The giant golem.
It began to slowly rise, breaking through the desert sands.
Its sheer size meant it would take quite some time for it to fully stand, yet the sight was so unreal that everyone could only stand there in a daze.
“…Shit.”
Someone muttered under their breath.
Jun and Maya were the only ones who managed to keep their wits about them—
Because they had seen this before.
Back in the Witch’s Forest, where Jun had obtained the artifact he uses to summon golems.
Tear of Teia.
He had encountered a giant golem there alongside the Blade Eagle Mercenary Group and a former Black Guard who turned into a bounty hunter.
“Leader, is that thing going to protect us like last time?”
“…No.”
“What? Like last time?”
Eleanor who was standing nearby asked, but the two ignored her.
“Then… do we have to kill it? Is it going to start that… ‘Dimenson-something’ thing?”
“Thankfully, no.”
“No, seriously, what do you mean by ‘like last time’?”
Eleanor pressed again, but the two dodged her question with another conversation.
“Then what should we do?”
“We run. Until it stops moving.”
“You’re not going to answer me?”
Eleanor tried one last time, but—
“Do you know what’s happening here?”
The rest of the party had approached Jun.
“…Yes. That’s what’s called a ‘giant golem’. Though it’s probably a slightly different model from the one I saw.”
“A giant golem?! Why is that in the fifth level?!”
At Mentrus’s bewildered reaction, Jun finally understood the unease he’d been feeling all along.
You’ve got to be kidding me… This thing didn’t exist here yet? And we just woke it up ourselves?
The giant golem.
In truth, it was the field boss of the fifth level.
But it wasn’t a monster you were meant to kill.
Obviously, no player in the fifth level could possibly take down something so heavily protected by every kind of magic.
There was only one way to deal with it—
That was to run until its power ran out.
A kind of time attack, you could say.
The problem was… there wasn’t even any reward for it.
If you broke it down, all that was left of the thing was its nearly shattered, scrap-metal-like power source.
In the game, that thing only ran for about half a day. And even then, the setting was that it gathered the sun’s energy for a whole year, then activated just once at the end of the season. So why is it behaving differently now?
As Jun pondered in silence, he recalled the bluish jewel he had assumed was the golem’s power core.
A gem filled with enough magical power to kill a person just by touching it.
Right, that was a unique item.
Just like the Meteorite Sword Aiden carried, it was an item that wouldn’t reset even when the season restarted.
If that core was such an item, and the golem was using it as its power source…
That would explain why, in the game’s setting, the golem wasn’t inside the ruins but outside instead.
Most likely, in the game, it had been activated once for some reason, and because of that unique item, the golem had ended up outside.
Which meant that even after the season reset, it would still be outside the ruins rather than sealed within them.
Right now, this is the most convincing explanation I have. Damn it, could I be any more unlucky?
It was probably the Mentrus Adventurer Party that caused this whole incident in the game as well.
Mentrus must have activated that relic, leading to the annihilation of everyone involved.
They say unlucky people break their noses even when they fall backwards… Guess that was written about me.
He felt like crying at his miserable situation, but he didn’t have the luxury.
In a strained voice, Jun said,
“First, let me explain what I know about this thing.”
“I… I’m all ears.”
“Please, go on!”
The rest of the party had also been blindsided by this unexpected disaster.
They leaned in to hear Jun’s explanation.
“First off, think of this as a dungeon with a time limit.”
“A time limit? You mean… we have to run from it?”
“That’s right. With our current strength, destroying it is practically impossible.”
“So that’s why you asked about the location of the stairs earlier…”
Scholar Bendel muttered as he calculated their position.
“How fast is it?”
“All I know for sure is that it’ll catch up to us within two weeks.”
There was still time before the golem could fully activate.
But even if they tried to flee, two weeks wasn’t enough to escape something that intended to wipe out every living thing in the area.
“Then what do we…”
“Damn it. Should we split up and scatter?”
“Then what’s the plan? Every level stairs other than the nearest one will take more than a month to reach!”
“How am I supposed to know?!”
“Let’s just calm down. Fighting each other right now isn’t going to help anything.”
The confusion still hadn’t fully settled.
Jun turned his back on them and walked toward his own companions.
“Phew. So, Leader…what’s the plan now?”
Having calmed herself somewhat, Eleanor asked in a more composed tone.
“There are two options.”
“What are they?”
“One is what they’re talking about over there. That is drawing lots to pick a team to lure it away.”
“That just sounds like making sure the unlucky ones get killed.”
“Unfortunately, yes.”
Surprisingly, none of the teams outright opposed this method.
All of them were seasoned fifth level fighters, and in a crisis like this, the greatest threat was infighting.
If they weren’t careful, they could end up dead by each other’s blades before the golem even moved.
“But will the person who draws the short straw actually accept it?”
“I don’t know about that.”
Before the drawing, everyone would be fine with “As long as it’s not me”, but once chosen, anyone would start thinking differently.
This time, Maya spoke up.
“What’s the second option?”
