Chapter 535: Rainbow (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 535: Rainbow (2)
From rank one to rank nine, monsters of all kinds appeared on this island thanks to the "rainy season" event, and the chief had spent practically an eternity here. In other words, he had been able to farm for essences as much and as often as he wanted.
But the odds of all of his essences being high-ranking are extremely low.
That was the type of game Dungeon and Stone was. You could only get your hands on high-rank essences by slowly and steadily developing your character and absorbing low-rank essences first.
He probably had an essence of every rank since this island didn't have a temple to get rid of them with.
The problem is that having a rank-one as his best essence gives him a massive advantage over us.
From here on out, the outcome of this fight depended on how smart the chief had been. If he consumed a bunch of random early-game essences without planning ahead and then tried to give himself a late-game boost with a single high-ranking essence, then he was just a mutt with no pedigree.
And his weaknesses will be obvious.
Of course, there was also the possibility that he'd done the opposite. If he filled his first few slots with essences that were relatively low-rank but had skills that were useful later on in the game like I did with Giantization...
Hmm, I guess it wouldn't make that big of a difference, actually.
All it would do was make it a bit more difficult for me to find his weakness. No matter how I looked at it, that was all. There was no such thing as an invincible character in Dungeon and Stone.
Well, except for my Shield Barbarian, of course.
In any case, the question was: which of those two strategies did this guy go with? I carefully analyzed his every move. The only skill I could confirm he had so far was Tol-Lapupa's Cosmic Protection.
Along with some sort of movement-related skill.
The split second before we crossed weapons and clashed, it looked almost like the chief's body split in two, as if moving in different directions. It was like when a game suddenly lagged and the frames got glitchy.
Dash!
However, since I was studying him so intently, I was able to pick up on some details that helped me piece together what was going on.
Steam seemed to billow from the places where his feet met the ground.
Lightning covered his body.
Crackle!
And there were bursts of yellow light every time he touched down.
It's Storm Lord's Steps.
This was a rank-two skill and one that was hard to write off as a pure movement type. Not unlike Blink, it was characterized by the quick, sharp movements of its users, but it also inflicted the Paralysis effect on anyone in the surrounding area when he landed.
Bzzzt!
Vwoong!
Also, it significantly increased the user's speed.
"Ugh...!"
"S-Stop him— Huh?"
Along with granting him temporary invulnerability, of course.
Vwoosh!
One of the melee fighters nearby tried to swing their weapon at the chief in a panic, but the weapon just passed right through him as he Stepped away.
Is he going for Erwen?
Hah, that vile little...
He was really dead set on keeping us in this village. But I didn't intend to just roll over and let him do whatever he wanted.
There are two ways to get around Step's invulnerability.
The first way was to get him to attack. This was probably why the chief was ignoring the rest of us and only charging toward Erwen. As for the second way...
Three seconds.
It was less a way and more a natural limitation of Step—namely the fact that its invulnerability effect only lasted for three seconds. Of course, three seconds was more than enough time for him to stab a sword into Erwen's neck and end it all.
Well, he won't get the chance.
Even as the chief charged toward Erwen, eyes narrowed, my heart rate was slow and steady. Erwen was now in what I liked to call her Focus state.
[While active, all damage she receives will be circumvented through the consumption of Soul Power.]
In this state, Erwen was invulnerable too.
But considering he must know we're analyzing him right now...
There was probably a reason he was showing off this skill now when he could've whipped it out at a more opportune moment later.
[You have cast Eye of the Storm. By the authority of the transcendental body, the potential inherent in this skill is now unlocked.]
I chained Transcendence and Eye of the Storm together. Fortunately, this skill combination could counter his.
He's only immune to damage, not immune to being grabbed.
Eye of the Storm didn't do any damage, so it wouldn't trigger his defenses.
Whoosh!
Powerful winds spun around me, and the chief, who had been charging toward Erwen, was yanked back and pulled in my direction.
Crackle!
His three seconds seemed to have run out, as a wave of electricity exploded out and around the chief. That also meant he was no longer immune to damage.
Since I was already using Transcendence anyway, I decided to cast Swing for good measure.
[The range of all your attacks is tripled.]
My hammer grew like the Monkey King's staff and smashed into the chief's side.
However, the chief's body defied the laws of physics. Rather than getting flung away, he ended up flattened against the end of my hammer thanks to the winds still pulling him in my direction.
