Episode 22
Deiodeun smiled, baring his white teeth.
The moment he entered this place, he knew.
The things guarding this temple were golems.
He didn't know who the master of the temple was, but using golems as guardians wasn't all that strange.
A temple was, literally, a place that enshrined one who possessed divinity.
One who possessed divinity could, in and of itself, be considered a god without issue.
"A god?"
Deiodeun's eyes gleamed with madness.
For over a hundred years, he had wandered the desert and conquered countless dungeons.
He had caught numerous S-rank demon beasts as the world called them, but not once had he entered a dungeon where a god resided.
If there truly was a god here, it was a golden opportunity.
An opportunity to kill a god.
"Hehe!"
A laugh tinged with madness slipped past his lips.
Skreeee!
Something blocked his path.
A massive lifeform made of stone.
A golem.
A golem as large as a massive boulder had its two eyes glowing fiercely.
Deiodeun knew exactly what that gaze meant.
"Come at me! Rock-head."
Deiodeun drew Crayon.
Thud! Thud!
Then, other golems joined behind the giant golem.
The madness in Deiodeun's eyes deepened proportionally.
A black force field enveloped their bodies.
It was identical to the characteristic possessed by humans combined with machines.
"Hehe! That brat might die."
The moment he entered the dungeon, he knew.
That this was a dungeon with the worst compatibility for Jeon.
As befitting a place that enshrined a god, not a speck of dust or a single grain of sand existed inside the temple.
It was clearly maintained cleanly by Clean magic.
It was the worst environment for a Sand Mage like Jeon.
Unable to use sand, he had to face the golems relying solely on his body's true strength.
It was truly a life-or-death situation.
But he had to become accustomed to this kind of fighting.
Though most of the world had turned into desert, places that weren't so also existed.
The most representative place was Neo Seoul.
The city beyond those walls, which the poor could never enter, was protected by a force field and had almost no dust or sand.
It was an environment similar to this temple.
To survive in such an environment, he had to learn how to fight without sand as well.
"If you die just because there's no sand, you don't deserve to live."
Either overcome the limits of a Sand Mage, or die to the golems failing to do so.
Jeon had only two choices.
Deiodeun had no intention of helping him from the very beginning.
He had to become strong and survive on his own.
That was the bare minimum condition for him to keep Jeon around.
"Try and survive, you pathetic bastard!"
***
"Why did I follow that dog of an old man."
Jeon muttered, hastily rolling his body.
Boom!
A golem's fist slammed into the spot he had occupied moments ago.
If he had evaded even a little later, he would have become a finely minced lump of meat.
Thud! Boom!
The golems closed in on Jeon, tightening their encirclement.
Dozens of golems recognized Jeon as their enemy.
It was only because the golems' movements were sluggish that his life hadn't ended already; had they been even slightly more natural and faster, Jeon would have died long ago.
But he couldn't just keep dodging forever.
No matter how much Jeon had awakened and possessed superior stamina compared to ordinary people, as long as he was human, a limit was bound to exist.
Once his stamina was depleted, only a terrible death awaited.
He had to find a way before that.
'What weapons do I have besides sand?'
Jeon hurriedly checked his equipment.
First, the gauntlet on his right hand. And the elves' weapons stored in his subspace, more or less.
He excluded the elves' weapons for now.
He didn't even know how to handle a bow, and it was unsuitable for use in this narrow space crowded with enemies.
The dagger was the same.
He didn't know how sharp the elves' daggers were, but he didn't think they could cut golems made of stone.
In the end, the only thing left for Jeon was the gauntlet Kaili had made for him.
'So there was only one choice from the start. Good, I don't have to worry.'
Jeon clenched his fist fitted with the gauntlet tightly.
Since there were no choices anyway, he had no choice but to do his best with what he was given.
Jeon dodged the golem's attack and struck its torso.
Boom!
The golem's massive body shook with an explosion. But only a bit of stone dust trickled down; the golem was unharmed.
Even after that, he threw punches at the golem's body several times, but the result was the same.
He couldn't inflict a proper blow to the golem's body with ordinary attacks.
'Normal attacks don't work!'
His fist wearing the gauntlet ached as if it would shatter.
No matter how much he wore the gauntlet, it couldn't completely dissipate the shock of hitting a lump of stone.
Jeon realized that he couldn't utilize the gauntlet's true potential at one hundred percent.
Now that he had realized the problem, he just had to fix it.
'I have to condense mana to increase destructive power.'
Whoosh!
Even as he was thinking, the golem's fist brushed past just a few centimeters above his head.
It was a moment where his head nearly shattered.
Even so, Jeon maintained his composure.
Thanks to the countless experiences he had accumulated following Deiodeun.
He had learned how to remain calm and rational in any situation without getting excited.
Jeon calmly concentrated mana into his gauntlet.
Hummmmm!
"Huh?"
In that instant, a powerful resonant sound burst from the gauntlet.
Jeon made a puzzled expression for a moment at the unexpected development. But he soon realized what had happened.
The gauntlet was originally meant to be used like this.
The gauntlet, made by mixing the skeleton of an armored starfish with Adamantium, was optimized for condensing and amplifying mana.
If Jeon had been a Martial Artist-type Awakened, he would have noticed that fact long ago.
'Better late than never.'
Jeon dodged the golem's attack and threw a punch at its torso.
Boom!
With an explosion, the golem's torso burst apart.
