Chapter 307: The Moving Magic Core

The monster collapsed, unable to control its body.

Under normal circumstances, one would have immediately lunged and launched a fierce attack to seize the advantage.

But unfortunately, this was far from a normal situation.

When the enormous boss monster, roughly 10 meters tall, toppled over.

The dining hall building collapsed, and its debris covered the boss monster’s body.

Under these circumstances, it was impossible to locate the power engine where the magic core was.

And that wasn’t all?

The boss monster thrashed about, wildly flailing its heavy limbs to escape the pile of rubble that had crushed its body.

-Kwaaang! Bang, bang bang!

The ground shook even where we stood, making it difficult to maintain our footing.

And critically, debris from the shattered building flew in all directions, making it extremely dangerous.

So, unable to even dream of approaching the boss monster, I focused solely on keeping my balance…

“Karbaldr! You threatened me earlier, saying, ‘Just you try failing to shatter the magic core in one blow,’ but when I actually failed and got discouraged, you comforted me?!”

The protagonist of another novel approached me with a moved expression and spouted nonsense like this in my ear.

“Who said I comforted you?! I only explained an objective and obvious fact!”

“But you said it before that ‘fact’ became obvious, right? If it wasn’t comfort… then is it insight close to precognition? Karbaldr, you really have great insight!!”

“Are you satisfied only when you say such things at a time like this?!”

“Yeah. Because that makes me feel that you’re with me, and I feel reassured and at ease.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?!”

Unbelievable.

I knew Reysir was a habitual influence event offender, but I didn’t know he would be this oblivious to time and place.

I pushed Reysir away, who was close, but at that moment, the boss monster stopped struggling.

The booming bang bang sounds ceased, and only the sound of small stones rolling echoed.

“With that excellent insight, won’t you predict what will happen next?”

Those words clearly pierced my ears.

It was truly an outrageous request.

‘…Surely the original author hasn’t thought through the future development and is just dumping it on me, right?’

Whether to call it fortunate or unfortunate.

I don’t know how to define it, but at any rate, that thought I just had seems to have been a false assumption.

Because the boss monster got up before I could even open my mouth.

“Whew~! It’s shrunk enormously!”

Pret whistled in admiration.

As he said, the boss monster’s size, which was a whopping 10 meters, had clearly shrunk to only about 6 meters now.

Since an ordinary golem was about 3 meters tall, it was still appropriate to call it huge.

‘The sense of intimidation has certainly decreased!’

Maybe that’s why?

Not only Pret, who just let out an exclamation, but the faces of the others also showed confidence that said, ‘At this level, it’s doable, right?’

“Everyone, assume battle formation! Although it’s larger than ordinary monsters, it’s merely a difference in the size and number of stones! As we did before using the trick, we just need to fight according to the original plan and find the location of the weak point.”

Fjodra shouted like this, awakening the lax spirits of the Awakening Class students.

It was at the moment when the boss monster charged at us, kicking the ground with such force as to shake the earth, so it was truly a timely advice.

‘If you ignore the fact that I don’t know what the original plan was since I joined midway…’

Whether it was Fjodra who overlooked this or the original author, I don’t know.

At any rate, they probably didn’t call blindly charging as a plan.

For now, I stepped back and carefully observed the movements of the others.

Liolikin had a very scared and shriveled face, but fitting his tank position, he raised his shield and took a step forward.

And then he activated the [Armor of Protection] skill, and the shape of the armor made of aether looked different from usual.

Decorative elements were added to the plain and rough design.

But even so, it was only a very minor level, yet the difference between having no decoration and having even a little was quite significant.

“U, Woah…!”

In reality, adding decorations to armor would only reduce functionality, but this was a fantasy world that existed within a creative work.

It is the law of this world that splendor and defense are proportional.

An exclamation burst from Liolikin’s lips as he saw the enhancement effect of the [Encourage] skill with his own eyes.

On the other hand, Vigdis’s [Iron-Blooded Steel Body] was not a skill that showed outwardly. It was impossible to tell even whether it was used or not, let alone any change.

I guess she probably didn’t feel anything either.

‘Originally, she also confirmed its strength by taking direct attacks…’

Nevertheless, Vigdis lowered her stance, ready to leap forward at any time.

So she looked quite uneasy, but.

At any rate, since she was standing behind Liolikin, I assume she wasn’t trying to be a tank but was in position to attack as a dealer.

As if to add certainty to this speculation, Reysir stood side by side with Vigdis.