It's been a while since I've used this combo.
I smoothly adjusted the trajectory of my hammer. Like an amusement park ride, I slowly swung, lifted the chief over my head...
Boom!
And then slammed him into the dirt on my other side.
After being grabbed, he was now even further from Erwen than he was when he started running toward her.
The chief coughed up blood from his spot on the ground. Of course, with his incredible healing factor, he'd probably be fully recovered soon enough, but I must have gotten a good hit in, considering the way he stumbled a little as he got to his feet.
"Right. You did have that."
"Oh, did you hear that from someone? I don't think I ever mentioned it to you."
Is he going for Erwen?
Hah, that vile little...
He was really dead set on keeping us in this village. But I didn't intend to just roll over and let him do whatever he wanted.
There are two ways to get around Step's invulnerability.
The first way was to get him to attack. This was probably why the chief was ignoring the rest of us and only charging toward Erwen. As for the second way...
Three seconds.
It was less a way and more a natural limitation of Step—namely the fact that its invulnerability effect only lasted for three seconds. Of course, three seconds was more than enough time for him to stab a sword into Erwen's neck and end it all.
Well, he won't get the chance.
Even as the chief charged toward Erwen, eyes narrowed, my heart rate was slow and steady. Erwen was now in what I liked to call her Focus state.
[While active, all damage she receives will be circumvented through the consumption of Soul Power.]
In this state, Erwen was invulnerable too.
But considering he must know we're analyzing him right now...
There was probably a reason he was showing off this skill now when he could've whipped it out at a more opportune moment later.
[You have cast Eye of the Storm. By the authority of the transcendental body, the potential inherent in this skill is now unlocked.]
I chained Transcendence and Eye of the Storm together. Fortunately, this skill combination could counter his.
He's only immune to damage, not immune to being grabbed.
Eye of the Storm didn't do any damage, so it wouldn't trigger his defenses.
Whoosh!
Powerful winds spun around me, and the chief, who had been charging toward Erwen, was yanked back and pulled in my direction.
Crackle!
His three seconds seemed to have run out, as a wave of electricity exploded out and around the chief. That also meant he was no longer immune to damage.
Since I was already using Transcendence anyway, I decided to cast Swing for good measure.
[The range of all your attacks is tripled.]
My hammer grew like the Monkey King's staff and smashed into the chief's side.
However, the chief's body defied the laws of physics. Rather than getting flung away, he ended up flattened against the end of my hammer thanks to the winds still pulling him in my direction.
It's been a while since I've used this combo.
I smoothly adjusted the trajectory of my hammer. Like an amusement park ride, I slowly swung, lifted the chief over my head...
Boom!
And then slammed him into the dirt on my other side.
After being grabbed, he was now even further from Erwen than he was when he started running toward her.
The chief coughed up blood from his spot on the ground. Of course, with his incredible healing factor, he'd probably be fully recovered soon enough, but I must have gotten a good hit in, considering the way he stumbled a little as he got to his feet.
"Right. You did have that."
"Oh, did you hear that from someone? I don't think I ever mentioned it to you."
The chief didn't answer, instead looking past me at Erwen.
I tutted. It seemed he still hadn't gotten with the program.
"Get real," I said firmly. "You'll never be able to reach her."
"Unless I deal with you first?"
"Exact—!"
The chief disappeared before my very eyes.
By the time I was able to find him again with my lacking Agility, he was already at my flank, sword at the ready.
Clang!
I barely managed to raise my shield in time to block his thrust.
As someone who fought with a shield every day, I could immediately tell just by the impact. Whereas before, he was only leaving chips or tiny dents, this time around he did a significant amount of damage to my shield.
I think it's nearly been pierced through.
Of course, I didn't have to scramble to figure out what was happening. It wasn't that the chief had used a new, unidentified skill on me—it was just that I was weaker than I was earlier.
[You have one minute remaining before Transcendence can be activated again.]
The amount of bladed-weapon resistance my passive Evolving Shell gave me was 50 percent. If I wanted to increase that to 75 percent, I could do so by using Iron Fortress. Using Transcendence—which enhanced passive skills by 1.5 times—on top of that would practically make me immune to bladed weapons.
Unfortunately for me, however, there was a limit to how immune I could get.
