Chapter 84: Seed of Contaminated Stone (4)
The moment he first stepped foot into the cavity after falling through the hole.
Sa-hyeok quickly scanned the inside of the cavity with his telekinesis.
A rough but flatly trimmed floor, a high ceiling, a vast area.
However, there wasn’t anything he could pick up with his telekinesis and use as a weapon.
‘For now, do I have to fight using only hand-to-hand combat and the throwing weapons I have?’
He thought, and at that moment.
Ku-rruk-
A piece of debris from the golem he had just destroyed was kicked by his foot.
A granite lump the size of a watermelon.
The moment he saw it, an idea flashed through Sa-hyeok’s mind.
If there’s nothing to throw, why not make something to throw?
S-eung-
Sa-hyeok lightly lifted the granite lump, a piece of the golem’s remains, with his telekinesis.
The lump floated up lightly.
‘Good, let’s do this.’
After destroying the golem, he would use its remains to attack other golems.
Slowly, a strategy began to take shape in Sa-hyeok’s mind.
And then, the Hunters descended into the cavity, followed by the appearance of 250 golems.
Sa-hyeok added and calculated situational variables, solidifying the strategy in his mind.
First, he would use
Then, he would block the golems’ surprise attacks to prevent the Hunters’ deaths.
That way, victory in the first round.
However, half of the golems still remained beyond the barrier.
But Sa-hyeok didn’t mind.
The remains of the destroyed golems were scattered everywhere.
Sa-hyeok sensed that the time had come.
He captured the golem debris on the floor with his telekinesis.
And he said,
“Everyone, relax. I’ll take care of it from here.”
D-deu-deu-deu-deu-
He lifted the stones high into the air.
At the same time, he removed Kalduran’s Barrier, which had been blocking the golems’ movements.
And the moment the 125 golems that were beyond the barrier, still intact, were revealed.
Sa-hyeok unleashed a meteor shower of granite upon their heads.
Kwa-gwa-gwa-gwa-gwa-gwa!!
Rocks rained down like a downpour, sweeping through the golem horde.
The golems’ arms and legs fell off and rolled around, their bodies shattered and scattered.
It was truly a horrifying sight for the golems.
It was no different than having the fragmented corpses of their fallen comrades poured on their heads.
The Hunters were equally astonished.
To cast a wide-area magic of this scale and destructive power so effortlessly?
And above all……
“Didn’t he just not chant a spell……?”
“No-chant magic? Is that even possible?”
“There are magic systems where no-chanting is possible. There are, but…… this is the first time I’ve seen it in person.”
While the majority of the Hunters were marveling at Sa-hyeok’s magical prowess, Do-sik was impressed by his strategic plan.
‘By dividing the battlefield with the barrier, he induced individual defeats, and at the same time, prevented the enemy and allies from mixing, creating an environment where he could unleash wide-area attacks without harming his allies.’
A brilliant move that brought two benefits with one action.
‘I should have lured this guy to Geomgye, that Ha Jeong-kwon……’
The Hunters murmured amongst themselves.
About the unidentified power called telekinesis, about the no-chant magic they had never seen before, about the overwhelming power of this magic.
It was Sa-hyeok who broke this murmuring.
“The battle isn’t over yet, everyone.”
“Huh?!”
Ku-reu-reu-reuk-
Some of the fallen golems began to rise one by one.
Those whose seeds were not destroyed, those who used their comrades as shields to avoid the meteor shower, those who simply endured it.
They began to burn with hostility towards the Hunters once more.
But it was different from before.
They were literally just alive.
They weren’t in good shape due to being hit by the meteor shower.
They were full of malfunctions, with cracks and missing limbs.
And dealing with such opponents was, naturally, ridiculously easy.
Sa-hyeok said,
“Let’s trample them.”
“Waaaaaaaaaaaah!”
The offensive’s second wave began.
The Hunters’ morale was twice as high as before.
It was natural, considering that more than half of the golems had been wiped out and the remaining ones were crippled.
The remaining golems were swept away in an instant.
It didn’t take long for them to turn into a pile of granite fragments.
Thus, the second round also ended in victory for the Hunters.
Naturally, there were no casualties on the Hunters’ side.
“Huff, huff……”
“We won.”
“We won……!”
Thud!
The Hunters collapsed to the ground.
Everyone was exhausted.
Even though they had won, dealing with a force more than five times their size was no easy task.
Shhhh-
A healing wind blew between the Hunters.
A healing wind that restored health.
It was Rob’s healing skill.
“Come on, everyone, we still have a long way to go. Don’t just sit there.”
“Let’s…… rest a bit……!”
While Rob was doing that, Sa-hyeok was rummaging through the broken golem debris.
Polar asked,
“What are you looking for?”
“I was looking to see if there were any usable parts.”
“There probably won’t be any. The only usable part is the seed, and you smashed them all. They’re not monsters, so they don’t drop magic stones either.”
“……That’s not a monster?”
“Golems themselves are artificial life forms created for the convenience of the caster. They’re a little different from monsters.”
Sa-hyeok thought.
‘So, even if it’s an artificial life form, it’s still considered a living thing.’
No, but wait a minute.
‘I’m sure I remember fighting something similar to an artificial life form…… Ah.’
The Colonnio he fought at the Central Research Institute.
It was a very strong opponent, but he was able to win easily because he could directly interfere with it using telekinesis.
Colonnio, an artificial intelligence-based life form composed of hundreds of thousands of beads.
Of course, it wasn’t ‘artificial’ intelligence.
Because Bang-ul-i’s consciousness was inside it.
Well, Bang-ul-i’s true identity was still a mystery, but anyway, it wasn’t artificial intelligence.
