Chapter 146.

A huge knight-shaped golem swung a sword at me. I threw my body sideways to dodge it. The place where I was standing was greatly dug into and threw up a cloud of dust.

For convenience, I decided to No.the stone statues in order of their proximity to me. The stone statue that attacked me was No.1.

"Who the hell are you?!"

A weak-looking man dressed as a court magician shouted and pointed his finger at me. It was like he was asking how I came in first.

Hahaha, if you are asking me, I must naturally answer!

"I am!"

- Repent for your sins through death! You insolent person!

I was trying to answer, but the fifth stone statue cut me off in ancient language and swung a sword at the weak-looking magician.

Keuack!

The weak-looking guy barely escaped by throwing his body sideways and rolling on the floor.

The fifth statue stubbornly aimed for the magician and swung its sword but was narrowly avoided.

The weak-looking man was sprawled out. Suddenly being cut off while answering, I felt like I was being ignored.

At that time, the one-eyed man easily avoided the seventh stone statue’s attack and threw a dagger at me. I casually caught the dagger.

"Uh, isn’t this a little too aggressive for a first greeting?"

I grumbled and looked at the man with one eye. I thought I had seen him somewhere... He was the man who was secretly observing Dane Walker on the market streets of Lotten.

Seeing him come in with Dane Walker, they probably knew each other.

The one-eyed man grinned at me. "Because I don’t like unknown variables being brought in... There was no one like you within the scope of my predictions.”

"Same goes for me."

After seeing the one-eyed man earlier today, I was trying to take the initiative, but who knew he was going to move so quickly.

"Since it’s come to this, why don’t we introduce ourselves? I’m Lupin."

"I’m Malecia."

Malecia. I had never heard of that name before. Well, it would be strange if a mere tomb raider was making his name known.

"The world also calls me the Black Knight," Malecia said.

Dane Walker shouted while avoiding a stone statue’s attack, "Don’t lie! You’re called Mercenary King!"

Mercenary King? He must be more famous than I thought. No, then is the name Black Knight self-proclaimed?

"Quiet! My subordinates call me Black Knight!"

If it’s your subordinates calling you that, didn’t you force them to say that? I looked at Malecia with pitiful eyes.

It’s okay, men are children even when they’re grown up. Having the eighth-grade syndrome installed at a basic level is what makes you a man!

Perhaps he felt my gaze, but Malecia pointed at me with anger.

“Why are you looking at me with those eyes!?”

I was surprised by his cry. I definitely put perception-disrupting magic on the mask, but he somehow overcame it and read my pitiful gaze. He was stronger than I expected. I upgraded my evaluation from during the day.

In the meantime, the stone statue, which had been continuously attacking, became stationary.

"Ayyt, you’re in the way!"

Malecia rushed to the stone statue No.7 while creating an aura blade on his sword. It would probably be better to deal with the stone statues first.

I climbed atop the sword of stone statue No.1. Then I ran on the sword blade all the way to its head.

Rather than magic, I decided to use the Crow Tribe’s martial arts that I learned from my father. Even if it was me, if I used magic at the center of the underground ruins, it would be hard to survive being buried.

No, I was confident about surviving, but I didn’t want to go through the struggle of having to drag Dane Walker out after being buried.

Stone statue No.1 struck me with its palm as if it were catching a mosquito.

- Insolent like a fly!

𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

I jumped off its arm as I ran.

"Have you seen a fly this big!?”

Then, I used the martial arts at full strength and kicked the palm falling towards me.

"Enlightenment! Cut the clouds!"

My kick cut its palm sharply as if it had been cut by sword aura.

Cutting clouds was a legendary technique where my father split the clouds with a single upwards kick from the ground. When I was learning this technique, I asked my father if being able to cut the clouds was a lie. After getting smacked in the back of the head, I was able to see him cut the clouds with my own eyes.

From then on, I learned not to be smart with my father.

I landed on the arm of stone statue No.1 again and avoided its hand that fell.

- This insolent man has the same power of a dirty Crow!

Stone statues No.3 and 4 were guarding the mana stone that was maintaining the magic circle, but when stone statue No.1 shouted in the ancient language, they started running towards me. It seemed that my ancestor must have really betrayed them hard for a measly golem to curse like this.

But it’s my ancestor!

I ran up stone statue No.1’s shoulder and jumped onto the golem’s head.

"Enlightenment! Crushing rocks!"

I gathered mana on my fist, focused the martial arts, then struck the head of the stone statue.

Kwagwagwang-!

The head split in half, revealing the core that moved the golem. I immediately pulled and cut the mana line connected to the core with my hand wrapped in sword aura.

In terms of human beings, if the core was the brain, this mana line was the spinal cord that was connected to the body. The mana line was quite tough. It seemed to be made by mixing in mithril.

"Oh, it seems pretty useful.”

The core of the golem contained a considerable amount of mana, as well as the design magic that was the foundation for the production of the golem.

Golem production was not my specialty, but if all went well, I might be able to recreate a golem.

- How dare you kill Bedivere! He’s an evil man!

- I will avenge Bedivere!

