Chapter 151: The Bear Enters the Mines — Part Two

Chapter 151:
The Bear Enters the Mines
Part Two

 

JADEN’S PARTY kept slaying the mud golems.

It looked to me like you could just slay mud golems with wind magic. Cutting off their arms and legs would immobilize them—though I guess that would immobilize anything, monster or no. But what would happen if we cut their heads off? Would that stop them? Or would they keep moving?

If Jaden and company only focused on cutting off each golem’s limbs, maybe there was no point in cutting off the heads. We kept going further into the tunnel while I watched their fights.

Jaden and Toya fought with swords, Mel used magic, and Senia relied on daggers. They slayed mad mud golem, no problem. No wonder why they were C-Rank adventurers. I never had a chance to join the combat.

I looked at the bear map. It only displayed the part of the tunnel we’d already traveled.

Each tunnel fork was marked with a signpost so you could tell where to head for the exit.

This was what I’d picked up about the tunnels: Each entrance was assigned the letters A and B. Whenever there was a fork, each path was marked with a number, like 1, 2, or 3. According to Jaden, that was how they’d figure out where they were working. If someone said they were working “B-1-2-1,” for instance, it was easy to figure out their location.

 

Still, I was bored. I really wanted to see just how strong golems could really get. Couldn’t I slay just one? But nope, I never really got a turn since Jaden’s party kept knocking them out. And what was I supposed to say, anyway? “Please, sir, may I pretty please kill a golem?” Super awkward.

They all kept on the lookout as we pressed on. I detected four golems up ahead.

We continued forward a bit and came into a wider space. There were three golems there…wait, three? Where was the fourth? I checked my detection; it seemed to be behind a large rock to our right. I guess it was in a blind spot. Jaden and the others had no idea.

They started running at the three golems in front of them. It didn’t matter whether they were facing one golem, two, or three—the golems were no match for their coordinated assault.

They could easily defeat mud golems, no matter how many there were.

It looked like they hadn’t noticed the last one. It wouldn’t be so bad if I took that one, right? We were almost upon it and they hadn’t even noticed it yet. I should totally take that one.

It would be weird for me to attack a golem I couldn’t even see, though, so I decided to wait to make a move until it came into view.

 

After easily defeating the three golems, the party of three kept walking down the tunnel without minding the giant boulder. They didn’t notice the hidden golem. I readied for attack…

But the moment the golem entered my field of vision, Jaden—who was walking in front of me—and Mel—who was beside me—reacted at the same time. They’d cottoned on fast. Maybe they’d heard it beforehand, or maybe they just had really quick reflexes? C-Rank adventurers, man.

Regardless, I’d already cast my wind magic. Right as the golem tried to come out from behind the boulder, my magic hit it and sliced off its head and all its limbs simultaneously. It was soft, as I expected. The sliced-and-diced chunks crumbled away, leaving only a mana gem behind.

Mud golems really weren’t all that tough, then. Well, it was made of soil, so that was as sturdy as it could be. I hadn’t even needed to imagine bears to strengthen my magic.

“Yuna, that was amazing,” Mel called out. Both Jaden and Mel had noticed the golem too, and they’d been pretty quick on the uptake. I hadn’t been able to tell whether Senia and Toya had gotten a chance to react to the golem though.

“But you did something weird just now. You got ready to attack before we could even see it,” Senia commented. She’d been watching me from behind. Wow, she’d really been paying attention.

“The golem appeared right when you started moving, bear girl,” Toya said.

Senia nodded. “You were quick to react.”

So they had noticed. But I couldn’t tell them about my bear detection skill though, so...

“You could say it was a woman’s intuition?” I tried hedging.

“A woman’s intuition?” Jaden looked dubious, but Mel grabbed onto my bear puppet paw.

“Of course. Women’s intuition is so a thing, but Jaden and Toya insist it isn’t.”

“It definitely is a thing,” Senia also agreed.

“Right, but it’s just weird for someone to claim they sense a monster or here or over there or wherever without any evidence,” Jaden said, which made Toya nod.

“And the only reason you can give is because of this women’s intuition thing.”

“Women’s intuition has saved us in the past,” Mel snapped, “and you know it.”

The women chalked things up to women’s intuition, and the guys didn’t even believe it was real. I’d started a civil war with a single statement. Well, it wasn’t like they were actually fighting, but it sure was a waste of time. I decided to change the subject.

“So, do golems keep moving around even after they lop off their heads?”

“Yeah. Golems will basically move no matter what part of them you slice off. There are two ways to stop them: One is to remove their mana gem. The other is to hit them with more damage than they can tolerate.”

“More than they can tolerate?”

