Chapter 32: Metal Golem
As soon as Ain looked at the figure, he knew that he had hit the mark.
‘It’s indeed a Metal Golem.’ Ain smiled to himself as he prepared to carry out the familiar tactics.
He once again circled around it its back and stealthily crossed some distance, before arriving nearby.
Just as he was about to attack, he suddenly paused.
With his current proximity, Ain could sense the golem’s spirit energy. It reminded him of the Razor Panther.
“It’s at Advanced Rank-1.” Ain furrowed his brows slightly before they relaxed again. There were a many reasons why Ain’s fight with the Razor Panther was so miserable.
The dark night had made it difficult for Ain to track the panther, and its ambush had also caught him off guard. The Razor Panther’s intelligence was also decent, allowing it to cause trouble for Ain. Moreover, he lacked experience in general.
But the same couldn’t be said now. The sky was bright and clear, and Ain was the one in the shadows this time. Golems possessed low intelligence in general and there movements were also slow.
He felt confident in his current odds.
All these thoughts occurred in less than a second before Ain instructed Nox to use Possession.
No matter how dull the golem was, it still detected the spirit energy fluctuations behind it.
Ain wanted to repeat what he had always done so far, which was to start by landing a three-strike combo on its back, before dodging its attack. Then he would continue attacking.
As soon as Ain reached within arms’ reach of the golem, he punched out with Spirit Impact, landing it squarely on the side of the golem’s torso.
Thud!
A dull sound rang out. Ain only saw a faint dent on the golem, where his fist had landed.
Although he had expected it to be tougher, he still felt a little annoyed at the outcome. The information from Scan passed through his mind.
[Species: Metal Golem]
[Attribute: Metal]
[Rank: Advanced Rank-1]
[Quality: Noble | Max Quality: Transcendent]
Maybe it was due to its higher rank, but the Metal Golem was more agile than the Rock Golems. Ain had also fought Intermediate Rank-1 Rock Golems, their agility hadn’t increased too much.
Knowing that his previous plan wouldn’t work, Ain dodged to golem’s left after the first strike.
As he predicted, the Metal Golem raised one of its arms up high, ready to use Smash, a common skill amongst golems.
Seeing that Ain was no longer there, the golem turned its head towards its left, as it tried to correct its arm’s trajectory.
Ain once again dodged to arrive behind it, before unleashing a storm of fists.
Two distinct sounds appeared simultaneously.
Bang!
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The golem’s arm had landed heavily, smashing a crater in the ground. Dust and shattered rocks were blasted away forcefully. The epicenter was not Ain’s previous location, but a little off to the side. It looked like the golem couldn’t completely correct the trajectory of its attack.
Ain’s flurry of punches also struck the golem’s back at this time. Each fist left a small dent in its body, but no cracks were visible.
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Although Metal Golems were of the metal attribute, they weren’t completely comprised of metal. Their bodies were similar to an ore. They could also shatter like ore and regular rocks.
After this exchange, Ain retreated and put some distance between them.
He looked at the clumsy golem as he shook his hands to rid them of the numbness.
‘It’s gonna be a long fight.’ Ain let out a breath before readying himself again.
He already had a new battle plan, and it was very simple.
Hit it until it breaks!
Ain rushed towards the golem again.
The golem had already recovered its posture and was making its way towards him.
Seeing the rapidly approaching Ain, it swung its arm horizontally with great force.
It was just a regular attack, but the speed was still too slow. Ain easily dodged it before circling around to its side.
He released another three-punch combo with Spirit Impact, focusing all his attacks on one place.
The golem once again took a step and swung its arm. But Ain’s response was no different from before.
Three more attacks landed.
This dance continued for a few rounds and Ain eventually got used to the rhythm.
After a few minutes, some cracks finally appeared on the Metal Golem’s body, all centered around a single spot, covered in dents.
This was where all of Ain’s attacks had landed.
Although the Metal Golem was a different species, its intelligence was only slightly better than the Rock Golems due to its higher rank. But it still wasn’t a substantial increase.
