Chapter 536: Rainbow (3)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 536: Rainbow (3)
It had been five days since the beginning of the rainy season. We made quick work of escaping the village and soon reached the surface.
Graaaaaah!
Kiyeeeeeek!
Woof! Woof! Woof!
As expected, it was pandemonium above ground. Monsters were everywhere, flinging blood and flesh all over the place as they fought each other. However, there was one obvious difference from the first day of the rainy season.
Crunch!
Although monsters continued to fall from the sky...
"...The number has gone down quite a bit."
"A bit" didn't cover it. Compared to the first day, there were practically no monsters falling anymore. It was like saying the rain had gone down a bit from four inches the other day to 0.04 inches today.
"That damn chief."
There was no way he didn't know about this. He had just refused to tell me.
After all, he needs people to think the rainy season is dangerous so that everyone stays dependent on the village and he can keep them there for longer.
I cursed him out in my head as relief washed over me—I'd made the right call getting out of there immediately. Even so, I quickly squashed those thoughts. As someone currently responsible for the lives of dozens of people, I had more urgent matters to attend to.
Thankfully... the chief didn't chase after us.
I still didn't know what he was scheming, but that, at least, reduced the number of things I needed to worry about right now.
"Get in formation!" I ordered, quickly establishing a clear goal for my allies to work toward. "We're getting off this island!"
I blocked incoming monster teeth with my shield.
"Behel—aaaaaah!"
Then, I used my hammer to break their jaws and open up a path.
"Wizards!" I commanded. "Take as many mana stones as you can!"
I mean, it'd be a waste to leave them behind, right? What kind of adventurers would we be if we ignored the mana stones quite literally covering this island? Before, we weren't able to grab too many of them since I was wary of the village chief.
...But there's no need for that anymore.
I once again marveled at how good hammering people was for my social life, especially in that it let me set clear boundaries in any relationship.
Swoop!
The wizards got to work chain-casting farming spells to gather the mountains of mana stones. It would eat into our overall combat power a bit, but that wasn't that big of an issue right now. Since the number of monsters raining from the sky had decreased considerably, we had a lot more breathing room.
At this rate... it might actually be possible for us to get out of here without anyone dying.
This came as great news to me, as I had ordered us to leave the village even while fearing the worst. Now I could concentrate solely on plowing forward on the front lines and taking down the dangerous monsters in our path.
[You have killed an Iron Spirit. EXP +6]
[You have killed a Baphomet.]
[You have killed an Ainicorn. EXP +6]
[You have killed a Mud Golem.]
[You have killed a Heavenly Tree. EXP +5]
[You have killed a Dachyon...]
Ten minutes into my whack-a-monster session, Ainar delivered some more good news.
"Oh, oh! My soul! My soul! It's being filled!" I'd expected her to have her moment soon, and it seemed she had finally leveled up. "I've grown stronger once more!"
Well, right now she was only "stronger" in the sense that her Soul Power had gone up. But still, that was good to know since it meant she now had a free essence slot again after absorbing the Hipramajent's essence.
I think some of the members of the Hektz Clan and Armin Adventurer Group are also leveling up pretty consistently.
Overall, it seemed our group's average number of essence slots had increased by one or two.
"Um... Lord Baron! There's a rank-four essence over there..."
"From now on," I said, issuing a special order, "Anyone can absorb whatever essences show up! I won't care about anything below rank three!"
It was a bit of a shame to relinquish the first dibs and favorable share I'd secured for us, but when I thought about it, it wasn't even that big of a loss. It wasn't like we had time to collect every single one in a magic vial right now anyway, so any increase in our combat abilities was something to be celebrated.
"Yeeeaaah!"
This order also served to significantly increase the morale of my fellow adventurers. Just like how you could interpret a half-filled glass of water in multiple ways, fighting through hordes of monsters had transformed from a life-or-death situation into an opportunity.
Not bad.
Our spirits seemed to have lifted.
However, you couldn't overcome danger with optimism alone.
Kiyoooooo!
In the distance, what looked to be a huge bird let out a shriek and landed right in our path. Though calling it a bird was a bit of a stretch.
Boom!
Yeah, I'd been wondering if things were going too smoothly.
...So you're not going to let us off the island that easy, huh?
I let out a long sigh and squeezed my eyes shut for a moment before opening them again a second later. While I wished I could say I had been mistaken, unfortunately, the sight in front of me hadn't changed.
Pure white feathers and wide-open wings, the body of a drake funneling into a long, giraffe-like neck... And at the end of that long neck, what looked to be a human face.
It was a pretty famous monster, so rather than disgust at its appearance, fear was the far more dominant emotion.
