Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Novel 2025 - Chapter 670
Chapter 670: Tomb of Stars (1)
Tomb of Stars was on the ninth floor of the labyrinth and the final floor before the Gate of the Abyss on the tenth floor. Monsters that should only appear there had now spawned before us.
Of course, I had fought them on the first underground floor too, and they weren’t all that difficult of opponents to defeat either.
[You have defeated a Brakiaistello.]
Still, their appearance here and now told us quite a bit about what was going on.
So… We’re probably not inside the labyrinth.
We currently weren’t inside the labyrinth. The palace had shut it down, anyway. And while it was true that we needed time to be certain of it, there were multiple signs that indicated we weren’t inside the labyrinth. On the other hand, there were quite a few things out of place here that made it difficult for me to say we were simply outside the city walls too.
I should’ve realized it after seeing the craters…
Although getting here had been chaotic, one thing was clear. Even though there were a few differences here and there, this place was modeled after the ninth floor’s Tomb of Stars.
As soon as the battle was over, an odd silence fell over our group. Perhaps they, too, were aware of it.
“Hmm? Why… Why are you all making that face?”
Lek Aures seemed to be the only person who hadn’t realized the situation we were in. To make a comparison to my team, he was taking up the role that Ainar usually played.
Why are all warriors like this?
Despite crossing my mind, that thought wasn’t something I needed to dwell on.
More silence passed, with the stillness only broken by Aures tilting his head.
Fshhh!
Heavy rain continued to fall on us.
“We…”
Baekho stared down at the corpses of the Brakiaisello, and in a mumble, he said, “We might be in a dangerous situation…?”
It explained our situation precisely. One did not simply walk into the ninth floor unprepared.
Like the stage had been prepared just for us, a bright, red light shone down on us from above us, encapsulating a circle about a hundred yards across.
It was the famous field effect of the ninth floor’s Tomb of Stars.
“Huh…? Isn’t this that…?” Aures stood still, dazed like a deer in headlights.
“What are you doing?!” I barked. “Move out of the way!”
Everyone shook themselves into action and dashed out of the area.
Speed was life right now, so those who could afford the cost moved the priest and the wizards. It was the difference between being fast and being agile. For wizards to move quickly, they needed to cast a spell, and even Jaina, a priest of Karui, would need to waste time summoning a mount.
But we didn’t have the time for things like that.
Aware of the sudden danger we found ourselves in, I just managed to grab GM and run out of the area of effect.
Boom!
An instant later, a red comet fell from the sky and crashed into the ground.
Vwoong!
An intense gust strong enough to send an adult man flying whipped toward us, kicking up a storm of dirt. Thanks to the heavy rain, we were able to quickly recover our line of sight.
“I-is everyone alright?”
Wow, that really had goosebumps rising all over my body.
“…We’ll need to stay focused, no matter how tired we are.”
Once the dust settled, we looked at the crater that had formed at the impact point. My legs wobbled beneath me.
This was exactly how it was in the game.
Insta-kill.
That meteor meant instant death. Regardless of build, if a character was hit within the central fifty-yard radius, they would instantly die and get the game-over screen.
Thankfully, the outer edges only did a set amount of damage, but honestly, that wasn’t any better in the end. The damage dealt would still kill most tanks in a single hit.
I sighed, only taking a moment to sympathize with the others who were also shocked at the intense explosion. Then, I turned back to shake them awake, shouting, “Keep your guard up!”
If the meteors were falling just like in the game, the events that happened after would probably line up as well.
Flash!
A single bolt of lightning crashed into the center of the crater.
So he’s here too.
At the point where the lightning struck, a pale blob began to enlarge before taking a bipedal shape with two sets of arms. Atop its limbs was a spine and a head—a humanoid monster.
Really, though, it was pretty far from being any sort of human. No human in the world had a body entirely composed of flowing lightning like that.
Bzzt!
And not one of them was as big either.
I mean, what human could get that big? Maybe a barbarian who had Giantization.
“Gigazeros…!”
GM began to explain the monster as soon as he saw it, just like he had before. However, his tone was a little different this time around.
“It uses very powerful lightning-attribute abilities, and unlike how it looks, it is very fast!”
Unlike how relaxed he explained things before, GM got the information about the monster before us out as quickly as he could. Perhaps that was why he missed one crucial detail.
“It’s a rank 2 monster, be careful!”
Rank 2 monster Gigazeros. Like the Brakiaistello, it appeared in the Tomb of Stars, and it was the strongest combat monster among the rank 2 monsters.
I usually just called it the lightning giant. I mean, that name fit it better than Gigazeros.
[Gigazeros has cast Great Discharge.]
As I raised my shield and charged forward, an electric wave exploded out from the lightning giant’s body.
Bzzt!
There was no point in guarding against it. It was impossible to block an AOE skill like that with Wall of Aegis, so I had no choice but to take it.
[You have cast Scales of Greed.]
Blue scales appeared over my enlarged body—the Dragon Mode I obtained after eating the essence of Bellarios.
Ouch, that stings.
The electricity emanating from the lightning giant’s body made contact with mine and numbed my muscles.
[You have fallen into a state of Paralysis.]
But that was all the damage it did.
[Paralysis has been cleared.]
Thanks to my Mana Resistance, my paralysis was lifted before even two seconds had passed. However, I took a look behind me to see Baekho still paralyzed.
Hey, have you not specced into any proper CC resistance yet? So that’s why you haven’t reached the tenth floor yet.
I smiled at having learned Baekho’s weakness before honing back in on my front.
[You have entered the Short-Circuit Field. You will take damage relative to Soul Power used. All damage done by Gigazeros is applied as lightning damage.]
[You have been affected by Lightning Affinity. When taking lightning damage, Great Discharge will be cast.]
