Mistress Of The Evil Forest

Case 20: Golem genocide.

rustle

Day turned to night, and even though the Zircon Forest at night is scary, walking with my party like this is not so bad anymore.

''Ugh...'' I stretch out my arms and wings lazily, trying to clear the sleepiness away.

Ah... Stretching my wings like this feels so good. I'm so used to having my wings now that I would feel weird without them.

''You really slept for more than half a day, huh...'' Ariel says, flying beside me.

''Yeah...''

So I may have overslept today. I'm a person who usually sleeps close to ten hours or more a day in the first place, and it's been half a month since I last slept in a bed. It's inevitable.

Either way, the distance from our cave to the tomb is quite far. We've been walking for over ten minutes, according to my estimation. During that period, we were attacked by numerous monsters, ranging from simple goblins, wolves, and some lizard thingies to even orcs, and a troll. We've certainly cleared out the monsters surrounding our cave, but outside of that zone is a monster-infested forest.

Most of the monsters were cleared out by Mister Slen, who had somehow gotten to level 14 while I was sleeping, and now he's level 16. It's scarily fast if you ask me. His skills did level up a few times, but he hasn't bought any new skills besides [Inspect] yet, I wonder why.

But the important thing is that our journey is very smooth.

Another ten minutes of walking, and we arrived at the location.

''Hoh...'' Skely rubs his chin, marveling at the tomb in front of us.

The whole thing is around two stories tall, the size... Is about the same as the gym I and Chloe used to go to, which is pretty large. From outside, it seems to be made of cobble, with moss and vines everywhere, and of course, unknown patterns on the walls.

In the first place, we're not sure if this is a tomb at all, Ariel just said that it would be cool to call it that way. But the reason why we chose this instead of hunting normal monsters is because of the possible rewards within it. According to our skeleton friend, anywhere that has golems guarding it is bound to have some kind of treasure.

So here we are.

''Phew...'' I let out a small sigh to clear my head the last time. Focus, focus.

Immediately, I can see two golems guarding the tunnel-like entrance. They seem to be smaller than the one I fought back in Skely's cave, and their color is a normal grey instead of bright yellow.

[Golem Lv.19]

[Golem Lv.19]

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Name: --              

Race: Golem                    Title: --

Level: 19

HP: 70/70                    MP: 50/50

STR: 4.0                     INT: 5.0

AGI: 3.5                    STA: 4.0

Skill: [Pain Immunity Lv.10],
[Status Condition immunity Lv.10], [Dark Magic Lv.3],
[Smash Lv.3].

State: Active.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

The statuses of those two are exactly the same. And they can use dark magic? That's ominous.

''They're not dormant this time.'' I speak up. ''Well, let's just-''

'''' ... ''''

Since God knows when Mister Slen has already teleported to the entrance, and we watch in silence as he swiftly stabs the core of the golem on the left before teleporting away and doing the exact same thing to the golem on the right, giving them no chance to react at all.

As soon as the two golems collapse to the ground, he appears right in front of my eyes and stares at me intently, his dark tentacles wiggling in the air.

gulp

That gulp was Ariel, not me.

''Uh... Good job?'' I tilt my head.

Hm

Mister Slen nods and before I know it, he is standing on my right again.

What a strange man, was Slenderman supposed to be like this? Oh, he gained a level as well.

''Hm...''

It's been a while since we've entered the tomb. So far... It's been a breeze. Except for Smiley, every single one of us can swiftly defeat a golem, regardless of the level difference. Even Ariel, using her previous experience of using ice magic as a human, is on a streak right now.

''-Ice spear!''

Following Ariel's scream, the ice spear floating near her outstretched hand shoots itself forward, lodging into the red core of the golem, which has just unleashed its own dark magic on Ariel.

''Isn't that too broken?'' I ask, pulling my Katana out of a golem's core and dodging to the side so it won't fall onto me.

''What do you mean by 'broken', Lady Aurora?'' Akely turns to me, before him are three disabled golems.

Oh, my vocabulary got infected by Chloe's ramblings. 

''I mean, isn't her kind of cheating?'' I point at the proud Ariel.

None of the enemies that we've encountered so far has been able to even touch her, not to mention hurt her in any way.

''Well, she is the first banshee to ever possess magical prowess, I'm sure.'' Skely shrugs. ''And what's more, she is my sister.''

''...Okay.''

I don't know what to say, really.

But regardless, we're now all on the same level range of 18 to 19, except for Smiley, who's still at 14. I'll ask him to learn magic later, he lacks attacking options. And because we're roughly the same level as the golems, we don't get much experience anymore, I feel.

''So this is it.'' I put my hand on the transparent but still somewhat visible barrier in front of me. ''Ariel, any unusual mechanisms inside the walls?''

When I turn around and say that, my eyes inadvertently land on the golem graveyard that we've made, the number of disabled golems must have exceeded fifty.

''I'll go look.'' Ariel replies and flies into the wall.

This is the end of the passageway, and there is a door beyond the barrier. We just need to find a way to break the barrier to reach the door, and before you ask, there is no other way in.

After a few minutes of waiting idly, Ariel comes back.

''I saw the core of the barrier.'' Ariel points upward. ''It's a level 25 golem's core as well.''

''Upstairs?'' 

''No, it's just in the ceiling.''

Immediately, all our eyes turn to a certain low slab on the ground right in front of the barrier, not very noticeable, but we saw it and no one bothered to step on it. So it's a trap after all.

So we all move back a bit according to Ariel's instructions, and when I throw a stone at the slab-

THUD

The whole passageway rumbles. 

Together with loud creaks, a giant golem, at least twice the size of the small ones, drops down from the ceiling, creating a gaping hole in the ceiling. It has two pairs of arms, each arm holding a sword, on its chest is an intensely glowing purple star-like core.

A brief glance at its status screen tells me that this one is just bigger and stronger, but it also has [Protection], allowing it to generate barriers, so an extra step, I suppose.

''Ariel and Skely, cast your magic.'' I say calmly as the golem begins to move forward. ''I and Mister Slen will fish its barrier out.''

'''' Roger! ''''

Before the golem can even begin to swing its swords at us, I and Mister Slen immediately and simultaneously blinks right in front of the purple core, catching the golem off guard. It hurriedly casts a barrier in front of its chest as I and Mister Slen thrust our weapons at it.

Good, now its barrier is on cooldown-

crack

''Huh?''

Contrary to my expectations, our weapons smoothly pierce through the barrier and beautifully lodge themselves into the core.

[You have defeated a Lv.25 Guardian Golem]

[Proficiency achieved a certain level]

[Being: Aurora Lv.19 has become Lv.20]

Even before this one... Was it always this easy...?

''Suspiciously easy.'' I jump back and let the golem's body fall, while Mister Slen teleports away like usual.

It's most likely some kind of trap.

''It's a trap.''

''Yeah, it's a trap.''

Seems like the siblings also think so. The barrier is gone though.

''I'll go first.'' 

I have to give Ariel a raise later, she's so brave and diligent, but it's not like I pay her anything anyway.

'''' !!! ''''

Right when Ariel goes closer to the door, it suddenly flings open, revealing a large room with dimly lit blue stones attached to the smooth marble walls.

[Huh?]

But that's not the important thing, because standing above the mountain of giant golem corpses is a short humanoid creature. It has metallic grey skin, a bald head, and as it turns to us, I see its face has a distinct lack of anything other than a creepily large mouth filled with sharp teeth.

[Hoh- HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!]

Its mouth opens even larger as it laughs crazily, hugging its belly as if this is funny.

[Ah... New preys spotted.]

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