Chapter 73: Stuck Up

Ralph’s face twisted slightly.

"The fuck did you do?"

Flat on his face, still breathing heavily after narrowly avoiding being crushed, Peace met Ralph’s bewildered gaze.

"Uh, what you asked of me... You asked me to kill it."

Ralph stroked his chin as he watched the stone crumble away, revealing a splintered core with a half-broken sword embedded inside it.

Nodding and pursing his lips, Ralph said:

"I did, I did." He paused for a moment, then rasped, "I didn’t expect you to shove your sword up its asshole! I didn’t even know it had one!"

’Huh...?’

Peace tilted his head slightly.

"I’m confused."

Ralph rubbed his forehead.

"Well, I’m more confused."

Peace scanned the area, finding no immediate threats. They were safe enough to indulge in this conversation.

"I figured the core had to take in power somehow, and I noticed the gap when you three knocked it over... I assumed you knew about it, too, and that’s why you ordered me to kill it instead of doing it yourselves."

Ralph stood with his mouth agape for a few seconds, then swallowed hard.

"Are you dumb...?"

"Huh?"

"Unleash your hidden power! I wanted you to cave that rock prick’s chest in."

’Oh... it seems I’ve created quite the misunderstanding.’

Peace had alluded to having ’something...’ and then demonstrated considerable agility while scaling that tree. But he’d never actually struck anything during that fight. Apparently, Ralph had filled in the blanks himself, imagining some hidden power Peace had yet to reveal.

’Now I see why he gave up his vengeance so easily.’

It wasn’t just that Ralph thought Peace could be useful...

’He’s still scared of me.’

Scared of the unknown.

Now...

’Is this a misunderstanding I want to correct?’

What if that fear was the only thing keeping Ralph from seeking revenge?

’...’

Before the silence could stretch too long, Peace shrugged and answered:

"That method was much simpler, no?"

Ralph inhaled deeply. Then, lowering his voice but sounding no less incredulous, he said:

"Yes, yes, most definitely... but that’s not the problem! How—"

Finally pushing himself off the ground, Peace replied:

"I already explained that, didn’t I?"

"You— But—"

Yulis approached them, having witnessed the whole exchange.

"It makes sense, actually."

Looking downright horrified, Ralph replied:

"The fuck it does!"

Shaking his head, Yulis added:

"I never really thought about it before, but he’s right. All the non-living monsters I’ve observed have had some mechanism that exposed their cores."

Ralph scratched the back of his head.

"I, uh, I guess that makes sense."

Peace’s eyebrow lifted slightly.

’Huh? That’s some flawed logic... Undead aren’t golems.’

There were also other creatures that contradicted his reasoning. However, Peace didn’t feel the need to correct him. If the others understood the general idea, that was enough.

Well, Volkar wasn’t even listening. He was too busy frowning at his axe’s chipped edge, the result of repeatedly striking stone.

Maura, who’d been quietly observing as usual, interjected:

"Isn’t this... a major discovery?"

Glancing at the shattered core, Yulis replied:

"Yeah, if his logic holds, it’s massive."

Ralph looked between them.

"Ah, maybe it’s because I’m getting old... but I don’t exactly understand."

Peace reached to his right, retrieved what remained of his sword, and asked:

"Are you dumb?"

Ralph looked at Peace, unamused.

"You really like to spit questions back, eh?"

Ignoring the remark, Peace explained:

"Maybe it’s because you’ve spent so long on this floor without ascending that it didn’t come to mind. But if what I said is true, then the same concept should apply to creatures on the other floors."

Ralph’s eyes widened as he rubbed his thumb against his fingertips.

"Ah, I see. Then it truly is a world-altering find. I’m sure the Divers Guild will pay a hefty sum for this!"

Yulis almost immediately shouted:

"No! We can’t let anyone know!"

Ralph cocked his head to the side.

"Huh?"

He glanced between Peace and Maura.

Peace shrugged.

’Don’t look at me... I’m in the same boat!’

One glance at Maura told him she was just as confused.

Turning back to Yulis, Ralph asked:

"Kid, care to explain?"

