episode_0006

Lucas was the first among us to attack the golem.

“I’ll go first.”

Lucas first strengthened his body using mana. The high-purity mana accumulated from countless elixirs made his already tough body, forged through effort, even stronger. He lowered his stance, ready to spring forward at any moment.

“Hyaaaah!”

With a powerful yell, he kicked off the ground and charged at the golem with lightning-like speed. It was a speed so intense that even I, standing right beside him, found it hard to keep up. Lucas’s spear, carrying that speed, struck the golem before it could even swing its monstrously huge arm.

The golem’s left leg, pierced by the spear, collapsed miserably. Perhaps because it lost a leg and its balance, the golem swayed. The students who saw this murmured amongst themselves.

“That huge golem in just one hit!”

“Isn’t that golem weaker than we thought?”

“If that were you, you wouldn’t even have grazed it and would’ve been taken out in one go, right?”

“Exactly, His Imperial Highness is truly amazing.”

The students who had been fighting monsters chattered, seemingly thinking the golem was already finished, but Lucas, sensing danger, quickly put distance between himself and the golem. And that judgment saved Lucas.

If the golem had been defeated so easily, it wouldn’t have been called a ‘defeat event,’ and I wouldn’t have attempted it more than 100 times myself.

Boom!

With an incredibly loud crash, the golem’s ridiculously huge fist slammed into the spot where Lucas had just been. The floor was caved in as if hit by a meteor. And the golem’s leg, which Lucas had clearly pierced, had returned to normal.

If Lucas hadn’t immediately distanced himself, it wouldn’t have been the floor that was caved in, but Lucas. At that brutal yet shocking sight, the students raised their voices and chattered loudly.

“What… what is that?”

“There’s another golem like that?”

“There’s no way we, as students, can defeat something like that!”

Those were the two biggest characteristics of that golem.

Insane destructive power and a body that regenerates infinitely unless its core is destroyed.

The person who made this crazy golem was Professor Idra.

That insane professor was probably chuckling, watching the bewildered students right now.

I spoke to Clara, who was calmly observing the golem beside me.

“Wow~ That golem is amazing, isn’t it? Miss Clara, you still haven’t said anything about my spell?”

Regardless of my words, Clara silently began to chant. She could at least answer me.

As Clara chanted, mana was visibly gathering around her. She must have used a lot of mana fighting the monsters just now, but she continued her chant as if she didn’t need to worry about the remaining amount of mana.

In fact, her mana had probably rarely, if ever, run out until now. The reason this was possible was her unique trait, [Infinite Mana].

It wasn’t truly infinite, but a trait that gave her a near-infinite amount of mana. Clara’s trait was famously overpowered even in Kroaka.

Because of that unrivaled trait, the Tower Lord, famous for never taking disciples, was the first to offer Clara to become his apprentice.

After she finished chanting, a massive sphere of flame blazed on her staff.

“Fireball.”

“Miss Clara? How is that a ‘Fireball’? That’s a Meteor.”

If a normal mage’s fireball was about the size of a human head, the fireball Clara created resembled a meteor.

Perhaps annoyed by my constant chattering beside her, Clara turned the staff, bearing the meteor-like spell, towards me.

“Gasp! You’re not going to throw that at me, are you? Unlike the golem, if I get hit by that, I’ll definitely die, you know? There’s so much I haven’t done yet; I can’t die in such an absurd way!”

“Hey, can’t either of you see me?”

Lucas was currently dodging the golem’s arm while attacking with his spear. However, because he was attacking while dodging the golem’s arm, it lacked the destructive power of before, and any damage he inflicted was immediately regenerated by the golem, making it useless.

“Tsk.”

“Ah! I just heard you click your tongue! You weren’t planning to shoot that at me if the golem wasn’t here, were you?”

Clara lightly ignored my words and unleashed the meteor-like fireball at the golem. Lucas, sensing it, quickly moved out of the way, and the flying fireball enveloped the golem’s body.

BOOM!!!!!

The fireball engulfed the golem, creating an enormous explosion. The smoke from the blast obscured their vision, and all the students waited for the smoke to clear.

Soon the smoke dissipated, revealing a golem with about half of its upper body blown away. The important thing was the blue orb visible inside the golem’s body now that half its upper body was gone. That was the golem’s core. Destroying that would make the golem disappear.

