Chapter 9: Monkey and Meteor Shower

Chapter 9:
Monkey and Meteor Shower

A HEADWIND BLEW through the low hills that rolled across the auburn land. There was hardly a blade of grass as far as I could see. Goltarou and I pushed on down the long, wide road that stretched east to west as we searched for a human settlement.

Still, what a wide road… It was probably used as a roadway for large vehicles, but did this world really have the concept of traffic? I mean, I hadn’t even passed anyone yet.

We found the road soon after we encountered the black demon. It appeared as though the demon had been waiting by the roadside to ambush us.

Upon its defeat, the headless corpse released fine black dust and, strangely, dissolved into liquid. I wouldn’t have expected a living creature to disintegrate into particles like some lifeless golem. Did that mean the black demon had also been created with a spell?

I couldn’t remember any demon-creating spell being described in the introductory books. Then again, they were just introductory books, and the only ones I really read were the general intro to spells and the discussion of the Earth attribute.

Even the blood splatter on Goltarou disappeared, seeming to evaporate. Ew. The one thing the black demon did leave behind was a lingering impression of filth. As such, I used a wet cloth to wipe down Goltarou’s entire body.

The water I used to wet the cloth came from a sealed ceramic pot Goltarou had filled to the brim and carried in the basket on his back. This pot took up most of the room in the basket, which made for a fairly dicey transport method, but Goltarou’s superior sense of balance mitigated the spills somewhat. He hefted the basket as easily as an elementary student wearing an empty book bag.

It appeared that Goltarou really loved having his body wiped down. Although he was the type to never really express his desires, he showed a bit of enjoyment when it came to this. Whenever I went to bathe, he would carry the cleaning rag with him. Likewise, whenever I had to do any washing, he would wait behind me and lightly pull on my sleeve.

That was why I swore to polish Goltarou’s smooth, immaculate white body at least once a day. This was a pleasure to fulfill, as Goltarou had been taking care of me ever since his creation. Really, if you considered the actual amount of labor I had to repay, I would need to wipe down his body at least seventy times a day. In any case, I thought the fact that he enjoyed having his body polished was quite cute.

Come to think of it, a lot of dogs enjoy a good brushing…

Oh, speaking of dogs, did you know this world had monkeys? As we walked along the road, I noticed some popping up on cliffs and rocky slopes. Size-wise, they were similar to a Japanese macaque. They were also brown, though I suppose monkeys are usually brown. In this case, the meaning of that brown-ness was slightly different. It seemed the skin of these monkeys had…hardened over their bodies. Kind of like a bunch of stones had been glued onto them.

When I first noticed this, I was shocked, thinking they were covered in scales. Upon closer inspection, I realized the texture was really their pebbly skin, and I resigned myself to the fact that the living beings of this world were always going to challenge my expectations.

My primary mode of function was common sense, so I had a hard enough time wrestling with the notion of a scaled monkey, even if I was in another world. Monkeys made of stone, though? Hmph, impossible.

I know I talked about a blue jelly monster before, but as you’ve surmised, that was a joke. If a slimy invertebrate had attacked me at super-speed, my common sense would have noped out and switched to one of those technical difficulty screens of a beautiful lakeside backed by classical music.

I had accepted the existence of spells after witnessing the disasters I created by my own hand, so I did have to admit that evidence could sway me. But come to think of it, I still didn’t know what kind of spell I’d used to turn that gate and book binding black.

“Oh…?”

I noticed one of the monkeys approaching me. Ah, were they friendly?

Sorry, fella. As a proud man of culture, I cannot allow myself to feed wild animals. Such a careless act would only negatively impact you and everyone else who makes this land their home.

Let me be clear: I don’t particularly dislike monkeys. While their lumpy skin might be a bit disturbing to others, I don’t discriminate against animals based on their appearance. In general, I think friendly creatures are a good thing.

“Hee hee. This guy’s cute!” I said, smiling warmly.

