God's Minion
God's Minion.
A troublesome enemy — kill it, and it rose again, as many times as you pleased. On this deserted island, that was the rule.
Not that there was no way to put the thing down for good. Yujun wasn't certain, but he thought he knew how to deal with a God's Minion. He charged the minion first.
Sooner or later it'll end in a self-destruct. Obviously.
The minion's detonation hadn't so much as scratched him, and still it had no choice but to try. That was surely the strongest attack skill the thing possessed. In War of the Gods, almost nothing matched a self-destruct skill for damage efficiency. The drawback was that the caster took massive damage, or died outright — but for a God's Minion, right now, it was closer to an ability that could be used without limit.
Yujun activated Flash. In the same instant he brought the sword steeped in Chaos down from overhead. The time it took to close the distance was no more than a blink.
Shhk!
The God's Minion died before it could detonate.
"Tapagol."
"Yes!"
"Grab it. Now."
"Understood!"
Tapagol's booming answer rolled across the whole of the deserted island.
Sure enough, the God's Minion resurrected exactly where Yujun had expected. Tapagol's enormous hand closed around it. Even under that crushing pressure, the minion showed no pain at all.
Without Chaos in the blow, it doesn't even feel pain.
That was one difference from the Heresy Inquisitor. Yujun approached the God's Minion, its body locked tight in Tapagol's grip. Like this, it couldn't self-destruct. Nor could it tear itself free of Tapagol.
Tapagol's level was 800, and he possessed overwhelming mass and volume besides. His strength went without saying. Even with the same stats, putting out force through a small frame and putting it out through a huge one were not the same thing. On top of that, Tapagol held a Rare trait called Monstrous Strength.
I really want that trait. Enough to steal it.
Traits like Tapagol's Monstrous Strength — ones that acted directly and positively on the body — were exceptionally good. Monstrous Strength, high muscle power, and that tremendous bulk all stacked together, and not even a God's Minion of lofty caliber could slip Tapagol's grasp.
Paranet cocked his head at the minion's face.
"Brother... no, Master. This wretch is grinning."
"Brother?"
Paranet's face went blank. He pressed his hands together in a show of deference and bent at the waist.
"My deepest apologies..."
"It's fine. It was a slip."
The form of address hardly mattered, but hearing it from Paranet left Yujun with the uneasy sense that everything might come to an end right here. This wasn't all some illusion, was it?
Just then the God's Minion burst out laughing. Yujun sighed.
"What's so funny? You want your organs harvested?"
The minion kept smiling anyway.
"Because it is amusing. What do you intend to do, having caught me?"
"Kill you."
"You know it will do no good."
"You sure about that?"
Yujun smiled right back at him.
A chill ran through the God's Minion. Caught fast in Tapagol's grip, though, he couldn't move. All he could do was watch events unfold.
"Tapagol."
"Yes."
"Head out to sea."
"Understood."
Thud! Thoom!
Tapagol hauled his heavy body into motion. With a stride that wide, they arrived in no time.
"A little farther."
"Yes."
Yujun, mounted on Tapagol, gave the order. Beside him, Paranet spoke up.
"Master. Are we leaving the deserted island like this?"
"Yeah."
"And that minion?"
"Kill him, what else. Oh — this ought to be far enough. Tapagol."
"Yes."
"Stop."
Yujun poured Chaos into his sword. The God's Minion's eyes wavered as they fixed on him. Without hesitation, Yujun drove the blade into the minion's throat.
Thuk!
"Ghk!"
And so the God's Minion died.
Yujun watched the resurrection point. Nothing happened.
Huh. It actually died. Kill it in the sea and it doesn't come back?
He hadn't expected success on the very first try. If it came to it, he'd been ready to drag out the sealed Heresy Inquisitor, kill him, and seal the minion in his place. To think resurrection would simply stop the moment they left the island.
That was when it happened.
You have defeated '???'!
You have acquired 10,000,000 points.
"Huh?"
A hologram window had appeared out of nowhere. Yujun's eyes went wide.
"Ten million points? You're giving me that now?"
Points for killing a God's Minion. He had already bought every item he needed from the General Store. Incoming points didn't have much use.
Still, I should stop by the General Store again later.
Ten million points. Enough to buy dozens — hundreds — of the goods on sale there right this moment. Not spending them would go past sentiment and straight into stupidity.
Even if they're items I already own, having more of them can't hurt.
If anything, it was better. Should he ever enter another place like a Skill Archive, he could offer the items up as sacrifices and obtain still more EX+ skills, the likes of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art.
Finding a Skill Archive won't be easy, of course...
He did know the location of one, though whether it was still there was another question. Reaching a Skill Archive also meant climbing to a higher floor, and he hadn't been clearing the Tower at all. He meant to clear it in a single push and climb straight up.
Either way, killing minions gets me points.
Greed lit Yujun's eyes as they settled on the God's Minion.
"Master... you can't mean—"
"Yeah. Let's go hunt minions."
"..."
"These so-called God's Minions were a little — no, quite strong. Will it really go this easily next time?"
"They weren't strong."
"Th-they weren't?"
The God's Minion's self-destruct hadn't landed a scratch on him either. His high defense had done its work. Attack and defense values mattered that much.
Even granting that attack power is useless against someone of higher caliber... if my defense is high, I can at least fight from a safe position.
Sturdier than taking out a handful of insurance policies.
This is why you pay to win.
Overwhelming attack, overwhelming defense. Among the game's content there had been things like large-scale wars, and there Yujun had been close to a god. No matter what magic struck him, the damage that got through converged on zero. No one could withstand a single blow of his, and whichever side he stood on always won.
