Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Novel - Chapter 556
Chapter 556: First Clear (1)
Bellarios. A rank three monster who had the magic damage defense skill that was perfect to plug my sole weakness.
The base stats it possessed were like this:
[Mana Resistance +200]
A high level of mana resistance that couldn’t be found in any other monster and…
[All attribute sensitivity +30]
Water, fire, air, earth, and so on—no matter the attribute of the skill I used, the sensitivity would increase their effectiveness.
And that’s all.
Those two stats were the only ones attached to Bellarios. Honestly, if it had anything else, the balance would need to come into question.
Damn.
This wasn’t a new feeling, but I wondered once more what it would be like if it were resistance instead of sensitivity. That said, sensitivity was worth a lot and was a very important stat in this game, but that was only if I was building a Fire Barbarian or Earth Barbarian. There was not much use I could get out of it while being a Shield Barbarian.
The only thing it applies to right now is Storm Gush.
Eye of the Storm was classified as a wind attribute and Origin was water. These two were affected by the sensitivity and their effectiveness would’ve increased, but since they were skills I was going to erase in the future anyway, it didn’t mean much.
What’s important are the skills.
Although it was a shame that I didn’t get resistance for both stats, there was not much I could complain about when thinking about the skill I got. Stats could be substituted.
[(P) Circulation Loop—Whenever a monster of rank three or higher dies within a set radius, your stats increase by a set amount.]
Plus, I had gotten a passive that increased my stats.
In some sense, it was similar to the Manticore’s Inheritance, which increased stats by consuming mana stones, but the key difference here was this: Circulation Loop didn’t have a limit. Well, due to the activation probability decreasing as my stats increased, I would hit a practical ceiling at around a total of 400 stat points, but still.
[(A) Scales of Greed—Gain additional Mana Resistance relative to base Mana Resistance.]
The active was the core of this essence in the end.
I got 35 from Deep Sea Giant, 20 from Bayon, 80 from Ogre, 200 from Bellarios, then 40 from erasing Inheritance, and another 8 from going around eating the potions from around the rifts… 383 in total.
But that wasn’t all. By putting an additional 30 percent to the 383 from the Earth Dragon’s Blessing…
A total of 497.9.
Regrettably, the number was just barely shy of 500.
However, here came another reason why Giantization was my core skill. And Earth Dragon’s Blessing wasn’t even a part of the original Shield Barbarian build.
[You have cast Giantization. Your threat level and physical value increase in proportion to growth in size.]
Even without using Transcendent Giantization and without having to improve my stats through Wild Outburst, my resistance would be over 500 with just this.
[You have cast Scales of Greed.]
As I used the newly acquired skill, blue scales appeared over the thick skin characteristic of my barbarian flesh.
“Oh! Bjorn is evolving into a lizardman!”
Hey, don’t insult me like that.
I looked over my transformed body with a grin.
[Your Mana Resistance is over 500. All magic damage received will be decreased by 50%. Physical resistance stats will increase proportionally to magic damage absorbed.]
I had finally obtained the Barbarian Dragon Mode.
I only had a moment to eat the essence, use the skill, and admire my state.
“I truly congratulate you on your achievement, Your Lordship. However, I wish to continue with the mission at hand.”
With Jerome’s mood-killing words, I went back out to the hunting round, huffing to myself. Everyone already knew that he was obsessed with the mission. It was a bit annoying, but considering his effectiveness, I let it slide.
[You have defeated a Bantao.]
[You have defeated an Elder Wyvern.]
[You have defeated a Fleetwonder…]
After all, the more rank three monsters we defeated, the more we stood to gain.
Shine!
About seven monsters in, a halo appeared above my head and drew in the shining light before they disappeared. It was the effect of the Circulation Loop activating.
[Mana Resistance has permanently increased by +1.]
[Natural Regeneration has permanently increased by +1.]
I saw it activate on Auyen multiple times already so I wasn’t too surprised, but since I couldn’t see the system messages before, I couldn’t tell what they were. We would need to regularly go to the magic tower to check his stats out to see what was increased.
