Chapter 83
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 83
Chapter Title: Father of Steel (2)
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Yoon Jeonghwan and the other Hunters couldn’t quite move as I had demonstrated earlier.
However, that didn’t mean they were fumbling around in a complete mess.
“Yuna! Could I get a strength buff, please?”
“Just a moment, Mr. Jeonghwan! I’ll heal Mr. Cheolwon first, then I’ll get right on it!”
“I’m fine. I can hold out, so please support Mr. Jeonghwan first.”
The Hunters, their suits still pristine, helped one another take down the golems.
These were individuals with a will to grow.
Thanks to that, they were clumsy but steadily moving forward.
And I…
Standing near the hangar, I watched them with a smile.
*Rumble.*
“You look a little dangerous.”
Every so often, when a tougher one that they’d struggle with came up from the hangar…
“Sorry, but you’re going back in.”
*CRASH!*
…I would single those ones out and send them to their doom.
*Clatter!*
The golem, turned to dust by my fist the moment it appeared, dropped a round drive core.
But I didn’t pick up the drive core rolling across the deck.
It was still far too early to be picking up such junk items to raise the ‘count’.
* * *
“This is my last drive core, too. You’ve worked hard, Mr. Jeonghwan. Let’s grab a meal together sometime!”
The healer named Kim Yuna bowed, holding a drive core.
She gave me a slight nod as well before tossing the drive core into the central slot.
Simultaneously, new text was etched into the holographic window floating on the bridge.
[Challenger 3, you have met the mission clear requirements. You will now be transported out of the dungeon with your reward.]
Soon, like the two Hunters before her, Kim Yuna dissolved into particles of light and vanished.
Now, on the vast deck, only the golems endlessly patrolling a set area, Yoon Jeonghwan, and I remained.
“Um, Hunter Kim Hanul.”
Yoon Jeonghwan was also holding a drive core.
It was the final one needed to clear his mission.
He bowed his head while still holding it.
“Thank you so much. Thanks to you, I was able to complete my first expedition safely!”
“I haven’t done anything to deserve your thanks.”
Yoon Jeonghwan lifted his grimy face.
Though exhaustion from the four-hour battle was evident, his face was lit with a bright smile.
A pleasant smile mixed with a sense of accomplishment, relief, and confidence.
“No, that’s not true. Just having you by our side was a great source of strength for us. And I saw it. I saw you taking care of the trickier golems one by one in front of the hangar.”
“Haha, you have a sharp eye.”
“You’re staying until the very end for our sake, even now, aren’t you? You’re deliberately not putting your drive cores in the slot.”
Yoon Jeonghwan gestured with his eyes toward the holographic window on the bridge.
[Current Number of Drive Cores Inserted - Challenger 1: 1/20, Challenger 4: 19/20]
The number of drive cores inserted so far was displayed there.
*Well… that’s not exactly it.* But there was no need to spoil the mood here.
I just smiled and shrugged.
Yoon Jeonghwan covered his mouth, his expression one of deep gratitude.
“Thank you, Hunter Kim Hanul! You truly are a role model for rookies like us! I will strive and strive to improve, so that I might one day be worthy of standing in your shadow!”
“That’s enough thanks for now. Let’s meet again in a tougher place next time.”
Yoon Jeonghwan didn’t stop thanking me until he tossed his drive core into the slot and disappeared into particles of light, exiting the dungeon.
Right after the last chick had left the airship…
“Alright, then. It’s about time.”
I looked at the towering bridge and the golems roaming below, a smirk playing on my lips.
“Shall we begin?”
* * *
My objective was, and always had been, the golems roaming the deck.
To capture the monster that could be called the source of those golems and send it to my Lord’s Castle.
To do that, I had to find the hidden mission.
The hint for this hidden mission came from the story Yoon Jeonghwan’s mentor had told him about an ‘accident’.
- *Well, it only happened once. A long time ago, a B-rank Hunter from our guild supposedly died on that airship after failing the mission.*
A B-rank Hunter from the Afro Guild.
