The F-rank Hunter Who Turned Into a Golem Is Overpowered Chapter 11

Chapter 11

“Healer! Where’s the healer? Heal him immediately!”

The healer, who had been zoning out in the back, hurriedly ran over. As a healer assigned to the guild by the association, he mostly just tagged along, wasting time. In the sudden situation, he dropped the sandwich he was eating and sprinted over.

“Heal!”

The healer, sweating profusely, poured mana over the gaping hole in Jang Dong-min’s abdomen. However, there was no way that a hole the size of a soccer ball could be closed.

At best, the bleeding slowed down slightly.

“This wound… is too much…”

The healer trailed off. There was no way he could save Jang Dong-min. He simply lacked the magic to regenerate the lost flesh and bone. In fact, no healer could heal such a severe wound unless they were the fabled “divine healer” known to resurrect even the dead.

“Retreat… fall back…”

Jang Dong-min spoke with a voice that sounded like it would be his last. Despite his destroyed organs and the blood gushing out of his mouth, he was still fulfilling his duty as the leader.

“Carry the captain on your back!”

Amidst the chaos, someone shouted. Just as Jang Dong-min had ordered, it was time to flee quickly. Once the boss room door was open, it would not close again.

“We don’t know when the next attack might come! Everyone, retreat with all your strength!”

Park Hoo-sik, helping to carry Jang Dong-min on Kim Jung-shim’s back, called out. The raid team scattered and began to flee, their survival instincts kicking in. In the midst of this, one person stood still, rooted to the spot.

“Hmm.”

With his brow furrowed, staring at the door, was Do-jae.

“Should I run away?”

Do-jae had clearly seen the light that pierced through Jang Dong-min’s body, slicing through the C-rank hunter’s stomach like it was paper.

“But what about the quest?”

He couldn’t just leave because of the quest. He had scoured the entire dungeon but found nothing related to the quest. The only thing left was the boss. No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t just leave.

“Lee Do-jae! What are you muttering about? Hurry and run!”

Park Hoo-sik, looking after Kim Jung-shim, Jang Dong-min, and the healer, shouted back at Do-jae. He thought Do-jae was frozen in fear, unable to move. While everyone else was fleeing to save themselves, only Park Hoo-sik was paying attention to Do-jae.

“Hey, no matter how scared you are, let’s get out of here!”

Park Hoo-sik grabbed Do-jae’s arm to pull him along. But strangely enough, despite tugging hard, Do-jae didn’t budge an inch.

‘Did this guy eat some magical herb or something? He won’t move at all.’

Park Hoo-sik pulled Do-jae’s arm again, but it felt like trying to uproot a tree.

“Hoo-sik, you go ahead,” Do-jae said calmly.

Park Hoo-sik found his determined tone strange. The Do-jae he knew wasn’t like this at all.

“What are you talking about?”

“I’ll stay here.”

“Are you crazy? The captain got taken down by just one attack!”

“I’ll figure something out.”

“Stop talking nonsense and let’s run. We can leave it to the association.”

Park Hoo-sik’s legs trembled at the thought of the boss crashing through the door at any moment. But Do-jae, completely unaffected, continued to watch the boss room, leaving Park Hoo-sik in a panic.

Step by step.

“Hey! Seriously, what the hell is wrong with you? I’m leaving. I’m done with this!”

Do-jae smiled faintly, signaling that he was fine, though to Park Hoo-sik, it only reinforced his belief that Do-jae had gone mad.

‘I don’t care. I’ve got a wife and a kid in college to worry about.’

Still, out of some sense of decency, Park Hoo-sik lingered for three seconds before finally turning to flee.

*****************

Creak.

The heavy iron door opened.

Swish!

Do-jae quickly dodged to the side, expecting another attack. But nothing came.

“What?”

Carefully, Do-jae stepped forward. Just as the heel of his foot entered the room, the door slammed shut with a thunderous sound.

Thud!

Fwoosh!

One by one, torches lit up in the dark room.

‘Nice atmosphere,’ Do-jae thought, amused.

Zing!

‘Huh?’

He heard a noise similar to radio interference in his ear. The sensation was familiar—like when he had fought the harpies in the desert, as though he was in a different reality.

Rumble…

“Roooaaar!”

Something let out a tremendous roar, shaking the ground beneath Do-jae’s feet. Without time to ponder the feeling, Do-jae squinted at the creature before him.

‘It’s King Greydon?’

Do-jae tilted his head. He hadn’t expected it to be King Greydon, yet there it was.

King Greydon.

Its rank was higher than the Mother Harpy and on par with the Cerberus. But like all Greydons, King Greydon boasted tough, thick skin and immense physical strength, making it a boss monster more formidable than even the Cerberus.

‘Then what was that earlier attack?’

Unlike the Mother Harpy, which disturbed the mind, or the Cerberus, which breathed fire, King Greydon had no special abilities. It only relied on brute force in a head-on fight, much like a “tough guy.”

Incidentally, King Greydon was often used to unofficially gauge the strength of non-magic hunters.

‘There might be something else. Better not let my guard down.’

Jang Dong-min’s sturdy body, along with his armor, had been pierced by an attack. Do-jae wasn’t sure if his Golem Armor would be able to withstand it.

Just then…

Flash-!

The centre of King Greydon’s forehead shone brightly.

“Roooooar!”

Whoosh-!

A beam of light shot out from its gaping mouth.

It was the same attack that had pierced through the commander’s stomach.

Whoosh.

Do-jae lightly dodged it.

But the moment he saw the aftermath of the beam, his heart sank.