The moment I did so, Goltarou buried a swift kick deep in the monkey’s torso. Punted like a soccer ball, the monkey flew through the air and slammed into a nearby cliff.

“Eh?! Wha…? G-Golllll?!”

The monkey’s body was buried in the cliff face, its neck and limbs bent in strange directions.

I-It’s dead…

“Goltarou, y-you…”

How could you do such a thing?!

Tears filled my eyes and I was about to chastise him when I noticed a change in our surroundings.

For some reason, there were a ton of monkeys now. In fact, we would soon be buried under a flood of monkeys: on either side of the road, farther ahead, and even behind us. For how long had we been surrounded?

No, wait. Thinking back, I had suspected the number of monkeys lurking on the cliffs and in the lee of rocks was increasing as time went on. Furthermore, they seemed to be moving in the same direction as us. No way. Had they followed us from the start? Could these monkeys have been in the shadows of every step of our journey thus far? But why? Ah. Their intentions…couldn’t be great.

I swallowed.

As he sent the monkey flying through the air, Goltarou moved in front of me. He dropped the basket on the ground.

“Goltarou, you wanna go for it…?” I whispered.

The moment I did, one of the monkeys leapt and landed in front of us. It let loose a strange cry and bared ferocious fangs, then charged.

Goltarou slapped it down.

The monkey hit the ground with such force that it died on impact. The lifeless creature was embedded in the earth while the white golem stood upright, utterly composed.

Immediately, more enraged monkeys rushed one after another to attack us. The first shots of war had been fired.

Goltarou mowed through the monkeys at an earth-shattering pace. Each time he released his white fist, a monkey’s corpse danced through the air. His demonic attacks held not the slightest shred of mercy. He was especially merciless to those targeting me. This heartless onslaught brimmed with the fire of revenge.

Ugh, I don’t feel good… I thought. In the meantime, what should I do?

While I frankly didn’t think Goltarou would have any trouble with these monkeys, I couldn’t help wondering what I could do to aid him. I grew up nestled in culture and ethics, so I didn’t possess any wild brute power that could contribute to fending off these monkeys by force.

In that case, should I use a spell? At present, the spells I could use were Create Pebble and Create Golem.

Create Golem was, by every possible measure, out of the question. Furthermore, if I messed up the casting, I risked fainting and death.

So was it Create Pebble, then? I could probably create a giant rock, and if I created it directly above the swarm of monkeys, it could potentially be effective. I might even destroy a section of the swarm.

But no, the creation process was too chaotic. The whirling storm of dirt and mana would completely block my view. If I blinded us in our current situation, we ran the risk of a surprise attack. I might even trip up Goltarou.

The final nail in the coffin for this approach was the significant time lag between casting the spell and its completion. It would take up so much time that the majority of the monkeys could flee before the stone was finished.

As such, I concluded the Create Pebble spell wasn’t suited for combat.

Huh? Does this mean I’m absolutely useless…? Am I stuck mooching off Goltarou? Having been stabbed in the gut by heartless reality, I fell into despair.

This whole time, Goltarou had been running like a whirlwind, knocking down a continual stream of incoming monkeys.

I’d noticed this before, but Goltarou was a bit overprotective when it came to me. He prioritized my safety to the point that the two of us had been thoroughly surrounded from the front and behind. He was so completely fixated on the monkeys near me that he hadn’t moved from his spot. At this rate, he wouldn’t be able to break the enemy’s center and ensure our escape.

Nevertheless, the difference in strength between Goltarou and each monkey was like that between the great winds of the vast sky and a pebble on the ground. On top of that, Goltarou didn’t show any signs of slowing down.

The monkeys clamored and shrieked, becoming frustrated with the growing corpse-mountain of their comrades. However, they didn’t retreat, even after having lost so many… These monkeys from another world were intense. Was it a matter of temperament? Or could it be that they were somehow still confident they could defeat us?

