Chapter 133 - Hardships (1)
In the end, the group reached the entrance to the second floor after just one hour. That made Marie frown since Billy's party acted in a methodical manner. They had some wild tendencies like her old party, but they had been put in check by Billy's leadership. The box of meat hadn't been filled yet, but it was fine. They will probably fill it on the way home. Besides, the goal of that day was to do some exploration on the second floor. Money comes later.
Nevertheless, they climbed down the stairs and frowned a little when the temperature decreased. The only ones who weren't surprised were Billy, Pierre, and Marie. When they did their research on the previous day, Billy assumed the second and the third floor would be like that due to the cold Golems.
"You have heard the descriptions of the loot of this floor, so why are you surprised?" Billy asked.
Before they could answer the question, the atmosphere around them began to change instead of emerging from the ground. The cold Golems spawned after a large concentration of cold air appeared in a single place. Three of them appeared rather fast considering their spawning method… Nevertheless, the cold Golems were called a long time ago as Water Golems since their bodies were mostly made of water, but that changed over the time. In any case, they were like three meters talks and about twice as large as humans. They also had a humanoid shape, but they didn't have many defining characteristics such as eyes, nose, and ears. They were more like a mythical type of monster than most… Regardless, one of those three raised its arms, and the temperature around began to drop even more. While the other two summoned water arrows and fired.
Billy already knew what they could do, but he only took the countermeasure at that moment. He touched the ground, and in the next moment, a large block of Earth fell on the head and crushed completely the Golem that, made the temperature decrease. That was necessary because that spell worked the same way as the water walls and strengthened their other abilities.
You obtained 110 experience points.
The skill Earth Manipulation obtained 110 experience points.
The attacks of the other two had been blocked by Alexander and Natalie. However, some water splashed onto them, and they began to tremble. They weren't hit by frozen water, but it didn't change the fact that it was very cold… they tried to charge at the enemies, but they had lost a lot of their speed…
Lily and Kate joined their fight and attacked those two monsters. Still, their projectiles passed through the monsters without causing any damage… that was because the monsters had cores, and only that part could be damaged. Unfortunately, the core couldn't be seen that easily since the body of the Golems had many bubbles, and they used those to hide the core.
"Natalie!" Billy said.
"They are in the back and in the left leg… head and right hand now, now they are…" Natalie replied.
In the end, Billy and Sarah had to intervene once again… They smashed the golems with Earth blocks. Billy imagined that things would be like that in the beginning, but he tried the other methods anyway.
You obtained 110 experience points.
The skill Earth Manipulation obtained 110 experience points.
You obtained 110 experience points.
The skill Earth Manipulation obtained 110 experience points.
"Ah.. this was worse than I thought," Alexander said.
"Don't worry about it. The matchup against them was just too unfavorable against you guys," Billy said.
Billy had shared with them on the previous day the possibility that things would be that difficulty. The cold Golems were like the old slimes in fantasy games. Nothing but magic works on them. While a critical hit could do the job, the core was always moving, so one had to be very lucky to hit it. In any case, Alexander and Natalie still felt troubled since they didn't do a single thing, and they knew that the battle would drag out for quite a while without Billy and Sarah.
"Hey, you… what were you talking about before?" Marie asked while looking towards Natalie.
"I was talking about the location of the cores…" Natalie frowned. "Billy said that I might be able to feel their location if I am close enough, and he was right."
"How did you guess that?" Marie asked.
"Natalie is just good at that kind of thing… sensing magic," Billy explained. "While the whole creature is made of mana, I assumed based on the reports that the cores would have more."
Billy explained that while he was lifting the Earth blocks and getting the cores. They were the materials that the monsters left behind and could be used. Even after the Golems were defeated, their cores emitted some cold for a full month, and they could be used to preserve food or make a hot environment easier to withstand. Speaking of that, the third dungeon of that state only had fire-type monsters, so those cores were absolutely necessary for the adventurers there.
While Billy was thinking about that, Marie was correcting her thoughts about the small state that produced that party. She had assumed that Jean was just trying to scare or fool the enemy states by saying that they had a new ally, but it seemed that she was wrong in assuming that.
Marie began to wonder how those people would change that state if things proceeded favorably. In a few decades, the people of her state would change. Marie laughed at herself since she wasn't the type to think about those things.. Still, the future seemed a lot of fun thanks to those unusual additions… That being said, she also wondered how those youngsters would play a role in the future wars. Few exceptions existed, but their state was known for recruiting adventurers to join their ranks in times of war…