Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Novel 2026 - Chapter 547
Chapter 547: Ghost (5)
Scales of Greed.
If someone had high enough resistance, it was a powerful active skill that even granted one magic immunity. It even had an additional effect on top of that.
[Bellarios will gain physical resistance relative to the magic damage nullified.]
The skill didn’t just end with decreasing magic damage, but even raised physical resistance. To put it simply, it had scales that continued to become stronger and stronger the more magic was used to attack it. They truly were scales that incited greed.
Unfortunately for it, it met the wrong opponents today.
Because adventurers got stronger the greedier they got.
That was why there was even a saying that whatever an adventurer desired was also desired by greed itself.
Ah, by the way, I made that saying up right now.
“Behel—LAAAAAA!” I charged while making my greed known.
Essence, essence, essence, essence. Please drop an essence!
If I looked in a mirror right now, I would probably see a feverish glint in my eyes.
It felt like it had been so long since I had become this excited while looking at a monster. But how could I be calm? I had suffered so long because of my weakness to magic damage. If I could obtain this skill, then it would solve all those problems.
But first, this guy.
The goat-headed blacksmith got in my way.
I swung down my hammer onto the Hellsmith’s head.
Bang!
After being hit by the hammer, its chin was dislodged for a moment, but the sturdy rank 3 monster didn’t budge that much. Instead, it retaliated immediately.
[Hellsmith has cast Pounding. The flames deep within the earth awaken.]
The earth split as flames erupted from below.
When our chieftain used it, it was closer to a buff skill that was used as a time-sensitive stacking attack, but this goat seemed to be able to have it active at all times. Obtaining skills through essences usually decreased their power levels a bit, so that was to be expected.
[The damage of all flame-type skills increases significantly. Physical value rises significantly in proportion to flame sensitivity level. Your surroundings will constantly catch flame.]
Red and blue flames jumped up and around the body but the continuous damage was still manageable.
Adventurers lived and died by their equipment, you know?
Oh, and that was a saying that already existed.
[You have activated the Orb of Fire. Reduces all continuous flame-type damage derived within a radius of 15 yards by 50%.]
The damage decreased significantly after Orb of Fire was activated. This also applied to all the melee warriors around me.
[Versyl Gowland has cast the rank 8 buff magic Cold Blood. Your fire resistance has greatly increased.]
Since Cold Blood was cast on me on top of that, the damage had decreased to the point that I could practically ignore it.
“Attack!”
Amelia unleashed her aura and Missha swung her longsword coated with cold energies.
[Ainar Fenelin has cast Trident.]
Ainar used her newly acquired skill for the first time in a real battle.
Swish!
The spear lunged forward like a flying arrow and as it did, two translucent spears appeared on either side of it. With the effect of Trident, the additional spears would have been launched at two adjacent enemies next to her target.
But it’s a rank 3 essence, so it would be pretty sad if that was all it could do.
Although Trident was an area effect skill, it was actually stronger when used against a single target.
[There are no additional enemies around the target. All attacks will land on the original target.]
Three spears struck the goat-headed monster. Since the blow wasn’t registered as hitting the same spot as with Repeated Slash, the other skills she had didn’t activate. However, that didn’t mean the attack was weak.
All damage using spears increased by 1,200%.
With just this one line of text, this attack did more damage than the combination of essences of rank 4 and lower.
Stab!
As the spear embedded itself into the monster’s body and pulled itself back out, the spear-sized holes began to spurt out blood.
However, that didn’t last long.
[Hellsmith has cast Patch.]
The wounded areas glowed red like magma before a silver layer covered them to heal them.
After hearing its injuries in an instant, Hellsmith roared before casting another one of its main skills.
[Hellsmith has cast Hellfire.]
Hellfire was such a great attack skill that I had even made a build in the past centered around this one skill.
Bang! Boom! Fwoosh!
It was as if a volcano had erupted. The bag of lava on its back erupted as red liquid exploded all around us.
[Bellarios has cast Calamity.]
Then the raid officially began as Bellarios joined the battle.
Calamity was a pretty unique skill, especially because it was a skill that applied an effect to the field itself.
[Field Effect-Storm is applied.]
When the skill was used, a random field effect was applied.
Whoosh!
Strong winds blew and gray tornadoes swirled overhead. Our range of vision dropped considerably because of it, but that was only a secondary negative effect.
[The activation rate of all skills has decreased by 50%.]
This meant that if someone tried to use a skill in the storm, it wouldn’t do anything half the time.
This is a bit of a problem. We’re starting with a storm.
