The Cerulean Golem, Part II
As the astral energy reached its peak, the boss of the valley finally made its appearance.
It was a crystal golem easily twice the size of any Cerulean Golem they had faced so far.
The canyon shook violently as the golem, draped in moss and jagged rocks, let out a deafening roar.
Its entire body and eyes pulsed with an eerie, chilling light, radiating an overwhelming pressure that felt as if it could freeze everything in its vicinity.
As its massive presence blanketed the canyon, everyone froze in their tracks and turned to look at the Ancient Cerulean Golem.
Everyone, that is, except for one person.
Doran.
'Where are you...?'
They were bound to reveal themselves now. Keeping low, Doran scanned the canyon with sharp, calculating eyes. His gaze swept over the adventurers, searching for one thing: someone reacting differently from the rest.
Sure enough, near the canyon entrance, a party clad in distinctive magical armor caught his eye. They were the ones who had been slaughtering the Cerulean Golems from the very beginning, demonstrating an uncanny knowledge of their weaknesses, only to abruptly stop hunting just as the astral energy began to bloom.
“Hey, Malton.”
“I am listening.”
“You can read lips, right? Try to eavesdrop on what those guys over there are saying.”
“...You ask as if it is the most natural thing in the world. I do not recall ever mentioning I possessed such a skill.”
“So, you can't do it?”
“...”
Muttering a quiet complaint, Malton raised his spyglass, peered at them, and began to recite their conversation verbatim.
“‘The beast has appeared. Let us withdraw.’”
“‘A rather formidable-looking foe has spawned, sir. Are we not going to hunt it?’”
“‘That boss is not something that can be hunted. Our business in this valley is complete. We pull out now.’”
“...Or so they say.”
“Thanks.”
This confirmed it.
'Finally, I found you...!'
A reincarnator. The leader of that party was undoubtedly someone from Earth, just like him. There was no other way they could have recognized the true nature of that golem so instantly.
'But still... even for a former Velheim player, very few would know about this...'
Was he a high-ranking player like me? If so, we might even know each other.
Questions flooded Doran's mind—how had he ended up in this world, how long had he been here, had he also met the goddess?—but he was forced to shelve them. A mage in the distance had just unleashed a powerful fire spell against the boss golem.
Radie's mouth parted slightly as she watched a crimson, serpent-like torrent of flame surge forward, melting the surrounding rocks in its path.
“Oh, with that kind of power, no matter how high its magic resistance is...”
“It's useless.”
“Pardon?”
“Maybe against a normal golem, but magic won't work on that thing at all.”
Even if a whole squad of mages from the Magic Tower bombarded it with spells, it would barely scratch it. Sure enough, the fire magic dissipated harmlessly against the golem's hide, failing to leave even a singe mark. But it wasn't just magic.
“W-What?! Blunt weapons aren't working on this golem either!!”
“There has to be a weakness somewhere! Aim for the abdomen like the others! Or the joints!!”
“I-It's no use...! Neither spells nor physical attacks are doing anything!!”
“What kind of monster is—?! Aaargh!”
With a single sweep of the golem's massive arm, the severed upper torsos of several adventurers went rolling across the canyon floor.
Witnessing the carnage, Doran placed a hand on Radie's shoulder.
“Kid, we'd better back up a bit more.”
“What? But the golem is so far away, why would we—”
Before Radie could even finish her sentence, massive chunks of crystal materialized in the air and came raining down. Doran grabbed the scruff of her hood and yanked her back just in the nick of time. Radie, pale-faced, stammered out her thanks.
“T-Thank you...”
“Keep your guard up until the very end.”
“Doran, that colossal golem is blocking the exit of the canyon. Is there a way for us to escape safely?”
“No. If we try to make a run for it now, we'll only draw its attention. Escaping in this situation is impossible.”
“If we cannot flee... Ah! You must know how to defeat that giant golem, then?!”
“No? How would I know that?”
Radie's jaw dropped as she stared at him in utter disbelief, but Doran casually ignored her.
'It's not like I've actually faced this boss before either.'
In the records of the pioneer parties from his past life, many expedition members had survived the initial battles with the regular golems, only to be utterly wiped out by the boss that appeared afterward. In other words, this boss golem was a monster with no known strategy. This was likely why the magic-armored party—the suspected reincarnator—had retreated without a second thought.
“Then why are you saying that so calmly?! We're all going to die here!!”
“It's fine. I don't know the exact strategy, but I have a pretty good guess.”
Velheim was notoriously brutal and unfair, but it never threw completely unsolvable challenges at its players. There were exceptions like the Raid of the Mary Celeste, but those were incredibly rare cases.
'...The Ancient Cerulean Golem is immune to magic and completely impervious to physical attacks.'
And yet, it was still just a monster that appeared on the first floor of the dungeon. Usually, there was a trick to defeating enemies like this.
“And what exactly is this trick?”
“We have to deduce it from the clues we've gathered so far.”
There were a few commonalities between the regular Cerulean Golems and this boss golem.
