Chapter 76

Chapter 76

Breaking the Golem

“During this open class... the Sword Saint may come.”

[ Him...? I thought he would find places with many people troublesome and would not come, but you sound certain. ]

“...I just have a strong feeling.”

I muttered that and held the cursed blade upright.

—Keeeeen!!

Then I deflected the golem’s massive fist as it flew right before my nose.

I leapt back and opened distance from it.

Holding my stance loosely, I opened my mouth.

“If the Sword Saint comes, would it be better not to reveal Rebellion Against Heaven during this open class?”

[ You have already gone around revealing it everywhere. Would there be much meaning in that? ]

“...That is true too. Still, there is no need to draw the Sword Saint’s attention for no reason, is there? And it would be uncomfortable for you too, Master.”

At my answer, Sierra touched her chin with a serious face and fell into thought.

The reason I brought this up was nothing else. In the game, during open class, if a swordsman displayed exceptional performance, they could receive the “Sword Saint’s Attention” status.

Even as it was, every time the words Sword Saint came up, I could feel a little murderous energy in her eyes.

In such a situation, I did not want to imagine what reaction Sierra would show if the Sword Saint stood right before her eyes.

[ I shall need to think a little more about Rebellion Against Heaven. More importantly, this thing seems extremely sturdy... Do you have some other trick? ]

“Hmm...”

The giant golem visible in the distance was designed so that a mage could easily catch it.

Because it possessed absurdly high physical defense, in the game as well, catching it without using magic was extremely “annoying.”

“...Going easy is impossible, then.”

There were no particularly major events before the open class, so I had come to the Labyrinth after a long while to level up and collect hidden pieces.

While passing through the twelfth floor, I had obtained one hidden piece, and now I was on the twenty-second floor.

Perhaps because my level had already risen quite a lot, even with the “blindfold,” it did not increase all that much.

Although I had caught many monsters, I only rose about two levels.

I was now level 37.

At this point, it seemed safe to say that the “experience penalty” from the game, which occurred when the level difference with monsters grew large, was applying without exception.

This still was not a floor suited to my level.

It seemed I would need to go down to at least the thirtieth floor, but from the twentieth floor onward, the size of each floor widened dramatically, so it took a lot of time.

Though, since it was the Labyrinth, not even a day had passed outside.

In any case... if I defeated that giant golem occupying this wide hidden temple on the twenty-second floor, I could obtain a hidden piece.

It was not an item particularly useful to a swordsman, but it felt too wasteful to throw away, so I had trusted the “blindfold” and challenged it for fun... and as expected, I could not see any weakness on it.

The “Weakness Detection” skill had already reached maximum level.

Even so, weaknesses were not visible on every enemy.

“There is no way maximum level is only this much.”

It would have been nice if the mechanism by which it operated had been clearly written somewhere, but the skill description was the same as the one I saw in the game, so it was difficult to figure out the details.

“The lich too, and this golem too.”

When no weakness is visible, things do not seem easy to resolve.

No, to begin with, trying to cut it with a sword should probably be considered an abnormal act.

“Maybe it is time to go obtain a new skill.”

Because I had focused only on Rebellion Against Heaven, it felt like I lacked utility.

It was simple logic that having various skills allowed one to respond smoothly to various situations.

“What skills were nearby again...?”

Skills could not be acquired naturally.

One had to receive instruction from someone.

Moreover, the current skills were operating differently from the game, so before obtaining one, I needed to infer what it would feel like.

—Thud... thud, thud... thud, thud, thud...!!

The golem, which had been keeping distance from me, slowly took one step after another, then began running at speed, its massive body charging toward me.

“I have no tricks... I will need to go more simple and stupid.”

The golem was a “monster” with a fixed health value.

No matter how high its defense was, it was not as though no damage could be dealt to it at all.

If this was how it was, then I had no choice but to use the annoying method I had used in the game.

***

The Sage, who was in the deepest part of the Labyrinth, was watching a screen together with Ithea.

On the screen, there was a student with bandages covering his eyes, engaged in battle.

There was no one around him, but he kept muttering to himself.

...To be precise, he was conversing.

“Listening to his conversation, it seems the master inside the cursed blade is someone related to the Sword Saint of this generation.”

“Yes, but the Sword Saint of this generation has maintained that position for decades, so it seems difficult to infer precisely.”

Ithea affirmed the Sage’s speculation.

The current Sword Saint, Chris, was one of the strongest among all the Sword Saints the Sage had watched.

He was certainly strong, but the problem, if one could call it that, was that his personality was extremely unique.

“What is this Rebellion Against Heaven too... Truly, the more I learn, the more I feel as if I am falling into a labyrinth.”

The Sage muttered that and leaned back in his chair.

Then he turned his head to look at Ithea and opened his mouth again.

“The Saintess cannot come this time?”

“She says she is busy with matters related to the knight order’s recruitment and cannot attend. Instead, the vice-captain of the Silver Wings Knights will attend.”

“A vice-captain... How regrettable. I thought I might at least speak with the Saintess if she came.”

After all, Zeto was conversing with a soul for some reason.

After investigating cursed blades in detail, it seemed that simply handling a cursed blade did not allow one to converse with the soul contained inside.

At most, one could exchange a few words during the sealing process.

