It would be totally uncool if he went back and told them to go back down and return to their previous route after forcing them all the way up here, he felt awkward now. He leaned onto the boulder and asked in his mind, ‘Hey, Peniel, is that rock golem really is here? Why I didn’t see any?”
“Of course you see it,” Peniel replied. “You are leaning on it.”
Leaning? While he was wondering about it, he felt a tremor from his back and feet. Coming to a realization, he immediately dashed away. He turned back and saw the boulder he was leaning on previously broken apart.
The round boulder now stood up as it formed four thick limbs around its central part. Above its central part was a piece of large rock as big as Suckit’s plump belly. At the center of the rock was a small hole that emitted eerie red light, which made the whole construct looked like a one-eyed humanoid rock monster. When it stood upright, the thing was more than three meters tall.
Once the boulder transformed, his God-eye monocle started to pick up its existence and marked it with a red denominator. Oh, now only you showed me? Jack complained in his mind. He then inspected the rocky monstrosity.
Small Rock Golem (Elite monster, Elemental)
Level: 18
HP: 3,800
This what you called small? Jack wanted to scream out. He had the urge to have a talk with the developer that gave the name to this monster, if there was such thing as a developer in this world.
And what was it about it being a level 16 or 17 basic monster? He immediately demanded an explanation from Peniel, in which she casually replied, “It’s a monster, it’s not like they stay the same level and grade all the time, some can evolve to a stronger version. Just consider it as bad luck for encountering such one.”
Jack was speechless by her offhand reply, but he had no time to argue with her. The Small Rock Golem was looking straight at him and started to move towards him already.
Jack calmed himself down, it was not like he had never fought against an elite monster with a higher level than him before. Moreover, this was just an elite monster, not an elite boss. It’s the same situation as when he fought an elite monster for the first time, the Skeleton Captain. He also had a lower level than the monster at the time, and he still came out victorious.
Except at the time he was free to employ both his classes’ skills. This time he was only allowed to use Mage’s skills, unless of course if he was willing to reveal his secrets. But then again, unlike last time, this time he was not alone. He could take advantage of their bigger number.
“Hey, you lot! Come over here and give me a hand!” He shouted to the group behind him.
“Are you kidding, chief? That’s a level 18 elite!” Suckit protested.
Jack was amazed, one of them must have a very high Inspect skill to be able to scan the monster.
“Just take it as the final boss for our jobs today,” Jack said. “Don’t you play games before? Where is the thrill if there is no boss after the end of a quest?”
“I would prefer not to deal with a boss.”
“Get your asses here, right now!” Jack was done talking with them. The golem was slow, but every step of its caused the ground to shake, it easy to judge its raw power from there, and it had arrived in front of Jack.
It lifted one of its thick arms up, and slammed it down towards Jack’s head. If Jack was any other regular magic user, he would have difficulty dealing with the golem in close range, but he was half Warrior, hence his speed was not lacking. He rolled sideways and easily evaded the slam. The ground shook as cobwebs of cracks spread out from the center of the impact. Jack almost lost his balance from the shaking.
The others who were making their way forwards also halted their advance after seeing how hard the golem punched. Except for Warpath, the fellow continued to advance. For once, Jack was grateful for the fellow’s pride and stubbornness.
Warpath ran to the golem’s rear as it was still after Jack. Jack didn’t mind being the bait. He kept the golem at arm’s length, dodging left and right as Warpath sneaked behind it. He then slashed forward with a Power Strike, his sword crashed heavily with the sturdy skin of the golem. A hard impact sound could be heard. And a damage number of 8 appeared above its head.
What the…!
Every one of them was stunned by the damage number. So low! They clearly see the shining light enveloping the sword before the impact, it indicated that Warpath had used the Power Strike skill. Even though his sword was just common grade, 8 points of damage were still too low after using the skill.
The golem turned around after feeling the strike. It looked down at Warpath. He could faintly feel the disdain from the red light out of the monster’s one eye. It swung its arm forward. Luckily, Warpath was not a simple expert. He moved back reflexively after predicting the monster would attack, yet he could still feel the strength of the wind from the swing. If it hit his body, he would most probably be half-dead already. He kept on stepping back as the golem chased after him.
Jack had a brief wicked thought of letting Warpath poked at the golem alone to study its pattern, but the thought soon passed. The guy was brave enough to come to his aid while the others froze on their feet, he should not leave him to fend the monster alone. He cast Mana Bullet at the monster’s back.
The magical ball slammed onto the monster’s back with resulting damage of 143.
“What..?”
“Huh?”
The others watching were flabbergasted by the hit. They had known that Jack’s damage was much higher than them, but it was not that contrast. Jack was also astonished by the damage, but he didn’t stop. He followed up with standard range attacks as the golem turned around and chased him angrily.
51 damage.
55 damage.
“It was weak against magic attacks!” Flowerrain exclaimed, he then threw his own Mana Bullet at the monster. Since the golem was slow and its body was big, it was not difficult for her to score a hit.
A 59 damage was seen after Flowerrain’s Mana Bullet hit the golem. Her hypothesis was correct, but somehow she didn’t feel great after seeing the damage. Why was her Mana Bullet only slightly stronger than Jack’s normal attack?
“Oh, really?” Bangstick was unconvinced. He used Weapon Throw and sent his dagger onto the golem.
1 damage.
“Physical class stands aside!” Undo uttered disdainfully and joined Flowerrain at shooting at the golem.
The golem was still chasing at Jack, his attacks had caused the highest damage. Its aggro was entirely on him without bordering about the others. Jack ran around in a circle while kiting it, sending a few shots once in a while. It was easy to do as the golem was slow and he was fast, unlike typical Mage.
The battle suddenly became as easy as pie. The monster was obviously being catered for magic class, but a normal magic class would be having trouble against it. Although the golem was slow, a typical magic class was slower. So the golem would catch up to them sooner or later, they would need protection from melee classes in order to survive.
No one had seen the damage by this golem, but from the force of the impact they felt, it was not something that they could walk away from safely. Therefore, any melee class protecting the magic class would be at great risk. And they could not use Rangers to distract, as the golem would just ignore them entirely because it would chase after the one that dealt the highest damage on it, the magic class.
Jack’s existence had caused this monster, which was designed to give a huge headache to the party that unluckily stumbled upon it, into a joke. He dealt the highest damage that forced it to chase after him, and could still run around as fast as a ranger keeping the golem at a distance.
Warpath, Dasher, Bangstick, and Suckit just stood aside watching the golem play tag with Jack, while Flowerrain and Undo added some extra damage once in a while.
“How about we go down first? It’s not like we are needed here,” Suckit said.
“You want the leader to flay you alive?” Bangstick reminded him.