"I-It's a Man-Faced Bird...!"
The creature in our path was the rank-two flying-type monster Man-Faced Bird.
It was also the first hurdle standing in the way of us getting off this island.
After swooping in from the sky and landing on the ground, its expressionless face turned in our direction before its eyes narrowed and rolled in their sockets.
Kihihihihihi.
I groaned. Seriously, why did Dungeon and Stone have so many of these horrifying freaks of nature?
The sense of disgust it evoked was different from the kind I felt when I came face-to-face with my first Corpse Golem. If I hadn't built up a tolerance for encountering and fighting all kinds of monsters, I would've broken out in chills right now, unable to dole out a single order.
Ten minutes into my whack-a-monster session, Ainar delivered some more good news.
"Oh, oh! My soul! My soul! It's being filled!" I'd expected her to have her moment soon, and it seemed she had finally leveled up. "I've grown stronger once more!"
Well, right now she was only "stronger" in the sense that her Soul Power had gone up. But still, that was good to know since it meant she now had a free essence slot again after absorbing the Hipramajent's essence.
I think some of the members of the Hektz Clan and Armin Adventurer Group are also leveling up pretty consistently.
Overall, it seemed our group's average number of essence slots had increased by one or two.
"Um... Lord Baron! There's a rank-four essence over there..."
"From now on," I said, issuing a special order, "Anyone can absorb whatever essences show up! I won't care about anything below rank three!"
It was a bit of a shame to relinquish the first dibs and favorable share I'd secured for us, but when I thought about it, it wasn't even that big of a loss. It wasn't like we had time to collect every single one in a magic vial right now anyway, so any increase in our combat abilities was something to be celebrated.
"Yeeeaaah!"
This order also served to significantly increase the morale of my fellow adventurers. Just like how you could interpret a half-filled glass of water in multiple ways, fighting through hordes of monsters had transformed from a life-or-death situation into an opportunity.
Not bad.
Our spirits seemed to have lifted.
However, you couldn't overcome danger with optimism alone.
Kiyoooooo!
In the distance, what looked to be a huge bird let out a shriek and landed right in our path. Though calling it a bird was a bit of a stretch.
Boom!
Yeah, I'd been wondering if things were going too smoothly.
...So you're not going to let us off the island that easy, huh?
I let out a long sigh and squeezed my eyes shut for a moment before opening them again a second later. While I wished I could say I had been mistaken, unfortunately, the sight in front of me hadn't changed.
Pure white feathers and wide-open wings, the body of a drake funneling into a long, giraffe-like neck... And at the end of that long neck, what looked to be a human face.
It was a pretty famous monster, so rather than disgust at its appearance, fear was the far more dominant emotion.
"I-It's a Man-Faced Bird...!"
The creature in our path was the rank-two flying-type monster Man-Faced Bird.
It was also the first hurdle standing in the way of us getting off this island.
After swooping in from the sky and landing on the ground, its expressionless face turned in our direction before its eyes narrowed and rolled in their sockets.
Kihihihihihi.
I groaned. Seriously, why did Dungeon and Stone have so many of these horrifying freaks of nature?
The sense of disgust it evoked was different from the kind I felt when I came face-to-face with my first Corpse Golem. If I hadn't built up a tolerance for encountering and fighting all kinds of monsters, I would've broken out in chills right now, unable to dole out a single order.
"Wizards! Form a protective barrier!"
The number of adventurers in Rafdonia who had experience fighting rank-two or above monsters could be counted on a single hand. I, however, had killed an untold number of them.
Well, that was only in the game, of course, but it was enough to give me the experience needed to make a split-second decision when we ran into one.
Vwoong!
The moment our wizards' barrier opened up above us like an umbrella, the whites of the Man-Faced Bird's eyes went black.
[The Man-Faced Bird has cast Song of the End.]
Yellow beams of light fell from the sky, so many that we had no hope of counting them all.
Boom! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
It was as if the heavens themselves were enacting righteous judgment on the land. The pillars of light fell for about ten straight seconds, destroying everything around us. The damage wasn't as high as you'd expect considering all the theatrics, though, so they didn't break through the barrier.
Kihihihihi!
However, everywhere a pillar of light made contact with the ground, a baby Man-Faced Bird rose to its feet. They were a token summons.
"What are you all doing? Kill those things, now!"
We were now in a race against time.
In a minute, those baby Man-Faced Birds would grow to full size and be able to use skills too. Theoretically, their number could grow exponentially from there. As soon as those babies started to cast Song of the End themselves, it would be impossible for us to deal with them and—
"Yandel, give us an order!"
Ah, now wasn't the time for me to stand around lost in thought.
