Chapter 46: Nightmare 4th Floor (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 46: Nightmare 4th Floor (2)
[The Black Golem is 100% immune to all damage below a certain threshold. Please proceed with caution.]
...What is it this time?
Immunity to damage below a certain threshold?
Ding!
The remains of the previous red golems vanished, and the entrance groaned open.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
A black golem marched out.
As expected, only the color had changed; its form was identical to the others. It was a bipedal machine with a core embedded in the center of its torso.
Phligas pounced, swiping a massive forepaw at the machine.
However, the black golem only staggered for a moment before continuing its advance, completely ignoring the blow. It didn't seem to have taken any damage at all.
Phligas scrambled onto the golem’s body and began tearing at the metal with its teeth. Only then did cracks appear and shards of plating break off, indicating that damage was finally being dealt.
I watched the scene, my expression hardening.
'Wait... is its defense really that high?'
Did this mean it simply ignored any attack that wasn't sufficiently powerful?
Leaving Phligas to handle that one, I turned my attention to the next golem. As soon as it emerged from the entrance, I unleashed Flame Strike. I concentrated all five fireballs on a single spot.
K-boom!
A massive explosion tore away part of the golem's upper body, but it didn't go down. I felt a surge of frustration.
'If even that doesn't take it out in one hit...'
This was going to be a major problem.
The next golem emerged. I cast Scorching Zone, laying it down directly in the path of the entrance. The golems entering the zone caught fire immediately, yet they continued to stride forward as if the flames were nothing more than a light breeze.
It seemed the tick-damage from a continuous-effect skill wasn't enough to break the damage threshold.
"Dammit."
Light Bullets obviously wouldn't stand a chance.
I let the second golem pass, then leaped down in front of the third one and cast Blade Gale.
Roooooar!
The golem felt much heavier than the red ones; it didn't even budge. Worse, it didn't seem to have taken any significant damage.
I climbed back up the wall and looked toward Phligas. The golem Phligas had been clinging to finally shattered and collapsed, but only after it had reached the corner of the 1st course.
The second golem—the one hit by my Flame Strike—had already reached two-thirds of the way through the 1st course. As soon as the cooldown for Flame Strike ended, I concentrated all five fireballs and blasted it again.
K-boom!
Only then did the second golem go down. Fortunately, they couldn't withstand two direct hits.
I stopped time and took a moment to organize my thoughts.
Looking at the situation, the only attacks effective against these black golems were Flame Strike and Phligas’s full-power strikes. Destruction Ray would obviously work too. Given that even Blade Gale did nothing, it was clear that Flame Strike only worked if all the hits were concentrated on a single point. Naturally, none of my other minor offensive skills would even scratch them.
'This is getting tough...'
For now, these five were manageable. I could stop them all before they reached the exit without using Destruction Ray. But in the next stage, there would be ten. Then twenty.
...For now, let's just finish this stage.
I resumed time.
The remaining three golems had all emerged from the entrance. I left the third golem to Phligas and hit the fourth with Flame Strike the moment the cooldown finished.
K-boom!
I had to save Destruction Ray. With a three-minute cooldown, it was my ultimate trump card, and it wouldn't even fully recover during the one-minute break between stages.
Phligas finished the third golem, and I took care of the fourth. I managed to finish off the final fifth golem around the two-thirds mark of the 2nd course.
The light turned blue.
"Whew..."
I caught my breath and stopped time. It was time to reorganize.
Based on the information I just gathered, I had to plan how to handle ten of them. First, even on Nightmare difficulty, the movement speed and intervals of the golems were the same as other difficulties. It took 30 seconds to cross one course, and a total of 150 seconds to reach the exit at the end of the 5th course.
Based on their spacing, the maximum number of golems that could be lined up in a single course was five. To cram more than that into one course, I would have to stall their progress.
It took Phligas about 30 seconds to destroy one black golem—the exact time required to travel an entire course. My Flame Strike cooldown was also 30 seconds, but since it took two hits per golem, it effectively took me 60 seconds to finish one.
Attributes aside, the golems' base stats were getting stronger with each stage. Just stalling them was harder than with the previous ones.
Running a simulation in my head, it seemed possible to handle up to ten without Destruction Ray.
'But twenty seems impossible.'
When twenty came, I would have to herd as many as possible into one course and use Destruction Ray. The problem was their staggered entry, but if I could bunch them up, it was entirely possible to fit all twenty into a single course.
The attribute wasn't damage reduction; it was ignoring damage below a certain threshold. The damage from Destruction Ray would hit them in full, so I could aim for a total wipeout.
Wait, but more importantly, this is really strange... Am I even clearing this the right way?
The golems keep getting stronger, and I don't even know how many stages there are.
I looked around the workshop once more. The entrance, the exit, the mechanical structures, the debris of fallen golems along the path. I couldn't leave through the entrance or exit; I was just stuck here fighting.
...Is there some device I'm supposed to destroy to stop the golems from spawning?
If that were the case, the structures here should be breakable, but they were all indestructible objects designed to prevent terrain deformation. The only things breakable in this place were the golems I had just defeated.
