The Golem That Cannot Be Broken

Could that really be possible?

"...What exactly goes flying?"

"Your fist."

I gave the golem standing beside me a light tap, and it began to hum to life, radiating a soft blue glow.

The Academy was stocked with all kinds of teaching tools, and among them was the so-called Educational Mana Golem.

A golem designed not for defense or combat, but purely for instruction.

At a glance it looked no different from any other golem — but it hid one very 'special' function.

"So we just have to smash it?!"

"If you're using weapons only. Yes."

"Me first!"

Leo shot up from her seat with her hand thrust in the air, practically vibrating with excitement.

None of Lily's lessons so far had been easy, but this one — this one she felt genuinely confident about.

Part of that was surely her regressed mental age, but she wasn't alone in her thinking. The other students — the other users — felt exactly the same.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

These were veterans who had hunted countless bosses and wielded legendary weapons and abilities. No matter what Lily had prepared, a mere golem would crumble under their bare hands.

Leo looked up at the golem, which towered several times her size.

Big as it was, she was so small that the pair of them looked like a giant standing before a member of the dwarven race.

"Okay, here I go!"

Leo's weapon was a staff of ancient wood.

She could play any position, but as a spirit mage she was somewhat more specialized toward magic. She funneled mana into her staff and invoked a spirit technique.

"Glacial Icicle!"

Crack-crack-crack! Frozen mana raced along the staff and shot forward, striking the golem dead-on.

Ice magic, the golem's elemental weakness. It certainly looked like it had dealt real damage.

"Aza! That's a pa— kyaaa!"

BOOOOM!!!!

The golem's icy fist sent Leo flying.

Aside from a light coating of frost, the golem looked utterly, annoyingly unharmed.

And the speed of that punch it had just thrown — sure, Leo had let her guard down, but it was fast enough that even Leo couldn't react to it.

Leo, caught against the protective barrier lining the walls, stared at me with wide, round eyes.

"Uh... huh?"

"Come back in first. I'll explain."

"Un... unbeatable..."

Leo trudged back to her seat, shoulders slumped.

Well, look at that. Everyone's eyes have finally changed.

"Let's clear up one misunderstanding before we go any further. This golem is an ordinary golem. Around level 40 boss-tier, give or take? It's not some special hidden piece or rare item, and it isn't made from mana stones that fetch hundreds of gold on the market."

"It's way too strong for something like that, Professor."

"That's right, Yena. Far too strong. Suspiciously so."

Leo was a ranker strong enough to be called the strongest among users, with the sole exception of the Sword God.

And that ranker had been tossed aside without landing a single blow.

To be precise, she'd been sent flying while off her guard, and she hadn't actually taken any damage — but the fact that she'd been launched at all still meant something.

I conjured a spear of pure light.

"The secret lies in the weapon."

The spear spun.

The rotating spear swept over the golem like a dragon's breath —

and nothing happened.

"Huh."

"...?"

"The Professor too?"

"Oh! Fascinating!"

"Quiet, please."

A moment later, a ferocious fist came hurtling my way.

I dodged the punch as it flew at me like a dragon, then shut the golem down.

"First, the weapons I handed out are made purely of mana, with no special anchor holding them together. And naturally, over ninety-nine percent of that mana is mine."

Crick.

"Their conductivity is exceptionally high, which is why the number sits that high — but the same is true of the golem."

The pristine white golem, its ice damage already repaired, nodded its head up and down.

Meanwhile, Yena was taking notes like her life depended on it.

I should give her a compliment later.

"This golem has the property of drawing in and absorbing the same power. On top of that, it can copy any technique that hits it and reproduce it as its own."

"Ah...!"

"The weapons are crystallizations of my mana. The golem was made from that same mana. That's why it can't be damaged."

No matter how much force you poured ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in, in the end you were swinging a weapon saturated with my mana.

The damage could only ever be negligible.

In a word...

"In effect, you're fighting as if you were equipped with that penalty."

Which, to be fair, made Leo pretty impressive in her own right — she'd actually dealt the golem 'damage' at a level below 0.001 percent.

Everyone wore the expression of people whose brains had just short-circuited.

Being rankers, they were apparently processing it as something utterly absurd.

But honestly, not knowing this was the stranger problem.

