Chapter 38: The Golem and the Item Box
Author: Kurohitsuji
Raw: https://ncode.syosetu.com/n2086fk/39/
Translator: Lilia v4
Editor: Yuriko AYA
To make up for loafing yesterday, I come to the Adventurer’s Guild first thing.
It isn’t that I went back to sleep right after dinner and woke up too early.
…It’s fine. They say children who sleep, grow.
“Liza, morning. I came to take the coal-mine request.”
“Oh, you’re early. Wait a moment… here.”
I read the request form she hands me.
Yep, exactly what I heard yesterday.
A golem-subjugation request in the coal mine. The proof part is apparently the golem’s core.
Notes say it’s so hard ordinary weapons won’t even scratch it.
Hnn. Well, shall I try.
“Then I’ll take this.”
“There have been injuries, so you be careful too, Ouka.”
“Nn. I will.”
She waves smiling and sees me off.
Come to think of it I’ve never been to a coal mine. I wonder what it’s like.
Well, I’ll go without letting my guard down.
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I leave the capital and walk a few tens of minutes by Ring’s guidance. I reach the coal mine in question.
Uoh. Amazing.
The mountain is full of holes. Wooden scaffolding, ladders here and there.
From inside the holes I can hear a pounding, gattsun gattsun.
And it’s hot.
The air feels trapped. There’s no wind here.
Nnh. Coal-mine work doesn’t look like something I could do.
I go on, sweating a little, and come out in a slightly more open place.
Now then. It’s supposed to appear around here, but I don’t see anything that looks like it.
Farther in, maybe. I hope it isn’t a tight spot.
I wipe sweat, fuu, and then.
Becha.
An? Did something fall?
“—Ouka, caution: a slime.”
“Geh. Those are here?”
A slime. A mucus monster, said to have no intellect.
The annoying part is they apparently eat anything.
Cloth, iron, living things. Even other monsters, I’ve heard they prey on those.
Hmm. Well, anyway, shall I shoot it.
Pan!
A shot. Dead center.
…Wait? It didn’t do anything?
Pan! Pan!
I fire with both hands, and it’s just squirming, uni uni.
Ooh, not doing anything at all.
…Wait? Isn’t this actually bad?
“Hey, Ring. What’s a slime’s weak point?”
“—Flame. Also, physical attacks are nullified.”
“…Haha. I’m in trouble.”
I can’t do anything except physical attacks.
Even firing mana is a physical attack.
Uwah, don’t come this way! Close!
Damn… temporary retreat!
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For now I’m back at the entrance.
Of the monsters I’ve fought so far, this might actually be the worst.
An ordinary adventurer could take it out easy with fire magic, but I can’t use magic.
Physical immunity is way too much of a natural enemy.
I can’t go farther with that thing there. What do I do. Hmm.
The weak point is flame, huh.
Flame, fire, heat… hmm. What do I… ah.
No, can I?
Hmm. Shall I try once.
If it doesn’t work I’ll run with everything I have and talk to the guild.
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The open hall in the mine again.
The slime is still oozing around, same as before.
All right. Revenge.
“Ring. Frying pan, max heat.”
“—Understood: deploying.”
“…Oraaa!”
I swing a huge frying pan up and smash it down.
Juwaaaaaaaa!
Ooh, it’s melting, it’s melting.
Heat works too, after all.
…It smells insanely like rotten meat, but I have to put up with that.
In a few seconds the slime is melted and gone.
I pick up something like a core that was left, just in case, and go on.
…Please no more slimes. No, seriously, the smell.
It’s a hole, so that was pretty nasty.
That worry comes to nothing, and I find the golem I was after.
Huge. And bulky. How many of me is this thing.
Well, not as much as the ogre I saw before.
It looks like rock face; a rock golem, maybe.
It does look hard.
Anyway, a feeler.
I put mana into the handguns to the maximum.
A high kiin. I snipe the chest with a condensed sakura-pink mana round.
The mana round that flashes like a single line punches through the golem as if it were nothing.
…Eh, that’s it? Ah, it crumbled.
Hmm. Sense of accomplishment, or fulfillment, or… well, it’s easy, so fine.
Anyway, recover the core… big. And super heavy.
Hnn. Can’t be helped. I’ll work at it.
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I haul it in both arms, huffing, out to the entrance.
I don’t know. The parts before and after the golem-slaying felt harder than the slaying.
Well, anyway this should complete the request. Let’s just go home.
…Carrying this heavy thing.
Uwah. Heavy labor.
Can’t be helped. I’ll borrow a cart.
“Excuse meee! I want to haul a golem core, borrowing a caaart!”
“Ou, take it! Thanks, miss! Need hands!?”
“I’m fine! Thaaanks!”
I get permission from the coal-mine uncles and end up pulling a cart back to the capital.
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“Lizaaa, I’m hooome…”
“Welcome back… hey, did you come back carrying that in your hands?”
Liza asks, looking fed up at the golem core I dragged, zuri zuri.
Look, it can’t be helped. I can’t lift it.
“Yeah. I didn’t think it’d be this big.”
“…Hey, Ouka. Don’t tell me you don’t have an item box?”
An item box?
“Eh, what’s that.”
“Oh… sorry, I should have told you.
An item box is a magic tool you can put things in and carry; the capacity changes with the owner’s mana.
Living things won’t go in, but while they’re inside you don’t feel the weight.”
Eh, what is that convenient tool. That existed?
I wanted to know that a lot sooner…
“…Where can I buy one?”
“The Adventurer’s Guild or a specialty shop, but what do you want to do?”
“I’ll buy it here. Damn, if I’d had that I would have stripped the wyverns.”
“Then I’ll take it out of today’s reward. Here.”
“Oh. Thanks.”
By the look of it, about the size of a leather pouch. I might be able to put it on my hip.
I try putting the slime core in; I don’t feel the weight at all.
This is super convenient. Man, I didn’t know this existed.
“Thanks. This’ll make carrying materials easier.”
“No, I’m the one who should apologize. I assumed you already knew.”
“Well, now that I think about it, everyone had something hanging at their hip.”
Right. Come to think of it, you don’t see many adventurers traveling with a huge pack.
That’s on me for not noticing.
“Hmm. Maybe I’ll go hunt a bit.”
“Fufu. In moderation, okay?”
“Then I’m off again.”
Anyway, shall I try along the highway. I hope there’s something.