No matter how much I searched the workshop, I couldn't find anything suspicious. With time stopped, I spent a long while thinking, putting my brain's creativity into overdrive. But no other ideas came to mind.
I was sure there was something, but I just couldn't figure out what it was, dammit...
I resumed time.
The break ended, and the light turned red. Stage 11, ten golems, began.
The golem debris on the path vanished, and a new golem emerged from the entrance. I handled them the same way I did with the five. Phligas took one, and I took one. I dealt damage with Flame Strike while using Blade Gale whenever it was off cooldown to stall their progress as much as possible.
When my willpower ran low, I stopped time to refill it. One by one, I took the golems down. I finished the first five—half of them—just as they reached the end of the 2nd course.
Then came the remaining five. It was close, but I managed to take them all down in the 4th course before they could cross into the 5th.
Stage 11 ended safely. Now, only Stage 12 remained.
As expected, twenty golems would be impossible without Destruction Ray.
"Destruction isn't the priority this time, Phligas. Just push them back and knock them down as much as you can. We have to block the path no matter what."
I gave Phligas the command. If Phligas tried to take them on one by one this time, there was no hope. I barely managed ten golems by the 4th course; there was no way I could finish twenty before they reached the exit.
Blocking the path was the only way. I had to bunch them up in one course as much as possible and sweep them away with Destruction Ray.
Ding!
The golem debris vanished, and Stage 12 began.
Following my orders, Phligas focused solely on stalling the golems' advance.
Crash!
It slammed into them with its body and struck with its forepaws. Phligas tried to knock them down by targeting their legs. I hoped that by knocking one down, the ones behind would get tripped up and stall the entire line...
But these crazy golems just kept pushing forward blindly. Their forward momentum was incredibly strong. Phligas managed to knock one down, but the ones behind just tried to step over it or pushed forward mindlessly.
The golems weren't attacking, but Phligas taking the brunt of their collective push was damage in itself. I couldn't push Phligas too hard; if it reached its limit and was unsummoned, it was over.
Roooooar!
I helped stall with everything I had. Blade Gale, Flame Strike, and every other magic spell in my arsenal—I spammed them all to push the golems back even an inch. I saved the ice dagger since it was a one-time use.
All twenty golems hadn't even emerged from the entrance yet.
Hold, then retreat slightly.
Repeating that, I realized the corners were easier to hold than the straight paths, so I made my stand there. It takes about two minutes for all twenty golems to emerge. Has it been a minute now?
Reaching the limit of our endurance, we gave up the 1st course and retreated to the 2nd. Phligas acted as the tank again, and I supported with skills as they came off cooldown. I almost got crushed while trying to squeeze between golems to use a skill, but I managed to escape using Teleportation.
Seriously, these things are relentless.
I endured, managing Phligas's condition so it wouldn't die. Finally, two minutes passed, and all twenty golems had emerged from the entrance. Currently, the golems were stretched from the 2nd course back to the 1st.
Should I use it now? No, just a little... a little more. If possible, let's get them all into the 2nd course.
At the very edge of the 2nd course, Phligas and I made our final stand. A period of agonizing endurance passed, where every second felt like an eternity.
Finally, all the golems were lined up in a single course. The moment I confirmed it, I had Phligas retreat and stopped time.
'Die, all of you.'
Two golems had been destroyed while we were stalling, leaving eighteen. But still... with this many, was a total wipeout even possible? I'd find out soon enough.
After 300 seconds of Mental Focus, I unleashed a fully charged Destruction Ray. A black beam erupted, filling my entire field of vision.
"...!"
When the beam faded, what lay before me were golems with holes punched clean through the center of their bodies, all lined up in a row. It had pierced every single one of them perfectly.
...It really was ridiculously powerful.
The golems collapsed in heaps. I climbed back up the wall and confirmed that the light had turned blue. With this, Stage 12 was cleared.
"Haaa..."
I could finally breathe. To be honest, I had debated until the very last moment whether to choose the reduction in physical abilities or the ban on Destruction Ray as my penalty. If I had chosen the Destruction Ray ban, I would have been truly screwed.
"..."
But even though I had cleared it somehow... the clear message still hadn't appeared.
'I didn't expect it to, but still...'
When was this going to end? Does it even have an end? If even weirder and stronger golems started coming out, I really wouldn't be able to hold them off.
Now, I was almost certain. I was definitely missing something.
"...?"
Just then, the debris of the golems on the path caught my eye. The black golems, destroyed with holes through their centers. Strangely, the cores that had been embedded in the center of their bodies remained intact, lying on the floor.
They were hit directly by Destruction Ray... and they're fine?
It was something I might have normally overlooked, but it felt out of place. As if possessed, I walked toward the golem debris. I reached out to pick up a core that had fallen among the wreckage.
The moment my fingertip touched the core...
[200P obtained.]
"...Huh?"
The core vanished as if melting away. And a series of windows popped up before my eyes.
[Shop]
Points Held: 200P
(The effects of this shop will disappear upon exiting the 4th Floor.)