Five days had passed since the beginning of the rainy season. We quickly escaped from the town and soon reached the surface.
¡Graaaaaah!
¡Kiyeeeeek!
¡Guau! ¡Guau! ¡Guau!
As expected, it was pandemonium on the surface. Monsters were everywhere, spewing blood and flesh everywhere as they fought each other. However, there was an obvious difference from the first day of the rainy season.
¡Crujido!
Although the monsters kept falling from the sky...
«...The number has dropped quite a bit.»
«A little» didn't cover it. Compared to the first day, monsters practically no longer fell. It was like saying the rain had dropped a little 10 centimeters the other day to 0.04 centimeters today.
«That damn boss».
It was impossible for him not to know. He had simply refused to tell me.
After all, he needs people to think that the rainy season is dangerous so that everyone continues to depend on the town and he can keep them there longer.
I cursed it in my head as relief washed over me: I had made the right decision to get out of there immediately. Still, I quickly crushed those thoughts. As responsible for the lives of dozens of people, he had more pressing matters to attend to.
Fortunately... the boss did not pursue us.
I still didn't know what I was up to, but that, at least, reduced the number of things I had to worry about right now.
«In training!» I ordered, quickly setting a clear objective for my allies. «We're leaving this island!».
Block the teeth of the monster with my shield.
«¡Become-aaaaaa!»
Then, I used my hammer to break their jaws and open a path.
«Sorcerers!» I ordered. «Take all the mana stones you can!».
It would be a waste to leave them behind, right? What kind of adventurers would we be if we ignored the mana stones that literally cover this island? Before, we couldn't catch too many, as I distrusted the village chief.
...But there is no need for that anymore.
Once again I marveled at how good it was to crush people for my social life, especially because it allowed me to set clear boundaries in any relationship.
¡Watch!
The wizards got to work casting chain cultivation spells to gather the mountains of mana stones. That would reduce our combat power a little, but at the moment it wasn't a big problem. Since the number of monsters raining from the sky had decreased considerably, we had much more room to breathe.
At this rate... it might be possible for us to get out of here without anyone dying.
This was great news for me, as I had ordered us to leave the village even though I feared the worst. Now I could focus solely on advancing to the front and finishing off the dangerous monsters that crossed our path.
[You have killed an Iron Spirit. EXP +6]
[Has matado a un Baphomet.]
[You have killed an Ainicorn. EXP +6]
[You have killed a Mud Golem].
[You have killed a Heavenly Tree. EXP +5]
[Has tado a un Dachyon...]
Ten minutes into my monster killing session, Ainar gave me more good news.
«Oh oh! My soul! My soul! It's filling up!» He hoped his time would come soon, and it seemed like he had finally leveled up. «I have become stronger once again!»
Well, right now he was only «stronger» in the sense that his Soul Power had risen. But still, it was good to know as it meant that he now had a free essence slot again after absorbing Hipramajent's essence.
I think some of the members of the Hektz Clan and the Armin Adventurer Group are also leveling up pretty steadily.
Overall, it seemed like the average number of essence slots in our group had increased by one or two.
«Um... Mr. Baron! There is a rank four essence out there...»
«From now on», I said, issuing a special order, »Anyone can absorb any essence that appears! I won't care about anything below rank three.»
It was a shame to have to give up the first opportunity and the favorable part that had assured us, but when I thought about it, it wasn't such a big loss. Anyway, we didn't have time to collect all the magic jars, so any increase in our combat skills was something to celebrate.
«¡IIIIIIII!»
This order also served to significantly increase the morale of my fellow adventurers. Just like you could interpret a half-full glass of water in multiple ways, fighting hordes of monsters had gone from a life-or-death situation to an opportunity.
It wasn't bad.
It seemed like our spirits had been lifted.
However, the danger could not be overcome with optimism alone.
¡Kiyoooooo!
In the distance, what looked like a huge bird screamed and landed right in our path. Although calling it a bird was a bit of an exaggeration.
¡Boom!
Yes, I had been wondering if things were going too well.
