Dignity of the Soul.
The special feeling an adventurer had when leveling up was different from person to person. Some felt full as if they had just eaten a lot, while others felt a visceral satisfaction similar to that of spending a night with a lover. Others said it was like regaining sobriety after being drunk.
However, if you talked to enough adventurers, they all agreed on one thing.
It was difficult to put it into words...
Shaaaa.
But it felt like something that entered your chest and filled your soul. He was able to recognize that vivid sensation even in the middle of combat.
«¡Become-aaaaaa!»
It was now level eight.
The truth is that it was much earlier than expected. Before going down to Basement One Floor, I estimated that it would take at least another year to arrive.
That means I will now be able to consume two essences.
I had made this jump abnormally fast, even by my standards. According to statistics collected by the guild, it normally took six years to go from level seven to eight. And that average probably only included adventurers who actually managed to reach level eight, and not those who retreated while still at level seven...
¡Crujido!
I was startled and brandished the hammer.
I'll worry about that later.
Running through the cloud of light that was once an orc warrior, I quickly scanned the battlefield to take stock of how we were doing.
Only thirty minutes had passed since the beginning of the rainy season, but although we were all fighting under the protection of an umbrella-like barrier, both the adventurers and the monster warriors were wheezing and already visibly exhausted.
However, despite everything, some things never changed.
«An essence! We have an essence!»
«Ah! What is it? Has anyone seen it? Someone!»
«...¡Lo vi! ¡Es de un Drake de Hueso!»
«It's a rank four! What are you doing standing there?! Go save it now!»
Every time an essence fell, the wizards rushed with their magic jars, and while they were busy collecting, the other adventurers and warriors protected them.
«Hey! What are you doing? Now is not the time to be collecting mana stones».
«Ack-Oh, uh! I just thought someone might trip over them... Okay!»
It was strange to see how adventurers treated mana stones like normal stones, but it made sense. If people started wandering around collecting mana stones, the amount of work we would have to do would be multiplied by two. Furthermore, mana stones did not disappear like essences, so we could collect them when the rainy season was over...
¡Bum!
At that moment, something huge fell on the barrier. The impact was so strong that it pierced the air and stuck into the ground, shaking the ground beneath everyone's feet.
¡Uraaaaaah!
Instinctively, I looked up and, through the cracked barrier, the eyes of a giant stared back at me.
«¡Es un Hipramajent! »
Very good, this time you have also fallen from the sky. I was wondering why I hadn't seen you today yet.
Crack.
«Your Honor! The integrity of the barrier has dropped by more than 70%!»
Because the giant had fallen right above us, the amount of time we could spend in the rain had been greatly reduced. This barrier was the only reason we could fight here despite the monsters falling from the sky.
«Um... Mr. Baron! At this point, I think we should go back to the village and take...»
«Everyone, stand firm!»
«W-But where are you going, Baron Yandel?»
«I'm going to get that guy off the barrier».
With that, I ran out from under our umbrella.
¡Boom! ¡Thud! ¡Bang!
Head, back, shoulder, hips...
As soon as I came out, the falling monsters collided with every inch of my Gigantized body, hitting me with their kinetic energy.
It was a pretty interesting experience.
¡Shaaaaaa!
Although all I did was stand there, the monsters died immediately on contact and disappeared. If I had opted for damage reflection equipment, would all my battles have been like this?
Even as I entertained myself with idle and useless thoughts, I made sure to proceed with caution. It would be a big problem if I ended up stepping on an essence by accident. Unless you were a priest, getting rid of an essence was only possible in a temple.
Yup.
As I jumped over the barrier, my fellow adventurers looked at me and began to murmur among themselves.
«...The baron is at the barrier!»
«Just... what do you plan to do?»
«We can't help you from down here...»
Hey, just sit back and enjoy the show.
¿Uraah...?
I grabbed the Hipramajent's head extended over the barrier with both hands.
«The baron is raising the giant!»
«Is that... even possible?»
«I've been thinking about it for a while, but... it's not really human».
Taking advantage of the tilt of the barrier, I used every ounce of force I had to drag the giant down.
¡U-Uraaaaaah!
The giant seemed disturbed by the new experience of going down a slide and struggled against my grip, but that ended up working in my favor.
¡Pum!
He tried to lean on the barrier to get up, but slipped and fell to the ground.
¡Crack!
In the process, the barrier was further damaged, but that was an inevitable side effect.
¡U-Uraah!
the fallen giant roared at me as I watched him from the top of the barrier, apparently offended by my actions.
Embarrassed, huh?
And who do you think you are?
