Chapter 77: The Vanished Sword Saint - Part 2
In the 20th-floor safe zone, a place reserved for humans, there were signs of someone's presence.
Faint traces of magic lingered there, and using the "Magic Detection" ability, we confirmed that the magic belonged to Mr. Julius.
"Mr. Julius mentioned that no one besides him had entered this dungeon in the past few days, so this magic power must undoubtedly belong to him," I said.
"Yes, there's no doubt about it. This magic power belongs to Mr. Julius," replied my companion.
Around the capital city, there were several dungeons, and adventurers chose which dungeon to explore.
Among them, the Rock Mountain Dungeon was rarely selected by adventurers.
The reason was simple: defeating golems was troublesome. Therefore, people usually only came here to mine ore or to test their strength against golems.
That's why I've been using this dungeon to make money, but once you know how to defeat golems, it becomes quite simple.
"I think the soldiers will probably search from the entrance of the dungeon downwards, so should we head down from the 20th floor?" I suggested.
"Agreed."
From there, we proceeded from the safe zone to the 21st floor and began our search for Mr. Julius.
"There are ore deposits scattered everywhere... mainly iron and copper," I noted.
"It's incredible. Is Mr. Julius responsible for all of this?" my companion wondered.
"Most likely," I replied.
The sight that greeted us as we headed towards the mining points on the 21st floor would have infuriated blacksmiths and dwarves who valued their ores. Although the ores were gathered in one place, they were piled up and left unattended.
From the look of these ores, it was clear that the person who mined them didn't have much skill.
"As we go deeper, the ore mining techniques seem to be improving gradually... It feels like they were experimenting with other ores while advancing to mine Mithril," I observed.
"At least it seems like gems aren't left behind, so maybe they are being sorted out?" my companion suggested.
"No, I think it's different. Perhaps mining gemstones is unexpectedly difficult, causing them to shatter? Look, there's evidence right here," I pointed out.
I showed my companion the shattered fragments of gemstones I had collected from among the ore piles, and she made a speechless expression.
Afterward, we descended to the 21st, 22nd, and 23rd floors.
"Strangely, the more we come down here, the more I hope that Mr. Julius isn't the culprit," I confessed.
"I feel the same way... I thought Mr. Julius was an incredibly kind and capable person, so if he did something like this, it's a bit disheartening," my companion agreed.
We continued our search from the 20th floor down, and we found ore deposits piled up at every mining point in these three levels.
Their mining skills had gradually improved, and there were no more gemstone fragments, indicating an increase in proficiency. However, leaving ore piled up like this had somewhat disillusioned both me and my companion with Mr. Julius.
"No matter how much they want Mithril, this is a bit too much..." I commented.
"Well, let's find Mr. Julius first. Maybe he's mining above the 20th floor, and someone else is mining these levels," my companion suggested.
"...But he said no one else had entered besides Mr. Julius, and I can still sense a bit of his magic power," I pointed out.
My words left my companion speechless, and we decided to continue our search in silence.
After a while, while still searching, we came across a peculiar golem.
"What's that strange golem?" my companion asked.
"I've never seen a golem like that before. Is it a new type?" I wondered.
"No, I've fought various golems that come out of here before, so the fact that there's a new type..." I paused, remembering something, and used the Appraisal magic on the golem.
As a result, I found out that the golem's name was "Discarded Ore Golem."
"Chloe, get back! That golem is dangerous!" I shouted.
"Huh?" My companion looked momentarily surprised by my sudden outburst but quickly moved away from the spot.
It was dangerous... I had let my guard down because it hadn't appeared until now.
"Jin, what was that golem from earlier?" my companion asked.
"That thing from earlier was a golem created by absorbing discarded ore. It's even tougher than a normal golem and has higher attack power. If we had fought it in our previous state, we might have been wiped out," I explained.
With our combined strength, my companion and I could defeat it, but in our earlier situation, we could have been defeated.
So, I chose to retreat and reposition ourselves for the battle.
"Jin, can you defeat that golem?" my companion inquired.
"Yeah, I can. Even though it's become stronger, if I observe it closely and find its core, it should be easy. However, finding the core is difficult because it absorbed the ore. Chloe, can I count on you to help find the core?" I asked.
"Of course, leave it to me!" my companion replied eagerly.
After that, Chloe and I formulated a plan and returned to the same spot we had encountered the golem.