The Awakening of the Adamantium Giant
A voice called out from behind, sounding strangely familiar. Tae-hyun turned around. Smith was running toward him, with Kim Hyeon-ah hot on his heels.
What are those two doing here?
"Mr. Kim Tae-hyun! We finally meet. Let's fight together!"
"What? K-Kim Tae-hyun, don't tell me you're...! I knew it! My sister always acts weird whenever you're around!"
Smith rejoiced at the sight of Tae-hyun, while Kim Hyeon-ah immediately jumped to the wrong conclusion. Tae-hyun ordered the dwarf and skeleton riding atop the red scorpion.
"Hey. Blow up that bridge."
The bridge inside the mine that Tae-hyun's party had just crossed! If anyone fell from there, they would plunge into a pitch-black abyss. Who would dare refuse his command? The skeletons and dwarves driving the red scorpions immediately fired their cannons.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
"?!?!?!"
Smith, who was running forward, gasped in shock.
"Mr. Kim Tae-hyun! What on earth are you doing?!"
"I should be the one asking you that. Why are you suddenly acting like we're close? It's weird."
Tae-hyun eyed Smith and Kim Hyeon-ah warily. Did these guys come here for the Adamantium mine too?
Smith asked, looking completely flustered.
"Didn't we agree to join forces?"
"...Did you eat something bad?"
Tae-hyun was genuinely bewildered. Smith wasn't usually this unhinged. Why was he talking nonsense all of a sudden?
But Smith had his own justification.
"Didn't you send the Secret Society NPCs to me?"
"Huh? Ah..."
Only then did Tae-hyun realize the source of Smith's misunderstanding. He had clearly mistaken the members of the Draken Secret Society.
"Haha. No. I just threw them... I mean, they went on their own. You must have misunderstood."
"Hahaha. So that's what it was!"
"Hahaha. Yeah."
"But why did you blow up the bridge?"
"Because you guys were chasing me?"
"......"
"......"
Realizing the situation, Smith stopped laughing. Kim Tae-hyun was not an ally, and his clear enemy, Kim Hyeon-ah, was chasing him... Things had gotten incredibly messy!
"Lord Kim Tae-hyun! Please take us with you!"
The Draken Secret Society members shouted at the top of their lungs, but Tae-hyun turned his head, pretending not to hear.
"Lord Kim Tae-hyun!"
—Master?
"Shh. Pretend you didn't hear. It'll be a headache if they know we heard."
Tae-hyun quickly turned around.
"Let's go! We don't have time!"
"Mr. Kim Tae-hyun! Wait! Let's join forces!"
Tae-hyun continued to ignore him.
"At this rate, Ms. Lee Se-yeon will have too much of an advantage in the Asbian Empire! Besides, Uipoatl is a terrible tyrant! If that tyrant regains more of his power, who knows what he'll do! We have to stop him in advance!"
Hmm. If Uipoatl regains more power, I should make sure to stay on his good side.
Good thing I already lined up with him!
Watching this, Kim Hyeon-ah breathed a sigh of relief. She had assumed Kim Tae-hyun would definitely try to get in Lee Se-yeon's way, but apparently, that wasn't the case. She only had to deal with Smith!
"Kim Tae-hyun! Don't listen to Smith! He's a really bad guy!"
"Mr. Kim Tae-hyun!"
Ugh, what a noisy bunch.
But Tae-hyun wasn't the only one who thought so.
The Adamantium Giant Golem sleeping in the depths has awakened due to the loud noise!
"!!!!!"
Tae-hyun whipped his head around. Seeing this, a Secret Society member shouted:
"Lord Kim Tae-hyun! You can hear us now!"
Rumble! The darkness beneath the collapsed bridge brightened intensely, and something massive began to rise.
*Splash, splash!* Lava welled up instead of darkness, and the upper half of a massive giant emerged.
The Adamantium Giant Golem!
I have to capture it!
The moment Tae-hyun saw the golem, his instincts kicked in.