"Erwen—" I began out of habit before stopping myself. She was currently recovering from using up all her MP getting us out of the village. There wasn't much she could do in this fight.
...When did I start relying so heavily on Erwen?
If you didn't have teeth, you chewed with the gums—that was the barbarian way.
"Emily! Missha! You two, follow me!" I began to run, and Amelia and Missha fell into step close behind me. "Ainar, you protect the main forces... Versyl! Get back there and handle support—I'm trusting your judgment on this!"
With that, the three of us ran forward, Amelia on my right and Missha on my left.
Huh, wait...
This formation was a lot like...
"Yandel, I'm going to warn you now before you get any ideas."
"Huh?"
"If you try to do something like you did the other day... I'll kill you."
Tsk, so that was a no. "...I wasn't going to."
"I'd be... all right with it..."
Regardless of whether or not Missha was okay with it, though, I couldn't force Amelia to cooperate when she'd already vehemently refused. This bird wasn't as big as the Hipramajent anyway, so I couldn't use that as an excuse either.
Thud!
Using Transcendence and Giantization together put me around eye to eye with it. Given the way it was staring at me like it had fallen in love at first sight, it seemed I'd managed to attract its aggro.
"Wizards! Form a protective barrier!"
The number of adventurers in Rafdonia who had experience fighting rank-two or above monsters could be counted on a single hand. I, however, had killed an untold number of them.
Well, that was only in the game, of course, but it was enough to give me the experience needed to make a split-second decision when we ran into one.
Vwoong!
The moment our wizards' barrier opened up above us like an umbrella, the whites of the Man-Faced Bird's eyes went black.
[The Man-Faced Bird has cast Song of the End.]
Yellow beams of light fell from the sky, so many that we had no hope of counting them all.
Boom! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
It was as if the heavens themselves were enacting righteous judgment on the land. The pillars of light fell for about ten straight seconds, destroying everything around us. The damage wasn't as high as you'd expect considering all the theatrics, though, so they didn't break through the barrier.
Kihihihihi!
However, everywhere a pillar of light made contact with the ground, a baby Man-Faced Bird rose to its feet. They were a token summons.
"What are you all doing? Kill those things, now!"
We were now in a race against time.
In a minute, those baby Man-Faced Birds would grow to full size and be able to use skills too. Theoretically, their number could grow exponentially from there. As soon as those babies started to cast Song of the End themselves, it would be impossible for us to deal with them and—
"Yandel, give us an order!"
Ah, now wasn't the time for me to stand around lost in thought.
"Erwen—" I began out of habit before stopping myself. She was currently recovering from using up all her MP getting us out of the village. There wasn't much she could do in this fight.
...When did I start relying so heavily on Erwen?
If you didn't have teeth, you chewed with the gums—that was the barbarian way.
"Emily! Missha! You two, follow me!" I began to run, and Amelia and Missha fell into step close behind me. "Ainar, you protect the main forces... Versyl! Get back there and handle support—I'm trusting your judgment on this!"
With that, the three of us ran forward, Amelia on my right and Missha on my left.
Huh, wait...
This formation was a lot like...
"Yandel, I'm going to warn you now before you get any ideas."
"Huh?"
"If you try to do something like you did the other day... I'll kill you."
Tsk, so that was a no. "...I wasn't going to."
"I'd be... all right with it..."
Regardless of whether or not Missha was okay with it, though, I couldn't force Amelia to cooperate when she'd already vehemently refused. This bird wasn't as big as the Hipramajent anyway, so I couldn't use that as an excuse either.
Thud!
Using Transcendence and Giantization together put me around eye to eye with it. Given the way it was staring at me like it had fallen in love at first sight, it seemed I'd managed to attract its aggro.
"Behel—aaaaaah!"
And with that, I immediately barreled forward in a shield charge.
Kiyaaaaaak!
The Man-Faced Bird stumbled as I slammed into it with my full body weight. Taking advantage of the opening, Missha and Amelia closed in on its flanks and attacked its legs from both sides.
Flash!
At which point the blackened eyes of the Man-Faced Bird fired off a beam of light.
[The Man-Faced Bird has cast Imprint of Destruction.]
Yeah, I knew you'd pick me as your target.
I felt a surge of fiery pain pierce my chest.
Fwoosh!
[You will lose 1% of your max HP per second.]
All right, so in theory, I was going to die in a hundred seconds.
Even just the thought of this skill pisses me off.
The Imprint of Destruction was a single-target debuff that was impossible to dodge or block. It also didn't even have a time limit. In other words, if you got hit by it, your options were either dying or killing the caster before the curse could kill you.
