Chapter 153: The Bear Enters the Mines — Part Four

Chapter 153:
The Bear Enters the Mines
Part Four

 

AFTER RETRIEVING THE REST of the iron golem, Jaden told us to take a short break. There’d be more iron golems from this point on, so he wanted us to take a breather.

“So, Jaden, how far are we going today?” Toya asked after taking a deep swig of something.

“If we can, I want to get to the deepest point. Those five iron golems might not be there.”

Unfortunately, they were definitely showing up on my detection skill. There was something else there that concerned me too, though…see, I’d detected five humans as well. Maybe the bozo rangers were here down with us.

Whoever they were, they weren’t too far away from us. Maybe we’d bump into them if we kept moving forward. My bear map was still completely black, so I really didn’t know where we’d cross paths. What I did know was that the bozo rangers were near the five golems. They’d run into the golems before we arrived.

While I was meditating over my bear map that only I could see, Jaden spoke to me. “Why so quiet?”

“I was thinking about how I’d like a mithril weapon.” I couldn’t tell him about my bear detection skill, but it wasn’t technically a lie. “I actually went to the capital to get a mithril knife for butchering, but seeing yours and Senia’s has got me wanting a mithril weapon too. Then, when I got to the capital, I got sent on a wild goose chase. By the end of it all, Sanya the guild master asked me to do this quest.”

The quest had actually come from Ellelaura, but I don’t think she’d want that getting around.

Mel frowned. “Let’s get straight to the real issue: Will they actually send soldiers from the capital if we can’t slay the golems? When’s that supposed to happen?”

What was this, an interrogation?

“I didn’t ask, but the castle put a rush on it. There might not be much time left on the clock.” It probably depended on how I reported back to them, but I wasn’t about to tell them that.

Jaden stood. “Looks like we’d better get to it quick then.”

“You know what’d make all this go quicker?” said Toya as he stood up. “If I had a mithril sword. I’d take care of those iron golems, no problem.”

“That joke’s getting old already. No one’s laughing at it anymore.”

“Toya, no one’s going to laugh when you make self-deprecating jokes like that.”

“But I wasn’t joking!” Toya yelled at Mel and Senia, who remained convinced he’d been pulling their legs.

“You need to polish your skills a little more for a mithril sword,” Jaden said.

“Tsk.” Toya shut up, seeming to accept it when it came from the party leader.

Man, though… I wonder how I’d do with a mithril sword? I’d come here to get mithril, and now it turned out I needed a mithril weapon to get mithril in the first place! Where was the game designer for this world? ’Cause I had some notes.

 

We went still deeper. When we ran into iron golems, Mel, the midfielder, shot off magic while Toya would distract them. While those two created an opening, Jaden and Senia would attack using their mithril weapons. Two more fell to that strategy.

We merged with another path. Could this be the tunnel that the bozo rangers had been going down? I checked my detection skill, and…

Huh?

The five iron golems had disappeared. They had definitely been there the last time I checked, but now they were nowhere to be seen. Had the bozo rangers really taken them out? But they’d disappeared too. Were they on another level?

The party crept forward and peered into the cave where the five iron golems should have been. It’s not like I could just tell them not to worry about it, so I just followed behind them instead.

“They’re not here,” said Jaden.

Toya nodded. “Aye.”

“But there are signs of a fight,” said Mel.

Sure enough, there were signs that there’d been a fight all over. A wall had collapsed and the ground had been gouged out. This cave wasn’t going to come down on our heads, right? The last thing I wanted was to be buried alive.

“Do you think it was Barbould’s party?” asked Mel.

Barbould…? Oh, right, Bozo Red. I was pretty determined to just call him that in my head, so it’d taken me a sec.

“I can’t think it’d be anyone else,” said Jaden.

“Did they really slay all five of them?” asked Toya.

“They’re unpleasant people, but they’re nothing to scoff at,” said Senia.

So the bozo rangers could hold their own in a fight. Too bad I hadn’t shown up earlier so I could’ve seen it.

“Jaden, what do you want to do?” Mel asked. She kept watch on our surroundings as we talked it over.

“Barbould cleared the path for us, so we’ll keep heading forward. We’ll be better off if we’ve got more information, no matter how little.”

“And if Barbould spots us?” asked Toya.

“We don’t let him,” said Senia.

