Might as Well

After a rather uneventful fight, where Sam practically danced through the corridor full of moss, rock and miasma monsters, he arrived in another chamber. The arch opened in the middle of the room, on one of the elongated sides.

And before he was besieged by another mass of monsters, this time shaped like snakes, though still made of rock, moss and black dripping miasma, Sam saw several broken slabs of stone evenly spaced out in the middle of the room, surrounded by smaller slabs of stones.

He had a moment for a fleeting thought: ’Eating Hall!’ Then the monsters were on him. Though thankfully, this time there was no giant golem.

Shadow Burst was still on cooldown from his entrance into the chamber, he had to do a little fancy footwork. Thankfully, he had the skills for it. With a giant sidestep, he moved aside from the archway, neatly dodging the deluge of giant rock snakes that went through the same place that he was a moment before. Continuing the movement, he spun around with mana flowing through his sword, cleaving through another group of monsters.

With his other hand, Sam unleashed a wave of mana that flung the monsters that were planning to charge at him from his ‘unprotected’ side.

‘So they can plan…’ he realized while never stopping his sword dance.

Sam gave his thanks to all his skills that decreased stamina consumption, otherwise he would have been long dead by now.

He hacked and slashed through the throng of monsters, flinging magic every which way, cutting down the obviously corrupted rock elementals by the dozens.

Then, as most of the monsters in the chamber were falling apart, there was a lull in the battle.

Sam stood there for a moment panting with weapon and magic ready, and Lucky pacing behind him, growling menacingly, though Sam could see that the smoky-looking wolf was rather proud of the mounds of monsters that he had slain.

Then the respite was over, and another roar shook the chamber.

This time instead of giant rock snakes, he was met with hundreds, maybe even thousands of small snakes pouring out of the archway at the other end of the room like a tidal wave made of rock, stone and miasma, peppered with the dark green of moss that was slowly chewed up by the undulating mass of monsters.

Sam couldn’t help but exclaim. “Damn! Lucky, back in the shadow!”

Lucky followed the command instantly, jumping head-first into his shadow.

Having only a split second to react, Sam poured as much mana as he safely could into his left hand and immediately unleashed it against the mass of monsters heading to devour him.

The mass was flung back instantly, but their numbers were so high that it only stopped them for a few seconds.

But that was enough for Sam.

Because when he attacked the monsters, he didn’t let the mana dissipate. After all, the monsters were made of rock, and he knew how to manipulate that with mana. So, using that second as the tidal wave was stopped, he had his mana seep into their bodies.

There was resistance, of course, but thanks to his Mana Disruption skill, and the fact they were small, disposable minions for the controlling intelligence behind the miasma (at least according to his current theory) he managed to wrestle control over the rock that made up their bodies almost instantly.

Using his control, he made them all do one thing.

Explode!

The moment he gave the mental order, he began moving, channeling mana into his shield, raising his own Earth Wall and crouching behind a piece of stone that may or may not have been a table once upon a time.

He was still peppered by not insignificant chunks of rock as the front of the tidal wave exploded, taking with it the second half in a glorious explosion that itself shook the ruin just as much as the previous roar.

Granted, a few stragglers remained, but as Sam stood from his already crumbling hiding place, renewing his slightly depleted Mana Shield, once again happy that he didn’t learn the limited Mage Armor spell, he could simply stomp on those monsters that remained.

Walking around the rubble that was a few seconds ago his cover, shaking loose dust from his armor, he looked around the room and took in how almost everything was covered by a fine layer of dust and miasma, though the miasma seemed to be evaporating making it seem as if the room was covered by dark fog.

Sam spent another minute, ready for anything, waiting for the other shoe to drop, but nothing else came through the archway opposite of him. After doing a sweep with his mana, he finally let down his sword and let out a deep, shuddering sigh.

“Fuuuuu…gh”

He took a look at his sword and immediately threw it away in disgust. The steel was chipped and there was a giant hairline crack running through the entire length of the blade. The only thing that probably let him use it was the mana running through it, reinforcing it.

Ignoring the clanging of the sword falling on the stone floor, he fished out another mass-manufactured steel sword. He swung it around, getting a feel for its balance, then did a quick loot check.

Sadly, nothing dropped.