This time was similar. The minion's caliber far exceeded his own, but with a defense stat that high, a God's Minion simply wasn't much of a threat. As always, that was a statement that applied to Yujun alone.
Having resolved to hunt them, he set his destination not for off the island, but for the zone where another minion waited, traveling with Tapagol as his mount.
"Tapagol. How long can you hold Gigantification?"
"There is no time limit."
"...You can just stay like that indefinitely?"
"That is correct."
"That's busted."
Maintaining that bulk without end. Honestly, he was jealous.
If I got that big, I could just sweep everything in my path.
Why did Tapagol only ever have abilities Yujun wanted for himself?
"Master. Which direction shall we go?"
"You lump of stone! Toward the God's Minions, obviously! Can you not grasp Master's will at a glance? It is because you do no thinking!"
That was how Paranet answered Tapagol.
"..."
The colossal golem ignored the skeleton. He listened only to Yujun; he didn't so much as pretend to let a mere undead's words go in one ear and out the other. Paranet flew into a rage.
"Hey! Not thinking, are you?!"
"..."
"Hey! Thinking! You ignoring me?!"
Paranet's shouts never reached Tapagol.
God's Minions were stationed all over the deserted island, so the next one wasn't hard to find. Paranet spoke up.
"But why are the God's Minions all by themselves?"
"Self-quarantine. The times being what they are, you s—"
"The times?"
"Never mind. They're alone because it's efficient. You think the System expected some random player to catch a God's Minion? And they'd need to space them out at regular intervals if they mean to watch the players."
"...I see. But it gave you points, Master. If one earns event-only points by killing a God's Minion, might the whole of it have been planned?"
"They weren't put there to be caught."
His thinking had shifted from a moment ago. The hologram had displayed that he had killed '???'. Even whoever designed the event hadn't anticipated this variable.
Tapagol was visible from anywhere on the island. Ordinary people might not manage it, but players with sharp eyes could pick him out no matter the distance. A God's Minion would be no different.
The second God's Minion was easily twice the size of the one he had just killed. Next to Tapagol, of course, it was a firefly before the sun.
The God's Minion, Vitek, narrowed his eyes.
"A golem?"
"You recognize it."
Yujun had to shout. Tapagol's shoulder was so high he figured a quiet voice wouldn't carry.
"I have a question," said the minion, Vitek.
"A question? What?"
"What energy does it use as a power source, that a golem so large can move?"
"Energy?"
A golem crafted by an alchemist or a mage needed energy to move. It wasn't a living thing. Tapagol was a little different. He had become a summon through the Guide Golem summoning stone, and like some kind of mutant he could even talk, with lasers shooting from his eyes. Comparing him to an ordinary golem was a stretch.
Truth be told, Yujun didn't really know how Tapagol moved either. The golem could speak and got around well enough on his own, so Yujun had simply let it be.
"Don't know."
"...You do not know?"
"Nope. I don't, so ask Tapagol."
"Golem. How are you moving?"
"..."
The golem didn't answer. The question hadn't come from Yujun. Tapagol paid no mind to anyone else's words and listened only to him. Put kindly, his loyalty to his master was extraordinary. Put unkindly, he had no flexibility at all.
"Tapagol."
"Yes."
"Tell him."
"In truth, I do not know either."
"Huh? You don't know either? How you're even moving?"
"Yes."
That was possible, he supposed. A player who had reached the realm of the superhuman might observe the inside of a body with mana, but how would a mere golem know? On top of that, Tapagol was a summon golem whose intelligence ran a little low. Yujun had been surprised the golem could speak, but that didn't make him particularly clever.
"He says he doesn't know," Yujun told Vitek.
The thing's mouth twisted.
"...Then I shall find out for myself. It has been some time since I last dissected a golem."
Vitek's tongue flicked out.
Did he like golems, or something along those lines? Or maybe he just liked taking things apart.
Ugh. Gross.
Yujun packed his voice with contempt.
"You? A pervert? And how, exactly?"
"Your caliber, compared to mine, is exceedingly l—"
"Stop. Stop. I'm sick of that speech. Do you know how many times I've heard it?"
"What did you...?"
"That heresy whatever-it-was said the same thing, and so did the other God's Minion. I'm getting calluses on my ears."
"..."
"Anyway. Less talking. Come at me."
He had no interest in a tedious conversation every time he met a minion. He ordered Tapagol to move near the spot where he expected the God's Minion to resurrect.
"Understood."
Yujun hopped lightly down from Tapagol's shoulder. He didn't intend to use the golem as a combatant in the fight against the God's Minion. The thing's level was past 800, but its caliber was nowhere near a match for that level. It was something Yujun himself had only learned recently: a summon's caliber conformed to its master's. If the master was level 1, then no matter how high the summon's level, it could not possess a caliber worthy of that level. For Tapagol, Yujun's very existence was a hindrance.
Sorry for being such a lousy master, Tapagol. I'll raise my level soon, so just wait a little.
Even so, for pinning a God's Minion down, there was no one like Tapagol. People didn't say bulk was a tyrant for nothing.
Yujun raised his sword.
"There's a mountain of these things to catch. Let's finish this fast!"
"This whelp does not know his place..."
There weren't just one or two God's Minions. When he had first warped onto the deserted island, his senses had caught six of them alone. Hunt them all, and that was sixty million points.
Get the points, then clean out everything in the General Store.
A devil by the name of greed took its place on Yujun's face.