The spear he gripped was filled with golden aether, but unlike usual, no crackling sparks flew; it was quiet.

The rain that poured from the storm clouds summoned by the baby dragon had long stopped.

But the ground was still wet, and water was dripping from the golem’s body.

Seems he decided not to use the [Lightning Domination] skill, as it could accidentally electrocute others.

‘Well, after all, a golem is a rock. There’s no chance of it suffering status effects from electrocution, and even if you shatter the rocks that make up its body…’

Svein used a spear like Reysir, but couldn’t stand in the same line as him.

Since his spearmanship was lacking to stand in front and directly face the boss monster, it seemed he intended to only assist from behind using his aether characteristic ability.

Perhaps he was just holding the spear just in case, as he didn’t even infuse it with aether.

He was solely focused on gathering the rainwater scattered by Yor.

‘I did taunt him, sarcastically saying I expected great feats, but…’

I wonder what meaning there is in pouring water on rocks.

It might be possible to push and knock down the enemy with a high-pressure water jet, but I can’t expect more than that.

Or perhaps he can’t even produce that much water pressure, making even that impossible.

Lausa created Wind Arrows and aimed at various parts of the boss golem’s body.

Fjodra, the familiar’s master, nocked a single arrow on the bowstring and concentrated aether into it.

First, Lausa would randomly fire Wind Arrows to check where the boss monster defends, thereby locating the magic core.

Then Fjodra would shoot an arrow to pierce it, it seems.

‘It would be good if Fjodra’s arrow can reach the magic core before the boss monster moves its location…’

Things can’t go that easily.

If Fjodra had also prioritized locating the magic core by creating and firing a large number of Wind Arrows like Lausa did.

And then, after learning that the boss monster can move the magic core’s location, resolved to pierce it the moment its location was determined.

‘According to the implicit rules of creative works, the probability of success would have greatly increased…’

But now the situation is the opposite, so only the probability of failure has increased.

My wise baby dragon would also be aware of this fact.

But perhaps judging that it couldn’t just sit idly, it created far more aether arrows than the Wind Arrows Lausa had made.

Lastly, Hailga and Pret showed somewhat unusual movements.

The two ran to the right and left, not forward or backward.

I was momentarily puzzled by their sudden dash in opposite directions, but soon I could understand their intention.

Hailga’s gloved hand.

More precisely, because several wires connected to the ring she wore on it were held in Pret’s hand.

With her current abilities, she couldn’t withstand the boss monster’s strength, so holding it in place was out of the question.

‘They’re thinking of tripping it and making it fall!’

For reference, the gloves and ring Hailga equipped were items I was seeing for the first time.

In Chapter 286, Fjodra had promised to give Hailga wires and auxiliary tools necessary to use them as weapons.

It seems the delivery ceremony was completed while I was away.

‘Wires aren’t common weapons, but they sure got them quickly.’

To the readers reading this text, it might seem like a long time ago, but in story time, it hadn’t even been 24 hours yet.

At this level, it’s likely that Fjodra had prepared them in advance, thinking she would give them to Hailga someday.

When the demonic realm occurred and they had to enter actual combat, she just took them out from her inventory and gave them.

Before the two connected by wires could open enough distance, the boss monster approached.

To stop the charge of the giant rock golem, the arrows created by the two familiars were shot and flew, but.

Because quantity was prioritized over quality, they didn’t contain strong power.

But the golem suddenly stopped and raised its arms to cover its head, as if it had been programmed with an order to absolutely protect its weak point, the power engine.

And the next moment.

The rocks that made up the golem gathered around its head to form a sphere, then returned to its original form with limbs.

“Just now… what was that?”

When I paused the [Character Analysis] skill to clear my head, I could hear the original protagonist’s bewildered voice.

‘What else? It moved the power engine containing the magic core to another place!’

I had this thought but didn’t immediately voice it.

Because it was something that couldn’t be noticed just from what we saw.

I judged it was too early to make a cautious speculative statement.

Sure enough, as soon as the golem released its defensive stance, Fjodra let the bowstring go without hesitation.

-Swaeeeeeeek!!

An arrow imbued with blue-green aether flew, creating a gust of wind, and pierced the exact center of the golem’s head.

Then the golem’s body wobbled and tilted backward—.

“Di, did we kill it…?”

– Svein blurted out a line no different from a resurrection spell.

The golem’s body, which seemed to be falling, straightened up, and scattered stone fragments flew in to fill the hole in its head.