With four shields and two enchanted chains floating behind him, Lev slowly glided forward. The last thing he wanted was to attract the attention of more than one golem before he even knew how they behaved.
Several hundred meters of flight later, Lev reached a bend. He could feel a presence behind the turn and only one of it.
Double-checking his armor formation, Lev continued forward with the four shields taking the lead. Heavy thuds announced the approach of the monster, and Lev's breath caught in his throat as its size registered.
A behemoth of stone rounded the corner, revealing an unholy combination of a horse and a centipede. It walked on eight legs, its head constantly scanning the caverns with its grotesquely long neck. Nearly four meters tall, Lev was having doubts about his ability to kill it.
[Centiquus Golem - Level 191]
Four monstrous slits for eyes trained on him, and Lev was suddenly scrambling back as fast as he could. All remaining thoughts of testing vanished then and there as a large stream of mana entered his earth converter bracers.
The enchantment on his chain was running on full power as Lev launched them forward. Earth mana constantly streamed into them, making them heavier while increasing their durability significantly.
Much of the earth mana coalesced into the large ball at the end of each chain, increasing the weight enough for him to struggle to manipulate them. The balls impacted the golem head-on, barely impeding its mad charge. A warbled cry washed over him.
Lev was instantly far warier as an aura of fear tried to pierce his mental defenses. Infusing his armor with earth mana, he dashed straight towards the mouth full of fangs ready to chomp him in two.
Stopping just ahead of the closing jaws, Lev empowered his armor to the limit and increased the weight of his gauntlets before punching its temple.
The golem's head rocked back as a loud boom reverberated through the cave. Both chains wrapped around its neck in an attempt to stop its movements. Lev's mind failed before the chains could even take hold as the monster charged forward without any visible difficulty.
Seeing that his manipulation was too weak to contend with the golem's physical strength, he changed his approach. Lev let the monster come in close range again. Its four back legs tensed, letting him dodge the golem's lunge and land another punch on the previous spot.
His efforts were rewarded with a cracking sound. Small fractures were now visible on its ugly head, meaning Lev could damage it with his current arsenal. Before the monster could turn around, both chains slammed into it at once. The golem stumbled back a step, then several more as Lev's fist cracked its head even further.
Bits of stone rained on the ground below. Lev flew forward to press his advantage when the stunned monster, only for it to let out an unholy screech that rattled his teeth even inside two armors.
His high Perception was the only thing that let him avoid the approaching rows of fangs and hastily make distance. Several precious seconds passed before Lev's vision stopped swimming. With an annoyed inhale, he charged forward again.
All four of his shields shot forward as the monster tried to bite him again. One by one, they lodged themselves between the golem's jaws. The monster thrashed to get rid of them but Lev kept them firmly in place and overloaded their durability runes to the limit.
The golem bit down, puncturing the shields with its teeth. That turned out to be the wrong move as Lev repaired the holes as best as he could so close to the monster's aura. Not wasting the chance afforded by its teeth getting stuck in the shields, Lev rained punches on its cracked head.
The damage slowly spread further. Both his chains struck the golem from the opposite side, pushing it back for Lev's fist to hit even faster. Overwhelmed by the pain, the monster veered to the side to try and crush Lev against the wall.
Dashing away just in time, only the golem's skull hit the cave wall with a resounding crash. Chunks of its face were blown off from the collision, thoroughly stunning the monster.
Lev darted back in, gauntlet charged with fire mana. The world turned bright in tune with his next attack, shattering the golem's head to bits.
[
You have slain [Centiquus Golem - Level 191]
Mana Tempest has reached Level 148
]
The golem's core was nestled deep inside its large head. Unharmed by the previous violence, it rolled to the ground. It was clean except for some dust and stone bits. The golem didn't seem to have a fleshy brain or anything similar to blood.
[
Centiquus Golem Core:
Exhibits minor properties of stone. Useful in crafting.
]
Oho? What do we have here?
Cores that exhibited certain properties were pretty rare before second-threshold monsters. Paints created by such cores improved the effectiveness of matching enchantments slightly, and directly channeling mana through them did the same.
If Lev were to use his current core to power his stone enhancement on the chains, they would receive a tiny boost in potency. The difference was nothing amazing, but at higher levels where every little bit mattered, such cores were compulsory.
He stored the core and thought back on the events of the fight. Getting hit with the screech was unexpected but the golem hadn't shown anything beyond its annoyingly high durability.
With his armor imbued with earth mana and the weight of his gauntlets raised to the maximum, Lev could easily beat trolls to a pulp. Yet the golem had easily taken several of his punches to the same spot, and Lev doubted the fight would've ended so quickly if it hadn't missed the last crushing lunge.
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He certainly could've killed it much easier with his class skills, but there were two issues with that. Lev wasn't sure if the cave was sturdy enough to withstand explosions, though now he knew it was. The wall barely cracking from the golem's last attack was proof of that.
Secondly, he wanted to acquire a movement general skill. The best way to get one befitting his class and combat style was simply to practice against monsters. He wouldn't hesitate to go all out if things got too dangerous in the meantime, however.
His use of chains was also… shameful. There was no finesse involved. Lev had simply grabbed them and thrown them at the golem. To remedy that, he was going to take his time practicing. Even if throwing the heavy chains somehow worked, it was far from acceptable. Lev needed to make use of the ball's weight.
Quickly flying back to the portal, he grabbed the chain from its halfway point and tried the only method he knew of to use the balls.
Slowly, the chain started spinning in mid-air. Keeping the central point stationary was an entirely new exercise. The centripetal force generated by the heavy sphere was immense, to the point that Lev had to sit down and focus his all on the maneuver.
