Golem Horde Assault
Sergeant: Baek Jaesung 18
Han Seungjin's Darkness Cannon unleashed tremendous power.
The massive roar from the explosion pierced through the double-layered protective barrier without mercy. It sounded just like a fighter jet taking off right next to us. The insane vibrations transmitted through the ground shook our bodies so violently that it was hard to even keep our balance.
"Ugh! My eardrums are gonna burst!"
Hwang Cheolmin whined. Blood was streaming from his ears.
Jang Gun-gi and Rina were clutching their ears in agony too, their eardrums clearly damaged badly.
Fortunately, our tank of a company commander seemed fine, and Han Seungjin was just grimacing but otherwise okay.
Once the deafening blast faded and the earth-shaking impact subsided, Rina slowly retracted her chains.
Han Seungjin lowered his darkness barrier as well. The tattered shield had been on the verge of breaking. If we'd been even a little short on power, we would've ended up crisp like freshly popped popcorn. Of course, a guy like Han Seungjin probably had that all calculated.
"Whoa..."
Hwang Cheolmin let out a groan, staring blankly. The Scrap Golem that had blocked our path was shattered beyond recognition.
Shattered wasn't quite right—torn apart fit better.
The crater from the explosion was easily over 15 meters wide. Along with the Scrap Golem, two thick concrete buildings nearby had collapsed into rubble.
Han Seungjin had cleanly wiped out all the monsters in the area with that one powerful shot.
"Ugh... Oppa...!"
Rina clutched her bleeding ear and staggered toward me. I cast Light Cure on her ear. Luckily, the bleeding stopped quickly.
"You okay?"
"My ears are still ringing a bit, but it's better. Whew... My head's spinning."
Since we'd cleared the area in one go, no enemies were approaching.
The company commander climbed onto the rubble of the collapsed building and scanned the surroundings. In a dungeon, you couldn't let your guard down even during breaks—especially not in safe areas.
"Jaesung! Treat the wounded. We'll rest for about 10 minutes, then move out."
"Yes, sir."
I checked over Rina, Hwang Cheolmin, and Jang Gun-gi. Aside from the eardrum damage, there were no other injuries.
Han Seungjin examined the heavily dismantled remains of the Scrap Golem. He fearlessly touched the golem parts, which were so superheated they'd melted.
"Looks like we took out about 50 here."
The company commander nodded at Han Seungjin's words.
"Considering the dungeon's size, there have to be at least 3,000 monsters. More are probably spawning right now."
No time to slack off. We rested exactly 10 minutes, then got moving again.
"We'll patrol the outer edges of our sector. Everyone, stay sharp. Stamina holding up!?"
"Yes, sir!"
We moved out swiftly.
On the first day, we encountered over 300 monsters across about five skirmishes.
The enemies included rusty scrap-metal robots like the Scrap Golems, transforming motorcycles called Motorbike Golems, and Spider Golems that ambushed from buildings, lunging at prey with their long legs.
All these golems had incredible durability, but they shared a fatal flaw: no ranged attacks. From a tank's perspective, they were easy prey.
Our company commander was a seasoned tank. We just had to fire ranged attacks from behind him to dominate the fights effortlessly.
We even used our melee dealers, Hwang Cheolmin and Jang Gun-gi, as pseudo-tanks to draw aggro, bunch up the enemies, then concentrate fire to win easily.
After about 10 hours of this, the sun began to set. We'd skipped lunch, fought intensely, and looped our sector more than five times, leaving the company exhausted. Rina and I, though, munched on jujubes while walking to restore our energy.
"We'll camp in that mansion."
The company commander pointed to a rundown two-story house.
"Monsters might be inside, so stay alert till the end."
Based on patterns so far, a Spider Golem was probably lurking. Safely, the company commander entered first.
The moment he opened the door, as expected, a Spider Golem's long leg shot out like a crane toward his head. Prepared, he dodged back lightly.
"Mindless scrap heaps with no learning ability."
I fired a Holy Missile at the Spider Golem. Its weak point was the blue core in its abdomen. Once shattered, it shut down immediately.