Wasting no time, Yulis replied:

"Think about it. Creatures like the Earth Golem are typically avoided because of their poor risk-to-reward ratio and the time it takes to kill them. For that reason, their materials fetch higher prices than those of comparable quality. If an easy way to kill them became common knowledge, others would start hunting them, and the price of their materials would plummet!"

Ralph placed a hand on Yulis’s shoulder.

"Someone so young and already so corrupted by profit... It’s like I’m looking at my younger self! But, young’un, y’know this information could save lives, right?"

Peace rolled his eyes.

’Since when does he care about that?’

Yulis shrugged.

"If they cared about my life, I’d care about theirs. Screw everyone else, I want money."

Ralph bit his lip.

"Hmm... Ah, I won’t chide you. I know what you’ve been through. However, nothing on this floor is worth that much. Selling this information would be a quicker, more reliable way to make a profit."

Yulis’s gaze grew stern.

"Haven’t I told you before, Ralph? I’m not content with staying on this floor forever. I’m going to see the end of this dungeon."

"Ah, right, right..."

’Wait...’

Peace looked at Ralph.

"I have the same aspirations as him... Do you really intend to stay on this floor forever?"

"Tch. I really don’t get you young people... Or maybe it’s because you’re elves that you have such ambition. Or maybe you haven’t experienced the true horror of the dungeon. But that’s beside the point."

Yulis shook his head.

"No, it isn’t... Because I am going to ascend. And when I do, I am going to kill stronger versions of monsters like that one."

Ralph turned toward Yulis, his expression flat. He stared for a few moments, then sighed and scratched the back of his head.

"Ah, it’s not like it’s my decision. I didn’t discover this. Besides... if we were to turn this information in, we’d have to compile a report based on more than just one Lesser Earth Golem. Seems like a hassle. And for all we know, Pariah’s whole theory could be wrong. Either way..."

A dubious smile touched Ralph’s lips as he looked around at the other meandering Lesser Earth Golems.

"Why not exploit this right now?!"

Peace pointed at the golem’s corpse and the pile of rubble surrounding it.

"My sword..."

Ralph cheered, tossing his own blade towards Peace without warning.

"Ah! Don’t worry about such a thing!"

Peace nearly tripped as he scrambled to catch it by the hilt.

’Heavy!’

And besides the heft...

’How dumb is he?!’

Peace hadn’t exactly done much to prove he would remain docile forever. Who knew? He could be plotting revenge against Ralph for having plotted to kill him. Actually, that seemed far more reasonable than simply accepting what had happened, joining up with them, and moving on.

Ralph looked away from Peace.

"Don’t look at me like that, creep. I don’t want one of those big fuckers to fall on me. If they’re gonna fall on anyone, let it be you. So, you can have the honor."

"Ah... thanks."

Reaching into his subspace bag, Ralph pulled out a shortsword as a replacement. It wasn’t of much use, given the spawning zone they were in, but it was better than nothing.

Looking around, Peace watched the wandering golems march aimlessly, while quite a few others remained curled up in mounds.

Ralph began stretching before searching the golem’s remains for any items. Sadly, the two crystal eyes hadn’t dropped. There was nothing else of value, just useless stone.

Once he was done, Ralph laid out a fairly simple battle plan...

He’d use his taunt skill to draw the golem’s attention and hold it for as long as possible.

Then, while it attacked Ralph, the others would close in. Peace, with the two axe wielders at his sides and Yulis behind him.

Once they were close enough, Peace would try to kill it before the golem shifted its attention to him.

If he could kill the monster before that happened, all was good. If he couldn’t, it would be Maura’s and Volkar’s job to keep the golem from turning toward him. And by striking its back as Peace delivered the killing blow, they could force it to collapse forward, away from him.

Finally, Yulis. Given his skillset, there were really only two ways he could help. He could keep watch for approaching monsters and warn the others. And if things got dicey and Peace was about to have a stone giant collapse on him, it would be Yulis’s job to pull him to safety.

’Simple...’

With that method, Peace figured they could kill up to nine golems within two hours. Relatively safely.

Yet...

As they got into formation, Peace couldn’t help but think to himself:

’I never intended to go through the dungeon alongside him... but I didn’t expect him to be so content with staying stagnant, either.’

But it was clear Ralph had his reasons.