“The second is… no drawing lots. We volunteer to lure it ourselves.”
Maya and Eleanor shot him sharp looks.
Jun quickly blurted out, almost defensively,
“I-It’s the surest way to survive!”
“Right, of course. Our captain always has such brilliant plans. So what’s this one?”
Keeping her composure as best she could, Eleanor asked the question.
Jun unfolded a map and pointed in one direction.
“The Tower of Ancients. We lure it there, and then we escape inside.”
***
Fortunately, his companions agreed to the plan.
They knew full well that the mage before them had always made the most survival-oriented choices in a crisis.
The other three groups, however, looked as though they couldn’t comprehend Jun’s decision.
“You… really mean to lure that thing?”
“And to the exact opposite side? That’s suicide!”
“We can’t afford to lose people like you here!”
The Treasure Hunters were overjoyed, the Mentrus Adventuring Party was thrown into confusion, and the scholars of the Issus Society shed hot tears.
“We have a way to shake it off. And judging by the amount of mana I can sense right now, its operating time should be close to ten days.”
In the game, it had only been half a day, but back then, that bluish gem hadn’t even been functioning properly.
Now that its power source was operating at full capacity, Jun concluded it would last for at least ten days.
“Then allow us to help as well. If we’re going to face monsters while on the run, we’ll need at least some fighting power, don’t you think?”
At the scholars’ suggestion, a few of the Treasure Hunters instantly scowled, but no one could blame them.
However, Jun shook his head.
“Our mercenary group is currently the most mobile force here. The more people we have, the more our mobility will suffer.”
“Hmm… Still, luring it alone is far too dangerous.”
Others nodded at the Mentrus leader’s concern.
After all, their original plan had been to spread out in a fan formation and escape.
In response, Jun spoke a lie with a bit of truth.
“In fact, the reason our mercenary group came here wasn’t solely to search for ruins. It’s because of the dungeon in that direction.”
“A dungeon…?”
“You’re not planning to deal with its pursuit using a dungeon, are you?”
“What an ingenious idea!”
The others quickly brightened.
Indeed, if it was a dungeon completely sealed off from the outside, it wouldn’t matter whether a giant or a twin-headed ogre appeared outside….safety would be guaranteed.
“As expected of the mercenary group from the rumors!”
“If I make it back alive, I’ll be sure to tell Sir Kyler your story!”
“But what kind of dungeon is it?”
Having somehow convinced all three groups, Jun watched them leave before turning back to his own party.
And then—
“Aiden?”
For some reason, Aiden who had been silent ever since the giant golem appeared wore a strangely stiff expression.
“What’s wrong?”
At Jun’s question, Aiden bit his lip a few times before quietly speaking.
“Since earlier… my insides have felt strange.”
“What?”
An unexpected problem had arisen.
***
“May fortune be with you.”
“Let’s live to see each other again!”
“Next time, you must tell us about that dungeon!”
With their farewells, the adventurers left first.
Jun and his party waited until the others had vanished from sight, then started running toward the direction of the Tower of Ancients.
“Crazy… I can see it from here too.”
They had long since left the ruins behind, now little more than a speck in the distance.
Eleanor shivered at the sight of the giant golem far away on the horizon.
Through [Mind’s Eye], the giant golem appeared as a chillingly intricate crystallization of magic.
The longer she stared, the more her eyes began to ache.
And then, she felt as if somehow its gaze had locked onto hers.
Shaking off the feeling, she turned to Aiden beside her.
“Still feeling sick?”
“Yes… It feels as though something is pulling at my body.”
Ever since the giant golem had started moving, Aiden had been suffering from an inexplicable condition.
Eleanor had checked his state several times but still found nothing unusual.
“Maya, what do you think?”
Just in case, Jun asked Maya as well.
If it was something related to the soul, Maya might be able to give a more accurate diagnosis.
But Maya also shook her head.
“No major issues.”
By then, Jun’s expression had hardened.
Nothing like this had ever happened in the game.
What on earth is going on?
It was a sudden and troubling change, but there was no way to fix it right now.
If it really was connected to the giant golem, then they needed to reach the Tower of Ancients as quickly as possible.
Around then, Eleanor glanced back again, frowning at the sheer size of the giant golem that was visible even from this far away.
“Damn, that’s creepy. But Leader, what if we run into a sandstorm on the way?”
“Odd as it sounds, that thing only moves when there’s sunlight.”
“Ah. So if a sandstorm blows in, the sun gets blocked?”
“Exactly.”
There was also the fact that they’d have far fewer monsters to deal with.
The giant golem killed indiscriminately. Be it human or monster.
For some reason, the monsters seemed to know this well and never dared approach it.
“Which means all we have to do is keep running.”
Letting the distance close would do them no favors.
They would have to run, day and night, while sleeping as little as possible.
Eleanor’s priest robe kept billowing as she pounded across the sand. She muttered under her breath,
“Never thought all those all-nighters studying would come in handy. What a joy.”
Naturally, she didn’t look happy in the slightest.
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