STGB Episode 537
Rainbow (4)
Kalheim, the city of light, one of the rifts on the 8th floor.
And the Rift Guardian that appears in the final boss room there.
[The Celestial Spear Guardian, Milayel]
I have no idea why this guy is showing up in a normal field.
But first, let’s summarize his character.
The biggest characteristic is that, despite being a monster, he uses a Numbers item.
And…
‘The drop rate for Milayel’s Divine Spear is 3%.’
He drops other Numbers items too, but Milayel’s Divine Spear belonging to the single Numbers, has the highest drop rate.
That’s why I hunted it so much when I was raising my spear character. After all, the Milayel’s Divine Spear tends to be the graduation weapon for spear users.
Besides, its essence was really good too.
Anyway, setting aside why he appeared here.
As I mentioned earlier, if we can take him down, the rewards are guaranteed to be worth it.
If it drops essence, that’s a jackpot, and if it drops a weapon, that’s also a jackpot.
However, the problem is our current condition.
“We can’t take him down.”
I quickly made my judgment.
This guy isn’t beyond our combined strength.
Our situation is just too unfavorable.
The priest is out of commission…”
Our main damage dealer, Erwin, is also in bad shape.
And that’s not the end of it.
Luckily, there haven’t been any deaths yet, but everyone is already quite worn out…
[Argh! Cough! Hack!]
[Growwwwwwl—!]
Monsters are still swarming around.
In short, we’re at a point where survival is more important than rewards.
“Jandel, what are the orders?”
Amelia asked me in a serious voice.
There was no need to hesitate.
“From now on, we head towards the coast.”
“The Coast…? Ah, you mean we’re running—”
“I said we’re charging toward the shore.”
“……”
We don’t have any other choice.
But…
‘We should at least take care of one thing before we go.’
Even if we’re running, we should settle this first.
After all, we can’t just leave a Level 2 essence lying on the ground.
‘Storing it in a test tube is impossible.’
After all, I can’t just leave a Level 2 essence lying on the ground.
And Storing it in a test tube is impossible.
I’m tempted, but no matter how I think about it, the risk is too high.
It takes a considerable amount of time to seal an essence in a test tube.
The chance of something going wrong in that time is way too high.
Meaning, in the end, I’d have to have someone consume it before escaping…
‘Who should I feed it to?’
It was a dilemma, but I quickly made my decision.
BOOM!
Blocking Milayel’s charging spear with my shield, I roared.
“Myul Armin!”
The leader of the Armin Expedition Team, Myul Armin.
A clan leader and an unusual explorer who specializes in curses as a Necromancer.
Honestly, it stings a little to hand something so valuable to someone who’s practically a stranger…
“Consume the essence of the man-faced bird”
But no matter how I think about it, he’s the best fit.
And it looks like he recently leveled up, meaning he has a slot available for an essence.
“…Huh?”
“Did you not hear me? Hurry! We don’t have time!”
“Ah, y-yes!”
As if out of a daze, the guy finally moved forward, and Amelia covered him until he safely reached the essence.
“I-is this really okay? I’m not even your comrade…”
Ah, seriously, what’s with this guy?
I’m already busy dealing with this bastard’s spear attacks.
“Doesn’t matter, just do it!”
“Y-yes, sir!”
After yelling at him, he finally reached out and absorbed the essence.
Okay, that’s everything taken care of…
Confirming with a glance that the essence had been absorbed, I pushed Milayel back with all my strength to create distance.
Then, I quickly gave new orders to the team.
“What are you all doing?! Form up into a marching formation!”
“……”
“From now on, we’re charging towards the shore at full speed!”
“…Huh?”
Ah, seriously, why is no one understanding me?
“We’re running!”
“Ah, yes—! Everyone, form up! We’re running at full speed—now!”
Tsk. There goes my Barbarian Baron dignity.
***
“Huff… Huff…”
I press forward, breathing heavily.
Ah, of course, this time I’m not in the lead; I’m holding position at the very back of the main group.
Because when you’re being chased, the rear is the most dangerous.
[You shall not escape, mortals.]
In-game, this guy always spouted the same line before battle. Turns out he does the same thing in real life.
The problem is that he repeats the same line like a parrot.
Ugh, how many times has he said that now?
A few times, I tried talking to him while running, but I never got a proper response. Honestly, at this point, I’m not even sure if he’s truly intelligent.
‘The monsters from the Village Chief’s town definitely felt sentient, though.’