The maximum amount of resistance any character could have to bladed weapons was 85 percent. And for the next minute, my maximum resistance of 85 percent had decreased to 75 percent.
In other words, the 15 percent damage I was taking earlier has gone up to 25 percent.
Simple math stated the damage had only increased by 10 percent of the total damage he was dealing with, but in practice, that meant I was experiencing nearly double the damage I was taking before.
Bang!
As I continued to block the chief's flurry of slashes, reinforcements swept in to back me up.
"I'll help you out now."
"Ah! Ah! I will too...!"
"Me too! Me too!"
It was Amelia, Missha, and Ainar—our clan's melee fighters.
"Be careful. Don't underestimate him." I was a little worried about how this would play out, but I decided to give it a shot and fight him side by side with them.
After all, you could learn a thing or two by taking a few hits.
[Amelia Rainwales has cast Power of the Abyss.]
[Missha Karlstein has cast Glacial Soul.]
[Ainar Fenelin has cast Wildness Control.]
I took on the role of main tank, and the three melee fighters used me as a wall and swung their weapons in a tight formation.
In the process, we were able to identify another one of the chief's abilities.
Rumble!
A black and gray fog spread around the chief, lightning streaking through it.
Thunder Cloud.
A rank-two skill. It dealt lightning damage in a certain radius around the caster, and depending on how many targets it managed to hit, the skill's cooldown decreased.
The chief didn't answer, instead looking past me at Erwen.
I tutted. It seemed he still hadn't gotten with the program.
"Get real," I said firmly. "You'll never be able to reach her."
"Unless I deal with you first?"
"Exact—!"
The chief disappeared before my very eyes.
By the time I was able to find him again with my lacking Agility, he was already at my flank, sword at the ready.
Clang!
I barely managed to raise my shield in time to block his thrust.
As someone who fought with a shield every day, I could immediately tell just by the impact. Whereas before, he was only leaving chips or tiny dents, this time around he did a significant amount of damage to my shield.
I think it's nearly been pierced through.
Of course, I didn't have to scramble to figure out what was happening. It wasn't that the chief had used a new, unidentified skill on me—it was just that I was weaker than I was earlier.
[You have one minute remaining before Transcendence can be activated again.]
The amount of bladed-weapon resistance my passive Evolving Shell gave me was 50 percent. If I wanted to increase that to 75 percent, I could do so by using Iron Fortress. Using Transcendence—which enhanced passive skills by 1.5 times—on top of that would practically make me immune to bladed weapons.
Unfortunately for me, however, there was a limit to how immune I could get.
The maximum amount of resistance any character could have to bladed weapons was 85 percent. And for the next minute, my maximum resistance of 85 percent had decreased to 75 percent.
In other words, the 15 percent damage I was taking earlier has gone up to 25 percent.
Simple math stated the damage had only increased by 10 percent of the total damage he was dealing with, but in practice, that meant I was experiencing nearly double the damage I was taking before.
Bang!
As I continued to block the chief's flurry of slashes, reinforcements swept in to back me up.
"I'll help you out now."
"Ah! Ah! I will too...!"
"Me too! Me too!"
It was Amelia, Missha, and Ainar—our clan's melee fighters.
"Be careful. Don't underestimate him." I was a little worried about how this would play out, but I decided to give it a shot and fight him side by side with them.
After all, you could learn a thing or two by taking a few hits.
[Amelia Rainwales has cast Power of the Abyss.]
[Missha Karlstein has cast Glacial Soul.]
[Ainar Fenelin has cast Wildness Control.]
I took on the role of main tank, and the three melee fighters used me as a wall and swung their weapons in a tight formation.
In the process, we were able to identify another one of the chief's abilities.
Rumble!
A black and gray fog spread around the chief, lightning streaking through it.
Thunder Cloud.
A rank-two skill. It dealt lightning damage in a certain radius around the caster, and depending on how many targets it managed to hit, the skill's cooldown decreased.
"...U-Ugh!"
Still, since the only ones to get hit by the lightning were the four of us, the cooldown didn't decrease that much.
Step's cooldown is probably over, though.
"Get as far away as you can!"
The moment I came to that realization, I ordered the other three to get back as quickly as possible.
Dash!
As expected, the chief charged, his body once again invulnerable as lightning danced around him.
It took me a second too long to realize the bastard had switched targets.
