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Besides the three bandits blocking the way, a dozen more sprang out from the bushes on either side.
"Hand over what you've got, and we'll let you crawl out of this forest."
Davian stopped Mons from stepping forward.
"Hey, if you answer my question honestly, I'll let you crawl out of this forest."
"What? This cocky brat."
Thwack.
It was instantaneous.
Water elemental magic manifested in Davian's hand, a water pillar formed, then quickly froze into an ice club, and that ice club struck the bandit's head—all in less than three seconds.
"You son of a b—!"
Thwack!
Davian's ice club struck the bandit again.
After just two hits, the bandit's knees hit the ground.
The others surrounding Davian and Mons were hesitant to approach, stunned by the scene.
"Mons."
"Yes, Master."
"Take care of the rest of them. Kill them or spare them, whatever you want."
"Yes, Master."
"I have some questions for this one. Something's strange. Bandits keep popping up like this? And we were attacked by a goblin horde earlier? Do these guys live with goblins or something?"
"Shall I grab one and ask some questions too?"
"Ah, yes. That would be good. Then let's just beat them all down and question them one by one."
"As you wish."
Clang.
Mons drew his sword.
The silver blade gleamed, impeccably maintained, showing no scratches larger than a fingernail, only the marks from sharpening.
"Now, which one of you looks like he has a loose tongue?"
"I was just doing as I was told. We were told to guard this path, and someone would come..."
Thwack.
"So who told you to?"
"I don't know. Some young kid came and delivered the money and a letter, but I don't think it was him. He looked like a beggar, probably just doing errands for money."
Thwack.
This time, Mons struck the bandit's head.
"How do you know he's really a beggar, and not just looking like one, huh?"
"W-well..."
Davian stopped Mons, who was threatening the bandit with his hand raised.
"They've gathered every bandit in the area and ambushed us here, so they wouldn't reveal their face like that. He's probably telling the truth."
"Ah, I see. But Master, doesn't that mean we can't get any information from them? They don't even know who ordered it. Should we search for that beggar?"
"No. It's enough to know that someone is giving us a very enthusiastic welcome."
"They've prepared a rather useless welcoming ceremony, haven't they?"
"They probably didn't think they could catch us with this. It must be some pervert. Hiding somewhere, enjoying getting reports about what's happening here."
"You mean some bastard is toying with us right now?"
"You could say that."
"Whoever it is, they're a real piece of work."
Eastern coastal cliffs.
"I think we're here."
"It's wider than I thought. Where do we even start looking?"
"More importantly, let's rest first. How many battles have we fought today...? Well, they were just small fry, but still."
"Should we?"
Thump.
"What was that noise?"
Thump.
"Master! There!"
Thump.
"You've got to be kidding me."
A massive stone golem was walking towards them from the distance.
It looked twice as big as the stone golem that attacked the Amandria Merchant Company before.
"Mons. We can't handle that thing between the two of us, right?"
"Well... probably not."
Mons drew his sword and looked at it.
"Do you think stabbing this in would even make that huge golem blink?"
"If you stabbed it in the eye, it might blink for a second."
"Oh, right. But what do we do now, Master?"
Whoosh.
Davian raised both arms above his head, creating a massive fireball.
"Mons, you go find the summoning mage. It'll be faster to take him out."
"What about you, Master?"
"I need to keep that rock over here. Finding the summoning mage won't do any good if that rock is guarding him."
Golems are one of the monsters that skilled summoning mages summon most often.
Unlike other intelligent monsters, summoning mages can control them to a certain extent.
Davian put all his 6-star mana into the fireball and threw it with all his might.
Bang!
The fireball hit the golem's side and exploded with a tremendous sound.
When the flames and smoke cleared, a chunk was missing from the golem's side.
"Oh, Master. You're really amazing."
"Don't waste time talking nonsense and go find the summoning mage. Approach without being detected as much as possible, and cut off his windpipe in one go."
"Yes!"
Mons dove into the bushes.
Pat, pat.
The broken pieces of stone flew back, randomly sticking to the golem's body.
The missing piece on its side was refilled with stone.
"Ah... I think it summoned a stronger one than I thought."
Thump, thump, thump!
The stone golem seemed very angry and started running towards Davian.
Bang!
The stone golem's fist slammed into the ground.
The ground shook as if there was an earthquake.
Davian barely managed to get out of the way and threw a fireball at the golem's head.
Boom!
Its head exploded.
But only for a moment.
The stone fragments scattering in all directions were sucked back into the golem's body before they even hit the ground and stuck to it randomly.
In the meantime, the stone golem created a new head.
The forest next to the coastal cliff was utterly devastated.
Ancient trees that had grown for hundreds of years were snapped like weeds by the golem's every step.
The giant stone fist, failing to hit Davian every time, created a huge crater each time it struck the ground.
'Not yet? It feels like 30 minutes have passed.'
Bang!
Davian dodged the golem's fist by leaping out of the way.