I didn't even blink and received the giant's roar from the front. No, actually, I responded with an even louder roar.
«¡URAAAAAAH!»
With any luck, that would make it clear that he didn't want to mess with me.
«The giant retreats!»
«He lost to the baron's fighting spirit!»
The giant began to retreat slowly, without taking his eyes off mine. However, I could feel that he still underestimated me, so I quickly jumped down and slammed my hammer into his nose.
Hit!
It didn't seem like it had hurt him much, but for a Hipramajent it was more than enough.
¡U-Uraah!
He immediately turned around and started reserving it.
«The giant is fleeing!»
Yes, get out of here now, you scary little one
¡Flash!
¿Eh?
I turned around at a sudden flash of light.
¡Fwoosh!
A second later, a shining sword pierced the battlefield like a missile.
Stab.
The sword pierced the giant's enormous neck...
¡Boom!
...e immediately exploded into a million pieces.
[Has matado a un Hippramajent.]
The giant's body collapsed, now headless.
«Died?»
In one fell swoop...?
All of us adventurers, including me, swallowed as we turned to look in the direction the sword was coming from.
«Why do you all look at me like that? Weren't you trying to kill him?».
There was the village chief, as expressionless as ever.
***
There was a village of monsters calling themselves humans, and the head of that village was Cornelius Bruingrid, the Dragon Knight.
To be honest, the reason I brought him on this farming quest was to see how strong he was with my own eyes.
But what about this old man...
«Surprising» wasn't a strong enough word to describe what had just happened. Did he defeat a monster that not even Erwen could?
I expected it to have something up its sleeve... but I didn't expect it to be so monstrous.
I felt a chill run down my spine.
«What are you doing? Didn't you say you needed to get stronger to escape this place? Do you plan to return to the village now?».
«...No way.»
However, since it wasn't the best time to worry about the boss's power level, I refocused on the monsters in front of me.
«Mr. Baron! We can't take much longer!»
«...Let's go back to the village.»
Just as the barrier was about to break, we returned to the village.
«Everyone rest!»
The first thing we did was rest at the entrance and take inventory. The magicians collapsed and recovered their PMs through meditation, the priests and healers were healing the wounded and Versyl checked our numbers.
«Has anyone died?»
«We have a total of twelve injured: three with minor injuries and nine with serious injuries».
«But no one has died?»
«It seems that some of the village warriors died... but none of us».
«That's a relief».
The boss suddenly appeared behind me without me realizing it. «It's done».
That scared me.
«Is it... done?» i asked.
«I mean the entrance to the town has been sealed. Now no one can go out until the rainy season ends».
Oh, so that's what I wanted to say. «Is it impossible to open and close the door, then?»
«Yes, it is impossible».
Disappointment immediately came over me. If we could open the doors at will, we could have periodically sent small teams to collect the still-falling essences and return with them.
He mentioned that we also couldn't just keep the entrance open and kill the village monsters. Something about how the gate could suffer significant damage, making it impossible to seal the village at all...
It was a shame our farming event had to end there, but I quickly put aside any regrets. There was something that interested me much more right now.
«Boss, what was that before?»
«That?»
«The shining sword. I've never heard of you having something like that».
«Ya veo.»
«What do you mean I see...?»
The boss cut me off in the middle of the sentence. «Is there any reason I should have mentioned it before?»
«Eh…»
Well... There wasn't much I could say to something like that.
As I stuttered a little, surprised, the boss's eyes locked onto mine. «Like you said, we have a deal. We will help you and find a way to get out of this place».
«...¿Y?»
«And you should focus on your end of the deal, rather than distracting yourself with idle curiosities».
Concentrate on me part of the story…
Technically he wasn't wrong, but why did he piss me off so much?
«It seems that several of the warriors were killed or wounded», he added, not realizing or caring about my irritation. «I'll go serve them now».
«Oh, sure».
«I'll see you again later, when we have time. Then we can continue our conversation».
The chief took the warriors and headed to the village before us, and we followed them shortly after, towards our lodgings. Soon it was time to distribute the loot.
«This is the list of essences we got this time».
Let's see...
«Two rank three, seven rank four, and one rank five...»
To describe this harvest as absurdly profitable would be to fall ridiculously short. Not even two hours had passed since the beginning of the rainy season, and that wasn't even the only thing we had gained in this battle.
«Ah, too, Mrs. Tersia's and Mr. Rockrobe's Soul Dignity rose while we were there».
It made sense that Auyen would finally reach level seven, but Erwen reaching level eight was a very important thing. It meant that his essence slots, which had filled after absorbing the Chaos Essence, now had room for one more.
