Delay (3)
Hoguai raised his bow.
Fsssh.
A blue light gathered and condensed along the drawn bowstring.
The enemy’s true form still wasn’t visible, but this was a predictive shot built on countless layers of accumulated data.
Whoosh—!
The light arrow sliced through the darkness and shot forward.
And then—
—Shouldn’t there have been a big boom or something?
A question mark popped up in Isto’s LED eyes.
There should have been an impact sound, at the very least.
Not even the sound of a missed arrow slamming into the wall could be heard.
Ohh~.
—Looks like a dud?
—Th-there’s no way that could happen.
Hoguai’s scope opened and shut in confusion.
The moment Hoguai, having turned invisible, moved to check on it—
“It’s here.”
Du-ho stopped him and fixed his gaze on the floor of the opposite corridor.
Either way, the enemy would come this way.
“Let’s make a trap.”
—A trap, you say?
Isto brightened and stepped forward at once.
—Leave that to me!
—I-I’ll help too.
As the two hulking maniacs immediately moved to smash the solid stone floor to pieces, Du-ho stopped them.
“No, not like that.”
—Hm?
—Oh?
“I’ll do it.”
—Master Mechromancer will?
—How, exactly?
As the two tilted their heads, Du-ho grinned and rolled his shoulders loose.
“I’ve learned enough on the way here to put it to use.”
He gathered mana at his fingertips and drew a pattern in the air.
First came the mana circuit pattern that Hoguai had used to generate stone.
Of course—
Using it exactly as it was would be boring.
So he altered the pattern.
Not generation, but destruction.
And then—
He immediately drew a fire-generation pattern in the air.
Unlike before, he didn’t compress this mana circuit.
I’m not going to be using it for long anyway.
Since he wasn’t engraving the mana circuit with nanobots while setting it into the floor, he was able to finish it in no time at all.
[Your understanding of mana circuits has increased.]
Feels nice, like it’s praising me.
Then Hoguai spoke up, his voice laced with concern.
—Master Mechromancer. If you don’t engrave it into the floor, the pattern will gradually disappear.
“It’s a trap. Volatile is good enough.”
At that, Hoguai shuddered all over.
—It is an honor to see efficiency demonstrated firsthand!
Du-ho smiled faintly and took the Wendigo mana stone he’d just picked up from Isto.
He set it at the end of the circuit laid on the floor.
“Mana circuit energy supply, complete.”
Light rippled through once, and the mana circuit activated.
Oh! Oh!
—It feels like it was just yesterday that you were learning mana sensitivity, and now look at this incredible progress!
Come to think of it, that was only a few months ago.
Du-ho and the others pulled back from the trap and waited for the unknown enemy.
At last—
Crk, kwooom!
Ripping through the darkness, two transparent monsters larger than five meters appeared.
Inside them were crystal skeletons, and their entire bodies were made of ice—two Ice Golems, advancing without hesitation.
Thud. Crk-thud. Crk-crack…
With every step they took, the floor froze over.
And then—
The leading Ice Golem stepped onto the circuit Du-ho had drawn, and at that exact moment—
Wooooong!
The Wendigo mana stone beneath the floor flashed brightly.
Craaaash!
The dungeon floor collapsed in an instant, and a massive sinkhole yawned open.
Before the Ice Golem could even wobble from losing its footing, it crashed straight into the pit.
And then—
Fwoooooosh!!!
From the bottom of the pit, a pillar of fire shot upward with a blast of searing heat.
The Ice Golem began to melt in an instant.
Massive clouds of steam billowed up.
Ooh! Ooh!
—Du-ho nim! That thing’s shrinking!
Just then—
Whoosh—!
Hoguai’s arrow of light streaked toward the Ice Golem.
But—
The arrow couldn’t pierce the golem’s body.
Or rather, was “pierce” even the right word?
The moment it touched the transparent body, the light scattered in every direction and burst apart in a chaotic refraction.
“Oh…”
Du-ho let out a breath of admiration.
Now he understood why Hoguai’s first shot had vanished.
“So it was passing through.”
The Ice Golem trapped in the pit still thrashed in the fire below, while the other one had come to a halt.
Hoguai let his shoulders droop.
Those things…
—I am not well matched against them.
Du-ho looked at Hoguai’s bow.