"Ainar!"
With how close he was to her, it was already too late for me to try and use my grab attack to stop him.
[Ainar Fenelin has cast Curl Up.]
Yeah, she had that going for her, at least.
[For three minutes, all of her resistances increase by 20x.]
The shining sword struck Ainar's body and made a deep enough wound to expose the bone. However, as long as she didn't die in one hit, it shouldn't be a problem.
[For three minutes, her Natural Regeneration increases by 20x.]
Curl Up's true strength lay in its healing boost.
But that means one person on our side is out of the fight already...
Even though we had only been fighting for a few seconds, Ainar was already out of commission. Still, that didn't mean we hadn't gotten anything out of this exchange.
I've got the general gist of his build now.
The chief was a Lightning Warrior.
Storm Lord's Steps wasn't much of an indicator on its own, but I was now sure after seeing him use Thunder Cloud. Even though Thunder Cloud could pass as any old skill, the passive he was using in conjunction with it wasn't.
Lightning Affinity.
It was a passive that stacked every time he used a lightning-type skill and boosted all other lightning-type abilities depending on the number of stacks he had.
In any case, figuring this out was a huge deal. If the chief was a Lightning Warrior, then I could take a guess as to what that shining sword of his was.
It's probably Supercharge.
Just like Power of the Abyss, it was a transformation ability—more specifically, it was a weapon enhancement-type skill. Its key characteristic was that, along with dealing physical damage, it got a boost from the other lightning-type skills you had.
Like following a trail of breadcrumbs, this also granted me a new piece of information.
If he has Supercharge, he probably has that passive as well...
I'd essentially identified four of his essences in one fell swoop.
But how does he have four essences of rank two and above?
Did he figure out a way to erase his other essences? His average rank was higher than I expected.
Still, though, if I were to give him an overall rating...
"Five points."
Out of a possible ten, of course.
Even though he'd gone all in on the lightning theme, the compatibility of his essences wasn't all that impressive.
Yeah, does he know how many overpowered combos you can get with Thunder Cloud?
Still, thanks to his high-ranking essences, his raw power was pretty high. Even so, I was honestly hoping that the rest of his essences were high-ranking as well.
Characters without decent balance always had tons of weaknesses to exploit.
All right, then let's wrap things up for today...
One.
I reached the last second of my silent countdown and—
Fwooong!
The entire world was bathed in bright white light as something sliced through the air.
At that moment, Versyl, who had been standing off to the side, let out a shout for everyone to hear. "...S-She did it! The gate is open!"
It was time to get out of this damn village.
***
A burning village, a shattered gate, and an empty field that lay abandoned now that the adventurers had run out in droves. As the chief stared out at the destruction, one of the warriors of his village came up behind him.
"(Chief, the fire in the village has been taken care of.)"
The warriors began to discuss the damage done to the village and the number of casualties, but the chief didn't acknowledge them. Of course he didn't. It didn't make a difference that a few of these monsters had died. At that moment, there was only one thing that required the chief's undivided attention.
"I don't know how he noticed."
Bjorn Yandel. The most prolific adventurer of this age and the chieftain of the barbarians, one of the six great races. Along with a baron of the kingdom.
"...Just a little bit more time and we would've been in the clear."
Like a mountain face slowly worn away by the wind, the chief's emotions, which had been dulled over the years, began to show signs of peeking through the cracks.
And what he was feeling right now was regret.
However, he easily let go of the human emotion, his first in a very long while.
"(Chief, we will form a search party to chase after them.)"
"(It's fine.)"
"(...Pardon? But—)"
"(Securing the village is of higher priority. And is... that thing still all right?)"
"(Yes. It is safe, just as you confirmed earlier.)"
Right, then everything was fine. Nothing had changed.
Things had just gotten a little trickier, that was all.
The chief closed his eyes and thought of the barbarian he had engaged in intense combat with but a moment ago.
"Bjorn Yandel..." He was a beastly man in many ways. In some sense, even more so than the monsters of this village. "He'll be even stronger when we meet again," he mumbled, almost to himself.
And as he did, another faint emotion flickered to life in his eyes.
It was joy.
"...U-Ugh!"
Still, since the only ones to get hit by the lightning were the four of us, the cooldown didn't decrease that much.
Step's cooldown is probably over, though.
"Get as far away as you can!"
