Chapter 242

After gaining poison magic and breaking through the level barrier to become a Dark Dragon class, Nana immediately tried to rush to where Leah was waiting.

However, feeling something strange, she looked down at her feet and found they were covered in what appeared to be wolf feet made of visible gray dragon power.

"What is this...?"

When she tried lightly kicking up her right foot, she gouged the ground with just wind pressure, using more force than she had intended.

Though surprised for a moment, she understood what this was.

"Isn't this the Beast Art's Spirit Beast technique? But when did I become able to use it...? I don't even remember activating it. What's going on?"

If she could use it now, that was fine enough. -- That was certainly true.

And there wasn't much time left anyway.

So, thinking 'oh well,' she decided to prioritize reuniting with Leah.

And so Nana set off toward Leah's location with the casual feeling of having found a ten-yen coin.

Nana wasn't really the type to fight aggressively at the front, so she wasn't as interested in Spirit Beast techniques as Athena was.

Of course, increasing combat power was something to be happy about, but she had taken a relaxed view that if she couldn't use it, she could just think of other methods. Because of this, she didn't have much interest in investigating why she could suddenly use Spirit Beast techniques.

So, since this mystery would otherwise remain forever in darkness, let me explain here.

This Spirit Beast technique activated automatically when Nana finished her poison magic training earlier.

And the reason it activated then was because it resonated with the wolf spirit beast's sensibilities.

The wolf spirit beast values the love of pack and comrades, the ability to care for one's group.

Despite knowing dangerous monsters were nearby, Nana believed her friend's words without a shred of doubt and showed she could overcome the barrier.

Liking this, it decided to lend her its hind legs so she could reach her friend's location more quickly.

By the way, Beast Arts, like Body Arts, are Spirit Beast techniques that can be directly wrapped around the body, which also leads to significant physical enhancement.

And the two hind legs given this time were purely for strengthening leg power.

"This is fast--!"

"Nana!"

With leg strength already superior to normal people now further enhanced, she caught up to Leah, who had been quite far away, in just two steps.

And on the third step, she jumped and delivered a flying kick with all her might to the golem that had somehow grown enormous.

It happened in an instant, far exceeding the golem's reaction speed, blowing away the outer earthen layer it had built up and hitting the main body directly.

Seeing this, Leah thought, "Could this be enough to win?" but as expected, the opponent was an ex-boss after all.

It didn't take much damage from that attack and re-covered itself with the earth that Nana had blown away.

"Coming here means...?"

"Yes. I've acquired poison that works against minerals. By the way, this monster has grown quite large, hasn't it?"

"Yes. It has that kind of skill. However, this is just earth, and as material, it's completely worthless, so this alone we can handle somehow, but..."

"If we can't attack what's inside, it means nothing."

"Exactly."

With Nana's return, while holding back the tension that threatened to snap, Leah began explaining their plan as the monster reinforced its earthen covering out of wariness toward the powerful new ally.

"First, I'll handle that annoying earth somehow. So Nana, the moment that earth disappears, please poison its surface."

"Just the surface is enough? -- Oh, that's our current limit, isn't it?"

"Yes. But if you can degrade even just a few centimeters of the surface, it'll be our victory. And then--"

When they finished discussing and looked at the golem, the monster that had expanded to about fifteen meters had now swollen to around twenty meters in size.

"At that size........................this much should do it. Then I'll leave the upper part to you. I'll handle the bottom."

"Understood."

Nana received forge-flame material-LL size grenades blended with earth magic from Leah via [Item Box] and approached the still-expanding golem with her Spirit Beast-enhanced legs.

Finally stopping its expansion, it tried to stomp on Nana with its large front leg, considering her the most dangerous threat.

"Are you stupid? Your movements are so sluggish I'm yawning!"

Perhaps due to prioritizing defense too much, the golem had completely lost its initial sharp movements and attacked Nana with just its heavy body.

But such attacks could have been easily dodged by the previous Nana, and now, with her enhancements, it might as well have been standing still.

So Nana jumped onto the foot that came down to crush her and ran up the almost vertical surface.

She could have jumped, but running was faster.

However, the monster wasn't just sluggish, as chains of earth shot out like tentacles from its entire surface trying to catch her.

"--You're in my way!"

The chains' strength was greater than iron, for normal opponents, that would have been enough. But for Nana, it wasn't nearly strong enough.

As soon as they entangled her, they were effortlessly torn apart and slashed like paper by her claws, barely slowing her progress at all.

Then Nana jumped onto the golem's head, leaped into the air, and scattered Leah's forge-flame material over the upper portions, letting it soak in.

While its attention was on Nana, Leah threw forge-flame material grenades at the lower portions, finishing the deployment of the planned number.

Then they waited a bit for the forge-flame material to fully permeate the golem's earthen body.

During that time, Nana continued to draw its attention above.

Leah thanked her for that while confirming through [All-Seeing Eye] that conditions were good, then moved to execute the strategy.

"Here I go!"

Speaking to no one in particular, Leah rushed forward holding a long-handled hammer wrapped in forge craft and forge flame.