Even though it gathered light and fired it, it still had a bowstring.
Du-ho opened the Garage.
If light won’t work, there’s only one answer.
“If the matchup’s bad, I’ll make it good.”
He pulled out parts from an android corpse.
With metal manipulation activated, the scrap transformed in an instant into sharp steel arrows.
Maybe because I’ve been using metal manipulation so much.
These days, the System didn’t even bother notifying him that his proficiency had increased unless it was something truly significant.
He lifted a bundle of steel arrows and called out, “Hoguai.”
—Yes.
Hoguai looked down at the steel arrows Du-ho had made.
Then he picked up only one of them.
—This is sufficient.
He looked as though he were trying to make up for the mistake he’d just made.
Hoguai nocked the arrow and drew the bowstring without hesitation.
Whooooosh!
With a clean whistling sound, the steel arrow flew.
Crack!!
The steel arrow drove straight through the Ice Golem, which was already half-melted, and pierced the exposed core.
Rumble… With its core destroyed, the golem collapsed.
[Experience gained.]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
[Le…]
The experience from the Ice Golem was beyond imagination.
Ooh!
—One down~ heehee.
But the mana circuit drawn on the floor began to fade.
Because it hadn’t been engraved, its time was up.
As the flames died away, the second Ice Golem waiting behind the pit came to a stop at the edge.
It looked down at the shattered remains of its companion, then slowly reached out a hand.
Grrrrrrr…
The air around it seemed to chill all at once.
Then the moisture in the air, along with the remains of the fallen golem, began to be absorbed.
Crunch, crunch…
The Ice Golem started growing in size.
“What the hell…?”
Before Du-ho could even recover from his surprise—
—Du-ho nim! I’ll handle that one!
Tap-tap, tap, tap, tap-tap-tap!
Isto ran toward the golem in quick, bobbing steps.
The golem drew in the cold and suctioned fiercely, as though it intended to swallow everything in sight.
Whooooosh!
The force of the suction was so powerful that even Du-ho’s body swayed.
But—
Isto, as if delighted by it, leapt straight into the current and shouted,
—This is what you call using barbarism to suppress barbarism!
With the tremendous pull dragging at him, Isto made a gorgeous leap.
Du-ho muttered,
Uh…
“That’s not it.”
—The saying for using an opponent’s strength is to move a thousand pounds with four taels.
At Hoguai’s correction, Du-ho nodded slowly.
Shuaaaak—!
Regardless, Isto spun and spun as he was pulled inward.
The golem raised a huge palm to block him, but it was already too late.
—Ugh, I’m dizzy!
Stabilizing his balance, Isto shot like a missile into the center of the vortex, straight into the golem’s chest.
Kwaaaang!!!
With a thunderous crash, Isto tore into the golem’s body.
A heavy vibration rang from inside the golem.
And then—
Paaaaang—!
Isto burst out through the golem’s back.
He was clutching the core in his hand.
—Handled it! Heehee.
He shook the core toward Hoguai as if to show off.
[Experience gained.]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
[Le…]
Leveling up again and again.
The golem’s experience must have been immense.
* * *
Once the situation had settled down, Du-ho approached the remains of the golem to inspect them.
A transparent crystal skeleton.
Patterns engraved on its surface caught his eye.
What does this mean…?
One thing was certain: it was a mana circuit.
At that moment, some of the mana circuit knowledge Isto had once injected into him clicked into place.
Thanks to the level up just now, he’d gotten lucky.
He looked again at the patterns carved into the crystal.
Ahh~.
So this was an absorption circuit.
Du-ho, having mentally mapped out the principle by which the golem had absorbed its companion’s remains and grown larger, thought, What if I added an amplification circuit pattern here?
His eyes gleamed.
Maybe he could make something interesting.
Like swallowing an opponent’s power and growing stronger and stronger.
Ideas kept bubbling up one after another.
Hm.
I shouldn’t be thinking about this here.
Just as he was shaking off the thought and turning around, Isto lifted a small core.
—What should we do with this?
Du-ho took the core.
The intact golem core was about the size of a ping-pong ball.
He turned and looked at Hoguai.
“You hit this tiny thing cleanly in one shot?”
—Hmph. In my scope, it looked as large as the sun.
After saying that, Hoguai collected the arrows Du-ho had made and returned.
Hm.