The moment I came to that realization, I ordered the other three to get back as quickly as possible.
Dash!
As expected, the chief charged, his body once again invulnerable as lightning danced around him.
It took me a second too long to realize the bastard had switched targets.
"Ainar!"
With how close he was to her, it was already too late for me to try and use my grab attack to stop him.
[Ainar Fenelin has cast Curl Up.]
Yeah, she had that going for her, at least.
[For three minutes, all of her resistances increase by 20x.]
The shining sword struck Ainar's body and made a deep enough wound to expose the bone. However, as long as she didn't die in one hit, it shouldn't be a problem.
[For three minutes, her Natural Regeneration increases by 20x.]
Curl Up's true strength lay in its healing boost.
But that means one person on our side is out of the fight already...
Even though we had only been fighting for a few seconds, Ainar was already out of commission. Still, that didn't mean we hadn't gotten anything out of this exchange.
I've got the general gist of his build now.
The chief was a Lightning Warrior.
Storm Lord's Steps wasn't much of an indicator on its own, but I was now sure after seeing him use Thunder Cloud. Even though Thunder Cloud could pass as any old skill, the passive he was using in conjunction with it wasn't.
Lightning Affinity.
It was a passive that stacked every time he used a lightning-type skill and boosted all other lightning-type abilities depending on the number of stacks he had.
In any case, figuring this out was a huge deal. If the chief was a Lightning Warrior, then I could take a guess as to what that shining sword of his was.
It's probably Supercharge.
Just like Power of the Abyss, it was a transformation ability—more specifically, it was a weapon enhancement-type skill. Its key characteristic was that, along with dealing physical damage, it got a boost from the other lightning-type skills you had.
Like following a trail of breadcrumbs, this also granted me a new piece of information.
If he has Supercharge, he probably has that passive as well...
I'd essentially identified four of his essences in one fell swoop.
But how does he have four essences of rank two and above?
Did he figure out a way to erase his other essences? His average rank was higher than I expected.
Still, though, if I were to give him an overall rating...
"Five points."
Out of a possible ten, of course.
Even though he'd gone all in on the lightning theme, the compatibility of his essences wasn't all that impressive.
Yeah, does he know how many overpowered combos you can get with Thunder Cloud?
Still, thanks to his high-ranking essences, his raw power was pretty high. Even so, I was honestly hoping that the rest of his essences were high-ranking as well.
Characters without decent balance always had tons of weaknesses to exploit.
All right, then let's wrap things up for today...
One.
I reached the last second of my silent countdown and—
Fwooong!
The entire world was bathed in bright white light as something sliced through the air.
At that moment, Versyl, who had been standing off to the side, let out a shout for everyone to hear. "...S-She did it! The gate is open!"
It was time to get out of this damn village.
***
A burning village, a shattered gate, and an empty field that lay abandoned now that the adventurers had run out in droves. As the chief stared out at the destruction, one of the warriors of his village came up behind him.
"(Chief, the fire in the village has been taken care of.)"
The warriors began to discuss the damage done to the village and the number of casualties, but the chief didn't acknowledge them. Of course he didn't. It didn't make a difference that a few of these monsters had died. At that moment, there was only one thing that required the chief's undivided attention.
"I don't know how he noticed."
Bjorn Yandel. The most prolific adventurer of this age and the chieftain of the barbarians, one of the six great races. Along with a baron of the kingdom.
"...Just a little bit more time and we would've been in the clear."
Like a mountain face slowly worn away by the wind, the chief's emotions, which had been dulled over the years, began to show signs of peeking through the cracks.
And what he was feeling right now was regret.
However, he easily let go of the human emotion, his first in a very long while.
"(Chief, we will form a search party to chase after them.)"
"(It's fine.)"
"(...Pardon? But—)"
"(Securing the village is of higher priority. And is... that thing still all right?)"
"(Yes. It is safe, just as you confirmed earlier.)"
Right, then everything was fine. Nothing had changed.
Things had just gotten a little trickier, that was all.
The chief closed his eyes and thought of the barbarian he had engaged in intense combat with but a moment ago.
"Bjorn Yandel..." He was a beastly man in many ways. In some sense, even more so than the monsters of this village. "He'll be even stronger when we meet again," he mumbled, almost to himself.
And as he did, another faint emotion flickered to life in his eyes.
It was joy.