Chapter 142

“Booyah! Saintess down!”

I pumped my fist into the air .

It’s great we defeated her . If that didn’t defeat her, we would’ve had to fall into a war of attrition with the fifty fire arm gargoyles we have stockpiled .

It would’ve been pretty unfortunate if we weren’t able to hide the gargoyles after coming this far .

There’s no reason for Rin to want to target the dungeon core, so it was going to be our total win so long as we could defeat the saintess .

“… So strong . Is that the gargoyle Kehma’s been researching?”

“Yeah, it’s a gargoyle specified test arm . ” [1]

Water Cutter . That was the identity of the attack that cut through the saintess .

Magic formations that produce water were crammed inside the golem’s left arm, around a hundred of them . Making a small elongated cone shape inside of the arm, I inserted that amount of formations into the arm .

It was seriously dangerous when one of them exploded during testing . Man was I happy that I built a separate room alongside the laboratory .

I ultimately managed to make it by encasing it with three-layered black steel, engraving the magic formations with materials from plastic bottles—daily necessities—and filling it all with water from the start .

A single one of the magic formations can produce enough water to fill a cup of water in the blink of an eye . If a hundred of those trigger in such a small place—though the haniwa golem’s arm is pretty huge—the pressure gets crazy instantly . In order to increase its penetrating ability, I added a single ground-type magic formation that produces sand . I wanted to put in fine ruby powder at first, but the water pressure was so crazy that there’s no problems with its power even with sand . Adding on to that, it managed to penetrate through 3cm of black steel in one of the experiments .

Another experiment had a stopper blast away at ludicrous speeds… Yep, this Water Cutter is seriously powerful .

It costs around 2,000 DP for each one, the costs mainly coming from the black steel ingots and magic stones .

“However, it takes a considerably high quality magic stone (500 DP) to activate and it runs out in an instant… I don’t want to have to use it that recklessly . ”

“Uwaaah… hey, wouldn’t it have been better to summon a strong monster to beat Rin into submission? We can’t because we’re sealed right now though . ”

Considering the expensive research cost, that might have been better… w-well, we wouldn’t have known if it would’ve won though .

Rather, after making the two gargoyle-type iron haniwas and horse golems made of salt myself, I think it turned out pretty well this time . I wasted tons of time purging the armor from the iron horses . The salt horse golems that look so obviously like salt get their strength from their iron skeleton hidden by all of the salt cover .

Next would be the salt ceiling golem, it was their simply to harass Rin .

It worked~, it super worked . Now I can get some sleep .

“… Man, all things considered, that was risky . ”

“Mm . ”

“I only prepared [Now then, let’s do it] and [There’s more where that came from, have as much as you want] for the golem’s voice after all…”

I was in a hurry, so that was about about all I could rush and record for the golem .

I was planning on letting them recognize it as Euma by having it speak, then beat her with the second body by using a surprise attack, but as expected of the saintess, she prevented it .

“Eh, that’s all?”

“Yeah, that’s all . Even if they broke through, they’d just reach the stairway leading to the [New Riddle Area] . I was still making it though . ”

… Hmm? It’s the boss room, but I never said something like the core room being just after it right?

Man, I’m glad it worked out .

The dungeon core was put in a different room than the one I was leading them to, obviously . I had already took the opportunity to expand the warehouse area when I mended it after Rin destroyed parts of it, so Rin probably wouldn’t even have recognized it .

“Umm, Goshujin-sama, how long do I chase it…?”

Meat spoke, still using the salt horse golems to chase after Rin . In a sense, her operation of precisely herding Rin around was amazing . Seriously .

“Oops . I’ll be heading out to talk with Rin with a messenger golem here in a bit, so just chase it a bit more and stop when I give the signal . Ah, Rokuko . Collect that salt that’s on the ground . It’ll be used for Rin’s training after all . ”

“Understood . ”

“Okay~”

Good replies .

I prepared a messenger golem and headed to the boss room that still have Rin being chased by the salt horse golems in it .

*

“Oi Rin, feel like stopping?”

[Wha—Kehma! Already, back to, normal!?]

When I spoke to Rin with the usual messenger golem, Rin looked at me in surprise—and ran straight into a salt horse golem due to looking away, tasting the salt with its whole body .

It was probably a huge blow to Rin, who doesn’t particularly need to eat with its mouth .

I collected the two haniwas when I arrived, so there’s just one [Kehma] left .

[Nuwa—!? S-s-stop, Kehma! You’re me, follower!]

“I’m alright stopping if Rin becomes my follower though?”

[Gunu! That’s, no good!]

It’s saying Kehma rather than Euma right now, so I guess we’re talking with wolf speech?

Thinking about it too hard’s troublesome . Either way’s fine I guess?

[Shit, I didn’t, want to, but, no choice… —Oh dark hole that devours creation—]

“Oi hold up, I get it! I’ll stop, so cut it out with that crackling!”

Rin started chanting and black lightning started to crackle around it, so I signaled to Meat in a panic to stop the salt horses . Seeing this, Rin stopped the incantation . How should I put it… ‘dark hole that devours creation’… a black hole? That magic is a thing? Dangerous stuff .

[Hmph, if you did that, from the start, it would be, good . ]

“Haah… oi, Rin . Leave the dungeon if you won’t become my follower… is what I’d like to say, but I’ll leave you alone if you stay in the room . ”

[Mm? Self important, huh, Kehma?]

“It was my win this time after all . ”

[… Well, it’s alright . ]

Rin looked dead tired .

“Well, I’ll feed you five golems a day, so don’t let intruders make it past that door, boss . ”

[Un, while I’m here, I’ll defend . Leave it, to me . ]

“Don’t bring anyone saying they’ll be your follower farther in either yeah? I’ll feed you salt horses if you do . ”

“… Got it, alright . ”

Rin nodded, appearing to really, really dislike like those salt horses .

Any more than this might backfire, so it should be fine as is? It might forget if I have it agree to too many things .

Besides, Rin gives a baseline of 950 DP a day, double that because it’s shut in a closed room . It’s a delicious existence just by it being here . It comes with risks like just now too, though .

In truth, given its distinguished service of repelling the saintess up until earlier, I’ll forgive it this time .

… I-it’s not like I forgave it because I can’t defeat it or anything .

“… Come to think of it, how long are you going to be staying?”

[Hmm? Right… At latest, when it’s spring, I’ll go . Kehma, will you come, too?]

“No . I don’t want to leave . ”

[That so? I think, without Kehma, I’ll be troubled, for food, though . ]

Can’t you eat anything?

I mean, you can eat golems, so can’t you just eat dirt?