The living Adamantium Giant Golem is one of the terrors of this mine. Please exercise extreme caution!
Carbanog warns you about the opponent! It screams that you should run away!
Both the system window and Carbanog warned him simultaneously! Considering the difficulty of this mine, it was obvious just how powerful that golem was.
—*Noisy pests... melt away, all of you!*
—*The... the golem has awakened! The golem has awakened!*
The tribal warriors panic upon seeing the golem! They are fleeing!
Fortunately, the warriors attacking from both sides fled, but it was little comfort. It only highlighted how strong their opponent was!
Tae-hyun's party stood in front of the golem, while Smith's and Kim Hyeon-ah's parties were behind it.
Naturally, I have to make it attack Smith!
Tae-hyun planned to use Smith as a meat shield. At that moment, a loud explosion echoed.
BOOM!
"......"
It was the sound of a dwarf riding a red scorpion firing a cannon.
A panicked Red Scorpion Tribe dwarf fires a cannon!
"...I should have just controlled them all as undead."
—*Groooar...*
"Mr. Kim Tae-hyun! I'm touched. For our sake..."
"Should we shoot?"
Yu Ji-soo asked. No matter how she looked at it, Tae-hyun didn't seem to have any affection for Smith.
Tae-hyun didn't deny it.
"Later."
BOOM!
Ultimately, Tae-hyun's party took the brunt of the Adamantium Giant Golem's first attack. The red scorpion that had fired the cannon was instantly crushed by the golem's fist.
CRASH!
Damn it! My precious red scorpion!
The red scorpion itself was a powerful monster, but it also had a lot of valuable gear mounted on it.
"Death Knights! Grab the cannons! Do not lose them under any circumstances!"
Cannons infused with Adamantium were rare items that couldn't be obtained anywhere else! The Death Knights were terrified by Tae-hyun's command. A single punch from that thing was collapsing the ground and making lava boil...!
But Tae-hyun's command was absolute. His *Highest-grade Tactical Skill* did not tolerate disobedience.
—*Kroooar!*
—*Aaaaargh!*
The Death Knights charged forward bravely. Seeing this, a Red Scorpion Tribe dwarf shouted:
"Did you come to save us?!"
Of course, the Death Knights only grabbed the cannons.
The dwarf shouted in sheer rage:
"Hey! You bastards!"
Tae-hyun prepared to cast a spell at the golem.
—*Curse of the Deepest Darkness!*
The Adamantium Giant Golem has extremely high magic resistance.
The curse has failed to take effect.
I figured as much.
An Adamantium golem, boasting the ultimate defense. It was obvious that it would possess absurd physical and magical defense. Ordinary curses wouldn't take, and spells would barely leave a scratch.
At least the cannons...
Tae-hyun fell into thought as he looked at the undead scattered along the passage.
Should I deactivate Alexeos's authority first?
If he deactivated the authority, most of the Death Knights and Dragon Tooth Skeletons here would disappear. Tae-hyun's original skills couldn't maintain an army of this scale. There was a reason Tae-hyun maintained his Dragon Lich state despite the minor inconveniences!
But no matter how he thought about it, his original form was far better suited for dealing with the Adamantium Giant Golem than the Dragon Lich. The Adamantium Giant Golem was almost perfectly designed to counter a Lich. It blocked all magic, and summons below a certain level couldn't do meaningful damage.
It would be much easier to deal damage if he returned to his original form and unleashed his various holy skills.
Ah, I raised them this far with so much effort...
Tae-hyun hesitated, feeling a pang of regret. But his mind was already made up. Alexeos's authority still had time left, and the Asbian Empire was vast. Even if he deactivated it now, he could rebuild his army later!
Yeah, let's deactivate it.
Still, he couldn't just throw away the summons he had gathered. Tae-hyun called out to Golgol-i.
"Golgol-i!"
"Yes! Master."
"I will give you power."
"I-I am fine..."
