Chapter 150: Golem Valley
After confirming the evolution of our Gifts at the Grand Cathedral, we left the royal capital by carriage and headed straight west. We’ve arrived at a grand canyon woven by nature itself. It’s a dungeon commonly known as ‘Golem Valley’. Starting today, we plan to spend a few days here grinding for experience points.
“This is… incredible…”
Clouds hang over the sheer cliffs stretching out before us. It’s so high that looking up makes my neck hurt.
And looking down, numerous deep fissures run through the land, their bottoms out of sight.
‘Golem Valley’ was a peculiar terrain, shaped as if a child had haphazardly slashed through a table mountain I’d seen on TV in my previous life. It’s beautiful enough to be a tourist spot, but this place is a dungeon where monsters roam freely. Being able to see this scenery might be a privilege reserved for adventurers.
Well, it’s not like we’re adventurers, though.
“I wonder where the monsters are?”
“Mm.”
“It’s such a scenic place. It’s hard to believe this is a dungeon.”
“Onee-sama, you mustn’t let your guard down.”
The five of us who came to ‘Golem Valley’ this time are: me, Cornelia, Lily, Claudia, and Eleonore.
I’ve left Cassandra in charge of our family’s diplomacy and other matters in the royal capital. She doesn’t have a combat-oriented Gift, you see. It’s better for Cassandra to use her wide network of contacts for the sake of the Baumgarten family. She might even be hosting a tea party right about now.
Cassandra’s abilities aren’t limited to her extensive connections and aristocratic sensibilities. She possesses an ability that could truly be called the ‘crystallization of Altmeier’.
But well, it seems like it’ll be a long time before she needs to use that ability. It would be best if a situation requiring its use never arises.
Alright, let’s focus on the task at hand for now.
“I explained this in the carriage, but let’s go over it again. Here in ‘Golem Valley’, as the name suggests, golems will appear. We’ll be fighting golems, but what was their weak point, Ria?”
“Yes! It’s the Core in their chest!”
“Exactly. The round Core embedded in a golem’s chest. That’s its weak point. If you destroy it, the golem will stop moving.”
Golems are somewhat unique monsters. Their stone bodies have excellent durability, so they’re not usually monsters you hunt for experience points. The battles tend to drag on, you see.
But in the game, you could defeat a golem in one hit if you landed a critical. That ‘critical’ was an attack on the golem’s Core.
In fact, from what I’ve gathered by listening to adventurers and doing some research, it seems golems do stop moving when their Core is destroyed.
If you destroy the Core, you can defeat golems quickly. They’re perfect for grinding experience points.
However, adventurers in this world apparently don’t use golems for experience grinding. This is because their objective for defeating golems is different.
Normally, adventurers seem to hunt golems for their Cores. Their goal is to destroy the golem’s stone limbs and retrieve the Core undamaged.
It seems golem Cores sell for a high price as alchemy materials.
To adventurers, attacking the golem’s Core from the outset, like we do, would probably seem strange.
That’s because the only item obtainable from a golem that can be exchanged for money is its Core. If you destroy it, your profit becomes zero.
However, to put it bluntly, we don’t need to earn money. That’s why we can use this loophole, this rough-and-ready method, that ordinary adventurers can’t.
Golems give a decent amount of experience points, after all.
“We’ll aim for the golem’s Core and take them down in one hit. Let’s hunt a ton of them!”
“Yes!”
“Mm.”
“Understood.”
“I wonder if I’ll be able to do it…”
Cornelia, Lily, and Claudia agreed, but Eleonore looks a little anxious. That’s understandable. She has high defense but lacks attack power. It’ll probably be difficult for her to destroy a golem’s Core in a single blow.
However, I really want to develop Eleonore’s Gift the most.
I’d been worried about that too, but I’ve come up with a solution.
“I was thinking of having El use this for this occasion.”
“This is…!”
What I took out was the Jewel of Fire. Equipping this allows one to use fire magic. With this, even Eleonore should be able to destroy a golem’s Core. This time, I intend to use Eleonore not as the party’s shield, but as a magic caster.
“Such a precious item… Thank you very much.”
“You might struggle with aiming at first, but it’ll be useful once you get used to it. Let me know if you run out of Holy Power. I can share some of mine with my skill.”
The Great Sage’s skills include one that allows me to share my own Holy Power with others. In game terms, it means I can restore not only HP but also MP.
And, as a passive skill, I get a bonus to my Holy Power recovery.
My Holy Power recovers faster than others. And I can share that recovered Holy Power with my allies. It’s unlikely we’ll ever face a situation where our combat strength drops due to running out of Holy Power.