“I’d rather avoid trouble,” said Jaden, “but we’re adventurers, so we’ve gotta go.”

“We can head back if they grumble at us,” said Mel.

So, working with them to finish the quest wasn’t even on the table, huh? Not that I could blame anybody. If we did team up with the bozo rangers, I was pretty sure I’d end up accidentally shooting magic at the backs of their heads.

We continued down the passage again and changed levels, and my bear map updated. Five signals, which seemed to be the bozo rangers, showed up with a monster signal…the signal of a mithril golem.

Sounds of battle echoed along the passage as we went on.

“Damn, this golem’s hard.”

“It’s magic-resistant, too.”

“Engai, do something.”

“Do what, exactly?”

The bozo rangers were fighting in a cavern.

Bozo Red slashed with a sword, but it bounced off the golem. Bozo Blue stabbed with a spear, but it bounced off too. Bozo Green went with a giant hammer, but nope, boing. Bozo Black blasted earth magic, but it bounced right off. Bozo White fired wind magic at it, but—well, that bounced off too.

The bozo rangers’ offense was ineffective. The mithril golem repelled both physical and magical attacks. Regardless, the bozo rangers kept attacking. It wasn’t like they were weak, you know? They were quick on their feet compared to Deboranay, who was in Rank D, and their teamwork seemed all right.

But they weren’t dealing any damage. The bozo rangers hammered away at the mithril golem, doing nothing at all but refusing to give up.

Jaden’s group watched, shocked, as the bozo rangers fought the mithril golem. I think they hadn’t noticed it was mithril.  

“Is that an iron golem?”

“I think it is, but...”

“Barbould is wielding a mithril sword, right?”

“Maybe the golem’s been reinforced with magic.”

The golem repelled a hefty attack from Bozo Red.

“Damn! What’s with this thing? It’s indestructible.”

Bozo Black hit it from the side with another large stone…which promptly shattered without leaving a scratch. The golem was unharmed—and that was no exaggeration. Mages were especially at a disadvantage here: they could only use certain types of magic, and they had to be especially careful about friendly fire.

Physically attacking it didn’t work. Magic didn’t, either. How was anybody supposed to slay a mithril golem, then?

The bozo rangers eventually noticed us watching their losing fight. “What’d you come here for?”

“We’re just here to watch,” said Jaden. “If you guys wound up dead, we thought we’d take over and handle it for you, but it looks like you’ve got it covered.”

“Pssht! Nothing’s going to do me in. Go on, scram! If you wanna be an audience to our fight, I’ll charge you for tickets!” He waved his sword at us. “You even brought your pet bear with you?!”

He was talking about me, wasn’t he? Maybe I’d summon Kumayuru to attack him from behind.

“Okay, just to be certain, you’re sure you don’t need a hand?”

“No!” Bozo Red snapped.

“Got it. Well, I guess we’ll just head back. Don’t worry, if you die, we’ll make sure the guild knows all about your fight.”

“Like we’d die!” Bozo Red roared, rushing at the golem.

Personally, I wish I could’ve watched them fight more, but Bozo Red was clearly going to make this a whole thing, so we left them to it.

A mithril golem, though…now that seemed like one problematic monster. I usually used brute-force attacks, so I’d end up in the same situation as Bozo Red. Mithril weapons were right out, because I sadly didn’t own one. That left magic, but I’d be way limited in the tunnels.

“No way they’ll be able to beat that thing,” Jaden said as we walked.

“Yup, not a chance.”

“What was it?” Toya asked the group.

“I’m sure it was tougher than the iron golems we fought so far.”

“I don’t even want to imagine something more resilient than an iron golem.”

“Barbould couldn’t even scratch it with his mithril sword.”

“So he’s not a great swordsman then?”

“He’s got a rotten personality, but he knows how to handle a mithril blade.”

“And even he couldn’t kill it with a sword.”

“Then wouldn’t it have been better to help them?” I asked. If it was so impossible with just one party, why not join forces?

“He turned us down, so we can’t help him.”

“That’s just how it is. We would help if they asked for it, but if they don’t, we won’t. That’s the unspoken agreement between adventurers.”

“When you help another party, figuring out how to divvy up loot and rewards gets tricky. Of course, we’d ignore all that and move to help them at once if they were in actual danger.”

“And get told off by Barbould after.”

