The creature trembled when my wooden arrow hit the core… it seemed that the impact made the whole golem feel the pain. Maybe the pain wasn’t the right word, impact was probably it. In any case, the beast kept trying to move its left arm, but the joint didn’t move accordingly… because three arrows had pierced the small gap between the forearm and the elbow.
Eventually, the arrows broke, but some pieces stayed stuck in the gaps. The movements of the golem improved a bit, but not that much. I began to run around the beast and toward the direction of the damaged arm. The creature soon stopped attacking with the stone bullets and used that hand to defend while still trying to move with the other arm.
I fired some arrows at the core in the chest, but from that distance, the monster still could protect the core with enough room. I clicked my tongue when I tried to get up, but then the beast jumped backward to keep the same distance… Soon I calmed down when I realized what was going on.
‘It is an inorganic monster… it shouldn't be able to learn this fast without instincts. Which means that it is learning as we fight using some other way. This can be pretty bad...’
The first thing that came to mind was a monster with an adaptive AI, but I couldn't tell how it could work. I recalled reading a book that mentioned a country of creatures like that… still, instead of just having golems, they had beings called War Forged and Living Metal… I dismissed those as nonsensical, but it seemed that they were real. Perhaps I was dismissed because their land was called Mettalara. It was a rather weird name...
In any case, a monster that could learn that fast was a problem. Old tricks would never work against a creature like that… still, unconventional methods would probably be very effective. I had this one idea in mind, but it would slow down my progress in another aspect. Still, I knew that it had to be done.
After clicking my tongue, I grabbed two things from my backpack and put the backpack on the ground since I would need all the speed that I could show… After that, I dashed toward the monster. When the creature was about to attack me, I jumped to the side and then lowered my body when one of its giant arms passed right above me… I felt shivers when I felt the pressure of the wind… a single hit and it would be over for my adventure in another world. A nine-year-long run was quite something, but I wanted more than that.
I kept running around the monster, but the creature was able to turn its body and kept its eyes on me and getting ready to attack. Using the Stone Bullets in that situation would be deadly, but the monster didn’t want to show such an opening. The boss knew that I had something in store for it.
‘Its eyes on its head are supposed to mimic real eyes? Or is the core that perceives things for the golem? Shit… I only have one chance for this.’
I definitely would lay low at the next stop for a while and gather information before challenging the dungeon bosses… that was too much excitement for a sheltered guy like me. When the monster got ready to attack again, I jumped to the side since the attack came from above this time… the impact created a small crater on the floor of the chamber.
After that, I threw my bottle of magic ink at the core in the chest of the monster. The creature didn’t have time to raise its arm. The ink hit the core and then spread around it. Not the entire core was tainted by the ink, but at least eighty percent was.
The monster soon tried to raise its other arm to protect the core, but I worked fast and put a knife on the gap between the elbow and the forearms on the remaining arm. The creature was able to move the shoulder up to the elbow, but nothing else.
For a moment, the boss began to move like a scripted machine that had some lines of code written in a messed-up order, but soon the creature began to take some steps away from me. I watched it for a moment and the creature stopped moving when I was at its two o’clock. In my line of sight, I could see a part of the core that hadn’t been tainted.
‘It is working…’
I began to run and the monster kept moving trying to keep that clean part pointed at me. Still, when it was about to find me again. I fired an arrow at the spot. The creature barely had time to react, but it moved both arms as much as it could to block the arrow. Still, thanks to that, it completely lost sight of me.
The creature moved around trying to find me, but it never did… instead of running away, I approached using the blind spot thanks to the ink in front and blinded the creature. When I was half a meter away from the beast, I unleashed Power Shot with the arrow that had the previous boss' mana core as an arrowhead.
The sound of glass shattering echoed in the room as I saw shards from the core of the monster falling from its body. The creature stopped moving, but it didn’t fall… so, I kept firing arrows and destroyed all the pieces on the core of the creature, until it began to crumble and almost smashed me.
I jumped away and watched the body of the creature falling apart… covered in sweat and my heart pounding in my throat. I only calmed down once I received that notification. It was just like that guy said… The price of freedom is steep.
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You received 200 experience points.
You completed a trial. Please choose between the classes: Magic Scribe, Bowyer, and Ambassador.
