171 – Sacrificial Ritual – 4

Since orichalcum was called a divine metal, it was an ore that was at least Legendary-grade.

Depending on the environment and conditions under which it was mined, it was a magnificent ore that could even reach Legendary Plus-grade—and for all they knew, if the Lumen party could obtain this orichalcum, it might be of a grade even higher than that.

Since the orichalcum, which was said to be so rare, had gathered to form a golem’s body, was there any way to express its specialness?

If the dwarves had been here, the moment they saw that golem, they might have died of shock from overflowing joy rather than fear.

The problem was how to hunt a golem made of such a rare and hard magic metal.

“So, what do we do about that?”

“Shaving it down from the outside is impossible. Since my flames won’t be that effective…”

“Would wielding the fangs like a pickaxe to gouge it out be a better way?”

While Gi-jun and Tilla talked seriously, facing the orichalcum golem that was slowly narrowing the distance to the party, Laura and Eun-shin, who had been helpless even against the lava golem, could only keep their mouths shut and observe.

Unlike the sulfur golem or the lava golem, it was running as if sliding across the floor without making even the slightest sound.

That was even more terrifying.

—Normally, golems collapse when you destroy their core, right? A golem of that size will definitely have a core inside. Since orichalcum is also a magic metal, too.

Tilla nodded at Lucy’s advice.

“That’s true, but a golem’s core is bound to be the hardest part of its body… Moreover, for a golem whose entire body is made of orichalcum, there is a high possibility that the core was made by condensing the essence of that orichalcum. It would be just as hard and precious.”

“I’ll go out and block it first!”

Just before the collision with the party, Gi-jun charged forward with his entire body flashing brilliantly and blocked it.

The moment the Silver Moon of Contradiction, reinforced with Adamant—divine iron—clashed with the divine metal, a terrible vibration erupted along with an absurd roar.

Groaning at an impact that was in some ways much heavier than when he had blocked the laser fired by the Pupil earlier, Gi-jun readjusted his grip on the shield.

“Mana or whatever is all bullshit; if you check this bastard’s stats, he definitely put everything into Strength…!”

Wielding his shield like a pickaxe to shave away its body was an impossible task from the start.

Once it started running wild in earnest, there was no one but Gi-jun who could block it!

This meant Gi-jun had to focus entirely on the role of a tank.

“Oh dear, I must go and help right away!”

“Either way, that is metal, right?”

Then, Laura suddenly succeeded in coming up with a brilliant idea.

“Then wouldn’t it be fine if we just melted it first?”

“…Oh.”

Stopping herself just as she was about to charge forward, Tilla let out an exclamation, convinced by Laura’s words.

Dumbfounded, Eun-shin asked her.

“Did you just accept that? You want to melt that thing?”

“Of course, if it’s orichalcum, its heat resistance must be massive, but since we’re going to make equipment out of it anyway, we have to melt it eventually.”

Of course, she was right, but there was something Tilla had overlooked: the resistance of the orichalcum, which had condensed around a core and taken the form of a golem, would be far greater than when it was in its simple raw ore state.

Furthermore, since all of its resistances, including shock and magic resistance, had soared, the fact that Glitterfinger had been able to mine even a fraction of its body in the past was nothing short of a miracle.

But Tilla, having already decided on her course of action, resolved not to worry about such trivial matters.

As a Flame Human who wielded Divine Flame, there was nothing in the world she could not melt.

“Jun, keep its attention right there! I’m going to melt it down!”

“Oh.”

—That’s a pretty good idea, actually.

When it came to Gi-jun and Lucy, they did not even think of questioning her idea.

Gi-jun went a step further and came up with a way to lend Tilla his strength.

“Ur, add your strength to Tilla’s flames. And this as well.”

Catching the item he pulled from his inventory and threw, Tilla immediately recognized it, and her eyes sparkled.

It was Vulcan’s Hammer, which had played an absolute role in Gi-jun’s hunt of the Pupil today.

“Amazing! With this…!”

Putting it into her inventory, Tilla instantly felt all the heat she controlled being amplified, and a fierce smile spread across her lips.

Leaping lightly, she stood, stepping on the golem’s head with incredible boldness.

She trusted implicitly that Gi-jun would completely control the golem’s movements.

“Laura, Shin! Stand back so you don’t get hurt! Ur and Rodim, strengthen my flames with all your power… Now, here I go!”

The moment Tilla placed her hand on the golem’s head.

Flames flowing as red as blood started from the orichalcum golem’s head and wrapped around its entire body in an instant, blazing up.

――――――――――!

The golem could not even scream properly as it twisted its body wildly, trying to shake off the flames, but it was not a flame that could be easily extinguished.

Instead, as Gi-jun approached even closer and pushed it consecutively with his two shields, it had no choice but to clear Gi-jun out of the way first.

—Oh… It has been a long time since I felt this level of heat. Even if she is a Flame Human, she must be a mortal in the end, so how can she go this far?

Lucy, who was sitting on Gi-jun’s head and coating his body and shields with light, gasped in admiration at the heat enveloping the golem.

While Gi-jun, who had contracted with the spirits of light and fire and originally possessed the ability to resist status effects, could endure it no matter how hot it was, Laura and Eun-shin were astonished by the heat that rushed over their entire bodies the moment those flames appeared in the world, and they had to retreat far back.

“Wait, hold on… The hot spring! The hot spring is evaporating!”

“What?!”

Tilla hesitated at Laura’s shrill cry.

Maintaining the flames enveloping the golem’s body even amidst that was impressive, but it was not something to praise anyway.

Gi-jun shouted as he deflected the wild arms of the thrashing golem with his shields.

“Is this the time to worry about that? We can just go to another hot spring when we return!”

“You won’t back out when the time comes, saying you won’t go in together?”