Adventurers were workers, not superheroes, and the golems were just another job. We weren’t going to get a paycheck by rescuing the bozos, you know?

So they didn’t even consider the possibility of fighting alongside the bozo rangers, and it cut both ways: The bozo rangers would never ask for help. They’d entirely ruled out the possibility of working together, even if we could’ve finished the job together. The same kind of thing had happened in the game too. The fewer the people, the bigger the cut.

If everyone said there was no point in working with the bozos, I guess it wasn’t really worth thinking about. Honestly, even I felt tempted to monopolize the mithril golem.

We left the bozo rangers and their fight and made for home. Since I wanted to complete my map, I asked if we could go home with the path the bozo rangers had taken. Jaden’s party was cool with it.

 

After returning from the mines, we stopped by the end to get a bite to eat. “Well,” I started, “what do you want to do, Jaden?”

“About what?”

“About that golem. Didn’t look like Barbould’s party could kill it.”

“Yeah, that thing’s invincible.”

Toya nodded. “Even I wouldn’t be able to slay it with a mithril sword,” he said.

(Everyone ignored Toya.)

“If Barbould’s party defeats it for us,” said Jaden, “the quest would be completed. If they can’t, we just contact the guild.”

“I guess that’s all there is to it.”

He nodded. “It really doesn’t sit right with me, but that’s the way it’s done. Not much we can do.”

Fair enough. How would we defeat the mithril golem, then?

If it just weren’t down in those tunnels, I could have smashed the thing to pieces. As it was, though, I wasn’t super into causing a massive cave-in. My OP bear abilities were useless in cramped quarters.

They wouldn’t count it as a kill if I just buried the thing, would they? No, burying it wouldn’t suffocate it, and that wouldn’t stop whatever was causing the golems to appear.

Well, whatever. I needed that mithril ore. That was why I’d come out here.

 

We were resting and drinking tea after the meal when there was a commotion at the entrance.

“Damn it, how’re we even supposed to beat that thing?”

“What kind of golem is magic-resistant anyway?!”

“That thing’s impenetrable.”

“I’m out of mana.”

“I’m starving. Let’s get some grub.”

The bozo rangers had made their entrance. Looked like they’d made it back alive.

“You actually made it back,” said Jaden, practically reading my mind.

“Like we’d let that thing kill us!”

“So did you slay it?” Jaden asked them deliberately, even though it was obvious from their earlier conversation and the look on their faces.

“You losers showed up and threw us off! We’ll let that slide this time.”

Oh, interesting. They were going to let it slide, huh?

“Sorry about that. I never thought you’d get thrown off by something so small. You’re all so powerful, aren’t you?”

“Tsk.” Barbould had no comeback, or at least nothing that wouldn’t just make things worse for him.

“Enough playing around. What actually happened in there?”

Barbould’s party sat down in some empty chairs nearby. “That thing’s impossible. Physical attacks, magical attacks, none of them leave a scratch…or if they’ve done anything at all, it’s not enough to matter. If we kept pushing, we’d run out of stamina and mana way before it did.”

“You’re saying we can’t slay it?”

“I’m saying you’d best be ready for that.”

“And you? You’re just giving up?”

“Not worth my time. Iron golems are more cost-effective anyway. I mean, you losers saw the fight, didn’t you?”

“I guess we’ll pass on it too. Not like we have a way of beating it either; we were actually hoping you’d take it down for us.”

“Heh, sorry to disappoint.”

“I guess we have to report this to the guild,” said Jaden, going on to explain what I’d told him earlier.

“You think the capital’s soldiers, mages, and knights’ll be able to take it down?”

“They’ve got the manpower and the tools to do it.”

“Well, we’ll use the iron golems to grind for some cash until the soldiers from the capital get here.”

“Thanks for the info, Barbould. Barkeep! A round of drinks for Barbould’s party—on us.”

“C’mon, only one round?”

“I’d treat you to another if you told us how to beat that thing.”

“If we knew that, we wouldn’t bother talking to you. The thing would be slayed already.”

Barbould and Jaden were cracking themselves up now. Hold on, weren’t they enemies, or…? Had I missed something? Was this just an adventurer thing?

Jaden’s party and the bozo rangers spent the night trying to drink one another under the table. Me, I spent my night under some comfy covers in bed, thank you very much.