It’s strange, but the Village Chief’s town was definitely unique.
Most monsters are like this.
The Vampire Duke Cambormier from the Crimson Fortress.
The Knights of the Apocalypse from the White Sanctuary—they all spoke, but none of them could hold a conversation.
[The Celestial Spear Guardian, Milayel, has activated [Recursion].]
Oh, come on, I was just thinking—
WHOOSH!
The moment I heard the sound of the air being torn apart, I twisted my body and raised my shield to cover my upper body.
BOOM!
Ugh, that damn spear.
Every time I block it, I can literally feel my shield being destroyed.
A single-digit Numbers weapon with a skill buff—what a pain in the ass.
Well, at least he’s only using one skill, so it’s not all bad.
This only happens because Milayel has the characteristics of a “Rift Guardian”.
Rift Guardians have fixed patterns.
They only change if their HP drops below certain thresholds, or if you activate certain mechanisms. Otherwise, they just repeat the same actions in a set pattern.
‘If he were a regular “Titanus,” we wouldn’t even be able to run away like this.’
Of course, that doesn’t mean that he’s an easy opponent.
The skill he’s using in this first phase is no joke either.
[The Celestial Spear Guardian, Milayel, has activated [Recursion].]
[Recursion].
A simple throwing skill with unavoidable hit properties and increased damage.
But it has one extremely annoying trait.
[The Celestial Spear Guardian, Milayel, has retrieved the Divine Spear]
No matter how far the spear is thrown, after a set amount of time, it returns to the caster’s hand.
And…
[Until the battle ends, the power of [Recursion] increases slightly.]
It’s basically a stacking skill.
Each time this pattern repeats, its damage keeps going up.
Because of that—
BOOOOM—!
And because of that…
BOOM!
The shield that even blocked the Village Chief’s sword now has holes punched clean through it.
I let out a short sigh at the state of my shield, then checked the situation ahead
Even though I was in the back, thanks to [Gigantification], I could easily see over the group to the front.
‘Things are going well.’
I didn’t expect the formation to collapse just because I wasn’t at the front, nor did I anticipate major issues with clearing the path.
No, in fact, this was exactly what I hoped for.
Then why do I feel so empty?
‘Whatever… I’ll just focus on my role.’
Whether anyone acknowledges it or not, doing your job in silence is the way of a warrior.
After tanking Milayel’s spear throws for quite some time.
“The sea!”
A cliff appeared through the dense trees, and as soon as we jumped down, the shoreline we’d seen when we first arrived on the island came into view—
[The Celestial Spear Guardian, Milayel has activated [Recursion].]
Ah, seriously, does this guy never get tired?
The spear that had pierced my shield dissolved into light, only to reappear and fly at me again.
THUD!
But for some reason, this time, pain blossomed from my shoulder.
I raised my shield in time to block, but…
“Ah.”
The shield was full of holes, so it just went straight through.
“B-Bjorn!”
“Jandel! Are you okay?!”
Misha and Amelia, who were at the front, rushed towards me in alarm.
Meanwhile, Versil quickly pulled out a potion.
But I waved them all off.
“Later. First, we’ve got to launch the ship.”
“Ah…”
With the spear still stuck in me, I hurried forward and pushed through the crowd to get to the shore.
“Uhh…”
“Uh…”
“Is… is that really okay?”
Startled by the sight of a towering barbarian with a huge spear through his shoulder, the explorers looked at me in disbelief and stepped aside.
SHHHHHING—!
I quickly summoned the boat and, still in [Gigantification], lifted the explorers onto the deck with my hands.
Once everyone was aboard, I returned to my normal size and boarded the ship, then poured mana stones into the magitek propulsion system to set sail.
As the boat swiftly distanced itself from the island, I finally let out a sigh of relief—
[The Celestial Spear Guardian, Milayel has activated [Recursion]
Another spear flew toward me and lodged itself in my abdomen.
“Hey, Jandel…!”
“Baron!!”
Ah, damn it…
Clutching my aching stomach, I bent over but still managed to raise my head and glare at the figure standing on the shore.
Yeah, I’ll remember your face…
“See you next time.”
A barbarian never forgets a grudge.
***
SPLASH!
The ship cut through the silver waves.
With so many people on board, the deck was cramped, but no one complained.
After all, just being able to sit and rest was a luxury.
Everyone stretched out and took the chance to recover. Of course, some of the explorers had dark expressions on their faces.
“One casualty…”
A warrior from the Hex Clan had died during the escape.
