Golems were creatures commonly found in all manner of underground ruins. Legend held that they were a type of magical life created by a powerful ancient mage empire—though most scholars argued they weren’t truly alive at all, but rather highly complex magitek constructs.
Regardless of their true nature, one thing was certain: these things were nothing but trouble.
According to academic classifications, golems were divided into two types: General-Purpose and Military-Grade.
General-Purpose golems could handle a wide range of tasks—guarding, hauling, construction, and more—and even the weakest among them boasted a D-rank combat rating. Military-Grade golems, as their name suggested, were built for warfare, with a minimum combat rating of C-rank......
Of course, Hulim stood no chance against a Military-Grade golem right now. The one lumbering toward her was a D-rank General-Purpose Stone Golem.
That said,
even the weakest golem outmatched ordinary D-rank monsters. In dungeon ruins, golems were the adversaries adventurers dreaded most—because......
“【???????????????????????????????】”
“Fireball!”
The blazing fireball slammed into the golem, but when the flames faded, it left nothing more than a few charred marks on the stone surface.
The golem trudged forward, its pace unslowed.
“【??????????????????????????????】”
“Lightness!”
“【????????????????????????】”
“Strengthen!”
Hulim used wind magic to lighten her body and enhancement magic to boost her speed, quickly putting distance between herself and the golem.
Luckily, while the golem’s stone body was annoyingly tough, its bulk made it painfully slow. What’s more, this wasn’t a cramped dungeon—Hulim could easily keep a safe distance indefinitely.
And it helped that this D-rank golem had no ranged attacks, making it little more than a slow, tough target. That allowed Hulim to stay relatively relaxed as she circled it.
“Fireball doesn’t work...... Then try Water Arrow!”
A sharp jet of water shot forward, streaking toward the golem’s head.
“Beep beep beep......”
The golem crossed its stone arms in front of its body, blocking the water arrow dead-on.
“【???????????????????????????????????????】”
“Wind Blade!”
The green wind blade slashed at the golem, leaving nothing but a shallow gash in its rocky hide.
“That doesn’t work either......”
Hulim muttered, circling the golem while keeping a safe distance, her mind racing to find a solution.
“I don’t have any offensive light or dark magic, so those are useless. Non-elemental magic is almost exclusively close-range—and fighting a golem up close is definitely a death wish. So that’s out too......”
Crack!
A tree trunk snapped as the golem plowed straight through it. The construct seemed completely oblivious to the fact that it could never catch Hulim, yet it persisted in lumbering after her in a straight line, relentless as ever.
Hulim glanced around. Several other trees lay broken and splintered in the golem’s wake.
“No good. I can’t keep running from it forever. Golems don’t tire—they have no concept of stamina. If this drags on, I’ll be the one to collapse first.”
With that thought, Hulim skidded to a halt.
“【?????????????????????????????????????】”
“Flash!”
A brilliant burst of light exploded right in front of the glowing orb embedded in the golem’s head.
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Blinded temporarily by the flash, the golem froze in place, its core whirring as it struggled to lock onto its target again.
Taking advantage of the opening, Hulim darted behind a thick tree, vanishing completely from the golem’s line of sight.
Then,
“【?????????????????????????????????????????】”
“Earth Sink!”
The golem, standing motionless as it searched for its target, didn’t react at all when the ground beneath it suddenly caved in. It tumbled downward, sinking deeper and deeper into the pit.
Hulim waited until the pit was deeper than the golem’s height before stepping back into view.
“Intruder detected. Initiating elimination protocol!”
The orb in the golem’s head locked onto Hulim once more.
But,
Thud. Thud. Thud......
Every time the golem tried to move, it slammed into the walls of the pit, trapping it completely.
“Works like a charm against something with no sense of strategy.”
Hulim grinned, watching the golem thrash uselessly against the pit walls below. She raised her Tree Wand.
“Let’s see how much punishment you can really take......”
“Fireball!”
“Rock Bolt!”
“Wind Blade!”
“Water Arrow!”
“......”
