At the edge of the dead forest stood a massive, rustic castle with intact walls, unscathed, showing it had never been attacked. Two golems, formed from an unusual black stone, stood at the entrance, each holding a red-bladed axe with white stripes running from the blade to the tip of the handle. They were motionless, looking like statues, five hundred meters from the entrance.
"Master, how are we going to deal with them?" Luke asked, standing beside Dmitry out of the golems' sight since they were still within the forest.
"It's simple because, as you can see, they have worse vision than other creatures of their level," Dmitry replied.
"Yes, what else is there?" Trins said, yawning beside them.
"I'm tired, can we do this soon, master?" Trins said, closing and opening her eyes, then sitting on the ground.
"When are you not tired? You've been like this ever since you got a humanoid body," Dmitry said, shaking his head. "Whatever, here's the plan: Luke and Trins will attack the two golems as soon as I pass through the gate, then finish off the rest."
"As you wish, master," Luke said, bowing.
"Okay," Trins said in a sleepy voice.
Luke and Trins were talking before they started running towards the golems. Within seconds, they were in front of the golems, who immediately swung their arms backward, hitting one hundred and eighty degrees, stopping only because the axe handles hit the ground, causing a huge cloud of gray dust that would dissipate before covering the entire area due to the wind gust caused by the attack.
"I should have jumped higher... but that tires me," Trins said, with a cut on her belly, standing a few meters from the spot hit by the two axes. Her wound and clothes regenerated a few seconds after speaking as she slid on the ground, dodging the golems' attacks, but her health bar remained damaged from the previous hit.
[HP = 2,200/3,000]
As Trins dodged the golems' blows, they grew more irritated with each miss, their black stone bodies getting cleaner. Luke emerged from the ground behind the golems, touching the ground, causing it to collapse and the golems to fall—or so was expected. The golems' bodies disassembled, forming one behind him, swinging the axe before its body fully reassembled.
The other golem formed on the opposite side of the large hole made in the ground between the gate and Trins, who had vanished, replaced by Dmitry standing with the spear blade pointed downward, looking at the golems, now entirely white with black spots growing in different parts of their bodies.
"Good job, you two. Follow the plan and finish the rest," Dmitry said, looking at Luke, who was holding the axe blade with his bare hands, effortlessly letting it cut a small wound on his hand. As his wound healed, the blood that had flowed out covered the entire axe and his hand holding it.
"Thank you, master. If I recall, you used to call this bloodlust," Luke said, seeing the golem paralyzed in front of him. The blood bubbled on its stone skin, shrinking its arm in a frightening attack. Luke dodged the kick, embedding his fingers in the golem's other arm, pulling it off while dodging its kicks, causing the golem to hit its own arm, breaking both its leg and arm simultaneously.
"Sorry, this is your end," Luke said, jumping and placing his right hand on the golem's head, punching its face with his left, shattering it into different-sized pieces. The golem's body, now armless and with only one leg, fell to the ground with Luke landing on its chest.
"So, have you finished recovering?" Dmitry asked, looking at the golem in front of him, which closed the last fissure on its forehead, disappearing and reappearing in front of Dmitry, punching at him without the axe in hand. Dmitry dodged, touching the spear's tip to the golem's wrist, launching himself upward, grabbing the falling axe from where he had been.
"Very clever, you deserve praise," Dmitry said, grabbing the axe handle, spinning in the air, and throwing it at the golem's head, which easily stopped the strike, holding the blade with both hands. With a smile, it looked up, only to find Dmitry gone.
"Hello?" Dmitry said, standing beside the golem with the spear embedded in its left leg joint. Spinning the spear one hundred and eighty degrees, he shattered the left leg, jumping forward and striking the golem's chest multiple times, starting to hit its body.
"Enjoy the experience," Dmitry said, striking the golem's left arm, giving it no time to respond as he delivered the first blow, destroying the left arm. He spun the spear behind his back, kicking the golem's body three times, hitting the right leg, left arm, and forehead, creating a cracked linchpin that burst out from the correct spots in the three places, disintegrating the golem's belly.
[Common Guardian Golem = 1,100 experience = dead 1]
[Experience required for level 42 = 23,868]
'Finally, it was taking too long,' Dmitry thought, looking ahead, seeing Luke standing by the door while Trins lay with closed eyes against the wall beside the door.
"You already know what you need to do. Have fun," Dmitry said, walking toward them. Luke slammed the door open, flying back and destroying the stairs leading to the second floor, which wouldn't be much of a problem for the three of them since they could jump to the next floor.
"Trins, wake up. The master told us to level up," Luke said, his red eyes glowing brightly, emanating a lighter red energy.
"Huh? What?" Trins said, opening her eyes and stomping her feet twice on the ground, sending a strong wind throughout the second floor of the castle.
'Not what I meant, but if you want it this way, let's see who created this place,' Dmitry said, standing in the middle of the main hall, jumping onto the remaining steps of the stairs and starting to walk. He would see several paintings, each in a sea-green color, and even after walking for over five minutes, he wouldn't see any creatures in the corridors or the second-floor main hall.
"Let's hope something happens here," Dmitry said, sitting in an armchair, looking around the room filled with gray flags with orange borders. In front of him was the only painting with any detail: a horse with a rider covered entirely in sea-green armor, holding a sword with a blade divided into three different widths, the middle one being the thinnest.
"When are you coming out of there?" Dmitry said, smiling, tapping his heel on the table in front of him. He grabbed the spear leaning against the armchair beside him and struck the table, tearing the painting, revealing that it wasn't much different from the others except for being larger. As the painting disappeared, leaving only the sea-green color, Dmitry heard chewing noises and pointed his spear forward.
He saw a horse with a snow-white mane and ruby-red skin, the same rider from the painting dragging the sword on the ground, creating an irritating noise. "Now we have a real boss."