Chapter 23
“Crazy! Kuhuhu!”
When the pain is so great it feels like madness, laughter comes out.
Such was Jeon’s current state.
Jeon sat with his back against the wall.
He didn’t even have the strength to stand on his own two legs; all he could do was lean against the wall and gasp for breath.
His face was cracked and torn all over, blood streaming down, and every part of his body bore grave wounds.
It was only thanks to the breastplate made from the corpse of a queen wolf ant and the robe crafted from sand demon leather protecting his entire body that it ended at just this level.
Had even one of the two been missing, Jeon’s life would have ended long ago.
“Haaah!”
Once the pain subsided somewhat, breathing became much easier.
Jeon took a deep breath and looked around.
Tiny shattered stone fragments filled the dark space.
They were the remains of the centaur golems.
Jeon had truly fought with all his might.
He dodged, threw punches, evaded again, and threw more punches.
He would flee, turn back to ambush, and if surrounded, slip away like a loach, repeating this over and over.
After fighting like a madman, he came to his senses at some point to find that the centaur-like golems had all fallen.
“Damn it! Hurts like hell.”
Jeon grabbed his trembling legs and stood up.
Having fought enemies of this caliber, his rank should have risen, but there was no change in his rank insignia.
He suspected it was because he hadn’t used sand.
Jeon trudged along, muttering.
“Is there no potion around here that restores stamina if you drink a bottle?”
It was ostensibly a temple; he thought there ought to be at least one such thing.
Even if such an item existed, it wouldn’t be in a corridor like this.
Chances were high it would be in the place where the divine statue was enshrined.
Not knowing when more centaur golems might appear, Jeon advanced as cautiously as possible.
Then, a massive door appeared before him.
It was a gigantic door beyond comparison to the corridor doors where the centaur golems had appeared.
“Damn it!”
He knew without needing to verify with his eyes.
That behind that door lay a colossal golem beyond comparison to anything he had faced until now.
From experience, the size of the door was proportional to the size of the golem.
But he couldn’t turn back now.
“Hoo!”
Jeon took a deep breath for a moment, then exerted his strength to open the door.
The space beyond the door was vast.
To the point that it was unbelievable such a vast space could exist inside a temple.
The diameter was one hundred meters, and the height alone exceeded thirty meters.
In the center of that massive space, a stone statue stood towering.
On the part presumed to be its head grew two massive horns reminiscent of a buffalo’s.
An overwhelming sense of pressure emanated from the giant stone statue, which stood over five meters tall.
He knew without having to check.
That this bastard was the master of this room.
The giant golem didn’t so much as stir, perhaps not having noticed Jeon’s entry.
Jeon turned his gaze toward the small door behind the giant golem.
That place seemed to be the exit.
*If I dash through in one breath before it notices, I might have a chance…….*
Jeon thought the golem would be as slow as its massive bulk suggested.
Golems’ movements were inherently sluggish.
Except in cases like the centaur golems, which had prioritized mobility.
Snap!
Jeon kicked off the floor and ran with all his might.
Gathering every last ounce of strength, he ran with a resolve to risk his life.
In an instant, he passed the giant golem and nearly reached the door on the other side.
It was the moment a light of joy began to rise on Jeon’s face.
“I made—”
Boom!
With an explosive sound, Jeon’s body was flung backward.
Before him, the giant golem was already standing.
*Cough!*
Jeon coughed up blood and barely raised his head.
The giant golem was blocking the door like a gatekeeper.
Jeon hadn’t noticed such a massive golem moving.
Meaning it had moved that stealthily.
And without making a single footfall, at that.
A black aura was emanating from the giant golem’s entire body,
and what that black aura meant was singular.
“B-rank or higher?”
He couldn’t even handle C-rank, let alone B-rank.
Deiodeun tore through B-rank magic beasts like toys, but that was only possible because Deiodeun was an Irregular.
Jeon was now E-rank.
Moreover, he was in a state where his primary authority had been forcibly sealed.
Fighting such a massive golem in this state was no different from suicide.
If only he could use sand, it wouldn’t be this bleak.
Jeon wiped the blood from his mouth and stood up.
He knew he was no match, but neither could he sit and wait for death.
“Fine! Let’s do it. It’s not like you die twice.”
One thing he had learned from Deiodeun was to never give up, no matter the circumstance.
If you somehow held out, opportunity was bound to come.
The question was whether he could survive until that opportunity came, and whether he could seize that hard-won opportunity when it arrived.
“First, let’s start by figuring out where that bastard’s core is.”
The first golems he had met had their cores in their necks, and the centaur golems had them in the center of their chests.
He had to find the core that would be somewhere in that giant golem’s body.
That was when.
Flash!
Just as a flash burst from the giant golem, it appeared before Jeon in an instant.
“Blink?”
Jeon opened his eyes wide in shock.
Only then did he realize how the giant golem had attacked him moments ago.
The giant golem was freely using Blink, a skill that allowed instant movement to anywhere within sight.
Jeon hastily rolled across the floor.
Whoosh!
The giant golem’s fist passed right over his head by a hair’s breadth.
Had Jeon’s reaction been a moment slower, he would have been crushed like minced meat by that attack.
Cold sweat ran down his spine.
At that moment, a human voice flowed from the giant golem’s mouth.
“—Gigarein. Eliminating intruder.”
“Gigarein? Is that your name?”
Jeon asked, but the giant golem Gigarein attacked without answering.
Another flash burst, and Gigarein’s massive frame appeared before Jeon.