The second this occurred to me, a monkey larger than the rest raised an impatient roar from the rear of the swarm. The beast’s furious cry echoed through the red cliffs and valleys.

I turned in its direction and our eyes met. It seemed like the monkey’s expression distorted into a grin.

Then, movement. As if that roar had been a signal from the boss monkey, the remaining creatures raised their hands to the sky in unison. A bizarre scene unfolded. Streams of dirt rose from the ground under the monkeys’ feet and whipped into the air. No one stream was particularly thick, but given the sheer volume, together they looked like a reverse-flowing waterfall.

What were they doing? I had a really bad feeling.

When all the dirt particles had risen, numerous stones formed in the air. They weren’t pebbles, either. Each was roughly the size of a rugby ball. In other words, a massive number of cannonballs now floated overhead. If I took a hit from one, my skull would split, killing me instantly.

There were so many stones that they formed a solid dome in the sky. Simultaneously, they began to plummet—straight toward us.

I stood unmoving, only murmuring in a dazed stupor: “This is bad… We’re dead.”

Goltarou clearly hadn’t expected this kind of saturation attack. To me, his blank face was replete with anxiety. He turned to me with a distressed look.

In the next moment, my entire field of vision was enveloped in pure white. Goltarou had rushed toward me at a blinding speed and covered me with his body. For some reason, I thought I smelled the sweet scent of a girl.

Did he intend to shield me? Could he? I didn’t know the limits of Goltarou’s endurance. I mean, did Goltarou himself have any idea how well his body would hold up against this assault? In all his battles thus far, he had relied on his abnormal strength and speed to end the conflict in the first hit. Not a single enemy had ever withstood that initial blow. Consequently, Goltarou had never had to defend himself. Worse, I didn’t recall anything in the introductory books about raising the durability of a golem’s base.

Damn, my partner might die.

I felt a dull pain around my forehead. All of a sudden, the smell of wet asphalt and blood resurfaced in my frontal lobe. I didn’t know why, but I saw a white dog lying on the road. I rushed over to cradle his body, which was slowly growing colder.

Why did he protect me at that moment?

No. I won’t let anyone else die.

I struggled to rouse myself from the sudden shock of that foggy memory. I wormed my trembling hand out from one of the openings beneath Goltarou and thrust it toward the incoming storm of stones. My cry tore my vocal cords. It was pitiful, but desperate—a plea.

“Stop. Please wait!”

Stillness engulfed the sky.

No matter how much time passed, the stones didn’t fall. The monkeys gazed upward, dumbfounded. The stones had halted mid-descent like time had abruptly frozen.

On closer inspection, the rocks that were once brown as the dirt on the ground were all dyed…pitch…black.

“H-huh? What is this…?” I rasped as I popped my head out of the gap in Goltarou’s arm and stared up.

In case you’re wondering, that was easy for me to do. Goltarou’s embrace was as profoundly gentle as always. He left me with enough room to move, letting me stick my head out as I pleased. Though if he had tightened his embrace, I probably wouldn’t have been able to move a single millimeter.

But what was I looking at? As I tilted my head, I tried moving my hand. With each flick of my wrist, the black stones in the sky obediently followed like soldiers in an army.

“Ah! I think I can manipulate them however I want…”

I lowered my gaze back to the ground. The surrounding monkeys were no longer looking at the sky. Rather, they all faced me with eyes frozen in shock. Their expressions were wrought in the shapes of fear and despair.

“In the meantime, I guess I’ll return your rocks!” I shouted.

The deluge of black stone bullets rained down on the swarm of petrified monkeys. It was a black meteor shower. The stones smashed directly into the monkeys’ heads, shattering their skulls, piercing their bodies, and smashing into the ground.

The ground shook in horror with each succeeding crash. An orchestra of thunderous roars, cries, bursts, breaking bones, and liquid splatter continued for some time.

When the area returned to stillness, there wasn’t a single moving figure in sight. The swarm of monkeys was decimated.