The Dungeon (2)
The 1st Layer has two kinds of monsters: Stone Golems, and plant-type creatures called Tali.
Stone Golems are, as the name rather bluntly announces, simply built. Ask whether that makes them a threat, though, and the honest answer is: not particularly. They stand no higher than a man's knee and move with a sluggish, almost lazy gait, which has earned them a reputation as relatively easy prey.
The loot they typically drop is flint, or whetstones. Now and then a low-grade magic stone turns up, and since that is the most valuable thing you can sell from the 1st Layer, they are considered ideal opponents for novice adventurers.
And one of them was standing right in front of me.
"Grrrk."
I stared at the thing as it made a sound like a heavy stone door grinding open — something weighty that scraped unpleasantly at the ear. A single large boulder formed its body, an ominous purple light pulsing from the center, while clumps of stone clung awkwardly where a person's arms and legs ought to be, giving the whole thing the look of a crudely assembled doll.
The moment it noticed me, it slowly, clumsily turned itself in my direction.
So this was it. I was going to have to smash that thing to pieces.
"Ah, here it is."
She came walking out with light, unhurried steps, casually pulled the war hammer from her back with one hand, and brought it down in a vertical smash.
"G—"
Before it could even finish a death rattle, the moving boulder I had been staring at was reduced to powder.
"Huh?"
Stone fragments and dust swirled for a moment, and then a single piece of rock appeared in the slightly cratered floor.
"Oh, a whetstone. I won't sell this one — I'll keep it."
She slipped it into her pocket as if it were the most natural thing in the world, gripped the hammer's haft, stood, and started forward.
"Um, hold on a second..."
"Yes?"
"Didn't you say you were going to explain things for my first expedition?"
"Ah?"
A brief silence settled between us.
Had I misunderstood something? Was I just supposed to stand back and watch her demonstration today? I was entertaining thoughts like that when—
"Ah!"
The silence broke as her half-folded ears snapped straight up.
"I'm sorry. Old habits kicked in... I used to explore dungeons a lot when I was little. Maybe that's what came back to me. I got a bit too excited."
Excited? The stone golem had been turned into powder.
Was it just my imagination, or did those scattered fragments twitch?
"Hmm... the next one seems to be not far from here. You can handle that one yourself, Mr. Marcus!"
She offered a stiff little laugh and a strained smile, slung the hammer back over her shoulder, and stepped in front of me.
"Shall we go, then?"
She was a lot stronger than I had expected.
We rounded a corner and walked a short way before coming upon another stone golem. This one had been staring blankly at the wall; the moment it spotted us, it began waddling in our direction.
"...Alright then."
With a soft rustle as it brushed past her hair, her large, beautiful war hammer appeared. Afraid she would take this one too, I hadn't even put any real strength into my arm — but she simply held the hammer and stepped aside.
"Ah, I'll..."
"Yes. You said you would, didn't you? More than anything... you need to get used to this feeling going forward."
"This... feeling?"
The stone golem had drawn close without my noticing and was slowly winding its arm up in a wide circle. She casually knocked it over with the tip of her hammer.
"I was quite the sensitive child. I'd look at stone golems like this and think they were cute, look at Tali and think they were pretty, and I couldn't bring myself to hunt them properly. But the reason I ended up coming into the dungeon was to earn money so I could eat a warm dinner with my family... If I don't do it, someone else gets hurt or goes hungry. So I have no choice."
She approached the fallen stone golem, set her hammer on top of it, and began pressing down with one foot.
"I could keep fighting in your place, Mr. Marcus. But what if something happens one day that I didn't see coming? What if a mistake puts you in danger? I wouldn't be able to save you then."
It thrashed wildly, stone scraping against stone. But the difference in strength was overwhelming — its body showed no sign of lifting at all.
"So if you truly want to make dungeon exploration your livelihood, this is something you have to be prepared for. It's not easy. Harder than you'd think. A lot of dangerous things happen here. A lot of people die, or get hurt."