Either way, I could tell that physical stats were the most prominent increases.
That one might have been just in range. Let’s get a little closer.
Circulation Loop had a few activation conditions. While within one yard of the defeated monster, the increased stat had a high chance of being a physical stat, and it was totally random if I was within five yards instead. If I was over ten yards away, I had some research that concluded that the stat was more likely to be related to abilities.
Ah, of course, this research was done by me firsthand.
“Stop! Squad Three and Temporary Squad Four will switch positions with Squad One and Squad Two!”
Not long after, the commander made another order to the group. Smiles danced across the faces of the knights toiling at the frontline, but I was an exception.
Ah… I just want to stay here and keep farming stats.
When would I ever get the chance to kill this many rank three and above monsters en masse? I wanted to gain as much as I could while together with the expedition group.
Commander Jerome sternly cut me off. “You may not know because you have no experience leading an army, but rules are rules, Your Lordship. You need to keep them.”
I supposed if exceptions were made, more people would come forward to challenge the authority figure. Sensing there was no point trying to convince him any further, I turned around and tended to my disappointed heart.
Boom! Bang! Crackle!
After leaving the stone gate behind and moving to the bookshelves, I could see the battle going on underneath me.
Vwoong!
The knights wielded all the colors of the aura.
Shine!
The heals cast by the priests brightened the battlefield and the knights were able to fight without worrying about their injuries.
“Ihilart Bendai Tiulon!”
Dozens of wizards used group magic to display feats of overwhelming power.
They were the reason I used the fountain pen early to guarantee the essence even though I had planned on keeping its uses as much as possible. It was to prepare for the worst-case scenario.
There are too many wizards here.
If they became my enemies, I would have far too difficult a time in my previous state.
But now…I’ll be able to at least fight back a little.
I sighed. In that sense, I needed to feed Amelia her essence as well, but it was too much of a waste to use the last remaining charge of the fountain pen on that. Maybe I would just get lucky if I waited long enough.
“Mister, what are you thinking so deeply about?”
“Why are you always so curious about what I’m thinking?”
“Ahaha…right? Why am I…?”
“You’re losing it…” I turned back to take out the books while continuing to get lost in my thoughts.
Finally, the time of the switch came back, and around the time we would need to switch back, the day ended.
Those days repeated a few more times until we reached the hundred-and-fourteenth day since we entered the labyrinth at four in the afternoon, around eight hours before the rainy season began.
“…Commander, we’ve reached the final bookshelf.”
The library would soon be fully cleared.
Honestly, I was a bit surprised. I never thought it was possible to reach the endgame of the library in just a week here. When we had hunted for over a month, we had to stop at around rank three and rank two monsters. Their speed was incomparable to ours.
However, I could still make a few excuses. The goal of these guys wasn’t to hunt, but to clear the floor. Unlike us who hunted for as many rank three monsters as we could, these guys just took out a book from each layer to climb the bookshelf.
“You may all rest as you wish until a new order is given!”
The army of the palace that had continued to summon until late at night every day was finally given rest as the mission was paused.
That, of course, wasn’t the case for the leaders.
“Then we will begin our meeting.”
While everyone was splayed out and resting to recover their health and MP, me and the other leaders were gathered in one place to hold a meeting. Everyone had a grim look on their faces.
I knew that the last book had a rank one monster since I heard it from Hamsick.
But these guys didn’t know that.
“We had our suspicions, but rank one monsters did make their appearance on the last bookshelf.” The deputy commander, the host of our meeting, spoke with a cold voice that trembled ever so slightly. Even so, what we needed to do hadn’t changed. “I will say this now, but the commander has decided that even if we are to face a rank one monster, the mission will continue.”
It was what I expected as well, but some turbulence arose among the other leaders of the expedition group.
“A rank one monster… We are sure to have severe casualties.”
“I am starting to wonder if this is worth all that.”
I understood how they felt. Honestly, it wasn’t as if we had no sacrifices on our way here.
“Commander, we’ve already had seven people killed in action…!”