When she struck the tip of its large front leg with the hammer, reddish-brown forge flame instantly ignited throughout the golem's entire earthen body.

Then, she raised for a second strike and transmitted the image.

"Teryaaah!"

In that instant, the earth covering the golem peeled off as if being pulled to the ground, and the compressed, hardened earth mass fixed all four legs of its main body.

As it fell, completely stripped of its earth defense layer, Nana used poison magic on its main body while kicking it down to the ground.

As the golem was kicked down, its surface was corroded and degraded by the poison.

Right there, Leah, who had positioned herself perfectly, covered its entire surface with somewhat viscous forge-flame material.

Now it was theirs - she brought out two hammers, using one to light the fire and one to transmit the image.

And then--

"Now! Please neutralize the poison!"

"Yes!"

Although poison neutralization magic was level 9, it worked on poisons she had created herself and understood completely.

It quickly caught up and completely removed the poison that had adhered to the golem's surface.

|Skill: [Antidote Magic Lv.10] acquired.|

|Title [Master of Antidote] acquired.|

What remained before them was a golem that looked unchanged on the surface.

Though the monster shook violently, it couldn't launch any attacks, let alone move at all.

"Capture complete!"

"Yes!"

To explain what happened: First, Nana's poison magic degraded several centimeters of the main body's surface.

Since it was only the degraded parts, Leah could transmit her image in one strike and perform transformation and creation.

However, this time, she didn't change its shape at all.

So what did she do? It was a transformation of the surface's constituent elements.

As mentioned before, this golem's body was made with delicate composition at an artistic level.

But because it was so delicate, even small changes could turn it into a completely different substance.

And this golem could only manipulate the shape of its own flesh.

It didn't have the power to transform different substances.

It was precisely because it was limited to one substance that it could perform such detailed operations so quickly.

And Leah targeted that point.

Keeping in mind that Nana's poison was present, she predicted what would happen when it was removed.

Then, when the poison was removed, she recombined it into a substance that, in terms of hardness alone, had superior properties to before, creating a shell to contain the golem that couldn't be broken from the inside.

As a result, unless it could break what was originally its own body from the inside, it became a decorative piece that couldn't move an inch.

"Now we just need to destroy the magic stone for complete shutdown. Then we can get the materials inside too♪"

"You... Did you think of this roundabout way of defeating it just because you wanted the materials?"

"That's not true! This just happened to be the safest and surest method when I thought about it!"

While turning her back to Nana, who still gave her a suspicious look, Leah used [All-Seeing Eye] to search again for the magic stone's location.

"As I thought, maybe because Nana tried to attack there first, its location has been changed. Now it's around where a horse's neck would be."

"Even though you said the outside isn't the monster's body anymore, you can still accurately see the position of the magic stone inside the invisible monster with [All-Seeing Eye]?"

"To be precise, it's just that it's no longer considered a body for this golem, but for others, it's still part of the monster. That's how it is. It's around here-- there we go."

Since it showed no signs of movement, probably desperately trying to break the shell, Leah touched it directly to infuse circular forge flame only at the target point while they had the chance to finish it off.

Then she took out a rocket hammer from her [Item Box] and rotated the shaft head part once with a clicking sound.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm releasing the limiter. With my current strength, I'd just get thrown around, so I was adjusting it-- alright, that's good."

She further created the same shape of a reddish-brown hammer using forge craft and overlaid it.

"So Nana, please hold this too. This time, we'll drive a stake into that point precisely."

"So that's what this is about. Where should I hold it?"

"Anywhere that isn't colored is fine."

As instructed, when she gripped an uncolored spot, Leah fit snugly between her arms and gripped the red part with her small hands.

"Here we go! Please hold steady until I say it's good!"

"Understood!"

Leah clicked the red shaft part to the right, and the rocket ignited.

But when they held it back to prevent it from moving forward, the thrust force increased until it reached a level that would be difficult even for Nana alone, making their feet sink into the ground.

"Not yet!?"

"Just-- a bit-- more------------------good!"

""Haaaaah""

Using the maximized thrust power, the two of them drove the golden crystal stake's tip precisely into the point where the forge flame was blazing.

When the stake's tip made contact, Leah's image was transmitted there, and the hardness dropped slightly for an instant.

The stake sank in, and timing it right, they pulled the red and green shaft parts up and down respectively to extend them with a clank, then turned the red left and the green right.

Then, a powerful compressed explosion occurred inside, activating the pile bunker.

The stake shot out from the hammer's striking part, reaching the golem's main body.

And just like that, the stake gouged through the mineral and shattered the magic stone.

|Reached [Level: 50]|

|Reached [Level: 54]|

||Title [Soldlung] acquired.||

|Class changed from Blacksmith to Analysis Blacksmith.|

|Skill [Thought Acceleration] acquired.|

"Looks like it's over. And for some reason, my level went up too. I thought my wall would be magic brain creation."

"If it went up, that's fine as it is."

"That's true-- Ah. Cardina-san is coming this way too."

"Really! Big sister--!"

"Peewee--!"

When both of them waved to the sky, Cardina, who seemed to be flapping her wings more powerfully than before, descended toward them.