“If I could speak with the Saintess regarding this, perhaps I might be able to guess for what reason he possesses such an ability...”

Even if he was the academy’s chairman, he could not waste the Saintess’s time for one difficult-to-understand question.

It seemed best to speak with her naturally for a moment when she came to the academy.

The Sage decided to let it pass, thinking, “The opportunity will come someday.”

Ithea, who was beside him, stared intently at the screen and opened her mouth.

“This time, even if it is Student Zeto, it seems difficult.”

“Yes, the opponent is poor. To begin with, that golem was made for mages to face... He is wasting effort. Still, what can be done? Its purpose is not written down anywhere.”

Zeto had already collected the item “whistle” hidden on the twelfth floor.

How briskly he moved all around every corner of each floor.

Still, it did not seem as though he would take this item.

There was nothing good about him taking it either.

The “orb” located in the golem’s core was the item that could be obtained from the golem.

At that moment, Zeto on the screen murmured one sentence.

— “I have no tricks... I will need to go more simple and stupid.”

The Sage did not know what conversation he had shared with his master, but it seemed he had decided to change how he dealt with it.

For some reason, there was a certainty in Zeto’s voice as he said those words.

“...The signal that the orb was taken has not appeared yet, has it?”

Feeling a little uneasy at Zeto’s attitude, the Sage asked Ithea.

The deepest part of the Labyrinth was the only place unaffected by the Labyrinth’s time magic.

Since it was the place where the Sage and Ithea had to live, this was only natural.

Therefore, the screen they were watching now was not real-time.

Time flowed quickly inside the Labyrinth, so the result should have already appeared.

With Zeto’s defeat.

“Shall I skip the screen’s time forward a little?”

Detecting the Sage’s unease, Ithea asked.

“Would you?”

At the Sage’s command, Ithea operated the screen.

She tried to see what had happened about thirty minutes later.

Calculating by the Labyrinth’s time, it meant she had skipped ahead roughly one hour and thirty minutes.

The Sage, who immediately checked the situation thirty minutes later, was extremely flustered.

Zeto was still visible on the screen.

And beneath his feet, the golem, now in tatters, could be seen.

The golem could no longer raise itself, its arms and legs already shattered to pieces.

—Klang!!

Zeto immediately brought down the sword held in reverse grip onto the golem’s head.

“...”

Watching this sight, Ithea covered her mouth with her hand.

Although Ithea perfectly possessed a human appearance, in the end, she too was a golem.

It seemed the sight of a golem like herself being broken so miserably felt quite cruel to her.

The middle process had been skipped, but seeing Zeto’s actions, they could immediately tell what had happened.

He had not cut it. He had literally smashed it.

A sturdy golem the Sage had made with special materials, with only one sword.

Moreover, the cursed blade did not have even a single nick on its edge.

“I do not know where he intends to use it... but the orb will become his.”

The Sage said this as he watched Zeto calmly smash the golem without any trace of exhaustion.

“It seems there are many first-year students we must observe closely this year.”

Ithea, shock still lingering in her voice, fixed her expression and said that.

Just as she said, Zeto was not the only mysterious one.

Ithea was now speaking of Eisel.

“...I said that was a mistake.”

“Even if it was your mistake, Master, the fact that Student Eisel took your weapon has not changed.”

Ithea’s cool answer followed, and then the Sage cleared his throat.

Eisel Ludwig had taken away the “spear” the Sage had left in the Labyrinth.

It was a fact he learned only after noticing late that it had disappeared and having Ithea replay the footage all day.

It was a weapon the Sage had mainly used long ago.

The performance itself could be considered unworthy of the Sage’s name, but he had quite liked that spear.

“Still, since you no longer have any occasion to use weapons, Master, one could say it worked out instead.”

At Ithea’s words, the Sage nodded.

After the Chief God placed “restrictions” on him, he had become unable to engage even in light combat, so it did not matter much.

“Eisel Ludwig.”

The Sage had one concern regarding her.

“Is she truly a member of the Ludwig clan?”

The Sage knew of the Ludwig clan.

Because of their “unique” constitution, the Ludwig clan had lived without revealing themselves to the world.

However, he remembered that before the war, the entire clan had been slaughtered.

Yet Eisel carried the name Ludwig.

There was no way to confirm whether she was truly a member of the Ludwig clan... and almost no one knew of the Ludwig clan or family to begin with, so it seemed the matter had passed without any major problem.

People within the academy likely let it pass, assuming some noble family like that existed somewhere on the continent.

The Sage carefully guessed.

If Eisel truly was a member of the Ludwig clan, someday she would bring a great wave with her.

Ithea held something out to the Sage.

“It is time for your medicine.”

It was a potion Ithea had recently prepared herself for the Sage, to improve memory.

The Sage stared silently at Ithea.

Ithea tilted her head with an expressionless face.

“...”

Soon, he drank the medicine.

***

—Rustle.

I quickly scanned down one page of the book, brushed aside the platinum-blonde hair lying across it, and turned the page.

The amount of information in the library inside the academy was vast.

I sat in one place in the library, searching for a curse.

I thought I would find it quickly, but it was not easy.

“A curse that could be felt near the heart...”

The unidentified negative energy I had felt inside Zeto’s chest.

For now, a curse came to mind, but judging by the immense energy, it was not a light curse.

I had to find what curse had been placed on Zeto.