The chain sped up, and by now, the ball produced a horrible whirring sound in its passing as air parted violently from the sheer power packed into it. Lev was only now realizing how badly he had underutilized the chains before.
Minutes passed as Lev continued to spin the chain in a circle. He kept the earth mana imbued to a low level, otherwise his mind would surely be damaged from overreaching because of the weight. Keeping the chain in place was already using all his focus.
Hmm… While the ball will hit like a truck, it uses too much brainpower to manipulate properly.
He decided to change his approach. Instead of keeping it afloat, Lev grabbed the chain from the bottom half with his gauntlets. Tightening his grip, empowerment formation came alive as he spun the ball in a wide arc.
Physical strength and mental strength joined hands as the ball accelerated far beyond what he could manage with his mind alone. It hit the cave wall with a boom, sending shards of stone flying in every direction.
Whoops… ok, no cave-in, thankfully. Lev thought with a sigh of relief. This move is a double-edged sword if I've ever seen one. If I miss, I'll also be sent spinning while trying to get the stray chains under control.
Lev could adjust and correct the trajectory of the ball to a great extent, but things had a high chance to go wrong when monsters could dodge.
Wait, this could work.
Getting an idea, Lev dismissed all but an armlength of the chain and made a long barrier haft. That done, he attached the end of the chain to the haft.
Lev observed the improvised mace in his hands. It was missing spikes on the head, which could be remedied. The point was to make it heavy for maximum bludgeoning. With earth mana, Lev could reliably do that.
He also had a small rune for weight increase, though it was incredibly inefficient without a proper formation backing it up. The effects weren't anything to write home about either, so Lev ignored it for now.
The mace, which Lev was going to call Heavy Burden once he could permanently form it, was easily movable. The heavy head hanging by the chain followed without needing to mentally move it, which made things a lot easier.
Even better, he could increase its speed or stop it at will with a bit of mental gymnastics.
Satisfied with his new means of attack, Lev set out again. Since he knew how the golems operated somewhat well now, the plan was to include his other tools during melee fighting.
His slow advance proved to be fruitful when he noticed another golem rounding the same bend as before. The aura of the monster made him pause. It was noticeably stronger but not by too much.
[Centiquus Golem - Level 199]
Still doable without bombing it.
Eight arrows formed midair behind him as four of his shields floated by his side to meet the charging monster. Fire mana slowly streamed into the arrows, and four of them shot forward when the golem was only a few meters away.
The arrows impacted with a small delay between each shot, letting him know how quickly the monster was advancing and where its last position was. Going by that mental feedback, Lev's mace smashed into the side of its face like a descending meteor.
The sound of cracking was audible even through the flame. He didn't let up, firing another two arrows at its damaged face. Lev stopped at the last moment as fangs snapped shut inches away from him, barely avoiding being eaten alive.
He had only gotten one more hit in when a screech laced with mana blew him back, the sound somehow physically damaging his armor. Lev hastily repaired the damage and dodged the golem's lunge.
It smashed into the cavern wall, but unlike the previous golem, there was no visible damage on its skull.
Eight more arrows formed behind him, and a mix of lightning and fire infused them. Lev patiently waited for the golem to make the next move, shrugging off an aura of fear stemming from the monster. It was a nuisance at best with his calm mental state.
He didn't have to wait long. The monster turned around and screeched again but the distance prevented any physical damage. Arrows too fast to dodge hit the damaged part of its face in pairs, slightly widening the cracks with their electric explosions.
Undeterred, the golem continued to charge the flying human. Insanity dominated its thought as it lunged to bite Lev again, who dashed to the right at the last second.
Earth mana imbued his mace and armor as the weight of his gauntlet increased to its limit. Spinning a full circle, Lev's mace flew in an arc as a blur and impacted the monster's chin with a deafening crash.
Wide cracks spread on the golem's head as it rocked upward, while similar cracks appeared on his mace from the sheer rebound. Lev slowly repaired the weapon as an overloaded arrow lodged itself between the cracks on the monster's head.
The resulting explosion blew up a large portion of it, signifying the end of the fight.
[
You have slain [Centiquus Golem - Level 199]
Mana Tempest has reached Level 149
]
There were no more notifications. Lev was prepared to be disappointed for a long while. Turning his archery skill into something that didn't require a bow was bound to take a long time, even before Master, where obtaining and changing general skills was much easier.
The core was amongst the rubble of its half-destroyed, half-cracked head. It was still whole, which was a positive. Lev stored it in his ring and replayed the fight in his head.
His mana usage was low. Just over 5% had been used on that arrow spam, and imbuing his armor and mace was mostly covered by his regeneration. Overall, it had used less than a tenth of his total.
The monster's movements were also simple enough to track. The effects of his superior senses skill were showing itself. Lev could, to some extent, track the monster even while it was hidden by explosions. It was a mix of all his senses giving more accurate feedback.
Other than that, the encounter required even less mana than the previous one. His arrows were extremely efficient by now. Boosted by Colorful Destruction, even a small amount of mana did a lot of damage. Still, he didn't feel any clues about how to evolve the nature of his general skill. That would hopefully change in time.
His arcane brawling skill, though, was slowly mellowing out. That made Lev pretty excited. Just a single evolution would greatly improve his fighting capabilities.
Which means I have to keep smacking these golems for the next week. Or perhaps even weeks. Hakim wouldn't have sent me here if I didn't need to give it my all.
Lev settled down to wait for his mana to regenerate. It would take a while for his pool to be topped off, which also let him consider his next steps in silence.
