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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Mod7
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‘Pertonba is just a slightly faster golem—that’s all you need to know.’
While it looked intimidating with its body 1.5 times larger than normal golems and made of red stone…
If you knew how to handle it, Pertonba was actually one of the more manageable named monsters.
‘Its weakness is obvious.’
Moving such a large body at high speeds naturally consumed more mana at the joints.
To keep its arms from flying off with each powerful swing, Pertonba had to constantly channel massive amounts of mana into its joints.
That made time Pertonba’s greatest weakness.
The longer a fight dragged on, the more mana it consumed, naturally straining its core.
This explained why Pertonba rushed in from the start, ready to rampage—it had to end things quickly.
GROOOOAR!
Unlike other golems, Pertonba let out a battle cry as it closed in.
Its arm pulled far back like a loaded strike, clearly planning to throw a punch the moment it got close.
The way it expressed everything with its container-like segmented body—
It truly lived up to its named monster status.
‘Just a little longer.’
If you can’t take down a golem alone, do it with others.
GROOOOAR!
The moment Pertonba got close enough to swing at me…
I quickly used a spider web to pull myself onto the regular golem’s body, changing positions.
Unlike normal golems, Pertonba could adjust its movements flexibly, immediately redirecting its punch.
BOOM!
The meteor-like fist smashed straight into the regular golem.
The impact was more than enough to shatter its core.
The golem, looking like a building moments from demolition, gradually lost the mana light in its eyes.
One hit.
What had kept moving after Akuaku’s carefully charged spell stopped instantly from Pertonba’s attack.
‘Getting hit means death, I guess.’
Even Tatakum, who’d withstood the regular golem’s attacks, would probably have to retire after blocking just one of Pertonba’s strikes.
That made me, with my focus on evasion, the ideal choice over a traditional tank.
Tatakum could survive one hit but couldn’t dodge, while Hyun-su could dodge but would suffer critical damage if hit.
Here, I had to handle the tanking alone.
“Akuaku! What’s your maximum spell range?”
“Ten meters! Can’t go further!”
“Get ready to cast at maximum range! Tatakum, focus on deflecting any stone fragments! Pepi, prepare to heal if I take a direct hit!”
But I wasn’t hunting alone.
“Pepi, you’ll draw aggro right after healing, so Hyun-su needs to carry you and run without looking back the moment you cast!”
The combined talents of Class S, considered Mirinae Academy’s finest.
With this composition, taking down Pertonba wasn’t impossible.
Creak creak.
After destroying an ally instead of an enemy, Pertonba rotated its head like an owl, seemingly experiencing an error.
This error-checking and situation-assessment pause pattern was actually the prime damage window.
‘Problem is, we don’t have anything to deal damage with.’
A defense-penetrating skill that hit internally—what they called armor-pen—would have been perfect.
Unfortunately, with no way to get one right now, Akuaku’s magic was our only offense.
The good news was that eating Wongbak’s core had given me beast status, making me excellent at drawing aggro.
Normally, concentrated mana would make monsters read the spell buildup and draw their aggro to Akuaku.
But recognizing a beast before it, the aggro wouldn’t shift.
While inferior to a tank’s taunt skill, being constantly active made it useful.
“Tatakum! Drop some totems around me!”
“TATAKUM!!!”
Tatakum shouted his name powerfully as he dropped totems around me.
As the Bainar chieftain’s firstborn, he could use basic shamanic arts despite being a tank.
Currently, Tatakum could use Vitality Totem and Courage Totem.
Both generally helped tanks, and that alone was a blessing.
BOOM!
Even such minor buffs notably improved my evasion by making my body slightly lighter.
GROOOOAR!
No matter how many spider webs I attached to Pertonba’s joints, they quickly snapped due to durability issues.
The webs couldn’t withstand the hot mana radiating from its joints.
‘I could dodge this all day.’
With someone else handling damage, focusing purely on evasion would naturally lead to victory.
Take this one down, head to the temple, finish the last golem—dungeon cleared perfectly.
Just as my happy circuits started firing up with hopeful visions of the future…
GROOOOAR!
As if wanting to crush that hope, another golem’s roar echoed from afar.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
‘Damn it.’
Of course.
Final Destiny wouldn’t just sit back and watch us clear a dungeon easily.
Another Pertonba charged in as naturally as someone ordering an extra serving of pork belly at a restaurant.
Things had been going so well I’d forgotten—Final Destiny was an extremely difficult roguelike game.
A crazy game hell-bent on killing players.
GROOOOAR!
The one silver lining was that, probably because Pertonba1 was already heavily aggroed to me…
The newly added Pertonba2 charged straight at me instead of Akuaku.
“Seok-hyun!”
“Don’t worry about me—focus on what you’re doing! Watch Akuaku!”
The bad news was that I had to handle two Pertonbas alone.
Two golems could be taken down.
Just needed to make them kill each other.
‘Assuming I don’t die first.’
I steadied myself, repeating that I could do this.
‘Two might actually work better.’
I saw a way through.
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BOOM!
As Pertonba1’s fist hit the ground, flying stone fragments and dust clouds obscured vision.
Retreating in fear here would mean getting crushed by Pertonba2’s fist—the best choice was to move forward.
Tap tap tap tap.
Just as I climbed Pertonba1’s fist to its shoulder, its palm came swatting down like trying to crush a mosquito.
I shot a spider web at Pertonba2’s body, pulled myself over to land on it, dodging the attack.
Just as I was about to launch myself again to avoid the next chain of attacks…
WHOOSH!
‘Damn!’
Hot steam erupted from Pertonba2’s body.
One of the patterns I’d forgotten about since it hadn’t been used yet.
‘Steam burst using joint mana.’
While just steam might not sound threatening, the overall body temperature increase made riding impossible.
Heat that would strip flesh and cause severe burns on contact.
Better to take a hit than stay near this continuous damage—I had to get away.
WHOOSH!
Seeing Pertonba2’s counter, Pertonba1 also released steam.
Their expressions seemed to realize that the tick clinging to them was weak to heat—I didn’t like that one bit.
‘Still manageable though.’
Steam burst wasn’t a purely advantageous skill.
Overheating mana to release steam strained the core, and water seepage gradually weakened their durability.
Like a berserker trading defense for attack power.
‘They’ve both used it—here comes the pattern.’
The special pattern that triggered when multiple Pertonbas used steam burst.
The notorious “newbie slicer” technique that beginners supposedly could never dodge.
The Wall of Wails.
Shhk shhk shhk shhk shhk.
Both Pertonbas stopped attacking, suddenly backed away, and thrust their shoulders forward.
Pertonba1 and 2 charged like derailed steam engines, wreathed in scorching steam.
Running was pointless.
Their charge was semi-homing—any slight movement would make you lose balance from the ground tremors, likely forcing you to take the hit.
‘Here it comes.’
This pattern was exactly why I was confident I could handle two of them.
Actually, we had a better chance of winning now than relying on Akuaku’s magic, so I’d waited for this.
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM.
The ground shook like an earthquake as they charged, making the distance I’d created meaningless.
With each blink, they closed in like something from a horror movie.
GROOOOAR!
With an eardrum-shattering roar, their fists came at me from above and below, ready to pulverize.
I wrapped quickly-breaking spider webs around both Pertonbas’ arms and instantly crossed them.
My 270kg body weight kept me steady against their momentum, maintaining control.
Swish.
Just before their car-sized fists could touch me, I redirected their attacks.
Boldly and daringly.
CRASH!
Their fists grazed my skin as they smashed into each other.
GROOOOOAR!
A perfect cross counter.
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MC moving like an orchestra director