Even with half its torso blown away, the golem ignored it and attacked Jeon.
It was possible precisely because it was an artificial lifeform that couldn't feel pain.
In such cases, he had to find the core and destroy it.
The problem was that he couldn't know where the core was. But Jeon solved this simply.
He grabbed one golem and beat it mercilessly.
Boom! Boom!
With explosions, the golem's shoulder flew off, and its arms and legs fell away.
The mana consumption was severe because he tried to raise his destructive power in a short time, but it couldn't be helped.
In the end, Jeon found the core.
In the neck of the headless golem, there was a magic stone emitting a blue light.
Intense mana could be felt from the fingernail-sized magic stone.
It was clearly the golem's core.
Crack!
Jeon mercilessly destroyed the core.
At that, the golem that had been moving ceaselessly stopped.
Now that he had found the weakness, it was time to attack efficiently.
Dodge the golem's attack, then blow off its head.
Then destroy the core in the neck area.
It was easy to say, but by no means easy to actually do.
The brains to predict and dodge the golem's attacks, the motor nerves to support that, and the utilization of mana.
There was too much to prepare even for a single movement.
The problem was that he had to do all of that in an instant.
If he thought then acted, it would be too late.
Boom!
Jeon's fist struck the golem's head fiercely.
The golem's head shattered.
The moment Jeon tried to destroy the core, another golem attacked.
Whack!
"Ghk!"
Jeon groaned and tumbled across the floor.
His waist, hit by the golem, ached as if it would break.
But he wasn't even given time to leisurely complain about the pain.
Because the golems' fists poured down.
Crash!
Jeon rolled across the floor, dodging the golems' attacks.
Having escaped the golems' combined assault by a hair's breadth, Jeon caught his breath for a moment.
'My movements are too big. Cut out the unnecessary motions; I have to make it as concise as possible.'
He identified his own problems in real-time.
The reason he had allowed the golem's blow a moment ago was also because his motion to destroy the core had been too large.
"Hoo! Hoo!"
Jeon, having caught his breath for a moment, jumped back into the midst of the golems.
A golem charged at him head-on.
Its massive body made of stone was a huge lethal weapon in and of itself.
If he struck with an area not wearing the gauntlet, his bones would shatter and his muscles would tear instead.
Jeon dodged the golem's attack by a hair's breadth and tripped its leg.
A massive golem wouldn't fall over just from having its leg tripped.
He pressed down on its chest with his left hand, which wore no gauntlet.
Thanks to utilizing mana, he could easily topple the golem.
He struck the flailing golem's head with the fist bearing the gauntlet.
Boom!
The golem's head shattered with an explosion.
He threw another punch at the core exposed in the neck area.
Only then did the golem's movements stop.
The time taken until then was no more than a single breath.
It was merely the brief time it took for Jeon to inhale and exhale once.
Then, more attacks from other golems poured down.
Whoosh!
Jeon rolled his body and escaped the golems' attacks.
It was an action driven by instinct, not something taught by anyone.
Thanks to that, he could escape the golems' encirclement by a hair's breadth.
Jeon attacked the golem on the outermost edge.
He attacked the knee joint to destroy the drive shaft, or tripped its foot to knock it over.
He repeated the action of blowing off the head of the golem that had lost its mobility and destroying the core in its neck.
Fighting the golems repeatedly like that, his movements gradually became more concise and powerful.
The golems were the optimal opponents for Jeon to learn martial arts.
He couldn't use skills like real Martial Artist Awakened, but even so, he could properly learn how to utilize the gauntlet.
Thud-thud-thud!
The remains of the last golem fell away.
"Haah! Haah!"
Jeon panted roughly.
His entire body was drenched in sweat.
The battle with the golems had squeezed his body to its limits.
His legs trembled, and he was gasping for breath.
Wounds from being hit by golems remained all over his body. Even though he had tried to minimize the impact, the pain was tremendous.
But he didn't have time to leisurely sit and rest just because he was hurting or tired.
Even now, Deiodeun would be advancing forward.
If he rested here, the gap between them would widen even further.
Jeon took a piece of jerky from his bosom and put it in his mouth.
After slowly chewing and eating all the jerky, a bit of his strength returned.
"Good! Let's go."
Jeon moved his feet again.
By now, his eyes had completely adapted to the darkness.
Thanks to that, he didn't have to walk groping around like when he first entered the passage.
From fighting the golems earlier, Jeon had gained confidence.
Golems were certainly fearsome opponents.
Unlike organic lifeforms, they felt no fear, and their destructive power was tremendous as well. But their movements were slow and they lacked creativity, so if he just stayed a bit cool-headed, he could identify their weaknesses.
If all the other golems were at this level, he felt he could handle them no matter how many there were.
"Could it be I have a talent for being a Martial Artist?"
It was then that Jeon smirked.
Thud! Thud!
Again, dull footsteps were heard.
Jeon wiped the smile from his face and took a combat stance.
"Come at me as many as you want. I'll knock them all down."
In an instant, golems revealed themselves from the darkness.
But the forms of the golems that appeared were different from before.
A humanoid upper body with a lower body resembling a horse.
"Centaurs?"
The golems looked exactly like centaurs.
Clop-clop-clop!
They charged at full speed.
Their appearance was exactly like an ancient cavalry unit charging.
"Damn it! This is cheating."
Jeon wanted to punch himself in the mouth for running it off excitedly just moments ago.
The much stronger and faster golems swept toward him like a storm.