I was still thankful that we weren’t in Dragon’s Mountain. That place had a field effect of its own which made any additional field effects that much more difficult for us.
“Deal with the Hellsmith first!” I ordered, and the ranged dealers began to fire off their prepared skills. The combination magics that had been casting for a long time were unleashed and they fell onto our target while missing the melee warriors.
[Bellarios has cast Dragon’s Orb. The resource usage of all characters in the area has increased twelvefold.]
A divine yellow light flashed in the raging storm.
Yeah, I was waiting for when this was going to be used.
I’m pretty sure it activates when a set amount of resources are used.
Dragon’s Orb was a peculiar skill as special as Calamity. It increased resource usage twelve times over and regained as much MP as was wasted by others. In other words, it was a super cheat skill.
Of course, it only looked like that on the outside. This skill had a lethal weakness.
[Hellsmith has cast Patch.]
[Dragon’s Orb has increased resource usage by twelvefold.]
[Field Effect-Storm has caused the skill to fail.]
[Dragon’s Orb has stolen the wasted resource.]
Just like Calamity, Dragon’s Orb didn’t differentiate between allies and enemies.
Since it was a weird mechanic, I had built around this skill before as well. It was a solo-carry build where I would use Dragon’s Orb to steal all the resources of my allies to super-power my attacks to do unbelievable levels of damage. Well, even then, it was only as strong as Erwen was now, so I used it for fun a few times then abandoned it.
Anyways.
“Don’t stop!”
We ignored the storm and resource tax and continued to push all our damage onto Hellsmith.
[Field Effect – Earthquake is applied. All movement effects are sealed.]
Bellarios used the MP it had recovered to cast Calamity again, but we were able to accomplish our initial goal.
[You have defeated a Hellsmith. EXP +7]
The goat had had its MP drained and even had its skills blocked by its ally and died a dog’s death.
Shine!
Its body turned into light and disappeared, and we saw one reward drop.
Thud.
It was a rank 3 mana stone.
I was looking forward to it since this is our first kill…
The essence didn’t end up dropping. It was a bit of a shame, I didn’t linger too long on it. We had a separate main course.
And this is honestly better.
If Beginner’s Luck had activated here, I would’ve become even more nervous. Gacha required sacrifices, after all.
“So now that’s the only one left?”
“You know, right? Wizards, please only use support spells! Don’t use any offensive attacks!”
Right after defeating Hellsmith, we focused all our attention on Bellarios.
The wizards changed position from damage dealers to support, and the ranged dealers began to fly through the air while showering the dragon with attacks.
“It’s coming down!”
When it swooped down from the air, the melee damage dealers used that timing to swing their weapons against it.
[Bellarios has cast Wandering Wave.]
[Bellarios has cast Breath of Death.]
[Bellarios has cast Shatter.]
Its scales became a mess as the battle continued.
[Bellarios has cast Calamity.]
[Field Effect – Drought is applied. All positive effects are removed, and all negative effects are amplified.]
It was when it cast its third Calamity.
Swish!
As Erwen fired an arrow from the distance, the projectile flew in and landed directly in the middle of the monster’s forehead.
The battle was over.
Did it take around 10 minutes?
While my brain went to calculate how long the battle took, my eyes were focused on the corpse of Bellarios that was disappearing into light.
[You have defeated a Bellarios. EXP +7]
As its body disappeared, the flares of light that floated into the air turned into a mana stone that fell on the ground.
Drop.
None of the adventurers were paying attention to the one mana stone.
[No. 9999, Beginner’s Luck, has been activated.]
An essence had dropped.
The problem was…
…It’s yellow.
It wasn’t Scales of Greed.
The yellow essence meant it was the active skill Shatter. It was a long-range attack, but it amplified its effects when used in melee range. A sure-hit instantaneous skill.
“Ugh… That’s a shame. It’s yellow. It’s not what you wanted, right?”
“Hah… So what do we do with this essence now? I feel like a lot of people will want this…”
While everyone was focused on the essence, Amelia approached me while wiping the blood off her shortsword. “Yandel, are you alright? It looked like you got hurt quite a bit.”
“Ah, I’m fine. The equipment is fine.”
She went quiet.
When I was fighting Milayel, a rank 2 and a Guardian of the Rift to boot, I hadn’t been all that injured, but I ended up getting hurt a bit more during this fight against Bellarios. Because the skill Shatter dealt damage by crumbling the space in a set area, it was impossible to guard against it.
Sparkle.
