Chapter 31 - Blood-Tinted Castle (2)

The Corpse Golem's attack pattern is simple. It launches corpse bombs at distant enemies, and drags in nearby ones to devour them—with the hundreds of arms sprouting all over its body like tentacles.

"Bjorn!"

Hearing Aynar's worried shout, I kept a careful distance. Moving in close would keep it from targeting me with corpse bombs, but then it would switch targets to where the mage was.

BOOOM!

I had to buy time somehow. At least until the mage pulled herself together. All while holding aggro on my own.

BOOOM!

Whenever a corpse bomb came flying, I rolled sideways to get clear, then curled up behind my shield to protect myself from the acidic bodily fluid.

After I repeated this about three times...

"Iherno Haindar."

Flame Barrage shot forth. Thankfully, the mage seemed to have recovered. Without bothering to look back, I kept all my attention on the Corpse Golem.

Amid screams that sounded like hundreds of people crying out, the Corpse Golem's entire body blazed, its outer shell peeling away. Normally, this first phase would have required a back-and-forth of closing in and retreating while scorching it dozens of times with a torch. A single spell had finished it.

「The Corpse Golem's outer shell has been neutralized.」

But perhaps the stench of burning, rotten corpses had brought on a fresh wave of nausea.

"Urp... Urgh, bleeegh!!"

I heard vomiting behind me again. Please, couldn't she pull herself together already...?

Well, whatever. I didn't need the mage anymore.

"Aynar! That's enough. Come over here now!"

I immediately called Aynar over. The Corpse Golem was a rank-7 monster, but with its shell stripped away, it wasn't beyond what two barbarians could handle.

"Gruooooar!!"

Its once-enormous form had shrunk noticeably, now measuring only about three meters across. With the independently writhing corpses all burned and melted away, only a framework of bones remained, creaking as it moved like exposed rebar.

Otherwise known as Skeleton Golem mode.

"Kaaaaah!"

With less weight, it moved much faster too. Blocking a vicious swing of its arm with my shield, I shouted,

"Porter! You help too!"

"I must protect Lady Raven."

Motherfucker. I knew it.

Just you wait. I'll make sure I'm paid in full for all this trouble.

THWACK!

I leaped high and brought my mace down on its upper body. I heard something crack, but that was all. Its ribs were so hard that only a few bone chips flew off.

Still, I just had to keep at it.

"Aynar! Aim for the chest!"

"Understood!"

Trading aggro back and forth, Aynar and I hammered at the Corpse Golem's ribs. After perhaps forty blows, the ribs, hard as a walnut shell, broke open to expose what lay inside: a mana core, the weak point common to all golems.

CRUNCH!

Finally, I smashed the core with my mace. The Corpse Golem stopped moving, then dissolved into light.

「You have defeated a Corpse Golem. EXP +3」

As befitted a rank-7 monster, the reward was an even larger magic crystal, about the size of a fist.

"Oooh! Just how much bread could this—"

Marveling at a size she'd never seen before, Aynar abruptly stiffened. The magic crystal wasn't our only reward.

WHOOOM!

A black cluster of light glowed softly in midair.

"Bjorn, is that what I think it is?"

I nodded blankly.

An Essence had dropped.

* * *

A rupture is practically a treasure trove. Its elite monsters, unavailable in ordinary fields, are like welcome rain to explorers whose EXP gains have dried up. And the Guardian's loot goes without saying.

Though the main draw is probably the exponentially increased Essence drop rate.

'Considering the odds, it's actually strange that it took this long for an Essence to drop...'

"What will you do?"

At Aynar's question, I took a moment to gather my thoughts.

For starters, it belonged to us. Not only had the two of us done almost all the work killing it, that had been our agreement from the start.

But...

"..."

Originally, I had been aiming for one of two options: a deathfiend for its regeneration, or a chimera wolf for its Strength. Both were Essences from rank-8 monsters.

Instead, an Essence had dropped from a rank-7 elite monster—and a Corpse Golem, exclusive to the Blood-Tinted Castle, at that. It was a rare Essence, incomparably harder to obtain than either of my candidates, but I couldn't simply rejoice. Its penalties were as severe as its abilities were unusual.

