What appeared before us looked like some kind of ruins.
Weathered and reduced to a mere pile of rocks, there was barely a trace of what might have been structures left behind.
The shape of the ruins somehow made me think that human hands had been involved in their creation.
In the center of what appeared to be the ruins, there was a cave-like structure…leading to the back.
I would have loved to go there, but there was one obstacle.
“…Golems…”
“Kuu.”
Inanimate monsters, Golems.
There were numerous types, but the one over here was bipedal, similar to a human, but with several arms, each holding what looked like a sword or spear in its hand.
Moss and grass were growing from its body, half assimilated with trees, but it had not lost any of its shape and still had a definite presence.
It was partly because of that thing that I was able to notice the ruins in that place, which looked almost like a rocky hill with a simple cave.
The next moment, I had the impression that it might be the perfect guardian for an ancient ruin.
*Gigigi
I then realized that its head moved, turning it in our direction.
The single jewel set in the center of its face, which was supposed to represent its eyes, shone brightly.
–Oh, no.
“Rir, Rir! Escape maneuvers!”
“Ku, kuu!”
Following the intense sense of danger that pervaded our bodies, we activated the dungeon return device we had prepared in advance.
But before our bodies could disappear, the golem launched its attack.
From its glowing eyes, a ray of light was shot out.
I reflexively created both a water wall and an earth wall in front of me with primordial magic, but as if it meant nothing at all, a hole was drilled through it, and it penetrated–
“–Uwah! Haah, haah…. that scared the hell out of me…!”
— by the time I realized it, we were back home.
Lefi, who had noticed our return, called out to us, “Mm? Wele home–are you all right, boys?”
“Oh, yeah…it was pretty close, but we’re okay.”
“Ku, kuu…”
My heart was still racing.
It was a close call for sure.
For the first time in a long time, I felt death before my eyes.
…I had not let my guard down at all today, and I had kept my guard up to the max, but that was beyond what we expected.
No, thanks to that, I made it back alive, I suppose that could be said.
This was why the forest was such a dangerous place.
However – there was a harvest.
“I want to get to that cave somehow, but…the problem is that thing. It would be impossible to do it without being noticed by that thing…I guess.”
“Kuu…”
“…Hmm. We’ve been keeping our distance, and I’ve been monitoring its movements, but that golem was locked on to us the whole time.”
As we returned home, Enne joined the conversation again.
We went out into the woods this time, as prepared as we could be.
Despite this, the golem easily caught sight of us and attacked.
In fact, it didn’t even get close to us.
We were at least a kilometer away from it.
So, it was very difficult to approach without being noticed, so I concluded that if we wanted to go further than that place, we would have to defeat it….
Lefi asked me, “…Do you think you can beat that thing?”
“…Kuu”
Rir responded as if to say, “If we do everything in our power to the best of our ability, we might manage it.”
Well, I guess we’re dealing with an opponent beyond our level.
And that was only the gatekeeper.
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