Chapter 16: Stone Golem (2)

"Garrick," he said slowly, without taking his eyes off the golem. "Please tell me this is one of those things you were just warning me about."

Garrick’s throat bobbed as he swallowed. "No," he said quietly. "I’ve traveled this road for years, Leon. I’ve seen monsters, bandits, the occasional wyvern flying too low for comfort. I have never once seen anything like that standing in the middle of it."

"That’s not what I wanted to hear."

"I know." Garrick’s hands were white-knuckled around the reins now, his eyes darting between the golem and the narrow gap of road behind them that might, if things went badly, serve as an escape route. "Leon, whatever that thing is, we should turn around. There’s no shame in it. A contract isn’t worth dying over."

"Maybe not," Leon said, already stepping down from the bench. "But it’s already seen us, and I doubt it’s the type to let us walk away just because we asked nicely."

The golem’s runes pulsed brighter, the dim blue light along its arms and chest sharpening into something closer to a glow, and with a grinding shriek of stone against stone, its head turned toward the carriage. Whatever passed for its eyes settled directly on them, twin hollows of darker rock set deep beneath a jutting brow.

It had noticed them.

"Get the horses back," Leon said, already sliding off the bench. "Now."

Garrick didn’t argue. He hauled hard on the reins, forcing the carriage into a tight, awkward turn while the horses screamed in protest, and Leon dropped onto the road alone, staff already rising into a ready grip.

The golem took its first step.

The ground shook beneath the impact, dust rising in a small cloud around its foot, and Leon felt the vibration travel up through his boots and into his teeth. Twice the height of the tallest building in Novice Village #0048, and moving like it had all the time in the world to close the distance, because it did.

Leon didn’t wait for it to arrive.

He raised the staff and unleashed Arcane Surge.

Crack!

A bolt of mana, laced now with the faint sickly green tint of poison, streaked across the road and slammed directly into the golem’s chest. The impact should have staggered something that size. Instead, the golem barely paused mid-step, a thin crackle of light rippling across the point of contact before fading into nothing.

A notification blinked into existence at the edge of Leon’s vision.

[Stone Golem HP: -0.5]

Leon stared at the number for a full second before his brain fully processed it.

"You’re joking," he muttered.

He fired again, and again, four bolts in rapid succession, each one detonating against stone with a crack that promised far more than it delivered.

[Stone Golem HP: -0.5]

[Stone Golem HP: -0.5]

[Stone Golem HP: -0.5]

[Stone Golem HP: -0.5]

Two points of damage, total, against a level eight boss. Leon’s jaw tightened as he sidestepped a swing of the golem’s massive arm, the wind of the near miss strong enough to ruffle his wear.

This didn’t add up. The quest’s difficulty was rated for Levels 1–3, which meant the enemies he encountered should have fallen within roughly the same range. Yet what he’s facing is far more dangerous than anything a beginner-level quest should have thrown at him.

The Level 8 boss standing before him wasn’t a coincidence. It wasn’t some random oversight, either, not in a system as precise as Eternal Heaven. Something about this quest, or perhaps something about Leon himself, had drawn this creature directly into his path. He just didn’t know what it was yet, and Leon didn’t like not knowing what.

But he then filed the thought away. There would be time to dwell on it later, assuming there was a later.

For now, there was a golem trying very hard to turn him into a stain on the road.

Leon slung the staff across his back and drew the Bloodfang Edge instead, the silver blade catching the afternoon light as he darted in low, ducking beneath a follow-up swing that would have taken his head off his shoulders. He drove the sword upward into the golem’s forearm with both hands, putting his full weight behind the strike.

The blade bit into stone with a sharp, grinding crunch.

[Stone Golem HP: -1.5]

Better. Not nearly good enough.

Leon disengaged before the golem could retaliate, rolling clear as a fist the size of a boulder slammed into the ground where he’d been standing a heartbeat earlier, cratering the dirt road on impact. He came up already moving, circling toward the golem’s flank, sword flashing twice more in quick succession.

[Stone Golem HP: -1.5]

[Stone Golem HP: -1.5]

Four and a half points down from the sword. Three from the staff. At this rate, he’d be here until the sun set twice over, assuming the golem didn’t crush him first, and assuming whatever defensive property was eating most of his damage didn’t get worse the longer the fight dragged on.

He needed information.

Leon fell back a step, putting a few extra feet of distance between himself and the golem’s reach, and reached inward for his talent. Origin Eyes.

Ding!

[SSS-Rank Talent Activated: Origin Eyes]

[Analyzing target: Stone Golem]

[Perception threshold met. Displaying available information.]

[Elemental Weakness Detected: Wind-based and Water-based attacks.]

[Note: No compatible elemental affinity currently equipped.]

Leon exhaled slowly, and the golem’s stone hide suddenly became almost transparent before his eyes. Faint streams of mana threaded through its massive body like veins, converging into denser channels along its arms and chest where the glowing runes burned brightest. Wind and water. Of course. The creature had to be weak to elements he had absolutely nothing of.

Leon didn’t possess a single Wind or Water skill. His current arsenal relied entirely on raw mana and poison, neither of which had any obvious connection to the elements that could harm the golem’s body. For a brief moment, frustration flashed through him, sharp and immediate, before he forced it down and steadied his breathing.

He didn’t need the right element.

He needed time.

And fortunately for him, Absolute Adaptation didn’t care what kind of resistance it was up against. Poison, curses, hostile environments, supernatural energies, or extraordinary phenomena, it allowed his body and abilities to gradually adapt to all of them, provided they were exposed to them repeatedly for the adaptation to take effect.

It wasn’t an instant solution, nor did it make him immune from the beginning, but given enough time, even the most hostile forces could eventually become something his body learned to endure.

And Runic Fortification was, at its core, just another form of resistance, a shield the golem’s body was actively generating against incoming damage. If Leon kept feeding it the same attack over and over, sooner or later that attack will adapt to the resistance.