The golem was befuddled by the simple tactic.
After a full ten minutes of nonstop strikes, Ain finally felt a strain on his spirit energy. His reserves were only a little less than half, but Ain didn’t want to risk it. He retreated once again while reaching into his pocket.
He fished out the small bottle of Spirit Recovery Pills and swallowed a pill.
As the golem tried to approach him, Ain kept jumping around as he felt his spirit energy recover at a faster rate.
After a brief calculation, Ain once again approached the golem.
Before Nox reached rank-1, Possession could only be supported for twenty minutes. But now, that limit had reached close to an hour. This was due to Ain’s own effort in body tempering, as well as Nox’s recent accelerated growth from the ghost resources Ain purchased last week.
Although both their conditions were good, they had been hunting for about four hours, with minimal rest in between.
Nox could only support Ain for twenty more minutes before it was completely exhausted. Ain didn’t want to be left without a trump card, so he wanted to finished this fight soon.
Therefore, he didn’t wait for his spirit energy to recover completely and immediately attacked again.
The same old dance continued, and Ain, like a worker bee, was hard at work.
Shatter!
Five minutes later, the rocks mixed with metal started to fall off from the Metal Golem’s body.
But Ain didn’t relax his vigilance. He had learned a lesson from the Razor Panther.
After a few more hits, the golem suddenly raised both arms instead of just one, and they glowed with a heavy golden glow.
This didn’t escape Ain’s vision and he quickly jumped back, followed by a handspring, covering an even larger distance.
Bang! Shatter!
Before he could look back, a loud explosive collision sounded behind him, causing tremors to travel through the ground. Ain felt the ground slightly shake as an invisible shockwave slapped across his back.
Dust flew everywhere and rocks were lifted high into the sky, as if an angry volcano had just erupted.
Ain quickly turned to look at the Metal Golem. Both its arms were buried in the rubble, as it stood there unmoving.
According to Nox, its life aura was still there. He could also sense its weakened spirit energy.
Without further thought, Ain sprinted towards the golem once again and landed a barrage of attacks.
The Metal Golem was trying to retrieve its limbs to attack him once again.
“Sorry, but this end here.” Ain glanced at the golem’s face expressionlessly and went in for the kill.
Both his hands turned into white gaseous claws as he inserted one into the large crack using Spirit Impact.
He quickly grabbed something and pulled it with monstrous force.
Crack! Shatter!
Rocks and ore flew everywhere as Ain pulled out his claw. Clutched in it was a metallic object.
As soon as Ain’s claw left its body, the Metal Golem suddenly froze, before starting to crumble away.
Ain took a step back as he watched it die, or rather, it was already dead.
After confirming its death, Ain glanced around the vicinity before cancelling Possession. Nox flew out of Ain’s body and circled around the dead golem, examining their handiwork.
Ain paid no mind and used Scan on the metallic object still in his hand.
[Name: Metal Golem Core]
[Attribute: Metal]
[Rank: Advanced Rank-1]
[Attribute Traces: Metal 82.859%, Earth 8.335%, Fire 2.468%, …]
After scanning through it, Ain contemplated.
He didn’t use Scan to identify it. Its identity was already confirmed when Ain pulled it out of the golem, instantly killing it.
He was more interested in its attribute traces. The attribute traces were just the percentages of different attributes in spirit energy. He didn’t bother looking for them during battle, as that was not an appropriate time.
Previously, he had also scanned the Rock Golem Core, and its attribute traces leaned heavily towards the earth attribute.
It made sense, since it was an earth-attribute spirit beast, and it was primarily comprised of rocks.
This is what lead to Ain’s curiosity. The Metal Golem also consisted largely of rocks. He wondered if it was not just a metal-attribute spirit beast but also earth attribute.
And the Scan had answered his question. Despite its body largely made of rocks, the metal attribute was still the most prevalent in its spirit energy. Thus it was a metal-attribute spirit beast.
This made Ain wonder what the attribute traces of spirit beasts with multiple attributes looked like.