Surviving game as a barbarian Episode 538

Rainbow (5)

This is a numbered item I received as a prize at the first noble family banquet I attended, along with the title of Knight Crusher.

But even now, years later, I haven’t dared to use it.

To use this necklace, you need some solid financial backing.

But judging by the amount of mana stones we have been getting…

It looks like I’ll be able to gather the amount I’m aiming for within a month or two.

Besides, when I think about it, there’s nothing else in the basement floor that can reliably power me up more than this.

In some ways, it could offer even more intense growth than the Essences.

‘So, for the time being, getting enough mana stones is the priority…’

Even at this very moment, Mana Stones must be piling up all over the Chief’s Island. If I could just go there and scoop all of those up, I might drastically shorten the time I need…

But that would be too dangerous.

‘…Wait a minute.’

Suddenly, a thought struck me.

“Wyat Hex, come here for a second.”

“…You called for me?”

“It’s nothing major, but I have a few questions. You said you arrived at the Giant’s Island before the rainy season, right?”

“Yes, it was on the first day the rainy season began.”

“Anyway, back then, was the Giant’s Island also full of monsters?”

“…It was, but…?”

Hex gave me a puzzled look but recounted what he had witnessed—monsters that leave corpses and those that didn’t were tearing into each other fiercely.

I listened carefully before speaking.

“Isn’t that strange?”

“Huh…?”

“If the monsters were fighting each other like that, the island should’ve been littered with mana stones, right?”

When we arrived at the Giant’s Island, we only saw monster corpses—there were no mana stones in sight.

As I pointed this out, Hex’s expression shifted to one of realization.

“Now that you mention it… That’s true. I didn’t think about it at the time, but the island should’ve had mana stones left behind, just like the village island.”

“When was the first time you came out of that cave after entering it?”

“About ten days after the rainy season ended. Back then, I didn’t even know when the rainy season would finish.”

“I see.”

My suspicions grow.

Where did all those stones go?

No, if this was the system, then the ocean floor should also be overflowing with mana stones.

Kwah-jik!

Even now, monsters were falling into the sea, turning into light and vanishing.

Over such a long time, the mana stones in the ocean should have piled up into literal mountains.

But…

‘Back then, there wasn’t anything special under the sea.’

Hmm, should I just dive in right now and check?

The thought crossed my mind, but before acting on it, I decided to consult the mages first.

“I’ve also been very curious about this.”

“Let’s go down into the ocean right now and check!”

“But the waters below are filled with all kinds of monsters…”

“Does that matter right now? We might discover a hidden law of this world!”

“Wait! There’s a way to confirm without even retrieving them!”

“…Huh?”

The mages, who had been so excited they seemed ready to jump into the sea at any moment, froze at Versil’s words.

“Let’s test it with the mana stones we have.”

Saying this, Versil took out one of her mana stones, tied it to a string, and lowered it into the water below the ship. Then, using various spells, she observed the changes in the stone.

Thanks to that, we were able to uncover one crucial piece of information.

I can’t believe we’re only realizing this now.

“…It disappeared?”

“Only the string remains.”

Mana stones submerged in the sea vanish.

***

After the experiment, numerous hypotheses and questions arose.

“Could the silver color of the ocean be due to the absorption mana stones?”

“Hard to say. There’s still not enough evidence to confirm a connection.”

“Right. If the ocean was absorbing mana stones, mana should be detectable in the seawater, but that’s not the case here.”

“Hmm… But if mana stones only dissolve in seawater, what about the ones on land?”

Originally, I enjoyed intellectual discussions like this.

But perhaps, after living as a barbarian, my tolerance for them had diminished?

“Um… What do you think about what was just discussed, Baron?”

“Ugh… My head….”

For some reason, the more I listened to the conversation, the more a headache crept in, so I excused myself from the group, saying I wasn’t feeling well.

Well, the mages could handle the research on their own.

After that, I ran away from the mages and spent the rest of the time chatting with my colleagues

And after some time had passed like this..

