In the heart of the cave, I came face to face with a portal stone. As soon as I saw it, I reached out to touch it like a man possessed, but the stone did not react.
«As I thought... your touch doesn't activate it either».
Well, I had imagined it would be like this. We had had to meet a special condition to open the portal and get here in the first place, so we would probably have to do something special to get out as well.
Slide.
After checking where the stone connected to the ground, I began digging in the dirt for clues.
I don't think there's anything written down here this time... Damn, so we have to just wander around hoping to stumble upon some clue?
First of all, I asked Wyatt some questions.
«Have you checked the stone every day?»
«Yeah. Since I found it, I have come every day to touch it, but there has been no reaction».
In other words, it didn't seem like we needed to be here on any given day to activate the stone.
«Have you seen anything strange or interesting on this island that you didn't mention during our conversation a few minutes ago?».
«No.»
«If you've already found a portal stone, why did you seem so insecure before?».
That question had been on my mind for the last few minutes. From the moment we found him, his nerves were immediately felt, and he had come to ask if there was even a way out of here. But why?
He seemed to choose his words very carefully when he said: «I'm not sure if this stone even leads outside».
«Ah...»
I had had the same thought when I first saw it. As this was a mysterious new apartment that had never been explored before, we couldn't be sure of anything. When we activated this stone portal, it could take us to the city or the first floor of the maze... or it could lead us somewhere completely new.
Like a second underground floor.
But although we had to take that possibility into account, finding a way to activate this stone was our top priority. And there was only one way for the adventurers to find answers to their questions: try everything and see what worked.
«How many people know about this stone?»
«Everyone who has been to this cave knows it».
Hmm, so I guess there's no point in trying to keep it a secret.
«Let's go back to the rest of the group».
At that time, I finished my research on the portal stone and returned to my allies. There, I told everyone, including members of the Armin Adventurer Group, what Wyatt and company had found. In situations like this, one wanted to have as many brains as possible dedicated to the problem.
«A portal stone with an unknown destination... At least now we have a clue».
«So everyone, feel free to intervene. What do you think we should try to activate the stone?»
«...Would it be of any use to kill that forty-meter-high giant?»
«There may be something on top of those library shelves...»
When I opened the plant, Versyl shared his idea and everyone else followed suit. I wrote down each one of them in my mind.
«Maybe the boss knows something...?».
Yes, that's another good idea.
Myul Armin, who was next to me, frowned in confusion at that suggestion. «Who is that... boss?», he asked doubtfully.
«We'll have to go through that island at some point, so I'll explain it to you then».
«Okay...»
And so, our brainstorming session came to an end. The wizards from Armin's group and a few others left to study the stone, and the rest of us stayed resting in the cave.
The next day, with twelve decent new slaves in my group, I resumed the expedition. We didn't have much time left.
It's already the ninth day...
Well, it did count from the day I first entered the maze, today would actually be the fifty-ninth day, but the important thing was that nine days had passed since the maze opened for the second time. The rainy season would begin after the fourteenth day of the cycle, so we had to explore as much of the island as we could before then.
The rainy season would be a bit complicated...
I was already preemptively regretting the week we would spend in hiding. No, it wouldn't even be a week. After the rainy season there would still be lots of monsters, so it would be impossible to go anywhere, and since we would have to find shelter before it started, we would also have to stop our expedition early.
«Yandel, what are we going to do during the rainy season? Are we going to spend it in that cave that those people found? Or are we going back to that village?»
«I'm thinking about returning to the village. I have a few things I want to ask the village chief anyway, and if the Silver Lion Clan is still there, we can increase our numbers even more.»
«Then we will have to leave the island in three days. We must take into account the travel time.»
It turned out that we only had three days left to explore the island. It was a busy schedule, but since there were now many of us, the amount of ground we could cover had increased significantly. It was like wandering around and exploring the open world map after activating auto farming.
«A group of Trolls to our right...!»
«Teirun Ervwias!»
Boom!
Monsters of rank less than five were reduced to specks of light by our long rangers before they could approach me. This was the reason why adventurers operated exclusively in clans on the upper floors. The more members you had, the easier the searches would be.
Of course, this came with the fatal flaw of having to split the loot much more.
«Sheritun, how's the map going?»
«Pretty good. Do you want to take a look?»
Besides, I was no longer the one making the map. It seemed like the Hektz Clan Archer was several times better than me at that, so I let her do it.
Now we even had dedicated exploration groups.
After giving Mihail Lectus, the former palace investigator, a few people to lead, he explored the surroundings and handed over the following information:
«Your Honor, there are three nelfardones about three minutes ahead of us. What should we do?»
Was it a question? Three Nelfardones who could use gigantization?
«Will surrounding them consume a lot of our time?»
«Not at all»
«Then we will take a detour.»
We didn't need a Nelfardon essence, and since we had already gotten EXP for them in the library, we avoided them like the plague.
From there, we killed what we had to kill and avoided what we had to avoid, and our efficiency allowed us to explore an even larger area than we would have explored otherwise.
I think we can safely say that we have seen everything there is to see in the south.
After mapping approximately 90%, we decided to leave the southern part of the island and head to the eastern region.
Some time later, some news came just as I was contemplating whether we should return to our hideout or camp here for the night.
«Mr. Baron».