“Mr. Lucas! Aim for that blue orb! If you destroy that, the golem will disappear.”

“I’m curious how you know that, but alright.”

Lucas rapidly charged towards the golem’s core before its body could regenerate.

This was how I defeated the golem in Kroaka.

While Lucas drew the golem’s attention, a comrade would land a powerful attack to expose the core, and then quickly strike the core. Even when I used this method, Clara was the comrade responsible for the powerful attack.

Just as Lucas was about to attack the core, another golem that had been still until now began to move. This was outside my scope of prediction. I thought the condition for a golem to move was when it was attacked first, so I assumed it would be the same for the other golem, but I guess not.

“Mr. Lucas, dodge!”

As the other golem suddenly attacked, Lucas couldn’t dodge. He blocked with his spear, but the golem’s attack was so strong that even though he blocked it with his spear, he was sent flying all the way to where I was.

Lucas ignored his own body and gazed at the golem.

“Damn it! Has it already regenerated in that time?”

Despite it being a situation that would naturally cause frustration, Clara, true to a mage’s nature, calmly analyzed the situation.

“Even if we manage to expose one golem’s core, the other one is guarding it, which is annoying.”

While I was wondering what to do, a brilliant idea popped into my head.

*Inhale*, is this even possible?

“Mr. Lucas, Miss Clara, I’ve thought of a good method.”

As I opened my mouth, Lucas and Clara looked at me, both suspicious and curious.

“Hehehe, the current problem is that while one golem regenerates, the other is guarding it, isn’t that right?”

“That’s right.”

“…..”

Lucas agreed with my words, while Clara said nothing. I stared intently at Clara, who remained silent. If she didn’t respond, I wouldn’t speak either.

“Haaah… Yes, that’s the problem. So what’s your solution?”

“Hehehe, if regeneration is the problem, then we just need to eliminate both golems without leaving even a single core!”

As I spoke as if I were Columbus discovering a new continent, Lucas and Clara stared at me with dumbfounded expressions. As if asking why we were struggling if that were possible.

“Loki, you can’t possibly make such an attack, can you?”

Lucas asked just in case. Oh, no way.

“No! I cannot!”

There’s no way I have something that good, is there? All I have is a handsome face.

“But, wouldn’t it work if the two of you attacked simultaneously?”

I can’t do it, but these two are different. I don’t have an attack with that kind of destructive power, but they do. Although it takes time to prepare the attack.

Listening to my words, the two fell into thought, then said that two conditions were needed to do as I suggested.

The first was that it would take time to prepare the attack, and during that time, the golems shouldn’t be able to attack them.

The second was that when they launched the attack, both golems should be gathered together in one place.

“Hehehe, if it’s those two things, I can take care of them.”

“It’ll take at least 10 minutes. Can you keep both golems occupied for 10 minutes?”

“You two don’t need to worry about the golems; just prepare your attacks. The golems won’t be able to get close to you.”

As soon as my confident words ended, the two began to gather their power.

Clara immediately began to chant. Unlike before, the language of her chant was unintelligible to humans. It sounded as if it gathered all the screams of humanity. Just listening to the chant sent shivers down my spine.

A golden aura emanating from Lucas’s body enveloped him. The golden aura looked so sacred and noble that I felt an unconscious urge to pledge my loyalty to it.

The two closed their eyes and concentrated, as if not even caring about the golems. Their belief that the golems wouldn’t reach them. That trust was both overwhelming and heartwarming.

I was standing on the same stage as them. The people I had only seen on a monitor screen were now trusting me.

“If you two are taking on risk, then it’s only right that I take on some risk as well.”

I used my unique skill, Illusion. Unlike when I played with the little kid earlier, what I was creating this time wasn’t a dog or a cat.

The image of what I intended to create came to mind. I was certain that even Johanna, with her keen senses, wouldn’t be able to discern that this was fake. After all, this was what I had created most often with my illusions.

Just like that, the illusion I created appeared in the auditorium, and the students were astonished.

“Is something like that possible?”

“I’ve never seen or heard of magic like that.”

“Is that even magic to begin with?”

“There are 10 of him?!”

The illusion I created was myself.

In the academy auditorium, ten versions of me came into existence.

“Shall we make a spectacular ruckus, then?”

The ten of me charged at the golem.