However, the strategy for dealing with it was actually pretty simple.
"Raaagh!"
You just had to tank it with the help of your Natural Regeneration and the support of a priest.
"Yandel! Are you okay?"
"Don't worry about me! Keep stabbing!"
The Man-Faced Bird was a creature designed with battles of attrition in mind. If this went on for too long, it was guaranteed to beat us.
I did my best to hold its aggro so the damage dealers could keep attacking it without issue, and not long after, our long-rangers joined in on the fight to help keep it in check.
Kihihihihi...!
As the battle dragged on, the Man-Faced Bird whipped out a different skill.
[The Man-Faced Bird has cast Mimicry.]
The huge face attached to its huge body instantly changed into a different one. It was much larger than the face I was used to seeing, but it wasn't hard to clock who it was.
"Oh!" cried Ainar excitedly. "It's Emily! The monster turned into Emily!"
Mimicry randomly copied the abilities of a character within a certain radius.
[The Man-Faced Bird has cast Self-Replication.]
You little... Why did it have to take that skill?
"Oh! There are two... No, three Emilys!"
We somehow ended up with two more boss monsters to deal with, the clones using their skills as well as they joined in on the fight.
[The Man-Faced Bird has cast Song of the End.]
A few more pillars of light rained down.
[The Man-Faced Bird has cast Imprint of Destruction.]
[You will lose 2% of your max HP per second.]
Hah, so that effect was doubled now. Was our priest going to be enough to stave it off?
Well, there was no use dwelling on it.
Why does bad news always come in batches?
[The Man-Faced Bird has cast Song of the End.]
One of the baby Man-Faced Birds that managed to reach full maturity joined in on the fun.
[The Man-Faced Bird has cast Imprint of Destruction.]
[You will lose 3% of your max HP per second.]
With that, I now had a triple helping of the curse.
Great. A priest wouldn't be able to counter that kind of constant damage.
We'd found ourselves stuck between a rock and a hard place, but running away wasn't an option as long as I had Imprint of Destruction stacked on me.
Meaning there was only one option.
"Die, please die!"
As a proud K-Barbarian, I adopted the mindset of our Admiral Yi Sun-sin and put life and limb on the line as I charged into battle.
[Your HP has fallen below 50%. All Resistance and Resilience stats have increased due to the passive skill Path of Heroes.]
I didn't have a lot of time left, so I doubled down and fought even harder.
[The Man-Faced Bird has cast Guide.]
[The Man-Faced Bird has cast Decree of Protection.]
As the battle grew fiercer, the Man-Faced Bird also began to hit back just as hard.
[Your HP has fallen below 20%. All Resistance and Resilience stats have maxed out due to the passive skill Path of Heroes.]
Boom!
Just as I started to sense that this battle was on the verge of reaching its end one way or another, I found myself on the receiving end of four pieces of news. Two were good, while two were bad.
The good news was pretty straightforward if we wanted to start there.
[You have killed a Man-Faced Bird. EXP +8]
The Man-Faced Bird finally died.
[No. 9999: Beginner's Luck has been activated.]
And an essence dropped. The color was white.
It's Mimicry.
It was no good as a core essence like Song of the End could have been, but since it was incredibly adaptable, this was a decent drop.
As for the bad news...
"Wh-what?!"
"A spear...? Why did a spear suddenly come out of—"
We weren't the ones who landed the final blow on the Man-Faced Bird.
Thud!
Something emerged from the darkness and grabbed the spear that was stuck in the ground where the Man-Faced Bird's head used to be.
It was hard not to recognize it. A relatively small stature that reached about ten feet high, with smooth, stone-colored skin on a humanoid body that looked almost like a statue...
"Titanus...! It's a Titanus!"
Another rank-two monster had appeared. That was the first of the two pieces of bad news.
Damn it.
The second was the red spear that the Titanus was holding—No. 7: Milayel's Verdurous Giant Spear.
That thing... why is it in that bastard's hands...?
My eyes really couldn't comprehend what they were seeing, but the rest of me calmly accepted reality for what it was anyway.
[The Spearman of the Heavens, Milayel, grows furious upon noticing the mortal.]
This guy was a Guardian of the Rift.
"Behel—aaaaaah!"
And with that, I immediately barreled forward in a shield charge.
Kiyaaaaaak!
The Man-Faced Bird stumbled as I slammed into it with my full body weight. Taking advantage of the opening, Missha and Amelia closed in on its flanks and attacked its legs from both sides.
Flash!
At which point the blackened eyes of the Man-Faced Bird fired off a beam of light.
[The Man-Faced Bird has cast Imprint of Destruction.]