Despite its massive size, it was so fast that he couldn't afford to let his guard down for even a moment.
Boom!
He also had to keep launching pointless magical attacks.
That was the only way to slow down the stone golem's attack speed even a little.
Bang!
The golem's punches continued.
He had been dodging well so far, but he couldn't afford to be careless or make a single mistake.
If he was hit head-on by that fist, even a swordsman who had maximized their external power would be crushed to dust.
'Could Nubes from a few years from now withstand that?'
For a moment, while he was lost in thought, the golem's fist came crashing down again.
Bang!
Davian dodged the fist by a hair's breadth, and the ground where the fist landed was deeply cratered.
He prepared fire elemental magic before it could regain its posture.
He had to launch this to have even a moment to breathe.
Fire elemental magic was the best option.
He had also tried cutting off its arms with wind elemental magic.
It was cut off, but it quickly reattached.
He had also tried freezing its feet solid with water elemental magic.
The golem broke through the ice containing 6-star mana with brute force.
He wanted to create a large crack in the surface with earth elemental magic and bury it, but such a large spell took a long time to prepare.
So, for now, the fireball that could cause an explosion and scatter the rubble in all directions was...
'Wait.'
The magic Davian could use wasn't just the four elemental magics.
What if he caused mana acceleration?
First, he launched the prepared fireball.
Boom!
Immediately following, he prepared telekinetic magic.
He couldn't use it as freely as the four elemental magics, but the activation time was greatly reduced.
While the stone that had been blasted away by the fireball was gathering again.
He aimed at the center of the golem's torso and activated telekinetic magic.
The moment he felt the mana surge, he pushed out his mana to create mana acceleration.
The mana surge, accelerated by Davian's mana, stretched towards the stone golem at a rapid pace.
Boom!
"Oh."
The effect was tremendous.
The mana surge, which rapidly accelerated and exploded at one point, completely destroyed the stone golem's massive torso.
More than half of the torso was blown away, and the upper and lower body were completely separated.
Thud!
With a roar, the golem's upper body fell to the ground.
"I should have done this from the start."
Davian shook his hands, looking at the stone golem.
But it was still too early to rest assured.
The upper body that had fallen to the ground rolled and was absorbed back into the legs.
The stone fragments that had been blown away also flew back to the stone golem.
It took a little time to recover as the damage was severe, but before long, the stone golem regained its original form.
"Ah... what a truly tenacious guy."
Still, this was the longest he had rested since he started fighting that thing.
His labored breathing returned a little.
Mana acceleration wasn't guaranteed to succeed one hundred percent.
He focused his gaze on the stone golem's arms, planning to mix it appropriately with fire elemental magic.
But perhaps it was frightened, the stone golem was reluctant to attack.
The stone golem was hesitant and stuttering.
'Was it really scared? No way. It doesn't have emotions.'
At that moment.
Rumble.
The stone golem began to collapse.
It seemed that Mons had defeated the summoning mage.
'Why did it take so long? If there weren't three or more skilled people protecting the magic circle, I won't let it go.'
"So, there were ten people guarding the magic circle?"
"That's what I'm saying."
"At least three swordsmen of 6-star or higher?"
"That's what I'm saying. I think one was even over 7-star."
"Besides the summoning mage, there were four more mages?"
"Ugh, I almost died from the effort."
Davian seemed to have become a little more relaxed these days, his tone lighter than before entering the academy, but that didn't mean Mons would lie.
"Then you should have just come back. We should have looked for another way. I could have gone with you."
"It was a good opportunity to stretch my body properly for the first time in a while."
"Stretching your body? This?"
Davian was casting healing magic with one hand, which he wasn't even good at, and constantly opening and sprinkling potions with the other.
Mons, sitting upright in front of Davian, was in tatters, his body broken and torn everywhere.
He seemed to have internal injuries as well, as his breathing was still irregular even after a considerable amount of time had passed.
"Ugh, you're so stubborn. So stubborn."
"What about you, Master, fighting that stone golem alone for over 30 minutes? No, come to think of it, you don't have a single scratch on your body? The surrounding land is all in this state?"
Is that so.
"Yeah. We're both stubborn. Stubborn. Anyway, next time, if it's that kind of situation, come back and discuss it again."
"I thought I could handle it."
"Your body condition didn't seem to agree, though?"
"...It was stronger than I thought. Haha."
Only after pouring in more than half of the potions he brought could he roughly heal Mons's wounds.
There were so many wounds, and he even had internal injuries, so he needed to rest for at least one night before he could move again.
"Get on my back."
"Pardon?"
"This place is too dangerous. Let's move and rest. The sun has already set. We should sleep and move tomorrow."
"B-but how can I get on your back, Master..."
"Then what, should we walk for hours to get out of here to match your pace? Then we might encounter an enemy on the way, right? Then I'd have to fight alone, right? Wow... if I have to protect you too, Mons, it'll be hard to fight properly, wouldn't it?"
"Ah..."
"Get on my back."
"Yes, Master."
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