Cursing the RNGods, he primed his Mana Shield and the multitude of senses and began, once again, to stride forward.

Sam quickly fought through several rooms following the battle in the eating hall.

In the first room after it, he was beset by another tidal wave of rock snakes, this time from two sides, and spitting miasma at him. His Mana Shield got its fair share of exercise, as while the spits were fairly linear, he couldn’t dodge every droplet.

He had a feeling that miasma touching him would be a bad thing…

Sam mainly kited the snakes around until they were all in the room, then used the same tactic as before. Throw them back and make them explode.

It was glorious…

The next room after that was absent of rock snakes. Instead, the golems returned with a vengeance.

And weapons.

Granted, they were barely worth being called weapons. They were mostly crude rods masquerading as spears and shorter rods that acted like swords, a few monsters even sported clubs made of rocks.

Sam had to use his Wind Blade and Mana Slash generously to keep his distance because while his speed was better than the average at his level, his own reaction speed wasn’t good enough to keep track of every monster trying to transform him into minced meat and dodge their attacks.

But in the end, he stood triumphantly on top of a small mountain of golem corpses with a rapidly evaporating miasma around him.

This time, being ready for the phenomena, he took a small bottle, and with the help of his mana, managed to coral a small amount of the dark material into it. The moment the miasma was in the bottle, he inserted the stopper and with his knife quickly etched a very small and crude seal on it made of runes.

It was basically a three-rune seal. One was his Heart Rune, another Rune for the mana to fuel the seal and the rune for Sealing. It wasn’t the most sophisticated seal or rune sequence, but it would work in a pinch. And it would also allow him enough time to bring the sample to somebody who knows about things like that…

Then he headed for the next archway.

The next part of his journey brought him through several smaller, interconnected rooms. To his eyes, they looked like rooms that somebody used to live in. Slabs of stone took the shape of beds, and shelves were carved into the walls, though nothing organic remained that would allow him to figure out who lived in the ruins before they became a ruin.

His current running theory was that it was a headquarters that the rangers of the old used to protect the ironwood forest that somehow got corrupted. The whys and hows were currently beyond him, though he had a few suspects…

The fight in the rooms was basically one giant hide-and-seek game.

Rock monsters in the shapes of spiders, both giant and small, hid in every corner, on every ceiling, and behind every chunk of rubble big enough to hide behind. He was constantly using his sensing skills, trying to stretch them beyond their actual use.

Sam was pretty sure if the skill hadn’t leveled up when he was looking for the ruin, he would be in much bigger trouble with the spiders.

Now he just had to grab the smaller spiders and explode them (having a little fun with the noise they made when they exploded) while simply fighting the bigger ones with his spells.

The intelligence behind the monsters didn’t seem the smartest, as all spiders used the same tactic when fighting him.

Then, after a few hours of fighting, he stood before the biggest archway he had seen in the ruins.

He made sure to check his equipment, change his sword to a fresh one, chug a potion, and warn Lucky. Then, priming his Mana Shield, he stepped through the threshold.

Sam found himself in an enormous room, where even his first step into the chamber echoed. Sadly, he didn’t have enough time to admire the local decoration practices, as the moment he set foot into the room, two roars shook him, the room and the mountain.

At both ends of the giant chamber stood two very familiar golems.

Though their cores were much less exposed than the first one.

Both raised their hands, ending in sharp-looking claws made of almost metallic-looking rock and dripping with miasma.

“Note to self, don’t get hit with that,” he spoke out loud, gulping a little, then glanced down at his shadow. “Lucky!” The wolf’s head immediately surfaced from the shadow, his eyes looking at him with serious attention. “Go far, and attack when there is an opportunity.”

The wolf let out a quiet bark and did something that surprised Sam.

Instead of jumping out of Sam’s shadow, the wolf dove back into the shadow, disappearing completely. Sam was about to call out to him when he spotted Lucky emerging, with a wolfish grin on the other end of the chamber from the shadow hiding one of the corners of the room.

Sadly, he didn’t have time to check his notifications, as he had to deal with two rather angry golems.

“Shadow Burst!”

Using the speed gained from the skill, he jumped behind the golem on the left, and he immediately had to crouch, as the golem swiped its claws through the air where his head should have been.

