Chapter 113
Chapter 113
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 113
Chapter Title: The Four Commanders
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"You guys...!"
Do-jae approached the black golems, his eyes wide.
At his approach, the black golems stood up with movements that were much more natural than before.
- Master. Our names. Decide....
The black golem on the far left stepped forward and spoke.
It was the one made from an A-rank stone, boasting the highest initial stats of the four.
"You... you can talk?"
Do-jae asked, his voice filled with excitement.
Until now, his communication with the golems had been one-way.
Still, they had faithfully and reliably carried out his simple commands.
But if they possessed enough intelligence to hold a conversation, that was a different story.
He could assign them more complex tasks, and the process would be simpler.
Especially if they could specifically report what they saw and heard, he could give them detailed missions unlike any before.
- We. Received a share. of Master's power. Thanks to Master. We could. become. a new. entity.
Do-jae felt a strange emotion at its words.
The claim that they had become their own entities thanks to him.
It was as if he had gained children.
Though their speech was stilted, like a foreigner's, it was amazing that they could communicate their thoughts perfectly.
"Thanks to me... You guys! You're still loyal to me, right?"
Do-jae asked the black golems.
While it was a stretch to call it a risk, the difference between them and the other golems was that they had directly received Gellahan's mana.
- We are loyal....
- We are loyal...!
- We are loyal!
- We are loyal.
Their sincerity was transmitted through their connected mana.
Though they had gained intelligence, their loyalty remained unchanged.
In the unlikely event that Gellahan's mana influenced these golems, he could just unsummon them.
It would be a waste, though.
"Alright. You said you wanted names, right?"
- That is correct. We. Ask you to name us.
Do-jae looked at the one on the far left.
Being the one with the A-rank mana stone, it seemed to be the leader of the group.
"But why have you all been speaking so informally? For ones who claim loyalty?"
- .......
- ......!
- !
- .......
The golems said nothing.
Do-jae let out a deep sigh and opened the leader's information window.
[Information]
Name: None [Reset]
Level: 100
Class: Golem
Title: Summon
Health: 50,000 / Mana: 11,000
[Stats]
Strength: 400 / Stamina: 140 / Agility: 330 / Spirit: 50 / Resistance: 110
(Points: 0)
[Skills]
Passive: None
Active: None
"Hooooh...."
Do-jae couldn't help but marvel as he checked the golem's information.
Its stats were higher than he had expected.
He initially thought it was a shame that its other stats were low compared to its Strength and Agility, but that changed after he checked the others.
"You have high Stamina and Resistance, and your Spirit is exceptionally high. And you're well-balanced."
The four golems each had their own specialty.
If the first one he saw was specialized in offense with high Strength and Stamina, then the second was for defense, the third for magic, and the last was an all-rounder that could be used in any situation.
Moreover, just like Do-jae himself, they could have their points invested, allowing them to further develop their specializations.
"Then I will give you names. From left to right, you will be Attagol, Defengol, Magigol, and Allgol!"
- Attagol.... Understood....
- Defengol...! Strange. Defengol. I don't like it...! Change it...!
- Magigol! Not great, but it is the name my master has given me. I will cherish it!
- Allgol. Understood.
"Looks like you each have your own personality. You there, Defengol! I don't care if you don't like it. If you want to live a long life, you'll use it, even if it's a bit rustic."
It was an old custom to give dogs simple, rustic, or food-related names with the wish for a long life.
In that same spirit, he had given the golems simple and rustic names, hoping their cores would remain intact and they would stay by his side for a long time.
He thought they should be grateful he didn't name them after food like actual pets, as he assigned them their first roles.
*Vwooom-.*
The subspace opened its large mouth, and golems walked out from within.
Soon, 200 golems had lined up behind the black golems in perfect formation.
*Swish- Swish-.*
With a few gestures from Do-jae, the golems moved in perfect unison, splitting into four groups of fifty at regular intervals.
"I've divided them up roughly. From now on, you will each command fifty golems. Understood?"
He hadn't realized it when their numbers were small, but trying to command over 200 golems by himself was difficult.
That was why he rarely utilized all of them unless it was a situation that required a large number, like rescuing survivors.
But now, things were different.
He would only have to command these four, and the rest would follow.
Look at that.
One of them was already starting to handle its golems as it saw fit.
- Down...! Up...! Down...! Up...!
Defengol was putting its fifty or so assigned golems through punishment drills.
Whether that would yield any meaningful results, even Do-jae didn't know.
***
Do-jae immediately descended two more pits.
Though he'd had only three hours of sleep, much of his stamina had returned, and he wanted to get down to the 7th floor as quickly as possible.
However, he had sent back 96 of his 204 golems. Using golems that were already struggling on the current floor against the much stronger monsters of the 7th floor would be like throwing them away as bait.
