Chapter 249: Merle’s Golem

My friends and I heard about the relationship between the Beast Kingdom and the Central Continent for the first time.

Since there wasn’t anything that I could do, I just hoped that Beast Prince Zew, who seemed to get along well with the Central Continent, would become the next Beast King.

It seemed that the Giamut Empire was negotiating for their stability.

The Beast Kingdom became independent from the Empire 1,000 years ago, but both the Giamut Empire and the Beast Kingdom of Arbahal had co-existed since then.

I hoped that they would talk it over and find a way to resolve the issue.

I believed that there was much that could be done to prevent the worst from happening.

However, if the Beast Kingdom were to attack from the south of the Central Continent, I would have no choice but to stop fighting against the Demon King’s army.

According to Helmios, if the Beast Kingdom invaded, millions of beastmen would be part of it.

Although they were part of the Five Continents Alliance, the Beast Kingdom was a potential threat to the Central Continental.

So, I concluded that the Demon King’s army wasn’t going to attack the Southern Continents.

If the Beast Kingdom ever invaded, even if the whole beastman race were to go extinct, I was determined to protect the village and country where my family lived.

“No matter how much blood is spilled, I will protect the Latash Kingdom. Hope things won’t come to that.”

My words were so matter-of-fact that Helmios’ companions gulped, knowing that my friends and I had defeated the majority of the 10 million of the Demon King’s army.

Our meeting with Helmios party ended shortly after that.

Helmios asked me how often we were in the dungeon, and when I told him that we spent 3 and a half days in the dungeon at once, he said that his party would match our pace.

The three-story building we were staying at had the same layout as our base in the Academy City, with men’s rooms on the second floor and women’s rooms on the third floor, but the rooms on the third floor were no longer sufficient.

Since Helmios’ party was almost a harem, we decided to use part of the second floor for women as well.

Helmios’ party was going to work mainly on the 4th floor of the dungeon as valuable weapons and armors were available there.

In addition, they wanted to raise Helmios’ Level and Skill Levels, who had recently become Hero King.

“Okay, well, let’s see if you can get the Iron Golem to descend.”

“Yeah.”

My friends and I were in the square of the 3rd floor.

The square was a large safe zone where no magical beasts could come, making it ideal for experimenting with the Golem.

With the rest of us behind her, Merle gripped the Magic Board.

The Magic Board, clenched with both hands, had geometric symbols floating on its surface.

“The Magic Board looks so cool. Is the Golem finally descending?”

At the unusual reaction of the Magic Board, Kiel gripped his staff and braced himself.

Then, taking one big breath, Merle exclaimed.

“Tam-Tam Descend!”

A huge magic circle with geometric symbols arranged in a circle was laid out in front of Merle.

Then, as if popping out of a magic circle, a single Golem emerged from it.

A 10-meter-long iron body stood erect and immobile on the ground.

“Wow! How does this thing work?”

“It can’t move it unless I’m on it.”

A Golem couldn’t move by itself just like puppets.

It wouldn’t move unless the Golem User, the operator, was inside it.

Merle held up the Magic Board to the Iron Golem that appeared.

Then, from the crystal-like part of its chest, light emanated from the Golem to illuminate Merle with a flashlight that responded to the Magic Board.

Merle was sucked into the Golem.

“That’s amazing! It’s moving!”

“Oh! It moved!”

As Dogora was mouthing off about what kind of logic would allow Merle to fit inside the crystal, the Golem began to move slowly.

It was being piloted by Merle.

The Golem tried walking, moving a little faster, attacking, and so on in the square, and it seemed to be able to move freely.

There would be no problems fighting against the magical beasts with those movements.

Merle came out of the Golem after some time.

“Merle! That’s great!”

“Heh heh.”

Merle looked somewhat embarrassed as Kurena praised her.

“I see. So this is the performance of this Golem.”

The Magic Board could fit up to 10 stone slabs.

And on the flat back side of the Magic Board, the performance of the Golem was indicated.