[Corpse Golem]

Pain Tolerance +70 Bone Hardness +55 Poison Tolerance +12 Strength +15 Perception -5 Appetite +9 Weight +21

Its basic stats were well suited to a tank. The drop in Perception would affect things like dynamic vision and decision-making speed, making me generally more sluggish, but the other stat increases were enormous.

Bone Hardness, which contributed as much to defense as Physical Resistance, rose by 55. Weight, which affected knockback and blunt weapon damage in-game, rose by 21.

Pain Tolerance would also be incredibly useful in reality. Appetite aside, Strength and Poison Tolerance were always helpful stats to have.

But...

Special:

(P) Acidic Bodily Fluid — Your blood becomes acidic.

(A) Flesh Explosion — Causes a powerful explosion in part of your body.

The skills were its only flaw. Flesh Explosion boasted considerable damage, but it cost the character HP.

Why not simply avoid using the active skill? For one thing, locking away an entire skill was a tremendous waste. Besides, absorbing this Essence meant your equipment would lose a huge amount of durability every time you were injured. Blood splatter would get on your gear, after all.

"Whew..."

Outrageous potion expenses, plus equipment costs. Usually, when this dropped, I fed it to an expendable NPC I was taking along. That was how awkward an Essence it was: too good to throw away, but not something I wanted on my main character.

'I'll eventually have to discard any Essence I absorb early on anyway, so taking this now wouldn't be bad...'

"Let's put this on hold and treat that dwarf first."

An unclaimed Essence lasted thirty minutes, so there was no need to rush the decision. Who knew? Maybe I could trade it.

Having decided that, I headed to the rear and found a scene of utter chaos. Had the porter poured a potion on him? The dwarf was rolling around in pain from the potion, and for some reason, the mage looked half-dead.

"Stay back."

His name was... Tarjin, right? This rude bodyguard bastard hadn't done a thing, yet he blocked our path as soon as he saw us.

Fuck, did we say we were going to do anything?

"What's wrong with her?"

I asked from a distance, and the porter answered.

"She suffered backlash from forcing herself to cast."

Backlash, huh... He probably meant Circuit Disruption, the status effect that sometimes occurred when casting failed. Looking closely, I saw that she wasn't just emptying her stomach. She was literally vomiting blood.

"Blech, bleeegh!"

Was this the price of casting while the stench made her nauseous? It seemed absurd to watch, but it was entirely plausible in [Dungeon and Stone]. Unlike other games with clear-cut cause and effect, this one sometimes let the most trivial little "cause" threaten your life.

"Are you going to keep doing that? We should move her out of here first."

"... I'll leave the dwarf to you two."

We helped Raven and the dwarf back into the dungeon. After a short wait, things improved. The dwarf was the first to recover.

"I'm ashamed of myself... Thank you. Without you two, we'd have been in serious trouble."

"Glad you know it."

I didn't bother being modest. It wouldn't get me anything. We had definitely made a contribution, and I intended to use it to raise my hourly rate. If anything, playing it up would serve me better.

"You'd already be dead if not for Aynar."

"I know. It's truly embarrassing, but the instant I saw it, I froze. I thought I'd seen every horror there was to see..."

Once again, I felt that this was reality. In the game, we would have had more than enough firepower, but their mental state had nearly gotten them killed by a miniboss—not even the Guardian.

"So what's wrong with this young lady?"

"Apparently she suffered backlash. She's taken a potion, so she should recover soon."

After drinking the potion, the mage had traded vomiting for screaming. It took a full ten minutes before she came to her senses.

"I've... caused you trouble."

She spoke as though she were perfectly fine, but her lofty air was gone. Vomit and blood had crusted around her mouth and neck, and her lovely blond hair hung loose and filthy. Rolling around on the floor had left her once-sleek robe a wreck too.

"We took care of the Corpse Golem."

"Yes. I know... that. It's a good thing I pushed myself... to cast that spell."

Was this just how these explorer bastards operated? Rather than thanking us, she brought up her own contribution first. If I let that pass, I could kiss my raise goodbye. I needed to get a definite acknowledgment out of her.

"We saved your lives. I'd say that means we each did more than our share. Do you agree, mage?"

"... I agree."

Raven nodded resentfully. Apparently, she found it quite humiliating that the two barbarians she'd privately looked down on had played such a major role.

Honestly, it felt incredibly satisfying, but giving her some room here would help the negotiations.

