Surviving the Game as a Barbarian-Chapter 538: Rainbow (5)

The Necklace of Garphas.

A Numbers item obtained as a prize along with the title “Knight Crusher” at the first noble family banquet I attended.

However, since I acquired it so early, I hadn’t dared to use it even after several years.

Wearing this necklace requires solid financial backing.

‘But judging by how many magic stones we’re gathering now...’

I think we can collect the targeted amount within a month or two.

Besides, thinking about it, there’s nothing on the first basement floor that can definitely upgrade specs better than this.

In some ways, it can enable growth even more intense than essences.

‘So for a while, magic stones will be the key...’

Even right now, I could see magic stones piling all over Chief’s Island. If we pick them all up after the rainy season ends, it might drastically shorten the time...

But that’d be too risky, right?

‘...Wait a minute.’

That thought suddenly struck me.

“White Hext, come here.”

“...Yes?”

“Nothing special, just a few questions. You said you arrived at Giant Island on the first day of the rainy season, right?”

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

“I remember that too. Anyway, were there many monsters on Giant Island then?”

“...Yes, but?”

Hext, looking unsure of the intent behind my question, recounted how he witnessed scenes of ‘monsters that leave corpses’ and ‘regular monsters’ fiercely biting each other.

I listened carefully and said,

“Isn’t that strange?”

“Yes...?”

“If the monsters were fighting so fiercely, shouldn’t there have been plenty of magic stones on the island?”

When we arrived on Giant Island, we only saw monster corpses and no magic stones.

Pointing this out, Hext showed a realization.

“Now that you mention it, you’re right. I hadn’t thought about it then... There should have been magic stones left like on the island with the village.”

“When did you first come out of that cave after entering?”

“About ten days after the rainy season ended. At that time, we didn’t even know when it would end.”

“I see.”

My doubts grew.

Where on earth did all those magic stones go?

No, if this system was true, the sea floor should be full of magic stones too.

Crash!

Monsters were still falling into the sea and disappearing as light even at this moment.

So the sea should have piled up mountains of magic stones over such a long time.

But...

‘There wasn’t much under the sea back then.’

Hmm, maybe I should check the sea myself sometime?

Though the thought came suddenly, before acting I sought the mages’ advice.

“Certainly... I also had many questions about that.”

“Let’s go down to the sea immediately to check!”

“But there are so many monsters down there...”

“Does that matter now? We might discover hidden laws of this world.”

“Wait! There’s a way to check without diving in!”

“...Hm?”

The excited mages, who looked like they’d jump into the sea at once, stopped at Versil’s words.

“Let’s check with the magic stones we have.”

Saying this, Versil took out a magic stone, tied it with string, lowered it under the ship, and observed changes using various spells.

Thanks to that, we learned one thing.

Why we didn’t know this earlier, I don’t know.

“...They’re disappearing?”

“They’re only shrinking.”

Magic stones immersed in the sea vanish.

After the experiment, many hypotheses and questions were raised.

“Could the silver color of the sea be because magic stones are absorbed?”

“Well, there isn’t enough evidence yet to confirm a correlation.”

“Yes. If magic stones were absorbed, mana should be detected in the seawater, but this seawater doesn’t have that.”

“Hmm... but if magic stones dissolve only in seawater, what happened to those on land?”

I used to enjoy intellectual debates like this.

But maybe living as a barbarian lowered my immunity?

“Um... Baron, what do you think about what we just said?”

“Ugh... my head...”

The more I listened, the more a headache came, so I excused myself and left.

Well, the mages will handle research.

After that, I avoided the mages and spent time chatting with comrades.

Some time passed.

Crash!

On the seventh day of the rainy season, the number of monsters falling from the sky sharply decreased.

And...

[23:59]

After 11:50 PM, no monsters fell at all.

‘Hmm... maybe the clock is off by ten minutes?’

That thought crossed my mind, but I decided to lift the barrier as scheduled. If a monster fell on deck, the ship would be damaged.

Better safe than sorry.

Tick tock, tick tock.

The second hand moved.

Focusing on it, I noticed the surroundings quieted.

Looking around, everyone had taken out their watches and was watching them.

Like right before New Year’s.

Tick tock, tick tock.

No one can stop time from passing, and the moment everyone silently awaited arrived.

[00:00]

The end of the dreadful rainy season.

“It’s twelve o’clock!”

“So it’s really over?”

The explorers clustered on deck murmured, and I hurriedly gave new orders.

“Lift the barrier!”

As the mages removed the umbrella-like barrier over the ship, a sense of openness filled the air.

Only then did I feel like my sight was clearing.

During the voyage, the barrier was covered in blood from monsters dying on it...

“Hey, mister!”

Just as I headed to the bow to enjoy the breeze, Elwen on the lookout called to me urgently.

“Look! Look over there!”

What?

I looked up toward the lookout and saw Elwen pointing somewhere.

Slowly, I moved my head in the direction she pointed and froze.

No, not just me—everyone who heard and looked was the same.

Beyond the wide silver horizon...

“...A rainbow?”

There was a rainbow.

As if blessing the day after the rainy season.

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

A colorful spectrum that cheers the spirit just by looking at it.

Maybe because we saw it on a ship covered in monster blood, the contrast of those vivid colors felt even stronger.

But we couldn’t just stare blankly.

We are explorers.

