Astral Online: Cursed by the Demon Lord to Become the Strongest Beautiful Girl, I Rapidly Grow and Dominate with Cheat Skills Despite Being the Weakest Profession - Chapter 228
Chapter 228: Battle with the Golems
The wastelands were teeming with various earthen monsters.
Apparently, these creatures were originally mass-produced workers created in ancient alchemists’ workshops. After the collapse of their civilization, their programming malfunctioned, and they began attacking people.
In terms of strength, the 50-centimeter Haniwa-shaped and Dogu-shaped golems were about the same. For adventurers above level 80, they posed no real challenge.
The biggest problem was the occasional swarm of animal-shaped Animal Golems. These creatures couldn’t be damaged effectively unless their weak points were specifically targeted, causing countless first-time adventurers to lose a life.
The primary reason for this lay in the material their bodies were made of. It was unmistakably stone.
In this world, the effective counter to “Earth” was supposed to be “Wind.” Naturally, one would assume that wind-based attacks would be their weakness. However, the Animal Golems were powered by “Wind Magic Stones,” making their actual weakness fire-based attacks.
When I first encountered them, I couldn’t help but let out a wry laugh at the information my Insight skill revealed.
In essence, a golem’s elemental attributes could change depending on its power source. If someone could leverage that concept, they might even create a “Super Golem” capable of switching elements mid-battle.
—Though, for player-side Alchemists, such a feat was impossible. My idea would have to remain a mere fantasy.
“Big brother, you’re spacing out!”
Oops, not good.
Lost in thought, I’d earned my sister’s scolding.
As I applied fire attributes to all party members, I readied myself for the boar-shaped golem charging at us. With a defense-piercing ?Rage Slash?, I sliced clean through it from head to tail.
After taking down the first golem, I landed on the ground and was momentarily immobilized due to the skill’s cooldown.
At that moment, a bison-shaped golem rushed toward me, but Rou intervened to stop it.
“?Phalanx?!”
The dual-shield knight activated a damage-reduction skill and the immovable skill Immobility, halting the bison’s powerful charge despite taking significant HP damage.
As the bison golem froze in place, my friend Shin unleashed multiple ?Fire Lances? on it, reducing it to glittering particles of light.
That took care of two of them.
I glanced over at the group of four women nearby. The fighting girls were showcasing professional-level teamwork.
“?Taunt?!”
Shio, the knight class, drew the attention of three golems — a Bird-type, a Snake-type, and an Alligator-type — as she dashed through the enemies, using her skills to keep them distracted.
The enemies, now focused entirely on Shio, turned their backs to Kuro and the others.
“Nice job!”
Inori’s fiery arrow pierced the enemies, and from there, the specially crafted arrowheads made from magic stones exploded, dealing massive damage to all three golems.
Seizing the moment when the golems’ movements were briefly stunned, Kuro and Setsuna both leapt forward and drew their katana.
“?Instant Slash?!”
“?Twin Tiger Dance?!”
The fire-element infused slash cleaved through all three golems, and a spinning strike using both a short sword and a tanto further drained their HP.
With the five golems defeated, the team relaxed, until the perception skill suddenly identified more enemies lurking beneath the ground.
“Shio, behind you!”
“Hm?”
The ground behind Shio, who was slightly farther away, began to rise, and from it emerged a mole-type golem, about three meters tall.
An unexpected golem ambush.
What a variety of golems. This one was approaching at high speed from outside the range.
Inori quickly attempted to provide support fire, but the golem’s massive claws caught Shio’s small frame.
However, just in time, Shio raised her kite shield in her left hand and activated Phalanx.
As she took the hit, she slid inward and raised her one-handed sword in her right hand.
“Seal Release, true power unleashed—?Caladbolg?!”
As Shio spoke the keyword, the blade of her magical sword extended.
Additionally, multiple buffs were applied at once: Power Boost, Durability Boost, and Crit Rate Boost. The princess knight, clad in an orange armored dress, swung the sword down with a Rage Slash.
The lethal strike cut through the golem’s defensive arm, turning it into particles of light.
Though it was a close call, Shio remained calm and handled the situation perfectly.
With no more enemies in sight using the skill, the battle was concluded.
Before the next encounter, we all returned to the carriage waiting in the back.
Inside the carriage, heading toward the third village, we discussed the earlier battle.
“With your support skills, it’s so much easier…”
“Ah, now that you mention it, there are no Enchanter among the top-ranked players, huh?”
“That’s right. Even without seeing those golems for the first time, there are still plenty of people dying from them.”
During our journey, I had been consistently casting three Grand-Class buffs — Attack Power Up, Defense Power Up, and Speed Up — along with a basic Fire Enchantment on the party.
Without these buffs, even with Phalanx, enemies would still deal almost seventy percent of their damage, making it impossible to defeat them with the few attacks we landed, like earlier.
“?Rage Slash? usually takes at least three hits to land, so it’s unbelievable that you took them down in one hit.”
“Sora’s enchantment skills are kind of a cheat. If there were more people like that, the game’s balance would be messed up.”
“Rou, are you praising me or not?”
“It’s about half and half.”
“If you keep using enchantment skills like this, I’ll probably get cursed into never leaving this party because it feels so good.”
“Shin, I’ve become a person who can’t live without Sora-kun anymore…”
“Guess you’ll have to take responsibility for that.”
“Hey, I’m just casting buffs, how am I supposed to take care of all that?!”
Having known each other for years, my three best friends expertly coordinated with me, and I had to reject their talk of ‘responsibility’ with all my might.
Kuro, who had been next to me, was just smiling and watching the exchange, not siding with anyone.
“But Shio’s magic sword from the special quest is really cool, especially how it can stretch and shrink.”
“Pretty cool, right? I got it from the last attack bonus after defeating the boss.”
Some top-ranked players, like Shio and my master, have obtained extremely rare equipment from special quests.
My sister’s weapon is an S-rank magic sword, ?Caladbolg?, which seems to have various enhancements, including the ability for its blade to extend up to ten meters.
I wonder if my beloved sword, which I’m diligently leveling, could gain such interesting special effects…
While thinking about this, I opened the job menu from my status screen, which had risen to level 105 after the battle.
The 36 points I had been holding onto had increased by 20, giving me a total of 56, and thinking about the upcoming golem battles, I decided to upgrade “Fire Attribute Enchantment” to a higher-tier enchantment skill.
To enhance a profession skill, you need to spend 5 points per level.
It took 45 points to upgrade it to level 10, leaving me with 11 points. But with this, I could evolve ?Fire Attribute Enchantment? into ?Grand Fire Attribute Enchantment?.
“Alright, this should make the next battle a bit easier.”
“Seriously, your profession points increase so ridiculously fast…”
“Most players can barely manage to level up one or two skills to the highest tier, but you’ve maxed out nine of them, Sora. No one else does that.”
“Hehe, if you’re that jealous, why don’t you all become women too?”
““Sorry, we politely decline!!”” x2
Shin and Rou immediately took an apologetic stance, and after a few minutes of these back-and-forths, we arrived at the third village.