"Of course, your magic was impressive. Those flames were powerful. You must have pushed yourself for the team."

"Well, yes... So, what is it you're trying to say?"

I got straight to the point.

"We'll take the Rupture Stone."

An Essence, a Numbered item, and a Rupture Stone. The stone was one of the Guardian's three loot drops. When I first demanded it, they'd shot me sharp looks, calling me greedy and asking whether I thought they'd have any trouble without us two.

But now?

"..."

Only an awkward silence hung in the air.

I waited quietly without pressing them. Patience was the foundation of negotiation.

"I'm in favor. Without this barbarian young lady, I would have died."

Was he repaying the favor? The dwarf was the first to agree.

However...

"I'm against it."

Raven wasn't so quick to grant my demand. Not that she made no concessions at all.

"But if a Rupture Stone drops, I think we can at least give you an equal chance."

In short, she would let us bid on it. A little disappointing, but she had certainly helped a great deal, so I should be satisfied with this. We didn't have much time either.

On to the next item, then.

"Oh, and an Essence dropped."

"An Essence? You mean the Corpse Golem dropped one?"

"That's right."

The dwarf and Raven gaped, apparently not having expected something so difficult to obtain to drop.

"Remarkable. You don't seem to have a single Essence yet, and you're starting with something like that."

"I've heard there are so few samples of the Corpse Golem's Essence that even the Explorer Guild hasn't properly identified its abilities."

Raven kept marveling, saying that in terms of rarity alone, the Corpse Golem's Essence would surpass the Guardian's. The researcher's hunger gleaming in her eyes was a bonus.

Concealing my intentions as best I could, I made the offer I'd been waiting to make.

"If you want, I'll trade it for the Guardian's Essence."

"What? But we don't even know whether the Guardian will drop an Essence..."

Raven trailed off with a curious expression. From the look of her, she liked the trade itself.

"I'll take that risk."

"In that case, yes, all right. An explorer might feel differently, but personally, I find the Corpse Golem more interesting. I wasn't expecting this to drop, though..."

The deal was struck.

* * *

"Miss Raven, I've heard mages can't absorb Essences. Will you be feeding it to that porter, then?"

"No. The Essence itself is worth studying."

Raven took a test tube from the bag the porter carried.

This was one reason mages were so overpowered. They could store Essences and take them outside without absorbing them into their bodies. Though it did require a particular piece of equipment.

"Ah! You brought a test tube? I've heard they're outrageously expensive."

"... I only have one myself."

In fact, storing an Essence of rank 6 or lower in a test tube would barely even recoup the cost. Apparently, though, Raven valued the Corpse Golem's Essence more highly than that.

WHOOOOM!

As Raven chanted a spell, the Essence was sucked into the test tube. She carefully enclosed it in a box for a second layer of protection, then stowed it securely in the backpack.

"Let's hurry and get out of this dreadful place."

"I've been waiting for you to say that!"

We climbed a sticky ladder and moved swiftly through the water pipes. Skull rats and deadmen were about the only monsters that appeared. The place reeked, but it was nothing compared to the Corpse Golem's chamber.

After about thirty minutes of travel, we reached our destination.

"I'll go up first."

Beyond a rusty grate, torn free with a single kick, lay a staircase. We climbed it into a vast stone chamber. Taking the deepest breath I could of the slightly cleaner air, I surveyed our surroundings.

"Those don't look like Gargoyle statues. What are they?"

"I don't sense any mana, so they're probably just sculptures."

Ominous demon sculptures stood here and there. Human skulls covered the floor.

"The lord's castle probably stood directly above us. If it hadn't collapsed, we could have investigated inside it too..."

Apparently not the least bit unnerved, Raven smacked her lips regretfully.

"Just as I heard, it has the typical layout of a religious facility. Hiding it underground, though, suggests this faith didn't align with the society's sensibilities at the time. An evil god, for instance."

"I-I see."

The dwarf looked terrified by Raven's display of knowledge. Before she could go on any longer, I spoke briefly to remind them to stay alert.

"How about we stop talking and stay on our guard?"

Truthfully, I was saying that to myself too. After all, the rupture's final chapter, the Demon Worship Chamber, was no place to take lightly.

"Bjorn, I have a bad feeling about this."

Especially not for an unlucky bastard like me.