Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Novel 2025 - Chapter 536
Chapter 536: Rainbow (3)
It was the fifth day since the start of the rainy season. We moved as quickly as possible to escape the village and came up to the surface.
“Graaaaaaaah!”
“Kiyeeeeeeek!”
“Woof! Woof! Woof!”
As we expected, it was pandemonium on the surface. Monsters were everywhere, and blood and flesh were flung around as they fought each other. However, there was one clear 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 wasn’t enough to describe what was happening.
Compared to the first day, there were practically no monsters falling. It was like saying the rain had gone down a bit from four inches the other day to 0.04 inches today.
“That damned chief bastard.”
There was no way he didn’t know about this. He just didn’t tell me even though he knew.
The rainy season needs to be dangerous so that everyone stays dependent on the village and he can hold them there for longer.
I cursed him in my heart yet felt relief wash over me. I made the right decision to get out immediately. Even so, I quickly squashed those thoughts. As the one who was responsible for the lives of dozens of people, I had something else I needed to focus on.
Thankfully…the chief didn’t chase us.
I didn’t know what he was scheming, but that, at least, had decreased the number of things I needed to focus on right now.
“Move in formation!” I ordered, moving quickly to give my allies a clear goal to work toward. “We’ll escape from this island now!”
I blocked the monsters’ teeth with my shield.
“Behel—laaaaaa!”
Then, I used my hammer to smash their jaws to open our path.
“Wizards!” I commanded. “Take as many mana stones as you can!”
It was too much of a waste to leave them behind, you know?
We wouldn’t be able to call ourselves adventurers if we ignored the mana stones quite literally littering the ground around us. Before, we weren’t able to since I had to be 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 the part where it clearly defined any relationship I may be in.
Swoop!
The wizards chain-cast routing magic to gather the mountains of mana stones. Our overall combat power would decrease somewhat, but it wasn’t that big of a problem for us. Since the number of monsters raining from the sky decreased considerably, we had a lot of wiggle room for combat.
At this rate…it might be possible for us to get out without anyone dying.
It came as great news to me. I had given out the order while fearing for the worst.
As it was, I could concentrate on simply plowing through the dangerous frontline and wrestling with the dangerous monsters to clear our path.
[You have defeated an Iron Spirit. EXP+6]
[You have defeated a Baphomet.]
[You have defeated an Ainicorn. EXP+6]
[You have defeated a Mud Golem.]
[You have defeated a Heavenly Tree. EXP+5]
[You have defeated a Dachyon…]
Ten minutes into my hammer-smashing-all-sorts-of-monsters session, Ainar delivered a piece of good news.
“Oh, oh! My soul! My soul! It’s being filled!” I was expecting her to have her moment soon, and it seemed she had finally leveled up. “With this, I have become stronger once more!”
Well, “stronger” just meant that her soul power had increased for now. But still, it was good to know since it meant that the essence slots she had filled after consuming the Hipramajent essence now had another free spot.
I think the Hektz Clan and Armin Adventurer Group are also having their members level up periodically.
Overall, it seemed our group’s overall essence slots had increased by one or two.
“Um…Lord Baron! There’s a rank four essence over there…”
“From now on,” I said, giving out a special order, “anyone can eat whatever essence comes out! I won’t care about anything rank three and below!”
It was a bit of a shame to relinquish the priority choice and dividends I had set up for us, but thinking about it, it wasn’t even that big of a loss. We didn’t even have time to capture every single one in a magic vial here, so any increase in our fighting power was to be celebrated.
“Yeeeaaah!”
This order played a huge role in increasing the morale of the adventurers.
Just as how a half-filled glass of water could be interpreted in multiple ways, fighting through hordes of monsters had turned from a dangerous situation for the adventurers to one of opportunity.
Not bad.
The overall mood seemed to be lifted.
However, danger couldn’t be overcome by mood alone.
“Kiyooooooo!”
Far in the distance in front of us, a huge bird screamed while blocking our path. Though calling it a bird was a bit of a stretch.
Boom!