“So you know that the golems are powered by mana gem, right?” I’d mostly gotten that, so I nodded. “Well, the more damage you do to them, the less power their mana gem will have. Once all the power in that gem fizzles down to nothing, the golem goes kaput.”

Hmm. So as long as you hit them with enough physical attacks, you could inflict damage on them until they couldn’t move. If that was the case, you could slay rock and iron golems just by physically hitting them over and over again. Looked like I didn’t even need to use my magic—I could go with a brute-force approach. I gripped my bear puppet into a fist.

I took the mana gem that had come from the defeated golem, and we pressed on down a gently sloping tunnel. I checked my bear map as we walked. Something changed on the map—the one I’d been using until now had vanished and was replaced with a new one. Interesting…when we moved from one level to another, the map changed too. It really was like the automap in the game.

Because the map had changed, I invoked my detection skill. More golems ahead.

“I think you’ll be okay, but be careful, Yuna,” said Jaden. “This is where the rock golems start coming out.”

I nodded obediently. “Are they strong?”

“I guess they’re about as tough as stone reinforced with a smidge of magic, but…I wouldn’t call them quite like normal rocks. They move, after all.”

I didn’t really get what she meant with the reinforcement thing. What, that they were a little sturdier than the average rock? I doubted that a little bear magic couldn’t handle it, but I hoped the group wouldn’t mind me taking one to practice on.

 

Eventually, we finally encountered a rock golem—you know, the golems all cobbled together from rocks and stones? When I say “cobbled,” though, I mean it: they kind of looked like they’d fall right apart if you punched one.

When the rock golem noticed us, it swung its arm, hurling a baseball-sized rock at us.

The blazing fast rock flew at a 160 kilometers per hour (or something like that, probably) at Jaden up on point. Mel stepped in front of Jaden and summoned a wall at a slight angle, deflecting the rock from us all. When the rock golem tried to throw a second, Jaden and Mel slipped out from behind the wall.

The rock golem locked onto Jaden and started to turn to face him. Then, as though she were fighting fire with fire, Mel produced a boulder the size of a soccer ball with her magic and smashed the golem’s leg. The rock golem lost its balance, but it still swung its arm to desperately throw another stone. Senia stopped that quick: she threw her knife right into its joint. Jaden and Toya closed in instantly and attacked.

It wasn’t long at all before the rock golem stopped moving and crumbled into a mountain of rocks and stones. The thing was a monster for sure, but it was nothing like any I’d seen so far.

 

Lots of rock golems showed up after that, but Jaden and the others made quick work of them. Mel broke their legs with magic, Senia threw her knives into their joints to slow the golems down, and finally, Jaden and Toya attacked from behind. None of them hesitated. Each of them understood what they had to do.

They were like an assembly line. It really reminded me of how high-level players operated, back in the game. You could turn the fight into a set pattern to make grinding for experience more efficient. I’d done that a ton myself. I’d even team with parties sometimes. Well, once in a while. I had some experience being in a party, even if it wasn’t much.

 

I still wanted to take a stab at fighting a rock golem, though. Serendipitously, just as I thought that, we emerged into a slightly larger cavern that held five golems. Maybe I’d get a tiny piece of the action this time?

“Jaden, what do you want to do?” Mel asked. Up until now, they had only handled two golems at a time at most, but this was double trouble.

Jaden looked at me. “Could you take one, Yuna?”

“I guess I could.”

Oh! Finally, my time to shine. And they were asking me to do it. I guess I’d gained their trust then. There were tons of things I wanted to try out, but first and foremost, I wanted to see how tough these things were. Maybe this called for some bear punches? I also wanted to see what magic could do to them, though...

“Thanks,” said Jaden. “Once we take the others down, we’ll be right there to help you out.”

Everyone headed toward their respective rock golem. While I was hemming and hawing over how to go about attacking the thing, the rock golem started approaching me. I decided to dodge the golem’s extended arm. I threw a firm bear punch into its chest…

And the rock golem went flying backward, struck the wall, and shattered. Curtains down, in three beautiful acts.

After a single bear punch.

I looked around to find the other four staring at me with blank expressions. (Which seemed pretty unprofessional, considering that they were engaged in combat themselves.) But it was only for a second, after which they immediately focused their attention back on the rock golems in front of them.

Okay, so I’d better help out, right? I headed toward the golems the four of them were fighting and fired off a few bear punches. The remaining four rock golems flew away, hit the walls, and crumbled.

Talk about weak. And the group was practically freaking out now…

“Yuna, you really are powerful.”

“Just like the rumors say.”

The two women came over.

“I guess you really must have killed a black viper and tigerwolves all on your own,” Jaden admitted.

“I never would’ve thought a little bear girl could be so strong,” said Toya.

Pssht. If this was all the rock golems amounted to, maybe an iron golem would be no trouble at all.