Mihail Lectus returned from his patrol car, looking harassed.
«About four minutes from us, there is a Hipramajent. The giant is sleeping alone».
Hmm... what to do?
***
Hypramajent.
While sailing here, we ended up running into one and had to quickly flee when he called his friends.
I remembered that in the boss's book, the entry about Hipramajent mentioned that he was first discovered with half his body submerged in the ocean. That's why I assumed it was an aquatic monster...
But it seems like these guys don't just live in the ocean.
Considering we found one on land, they were probably amphibians.
Anyway, that wasn't the important thing here.
«Is he alone?»
«Yeah, at least it was when we saw it.»
«Inspect the surroundings while making sure not to wake him. He might have allies backing him up like last time. I will decide our next steps based on what you find».
«Understood.
I gave orders to Mihail Lectus to conduct a careful search and then began to think things through while waiting for him to return.
Although my desire to kill the monster had waned as soon as I realized that it was one of those that leaves behind a corpse instead of an essence, I still thought that I should kill it at least once. While I was on this plant, I would probably have to face one of these things again at some point.
It is better to gain experience fighting one when alone.
Figuring out what as yet unknown passives and active abilities they might have would be helpful in gauging how dangerous they were in the grand scheme of things.
«There is not a single monster within a mile around.»
So, when our scouts returned with that news, I began to prepare a raid. We made some new formations and came up with some backup plans in case he tried to flee like last time.
«Alright, let's go.»
Finally, the only thing left was to fight him.
«Now?»
«I could wake up at any moment. Or your friends might come back».
Maybe it was because we were talking about a monster estimated to be around rank two, but some of our members seemed hesitant to go fight it. However, I felt that extending this further would be a waste of time.
Furtively.
After that, we moved as stealthily as we could to his nap spot and formed a wide circle around him.
However, the moment our rangers and mages began to prepare our first big attack, something happened.
Rgh...?
The giant, who had been curled up enjoying his nap, suddenly woke up and stared at us. However, we had used magic to drown out any sound we could make, so he couldn't have woken up because we made too much noise.
...Can you detect magic?
In any case, since he was already awake, there was no need to remain silent.
[You have launched gigantization.]
I also cast Chain Transcendence to make myself even bigger.
«Behel-aaah!»
Then, before he could stand up, I slammed my hammer against his shin.
Boom!
The attack wasn't strong enough to break his bones, but it was enough to make him lose his balance before he could stand up.
Hit!
When the great giant fell to the ground, it raised a cloud of dust that blocked our line of sight. But this was a small inconvenience that occurred frequently during combat.
Whoosh!
The magicians, who had been prepared in the rear, used wind magic to clear the dust and, once I regained my vision, I charged at the giant and hit his chin with the hammer.
Uraaaaaah!
His huge eyes met mine and he gave me a roar so loud that I felt the air vibrate around me.
That scared me.
All the hairs on my body stood on end, which was a blow to my pride.
«Uraaaaaah!» I roared, glaring at him. And while I wasn't really thinking when I did, this had the unintended side effect of boosting our team's morale.
«What are you doing? Start attacking!»
«Calm down and stick to the plan!»
Wyatt Hektz and Myul Armin first woke up and barked orders at the other members, and soon ranged support in the form of arrows and other offensive skills began to rain down on my opponent. Most of them didn't cause as much damage as my huge hammer blows, but they were enough to buy time.
[Sharlot Emblut has cast the rank two Annihilation Spear attack spell].
The trio of wizards from the Armin Adventurer Group, who had been working together the longest, cast a joint spell.
Stab!
A huge white spear sank into the giant's belly.
Honestly, I was a little surprised.
Didn't it go through it completely?
How much Mana Resistance did this guy have? I was curious to know his basic statistics, but that wasn't what I had to worry about right now.
«Barbarian, don't go crazy this time. Let's wear it down slowly-»
«Behel-aaaaaah!»
Amelia, Ainar, and some of the other melee warriors approached the giant, attacking it relentlessly. We aimed mainly at his ankles. It was an order he had given to everyone beforehand. After all, we knew this guy had a habit of running away. We needed to incapacitate him to move as early in battle as possible.
«He's standing!»
«Back!»
Although we were hitting him as hard as we could, in the end he ended up stumbling to his feet.
Uraaaaaah!
Then, with a roar, he began to run in the opposite direction.
Seriously, how can this guy be such a coward?
I still didn't believe it, but I wasn't going to let the same thing catch me off guard twice.
We're not in the ocean anymore, you know?
[Erwen Fornacci di Tersia has summoned the Elemental Ruler of Darkness, Dicloe.]
With a flick of Erwen's wrist, orbs of black light rained down on the battlefield like missiles. Surprisingly, the guy kept running for a while despite the bombardment, but even he reached his limit.
Thud! Boom!
I ran towards him in an instant and clung to his wobbly figure.
Bang! Boom! Boom!
Although the Elemental Ruler of Darkness kept hitting him - and, by extension, me - with everything he had, that was not a problem. As the saying goes, if you don't have the right essence for the job, use an object.
For example, the number 12: Trust, the best of the two-digit numbered objects.
[You are taking damage from an ally you are attached to.]
[The Light of Trust protects you from harm.]
To this end, tactics like this were also on the table.