...So you're not going to let us leave the island so easily, huh?
I let out a long sigh and closed my eyes for a moment before opening them again a second later. Although I wish I could say that I was wrong, unfortunately, the vision before me had not changed.
Pure white feathers and open wings, the body of a drake that was embedded in a long neck like that of a giraffe... And at the end of that long neck, what appeared to be a human face.
It was a fairly famous monster, so more than disgust at its appearance, fear was the most dominant emotion.
«It's a bird with a man's face...!»
The creature in our path was the rank two flying type monster Man Face Bird.
It was also the first obstacle that prevented us from leaving the island.
After plummeting from the sky and landing on the ground, his expressionless face turned in our direction before his eyes narrowed and turned in their sockets.
Correct.
i complained. Seriously, why did Dungeon and Stone have so many of these gruesome natural phenomena?
The feeling of disgust I evoked was different from the one I felt when I faced my first corpse golem. If I hadn't gotten used to encountering all kinds of monsters and fighting them, I would have gotten chills right now and would be unable to give a single order.
«Wizards! Form a protective barrier!»
The number of adventurers in Rafdonia who had experience fighting monsters of rank two or higher could be counted on one hand. I, however, had killed untold numbers of them.
Well, that was just in-game, of course, but it was enough to give me the experience to make a split-second decision when we stumbled upon one.
¡Vwoong!
The moment our wizards' barrier opened above us like an umbrella, the white eyes of the Man-Faced Bird turned black.
[The Man-Faced Bird has released Song of the End].
Yellow rays of light fell from the sky, so many that we had no hope of counting them all.
¡Bum! ¡Pum! ¡Pum! ¡Pum! ¡Pum!
It was as if the heavens themselves were decreeing a righteous judgment on the earth. The columns of light fell for about ten seconds straight, destroying everything around us. However, the damage was not as great as one would expect considering all the theatricality, so they did not cross the barrier.
¡Correct!
However, wherever a pillar of light made contact with the ground, a baby Man-Faced Bird stood up. They were a symbolic call.
«What are you doing? Kill those things, now!»
Now we were in a race against time.
Within a minute, those Man-Faced Bird pups would grow and could also use abilities. Theoretically, their number could grow exponentially from there. As soon as these babies began to release the Song of the End on their own, it would be impossible for us to confront them and...
«Yandel, give us an order!»
Ah, now was not the time to sit idly by.
«Erwen...», I started out of habit before stopping. He was recovering from spending all his PM to get us out of the village. There wasn't much he could do in this fight.
...When did I start depending so much on Erwen?
If you didn't have teeth, you chewed with your gums: that's what barbarians were like.
«Emily! Missha! You two, follow me!» I started running, and Amelia and Missha followed me closely. «Ainar, you protect the main forces... Versyl! Go back there and take care of the support. I trust your judgment on this!»
With that, the three of us ran forward, Amelia to my right and Missha to my left.
Eh, heinera ...
This formation looked a lot like...
«Yandel, I'm going to warn you now before you get any ideas».
«¿Eh?»
«If you try to do something like what you did the other day... I will kill you.»
Tsk, so that was a no. «...I wasn't going to.»
«I would... agree with it...»
However, regardless of whether Missha agreed or not, she could not force Amelia to cooperate when she had already vehemently refused. Anyway, this bird wasn't as big as the Hipramajent, so he couldn't use that as an excuse either.
Hit!
The joint use of Transcendence and gigantization put me at their level. The way he looked at me, as if he had fallen in love at first sight, it seemed like he had managed to attract his aggressiveness.
«Behel-aaaaaa!»
And with that, I immediately lunged forward in a shield charge.
¡Who is it!
The man-faced bird staggered as I hit it with the full weight of my body. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Missha and Amelia approached his flanks and attacked his paws from both sides.
¡Flash!
At this moment, the blackened eyes of the Man-Faced Bird released a beam of light.
[The Man-Faced Bird has cast Imprint of Destruction.]
Yes, I knew you would target me.
I felt a burning pain pierce my chest.
¡Fwoosh!