Yeah, I knew you'd pick me as your target.
I felt a surge of fiery pain pierce my chest.
Fwoosh!
[You will lose 1% of your max HP per second.]
All right, so in theory, I was going to die in a hundred seconds.
Even just the thought of this skill pisses me off.
The Imprint of Destruction was a single-target debuff that was impossible to dodge or block. It also didn't even have a time limit. In other words, if you got hit by it, your options were either dying or killing the caster before the curse could kill you.
However, the strategy for dealing with it was actually pretty simple.
"Raaagh!"
You just had to tank it with the help of your Natural Regeneration and the support of a priest.
"Yandel! Are you okay?"
"Don't worry about me! Keep stabbing!"
The Man-Faced Bird was a creature designed with battles of attrition in mind. If this went on for too long, it was guaranteed to beat us.
I did my best to hold its aggro so the damage dealers could keep attacking it without issue, and not long after, our long-rangers joined in on the fight to help keep it in check.
Kihihihihi...!
As the battle dragged on, the Man-Faced Bird whipped out a different skill.
[The Man-Faced Bird has cast Mimicry.]
The huge face attached to its huge body instantly changed into a different one. It was much larger than the face I was used to seeing, but it wasn't hard to clock who it was.
"Oh!" cried Ainar excitedly. "It's Emily! The monster turned into Emily!"
Mimicry randomly copied the abilities of a character within a certain radius.
[The Man-Faced Bird has cast Self-Replication.]
You little... Why did it have to take that skill?
"Oh! There are two... No, three Emilys!"
We somehow ended up with two more boss monsters to deal with, the clones using their skills as well as they joined in on the fight.
[The Man-Faced Bird has cast Song of the End.]
A few more pillars of light rained down.
[The Man-Faced Bird has cast Imprint of Destruction.]
[You will lose 2% of your max HP per second.]
Hah, so that effect was doubled now. Was our priest going to be enough to stave it off?
Well, there was no use dwelling on it.
Why does bad news always come in batches?
[The Man-Faced Bird has cast Song of the End.]
One of the baby Man-Faced Birds that managed to reach full maturity joined in on the fun.
[The Man-Faced Bird has cast Imprint of Destruction.]
[You will lose 3% of your max HP per second.]
With that, I now had a triple helping of the curse.
Great. A priest wouldn't be able to counter that kind of constant damage.
We'd found ourselves stuck between a rock and a hard place, but running away wasn't an option as long as I had Imprint of Destruction stacked on me.
Meaning there was only one option.
"Die, please die!"
As a proud K-Barbarian, I adopted the mindset of our Admiral Yi Sun-sin and put life and limb on the line as I charged into battle.
[Your HP has fallen below 50%. All Resistance and Resilience stats have increased due to the passive skill Path of Heroes.]
I didn't have a lot of time left, so I doubled down and fought even harder.
[The Man-Faced Bird has cast Guide.]
[The Man-Faced Bird has cast Decree of Protection.]
As the battle grew fiercer, the Man-Faced Bird also began to hit back just as hard.
[Your HP has fallen below 20%. All Resistance and Resilience stats have maxed out due to the passive skill Path of Heroes.]
Boom!
Just as I started to sense that this battle was on the verge of reaching its end one way or another, I found myself on the receiving end of four pieces of news. Two were good, while two were bad.
The good news was pretty straightforward if we wanted to start there.
[You have killed a Man-Faced Bird. EXP +8]
The Man-Faced Bird finally died.
[No. 9999: Beginner's Luck has been activated.]
And an essence dropped. The color was white.
It's Mimicry.
It was no good as a core essence like Song of the End could have been, but since it was incredibly adaptable, this was a decent drop.
As for the bad news...
"Wh-what?!"
"A spear...? Why did a spear suddenly come out of—"
We weren't the ones who landed the final blow on the Man-Faced Bird.
Thud!
Something emerged from the darkness and grabbed the spear that was stuck in the ground where the Man-Faced Bird's head used to be.
It was hard not to recognize it. A relatively small stature that reached about ten feet high, with smooth, stone-colored skin on a humanoid body that looked almost like a statue...
"Titanus...! It's a Titanus!"
Another rank-two monster had appeared. That was the first of the two pieces of bad news.
Damn it.
The second was the red spear that the Titanus was holding—No. 7: Milayel's Verdurous Giant Spear.
That thing... why is it in that bastard's hands...?
My eyes really couldn't comprehend what they were seeing, but the rest of me calmly accepted reality for what it was anyway.
[The Spearman of the Heavens, Milayel, grows furious upon noticing the mortal.]
This guy was a Guardian of the Rift.