Pew!
The light projectile flew straight into the Spider Golem's belly, exploding right under its gut at the perfect timing.
It wasn't enough to pierce the thick scrap armor, but just right for smashing the core.
With the core destroyed, the golem twitched its legs like it had epilepsy, then slumped. Hwang Cheolmin flipped its body and crushed the core with his fist for good measure.
"Jaesung and Seungjin, you guys are insane."
Han Seungjin and I had shone brightest in the fights so far.
While he'd obliterated swarming zombie-like foes with raw destructive power, I'd used just enough precise force to drop enemies efficiently. As we got the hang of it, we barely needed the company commander's tanking.
"Good. We'll spend the night in the living room. It's early, but we skipped lunch—time to eat."
We pulled dungeon rations from our packs: chicken fried rice. Rina sat beside me, pulling out plastic utensils.
Even during chow time, Hwang Cheolmin's gossip mill mouth didn't stop.
"Nom nom... Company commander, what's tomorrow's route?"
"We circled the outer edges today, so tomorrow we'll cut through the center. Meeting up with 4th Company."
The company commander paused eating, pulled out a map, and jabbed the center of our sector.
"This used to be a dense residential area. Expect tons of monsters—tougher fights than today."
"We took down over 300 today, right? If other companies matched that, we could clear it in days."
"Hope so, but..."
Dungeons weren't predictable. They were full of wild variables.
"Let's set night watch rotations."
We drew lots. Rina got first shift, I got third.
At 7 a.m., the company roused. We scarfed breakfast and departed at 7:20.
"Be extra careful today."
Our target: the residential district in the sector's center. As we advanced along the road, Motorbike Golems and Scrap Golems came to greet us.
Normally we'd ignore these weaklings, but our goal was full dungeon conquest. Battle stations.
"Chain Disaster!"
Rina knelt, slammed her palms to the ground. Black chains erupted, binding the golem pack.
Already sluggish, they became perfect targets wrapped tight.
Han Seungjin and I poured ranged fire into Rina's targets, dropping them easily. I got 30, he got 25.
But before we could celebrate, even more golems—far outnumbering ours—slunk out. Numbers spiked in the residential area.
"This won't be easy."
Rina said tensely.
BOOM!
A earth-shattering explosion roared from ahead. Familiar sound—the cannon fire we'd heard endlessly in the Morton Archipelago.
'Time Pause!'
I froze time on reflex. Massive drain, but I chewed jujubes to recover.
Looking up, I saw the shell's warhead plummeting toward us. Expanding my view, there was the artillery position from the hill yesterday.
'That artillery-lookin' thing's a monster too, huh.'
A monster firing shells. Dangerous. Attacks from beyond sight were assassinations.
'Holy Missile.'
I blasted the hovering shell. It detonated mid-air—the one aimed at us.
Shell gone, I turned to the artillery. Scrap Golem tank up front, ranged fire from behind. Same strategy as ours.
Easy counter: take out the backline first.
I slammed Holy Missiles into the artillery. Five guns total. Destroyed the last as my two minutes expired.
"Darkness Barrier!"
Time resumed; Han Seungjin threw up a shield against the falling shells.
But I'd cleared them. He stared at empty air, confused.
"Huh?"
Shaking it off, he dove back in. Plenty of scrap bots still surrounded us.
Without enemy fire support, it turned one-sided. In 30 minutes, we crushed over 100 golem legions.
As the company commander predicted, the residential district was golem central. Their base, probably.
"Hmm. Charging straight in would be trouble."
He muttered, peering through a shattered window from a hill 100m away.
Over 700 visible Scrap Golems. Parked like cars in a lot, lined up in houses. Some stood for patrol; others returned.
"They patrol in shifts. More organized than expected."
Rina noted; Han Seungjin nodded.
"Too many, spread everywhere. Slip up, and you're surrounded three layers deep."
Two options: overwhelming firepower blitz or lure and nibble piecemeal.
"Breakthrough sounds good."
My preference. I glanced at the commander for approval; he nodded.
"Breakthrough it is."