Name] Tam Tam

[Pilot] Merle

[Class] Iron

[Strength] 1500 + 900

[Mana] 1500 + 900

[Attack] 1500

[Endurance] 1500 + 900

[Agility] 1500

[Intelligence] 1500 + 900

[Luck] 1500

(Is the increase in [Strength], [Mana] and [Endurance] the result of Merle’s <Alloy> skill? If the Golem is affected by the pilot’s skills then…)

I took a serious look at the Magic Board around Merle’s neck.

My Grimoire showed me the status of my friends, but it didn’t show me the status of Merle’s Golem.

However, it was displayed on the back of the Magic Board of the pilot.

Just as Helmios was able to see my status with his <Appraisal>, I expected that this world could quantify the status with skills due to some Talents and the Magic Boards.

And since the status increase was 900, I expected the increase to be by 180o when Merle’s <Alloy> reached Level 2.

The increase in status due to the number of stars in the pilot’s Talent affected the status of the Golem.

“Well, try to fit the Strengthening Slab we got.”

“Yes!”

While trying to find Five Basic Stone Slabs, we also got 3 Strengthening Slabs from Treasure Chests and hidden cubes.

The size of the Strengthening Slab was the same as that of the Basic Slabs, so a maximum of 5 could be fitted on the Magic Board.

I also learned from Merle that the size of the Stone Slabs differed for different Special Slabs.

The size seemed to depend on the effect the stone slab had.

The more special the effect, the larger the stone slab was, filling the space of the Magic Board, which could only fit a maximum of 10.

I recognized that strengthening Merle’s Golem was very important if we wanted to conquer the dungeon.

We had Strengthening Stone Slabs that increased [Strength], [Attack], and [Agility], so we put all three of them on.

Then, the Golem’s status increased by 2000 each.

The Strengthening Stone Slabs of the Iron-class seemed to be consistent with an increase of 2,000 per slab.

(If I want to protect it, can I put a stone plate for strength and endurance? (If I want to protect myself, I can put on a stone plate for strength and durability? But now Merle’s skill level is going up.)

Merle couldn’t raise her Skill Levels without a Golem.

“Then, Merle. Now for the real battle.”

“Yes!”

After some understanding of the Golem’s power, we moved towards a rocky mountain.

We already had a good idea of the rocky mountains where the magical beasts appeared.

Merle was in her Iron Golem with Kurena and Dogora in front of the big hole in the rocky mountain while the rest of us were on B-rank Birds.

As usual, Scorpion magical beasts started pouring out of the hole.

As Kurena and Dogora braced themselves, the Iron Golem swung its arm.

“Megaton Punch!”

Merle activated her <Rocket Arm> skill.

An iron arm reached out and crushed a Scorpion magical beast.

(Hohoho, is it connected to the Golem by some kind of string?)

While the skill was called <Rocket Arm>, I didn’t have to find a new arm everytime Merle used the skill, so I thought that Megaton Punch was a better name for the attack than Rocket Punch.

Note that the option of an Iron Punch was excluded from the beginning.

I didn’t think Mithril Punch was a good name for an attack, since we were planning for Merle to upgrade to a Mithril Golem on the next floor.

We wiped out the magical beasts that came out of the hole with relative ease.

“Merle, you did it. It’s going to help us out a lot when we change our Talents.”

Cecile praised Merle.

In another month, everyone except Merle and me will have reached their full Skill Level and changed Talents.

Thanks to Merle’s Golem, we could get by with the lower status in the 3rd floor that only had A-rank magical beasts as Floor Bosses.

“Yes, but A-rank magical beasts will still be hard to…”

(Merle’s status won’t be enough to defeat a defense oriented A-rank magical beast.)

Merle’s Iron Golem had an [Attack] of 3,500.

“We still have to collect some Stone Slabs. You can handle the B-ranks and leave the A-ranks to Kurena and Dogora.”

“Yes, Merle. You can leave them to me!”

Kurena puffed out her and Merle smiled in return.

In this way, Merle got a Golem and the dungeon raid continued.