Swords raised, stone statues No.3 and 4 rushed towards me in rage. The stone statues were not advanced intelligence, but they seemed to have some amount of consciousness.

I grabbed the core of the golem and extended it towards stone statues No.3 and 4 while shouting in the ancient language.

"Bedivere! You’re mine!"

- How dare you insult a holy knight!

- The guardian sword of His Greatness, the King, will punish you!

I don’t know which magician made them, but their reactions were clear, so it was fun to tease. I wanted the cores of those two. I put Bedivere’s core in my pocket space and grabbed the cut mithril line. Then, I looked at the approaching stone statues No.3 and 4 and said, "At the height of 11 meters, which supposedly instills the most fear in humans, I will attempt to jump!"

I held onto the rope tightly and jumped off stone statue No.1, which was at the end of its life and collapsing after losing its core.

Even at a rough glance, the height was easily over 11 meters. The mithril line was pulled out quickly along with my falling body.

After falling about five meters, the mithril line got caught inside the golem and stopped being pulled out. It was shorter than I thought. I had thought I would be able to go at least another 3 meters down.

Using the elasticity of the mithril line created from when I was falling, I kicked the body of stone statue No.1. And with the rebound, I jumped toward stone statue No.3 which was wielding a huge sword.

"Ah! Ahhhhhhh!"

Shouting like Tarzan, as I reached near the head of stone statue No.3 in a heartbeat, I let go of the mithril line and slapped a magic bullet into its head.

The magic bullet’s power was terrible because the surrounding environment lacked mana. However, it was still useful enough to disturb its field of view.

Let’s dismantle all the fallen stone statues and put the components in the pocket space later.

The outer part of the head of the stone statue broke and created dust. "Enlightenment! Air kick!"

I made a foothold with mana and kicked the air to jump towards the head of the stone statue No.3.

"Hectopascal Kick!"

As stone statue No.3’s head was completely smashed by my fist, it spat out its last words.

- That’s a punch, not a kick! You evil man!

"I know!"

I grabbed the core of the golem which was revealed inside the broken head and cut the mithril line.

Stone statue No.3 completely shut down.

- Agravain! I’ll never forgive you! Take my justice!

The name of stone statue No.3 must be Agravain. I put its core in my pocket space and ran straight towards stone statue No.4.

Stone statue No.4 precisely stabbed its sword at me. Comparing the size of my body with the stone statue, I would be like a bug as big as a finger, but the golem’s swordsmanship skills were not ordinary.

It was a rapier from the stone statue’s perspective, but from my point of view, it felt like a train was charging in.

I grabbed the tip of the sword, turned my body around, and landed on the sword. Then I quickly ran up the sword toward stone statue No.4, which swung its sword around and tried to throw me off.

There was no need to stubbornly stay atop the shaking sword and so I quickly flew using magic towards the head of stone statue No.4.

Then stone statue No.4 tried to cut me with a sophisticated sword technique, unlike a golem. However, it was easy to avoid the huge body and its dull movements which were characteristic of a golem. Perceiving its death, stone statue No.4 muttered in the ancient language.

- Let there be eternal glory in the Holy Kingdom...

Kwang!

The head of stone statue No.4 was smashed apart and the core of the golem was revealed. I mercilessly took the golem’s core and put it in my pocket space.

But are these guys really just golems? For that, they seemed to have proper emotions.

In the case of an ordinary golem, it only spat out what was entered by the magician according to a set process. Of course, if the magician who created the core of golem hypothesized all the situations like some pervert, there was no reason it couldn’t feel similar to a conversation.

Having concluded that the person who made the golem was not any ordinary pervert, I looked at the situation around me.

Dane Walker was barely standing against the stone statue, and the one-eyed man with the eighth-grade syndrome, what was his name again?

Ah, Malecia.

Malecia was confronted by a new one, stone statue No.9, after having beaten one to the brink of a shutdown with aura blade.

Come to think of it, there was a magician who looked weak, but I couldn’t find him. The golems weren’t moving either. Did he maybe die?

It was unfortunate, but it was better than being buried by accident after using magic. The bracelet made by the Witch of Pride had not been tested properly yet, so I felt uncomfortable using it in a place like this.

The remaining six stone statues surrounded the mana stone in the center and were not moving recklessly. That mana stone was the source of this ruin. The order code seemed to have been set to keep alert without moving in case they got hit from behind after moving recklessly.

Obviously, it was the right choice because outside the stone gate whence Dane Walker had come in, a group of people seemed to be fighting quite fiercely and they could come in at any time. It was likely the programming set by a magician from long ago, not the stone statues’ own judgements.

By the way, was one group of guys fighting outside on the same side as Dane Walker and the other Malecia?

I didn’t know who was on whose side because I could only feel their presence, but I felt like it would be interesting, so I decided to send a Chirp to watch it.

"Summon Chirp."

Chirp was a magical creature that I created, but it was my personal magic creature, so I could share its senses to some degree.

With three chirps, it was probably enough to make whichever side I help, win.

After I sent the chirps, I was retrieving what could be taken from the rubble of the stone statues, when I felt unusual mana from Dane Walker.

"Ohhh! This is!"