Yena alone had once crushed past Sword Masters as if they were nothing — the kind of powerhouse who simply stomped on such opponents. Even if her growth had followed the system's prescribed path, Mana Intrusion and Protection was something she should have known ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠cold.

It was the most fundamental of fundamentals — the first thing anyone had to learn once their mana handling matured.

Redberry raised her hand.

"Yes, Redberry."

"Then, um... if you lower the mana value, will damage go through normally?"

"Exactly. Push my mana out of the weapon and fill the space with your own. Do that, and your damage will land properly."

A collective flinch ran through the room.

Push out Lily's mana and replace it with their own.

Could that really be possible?

I smiled, tapping the blackboard with a piece of floating chalk.

"Don't worry. I haven't laid the protection on so thickly that it's hopeless."

I had calibrated this golem to the level Academy students typically needed six months or more ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of study before they could barely break through.

At best, they'd push out around ten percent.

At worst, maybe two.

But even two percent would be more than enough to shatter the golem.

"Then we'll begin now. If you have questions or need help, speak up at any time. Feel free to challenge the golem whenever you like."

Kyaaa!

No, come on, this is unfair...

Argh! Fine, I'll just use my ultimate—!

Haha! Come at me as much as you like, you tin can!!

...This is hard.

Chaos reigned around the training dais as users furiously funneled mana into their weapons.

A line of users had formed at the dais, waiting their turn to challenge the golem, while in the seats three or so users clung stubbornly to their weapons, lost in an invisible struggle.

Redberry was one of them, staff in hand, waging a battle no one could see.

When she'd merely held the weapon, it had seemed like nothing special. But now that she was trying to find the 'gap' in its mana, there was simply no answer to be found.

Transition, at least, had studied a little before class and was managing fine. This, though — this truly wasn't working.

The cost is way too high...

Just as she'd seen on the broadcast, she was peeling off fragments of her own mana and pushing them into the staff.

But even after dozens of attempts, it felt like she hadn't claimed even 0.01 percent of the weapon.

If anything, the staff seemed to blaze with Lily's mana more fiercely than before.

Part of her wanted to just throw caution to the wind and charge — but watching the users down there getting launched across the room one after another, she couldn't quite work up the nerve.

Oh, and there goes Yena, flying off into the distance again.

Was that her seventh attempt?

Watching her get flung that far and still stubbornly try again — honestly, what a tenacious person.

Clack.

"Looks like you're finding it difficult."

"...Very."

Lily had come over and settled into the seat beside her.

Really, what was with this person? How on earth did she understand all this, let alone teach it?

She gave Redberry's staff a light tap.

"Stop trying to find the gap. Try to understand the mana instead."

"Understand it?"

"What composition this mana is built from, what magical formula the weapon was designed around — things like that. If you truly understand it, you won't need to go hunting for the gap. It'll reveal itself naturally."

It was surprisingly earnest advice.

......

What it's composed of, huh...

"...I don't get it, though."

"Then start by contemplating your own mana. And then—"

Before Redberry could ask anything else, Lily's fingertip was already moving.

Her fingertip touched Redberry's hand, and in an instant, a portion of Redberry's mana was drawn out along with it.

"Ugh...!"

"A strange feeling, isn't it? Bear with it."

"I— out of nowhere, that's—"

A wave of indescribable exhaustion crashed over her.

It felt as though a piece of her very being were being torn away.

No — it wasn't just a feeling. It really was happening.

Lily grinned, wrapped the stolen mana in a shell of pure white light, and held the blazing red orb out to her like a gift.

"What do you think?"

"...It feels kind of familiar."

"Of course it does. It's your mana, Redberry."

Try holding it.

Redberry took hold of the orb of mana.

Familiar, and yet somehow alien.

It was clearly similar to the mana she summoned every day, and yet something was unmistakably different.

Her own mana had a nature that spewed fire from its mere existence — and yet toward its master, it was endlessly docile.

And in that instant, Redberry felt something click — as if she'd caught hold of a thread of understanding.

"Are you getting a feel for it?"

"...It's something. Something, anyway."

"Would you like to try now?"

Just as she'd been told, she gripped the staff.

Still seamless, still impenetrable — Lily's mana.

Understand the mana... understand...

Here goes...!

"Oh. Whoa."

A tiny corner of the weapon blazed red.