During combat, seven people died. Six of them were warriors from the expedition group. One of them was a warrior from the Armin Adventurer Group. No matter how many priests we had, they couldn’t do anything if the person died instantly.
It’s not even rare to see arms and legs get severed at this point.
Truthfully speaking, the last summoning book we used had two rank two monsters accompanied by four rank threes and we were fighting as an entire group rather than as squads, yet even then, the number of limbs that had gone flying during the battle was over twenty. Thankfully, the priests had managed to attach them back immediately after the battle was over, but what if a rank one monster were to appear in this situation?
Knowing this, one of the knights moved to speak. “If we take any more damage here, this could become a large loss for the palace—”
“Stop.” Commander Jerome immediately shut him down. “This is a sacred mission given to us by the palace. Thus, we must complete the mission. No matter the sacrifices that arise on the way.”
As we were an army with strict hierarchies, Jerome’s stern words made the knight go silent.
At that, the deputy commander who had been wary of the mood quickly resumed the meeting. “The topic of our meeting isn’t to discuss if the mission will progress or not.” Jerome had already decided we were going to fight, so he had only one reason to call us here. “We have identified seven monsters we can summon. Please freely state your opinion on which one we should fight.”
We were to discuss which monster would be the best for us to fight.
As we properly began our meeting, many different opinions were stated, and I stayed quiet at first to take the others’ opinions into account.
“I believe the Leviathan is the best choice. We are currently not in the ocean. As it is a monster who is supported heavily by its environment, I suspect that the difficulty of defeating it will be lower here.”
First of all, the Leviathan was the wrong choice. Although the reasoning was decent enough, we didn’t have the team composition to defeat that monster.
“How about Tol-Lapupa? It’s a monster heavily invested in its defenses, so if we invest time into it in return, we should be able to defeat it without taking much damage.”
That was also rejected. We had plenty of knights on our side, but the wizards were the core of our damage in the end. We would never be able to break through its shell.
“I believe that Kashan will be the best—”
“Well, I think the Ridger is better than Kashan—”
The leaders each gave their opinion and either supported or rejected the ideas of other people. Of course, they were all making foolish remarks. Most people hadn’t even seen rank-one monsters and only heard about them. They were practically legendary, mythical creatures that most people could only produce theories about.
Do I need to step up in the end?
Even though it was only in the game, I did have a lot of experience defeating countless rank-one monsters.
And frankly, from my position, this meeting was pointless.
I could tell just from the fact that we were discussing which monster to hunt to reduce the damage we would take. No one was thinking that we would fail. They truly believed that no matter which of the seven we summoned, we would be able to defeat them.
“Now that I think about it, you haven’t said anything for a while, Lord Baron.”
“Are you talking about me?”
“Do you perhaps have an opinion on this?”
Ah, right. Honestly, I was about to say something, and this guy prepared the stage for me.
“I do.”
The other leaders in the meeting seemed intrigued, focusing their attention on me.
“If we are to summon one, it needs to be Kashan,” I declared.
When I went straight to the point, the eyes of the other leaders sparkled.
“The wolf of prophecy?”
“So you have the same opinion as me, Your Lordship.”
Some seemed surprised while others looked satisfied that I agreed with them.
“If it isn’t too much, could I ask you to explain why it must be Kashan?” the highest-ranking wizard of the expedition group asked me. He stared down his nose at me with a gaze that looked as if he were staring at a mere, mindless barbarian.
This guy wanted to summon Leviathan.
The old wizard went on, trying to lecture me. “Kashan is the entity with the highest attack power among the monsters discussed. It will absolutely cause the most damage to our group.”
You know, don’t act like you know everything just because you can use some magic and did some studying.
“However, if there is a reason we need to choose Kashan over the other monsters, do tell us. If you cannot convince everyone here—”
“I do have a reason.”
“…Huh?”
I couldn’t tell why this grandpa looked surprised even though he was the one to ask me. I quickly continued, saying, “Tol-Lapupa, Leviathan, or whatever. We don’t have a choice.”
“…What do you mean?”
What do you mean, what do I mean?
“Kashan is the only one we can even try to defeat.”
The others were impossible for us in the first place.
English