Kwah-jik!

By the seventh day of the rainy season, the number of monsters falling from the sky had noticeably decreased.

And then…

[23:59]

By the time it passed 23:50, not a single monster was falling anymore.

‘Hmm… Is there a margin of error of about ten minutes on the clock?’

The thought crossed my mind, but I decided to lift the barrier as planned. If a monster happened to land on the deck, the ship could be damaged.

Better safe than sorry.

Tick, tock.

The second hand moved.

As I focused on its motion, I noticed the surroundings growing quieter.

Glancing around, I realized it wasn’t just me—everyone had taken out their pocket watches and were staring at them intently.

Like the moment right before the New Year arrives.

Tick, tock.

Just as no one can stop the flow of time, the moment everyone had been waiting for finally arrived.

[00:00]

The end of the dreadful rainy season.

“It’s midnight!”

“So it’s really over?”

The explorers gathered on the deck began murmuring excitedly, and I quickly issued new orders.

“Retract the barrier!”

As the mages dispelled the barrier that had been spread over the ship like an umbrella, a sense of freedom washed over us.

Finally, it felt as if my field of vision had cleared.

The barrier had been smeared with blood throughout the voyage from monsters crashing into it and dying…

“Ah, mister!”

I was on my way to the bow to enjoy the breeze when Erwen, up in the crow’s nest, called out to me in an urgent voice.

“Look! Over there!”

What is it?

Raising my head, I saw Erwin pointing in one direction from the crow’s nest.

Swish.

Naturally, my gaze followed her finger—and then I froze.

No, it wasn’t just me. Every explorer who heard her and looked in that direction reacted the same way.

Beyond the vast, silver horizon…

“…A rainbow?”

A rainbow had appeared.

As if to bless the end of the rainy season.

Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet.

A colourful spectrum of light that makes you feel good just by looking at it.

Perhaps because we were viewing it from a ship deck smeared with monster blood, the vivid colors stood out even more starkly.

But we couldn’t just stand there staring blankly.

We were explorers, after all.

Rainbows, hellish landscapes unseen in the mortal world—whatever it was, if something suspicious appeared, our first instinct was to rush over and see if there was money to be made.

“Auyen! Record the exact direction of the rainbow!”

“Huh? Ah… Yes!”

First, I asked Auyen to mark the location where the rainbow had appeared.

And for good reason—its timing was suspicious.

‘An anomalous phenomenon that can only be discovered by being out at sea when the rainy season ends.’

Could this really just be a natural phenomenon?

Moreover, the rainbow we were seeing now was different in shape from ordinary ones. While typical rainbows form arcs or curves…

Whoooosh—!

This one rose straight up like a pillar.

Almost like an in-game effect hinting at something hidden.

“From our current position, it’s at 21 degrees! Relative to the rocky island, it’s in the 34-degree direction! Distance… still unknown!”

Once Auyen regained his composure, he rattled off technical terms, but the only thing I understood was that we had successfully confirmed the direction.

‘But the distance is unknown…’

That left me a bit conflicted.

Should we immediately turn the ship towards the rainbow or continue towards our original destination?

While I was thinking about it, something happened.

“Huh? The rainbow is disappearing!”

The distant rainbow gradually faded until it was no longer visible to the naked eye.

The entire process took about five minutes.

‘Only observable for five minutes after the rainy season ends…’

This definitely feels like the real deal.

Despite that thought, I ultimately didn’t change the ship’s course.

“Huh? Bjorn? Aren’t we going after the rainbow?”

Aynar seemed puzzled by my decision, but as the leader, it was the obvious choice.

We were yet to fully conquer the Giant’s Island, the Tree Island, and the Library.

Powering up took priority.

Besides, now that we had the direction, we could set sail anytime.

“Auyen, how far is it to the Giant’s Island?”

“About three more hours!”

Maintaining our course for roughly three hours, we finally arrived at the Giant’s Island—and the first thing we did was stand there, mouths agape.

