"It has, four cores...."

My eyes adjust to the overly bright Boss Room light and see the readings my data collection skills have gathered.

The final boss is 100m meters away. It's level 443 and it has 4 cores, one of which is [Bonded].

I'm not entirely sure what this additional detail means, but I do know is we have a monster to defeat. This is our first of many Boss rooms that I'm looking forward to this week.

The 4 of us run forward into the blinding light ahead.

I speak up as the landscape comes into view.

"The boss is straight ahead, it has 4 cores! Let's split up and take each one of them out together from all sides!"

Abby and Maria run off to my left and right while Arie trails behind me to take the rear.

Even after my eyes adjust, the sky above is blindingly white, and the ground below my feet is made of dark orange rock and sand. There isn't a plant in sight. There are rolling hills and a few rock structures in the distance, but overall the room seems pretty plain.

This makes finding the Golem much easier.

The Boss Monster in question shows its face Immediately, growing up from the orange stone glow below I watch a towering 8-meter-tall beast materialize from the Dunegon floor.

The sound of rocks scraping together fills my ears and its lifeless eyes stare us down filled with a desire to kill.

I feel the air pressure shift all around us and the buzzing sensation of mana tickles my bones as an ear-shattering roar fills the room.

The massive humanoid creature, made entirely of stone charges forward leaving mountains of stone in its wake. With every step it takes, the monster absorbs more dungeon material and leaves excess behind.

I can clearly make out the 4 cores, even without my All Seeing eye activated.

There's one it is forehead glowing bright orange, and two on the back of each hand matching its hue.

The 4th one in its chest is much different than the others... It pulses light pink, emanating pure mana rather than the orange-imbued energy from the other 3.

This must be the [Bonded] core.

Seconds later, the monster is less than 20 meters away and readying its first attack. The Golem casts a dark shadow over us even from this distance.

I charge up my sword with a 1000MP strike. There's no reason to go easy on this beast, overkill is the best option.

With a swift swing of my sword, the black flaming crescent flies straight for its chest.

My teammates let out their mana-imbued strikes as well. Abby and Maria aim for the monster's palms while Arie takes a clear shot at its forehead.

As the monster takes its first right-handed swing at the 4 of us, our strikes make an impact with its body of stone.

Bright flashes of blue and green light expand quickly, and the sound of mana shielding being ripped to shreds fills my ears.

I watch my attack slice the main core straight in two without a problem, and Arie's arrow pierces its forehead too.

The massive beast crumbles to bits. Chunks of orange stone fly all over and I track its shattered cores with my All-Seeing Eye.

Each one of them is broken into hundreds of tiny pieces and the once-powerful Desert Golem Boss is no more.

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It didn't even get a chance to follow through on its first swing...

The dust clears and the 4 of us get a good look at the rubble. This monster was a much higher level than all of us, so I'm patiently waiting for some kind of level-up notification, but one never comes.

"Something isn't right...."

We all slowly walk over to the pile of stone cautiously. Maria speaks up from 5 meters to my left time.

"We hit all of its cores right....?"

I nod, creeping closer and scanning the area with my perception skill. It isn't picking up a single reading, but there's definitely something wrong here.

"We did..."

Abby starts moving stones around with her earth magic, finding pieces of some of the shattered black cores on the ground.

"They're definitely broken, what are we missing?"

I tighten my gaze, then begin to hear a light hum from a rock pile on my right side.

I turn around and pick up a dense mana reading right before a massive stone arm forms from the ground and comes flying toward me with a dense white and pink mana shield surrounding it.

Immediately, I raise my sword to block it.

A loud twang of mana on mana echoes from our clash as I'm pushed backward by the sheer force of its blow.

I plant my feet and hold it off as I watch the entire Stone Golem reform from the ground before my eyes.

I burst back into flames and air step backward to face the beast again. I mutter under my breath as I focus on getting a safe distance away.

"I knew this wasn't going to be that easy..."

The white and pink core in its chest is sucking energy up from the dungeon floor, recharging and healing it back to its original form.

Just like the mutants we faced earlier, the shattered cores nearby all begin to shift back to their sphere shapes and roll toward the body of the newly formed stone golem.

The Boss is as good as new and lets out another roar to prove it.

Its eyes shine pink, tinted orange by the energy from its other reforming cores while swinging both of its arms around in a wide circle covered in a thin layer of mana shielding.

All of my teammates go back into full attack mode again.

I yell out.

"We'll take it out again! I'll isolate its main core, that's its weak point. You all go for the other 3! I have an idea...."

Without a word of response, my teammates attack the rapidly growing golem.

Its broken cores have all been entirely mended themselves and positioned back onto the monster's hands of stone and the center of its forehead above the glowing eyes filled with a murderous glare.

I land on the rocky floor about 15 meters away and plant my feet while keeping my eyes locked on its main pink glowing core.

While watching the blue, green, and white shots of energy collide with its body I propelled myself forward using wind magic to gain more and more speed aiming straight for the monster's chest.

Instead of releasing an attack to destroy its final core, I replicate the style of magic Abby used on the Mutants outside the Boss Room portal.

Activating my Advanced Earth Summoning, and focusing on the stone around the remaining pink core, separating the surrounding dark orange stone.

The closer I get, the easier it is to control the rock surrounding it. I can feel a pull from the monster, trying to regain its dominance, but its mana control is far too weak to compete with my own.

Especially with its other 3 cores destroyed.

A 2-meter-wide hole in its now-liquefied chest allows me to fly through to grab the pink glowing sphere, tearing it from the enormous stone body.

It buzzes violently as I hit the ground and activate my plundering skill.

Dense pink and white mana seeps out for the palm-sized crystal and fills my MP bar to full as the creature made from stone collapses to the ground.

[Level Up]

The familiar ringing sound in my head notifies me that it's staying down for good this time around.

The Golems core is still in my left hand.

It's mostly clear now, but is tinted orange and pink from the residual mana and artificial sunlight from above.

Blue text floats above it.

[Use Advanced Mana Manipulation]

Advanced Perk: [Temporary Minion]

Enter Desired Level: 0-423

[YES][NO]

My eyes open wide for a moment, then I look up to see my teammates running over to me. Abby is the first to call out.

"Looks like you've picked up a few new tricks during your training too."

I toss the clear crystal core up and down in my hand a few times, then decide using my Temporary Minion perk right now is not the best plan...

I look up to the green-haired healer and reply.

"Yeah, looks like we have a skill in common."

Abby was the first hunter to ever learn about my unique skill. We haven't talked about it much since... It's kind of refreshing to hear someone say something about it out loud without accusing me of something.

She gives me a firm nod and a light smile as both Maria and Arie come walking over.

Fragments of the other 3 black and dead cores begin to dissolve into the dungeon floor, but the crystal ball in my hand remains.

Bright white transfer magic light blinds us, and before we can react, the 4 of us are back in the middle of the open desert.

Aire is the first to speak up.

"We've cleared the first break. That was... easy enough... If I'm not mistaken our next one is off in that direction."

The dark-haired archer points deeper into the desert while Abby takes out the small map and tries to look for landmarks to pinpoint our location.

She nods.

"Yeah, it's pretty far out! This trek could take us all day..."

He responds, crossing his arms.

"Perfect. It's not on that map, but there's a small village on our way if we take a quick detour. I recommend we stop there for the night."