“I’ll go in with you!”

“You promised!”

Tilla replied in an excited voice to Gi-jun’s confirmation, raising the temperature of the flames even higher.

Gi-jun wondered if he had made a mistake, but there was no turning back now.

—I can see its body starting to melt, Contractor!

“Then we have to collect it. Shin!”

“I’m ready!”

As the flames of terrifying temperature began to melt the golem’s body little by little, Eun-shin approached with a look of firm determination.

His hand held an ordinary iron pot, but thanks to Lucy granting a blessing upon seeing it, it was now in a state to withstand high-temperature liquid.

“We must collect every single drop without wasting any!”

“Leave it to me!”

Eun-shin, charging in with a do-or-die expression, began to collect the orichalcum dripping from the golem’s body into the pot.

Of course, just approaching the golem was so incredibly hot that it dealt damage, but thanks to the Adaptation skill and the Blessing of Light, it was at a level where he somehow did not die.

Whenever he took continuous damage and reached a dangerous level, Laura chanted holy magic from behind to heal him.

It was ridiculous that he had to face the risk of death just to gather loot, but Eun-shin approached the task with utmost seriousness.

“This stubborn thing… I’m going to raise the temperature higher!”

—Kyuuuuuuu!

—Kit! Kiiit!

Sensing a crisis as its body began to melt, the orichalcum golem began to circulate mana through its body to increase its resistance.

It was not a bad thing since the quality when harvested would naturally increase if mana flowed through the metal to reinforce it, but to melt it, they had to produce flames of an even higher temperature.

Surprisingly, however, the more stubborn the golem’s resistance was, the more Tilla continued to break through her limits and create hotter, even hotter fire.

“Ah—hahahaha! Amazing! This is the first time I’ve ever made such a strong flame! Rodim, Ur! This is amazing! It’s incredible! And this hammer, too!”

“Tilla’s state seems a bit dangerous…”

—Leave her be, Contractor. Everyone goes through it at least once.

“I feel like I’m going to die from the heat…!”

One pot was filled and put into the inventory, then another, and another.

Perhaps Glittertoss was thinking that no matter how amazing Gi-jun’s party was, they would not be able to gather all the orichalcum.

He might be satisfied even if they managed to bring back just one lump like his father had.

However—this orichalcum golem was likely a being born by absorbing all the orichalcum that existed in the veins of this volcano.

……After today, it would be impossible to find orichalcum in this volcano.

But wasn’t that an ending more fitting for a legend?

—Even though refining pure orichalcum from this will reduce it to less than a tenth—it should still be enough to make weapons for all the party members.

“There’s no need to make them entirely out of orichalcum anyway. We have dragon materials and divine beast materials too.”

—Except for the Contractor and the Flame Human, they will end up with equipment that is far too good for them…

Gi-jun chatted leisurely with Lucy even while blocking the rampaging golem.

Perhaps finding it offensive that he kept flashing and provoking it like that, the orichalcum golem, whose body was now less than half remaining, finally cast its final skill at the cost of its life.

It was to spread its molten body wide and sweep the entire area!

“Back off!”

Detecting its unusual movement, Gi-jun instantly made Tilla and Eun-shin back away.

The moment the orichalcum golem, transformed into a storm of boiling liquid metal droplets, rushed at him, Gi-jun put strength into the hands holding his two shields and began to deflect every single one of them!

“Hyaaaaap!”

Every single time he blinked, hundreds of metal droplets solidified and bounced away, sparkling in the air.

As the brilliantly sparkling small golden pieces of orichalcum burst forth, embroidering the air like a milky way, Tilla, who had been watching with disbelieving eyes, suddenly snapped out of it and shouted.

“Everyone, collect those!”

Tilla shouted shrilly.

Overwhelmed by Gi-jun’s unbelievable feat of tracking and deflecting every single metal droplet that formed the storm, the party members hurriedly stepped forward to collect the orichalcum grains popping out from here and there.

How long did the storm rage like that?

As the storm subsided and even the heat dominating the area completely vanished, Gi-jun let his arms, which were too stiff to even move, hang loosely and let out a ragged breath.

“Keu-hat…!”

No matter how much he had grown, it was an excessive movement, and because he could not block everything, Gi-jun’s armor was in tatters.

This was the moment the Unique-grade breastplate, which he had used quite usefully ever since obtaining it after defeating the Dullahan, finally met its complete end.

Was it a relief that he ended up without holes pierced all over his body thanks to that, or was it a relief that he succeeded in protecting his face, thereby keeping his Persona safe?

“Wow, I really thought I was going to die… That was even scarier than the laser fired by the Pupil.”

—In a sense, it was an attack that exploited the heat we generated… Wow, it really went out with a bang.

Gi-jun also smiled bitterly and nodded in agreement.

Who could have known that the orichalcum golem would launch a suicide attack at the final moment?

But thanks to that, there was something they had obtained fully… It was the round spherical metal left in the center of the storm—the orichalcum golem’s core.

When Gi-jun picked it up, sure enough, he could see the information: [Orichalcum Heart (Epic)].

“Jun, I’m sorry. It seems we didn’t manage to get all of it.”

Tilla said, approaching Gi-jun as he checked the final loot and handing him the hammer.

As Gi-jun turned his head at her words, he saw tiny holes pierced here and there.

Perhaps the orichalcum droplets that his party members failed to catch had dug into those holes.

“Still, we recovered more than eighty percent of it.”

“Yes, that’s enough. Besides, we also got the most precious thing.”

Orichalcum, one of the most precious magic metals in the world.

When he showed them the golem’s core, which was formed by only the condensed essence of it, all the party members were mesmerized.

“Ah, there’s another hot spring over here!”

“Hot spring!”

Of course, their attention soon shifted elsewhere, though.