Apparently, they had been upgraded…

Sam jumped back, sending a blast of mana at the offending arm, pushing up, then sending several consecutive slashes at the area where a visibly thick layer of rock mixed with miasma protected the core.

Fortunately, the slashes managed to gouge a little line into the material, so he only had to whittle the defenses down.

Sadly, he couldn’t continue with his bombardment, as the golem recovered and its friend was also on the way. Sam had to dodge twice, once for each arm as they came down with a wide slashing motion, slamming into the ground and sending debris everywhere.

Thankfully, his Flow skill allowed him some manner of warning.

He watched as the golem raised both of its hands, then mechanically turned towards him, while the other one was thundering towards them.

For a moment, he despaired a little, not knowing how to win quickly and without putting himself into undue danger, but then an idea sparked in his mind.

Shadow Burst was on cooldown, but the golems were slow enough for his speed with only the Body Enhancement. So, with a plan quickly solidifying in his mind, Sam launched himself towards the nearest golem, dodging another swipe in the process.

The golem struck but wasn’t fast enough to hit him, and Sam managed to run past the golem, making sure to stay as close to the body as possible, striking it a few times with his sword, but his eyes were on the other golem.

The other golem, seeing him coming closer (while the first one was in the process of turning) raised its clawed hands toward Sam and began to charge.

Sam grinned, then skidded to a halt and turned halfway to make sure he saw both golems.

Then, in the next moment, a lot of things happened.

The first golem finished turning and was facing him and the other golem. The second golem reached his position with arms, claws dripping malevolent miasma, already descending. His magic lashed out under his direction, latching onto the outside of the arm of the second golem, and giving a not-so-gentle tug while jumping backwards and gleefully watching the spectacle.

The tug on the arms of the second golem was enough to make the swipe an overextended movement, practically launching the arms of the golem directly at the second golem leaning towards his previous position.

The two golems, claws meeting hardened rock, clashed with a tremendous noise. Sam, using the distraction, sprinted behind the back of the first golem and unleashed as much mana as possible concentrated at the tip of his sword. Using as much strength as possible, he thrust it towards the core of the monster as the dust settled down around them from the clash.

The sword went through the damaged and slightly worn down armor, piercing the core and causing the magic holding the golem together to fall apart,. Sadly, it also resulted in him getting splashed with the miasma leaking from the joints and cracks in the rock that was the body of the golem.

The second golem stood there for a few seconds, enough time to allow Sam to clean himself with a brief burst of mana and the Clean spell, then the surrounding mana thickened and his Flow skill all but shouted at him to dodge.

He did so, but thanks to the excess mana, the golem was fast enough to clip him in the sides, his Mana Shield dipping but not falling and throwing him to the ground, a little dazed.

Thankfully, Lucky chose this exact moment to jump from the shadow of the golem at its back, striking it hard enough to send it staggering, granting Sam enough respite to gather himself, then dove back into the shadow with a joyful howl.

Still fast from the buff gained from the excess mana, the golem straightened and, with mechanical fluidity, turned around, and once again began charging at him.

Sam considered his options, cursing the cooldown of the Shadow Burst, then had a stupid idea.

Focusing on his mana, he slapped his hand on the ground in front of him and exclaimed.

“Earth Wall!”

Instantly, a very well-made and sturdy wall made of the ground rose directly under the leg of the golem. The golem, thanks to the speed it was going, couldn’t react in time, thus was unbalanced when it stepped on the wall Sam created, and was sent careening.

Sam watched with satisfaction, crouching on the ground, as the golem fell sideways, trying to use its arms to stop it, but the weight of its body, especially with the added armor, was too much for the fast-moving arms. They were practically pulverized when the giant rock body landed on them.

To his senses, it was as if the mana around the golem became iridescent with rage and Sam couldn’t help but chuckle.

‘If my enemy is angry, then I’m doing something good!’

He stood up and with a few measured steps he was standing next to the golem, and the next moment, his sword channeling once again, too much mana struck down, piercing another core.

The moment the sword’s tip made contact with the core, the mana in the golem’s body fled, flowing somewhere in the distance, and the chamber fell silent.

The only thing that could be heard was Sam’s tired panting and Lucky’s excited prowling in the shadows.

And among the detritus that was the two golem’s bodies, Sam could see two very familiar shining lights.