I was wondering if things were going too swimmingly.
…So you aren’t going to let us off the island so easily?
I let out a long sigh as I closed my eyes before opening them once again a second later. While I wished that I had seen it wrong, unfortunately, nothing had 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, it had a facial structure similar to that of a human’s.
It was a pretty famous monster, so rather than feeling disgusted by its appearance, fear was the more dominant emotion.
“I-it’s a Man-Faced Bird…!”
The monster in our path was the rank two flying-type monster, Man-Faced Bird.
This was our first hurdle to get in the way of us getting off the island.
It flew in from the sky and landed on the ground, then looked at us with an expressionless face before its eyes narrowed and writhed in their sockets.
“Kihihihihihi.”
I sighed. Really, I didn’t know why Dungeon and Stone had so many of these horrifying monsters.
The sense of disgust it evoked was different from when I saw the corpse golem. If I hadn’t built up a tolerance after meeting and fighting all kinds of monsters in real life, I lost myself in shivering goosebumps all over my body without being able to give out an order as I was doing now.
“Wizards! Form a protective barrier!”
The number of adventurers who had experience fighting against a rank 2 or above monster in the city could be counted on one hand. I, however, had killed countless numbers of them.
Well, it had been in the game, but it was enough to give me the experience needed to make a split-second decision when we encountered one.
Vwoong!
The moment our wizards created the translucent barrier above us like an umbrella, the whites of the Man-Faced Bird’s eyes went black.
[Man-Faced Bird has cast Song of the End.]
Yellow pillars of light fell from the sky, so many that we couldn’t even count them all.
Boom! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
It was as if the heavens were enacting judgment in their rage. The pillars of light completely destroyed our surroundings as they continued to fall for about ten seconds.
Compared to the theatrics, the damage wasn’t that high so they didn’t break through the barrier.
“Kihihihihi!”
However, from where the pillars of light landed, baby Man-Faced Birds stood up. They were a token-type summoned monster.
“What are you doing?! Kill those first!”
It was now a race against time.
Those baby Man-Faced Birds would fully grow in a minute and use their skills.
Theoretically, they could grow in number indefinitely. 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 here just thinking.
“Erwen—” I began out of habit before stopping myself. She was currently in a recovery state since she used all her MP trying to get us out of the village. There was not much she could do in the battle.
…When did I only start relying on Erwen?
It was a barbarian’s mentality to bite with his gums if he didn’t have any teeth.
“Emily! Missha! You two, follow me!” I began to run, and Amelia and Missha ran closely behind me. “Ainar, you will protect the main force… Versyl! Go to the back and support them! I’ll leave the decision-making there to you!”
The three of us dashed forward, Amelia on my right and Missha on my left.
Huh, wait…
This position…?
“Yandel, I’ll say this now.”
“…Hmm?”
“If you try to do something like that again…I’ll kill you.”
Tsk, so it wasn’t allowed. “…That won’t be happening.”
“I’m…fine with it…”
Regardless of whether Missha was okay with it, since Amelia was refusing with all her might, I couldn’t force her to work with me. This bird wasn’t as big as the Hipramajent in the first place, so I didn’t have that excuse either.
Thud!
Using Transcendence and Giantization together, I faced it nearly eye-to-eye. Seeing how it was looking at me like it was love at first sight, I was pretty sure I grabbed its aggro.
“Behel—laaaaa!”
And with that, I immediately barreled forward and attacked with a shield charge.
“Kiyaaaaaaak!”
The Man-Faced Bird stumbled as I slammed into it with my full-weighted body slam.
Not missing that opening, Missha and Amelia ran to its flanks and attacked its lower body from both sides.
Flash!
The blackened eyes of the Man-Faced Bird began to emit rays of light.
[Man-Faced Bird has cast Imprint of Destruction.]
Yeah, I knew you would attack me.
With that, I felt a surge of fiery pain around my heart.
Fwoosh!
[You will lose 1% of your max health per second.]
Alright, so in theory, I was going to die in 100 seconds?
