CH 279

My friends and I officially had our Coming of Age Ceremony.

Everyone, who had not seen their families for a long time, felt better.

I felt like I had done welfare as the party's leader.

My friends probably got back to reality after suffering from the crazy situation where I was hunting Iron Golems for over 10 hours straight with a goal of 100 a day.

"100 [Silver Bean]s and 100 [Gold Bean]s each."

"Thank you."

I gave Helmios the beans at the base.

I prioritized giving [Silver Bean]s and [Gold Bean]s to Her Majesty, the Queen of Elves, as a sign of support for Rosenheim, the most affected by the war.

It was urgent to repair the Forts and Fortresses at various key points.

Gold and Silver beans would allow the elves to repair them safely.

But Rosenheim was not the only place that had been invaded.

The Giamut Empire was also invaded well inland.

They had lost a lot of the territory they had taken back in last year's war.

Some Fortresses hadn't been recaptured even 1 year after the war.

I had given Helmios the beans because the Giamut Empire needed them too.

However, Gold and Silver beans that kept magical beasts at bay were not necessarily effective in war.

Using Gold and Silver beans to protect towns and villages from magical beasts was the right thing to do, but was it really okay to use them on Fortresses and Forts to keep magical beasts away from them?

If I were the Commander of the Demon King's Army, then I would ignore a Fortress that even A-rank magical beasts couldn't approach.

Or send an S-rank Ancient Dragon or something to the Fortress.

So, just for reference, I gave Helmios some advice on how to use it in the Fortress.

For example, using a Silver or Gold bean would be effective if they were used to insure the safety of the troops in case the Fortress were about to fall in spite of their best efforts.

That would waste the Demon King's Army time, cause the magical beasts to exhaust themselves, and lower their morale as well, as they couldn't bring down the Fortress in the end even though they spent so much resources to capture it.

I told Helmios a general way to use the beans and how effective they were, as well as their drawbacks.

I had given him 100 [Gold Bean]s and [Silver Bean]s each, but he said that they'd probably need more.

Unlike Rosenheim, the Giamut Empire was a great power with a strong hegemonic ideology.

I had planned to give the Gold and Silver beans to the Giamut Empire a little at a time, to make sure that they didn't go down the path of national expansion.

"Oh, um. This, too, is Lord Allen..."

Helmios' party member Greta, the Saint reacted with glee.

His attitude towards me had changed suddenly after I was able to summon Merus.

He probably viewed me as an object of faith.

"Greta."

"Yes."

"This is from Rosenheim."

I said that the beans were made by Rosenheim before he could say anything.

"Yeah, but ..."

"Greta. We'll leave it at that. Thank you, Allen."

Greta was not satisfied with my answer.

Helmios admonished Greta for that and thanked Allen.

On my two days off, I started holing up in my room.

Only my friends were allowed in the room.

Helmios' party knew that I was doing something, but they stayed quiet.

Their expressions had started to turn unnatural but they didn't pursue their curiosity.

Because they knew what I had done to the adventurers over the past six months.

Tens of thousands of adventurers had already had their lives saved because of me.

Ten thousand lives was not just a number.

And on the day we were re-entering the dungeon during breakfast.

"Well then, we'll be taking on the Mithril Golem today."

"The hell with that! You'll never get close to it and suffer from its long-range attack. You'll just add to the pile of corpses! Don't do it, don't do it!"

Then Admiral Galala, who had been drinking since morning, swore.

(I see. Next is a Golem that's good at long-range attacks.)

I started thinking on how to defeat the Mithril Golem from the hint I had received.

My friends and I moved from the temple to the 5th Floor.

We had already placed the Iron and Bronze Medal that we had collected on the pedestal.

So, if we could successfully defeat the Mithril Golem, we would be able to finally challenge the Dungeon Boss.

We went to the Mithril Cube and got teleported to the Mithril Room.

''After all, this hall has the same feel as the Bronze and Iron Room."

I felt like we had been teleported to the same large hall with an endlessly high ceiling.

But a Mithril Golem was standing in front of us instead of a Bronze or Iron one.

"Let's go!"

My friends and I got on B-rank Birds, while Merle called Tam-Tam, her Golem, and approached the Mithril Golem.

After closing the distance to some extent, the Mithril Golem that had just been standing there showed a reaction.

It changed its shape at once, and formed wings and a large hula hoop-like ring spinning at high speed on top of its main body.

The Mithril Golem started to float in the air with a driving sound.

"It's flying. How?"

I didn't know, but the Mithril Golem was flying.

Then, before I could warn my friends that it was going to attack us, it thrust two cylindrical objects forward.