Sigh… Why is it always the warriors who die in situations like this?
As a fellow warrior, news like this always leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.
“I know it might sound inappropriate, but… it’s a miracle that only one of us died.”
“Yeah, I guess so. What was the name of the one who died?”
“Shelianne Emertown.”
The name immediately brought a face to mind.
I hadn’t spoken with her much in private, but she stood out as a rare female warrior in this line of work.
She always had a bright, cheerful smile.
“The body?”
“We managed to recover it.”
“That’s a relief…”
After the conversation, I gathered the explorers and suggested holding a funeral for the fallen.
Everyone was exhausted, but no one objected.
WHOOSH!
We simply laid a cloth that wouldn’t burn, cremated the body, and collected the ashes into an urn. That was it.
Boom—! Crack—! Crack—!
Even while the funeral was going on, monsters kept falling from the sky. But the barrier around the ship caused them to fall into the sea instead of onto the deck.
Drip.
Like raindrops trickling down a window on a stormy day, droplets of blood beaded up on the barrier before sliding off.
“May you rest in peace.”
“Haha, try not to feel too wronged. Who knows—we might soon follow you ourselves.”
“Tsk, you know words have power. Don’t jinx us.”
Death was always close for explorers, so even in solemn moments, lighthearted jokes slipped out.
No one reprimanded such jokes, though.
People cope in different ways.
“It’s over. Get some rest. And… good work, everyone.”
After the funeral, everyone went back to resting.
The mages couldn’t relax completely, since they had to maintain the barrier, but it was still much better than when they were on the island.
As soon as we set sail, we’d dismantled and modified the magitek propulsion system to connect it to the magic circuit.
‘We have enough mana stones, and fewer monsters are falling than expected. As long as nothing major happens, we should be able to hold out until the end of the rainy season…’
Finally some breathing room.
Even as I leaned against the wall, my mind was still racing. So I rummaged through my subspace and pulled out a temporary shield.
Obviously, it was far worse than the one I used to have—a tier 3 shield. Back then, I didn’t have much spare money, and I’d prepared this thinking, Will I ever even need to use this?
‘And that day has come’
As I was wearing a self-deprecating smile, someone approached me.
“Baron.”
It was Myul Armin, leader of the Armin Expedition Team.
“What is it? You should be resting.”
“My apologies for disturbing you. But… there’s something I wanted to ask.”
“Go ahead.”
Despite my permission, Myul hesitated for a long time before speaking.
“Why?”
“What do you mean?”
“The… the Man Faced Bird’s Essence. Why did you give it to me?”
Ah, so that’s why he came.
The answer is actually very simple.
First, Aynar, Amelia, Erwin, and Misha weren’t even candidates.
They already have essences they’re meant to take.
Veesil is a mage and can’t absorb essences.
‘The only other candidate would be Auyen, but…’
Honestly, it didn’t really suit him either. He could make use of [Mimicry] and temporarily copy a monster’s skill to contribute in combat, but that was about it.
So in the end, I chose Myul.
“You were the one who could make the best use of this essence.”
“Is… is that all?”
Truthfully, no.
The Armin Expedition has a share in this exploration, so giving them a Level 2 essence now was like paying them in advance. It would keep them from raising objections later when we picked out what we wanted for ourselves.
But…
‘No need to say that out loud and ruin the moment.’
So I just shrugged.
“Yeah, that’s all.”
“But! We’re still just outsid—”
“How are you outsiders? You’re already comrades.”
“C-comrades…?”
“Yeah, is that a problem?”
At my casual reply, Müll Armin fell silent for a long time.
“Baron, you…”
His voice sounded choked up, as if he’d made some big resolution.
“Never mind. I’ll take my leave now. Please rest well.”
Day 6 of the rainy season.
The journey after escaping the island was peaceful.
Monsters occasionally climbed onto the deck, and more fell from the sky.
But compared to the chaos we’d gone through getting off that island, it was nothing.
Anyway, with the calm, I had time to organize my thoughts and review my plans…
‘Alright, I’ve decided.’
I pulled out a pendant I’d been keeping safely in my inventory, and Misha’s eyes lit up beside me.
“Huh? Bjorn, is that…?”
“…….”
“Is… is that for me…?”
What? No.
She really picks strange things to covet.
Seeing the greed in her eyes, I quickly stashed the pendant back into my inventory.
No. 7777 – Garphas’ Necklace.
It’s about time I used this.
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