Chapter 189
Chapter 189
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 189
Chapter Title: Pechi - 4
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—Kwarrrgh!
I’d gone about halfway down the stairs leading underground into the ruins when a thunderous explosion roared from behind me. I whipped my head around. A single eyeball made of rock was stretching its body at the top of the stairs.
It looked like a human iris carved from stone with four legs attached to it. According to the lore, it was one of the golems serving as guardians of this ancient ruin.
And it was also the helpful little guy who’d assist with what I was about to do.
‘First things first, time to run.’
To skip the rest of the section entirely, I needed to head a bit deeper into the ruins, so I dashed down the stairs. A grinding sound like drrrrk echoed from behind me— the golem retracting its legs into its body.
Soon, the stairs began to shake. That meant the eyeball golem, now a perfect sphere, was rolling down after me.
The noise from behind grew louder, but I kept pushing inward, passing several crevices placed for hiding spots. Only when I reached a precarious point did I duck into one.
The moment I squeezed into the crevice, the eyeball golem rolled past. One second later, and my legs would’ve been crushed—or worse, my lower half pulverized.
A massive bang! echoed from down the passage, followed by a fierce shockwave sweeping through. I emerged from the crevice. The thing was flailing its legs, spinning in place.
As brutish as ever, just like in the game.
After that, it was more of the same. Dodge the rolling eyeball golem, hide in a crevice, then sprint past while it spun dizzy against the wall. Rinse and repeat.
Exactly four times, and I arrived at a vast plaza. This was the spot that let you skip the ruins’ midsection entirely and jump straight to the boss fight.
Eight paths branched off from the plaza, but there was no worry of getting lost. The real path had torches lit beside it, easy to spot if you looked carefully.
—Kwaaaang!
If you could afford careful observation with an eyeball golem rolling up behind you, that is.
True to form, the golem smashed into the plaza wall, spun in circles, then extracted its legs once it stopped. Its massive iris turned toward me. Blink— its rocky eyelids fluttered once. Finally, the golem stood proudly on all fours, glaring down at me.
I could’ve taken it down easily if I wanted. Golems were tough against physical attacks but weak as kittens to magic and holy spells. Change the element, and a few casual whacks would do it in.
But I needed it to skip the ruins, so I let it be.
‘This one.’
I picked a dead-end path at random and headed toward a bridge near a sheer cliff that cut off midway.
The bridge that should’ve connected the cliffs had long since collapsed. A dizzying abyss of ancient ruins yawned below. Without exploits, you’d have to climb down every single bit of it.
Without exploits, that is.
From down the passage, the sound of the pursuing eyeball golem prepping to roll again. I pressed tight against the cliff wall, gripping Wingless Nightmare in both hands.
—Kurrrr...
The clatter of rocks colliding, and the eyeball golem appeared. It was big enough to fill the passage completely. That’s why there were crevices to dodge it.
Here’s a fun fact.
That roll could be parried.
Not anywhere else—just precisely where the human iris equivalent was, and the timing was insanely finicky, but it was possible. That was the key.
I shifted position bit by bit to control its rolling speed. At the cliff’s edge, its iris had to be facing me. Otherwise, I’d get flattened instead of bouncing it.
I sped it up a few times, then took position at the cliff’s edge. I waited like that as it rolled toward me. The pounding grew right up to my feet.
‘Now.’
Just as planned, it exposed its iris right before hitting me. I swung. Wingless Nightmare’s blade collided with the massive stone iris.
—Kwa-dddddrk!
The golem’s body veered sharply sideways. Hitting a perfect 90-degree drift, it slammed straight into the passage wall. Kwaaaang! A shockwave erupted.
The blast hit me dead-on, launching my body into the air. Then I plummeted downward. Structures, paths, bridges—all rushed up from below.
As always, time for a falling attack.
Unless you were wall-clipping or glitching, skips always meant fall damage control. Except for routes the devs explicitly intended.
‘Nailed it.’
A torch whizzed right by my face. If torches grazed by like that, the angle was perfect. Too far off, or hitting one? Splatter on respawn. What can you do.
Moments later, my sacrificial trash mob came into view. Calling it trash was a stretch, though—a hulking golem twice my height, blankly staring down with a bow in hand.
Had to clear it anyway for an easy boss fight. Skip it, and it’d snipe you. Super annoying.
‘Two birds, one stone.’
I flipped Wingless Nightmare upside down and landed on its head. Crack! It didn’t even react before divine punishment from above crushed its skull.
A normal jump couldn’t reach that height. Botch the jump from there, and I’d probably splat pathetically somewhere in the boss room.
But hug the cliff, parry the golem’s roll, get flung by the shockwave from its wall-slam, and the distance lines up.
That was the exploit to skip the entire ancient ruins.
I shattered its shoulder on the way down. Using my sword as a pivot, I spun half a turn. Wingless Nightmare cleaved from its head straight down its upper body vertically, slowing my fall.
I landed lightly. Moments later, the golem—head exploded, torso bisected—toppled backward with a thud. Its whole body crumbled to pieces.
I shook stone fragments off the blade and peered down at the boss room. The ruins’ boss, the ‘Six-Arm Golem,’ lumbered across the massive plaza.
It had a full human upper body, but where legs should be, two arms instead—and two more giant arms at the wingbone positions. Six arms total.
‘Can’t just drop down here... damn.’
If my stamina stat was even 50k, some fall damage would be fine, but at 1? No dice. I obediently followed the path behind the railing. The boss room was just ahead anyway.
“This’ll do it.”
I picked up a scroll from amid the Six-Arm Golem’s corpse fragments.
It was a magic scroll too, but not like the ancient ones that made Minerva lose her mind and pounce. Just something fun-looking she’d probably like.
No clue why a scroll found in the ‘ancient ruins’ didn’t count as an ancient scroll.
She’d show interest anyway. I tucked the scroll into my inner pocket.
The golem’s body dissolved like weathering stone, and a magic circle etched itself in the boss room’s center. I stepped onto it. The platform began rising into the air.
‘Wonder how Pechi’s doing by now.’
I’d told Lize to handle her gently, so she shouldn’t be dead.
Well, “not dead” could mean a lot of things literally, but the Lize I knew wasn’t vicious enough for that. Same for the other Silver Dawn Knight commanders.
Like an elevator, the platform rose vertically toward the ceiling for a good while before stopping in a dim room. I stepped off and pulled the lever right in front of me.
What looked like a wall lifted upward, revealing an entrance. Dust scattered with the long-unused motion.
I waited for the door to fully rise and stepped out. A familiar sight greeted me: Lize and Nix. They spotted me too, their faces lighting up.
“Ah, you’re here? Delta?”
“Hehe, you made it?”
Lize beamed and waved, Nix gave a shy smile and a timid wave. I waved back.
As I approached them, a desperately urgent voice rang out from somewhere.
“D-Delta, sir!”
‘Delta sir?’
The utterly unfamiliar title made me turn toward the voice. A girl with pink twintails—Pechi, flat-out sprinting straight at me, golden and all.
Naked.
‘What the hell?’
I flinched and averted my eyes, but caught a glimpse of something pale, so I glanced back at Pechi.
Up close, she wasn’t naked. Just her usual underbust top and panties-length tights, but the angle of her run made it look like nothing at all.
For a split second, I thought Lize had stripped her and was tormenting her. With that long coat gone—covering half her body before—the outfit’s exposure hit differently now.
‘Jeez.’
As I patted my startled chest, Pechi skidded right up, bowed her head, and flattened herself on the ground.
Ass facing me.
“Please, beat me as hard as you want! I beg you!”