Chapter 93: The Past Always Stabs You in the Back

"What we're lookin' for ain't on the surface of this place... lookin' around the piles of junk won't find it."

"Then what do we do, desu wa?"

"We look for a door. The 'Ma-ryoku-un-yoon-yu-nitto' is basically somethin' blacksmiths used in the Divine Age."

"In short, we're looking for a workshop."

Glancing at Bilac nodding, we search for the entrance to this so-called workshop. Since it's a place one must visit to acquire the "Ancient Craftsman" job, it shouldn't be as hard to find as the Hidden Garden in the Prismatic Forest Grotto, which is difficult to find even if you know about it.

"That said, with rubble piled up like this, finding even a door is going to be a struggle."

Giant ribs supporting their bodies as if stabbing into the ground. Inside this area, the wreckage of buildings is everywhere, inactive golems are lying around, and on top of that, grass is crawling over them due to weathering. Furthermore, since it's night and visibility is low, I'm starting to regret slightly that I started the conquest at night.

"Is there some kind of Navigation (Guide) that leads us to the destination?"

"If it was that easy, I woulda come alone. I didn't come 'til now 'cause I gotta search seriously."

"I see."

Because it's a game, players have nearly infinite lives and can share information from a third-person perspective, but for NPCs, exploring a place with no guarantee of safety for a long time isn't something they can do lightly.

It's the difference between offline games where the world's time stops upon saving, and MMOs where time passes even after logging out. Slow-life games link to real-time normally, but that's irrelevant now.

"In that case, should we split up to search...?"

"No, considering safety, it would be better to split into two groups! Umu, truly rational!"

Why are you so... ah, I see.

"Then how do we split?"

"Me and the Bird Person will do."

Bilac, Aramis is looking at you with a face like it's the end of the world. Did you do that on purpose? Was it intentional?

"I agree with splittin', and if it's Aramis, I can trust him to partner with Emul."

"Oi oi, implying you're uneasy with me?"

"Yer the guy who happily challenges the Seven Colossi..."

Uumu, can't deny that. But still, even if he's an NPC, I kinda want to support Aramis's approach...

"Hey, I can count on ya, right? Aramis."

"If it is the Maiden's request... then...!"

Ah, you caved. So my conflict is neutralized by a single word from Bilac, yes.

"...Huh, my opinion doesn't count, desu wa?"

"Seniority (Level) rules, give up."

And so, we split into the Me/Bilac pair and the Emul/Aramis pair to begin searching for the destination.

"Heave-ho!"

"Oryaaa!"

The head of the golem, sprouting broken swords from its entire body like a hedgehog, is crushed. The golem's torso wobbles from Bilac's brain-crushing blow, having used me as a jump pad. Through the gaps in the swords, I pierce the jewel-like core with the straight sword.

"Man, I never thought a dagger lacking reach would be a blind spot."

The Hedgehog Golem, its Core crushed, begins to collapse. Perhaps because they are treated as part of the monster rather than drop items, the swords scattered on the ground also turn into polygons and vanish.

What remained was a stone statue carved from rock. Picking it up and examining it, it seems to be modeled after a female knight.

Idol of Sword Rejection
A small-scale clone of itself rarely generated by naturally occurring golems.
Idols generated by Swordle Golems strongly attract the attention of specific monsters.
The more the Idol of Sword Rejection rejects, the more interest it draws.

"I can say with certainty, those specific monsters are definitely Orcs or Goblins."

Female Knight, but the R-18 kind? That's some deep karma, oi.

Suppressing the urge to collect idols that was welling up, I look again at the straight sword that delivered the finishing blow to the Swordle Golem.

Where did the blood-rusted lump of metal that continued to reap heads regardless of life or death in the hands of the clumsy Dullahan go? It had been reborn into a two-handed sword with a beautiful blade tinged slightly red... a so-called Zweihander.

"Or rather, isn't the blade longer than before?"

"That's its original form. That Dullahan used it 'til it was worn down, so it got whittled down and shortened over the long years."

"Hmm... Well, might be just right for practicing [Twin Moon] handling and skill acquisition."

Its name is "Decapitation Sword of the Flame General." Because the acquisition condition involves repairing a weapon dropped from a Rare Enemy, which is troublesome, it has quite good performance.

It doesn't have flashy abilities like fusing disgusting flesh to your arm or inverting the user's attributes, but in addition to the correction for attacks on the neck inherited from the General Dullahan's Decapitation Sword era... or rather, inherited from the original form, its astounding durability is truly wonderful.

If I say it has five times the durability of Marsh Daggers [Mod. II], you can understand its extraordinary Toughness. Plus, it has resistance to high heat, so it's perfect.

"That said, it's bulky, so I prefer dual blades..."

Different handling from dual blades means the combat style changes too. This type of weapon, smaller than a greatsword but larger than a short sword, is hard to use unless you have a certain degree of defense.

My (Sunraku's) stats obviously discard defense, so normally this kind of weapon would have poor compatibility, but because of the trump card called [Twin Moon], I can't say that.