She unleashed a flurry of spells, raining them down on the trapped golem. Thanks to its high magical and physical resistance, each spell did minimal damage—but slowly, the cumulative impact took its toll. The golem’s movements grew stiffer and stiffer, until finally, a well-aimed Rock Bolt shattered the glowing metal orb in its head. The construct froze instantly, going completely limp.
Confirming that the golem had truly shut down, Hulim let out a long, relieved breath.
Honestly, this golem hadn’t been that threatening—its attacks posed little risk to her. But taking it down had been far more difficult than any opponent she’d faced before.
Its defensive power was already greater than most C-rank monsters......
“Whoa, you took that golem down so easily! Looks like that wand really gave you a nice boost~!”
Semiris popped out of nowhere, as if she’d been invisible the entire time during the fight.
“If that was a piece of cake, then round two should be a breeze, right~?”
Easy? Where did she get that idea? And of course there’s a round two......
Hulim sighed inwardly.
Crack! Crack! Crack......
Even as she thought this, the familiar sound of grinding stone echoed from all around her.
Wait—all around?
Hulim spun around, her heart dropping. Sure enough, multiple stone golems were emerging from the trees, surrounding her from every direction.
“......”
“Hey, Semiris!”
She whipped her head around—but the fairy was already gone.
“Intruder detected. Initiating elimination protocol!”
“Intruder detected. Initiating elimination protocol!”
“Intruder detected......”
It looked like now wasn’t the time to complain about Semiris’s disappearance. Because one by one, the stone golems raised their rock arms—each thicker than Hulim’s waist—and charged toward her.
“No choice but to fight, huh......”
Hulim exhaled slowly, her eyes sharpening with resolve.
“【????????????????????????】”
“Strengthen——!”
......
Half an hour later.
“Yo~! Still alive in there, Hulim?”
Semiris squatted down beside Hulim, poking her cheek playfully with a finger.
Hulim lay sprawled on the ground, too exhausted to even swat her hand away. The events of the past half hour were burned into her mind—she’d never felt death breathing down her neck so closely before.
Thirty minutes earlier, five golems had surrounded her the moment they appeared, leaving her no chance to escape. She’d been forced to fight for her life, no time to think, no time to plan.
The only stroke of luck was that sustained buff spells like Lightness and Strengthen lasted as long as she maintained her mana flow—they didn’t wear off until she canceled them.
That was the only reason she’d managed to stay alive this long, dodging and weaving between the golems’ slow but devastating attacks.
But every time she heard the whoosh of a stone arm swinging inches from her ear, her heart had jumped into her throat.
There was no doubt about it—one hit from those arms, and her body would’ve been crushed flat. She’d wondered if even Semiris could’ve brought her back from that.
If she’d died instantly...... not even Semiris could reverse that, right?
Just as Hulim had been staring death in the face, the years of training she’d put into the Heyerar Sword Style had kicked in, saving her life.
She’d almost forgotten—she wasn’t just a mage. She was a full-fledged swordsman too.
Her swordsman’s instincts had let her dodge the golems’ close-range attacks with pinpoint precision—and in doing so, she’d spotted their fatal flaw......
These golems had no sense of teamwork whatsoever.
She’d noticed that when she dodged their attacks, they often accidentally struck their own allies. That’s when she’d realized her path to victory.
“In that case......”
The next time she dodged a golem’s heavy punch, she didn’t retreat to safety like she had before. Instead, she leaped directly onto the shoulder of the golem that had attacked her.
Then, at the very last second—just as another golem’s fist came hurtling toward her—she jumped clear.
It had been an insanely risky move. One miscalculation, and she would’ve been caught in the crossfire and killed instantly. But the payoff had been immediate.
The golem’s charged punch, meant for the intruder, had slammed directly into its comrade. The struck golem stumbled backward, crashing to the ground with a resounding thud, its stone arm cracked and splintered from the impact.
A group of intelligent beings would’ve turned on each other after that, or at least adjusted their tactics. But golems were nothing but machines, programmed to follow orders without question. They didn’t even register that they’d hit one of their own.
The golem that had landed the accidental blow hadn’t spared a single glance at its fallen ally. It had turned to chase Hulim without hesitation. And the golem that had been knocked down had gotten back to its feet just as dutifully, its core still locked onto Hulim, completely oblivious to who had attacked it.