—*Dark Essence Fusion!*
Extracting the Dark Essence of the Death Knight and infusing it into Golgol-i.
Extracting the Dark Essence of the Shield-bearing Death Knight...
...
He had done this once before—concentrating the power of numerous undead into one. That was how the powerful Death Knight Golgol-i was born. But there was one major difference now. The quality of the undead army he controlled and his magic level as a Dragon Lich were on a completely different scale!
—*The power... the power is overflowing!*
"Yes, yes."
—*Immense power! Immense power!*
"Can't you receive it quietly?"
—*I-I am sorry.*
Tae-hyun's annoyance made Golgol-i pout.
*Whoosh!* Golgol-i's skeletal body filled out robustly, and armor adorned with dragon motifs materialized over his entire body.
"??"
Tae-hyun was taken aback by the unexpected change.
"I thought only Cain did those kinds of transformations."
"Whoa..."
Seeing Golgol-i, the Draken Secret Society members on the other side of the bridge shouted in joy:
"A Dragon Knight! The most honorable of knights! A mighty knight permitted by a dragon!"
The Red Scorpion Tribe dwarves were disgusted by the sight.
"A bastard who coupled with a filthy dragon!"
"Horrible, absolutely horrible!"
—*Master!*
"Yeah?"
Golgol-i shouted confidently:
—*Please let me ride you!*
"Uh... what?"
Tae-hyun was dumbfounded. It was his first time having a summon ask to ride *him*. Usually, it was the other way around!
—*Master, you can transform into a dragon.*
Ah, right.
The original form of the Dragon Lich! It was a form similar to a Bone Dragon. Normal players could win close-combat fights in this form, but Tae-hyun hadn't even considered it against the Adamantium Giant Golem out of fear of his bones being shattered.
—*Please let me ride you! I am strong now! Even stronger if I ride a dragon!*
"Hmm. Can't you just ride Yong-yong or Heuk-heuk?"
—*Master!*
—*Master!*
"Hey. Do you expect me to charge in with him on my back?"
It was clearly the most dangerous role! Tae-hyun was confident in his skills, but dodging the Adamantium Giant Golem's attacks while flying through a dark mine in an unfamiliar, massive monster body was not something he wanted to do.
—*Since I am still undead, the divine beasts are a bit...*
"Damn it. Fine. Let's go."
RUMBLE!
If he was going to do it, he might as well do it quickly. Tae-hyun swiftly transformed into his dragon form.
—*Yong-yong, Heuk-heuk! Fly and distract the giant!*
—*Yes!*
"Everyone else, prepare to attack! Cain, grab the fallen cannons and fire at will!"
⊳ Golgol-i's stats have increased significantly!
—*Giddyap!*
"Do you want to die?"
—*N-No... Let's go, Master!*
Golgol-i drew his sword and shouted:
—*Sword of Chaos and Darkness!*
*Whoosh!*
As a deep purple flame ignited on the blade, the Adamantium Golem roared.
—*Groooar...*
*Splash, splash!*
Plunging its hands into the lava, the golem hurled massive boulders! Tae-hyun performed evasive maneuvers while unleashing a barrage of magic. A majestic sequence of dark magic blanketed the air, accompanied by Word Magic.
Smith and Kim Hyeon-ah were shocked.
"Wait, why magic?!"
"When did you learn magic?!"
Tae-hyun ignored them and quickly veers off.
—*Master, the golem is in the opposite direction!*
—*I know.*
*Whoosh!*
As Tae-hyun flew away, the golem quickly turned to pursue him. The direction Tae-hyun was flying was right toward the passage where Smith and Kim Hyeon-ah were standing! The two, who had been ignored by the golem thanks to Tae-hyun, were now terrified.
—*Shield of Solar Power!*
—*Absolute Ice Barrier!*
CRASH! CRACK! SHATTER!
If Lee Se-yeon had been there, she would have immediately realized, You did that on purpose! But these two couldn't possibly imagine Tae-hyun would do something so petty in such a tense situation.