Looking back at the Wethermon fight, I realized the problem is the lack of skills usable during [Twin Moon]. Most of my skills utilize the light movement and hit count suited for dual blades. That's why for a straight sword... no, the combined Togetsu leans toward a greatsword, so I need skills for that.

"Though I heard skills are hard to level up if you're not in the appropriate job..."

The relationship between Job and Skill in this game is slightly complicated.

For example, my main job "Mercenary (Dual Wielder)" is a "Mercenary" job that specializes in dual wielding.

Basically, "Mercenary" jobs have a hard time learning magic but easily learn weapon skills. Specifically, it's a job that learns sword skills and martial arts skills, but in my case with the Dual Wielder affix, I easily learn skills for weapon types held one in each hand, like Dual Blades, Dual Daggers, and Paired Blade Swords.

But if one side pops out, the other withdraws... While it's easy to learn dual-wield skills, there's a demerit that makes it hard to learn greatsword skills.

Well, ultimately, it seems theoretically possible to learn any skill if you continue leveling and trying.

This element where RNG is involved in skill acquisition is a gatekeeper for time attacks, and furthermore, while it harbors the danger of turning into a trash game instantly if the RNG is terrible, the randomness also acts as flavor extending the game's worldview...

"In short, RNG is trash."

"Yer makin' a face like ya reached some truth, but I think that's probably yer misunderstandin'."

"Probably..."

Let's return my thoughts to the current problem. In other words, it's like being told to reach a destination without a map. To find the location of the Magic Power Operation Unit... the place Bilac calls a "Workshop," I need deduction like a great detective.

First, what is a "Workshop"? Bilac called the place where weapons are made that as a blacksmith, but from my meta perspective, "Workshop" can be read as equals to "Production Factory."

Whether it's one-off weapons or mass-produced weapons, if a super-civilization is making something, it wouldn't be a place where hammers are swung on anvils, but a more scientific place.

"In that case, from the shape of the building and the surrounding conditions..."

At least they wouldn't do precision work "on the ground while fighting external enemies," and furthermore, there should have been some means of self-defense.

Yes, for example, placing Security and Defense Golems around, or something.

"Bilac, we're looking for a place where golems that look clearly combat-oriented, yet armed for interception or defense, are gathered."

"Aye, got it."

Golems, golems, golems, golems.

Repeating battles against guys who are strangely tough or guys whose actions are unpredictable naturally accumulates fatigue.

"Damn it... what was with that Matryoshka... Even if I cut it, smaller golems kept coming out from inside..."

"Even I prepared for death when the broken outer shell moved..."

Fortunately, because they were like empty eggshells, Bilac smashed them one by one, so we managed to defeat them, but it's frustrating that the smallest size golem escaped.

"Wasted effort really hits hard..."

"But since that golem is gone, it means there are no more obstacles stoppin' us."

Ahead of our gaze, inside a crumbling ruin. Sitting in the place where the Matryoshka Golem was entrenched until just moments ago is what used to be an elevator.

Golems armed with what appear to be defensive equipment, facing the "outside" of the building and functionally stopped; an elevator leading underground; and above all, the fact that unlike other buildings we've explored so far, we can enter this one, makes it extremely suspicious.

"How far down is it?"

"...Seems pretty deep."

Bilac, throwing a metal fragment that looked like some part dropped on the ground into the open elevator shaft, twitches her black ears and concludes so.

"Now what to do... I doubt there's a cushion at the bottom..."

There's no confirmation, but the underground level existing below seems quite deep, and it doesn't seem easy enough to climb down the wall bare-handed.

Right, if we're going to descend safely while minimizing the gambling aspect...

"Rope would be convenient, wouldn't it, Sunraku-kun?"

"What a coincidence, there happens to be an Archaeologist-turned-Treasure Hunter here holding massive amounts of rope."

"Oh, that helps. Then immediately............"

Hiee.

Author's Afterword

Swordle Golem
A naturally occurring golem sprouting swords made in the Divine Age from its entire body like a hedgehog. It has the cliché attack method of shooting needles from its whole body when in a pinch, but it does not drop weapons.

Nesting Golem
A golem containing a golem inside a golem like a nesting doll, repeating endlessly. Since it eventually shrinks to a golf ball-sized main body, and can remotely control the discarded outer shells, you'll get punched from behind if you let your guard down.
The main body is incredibly agile, and the moment it's exposed, its only move is to run away. Furthermore, since you don't get EXP or items unless you defeat the main body, it is extremely hated.
Note that since this guy dropped the idol resembling Saint-chan mentioned before, it was hunted to near-extinction levels for a period.

Alpha Unit Golem IW4 Type
A work golem with burner arms. It operates to "complete" the gigantic framework covering the Ruins of Past Glory, but since the orders haven't been updated, it repeats the same thing endlessly. Because an interception program was hastily installed, it reacts to external enemies and attacks.
There is no longer anything to prove the meaning of their existence.