‘No, then this gets even weirder.’
A golem with a
A Colonnio with a
Looking at it this way, Colonnio seemed much closer to a living being.
‘But telekinesis didn’t work on the golem, and it did on Colonnio?’
Sa-hyeok lifted Bang-ul-i, hanging from his neck, with his telekinesis.
S-eung-
The bead floated up into the air.
His telekinesis still worked on Bang-ul-i itself.
What the h*ll?
A golem is a living being and Bang-ul-i isn’t?
What’s the criteria that distinguishes between a living being and a non-living being?
Is the law that
Or is there another law on top of this law?
Thoughts that led to more thoughts.
As Sa-hyeok furrowed his brow while levitating the bead, Bang-ul-i asked,
[Why are you frowning like that? What are you thinking about?]
“You.”
[Oh my.]
“Not that kind of thinking.”
Seeing Sa-hyeok muttering to himself, Polar asked,
“Did you just say something?”
“Ah, don’t worry about it. It was just to myself. Anyway, Boss, so if we break the seed of the first golem like this……”
“Then there would have been no reason for us to bring you here, Mr. Sa-hyeok.”
Sa-hyeok understood the hidden meaning in Polar’s words.
Use the power to manipulate artifacts to stop the activation of the first golem seed.
Well, he had heard about it while riding the helicopter.
Sa-hyeok said,
“But what if I fail……?”
“We’ll just have to break it. Then the battle will be prolonged, and the sacrifices will be a bit greater, but there’s nothing we can do.”
“Hmm.”
“But if Mr. Min stops the seed’s activation and hands over the
“Compensation……”
At that moment.
“Attention everyone!”
Do-sik’s voice echoed through the cavity.
“The break ends here. We will deal with the remaining golems and the boss immediately.”
“Boss……!”
“Therefore, there are some things you need to know about the boss in advance.”
“……?”
“The boss is likely to have a different shape than the golems we just fought.”
“Isn’t that obvious if it’s the boss?”
“It’s not obvious. It could have a different number of limbs, it could have no limbs at all, or it could be a shape we’ve never seen before. Ms. Polar? Please provide further explanation.”
Polar stepped forward.
“There have been a total of three cases where the
“……!”
“One was a winged form similar to a gargoyle, one was a multi-legged form like a cephalopod, and the other was a humanoid with limbs. Therefore, we currently don’t know what shape the boss golem of this dungeon will take.”
“Then the strategy……”
“Yes, we won’t know until we face it. The reason I’m telling you this now is to warn you not to prematurely assume the boss’s attack patterns based on your previous experience fighting golems. Misjudgment in a dungeon is instant death. Especially against a boss.”
A faint tension filled the air.
Do-sik stood up, leaning on his sword, and said,
“Let’s go. We can’t delay any longer.”
Everyone gripped their weapons again.
“Lamplighters! This way!”
“Yes!”
The Lamplighters sent orbs of light in the direction Do-sik pointed.
There was a passage there.
Of course, it was called a passage, but its scale was comparable to a decent-sized tunnel.
The Hunters entered it, and Sa-hyeok followed at the very back.
The cross-section of the passage was arched.
Vertical walls on both sides, and a semi-circular ceiling.
Sa-hyeok inadvertently looked at the walls on either side of the passage.
At that moment, Sa-hyeok quietly took out his drone from his bag.
And he detached Bang-ul-i from his necklace and attached it to the drone.
Bang-ul-i asked,
[Why, Hyung-nim?]
“You, from now on, ride the drone and take pictures of everything engraved on the right wall.”
[Why the wall all of a sudden…… Ah.]
Bang-ul-i realized why Sa-hyeok was doing this.
Because the right wall was densely engraved with unknown characters.
“Remember the dungeon where the knight-type monster and the slime came out?”
[Of course. We got that strange book there.]
The last eighteen pages were well used as crafting recipes, but the previous pages were still undeciphered.
“Don’t the characters engraved on the boss room door of that dungeon, the characters written in that book, and the characters engraved on this wall look similar?”
[Uh……?!]
Bang-ul-i hurriedly captured the characters on the wall through the drone’s camera.
Seeing this, Polar asked,
“Mr. Min, what’s this drone?”
“It’s my pet drone.”
“What?”
[Pet? That’s a bit harsh.]
The Hunters continued down the passage.
But something was strange.
“There are no golems……?”
The fact that none of them appeared, even though they had swarmed in like a pack of dogs as soon as they entered, felt rather strange.
Then, one Hunter said,
“Weren’t the ones that rushed in earlier the entire force?”
If this assumption was correct, it was a huge advantage.
It meant they only had to deal with the boss.
And that assumption seemed to be accurate.
Because until they reached the end of this passage, no golems appeared.
“End of the passage.”
They soon reached the end of the tunnel.
The Lamplighters sent orbs of light outside the passage to illuminate the path.
Hwa-ak!
Outside the passage was another cavity.
The area and height were similar to the previous cavity.
But the atmosphere was completely different.
If the previous cavity had a rough, naturally formed feel, this place felt perfectly organized.
A smooth floor as if tiles had been laid, and similarly smooth walls.
But what caught the eye first and foremost were the pillars.
Four pillars supporting the ceiling, which was well over 10 meters high.
They simply stood straight, but their sheer size exuded a certain grandeur.
Between the two rows of pillars, inside, a giant stone sphere was situated.
A round boulder with a diameter of roughly 3 meters.
“That’s it.”
Everyone sensed it.
That that was the boss.
They all gripped their weapons with tense expressions and took their positions.
At that moment.
Ku-reu-reu-reuk-
“……Huh?”
The pillars supporting the ceiling began to move.