He was probably the first victim of the Steel Airship.
That’s why it wasn’t widely known.
The very fact that a death occurred in a tutorial dungeon like this would be nothing short of staining the guild’s reputation.
- *But according to my mentor, that Hunter died because he did something unnecessary.*
The unnecessary thing that Hunter did.
- *He didn’t put the drive cores in the slot; he just kept killing golems. He thought he’d get bonus stats or extra rewards for killing a lot of them.*
The Hunter, who continued to kill golems even after all his comrades had cleared the mission and left…
…was last seen doing just that, and he never returned.
It was unfortunate for that Hunter, but that was the hint.
And so, I…
*CRACK!*
…just like that Hunter, was in the middle of slaughtering every golem that appeared on the deck.
*Crumble, clatter!*
A drive core, falling along with stone dust, rolled across the floor.
“That makes 130.”
A large pile of egg-sized drive cores had already accumulated on one side of the deck.
[Current Number of Drive Cores Inserted - Challenger 1: 1/20]
The holographic window on the bridge remained unchanged.
I had been relentlessly smashing golems on the deck for at least an hour, but it didn’t even feel like a warm-up.
That’s because the golems themselves were severely downgraded.
And then.
*Rumble.*
For the first time in a long while, the deafening sound of metal striking metal echoed.
It was the sound of new golems being replenished, now that all the ‘guards’ on the deck had been destroyed.
However.
“Oho?”
This time, the golems emerging onto the deck from the hangar looked different.
“They’ve been upgraded somehow.”
[The Sage informs you that it agrees with your statement!]
The ones I’d dispatched with the rookies earlier looked like simple ‘shoddy stone golems’.
They were made of huge stone chunks, but their joints were weak, and their hardness was pathetic.
But the golems appearing now were different.
For starters, their joints were reinforced with what looked like plate armor.
They looked like giant knights clad in plate armor here and there.
“Sage, analyze.”
The Sage quickly analyzed one of the golems that had left the hangar and begun its patrol.
[Stone Golem]
[Type: Normal Monster]
[Rank: 2-Star, by MonMonMak standards]
[Stats: Strength 15, Agility 5, Stamina 25, Intelligence 1]
[Skills: Plate Reinforcement Lv.1, Stone Fist Lv.1]
Its stamina was higher than the original Stone Golem’s, and it had a new skill called Plate Reinforcement.
The moment I saw this analysis window, I was certain.
“Let’s see.”
Plate-reinforced golems were still pouring out of the hangar.
*Hmm, if I smash all of them, I wonder what will come out next.*
I smiled faintly and took a bead from my wrist.
* * *
“Lizardman Captain, you and Jen Karuk take the hangar side!”
“Odolph, you continue patrolling the starboard side and smash everything in sight.”
“Gono, you’re coming with me on a tour. For the plate-reinforced golems, aim for the head. For the ones completely covered in adamantium, focus on a single spot. Be careful not to get hit by the supporting fire from the iron cannon golems in between.”
The Steel Airship.
Within the dungeon resembling the massive vessel, an unexpected battle was unfolding.
[Current Number of Drive Cores Inserted: 1/20]
The holographic window on the bridge still showed no change.
However, the scene below it had changed quite a bit.
For one, an immense number of drive cores were scattered across one side of the giant deck.
And the quality of the ‘guards’ I was facing had changed.
“Hmph! You creatures, devoid of a single intellectual feature! Fitting for your intellect, you truly are just lumps of rock!”
*CRASH!*
They could now withstand one blow from Odolph’s ‘staff’ and my enhanced fist.
*Whirrrr-!*
Some of them fired iron balls the size of a human head from cannons mounted on their shoulders.
*RUMBLE!*
Some grew so large that it took several Lizardman warriors to surround them.
[Tears of the Ancient God]
*CLANG!*
And to top it off, their plate armor was so tough that Jen Karuk’s magic barely had any effect.
