Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear

Chapter 141 – Bear-san Dives Into The Mine, Part 2

Jade-san’s party was able to easily kill the Earth Golems, and judging by what I saw, I should be able to do the same just by using wind magic.

The golems couldn’t move after their arms and legs were cut off. Well, that was true for all monsters.

Still, what would happen if I cut off the golem’s head?

Would it stop moving, or would it keep going? I should verify it.

It would be easier if it stopped moving after I cut off its head, like other monsters, but since Mel-san cut off its legs instead of its head, did that mean that there was no point in cutting its head off?

I kept following Jade-san’s party through the tunnel, still analyzing how they fought.

We encountered a few more Earth Golems along the way, but Jade-san’s party disposed of them without a problem.

Was it because a rank C party was just that strong, or were the Earth Golems just that weak? I didn’t know.

Either way, I had nothing to do.

Having it easy was great, but having nothing to do was boring.

I decided to take a look at the map, but only the parts we had already passed through had been recorded.

I had learned something really obvious soon after entering the mine; there were signboards at each intersection. They told which way the entrance was, or your destination if you continued down the path.

It was written in a code like A-1 and A-2.

A was the name of the tunnel, and the number specified which branch. For example, the tunnel labelled A-3 was the third branch of the main tunnel A, and A-3-2 was the second branch of A-3.

Well, it wasn’t really a complicated system. The path was straight for the most part, and there were big openings from time to time, proof that there had been some excavation there.

Still, even though there were signboards, the Bear Map was still really convenient.

Once I finished recording the path that Jade-san’s party took, I would like to do the same for the Idiot Rangers’ path. In games, it was common sense to have a 100% completed map, after all.

I used my detection magic again and found four Earth Golems in front of us.

I was bored and wanted to know the Earth Golem’s strength, so could you please leave one for me?

Since Jade-san’s party could easily defeat them, I didn’t really get a turn... but it would be weird if I suddenly complained about that.

Jade-san’s party checked the surroundings and decided to move forward; we quickly arrived at a big open place with three golems.

Huh? Where was the last one?

I checked with detection magic, and it was behind a big rock pile to our right.

It was in our blind spot, so Jade-san’s party didn’t know that it was there and started to run towards the three golems in front of them. No matter if it was one, two, or even three, the golems didn’t stand a chance against the combined attacks of the party. Even if there had been more golems, the party would have disposed of them in no time.

Well, since it seemed that they didn’t notice the one in the back, was it okay for me to attack it?

They overlooked it and just went past it, so it was probably fine.

It would be strange for me to suddenly attack an unseen golem, so I decided to attack it only once I could see it.

Jade-san’s party, after easily defeating the three golems, started to move towards the next tunnel without spotting the golem behind them, so I decided to attack it before they did.

Still, the moment I finally saw the golem, Jade-san and Mel-san spotted it as well. Wow, they reacted the instant they saw it... or had they reacted to the sound it made? Well, that much was expected from a rank C party.

Well, it didn’t matter, since I had already launched my wind magic at the Earth Golem that was coming out from behind the pile of rocks, cutting it to pieces.

Head, arms, and legs; I cut off all five parts.

They broke away easily, just as I had expected. Well, it made sense that Earth Golems were not that hard; they were made of earth. I didn’t even need to use Bear Magic for them.

「So there was another one!」

Jade-san shouted in surprise.

「Yuna-chan, you’re amazing.」

No, you two noticed it as well, and reacted really quickly. Well, I didn’t see how the other two had reacted, since they were still behind me, but if Jade-san and Mel-san reacted that quickly, Toya-san and Senya-san had probably also reacted that fast.

「Yuna’s reaction was strange, though. She was already preparing to attack before it even entered our vision.」

Senya-san, who had been watching from behind, shared what she had seen.

She really paid attention, huh.

「Yeah, Bear Missy reacted the moment the golem came out.」

「She was really quick indeed.」

It seemed that Toya-san also noticed.

I couldn’t really tell them how I had known that the golem had been there, so,

「It might be a girl’s intuition?」

was how I responded.

「Girl’s intuition?」

Jade-san gave me a dubious look, while Mel-san grabbed my Bear Hand.

「So true! Girl’s intuition exists, right? Jade and Toya say that it doesn’t.」

「Yeah, it exists.」

Senya-san agreed with Mel-san.

「Still, if you told me that there was a monster around the corner without any real evidence...」

Jade-san said, and Toya-san nodded in agreement.

「And when we ask, you only say that it’s a girl’s intuition...」

「But there really was a golem there, right?」

The female members of the party didn’t seem to accept their argument, and the male side didn’t want to give in either.

It seemed that the two simple words I uttered had divided the party in two. Well, it wasn’t like they were really fighting each other, but if it continued like this, we wouldn’t move on, so I decided to change the subject.

「Now that I think about it, does a golem continue moving even if you cut off its head?」

I asked since I wasn’t able to confirm it here.

「Yes, it does. No matter how you cut a golem, it will continue moving. There are only two ways of stopping it: take away its magic stone or do enough damage to it.」

「Enough damage?」

「You know that a golem’s strength comes from its magic stone, right?」

I had vaguely heard about it, but I understood, so I nodded.