She kicked the thing toward me with a thud, then spun around in an instant and smashed something hard with her hammer. With a sharp crack, a pile of stone slammed into the wall and vanished into dust in the blink of an eye.
Was it just my imagination, or had a red light flashed in her crimson eyes for a moment?
With a clatter of stone, the golem sprawled in front of me slowly got to its feet. The purple light rippling through the boulder of its torso grew stronger, and its body began to move considerably faster than before.
"Alright then — give it a try!"
I faced the thing as it clattered toward me. She was right. I gripped the Warpick tight and drove the sharp end down hard onto the approaching golem, from high above.
Crack—
The bright, ringing collision of two hard things echoed down the corridor.
"Not that hard, right?"
She kicked aside the shattered fragments of the stone golem, then turned to me with a face in full bloom, holding out a glittering purple gem.
"Heh, beginner's luck? Look at this."
"A magic stone..."
"I think you're lucky. This alone is worth five silver coins, you know?"
She was practically vibrating with excitement, puffing little breaths through her nose, ears perked straight up, as she pressed the faintly glowing magic stone into my hand.
"Here. Hold onto it! We'll need to sell it later."
I took it, slipped it into my pocket, and clenched my hand. Opened it. Clenched it. Opened it again...
Honestly, I was shaking pretty badly.
"Even as its body was being smashed apart, it kept trying to swing at me..."
The sight had been terrifying. Those purple eyes flashing on and off as it flailed its arms. I had resolved to smash it to pieces as fast as I could, and yet a strange feeling had crept in — was it writhing in pain?
"Yeah, well. That's just how golems are."
She dusted off her hands with a couple of pats and stood in front of me, brushing the grit from my shoulders.
"Their job is to eliminate intruders like us. The 1st Layer is... hmm... think of it as roughly like the outskirts of a castle. They've scattered scouts around, basically."
Stone dust pattered down onto the ground.
"'Carry out the order by any means necessary.' That's a golem's basic operating principle, so the desperate thrashing is only natural, in a way."
"Do they feel pain...?"
"Who knows. The ones we'll face later on will, but I don't know if these ones — the ones that look like inanimate objects — have any sensation at all."
She brushed off one last small chunk of stone with a tap, stroked one of her long ears, and turned her head toward another passage.
"Shall we hunt a few more? To get you used to the feeling."
"One low-grade magic stone, two whetstones, four flints. That'll be five silver and eighty copper."
We had come out of the dungeon and sold everything at a nearby buyer's shop. It really wasn't a bad haul. Three silver coins alone was enough for her family to live without want — and we had earned that in a single day.
"It wasn't that hard, was it?"
She walked beside me with a faint smile. Perhaps it was the light of the setting sun, but her hair looked like an autumn wheat field. A glittering expanse of gold, swaying slowly this way and that whenever the wind moved through it.
"...It wasn't bad."
In the end, that unpleasant feeling I had had for a moment had just been a temporary aversion. After that, I had freely used the blunt end of the Warpick to split their arms and legs and cheerfully pounded their torsos. It had been tiring, of course, but maybe I felt better knowing the money we had gotten from it was pretty decent.
"How about we get dinner, then? Know any good restaurants?"
"Would you like to try a place I used to go to a lot?"
The way her ears fluttered as she demurely held her combat... hammer — she was probably in a good mood. She was clearly looking forward to it.
"Then let's drop off our gear first, change into something simple, and go. It'd be awkward to show up dressed like this... right?"
"Yes, let's do that!"
She smiled so naturally, so brightly, that I found myself smiling back. The girl who had cried for so long in the rain, trembling with fear — that version of her was gone. The one standing here now, smiling so easily, was a genuinely good thing to see.
The speed with which she had come to trust me was a little worrying. Then again, maybe she believed in me because I had been treating her well.
Don't overthink it. Just be kind to her.
For now, that was probably the best I could do.