In short, the golems were continuously getting stronger as the battle raged on.
And that wasn’t all.
After one wave was annihilated, the next wave of golems emerging from the hangar increased in number as well.
‘At this point, calling it a tutorial dungeon is a joke.’
It was a level that would give even a B-rank Hunter a hard time.
Still, that was only for an ordinary B-rank Hunter.
*Whoosh!*
I dove in, aiming for the drive core embedded in the waist joint of a three-meter-tall golem.
The golem’s increased size gave it immense destructive power, but its movements had become even more ponderous.
Before it could even lift its fist, I swung the Emperor’s Vestige horizontally.
The arc of my blade ended at the ring-shaped plate armor surrounding the drive core.
*CLANG!*
The plate-reinforced drive core withstood the first hit.
However.
“Gono!”
“Kiruk!”
Before the golem’s fist could land, Gono’s club flew in from the opposite side and struck the drive core.
*CRACK!*
The drive core shattered.
The golem crumbled into dust, its fist still raised.
In other words, that’s all it was. No matter how much they were reinforced, they were still just golems.
They could last longer and put up a more tenacious fight, but they were still no match for me and my minions.
*Thud!*
The sound of the drive core hitting the floor echoed with unusual loudness.
The surroundings had suddenly become quiet.
The battle was over.
The endlessly spawning golems had stopped appearing at some point.
The one I had just finished off with Gono was the last of them.
“Hmm, I think I’ve taken down about a thousand.”
I muttered, looking at the pile of drive cores on the starboard deck.
*If those were magic stones, I wonder how much gold they’d be worth.*
It was a shame you couldn’t harvest magic stones from golems.
“My Lord, are you alright?”
With a thud, Odolph’s voice reached me.
I turned to see the Lizardman warriors and Dark Elf archers, their battle finished, lined up in formation.
“I’m fine. You all did well. And…”
There was no time to praise their efforts individually.
The situation didn’t allow for it.
The hidden mission had just been unlocked.
Suddenly, with a crackle of static, the text on the holographic window floating on the bridge changed.
[You have cleared the hidden mission condition. Mission condition - Guards defeated: 1000/1000]
My hunch was right.
[For Challenger 1 only, the hidden mission 「Father of Steel」 will now be activated. Please move to the designated location to proceed. From this moment on, Challenger 1 can no longer clear the dungeon through the normal mission.]
Two things changed along with the hidden mission announcement.
The pile of drive cores on the deck vanished.
“My Lord.”
“Yes, I see it.”
The lift connected to the hangar.
With a great roar, the lift began to descend.
But no new golems emerged from it.
The hangar, shrouded in deep darkness, was clearly beckoning me.
“Everyone except Odolph and Gono, return for now.”
After returning the monsters to their summoning beads…
I entered the hangar with Gono and Odolph.
*Rumble!*
After descending a certain distance, the lift closed behind us with a heavy sound.
In an instant, a darkness so thick you couldn’t see an inch in front of you enveloped us.
“My Lord, I shall use the flames of hellfire to light our way.”
Just as I was about to nod at Odolph’s words…
*CLANK! RUMBLE!*
An ear-splitting roar assaulted my ears, and a pungent smell stung my nose.
It was a foul stench, like a mixture of sulfur, rusted iron, and oil.
*FLASH!*
And then, a brilliant white light filled my vision.
As my eyes adjusted to the blinding white light, the interior of the hangar came into focus through the hazy view.
A hangar at least forty meters high and five hundred meters long.
It already surpassed the total length of the airship that served as the dungeon’s setting.
A structure possible only in a dungeon where the laws of physics didn’t apply.
Lining both sides were the various golems I had just been fighting.
And at the far end of the hangar…
“...There’s no way that’s a golem.”
[Hidden Boss - 「Father of Steel」]
It looked like something out of a shonen manga I used to watch with clenched fists as a kid.
A giant monster resembling a transforming robot stood there.