Rainbow or hellscape from another world—whatever looks suspicious, we run over to see if there’s money to be made.

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

“Yes? Ah... yes!”

First, we checked the spot where the rainbow appeared.

The timing was suspicious after all.

‘An anomaly only visible if you’re out at sea when the rainy season ends.’

Is this just a natural phenomenon?

Moreover, the rainbow we saw now was different in shape from a usual one.

A normal rainbow forms an arc or curve...

Swaaaaaaah-!

This one rose straight up like a cylinder.

Like a game effect signaling a hidden secret.

“Current position is 21 degrees. From Rock Island, 34 degrees! Distance... unknown!”

Auyen quickly regained focus and started saying technical terms I didn’t quite catch.

What I understood was that at least the direction was correctly measured.

‘But distance is unknown...’

That made me hesitate.

Should I turn the bow now and head toward the rainbow, or continue to the original destination?

While I pondered this...

“Huh? The rainbow’s disappearing!”

The rainbow far away slowly faded and soon was no longer visible.

It took about five minutes.

‘It can be observed only for five minutes after the rainy season ends...’

I thought we’d found something significant.

Still, I didn’t turn the bow.

“Hey? Bjorn? Aren’t you going to chase the rainbow?”

Ainard seemed doubtful of my decision, but it was the right one as a leader.

We hadn’t yet properly explored Giant Island, Tree Island, or the Library.

First priority was to level up.

Having checked the direction, we could sail at any time.

“Auyen, how far to Giant Island?”

“About three hours left!”

Maintaining course for about three hours.

When we finally arrived at Giant Island, the first thing we did was stare in awe.

Phew, no wonder I wanted to come straight here.

“...Magic stones.”

Thousands of magic stones were scattered along the coast.

The reason for returning to Giant Island was simple.

It was the only island among others where a portal stele had been found.

That gigantic giant we saw last still bothered me, but I figured there’d be more secrets uncovered exploring here.

However...

Thump!

Whatever secrets were hidden on the island, my heart started pounding when I saw the magic stones spread along the coast.

Of course, compared to Chief’s Island, the density of stones was lower.

But Giant Island was several times bigger than Chief’s Island.

If we could gather all the magic stones fallen across this island?

“Insane...”

That alone might fill our target amount.

So we hurriedly got off the ship and started literally scooping up unowned magic stones.

Of course, it wasn’t as easy as it sounded.

Just after the rainy season, the island was full of monsters...

‘Since they survived the rainy season, all of them are tricky.’

At least Grade 4. freēnovelkiss.com

And there were new entities armed with strange essence combinations, making battles extremely difficult.

But we were also steadily growing.

The prime example was Muul Armin.

“Muul Armin cast [Hypersensitive Skin].”

“The target’s damage taken increases by 30%.”

“Muul Armin cast [Eternal Weakness].”

“The target’s physical stats decrease by 30%, and all curse effects increase by 1.5 times.”

His class was curse-specialized necromancer.

His active skills were curses, and his summons specialized in that field.

“Muul Armin summoned [Spirit Parasite].”

It did almost no damage but sucked MP with a chance each time it struck.

“Muul Armin summoned [Corrosive Hound].”

A summon that lowers enemy resistances with each bite.

“Muul Armin summoned [Vengeful Suicide Bomber].”

Summons that fly and explode, applying all kinds of curses.

That’s also why I gave him the Inmyeonjo essence.

Its passive skill [Mother Bird] is exclusive to necromancers.

“Summons within range have been dismissed.”

“Recover 80% of consumed soul power.”

“Reduce cooldown of that summon skill by 80%.”

This essence is essential for necromancer builds.

Because of this one essence, Muul Armin became at least five times stronger than before.

Grade 2 core essences have that kind [N O V E L I G H T] of power.

“Muul Armin summoned [Vengeful Suicide Bomber].”

“Muul Armin summoned [Vengeful Suicide Bomber].”

“Muul Armin summoned [Vengeful Suicide Bomber].”

“Muul Armin summoned [Vengeful Suicide Bomber]...”

Using restored MP and reduced cooldowns, he madly summoned suicide bombers.

Boom!

Since they had no damage setups, the damage was minimal, but repeated explosions stacked curses nonstop.

‘Having a well-grown debuffer makes hunting much easier.’

Muul Armin fit perfectly in this situation.

His class shines more fighting a strong single enemy than many weak ones.

“Good job, Muul.”

“Good job? That’s undeserved praise.”

Lately, he seemed to have more trouble dealing with me.

Always using utmost respect, calling me ‘Baron.’

‘Is he already drawing boundaries because he thinks he owes me?’

If so, I might be a little disappointed, but I decided to observe more to be sure.

And time passed like that.

One day, two days, three days...

Busy days filled with gathering magic stones across the island and fighting monsters nonstop.

[00:00]

On the third day after the rainy season ended, bad news came while we happily gathered magic stones.

“Magic stones... are disappearing.”

Unowned magic stones scattered across the island started decomposing one by one.

Like food buried underground rotting away.

“It’s strange... mana is definitely decomposing, but we can’t trace where it’s going.”

Whatever the reason, it was truly unfortunate for us.

But luckily, there was good news too.

“Versil, how many magic stones have we gathered so far?”

“Well? Based on exchanging at the checkpoint... it seems like about 1 billion stones.”

Enough ammo for the necklace gacha.