as possible.
Our first priority was to complete our map of the island. In the process, we naturally encountered all sorts of monsters, including Hipramajent. I was pretty sure we had run into them another eight times at this point.
We skipped three of those encounters because they were moving in pairs, and twice, we ended up accidentally letting them escape, so those ended in failure as well. In the end, we'd successfully pulled off three raids. However, we weren't even able to get mana stones for any of them because the distortion spells had failed every time.
Not only does Distortion have to work—which sometimes it just doesn't—but then you also need to hope that the odds are on your side and the essence drops...
I didn't think about it earlier, but it was now hitting me just how lucky we were to get an essence on our first try. For the monsters who left behind corpses, the probability of getting an essence seemed to be astronomically low.
I guess I have Beginner's Luck working in our favor for essence drops, which helps. But if we can't get a successful Distortion off, it won't activate in the first place.
In any case, after fighting a few more Hipramajents, I learned a bit more about them.
The chief's book said that they're estimated to be rank two...
But from my point of view, they weren't rank two at all. Also, the size of its mana stone was only as big as the strongest rank-three monsters.
Still, I guess Curl Up made it so that we needed to deal a lot more damage to it...
But its attack was pretty low compared to its defenses. We needed to take that into account as well when determining its rank.
Then... if we also take into account that it typically lives in groups, I guess it's about a rank 2.7?
Hmm, that sounded about right. It didn't have any rank-two skills, so it would be odd to classify it as a proper rank-two.
For a moment, I felt myself start to doubt the credibility of the information listed in the chief's books, but I concluded that this monster was probably a special case. Still, if he hadn't specified in the book that he only heard about the monster through a secondhand account...
"Finally... we're finally off that island."
I was in the middle of collecting my thoughts, watching the island drift off into the distance, when Wyatt Hektz approached me.
"You look pretty relieved," I noted. "Even though we haven't found a way to get out of here yet."
"Still... this is much better than being trapped in that cave. Back then, I didn't have any idea what would happen to me."
I wanted to point out that that hadn't actually changed, but I decided to keep my mouth shut. There were different degrees of awful, and he was technically better off now than—
At that moment, a huge gust of wind from the island slapped against the side of our boat, and we all stumbled.
What?
Just as I was about to call out to Erwen up in the crow's nest to ask what was going on, Wyatt Hektz pointed out at the sea. "O-Over there...!"
Over there? Over where?
When I turned to look in the direction he was pointing, I froze. No, it wasn't just me—all of the adventurers on deck went stock still.
There, right in the center of the island we left behind, something rose to its full, towering height and glared straight at us.
Then it let out a blood-curdling roar.
Uraaaaaah!
Thankfully, we were far enough away from it that it didn't look like it would be coming after us. It was just roaring.
"Wh-what is that...?"
"Looks like your dead friend wasn't hallucinating," I said quietly to a stunned Wyatt Hektz.
It was indeed a gargantuan giant over forty yards tall. Not even the Lords of the Floor were that big. I couldn't even fathom what sort of strategy you'd use to take one of those down.
Fwoosh!
We increased our speed and fled from both the monster and its island. Still, something lingered in the back of my mind.
Why can't I shake the thought that if we want to leave this place, we'll need to kill that guy...?
And if that were the case, how would we kill a giant?
Then what is it?
Since we didn't know, I ran a test that I could do right then and there.
"Ainar, this will sting a little."
"I don't like getting hurt..."
"That's because you're not right in the head right now."
"Oh, is that so?"
I made a shallow cut on her finger but didn't get anything out of it. After that, I also got her to spar with me, but that didn't tell me anything either.
"...We'll end the spar there."
"Oh? Really?"
I decided to look more into her passive later when we weren't on a tight schedule. We'd already eaten into quite a bit of our time trying to figure it out now.
"All right, let's go."
With that, our expedition resumed.
***
We could only stay on this island for about three days, so we explored it as thoroughly and efficiently as possible.
Our first priority was to complete our map of the island. In the process, we naturally encountered all sorts of monsters, including Hipramajent. I was pretty sure we had run into them another eight times at this point.
We skipped three of those encounters because they were moving in pairs, and twice, we ended up accidentally letting them escape, so those ended in failure as well. In the end, we'd successfully pulled off three raids. However, we weren't even able to get mana stones for any of them because the distortion spells had failed every time.
Not only does Distortion have to work—which sometimes it just doesn't—but then you also need to hope that the odds are on your side and the essence drops...
I didn't think about it earlier, but it was now hitting me just how lucky we were to get an essence on our first try. For the monsters who left behind corpses, the probability of getting an essence seemed to be astronomically low.
I guess I have Beginner's Luck working in our favor for essence drops, which helps. But if we can't get a successful Distortion off, it won't activate in the first place.
In any case, after fighting a few more Hipramajents, I learned a bit more about them.
The chief's book said that they're estimated to be rank two...
But from my point of view, they weren't rank two at all. Also, the size of its mana stone was only as big as the strongest rank-three monsters.
Still, I guess Curl Up made it so that we needed to deal a lot more damage to it...
But its attack was pretty low compared to its defenses. We needed to take that into account as well when determining its rank.
Then... if we also take into account that it typically lives in groups, I guess it's about a rank 2.7?
Hmm, that sounded about right. It didn't have any rank-two skills, so it would be odd to classify it as a proper rank-two.
For a moment, I felt myself start to doubt the credibility of the information listed in the chief's books, but I concluded that this monster was probably a special case. Still, if he hadn't specified in the book that he only heard about the monster through a secondhand account...
"Finally... we're finally off that island."
I was in the middle of collecting my thoughts, watching the island drift off into the distance, when Wyatt Hektz approached me.
"You look pretty relieved," I noted. "Even though we haven't found a way to get out of here yet."
"Still... this is much better than being trapped in that cave. Back then, I didn't have any idea what would happen to me."
I wanted to point out that that hadn't actually changed, but I decided to keep my mouth shut. There were different degrees of awful, and he was technically better off now than—
At that moment, a huge gust of wind from the island slapped against the side of our boat, and we all stumbled.
What?
Just as I was about to call out to Erwen up in the crow's nest to ask what was going on, Wyatt Hektz pointed out at the sea. "O-Over there...!"
Over there? Over where?
When I turned to look in the direction he was pointing, I froze. No, it wasn't just me—all of the adventurers on deck went stock still.
There, right in the center of the island we left behind, something rose to its full, towering height and glared straight at us.
Then it let out a blood-curdling roar.
Uraaaaaah!
Thankfully, we were far enough away from it that it didn't look like it would be coming after us. It was just roaring.
"Wh-what is that...?"
"Looks like your dead friend wasn't hallucinating," I said quietly to a stunned Wyatt Hektz.
It was indeed a gargantuan giant over forty yards tall. Not even the Lords of the Floor were that big. I couldn't even fathom what sort of strategy you'd use to take one of those down.
Fwoosh!
We increased our speed and fled from both the monster and its island. Still, something lingered in the back of my mind.
Why can't I shake the thought that if we want to leave this place, we'll need to kill that guy...?
And if that were the case, how would we kill a giant?