But this time, Jeon wasn’t taking it lying down.
The moment the flash burst, he threw his body aside to evade.
Jeon realized that the flash burst the moment Gigarein tried to activate Blink.
If he knew when Blink was initiated, evading wasn’t so difficult.
As Jeon expected, Gigarein appeared in the spot he had occupied just moments before.
Jeon launched a strike at Gigarein’s torso.
“Chaah!”
Clang!
His finishing blow was deflected with a metallic sound.
Gigarein’s hardness was on a different dimension from any golem Jeon had fought until now.
Moreover, protected by the black aura, not even a scratch appeared on its surface.
Jeon despaired.
He couldn’t even begin to fathom how to fight such a monster.
He thought this must be how the magic beasts that fought Deiodeun felt.
Whoosh!
Gigarein’s fist flew toward Jeon again.
A single fist was nearly the size of Jeon himself.
The moment he took that fist head-on, Jeon would be finished.
Jeon flattened himself against the floor to avoid Gigarein’s fist.
Immediately after, he tucked and rolled to his feet.
Jeon poured mana into his gauntlets and attacked Gigarein.
Clang!
Once again, his attack failed to damage Gigarein.
Not a single stone chip fell.
It was truly monstrous durability.
Clang-clang-clang!
After that, Jeon unleashed several consecutive blows.
It was like trying to break a rock with eggs.
Still, Jeon didn’t give up and continued attacking to find Gigarein’s core.
In the end, he couldn’t find the core, but he was able to find Gigarein’s weakness.
The giant golem’s weakness was precisely the joint axis of its knee.
Being so massive and heavy, immense load was placed on its knees every time it moved.
So perhaps it used the skill called Blink to minimize the load on its joints.
That was when.
Crackle!
Suddenly, sparks flew from Gigarein’s massive horns.
Jeon wasn’t someone who wouldn’t know what that meant.
*An offensive skill?*
This was a B-rank magic beast, after all.
It would have been stranger if it didn’t have a single offensive skill.
Jeon focused intently and kept his eyes on Gigarein’s horns.
At that moment, a volley of lightning bolts poured from Gigarein’s horns.
It was Chain Lightning, spreading like a net.
The Chain Lightning swept through, filling the massive underground cavern.
Jeon instinctively realized he couldn’t avoid it.
In an instant, Jeon flipped his robe over himself and crouched.
He had no choice but to trust the defensive power of the robe made from sand demon leather.
Boom-boom-boom!
The massive net of electrical shock struck Jeon.
“Ngh!”
Even though he covered his entire body with the robe, he felt tremendous shock and electrical current.
Jeon clenched his teeth and endured the pain.
Finally, the moment that felt like an eternity came to an end.
Jeon was in a truly wretched state.
The robe draped over his body was half burned or torn, exposing his raw flesh.
The robe made from sand demon leather possessed outstanding regenerative properties, but it was useless against shocks exceeding its limits.
The torn robe had completely lost its function.
Still, thanks to sacrificing the robe, he managed to save his life.
But even so, he couldn’t emerge unscathed from such a tremendous electrical attack.
Currents that the robe failed to absorb or deflect struck him.
It was only his uniquely resilient physique and will as an Awakened that let him endure the pain.
Thud! Thud!
Gigarein approached Jeon.
Though he watched it approach, Jeon couldn’t move.
Thankfully he had survived, but his nerves were paralyzed by the electrical current.
The paralysis was slowly fading, but not enough to move his body.
*Damn it!*
Jeon gritted his teeth.
Gigarein was approaching.
It walked slowly, as if there were no need to use Blink on prey already caught.
The fact that he could only stare at that sight while unable to move filled Jeon with despair and rage.
*If only I could use sand…….*
He gathered his last remaining mana and raised his control.
Even though he knew there was no sand inside the temple, he couldn’t just give up like this.
That was when.
He faintly felt sand from somewhere.
*What?*
There definitely hadn’t been a single grain of sand inside the temple.
Yet the sand was reacting.
Jeon focused on the faintly sensed sand.
Unexpectedly, the source of the sand he felt was inside his pocket.
*My pocket? No way.*
There was the hourglass he had obtained at the magic stone mine.
It hadn’t reacted at all before, yet it was reacting at this unexpected moment.
While Jeon focused on the hourglass, Gigarein arrived.
Gigarein looked down at Jeon briefly, then kicked him.
Boom!
With a thunderous sound, Jeon’s body was sent flying.
Flying like an arrow, Jeon crashed directly into the opposite wall.
Jeon was in a wretched state.
Even the breastplate made from the queen wolf ant’s shell was shattered into pieces, and Jeon’s entire body was crushed as miserably as if run over by a massive armored vehicle.
That he was still breathing in such a state was practically a miracle.
Thud! Thud!
As Gigarein approached to finish him off for sure,
a handful of sand spilled from Jeon’s pocket.
The hourglass inside his pocket had shattered from the golem’s kick, causing the sand to spill out.
Ssssh!
At that moment, the tiny sand particles that had been spilling out suddenly began to be absorbed into Jeon’s pores.
The sand particles were instantly absorbed into Jeon and vanished.
It was precisely then that a change occurred in Jeon.
Crack-crack!
In an instant, all his wounds healed, and his shattered bones returned to their original state.
All of it was thanks to the sand absorbed into Jeon’s pores.
No one had told him, but Jeon realized the identity of the sand absorbed into his body.
“Exion!”
The finest sand particles existing on Earth.
It was Exion, the exclusive weapon of a sand sorcerer.