[You will lose 1% of your maximum HP per second.]
Okay, so in theory, I was going to die in a hundred seconds.
Even just thinking about this ability pisses me off.
The Imprint of Destruction was a single target debilitator impossible to dodge or block. Plus, there was no time limit. In other words, if he hit you, your options were to kill or kill the caster before the curse could kill you.
However, the strategy to deal with it was quite simple.
«¡Raaagh!»
You just had to endure it with the help of your Natural Regeneration and the support of a priest.
«Yandel! You're OK?»
«Don't worry about me! Keep stabbing!»
The Man-Faced Bird was a creature designed with battles of attrition in mind. If this lasted too long, he was guaranteed to beat us.
I did everything I could to maintain his aggressiveness, so that the damageers could continue attacking him without problems. Shortly after, our rangers joined the fight to help keep him at bay.
¡Correct...!
As the battle dragged on, the Man-Faced Bird gained a different ability.
[The Man-Faced Bird has released Mimicry].
The huge face attached to his huge body instantly transformed into another. It was much bigger than the face he was used to seeing, but it wasn't difficult to tell who it was.
«Oh!», Ainar shouted excitedly. «It's Emily! The monster turned into Emily!»
Mimicry randomly copied a character's abilities within a given radius.
[The Man-Faced Bird has launched Self-Replication.]
Little one... Why did he have to take that skill?
«¡Oh! Hay dos... ¡No, tres Emilys!»
Somehow, we ended up with two more boss monsters to face, and the clones also used their abilities to join the fight.
[The Bird with the Face of a Man has released 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 maximum HP per second.]
Hah, so that effect doubled now. Was our priest going to be enough to prevent it?
Well, it was useless to think about it.
Why does bad news always come in batches?
[The Bird Face of Man has released Song of the End.]
One of the baby Man-Faced Birds that managed to reach maturity joined in the fun.
[The Man-Faced Bird has cast Imprint of Destruction.]
[You will lose 3% of your maximum HP per second.]
With that, he now had a triple ration of the curse.
Great. A priest would not be able to counteract that kind of constant damage.
We had found ourselves between a rock and a hard place, but running away was not an option as long as I had the Imprint of Destruction on me.
Which means there was only one option.
«Die, please die!»
As a proud K-Barbarian, I adopted the mentality of our Admiral Yi Sun-sin and put my life and physical integrity on the line as I launched into battle.
[Your HP has fallen below 50%. All Stamina and Resilience stats have increased due to the Path of Heroes passive ability].
I didn't have much time left, so I redoubled and fought even harder.
[The Man-Faced Bird has released Guide.]
[The Man-Faced Bird has launched Protection Decree.]
As the battle grew fiercer, the Man-Faced Bird also began to counterattack with the same force.
[Your PS have fallen below 20%. All Stamina and Resilience stats have been maximized due to the passive ability Path of Heroes].
¡Boom!
Just as I was beginning to feel like this battle was about to come to an end in one way or another, I found myself receiving four pieces of news. Two were good, while two were bad.
The good news was pretty simple 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 fell. The color was white.
Is Mimetism.
It wasn't as good as a basic 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...
"¡¿What?!"
«A spear...? Why did a spear suddenly come out of...?»
It wasn't us who dealt the final blow to the Man-Faced Bird.
Hit!
Something emerged from the darkness and grabbed the spear that was stuck in the ground where the head of the Man-Faced Bird once stood.
It was hard not to recognize him. A relatively small stature that reached about three meters in height, with smooth, stone-colored skin on a humanoid body that looked almost like a statue...
«¡Titanus ...! You are a Titan!»
Another rank two monster had appeared. That was the first of the two bad news.
Damn sea.
The second was the red spear that held the Titanus - No. 7: Giant Green Spear of Milayel.
That thing... why is it in that bastard's hands...?
My eyes couldn't really understand what they were seeing, but the rest of me calmly accepted reality for what it was anyway.
[The Lancer of the Heavens, Milayel, is enraged when he notices the mortal].
This guy was a Rift Guardian.