«My Soul Dignity has also gone up».
When I revealed that I had leveled up too, everyone was in an uproar.
«That? Bjorn, is it true?»
«So we have three things to celebrate today. How about we have a party tonight?»
«A party...?»
Normally, saying «gg» was more than enough celebration when your partner leveled up.
Ainar clenched his fists. «Ugh... I thought I had finally leveled up! Why have they left me behind?», she demanded, openly frustrated at still being level seven.
It was fair, but from my point of view, I doubted it would need much more EXP to reach level eight. She would probably be the next of us to level up.
«Congratulations, Bjorn...» Missha said happily as she approached. Unlike Ainar, she didn't seem frustrated.
I guess it's because she's already level 8. It's natural, considering Baekho Lee was pounding her for two years.
Amelia was very close to level nine, come to think of it. He once told me that he had just reached level eight when we met on the second floor, so he would probably reach level nine very soon.
«Is this why everyone was so obsessed with the idea of a new area of the maze? Our clan is developing at an incredible rate...»
When Ainar reached level eight, our seven-member clan would have five people at level eight. If we filled all our empty essence slots, we would be exponentially stronger than we were now.
«In any case, we have to start distributing this...»
When we finished checking the loot, we began to officially distribute it under the insightful gaze of Versyl. Since there was nothing we wanted to claim, we let the Armin Adventurer Group take their share of 30%.
«We want to take the essence of Lakrell, Malaka and the Demon Tracker».
They were fair and took one rank three essence and two rank four essence.
The Hektz clan was next. Well, technically they were slaves without any kind of contract, but...
«Choose too», I offered them. «Do you want something?»
«Hey? I don't know if we...»
«We have fought side by side, so I would call us real comrades right now. And we also need you to get stronger to make things easier for us. So don't worry about money and choose the essences you need».
If we wanted to avoid conflicts and infighting later, we had to be willing to offer at least this amount.
«Then... we will take these three essences».
After talking about it among themselves, the Hektz Clan finally selected two rank four essences and one rank five essence.
Didn't they choose the remaining rank three essence because they didn't want to look greedy?
Well, I guess I'll keep it for now.
Once the loot was distributed, everyone was free to do whatever they wanted. Those who were still exhausted by the battle went to rest, and those who had obtained new essences went to taste them with a sparkle in their eyes.
«It seems like it's been so long since it was just us».
«It's true».
«Yandel, when are you going to visit the boss?».
«I'm going to rest today and visit you tomorrow».
«Ya veo... »
«Furthermore, it seems that in the end the Silver Lion Clan did not show up.»
«It is very likely that they are dead. They were too inexperienced to be as greedy as they were.»
After that, we all ate and chatted, and then parted ways to make the most of our free time.
«I'll take a look for a while».
«Shall I accompany you?»
«Would be fine.
Amelia went with Erwen to patrol the area.
«Um... Could I go out too? I'm not that tired...»
Ainar went to visit his monster friend at the forge.
«Bjorn... I'm going to rest. See you later...»
«Me too... After everything we've been through today, I'm exhausted».
Missha and Auyen went up to their respective rooms to sleep, and with that, Versyl and I were left alone in the living room.
«What are you going to do?» I asked to be polite.
«I'm going to meditate for a while. My head hurts a little since I was a little reckless with the use of my mana today.»
«Ya veo.»
«And you, Mr. Yandel?».
«I'm going to read before I go to sleep».
As promised, I went to my room, turned on the magic desk lamp, and opened my book. However, for some reason, I couldn't focus on its content at all.
Huntersville Bruingrid.
How strong was that guy?
He had the strange feeling that he still retained all the essences he had obtained while he was human.
If we both tried our best, would I be able to defeat him?
No, if I take it to its logical extreme... If that guy tries to kill us...
Would I be able to protect my companions?
With those thoughts bouncing around in my mind seemingly endlessly, I closed the book and fell into a restless sleep right there on the desk.
«Yandel. Wake up.»
«…¿Eh?»
When I woke up, Amelia was shaking my shoulder. At first, I thought I was just there to scold me for going to sleep in bed like I always did.
...But his eyes only look like that when something goes wrong.
I sat up immediately, wide awake. «Has something happened?»
In response, Amelia placed a steel sword on the desk.
«What is this?»
«It's a weapon we found in the town forge», he explained to me.
«¿Y?»
When I tilted my head towards her, Amelia gestured with her chin, signaling me to take a closer look.
A second look made me feel a chill.
«Did you find this... in the forge?».
The insignia of the Silver Lion clan was inscribed on the sword.