「When you damage the golem, the strength of the magic stone decreases, so if you deplete all the magic in the stone, the golem will stop moving.」

I see. So, as long as I damaged it enough, it would stop moving.

In that case, I should be able to somehow deal with the Iron Golems as well.

Even if magic wouldn’t work on them, I could just use brute force to stop them.

My ultimate secret technique, Change the Conversation, seemed to have worked, since they had forgotten all about our previous girl’s intuition discussion.

After taking the magic stones from the golems, we moved on to defeat some more Earth Golems before going down a gentle slope.

I checked the Bear Map and noticed that it had changed.

Had we arrived at a different level? The previous map was gone and had been replaced by a new one.

I see. The map changed when I went to a new level, just like it did in the game.

Since I now knew that this was a new level, I used detection magic and found a Stone Golem reaction in front of us.

Stone Golems would appear from this level onward, huh.

「I think you will be okay, Yuna-chan, but please be careful. Stone Golems will start to appear from now on.」

I knew that already because of my detection magic, but I still obediently nodded.

「Are Stone Golems strong?」

「Stone Golems are like rocks that have been reinforced with magic. You can just think of them as moving rocks.」

I didn’t really get it.

What did she mean by rocks that were reinforced with magic?

Well, I somewhat understood what she was trying to say, though.

Basically, they were sturdier than normal rocks.

They probably weren’t strong enough to withstand my Bear Magic, but I wouldn’t really know until I fought them, so I should try it out.

We moved on for a little longer before encountering a single Stone Golem.

The golem was made of stones and rocks that were stuck together, and it looked like it would crumble easily if I just punched it a bit.

When the Stone Golem noticed us, it lifted one of its arms and launched a baseball sized stone at us.

The stone flew towards Mel-san, who was in front, at 160 kilometers per hour (just my imagination here).

Mel-san didn’t dodge it, but blocked the stone by using magic to make an earth wall, big enough to protect us all.

As the golem was preparing to launch a second stone, Jade-san jumped out of the earth wall’s protection, acting as a decoy.

Mel-san followed up and, as if to say a stone for a stone, made a baseball sized stone with magic and launched it at the golem’s right leg. She didn’t send just one stone though; she continued to launch stones until the leg of the golem was destroyed.

With its leg destroyed, the golem lost its balance and fell, giving Jade-san an opening to attack it.

Once he hacked it enough, the golem stopped moving and crumbled, turning into a pile of rocks and stones.

The way it fell apart was strange, though; it gave off a different feeling than the other monsters did when defeated.

After the first Stone Golem, we continued to encounter more Stone and Earth Golems, but Jade-san’s party defeated them all.

The pattern was always the same. To dull their movements, Mel-san’s magic destroyed their legs while Senya-san threw knives at their joints, and then Jade-san and Toya-san hacked them down.

They never messed up or got confused, and everyone knew what they had to do.

As I was watching their routine, I recalled the game.

Using the same attack patterns was often the most efficient way to earn experience; it was something I often did myself.

I also did it in parties, of course... but only sometimes... I wasn’t a loner, and I really did party up from time to time!

I wanted to fight a Stone Golem at least once, though.

Just as the thought crossed my mind, five Stone Golems appeared.

Would the party leave one for me this time around?

「Jade, what should we do?」

Mel-san asked.

Until now, there had never been more than two Stone Golems at once, but there was more than double that amount here.

Jade-san looked at me.

「Yuna, would you mind taking one?」

「Yeah, no problem.」

Finally, my turn had come! They even asked me to do it. That meant they trusted me, right?

I wanted to try many different things, but for now, I wanted to see how much a Stone Golem could take, so... Bear Punch?

「Thank you, it will help as a lot. When we defeat ours, we will come and support you.」

They each picked a Stone Golem and headed their way.

I still hadn’t completely decided which attack I should use, but the Stone Golem had already started to approach me.

I dodged its attack, then hit it in the chest with a Bear Punch with all my strength.

The golem flew through the air, collided with the wall, and crumbled to the ground.

It was a beautiful three stage execution.

Huh... it went down with just one Bear Punch?

All members of Jade-san’s party froze when they saw it.

For the time being, I should save them, right?

I used Bear Punch on each of the four Stone Golems that were about to attack them; they also flew, collided with the wall, and crumbled.

So weak.

「Yuna-chan, you really were strong, huh.」

「Just like the rumors said.」

Meru-san and Senya-san said as they approached me.

「So, it’s true that you killed Black Tigers and Tiger Wolves on your own, huh.」

「I really didn’t think that Bear Missy was that strong.」

Hmm, since Stone Golems were so weak, Iron Golems would also be fine, right?

Author’s note:

I really seemed to frighten you in my last note.

For the time being, I’m writing when my tablet and computer are doing okay.

I also have backups, so it should be okay even if they suddenly break?

Once again, I learned that I’m really bad with battle scenes. ｗ

This probably comes from my bad habit of always skipping over the battle scenes in the novels I read, and only reading the aftermath. ｗ