Even the thought of the skill annoys me.
Imprint of Destruction was a single-target debuff skill that was impossible to dodge or block. It also didn’t even have a duration. To put it simply, if someone got marked by it, they either died or needed to kill the caster to survive the curse.
The strategy against it was simple.
“Raaaagh!”
You just needed to rely on Natural Regeneration and the help of a priest to tank it.
“Yandel! Are you okay?”
“Don’t worry about me! Keep swinging your swords!”
The Man-Faced Bird was designed with battles of attrition in mind. If this went on for too long, it was guaranteed to win.
I did my best to hold its aggro so the damage dealers could continue to attack it without a problem, and not long after, our ranged damage dealers also joined the fight to limit its movements.
“Kihihihihi…!”
As the battle went longer, the Man-Faced Bird used a different skill.
[Man-Faced Bird has cast Mimicry.]
The huge face attached to the huge body instantly changed into a different face.
It was much larger than the face I was used to, but it wasn’t difficult for me to realize who it was.
“Oh!” cried Ainar excitedly. “It’s Emily! The monster turned into Emily!”
Mimicry randomly copied the skill of a character within a certain radius.
[Man-Faced Bird has cast Self-Replication.]
You little… Why did it have to take that skill?
“Oh! There are two… No, three Emilys!”
At some point, we ended up having two more boss monsters to deal with, and all the while, the clones used their skills as well.
[Man-Faced Bird has cast Song of the End.]
A few more pillars of light rained down.
[Man-Faced Bird has cast Imprint of Destruction.]
[You will lose 2% of your max health per second.]
Hah, so that was doubled now. Was our priest going to be enough?
There was no use dwelling on it.
Why does bad news always come in batches?
[Man-Faced Bird has cast Song of the End.]
One of the baby Man-Faced Birds that managed to fully mature also used its skill.
[Man-Faced Bird has cast Imprint of Destruction.]
[You will lose 3% of your max health per second.]
And now, I had three stacks of the curse.
Great. A priest wouldn’t be able to counter 100 percent of that health loss.
We found ourselves stuck between a rock and a hard place but running away wasn’t an option as long as I had the stacks of Imprint of Destruction on me.
Meaning, there was only one answer.
“Die, please die!”
As a proud K-Barbarian, I took the mindset of our General Yi Sun-sin and charged in while putting my life on the line.
[Your health is below 50%. All resistance and resilience stats have been raised due to the passive skill Heroic Path.]
I didn’t have a lot of time left, so I attacked even more fiercely.
[Man-Faced Bird has cast Guide.]
[Man-Faced Bird has cast Decree of Protection.]
As the battle became fiercer, the Man-Faced Bird also began to fight back harder.
[Your health is below 20%. All resistance and resilience stats have maxed out due to the passive skill Heroic Path.]
Boom!
Just as I started to feel the winner of this battle was going to be decided, four pieces of news came to me. Two were good news, while two were bad news.
But talking about the pieces of good news first, they were pretty simple.
[You have defeated a Man-Faced Bird. EXP+8]
The Man-Faced Bird finally died.
[No. 9999, Beginner’s Luck, has been activated.]
And an essence was dropped. The color was white.
It’s Mimicry.
It was no good as a core essence like how Song of the End could have been, but since it had such a diverse set of uses, the essence was a decent drop.
That left us with the bad news.
“Wh-what?!”
“A spear…? Why did a spear suddenly—”
We weren’t the ones who landed the last hit on the Man-Faced Bird.
Thud!
Something emerged from the darkness and grabbed the spear which had pierced the head of the Man-Faced Bird.
Its appearance was hard to mistake. A small(?) stature that reached about ten feet high, with smooth, stone-colored skin on a humanoid body that was reminiscent of a statue.
“Titanus…! It’s a Titanus!”
Another rank 2 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…is in that bastard’s hands…?
I really couldn’t understand how, but my brain calmly accepted the fact.
[Spearman of the Heavens, Milayel, grows furious upon noticing the mortal.]
It was a Guardian of the Rift.