1. They only appear during specific periods when the comet's power is at its strongest.
2. Their bodies are made of translucent crystal that absorbs magic.
3. As golems, they require a power source to move.
“But how can you deduce the giant golem's weakness from just those things, Doran-nim?”
“Think about it. Why did they suddenly wake up?”
“Well... if a dormant golem suddenly starts moving, it means power has been supplied... and since they only wake up during the Blue Comet Week...”
“They must be using the energy of the comet as their power source! The translucent crystal body is likely designed to absorb the starlight efficiently.”
“Their power source...! In other words, if we block the starlight, we can shut them down!”
Radie's face lit up with hope, but her shoulders quickly slumped again.
“But how do we block the light...? We can't exactly strip away all the glowing moss on the dungeon ceiling...”
“Don't worry. A boss golem of that size can't secure enough power just by absorbing starlight through its body. That means there must be a power-transmitting core hidden somewhere nearby.”
And since the golem wouldn't want its core destroyed, it wouldn't cast any spells near it.
“I noticed that the falling crystals unnaturally vanished right around this area... Ah! Over there!”
Doran pointed toward a single, ancient tree standing completely unscathed amidst the devastated canyon. Coincidentally, it was the exact same tree Doran and Malton had tossed Radie onto earlier.
After digging beneath the roots of the old tree for just a short moment, a brilliant blue glow began to seep through the soil.
“T-There really was a core hidden here! It was right under our noses...”
“Alright, this should be dug out enough. I'll leave the rest to you, Malton.”
“Leave it to me.”
CRACK—!!
With a powerful swing of Malton's mace, the crystal mass shattered into a thousand pieces.
Staring down at the shattered core, Radie turned back to the giant golem with high expectations, but her brow quickly furrowed.
“Wait... the golem is still moving?”
“Of course it is. Destroying a single external core isn't going to shut it down instantly.”
“What?! That's completely different from what you just said!! You absolute dummy...!”
“Calm down. It's still been significantly weakened by this. It won't be able to cast those annoying spells anymore.”
And now that we've come this far, I can take it down with my own strength. Of course, not just normally—I'll have to utilize my skills a bit.
As he made his confident declaration, Radie looked up at him with deep suspicion.
“You're going to fight it...? Even if it's weakened, it's still a massive boss golem!”
“Yeah. ...Malton, can you hold onto my clothes for a bit?”
“Hmm... Are you planning to unleash that secret technique of yours?”
“Yeah. Last time, my clothes ended up in tatters. I'd rather just take them off beforehand. But the problem is...”
As Doran and Malton turned to look at her in unison, Radie flinched, her shoulders trembling.
“W-What...? What do you want from me...? Wait, why are you suddenly stripping?!”
“Malton, do you happen to know any secrets about this kid?”
“Are you planning to blackmail her to keep her quiet?”
“Yeah. What if she reports me to the temple?”
“...”
Malton stroked his chin, looking thoroughly impressed. 'Ho... as expected of a follower of the evil god. Truly a different breed of thinking.'
Ignoring them, Doran unbuckled his belt and slid off his pants.
'Ah, but I can't let her see my black hair, so I should probably keep at least one robe on...'
You have unequipped your gear and are now bare-bodied! You are now extremely vulnerable to monster attacks!
Party member Radie is utterly appalled by your bizarre behavior!
Due to the effect of Chaos, your Strength has temporarily increased by 3!
Your Agility has temporarily increased by 2!
Your Luck has temporarily increased by 1...
'What is this...?'
The stats he was leeching from the kid were insane. The boost was terrifyingly high for simply taking off his clothes.
'She's overreacting way too much.'
Well, it was a win for him either way.
Radie stepped forward as if to kick him in the shins, but then recoiled in sheer horror.
“Thanks, kid.”
“What kind of nonsense is that?! You're just a complete lunatic!!”
“Don't be like that. I have my reasons.”
As Doran stretched to warm up his body, Malton let out a hearty laugh.
“Do not worry, I shall explain things to Radie. Go on ahead. I will follow shortly to support you.”
“Yeah, thanks.”
“Stop laughing and explain what's going on—!!”
Radie, who had been fuming at their incomprehensible exchange, suddenly froze. A bizarre, grotesque sight reflected in her deep sapphire-blue eyes.
The human flesh was enveloped in a shroud of black mist, rotting away in an instant.
Bony joints emerged from the darkness, planting themselves firmly on the ground, as an eerie cutlass sliced through the fog.
A stark white jawbone rattled as it let out a raspy laugh, and a crimson glow flared to life inside the empty eye sockets.
It was a sight she could hardly believe, even as she witnessed it with her own eyes. She felt as if she had been utterly toyed with from head to toe by some twisted trickster.
“W-What in the world is...”
“I wish you good fortune.”
“Mwahahaha! My thanks, mortal elf!”
Laughing maniacally, Doran—now fully transformed into a skeleton warrior—leaped down into the darkness.