Chapter 6 : Overhunting Golems and Boss Golem


“Toooryaaaaah!! «Magic Strike»!!”
“——–!?”

I dashed up the golem’s arm and invoked the skill mid-jump. My stats were then increased as far as they could go, so I invested everything into the hit, let out a battle cry and used my staff to smite the golem in its chest.
With just a single hit, its full tank of HP runs empty. The stone figure turns into polygon pieces, but before its completely gone, I launch myself off of the golem’s body and leapt up into the air for the second time.

“There!!”

At the destination of my jump, there were other golems that had been lured in advance with shooting magic.
I closed the distance with a dive and before the golem entered its attack motion, I slammed my staff into its weak point.

“Not done yet!!”

Without pause, I jumped from golem to golem, executing each of them in a single blow for as long as the duration of «Magic Strike» was up.
The effect’s duration was a mere 30 seconds and by the time it ended, all of the nearby golems disappeared almost concurrently. I descended down to the ground, took a deep breath and raised my staff into the air.

“Nn~, Victory!! Haa, I’m going at a pretty good pace.”

The CT(cooldown time) of «Magic Strike»…… Since I had time to spare until it became usable again, I found a suitable rock nearby and sat down on it, taking a short break.


Name : Bell
Class : Magician Lv12
HP : 105
MP : 260
ATK : 131
DEF : 16
AGI : 16
INT : 42
MIND :16
DEX : 22

“Yep, my level increased quite a bit too. Nice, nice.”

While leisurely swinging my legs, I viewed my status screen and reflexively smiled.
It’s already been 4 hours since I’ve started the game and I’ve hunted the sand goblins and rock golems consecutively without a break, so my level was being raised smoothly.
Naturally, my status also increased accordingly. Along with the skill acquired earlier, my attack power now made golems a non-threat.
ATK and INT. I was surprised when I misunderstood those 2 stats but…… Currently, it wasn’t much of a problem. For the time being, all of the status points that I received upon leveling up were invested into ATK. Thanks to that, its difference from the other stats was astonishing.

Taking the effect of «Magic Strike» into consideration, a little bit of allocation into INT was a possibility…… However, my current equipment was the «Wooden Staff» which gave INT +5 as an effect. I didn’t know how much it would increase with proper equipment, so I decided to just keep an eye on the situation for a while.

“…… Rather, what was I going to do about equipment? Should I buy it back at the base camp?”

Since I wanted to quickly become stronger somehow, I sprinted towards the plains right after the tutorial ended, but equipment upgrades themselves were an important part of getting stronger in the game weren’t they.
It completely slipped out of my memory, but I did accept some money from Sailor-san, and I had obtained item drops from overhunting the monsters as well.
My inventory is probably going to be full soon, so it might be good to go back once to look for some equipment.

“Nn~, yeah but, since I came out all this way, going back was a pain~”

That’s right, my HP and MP had now naturally recovered to its full tank already. I’m not using up any items in these battles and as long as I had stamina, I could keep on fighting.
The more you progress, the stronger the enemies will get and going back now meant that they’ll be weaker. If I went back to the base camp to put together some equipment, the time it’ll take for me to level up will increase.

“…… Okay, just this once, I’ll continue progressing until a monster I can’t defeat appears!”

After a little thinking, this was the answer that I arrived at.

Currently, I was somehow getting by with just the beginning equipment. Even if I lose. it wouldn’t be too late then to start considering about new equipment.
I’ll just go as far as I can go, if it turns out to be hopeless, then I’ll think it over when that time comes. In any case, I’ll progress for now, even if its just a bit.

“It’s settled then, break time is over! Let’s head onwards.”

I hopped off the boulder and started walking in the direction of the mountain beyond the plains.
There were no changes for quite some time and golems were the only enemies around for a while, but midway through, goblins also appeared along with them, making it a bit troublesome.
However, it wasn’t any different from the monsters I’ve hunted thus far, so pulling back wasn’t something I’d want to do.

“……Ooh? This is……”

I slipped through the repetitive attacks of the 2 types of monsters, turning them all into experience as I trekked forward. Then I arrived at a place that had a different disposition from what I’ve seen up to now.
Rocks were scattered about and tumbling around a rufous land with nothing but dead trees growing.
The ground was cut short, forming something that almost resembled a town square.
Further in, what could be seen was an ascending path that extended towards the sky as if it would reach the heavens.
I had finally wound up at the foot of the mountain that I’d seen from the base camp.

“Ooh~, I’ve come this far huh”

For now, I was able to arrive at my destination, so I contently nodded to myself.
Though, it seemed like it’ll be a far walk from here on out again. I wonder how the active players located in the base camp climbed this mountain?

“……Hm?”

While contemplating that problem, I could sense that there was something unusual in my field of view.
What would be a good way to describe this feeling…… It was as if the world was out of sync or rather, something like static noise was traveling through?