Sizzle-

The ground, glowing red-hot and bubbling, looked as if magma had flowed through it.

‘Breath?’

Breath—the exclusive attack of dragons.

A colossal mass of mana expelled in a single exhale was said to be powerful enough to alter the terrain.

No, calling it devastating and destructive would be more fitting.

A few years ago, a dragon had appeared in France, wiping out a quarter of the country before vanishing. It had been Breath that delivered the finishing blow.

Thanks to that, France had lost many hunters and citizens. Without help from the European Union, the country wouldn’t have been able to recover.

‘It looks like a Breath, but the power is nowhere near as strong.’

Fortunately, King Greydon wasn’t as big as a dragon, and the light beam it emitted was not as powerful as a true Breath.

It was something that could be dodged if one was quick enough.

However, the golems, slower by nature, wouldn’t be able to evade it so easily.

If hit directly, their mana cores would likely be destroyed.

‘It’d be better if I fought alone.’

Abandoning his plan to summon a golem to distract the beast, Do-jae leaped forward.

Thud-.

Do-jae’s fist struck King Greydon’s shoulder.

“Grrroar!”

The monster stumbled slightly.

But it didn’t seem to do much damage.

‘Was King Greydon always this strong?’

Do-jae had spent the past few days purchasing all the available dungeons on the market.

Most of them were E-rank or D-rank dungeons, offering limited room for growth compared to before.

But the process hadn’t been in vain.

It gave him time to adjust to his rapidly growing physical abilities and better utilize the golem armor.

Like this.

Rumble-

Rumble-

Stones climbed up Do-jae’s arm from the ground where his fist had landed.

Reacting to the mana stone in his grip, the rocks layered onto his hand until his fist was the size of a basketball.

‘This one’s going to hurt.’

He clenched his now-enlarged fist.

With a single leap, he soared up to King Greydon’s head.

He was about to deliver a light tap, but—

‘Huh?’

He noticed something spherical and smooth.

And in that brief moment of hesitation, King Greydon lifted its head and opened its mouth wide.

Do-jae switched tactics.

Instead of the light tap, he spread his hand wide and slapped its face.

Smack-!

“Graaahhh!”

The beast’s head snapped to the side, and it roared in rage, almost as if it had been humiliated.

Again, it attempted to unleash another breath-like attack.

Though this one seemed weaker than the previous ones.

‘It seems like it won’t be able to use that attack much longer.’

Even if the attack’s power diminished, it wouldn’t matter if Do-jae couldn’t land any meaningful hits.

Acknowledging the limits of his physical attacks, Do-jae opened the subspace.

Whirrr-

He reached into the subspace, envisioning the item he needed, and felt something long and solid in his grip.

When he withdrew his hand, a sharp sword was in his grasp.

‘I’m most comfortable with a sword, after all.’

It had been a while since he had needed one, only using it for low-level monsters recently, but in times like these, it came in handy.

The sword was simply labeled as “Longsword” in the subspace, and Do-jae didn’t even know its name, but its performance was top-notch.

‘I should get it appraised someday.’

*********************

Thus began the battle of offense and defense.

King Greydon’s body was increasingly marred with cuts, and its ferocity grew more intense.

At the same time, Do-jae started to feel frustrated that none of his attacks seemed to work effectively.

‘This isn’t a normal boss.’

Something was off.

That thing embedded in its forehead.

Do-jae was convinced that it was a mana stone enhancing King Greydon’s strength.

‘I want to break it.’

But the creature wasn’t giving him a chance.

Every time he got near its head, the monster would go berserk, making it almost impossible to approach.

It was practically shouting, ‘This is my weak point,’ so Do-jae kept looking for an opportunity.

‘I have no choice. Come out!’

The air tore open.

Through the gap, a golem appeared.

It was his highest-level, strongest golem.

“Grrr.”

King Greydon reacted immediately to the golem’s sudden appearance.

Do-jae tossed the sword toward the golem and leaped toward King Greydon’s head.

“Rrrk!”

Seeing this, the beast clamped its mouth shut, suppressing the breath it was preparing.

Do-jae poured all his strength into forcing the creature to kneel.

“Now!”

The golem grabbed the sword and charged.

It seemed painfully slow.

King Greydon, now kneeling, fired its beam at the golem.

Whoosh-!

The powerful light tore through the golem.

Do-jae seized that split-second opportunity to jump onto King Greydon’s head.

“Scared of the sword, huh?”

King Greydon had made a mistake.

The beast had prioritized the golem, perceiving the sword as a greater threat than Do-jae.

As a result, the golem took the hit, but Do-jae now had the mana stone right in front of him.

“Sorry, Number 1*.”                                                            *(T/L NOTE: – No. 1: referring to his no. 1 golem who took the hit)

With a brief apology, Do-jae drove his fist into the mana stone.

Crack-.

Crack-.

Shatter-!

The stone embedded in King Greydon’s forehead broke and fell.

As soon as it lost the mana stone, the beast collapsed, its energy spent.

[You have leveled up.]

[You have leveled up.]

The leveling-up messages appeared.

But Do-jae ignored them and trudged over to the golem.

“You did well.”

The golem lay there, barely holding its shape.

Its exposed core flickered as though it was about to lose all light.

Do-jae felt a pang of sympathy for the golem.

Even though it couldn’t speak or show emotions, he had grown somewhat attached to it.

“This is probably better for you.”

After observing the golem for a while, Do-jae activated a skill.

Summon Release.

The golem’s form crumbled away, returning to a pile of stones.

The mana stone, now visible, flickered a few more times before going completely dark.

[Quest cleared.]