Did We Get It?

The closer Faran grew to Alvin, the happier her days at his side became. She had never known happiness like this, and so every moment felt precious — something to be held carefully, as if it might slip away.

Just being near him brought a strange peace to her heart. It felt as though she were exactly where she was meant to be.

Warm.

She thought it was something like magic. Perhaps it was the contrast with those years when the temple's revelations had crushed her freedom. These moments were sweet as chocolate, and serving Alvin had become Faran's joy.

Dana.

Faran had thought of her as little more than an adventurer who'd been lucky enough to catch Alvin's eye and get hired. Rather than marveling at Dana's growth, she had been admiring the insight it took to recognize that potential in the first place. Of course. He knew everything.

It was true that Dana had performed well on this expedition, living up to Alvin's expectations. If things continued this way, he would surely keep using her — and Faran had vaguely assumed that Dana, too, would come to know the joy of serving at his side. As a servant.

But... or perhaps because of that? Faran found herself hating her.

Using a false trap as an excuse to seduce him. Alvin had said he no longer needed to play the part of a wastrel — and yet Dana had made him look like that in front of other people. Faran no longer wanted his reputation to suffer. She wanted others to recognize his greatness.

And so, if a situation could not be explained... then killing Dana, who had harmed him, was only right. That was how Faran saw it. Naturally.

"Look at the ceiling!"

A mage adventurer pointed upward. The same luminescent stones they'd seen before dotted the stone above them. Nothing looked different from a moment ago.

"Those lights you see are traces of rune magic."

Rune magic was a discipline that inscribed runes onto objects to produce semi-permanent magical effects. The hassle of having to carve them by hand meant they were rarely used in combat; when they were, it was typically for traps or buffs.

"Runes that amplify human desire have been inscribed all over the ceiling."

"Desire? What do you mean by that?"

I asked the mage.

"The primal drives people carry — greed, jealousy, lust, hunger, and so on. Just being in this room magnifies those feelings."

The mage pointed to the wall where the inscription had been written.

"And then it makes you confuse those amplified emotions for your own genuine thoughts and feelings. It's a terrifying trap."

In other words, the inscription itself — Only the honest may leave this room — had been the trap all along. The magnified emotions and desires made you believe they were what you truly felt, and then it made you act on those urges and instincts, until you became little more than a beast that had lost its reason.

"Hmm."

Faran's expression eased. She seemed to have accepted the situation.

That's a relief. We'd come this close to a bloodbath. She might not look it, but she was an S-class assassin. Dana would have been dead before she even knew she'd been killed.

A room that amplified desire. That made Dana's behavior start to make a certain amount of sense. The urges she'd been holding back — the ones she'd shown last night — must have been magnified until her thoughts about me ran completely wild.

I'd almost turned into a real wastrel. Whew. I'd been under the room's influence too. If things had kept going that way, I might have gotten swept up in the mood and done something I'd regret.

"I see. Then just being in this room is dangerous. We need to get out of here, fast."

The longer we stayed, the more those negative emotions would swell. That killing intent Faran had shown earlier was probably the room's doing as well. We needed to escape before things got any worse.

"All right. Everyone, we're leaving this room."

I ordered the adventurers to evacuate.

A deep, grinding roar shook the chamber. The moment we turned toward the exit we'd come through, the room began to tremble again — and we found the source immediately. The boulder Dana and I had tried to push at the very beginning had started to shudder.

I'd thought it was just a big rock. Then it began sucking in the surrounding chunks of stone, and those chunks gradually clumped together, forming arms and legs.

"A golem...?"

One of the adventurers whispered. That's right. It was a golem.

"A Demon King's Army golem?"

The art of commanding golems was an ancient, forgotten technique. The Allied Forces couldn't use it, but the Demon King's Army had specialists — which was why golems had become ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠their exclusive property.

"Absorbing nearby stone to form its limbs... I've never seen a golem like this. I don't know what we're dealing with."

Because it had built its limbs from absorbed stone, the arms and legs were white. The torso and head, by contrast, were a mint green like emerald. Pretty colorful for something as crude as a golem.

But more than the colors, the adventurers seemed unable to believe there was a golem here at all. I couldn't believe it either. In all the time I'd played the game, I had never seen or heard of a golem appearing in this dungeon.

But that wasn't what mattered. What mattered was that there was a golem right in front of us, and we had to take it down.

"Form up!"

I immediately calmed the adventurers and got them ready to face it.

"Nothing else is coming from behind us, so focus everything on that golem."

This was probably a boss-exclusive field — a separate space, which meant no more monsters would spawn from outside. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠A small mercy, at least. We only had to concentrate on that one golem. So we formed up with the emphasis on the front line rather than the rear. Every melee adventurer took the front, ready to fight while protecting the rear — the mages and healers.

While the golem finished assembling itself, the mage prepared a large-scale spell. A white aura poured from the tip of the staff and began to freeze the golem solid. Immediately after, a ranged adventurer loosed an arrow enchanted with fire magic. Ice-attribute magic and a fire-attribute strike — the standard approach for fighting golems. True to their experience, the veterans had gone straight for the textbook method.

But the golem showed us power beyond anything we'd expected. It greeted us looking completely undamaged.

"There's got to be a core holding that thing together. We need to smash it!"

The dwarf warrior shouted. He was right. Smash a golem's core and it usually lost its power and collapsed. That was how ordinary golems worked. It would have been nice if the first attack had ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠taken out the core in one shot, but it hadn't — so even if it took time, we'd have to attack the likely locations and find it.

The dwarf warrior charged ahead. Fortunately, the golem was as slow as it was large. Stay focused and you could dodge it. He latched onto the golem's nape, hunting for the core. If he found it and smashed it, this would all be over, and the other adventurers knew that too. They kept up a constant barrage, drawing the golem's attention away from him.

The dwarf warrior swung his axe in a flurry, and the golem's outer surface began to crack. Apparently it wasn't that resistant to physical attacks.

"Hyaaah!!"

And then, at last, he found the core. Luckily, he'd found it on the first try. He swung with everything he had, then flung himself clear of the golem. The thing began to sink to its knees.

Someone tossed out those words.

"Don't—!"

I wanted to stop them, but I was too late. The instant those words were spoken, the golem straightened its knees and stood back up.

"No — I definitely smashed the core!"

The adventurers began to panic.

"I've never even heard of a golem that keeps moving after its core is destroyed!"

"We're finished..."

The one method that should have been its only weakness hadn't worked, and that realization made several of the adventurers start to give up. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I'd forgotten for a moment, focused on the fight — but as long as we were in this room, we were still under the effect of its magic. Adventurers without strong willpower might not even have been able to fight the golem at all.

But these people had years of experience fighting golems. That was why they'd been able to enter the fight with confidence. Now they were starting to realize this one was nothing like the ones they'd faced before — and so, for some of them, the will to survive and the urge to give up seemed to be flooding in all at once.

A golem that doesn't fall even when you smash its core.

But I knew what that thing was.

Why is it already here?

It was an enemy that was supposed to appear after the Hero showed up and the second of the Four Heavenly Kings had been defeated. That was why I'd assumed this was just an ordinary golem. But the size. The immunity to magic damage. And above all, the fact that it didn't collapse even after its core was destroyed — putting those together, I knew.

This golem wasn't built around a core. It was a Bio-Golem, made with a living creature as its heart.

Which meant we might be able to get some very good loot out of this.