Before I could find out the identity of the matter, another incident occurred. Something dark came falling out of the sky.
I strained my eyes to look at it, only to realize that it was an absolutely enormous boulder.

“Eeeh!?”

I’d understand if it was rolling down from the top of the mountain, but why the sky!?
When I questioned that, the meteorite-like boulder simultaneously crashed into the center of the town square, causing a large tremor alongside a cloud of dust.
Wondering what happened, my straining eyes saw before them, a rocky silhouette that could be thinly made out behind the concealing dust. Slowly, it begins to stand up.

“Eh…… By any chance, was this……”

Bikon. The illumination of red gleams and immediately after, the dust is shaken away causing the figure to become visible.
It was a stone body that appeared to be one size larger than the rock golem’s.
A crimson jewel was embedded into the middle of its head, facing towards me as though it was its eye.
Clearly, it had to have been a rank higher than the golems I’ve fought previously. As if to confirm what I was thinking, a display pops up above its head, reading, Giant Rock Golem.
But, what else had caught my eye was the fact that the displayed name was red.
It was like the font itself was dyed in a blood-stained red. I had a feeling that the game system was being kind and telling me not to fight it as I am now.

As I suspected, this monster-.

“Could this one happen to be a field boss…….?”

“—- Guooooo!!”

The golem in front of me let out a roar that caused the air to tremble like lightning had shot through it, seemingly replying to my question. My body began shivering.

Fear…… That’s not it.
This was elation.

“Fufuu, if the forest’s field boss was the main show, then this was just perfect for a preliminary.”

Since the one who presented this condition to me was Shizuku, the field boss in the forest would definitely be a really strong opponent. This is just a maybe, but clearing in 3 minutes or under was probably something that was considered impossible too.

In that case, I’d have to at least be able to easily defeat the boss that was sitting in front of this mountain!!

“Alright, here I goooo!!”

I readied my staff, faced the boss golem(nickname) and dashed forward with full force.
The boss golem observed me motionlessly like it was saying if you’re gonna come at me, go ahead. Then…… The boss golem’s body suddenly went limp.

“Okay?”

Wondering what this all meant, I stopped moving my feet. In front of me, the boss golem’s body pitched forward and started to descend down, right above me.
Wait, was this a body slam!?⁽¹⁾ I didn’t expect anything like this!!

“Wahkyaaaa!?”

As I made great haste evacuating from the area, an incredible sound reverberated behind me. Dogooooooon!! The impact sends my small physique flying.
I crashed into one of the rocks scattered nearby and my HP drastically decreases. Only 10% was left remaining already. Uwaa, it would’ve been instant death if it was a direct hit.

“Ugugu, you’ve done it now……! I’ll be returning the favor!!”

I hurriedly stood back up, prepped my staff and broke off into a run once again.
Fortunately, the boss had fallen over from its own attack which meant it was completely defenseless now, so I was able to freely do whatever I wanted.
The damage I had just received, I’ll pay it back twice over!

“Toryaaa!! «Magic Strike»!!”

I called upon my skill and beat the living daylights out of the back of the boss golem’s head.
However,

“……It’s hard!?”

Gakinn!! I was bewildered from having witnessed my staff being repelled.
No waaay, although a rock golem would’ve been defeated in just one hit, this didn’t have any effect!?

“Guu, as expected, I have no choice but to target the boss golem’s weak point…….!!”

In a sense, this attack was a nuisance. Certainly, it was full of openings, but its vital weakness was sheltered between the ground so I wasn’t able to reach it at all.
It can’t be helped, I’ll have to wait until it gets back up.
While it props itself up, it’ll probably still be defenseless. There’ll definitely be a chance to strike the face that seemed to be its weak spot.

With that thinking, I waited patiently for several seconds. Then at last, the boss golem began to squirm around, preparing to stand up.
It placed both its hands upon the ground and raised its head …… Alright, now!!

“Toryaaaah!!”

I ran up the arm that was planted on the ground, using it a foothold. Then I leapt up towards the boss golem’s face, aimed and bashed it with all my strength.
As expected, the shining red weak point wasn’t that sturdy. With «Magic Strike» added to the mix, I was able to deal damage properly.

“Okay, this was doable!!”

Still, since it was a boss(?), it seemed to have a lot of HP. I wasn’t able to shave off how many ever percentages of HP like I had done up to now, but it’s enough to know that it was working. It was proof that even I’d be able to fight it.

Suddenly, the red gem that I had struck began to glow. And so, it wasn’t good to be preoccupied with my own thoughts since it caused my reactions to be delayed.

“……Eh?”

Somehow, I had a bad feeling about this. When I thought that, it happened in the next instant.
A crimson ray of light pierced through my body and the slight bit of HP I had remaining was cleanly blown away.

“…… It,”

It had such an attack—!?

Even if I shouted from the bottom of my heart, my opponent, the boss golem wouldn’t take heed to it.
Here, I had finally experienced my first death in FFO.

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⁽¹⁾ : The pokemon move, のしかかり.