Huh, I had a feeling we should head straight here…

“…Mana stones.”

Thousands of mana stones were scattered across the entire shoreline.
***

The reason for revisiting the Giant Island was simple.

Of all the islands, it was the only one where we had discovered a portal stone.

I was still wary about that colossal giant we saw last time, but I figured there’d be even more secrets hidden here.

But—

Badump!

Any secrets aside, the moment I saw all those Mana Stones blanketing the shore, my heart began to pound wildly.

Sure, the density of stones was lower than on the Chief’s Island,
but Giant Island is several times larger.

And if we could collect all the Mana Stones scattered across this entire island…

“This is insane…”

It might be enough to meet my target amount.

We hurriedly disembarked from the ship and literally scooped up the ownerless mana stones.

Of course, it wasn’t as easy as I’d hoped.

Since the rainy season had just ended, monsters were still everywhere…

‘The ones that survived the rainy season are all tough bastards.’

Minimum level 4.

On top of that, new variants armed with bizarre essence combinations were appearing, making the battles extremely difficult.

But we were growing stronger too.

Take Myul Armin, for example.

[Myul Armin has cast [Hypersensitive Skin].]
[Damage taken by the target increases by 30%.]
[Myul Armin has cast [Eternal Weakness].]
[The target’s physical stats decrease by 30%, and all curse effects increase by 1.5x.]

He is a curse-specialized Necromancer.

His active skills were curse-based, and his summons were also specialized in that direction.

[Myul Armin has summoned [Soul Leeches].]

Dealing negligible damage but draining MP with each hit.

[Myul Armin summoned [Corrosive Hounds].]

Reducing resistances with each bite.

[Myul Armin has summoned [Soul Bombers].]

Flying in and exploding to spread curses, and so on.

The reason I had him consume the Man-Faced Bird’s Essence was also for this.

The passive skill [Mother Bird] was exclusive to Necromancers.

[All summons within range have been unsummoned.]
[80% of the expended soul power has been recovered.]
[The cooldown of the corresponding summon skill has been reduced by 80%.]

An Essence that Necromancers absolutely must acquire.

With this single Essence, Myul Armin had become at least five times stronger than before.

That’s the power of a Level 2 Core Essence.

[Myul Armin has summoned [Soul Bomber].]
[Myul Armin has summoned [Soul Bomber].]
[Myul Armin has summoned [Soul Bomber].]
[Myul Armin has summoned [Soul Bomber]…]

Using the recovered MP and reduced cooldowns, he spammed Soul Bombers like crazy.

Boom—!

Since they weren’t built for damage, the explosions themselves were minor, but the curses stacked relentlessly with each blast.

‘Having a top-tier debuffer makes hunting so much easier.’

In fact, Myul Armin was perfectly suited for the current situation.

His class shone brighter against a single powerful enemy rather than multiple weaker ones.

“Good work, Müll.”

“Good work…? Such words are undeserved.”

Hmm, lately, he’s been acting even more awkward around me.

Addressing me as “Baron” with extreme formality.

‘Is he drawing a line because he thinks I’ll ask him to repay me?’

If that’s the case, it’s a little disappointing, but it might just be my imagination, so I decided to observe a bit longer.

And so, more time passed.

One day, two days, three days…

Between collecting mana stones across the island and fighting monsters, we were busy nonstop.

[00:00]

By the third day after the rainy season ended, bad news arrived just as we were excitedly gathering mana stones.

“The mana stones… are disappearing.”

The ownerless mana stones scattered across the island began decomposing one by one.

Like food rotting after being buried in the ground.

“It’s fascinating… The mana is clearly decomposing, but there’s no trace of where it’s going.”

Whatever the reason, it was unfortunate for us, but fortunately, there was also good news.

“Berthil, how many mana stones have we collected so far?”

“Hmm? If we use the exchange rate at the checkpoint… I’d say around 1 billion stones?”

More than enough to fund a spin at the gacha necklace.

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