System Change

Reappearing in the fourth area of the dungeon, Derek looked at his surroundings. Looks like another cave, he thought. Unlike the previous cave from the second area with the Fire Golems, this cave wasn’t stuffy and humid.

He walked forward and pushed a boulder, which was blocking the exit, to the side. When he walked out, he took note of the area. It was a mountain-like terrain with moss-covered rocks scattered throughout. The air was cool, with a refreshing breeze. It was the most comfortable area he’d been in since beginning the dungeon.

He couldn’t tell which stones were stones, and which were golems. Again, he preferred to fight a single one first to figure out what he could do with it before going at the rest. All the countless boulders and stones truly looked the same. Nothing stood out.

He knew from the other areas that the closest golem should be at least a certain distance away from the safe zone, so he moved out. He used Identify to scan any boulders he thought may be golems, but was having a hard time finding one.

Eventually, he stepped close to a boulder and heard the normal roar of a golem. He sighed in relief. The golem built itself in front of Derek. Identify provided the same information as the previous times, except for the level now being 170 and the golem being an Earth Golem.

Derek jumped back to give the Earth Golem enough space to attack. Finally, after putting itself together, with a yellow-brown glow, the surrounding stones and boulders rose from the ground. Ah, so it’s going to control the surrounding rocks and earth.

And just like Derek’s thoughts, the Earth Golem did just that. Stone after stone was launched at Derek. He trusted his body against common stones, even though his least favorite type of damage to receive was blunt damage. With his current stats, he doubted any blunt damage would be able to induce a critical hit, instantly killing him.

Still, he put his arms up to guard against the stone. He wasn’t stupid enough to try to block it with his head. The first stone bashed against his crossed arms, with the impact tossing him back a few feet. The pain wasn’t bad, and the damage was minimal.

His skin, bones, and muscles were strong enough to absorb the damage from these normal stones, even if they were enhanced by some of the Earth Golem’s magic.

On the bright side, after blocking the fifth stone, he had enough time to quickly view and dismiss a notification stating that his Physical Resistance skill leveled to 13. He smiled. This area would be the perfect one for training that skill.

He fought against the Earth Golem for another couple dozen minutes, waiting for it to attack with a different method. When it didn’t, he decided to end the fight. He jumped forward with a fistful of void and launched an attack at the core of the golem.

However, just before he made it within attacking distance, a wall appeared before him. A wall made of stone and earth. Of course… why wouldn’t the Earth Golem have more defensive type moves than the other golems?

His fist landed on the wall, but it only slowly sunk into it. It was like a wall made out of quicksand. Derek clicked his tongue as he tried, and failed, to remove his hand from the quicksand wall. The earth had closed in and formed around his fist once it pierced it.

An adventurer would have to be someone with speed like Shae to avoid becoming trapped in this thing. Derek thought and thought of a way to get his hand free while being pummeled in the back with stones. Though his back could take it, and each stone only caused a minimal amount of damage to his HP, it added up.

Just before he decided to add a bunch of stat points into Strength, he had another idea. He punched forward with his free hand, directly beside his stuck one, immediately using Void Shift afterward. He smiled. The skill almost completely paused the earth reforming around his fist. He withdrew his hand, then pulled on his other.

It came free. Okay… so no close range attacks until I’m certain I want to end the fight. He maneuvered around the earth wall and channeled the void into his fist before releasing Void Shift. Just for a little extra precaution, he imbued his punch with the Multi-Strike skill.

Sure enough, the same earth that formed the earth wall appeared in front of the golem’s core. It wasn’t thick, and would for sure be easily pierced by a weapon, but it would be able to slow down a fist… well, one not covered in void and not one that hit multiple times instantly.

The fist hit and the earth scattered. Creating a basketball sized hole in front of the core. The momentum of the fist carried on until it struck the core. Derek kicked off the torso of the golem and fled a distance, not wanting to be caught up in the explosion.

The core shined brightly like all the others before, then it shined brighter and brighter… finally, it… went dim. The yellowish aura surrounding the golem disappeared, and it fell apart. Derek saw the notification icon flash in the side of his vision, so he knew it was dead.

Still, he cautiously approached it. He dug around through the rocks before finding the dead, but totally intact, core of the Earth Golem.

I… um… what? Why did this one not explode? He thought back to all the other golems he had massacred on his way here. The only outlier was the fact that he hadn’t combined Channel Void and Multi-Strike together before. He had only used it in combination with Sweeping Slash back in the Water Golem area.

It has to have something to do with the massive amount of damage being hit by the void three times must have inflicted. If one hit is enough to cause the core to surge and explode, then is two enough to eliminate the surge and destroy the magic build up? He couldn’t help but wonder.

I wonder if Brandi will be able to do anything with the core. It should work as some type of mana storage or something. Maybe she could use it as a generator or something. She’d have to find out exactly how it works, though, and that may be dangerous. He thought about the different ways the core could be implemented in crafting.

Derek shrugged his shoulders. It may be worthless… When he used Identify on the core, he didn’t get anything concrete.

Mana Core (Earth Golem Lv. 170)

A successfully retrieved mana core used to power an Earth Golem.

All I know is that it is used to power the golem, and it was successfully retrieved. He shook his head and stored the basketball sized core. Maybe it would be worth something, or maybe it would be a great material for Brandi in the future. He wouldn’t know until he got back to Savannah and asked around. For now, he decided on a new method of destroying the golems.

He would combine the void and Multi-Strike to shut them down, then farm their cores. They weren’t too big, and even if he ran out of storage in his ring and bracelet, he could always toss them in his Void Storage.

Now I just need to figure out how to aggro all the other Earth Golems in the area. Usually, the explosion from the first golem would aggro the rest of the golems, but since that didn’t happen, he either had to hunt them one by one, or find another way to draw their attention.

Derek laughed and cast Chain Lightning. His hands shined the blue of lightning as the skill activated. Let’s see if this works, or if there’s more to it. He spread his hands, then clapped. A slightly amplified clap sounded out, but it was nothing like what happened with Edgar.

Edgar was with lightning like Derek was with void. Derek, on the other hand, only had the one lightning skill. It was worth a shot. Derek went over his skills, but he didn’t have anything major he could use to wake them all up at once.

Next, he decided to try using his aura. If he couldn’t make a loud enough sound, or physically explosion to wake the monsters up, maybe his pressure would.

Without even trying to focus or control his aura, Derek let it out. The area around him glowed a deep purple and the whites of his eyes changed to the same purple as his irises. He pushed. He didn’t know how far his aura would extend, but just a brush of it should be more than enough to wake a sleeping golem.

Sure enough, seconds later, multiple roars broke out.

Three… Derek retracted his aura and counted the number of rising golems. He kicked off the ground and punched the one closest to him before it had a chance to fully form. The earth still appeared in front of the core, but the wall did not.

He didn’t use Multi-Strike for the punch, though. After the strike landed, he jumped back and moved toward the mountain cave that doubled as the safe room. Soon, the Earth Golem exploded, and Derek smiled.

The remaining golems in the area all roared, and soon, the remaining eight golems were standing. Derek covered his fists in the void and shot forward. It was time to farm some materials.

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