And the cylindrical tip started to shine at once.

"Oh, no!"

The moment I said that, the Golem shot a countless number of light-ball-like things in rapid succession.

Merle quickly stepped forward to protect us from the long-range attacks.

"Ngugu! Nggu!"

"Merle!"

Tam-Tam's arms, thrust forward, were shattered by the Mithril Golem's long-range attack.

Tam-Tam's body was also hit by a myriad of attacks, which forced it to kneel.

Inside Tam-Tam's crystal, with both arms shattered, Merle hurriedly tried to insert two arms' Stone Slab in the Magic Board.

"I'm going to the front!"

"Me too!"

Riding B-rank Bird, Dogora thrust his shield forward and closed in on the Mithril Golem as it flew through the air.

Kurena and Angel Merus joined in and closed the distance, but the Mithril Golem chose to make a run for it.

It didn't seem to want to engage in any close range fighting.

It just kept running away, so I tried using B-rank Bird=s awakening skill [Soar] but we couldn't keep up.

Then, when it thought it was far enough away from us, it shot a series of light-balls from the cylinders again.

(Hey, I understand that Griff can't, but even Merus can't keep up with his status??)

"Gu!"

Dogora used his shield to withstand the attack.

Kiel struggled to heal Dogora and Kurena who were trying to close the distance to the Mithril Golem.

Mithril Golem couldn't defeat Dogora, who had changed Talents and had very high [Endurance], but B-rank Bird was different.

B-rank Birds disappeared in a glowing bubble.

"Allen, Griff, quick!"

Dogora told me to hurry up and summon a B-rank Bird.

"Just a little!"

Cecile was using magic and trying to hit it, but she was almost never able to hit the ever fast moving Mithril Golem.

Sophie, like Kiel, focused on healing and defending everyone from Mithril Golem's rapid attacks.

It was the first time in a long while that we had suffered so one-sidedly.

(Well, this is a new type of enemy. If this continues, it's going to be a long battle.)

The Mithril Golem maintained a certain distance and kept attacking us from an advantageous position in a nasty manner.

I had never faced an enemy who fled when pursued.

"Rocanel, you're up. Come on out."

[Species] Stone

[Rank] A

[Name] Rocanel

[Strength] 10000

[Mana] 8000

[Attack] 6500

[Endurance] 10000

[Agility] 7000

[Intelligence] 8000

[Luck] 9800

[Blessings] +200 [Strength], +200 [Endurance], Damage Reduction

[Special Skills] Absorption, Revive

[Awakening] Convergence Bombardment

He summoned an A-rank Stone about 15 meters tall, made of Hihiirokane.

Compared to the Stone summons up to B-rank, it was much slimmer.

And instead of a large shield, it had a small shield called a buckler on each arm.

"Use [Absorption]!"

I instructed it to use its special skill [Absorption].

"..."

A-rank Stone reacted silently and sent countless metal balls made of Hihirokane flying through the air.

"Dogora, Kurena, I'm sorry, but you're going to have to step back a bit."

At my words, the two who were closing in on the Mithril Golem retreated.

The two of them backed up, opening up enough distance, which caused the Mithril Golem to shoot more light-balls.

Dogora and Merle braced themselves, but the Mithril Golem's attacks hit the floating metal balls sent by the A-rank Stone, which absorbed more and more of the Mithril Golem's light-balls.

Each metal ball was glowing vermilion, but as it continued to absorb the Mithril Golem's attacks, the light became stronger and stronger, and eventually it began to glow white.

Crack

Cracks began to appear on the body of the A-rank Stones as it continued to absorb the attacks.

The cracks spread around A-rank Stone's whole body like it was about to fall apart.

But the cracks disappeared like time had been turned back.

(Oh? [Revive] already?)

A-rank Stone had healed completely without anyone doing anything, including Kiel using his [Recovery Magic].

But the cracks began to form and grow again.

"Is this the limit? It will be helpful if you endure one more time."

With that, I thrust my hands out in front.

(It's finally time to say this.)

It was time to say the words I had always wanted to say someday.

The feeling was uplifting.

The A-rank Stone reacted to my gesture and thrust its hands forward in the same manner.

Then, countless metal balls gathered in front of its hands to form a single mass.

The innumerable metal balls combined to form one large metal ball.

I took a deep breath and then shouted.

"Spirit Bomb!"

"..."

The A-rank Stone's eyes glowed and it reacted.

The glowing, gigantic metal ball that was floating in front of the A-rank Stone's eyes plunged towards the Mithril Golem at a tremendous speed.

The metal ball struck the Mithril Golem and caused it tremendous damage.