You obtained the Bowyer class.
You unlocked the Stamina parameter.
You unlocked the Aptitude: Master of Bowcraft
You unlocked the skill: Expert Bowcraft.
You unlocked the skill: Tuning and Tension
I sighed in relief when I received all those notifications. My job there was finally done… I finally could sleep for a week. Sleeping three hours a day was too little for someone of my age.
Master of Bowcraft: Gain bonus experience when crafting, repairing, and enhancing bows.
Expert Bowcraft - Enhance your ability to craft bows with superior materials and designs. This skill allows you to create bows that have increased draw weight, improved accuracy, and enhanced durability. Cost: 04 Mana per minute.
Tuning and Tension - Adjust the string tension and balance of your bows in real time, optimizing performance for different shooting styles and conditions. This skill enables you to make quick modifications, ensuring that your bows remain effective in any situation. Cost: 50 Mana
‘The skills are a bit different than I remember… well, it doesn’t matter. Not like a family of knights would have that much information about non-combat classes. For a moment, I thought of taking a break there but soon shook my head. I had to leave the town before things got troublesome.
I at least decided to grab the mana core of the golem. I just used parts of the golem to smash each other and that helped a bit. The core was as long as the previous one, but two times thicker, so it should fetch for quite the sum.
After leaving so many mana cores behind thanks to the lack of time in the second section of the dungeon, I would need that much… it was annoying that I would have to leave the town even without buying the identification skill book. It was annoying, but it wasn't the only place that sold those.
In any case, I was almost out of food as well, so I had to hurry up out of the dungeon. A lot of golems got in my way, but I had plenty of experience dealing with them, so I killed them like I had become a machine myself. Thinking consumes energy, so it was better to save as much as possible.
After a couple of hours, I was back on the eleventh floor and ready to face the giant eyeball bat again. At that point in time, it felt more like a chore than anything else. Still, I woke up from that kind of thought when I heard the sounds of battles taking place ahead.
‘A party… it should be around eight in the evening. Quite a weird time for them to decide to face the boss. Maybe they want to rest after this, but that would mean that they aren’t at their peak…’
That seemed like the right way to think. However, given recent events, I couldn’t just accept that it was the case. I also didn’t find any traces of anyone in the second section of the dungeon. So… the place probably had been sealed for a while.
‘Are they after me and inside the dungeon?’
That wouldn’t be all that surprising, but it would be smarter to just wait for me outside. Unless they feared for my life since I was alone and I was a kid in their minds. The battle wouldn’t last for long and I knew that those who came inside the dungeon wouldn’t be weaklings. Fighting my way out wasn’t an option… fortunately, the remains of the last golem were still in front of me, and I decided to hide under them.
It was a risky move… I was giving up on my chance to fight, for a chance to fool them, but it couldn’t be helped. My arrows were of low quality and the enemies should be armored knights, I was ill-equipped to face them. Their focus shouldn't be that high either, so they probably won't think that I would do something like this...
Fortunately, it looked like my plan worked… the guards never thought that I would try to hide like that. They also sped up imagining that I was close to their current location… the trail of golems made them think that I had just arrived on the eleventh floor for some reason.
Much to my surprise, I found the twins with the ten or so guards… they looked really troubled, but it didn’t look like they were forced to be there.
‘Honestly, kids these days only care about money…’
They didn’t seem like bad kids when I interacted with them, the girl also acted like she didn’t care about money at all. Still, I couldn’t afford to worry about their reasons… they connected me to the one on the posters and decided to sell me out. That was enough reason to never want to see them again. Besides, their sounds disappeared in the distance and it was my cue to run like the wind.
I crossed the next floor as fast as I could, I was exhausted, but my willpower forced me to keep going. Some eyeball bats got in the way, but I ignored them… they almost reached me a bunch of times, but I was faster than them and they never reached me. I also left them behind because they would work as obstacles for the guards.
When I left the dungeon, it was still night… probably around four in the morning. The exit was empty, even though I was ready to put some arrows on some people. It looked like they acted in a rush and used all the people in the area they could use without waiting for reinforcements.
Still, I couldn’t wait for the train… it would be a dangerous path, but I moved further north in the forest. I would have to travel on foot and face the dangers while also being chased.