He looks kind of pitiful somehow.
Du-ho handed over every steel arrow he’d made earlier.
“I’ll give you all of them.”
—A-all of them?
The one who took the arrows flexed and unflexed his scope, clearly expressing delight.
“I’ll make you a quiver when we get back.”
—R-really?!
What the…
He’s unbelievably happy.
Du-ho tucked the golem core into the Garage.
“Let’s get moving.”
—I’ll take the lead!
The three of them began walking once more through the widened corridor.
How long had they walked?
When they reached the end of the passage, the view opened up and a plaza came into sight.
“…Wow.”
Everyone stopped in their tracks.
There were seven Ice Golems in the plaza.
Oh!
—A bunch of ice lumps gathered together.
—You make it sound like they’re nothing, but this is a beginner zone. One of those golems is probably just a little stronger than a C-rank party.
That strong?
Du-ho swallowed hard.
Fortunately, the golems didn’t move toward them.
Since they didn’t attack right away, this area must have been a safe zone up to where Du-ho was standing.
He exhaled and opened the quest window.
“Took longer than I expected to get here.”
—Nope! This is plenty.
And then Hoguai piled on.
He dragged a finger across the arrows as he spoke.
Hmph.
—It’s exactly the time needed to take out seven of them.
Was he trying to be funny?
Thanks to that, Du-ho felt a little more relaxed.
Well…
We said the two of them could handle it, but…
Du-ho couldn’t get over the fact that the Ice Golem he’d seen earlier had absorbed its companion’s remains.
And, as a bonus—
I also want to try applying the mana circuit knowledge I just figured out.
This wasn’t the kind of thing he could test just anywhere.
He also trusted that if he made a mistake, Isto and Hoguai would clean it up.
Narrowing his eyes, Du-ho looked at one of the golems.
Then he made up his mind.
He took the golem core out of the Garage.
And said to the others, “I’ve got an idea, so handle just one of them for me.”
—Understood!
Loyal Isto rushed out first.
His steps quickened as he charged straight into the center of the plaza.
Sensing an intruder, three of the golems thrust their fists toward Isto.
Bang! Bang-kwa-bang!
The impact shook the inside of the plaza.
Isto deflected all three Ice Golem punches.
Meanwhile, Hoguai erased his presence and climbed along the wall to load an arrow.
In the meantime—
Slithering.
The nanobots flowing from Du-ho’s arm began tracing a path in the air.
The “absorption” he had just seen, together with fragments of the mana knowledge he had accumulated so far, condensed in the air.
Thanks to the level up, he was more skillful than usual.
[Your understanding of mana circuits has increased.]
[Your understanding of mana circuits…]
Even with the situation moving at a frantic pace, a faint smile bloomed on Du-ho’s lips.
The feeling of creating something.
He hadn’t realized it would feel this good.
Startled, he thought, Did I always have this much nerve?
A little shocked at himself, he focused again.
He needed to draw, in the air, the most important pattern among the inscriptions he had awakened through level ups.
They need to know that I’m the master here.
An uncontrollable monster was out of the question.
Soon three patterns intertwined and tangled in the air, flashing with light.
Meanwhile, he checked the battle.
Isto was engaged in a furious brawl with four golems.
How can that tiny body take them on?
Just as another golem was about to join in—
—Master Mechromancer. It has entered range.
At Hoguai’s calm report that a strike could be made at any time, Du-ho nodded.
Whoosh!
The steel arrow cut through the air.
It pierced cleanly through the core of the golem moving toward Isto.
Paang—!
The drained golem crumpled and fell.
[Experience gained.]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
[Le…]
Once again, the voice of a level up rang out.
Du-ho compressed the mana circuit floating in the air. Then he pushed it into the golem core he had placed on the floor.
The same method he’d used when he created the trap a moment ago.
Of course, with compression, its duration would be longer.
Rumble-rumble-rumble.
The core, having accepted the mana circuit, trembled.
Then it began to spin.
Hooooooong────.
A powerful suction force formed, and—
Swish, swish…
The distant fragments of the collapsing golem were drawn into the rotating core.
At that exact moment—
The remaining six golems all reached out at once.
Kwoooooooo!
It was an instinctive reaction, driven by their urge to absorb their companion’s remains and grow larger.
It was the moment Du-ho’s concern became reality.