However, since they were just minor wounds in the end, a simple heal allowed me to recover pretty quickly.
“As long as you’re fine. So, what are you going to do with the essence?”
“Ah, that…”
After my body recovered to normal, I began quickly thinking about the next course of action.
Why did it have to be Shatter of all things?
The skill itself wasn’t bad. Sure-hit, instantaneous, and impossible to guard against. The damage it dealt was pretty substantial, and the MP and cooldown were both low as well.
However, it’s difficult to boost it.
With how many things it had going for it, the skill had the fatal weakness of not being very synergistic with other skills. No matter how you built around the skill, the potential for growth was low.
“I’ve decided.”
It didn’t take long for me to conclude the owner of this essence.
“Auyen Rockrobe,” I called to our clan’s sole noncombatant, the navigator.
“…Yes?”
“You’ll take this one.”
“…Eh?”
“What are you surprised about?”
“B-but…this isn’t an essence related to navigation…?”
Ah, so that was why he didn’t say much when we were discarding those rank 3 essences.
I smirked as I tapped his shoulder. “Even if you’re a navigator, you’re still a member of our clan. You should at least have an essence you can use to defend yourself.”
I was planning on handing him an essence pretty soon anyway, and since this was an essence that would be similarly effective no matter who had it, I concluded that it would be enough for our noncombatant Auyen to use effectively.
And the passive skill Circulation Loop can bring up his base stats as well.
However, it seemed he still couldn’t believe me.
“Uh, um…” Auyen only opened and closed his mouth, visibly in shock. “Th-thank you. Thank you… Really… Thank you so much…”
For some reason, our navigator began to cry.
[The essence of Bellarios has permeated deep into Auyen Rockrobe’s soul.]
Huh? Why was he crying all of a sudden?
Amelia approached my side as I grew more confused at the sudden turn of events. “If I had to guess, his pent-up grievances finally caught up to him. From what I heard, it seemed he was ignored the whole time while he was a navigator in the past.”
…Really? I didn’t know that
“And since you gave him an essence so he could protect himself, he must be overflowing with emotions now, feeling like this is the first time he was recognized as officially a part of a group.”
Hmm, I still couldn’t fully understand the situation. All this just that he had gone through a lot in the past?
I stopped caring by that point and cleared my throat. “Ahem…”
“Oho! Bjorn is flustered!”
Hey, that wasn’t it.
Why is Amelia smiling so proudly too?
I didn’t want to encourage any misunderstandings, so I quickly shouted to change the topic, “Everyone can go rest now!”
And so, everyone was given free time.
I also took a spot to lie down and Erwen was the one who approached me then.
“Mister, are you resting?”
“Yeah. What is it?”
“I’m curious about something.”
Curious about something? “Speak.”
“Why didn’t you let me do my thing in this battle? If we started with one of them defeated, it would’ve been much easier.”
“Oh, that?”
She wasn’t wrong. If we used Erwen’s lethal attack, the two rank 3 monsters would’ve been defeated much more quickly. The dark orbs would have quickly dealt with the Hellsmith, and Concentrated Fire would’ve killed Bellarios in one shot.
“We still have a lot of time left.”
“Pardon?”
After using her lethal attack, Erwen wouldn’t be able to participate in the battle for quite a while.
Currently, it was only five in the afternoon. To put it simply, if a high-powered member of our group, Erwen, were to go out of commission this early, the total number of monsters we could hunt would decrease.
Alright, I think everyone’s rested enough…
And soon, I got up and ordered everyone to line up again, and we got into formation once more and began summoning monsters. We repeatedly killed monsters until eleven in the night and ended the day while setting up the night watch.
“Chew properly! We didn’t put that many vegetables in here!”
The following day, I ate breakfast after waking up and began my daily routine once more.
Alright, the food today was pretty good as well.
“We have about sixty days worth of food for all thirty-eight people.”
Our inventory looked fine.
“We found an odd stat in Ms. Fenelin’s body. It could relate to a passive ability of the Hipramajent.”
And just like always, the research team didn’t have any results to showcase yet.
There weren’t any problems this morning.
Except one thing.
“Yandel, let’s have a talk.”
Around the time I fully digested my food, Amelia from the security team called for me. She then hesitated a little before saying, “There were too many identical reports to say that what they saw wasn’t real.”
“What did you see?”
“I’ll tell you this now, but when I checked the library, there wasn’t anything here.”
“Okay, so what did you see?”
Amelia quietly looked around before whispering to me, “People are saying…that they saw a ghost in the night.”
…A ghost?
English