The golems that had reached or were close to level 80 could withstand a few hits, so he intended to make the most of them.
"Attagol! Defengol! Allgol! You take that one! Magigol! You and I will attack this one!"
Upon reaching the 7th floor, not only were the monsters stronger, but the number of large monsters had surged.
Creatures that would be considered boss-level anywhere else appeared constantly on the 7th floor.
"Hold it down!"
Following Magigol's command, the golems clung to the legs of a Class 2 monster, a Giant Thorn Tiger.
*Krrrrroooar-!*
It was a fearsome roar that could stop a normal person's heart, but unfortunately for the tiger, the golems had cores of solid mana stones instead of hearts.
*Crunch- Crack-.*
As 25 golems swarmed and pinned down the Giant Thorn Tiger's legs, Do-jae leaped onto the beast's back.
He then poured a massive amount of mana into the Black Scale.
*Vwuuuum-!*
The mana blade, now nearly three meters long, shimmered as Do-jae sliced the Giant Thorn Tiger's torso in two.
*Thud-!*
Blood gushed like a fountain from the severed torso, and the writhing body soon fell still.
Almost simultaneously, another large monster on the other side crashed to the ground, raising a cloud of dust.
While Do-jae's side had felled their foe in a single blow, the other group had brought theirs down with dozens, even hundreds, of wounds.
'Reminds me of the Suppression Corps.'
Attagol, Defengol, and Allgol repeated their attacks and defenses according to their designated roles, much like a well-trained Suppression Corps team fighting a large monster.
With each of the 75 individual units possessing stats comparable to a B-rank hunter, even a Class 2 large monster stood no chance.
Attagol, Defengol, and Allgol, in particular, showed outstanding performance due to their level 100 stats and high intelligence.
'Magigol's main stat is Spirit, so I should probably have it learn some magic skills....'
The reason Do-jae kept Magigol with him was that its stats were almost entirely focused on Spirit.
Its other stats were all around the 50 mark, meaning a single swipe from the Giant Thorn Tiger's paw could very well shatter it.
Therefore, he had adopted a strategy where Attagol, Defengol, and Allgol were grouped together, while he, in turn, protected Magigol as they fought.
Nevertheless, his greatest expectations were pinned on Magigol.
With a Spirit stat nearing 500, Magigol could unleash far greater magical firepower than Do-jae.
Do-jae believed that if he could teach it magic, it would more than pull its weight just by casting area-of-effect spells from the rear.
***
After the intense battle right upon entering the 7th floor, Do-jae had no time to rest before being forced into another fight with the next monster.
The 7th floor was also vaster than any of the floors he had descended through.
If the 5th and 6th floors were each the size of a field-type dungeon, this place felt like an entire region of a continent from another world had been dropped here.
Not only that, but it was as if they had all been corralled into one place; Class 2 and 3 monsters were the baseline, and he often spotted Class 1 monsters as well.
The 7th floor was an endless cycle of battle, where killing one monster only brought another, and then another.
The fighting raged day and night, so fierce that he was glad he had managed to get some sleep.
But the real problem was something else entirely.
'That mountain... I can feel Gellahan's mana intensely from there.'
A distant mountain range.
A peak that soared highest among them.
From somewhere beneath it, he could feel the noxious mana of Gellahan.
'If I had my way, I'd check it out right now, but....'
Unfortunately, Do-jae didn't have the luxury of heading toward the mountain.
The other monsters were doing everything in their power to stop him from getting there.
It was as if their sole purpose in life was to prevent him from reaching that mountain.
"Attagol, Allgol! Open a path! Defengol, Magigol, tie up the approaching monsters however you can!"
Do-jae shouted to the black golems.
His plan was to have the golems create a path while he gathered all his mana to break through the gap.
- Understood. Master....
- Master. To us. Mana. Restore.
As Attagol's and Allgol's golems widened their formation to forge a straight path, Defengol's and Magigol's golems held their ground, absorbing the attacks of the monsters in the middle.
*Thud-!*
*Boom-!*
- Master...! Now...!
- Master! We have made a path! Break through!
A single, straight path, barely 100 meters long, had been carved out.
Beyond it, the monsters were not so densely packed.
To make himself as light as possible, Do-jae deactivated his Golem Armor, reshaping it into boots and a helmet.
He then used Aqua magic, soaking the boots to turn them into mud.
This was the preparation for an active skill he had created in the other world: 'Mud Run'.
Do-jae began to gather his mana. For the first time, he pushed it past the usual limit, and as he did, the Sealed Memory on the back of his hands and feet began to glow.
*Fss- Fsss-.*
A black aura began to rise around Do-jae.
However, Do-jae himself did not perceive the black aura, nor did he feel anything unusual.
Confirming the path forward one last time, Do-jae finally cast 'Mud Run'.
*BOOM-!*