Short-Circuit Field was the aura-type passive skill that every lightning-type melee character wanted to have.
Bzzt!
The lightning giant slammed his huge fist down on me.
[Defense successful. Wall of Aegis has absorbed all damage.]
Although I could absorb the damage by blocking with the shield, the white blobs that fell away like splashed water droplets shot their own lightning bolts at me.
Hmm, maybe shot wasn’t the right word to describe them?
Bzzt!
Just like how the speed of light couldn’t be traced with the naked eye, I had already been struck by those white bolts of lightning by the time I noticed them. Thankfully, the damage dealt wasn’t that high.
[You have taken lightning damage. Great Discharge has been cast.]
Just as the giant’s body had before, my body flashed with a brilliant, white light as lightning surged around me, amplified to three times what his had been.
Crackle!
The others appeared to have moved further away from me on their own, and thanks to that, they didn’t take any damage.
But I guess I can’t hope for any close-range support at this rate…
My decision made, I grabbed onto the giant’s body, ignoring the prickling sensation, and forced the giant even further away from my allies.
Although I could feel my body degrade in real time, I was okay with it. Everyone had their role to fulfill, after all.
[Jaina Flyer has cast Healing Leech.]
Just as the tank was supposed to take damage, the healer would in turn heal that damage.
Plop.
The translucent leeches that stuck themselves to my body continued to heal my HP and MP.
[Jaina Flyer has cast Curse of Restoration.]
They used a healing-over-time skill that was somehow classified as a curse.
[Jaina Flyer has summoned Life Vessel.]
Then a structure that looked to be an altar was summoned at the center of the battlefield, connecting a red thread to each of the party members.
Alright, I should be able to keep tanking with this…
The rest was up to the damage dealers.
“…Huh?”
That was when the problem occurred.
***
What was the most important role in Dungeon and Stone?
If someone asked that question, I would be able to confidently answer them without a shred of doubt: The most important role was the tank.
It made sense. If the damage dealer was unskilled, the battle would end without having been able to defeat the monster. However, if the main tank didn’t have their stats in order, the entire party would be annihilated.
Since I was the one who always mained tank during these missions, I was able to protect my allies safely even through all those dangerous adventures.
All, except for a few key cases.
Anyway, I put more importance on the tank over the wizards and priests.
This damn new map.
Outside the city walls could be considered a type of new field, and from that new field, we had even taken an unknown dimensional headstone to this place. I didn’t have the information I needed about the area.
That was the reason why it happened.
“…Huh?”
I had been keeping up with my job as the tank, and the damage dealers had been dealing steady damage to our enemy.
But then, the lightning giant suddenly acted in an unexpected way. It suddenly ignored me before charging toward the damage dealers.
Flash!
And since it had a blink-type movement ability, it was impossible for me to intercept it.
“Wha— Ack!”
Unfortunately, the first target of said unexpected attack was GM. He quickly cast his mana shield as the giant appeared directly in front of his eyes.
Crunch!
As expected of a rank 2 monster, though, the emergency mana shield was quickly shattered as the monster landed a clean hit on GM. Even then, mitigating some of the impact was the right choice. If he hadn’t, GM could’ve died in that one hit.
“D*** it! Havellion! How is he? Is he alive?”
“H-he’s still alive!”
“Then heal him already! If that bastard dies, we won’t be able to fix the magic circle!”
We hadn’t even found a way out of here, so I wondered if the magic circle was important at all. Still, at Baekho’s screaming, Jaina quickly focused healing on GM.
“Behel-LAAAAA!”
After coming over a step later, I quickly tried to mark him again.
Flash!
However, the giant instantly used its teleport ability again and disappeared from sight.
Man, what the hell…?
This unexpected situation happened not once, but twice. There was no point trying to deny it anymore.
It’s not affected by threat level…?
My threat level was increased due to Giantization, and Wall of Aegis had an effect where if my threat level was high enough, I could draw the aggro of all monsters without fail.
This lightning giant was ignoring both of those things. It was as if he wasn’t categorized as a monster, but a person.
“Hold tight!”
“Kyak!”
For the second ambush, the archer was thankfully there to react in time and save the healer. However, the situation didn’t improve.
Crackle!
This wasn’t any old monster, but a rank 2 one. If I couldn’t tank properly, we would have to make sacrifices.
What do I do?
For the first time in a long while, I felt my head cloud over, utterly lost for a way out.
“Damn it.”
Just then, Baekho clicked his tongue as he looked at the lightning giant. And yet, the way he cursed, something about the emotions conveyed through his actions—they didn’t seem to stem from frustration.
Somehow, it felt more like regret.
“I really didn’t want to show you this,” he admitted.
What? He acted as if he had a way out of this situation.
“All of you, get as far away as you can.’
Then, Baekho stretched his hand forward. A black orb formed in front of his hand, and as it spun, it seemed to suck in the air around him.
No, wait.
I’d seen that too many times.
“R-run away quickly, Baron! If you get caught in it, even you won’t be safe!” Aures shouted in panic as he ran in the opposite direction from Baekho. I didn’t hesitate, jumping to follow after him.
A few seconds passed.
“That’s enough.”
Ziiing!
With that short grumble from him, the black orb exploded as pitch-black light covered the entire world.
[You have defeated a Gigazeros. +EXP 8]
Although my vision faded to black as if I had been blinded, I had no doubt that our battle against the lightning giant had ended.
I knew. I knew exactly what that skill was.
“Stellar Extinction…”
It was the active skill of the Lord of Darkness, Deadred. Its destructive potential was on an entirely different level from any other essence, and it was the skill worthy of being called the strongest attack in Dungeon and Stone.
Holy shit…
How did he have that skill…?