The last time this golem assumed that weird posture, it discharged a disruptive shockwave that knocked everyone back, and then sprung into an unavoidable speeding rocket. Jack was oblivious of its move the first time, but he was not going to be caught off guard for the second time.
The second the golem squatted down, Jack channeled his concentration to form a spell rune, while warning the others, "move back!"
As predicted, the disruptive shockwave soon appeared. It knocked Jack two steps back as he was especially closed to the monster. His concentration was broken by the shockwave, but his gloves helped to maintain the spell rune from dissolving. He quickly resumed his spell channeling.
If he didn't remember wrong, the last time it took the golem roughly one second before it started springing. After the fight with Scarface, he had learned the importance of fast casting, he had doubled down on his training. He had mostly managed to cast his Barrier spell in around one second or a little slightly over one second.
But again, when one was in a real fight, the pressure was completely different from practicing inside a safe room. Fortunately, he had started forming the rune earlier. The rune was completed as the golem shot forward at him.
A sphere of light enveloped his body just as the large golem slammed into it. The light bubble shattered by that one hit, but Jack suffered no damage. The impact still threw him back several steps though.
"Flowerrain, Undo, attack!" He yelled as he continued sending magical attacks onto it.
The golem's HP was already critical when it used the second springing attack. That was most likely its last effort. With three magic users combined attack, the monster finally fell. It broke into numerous tiny rocks and pebbles that scattered around the ground. Everyone exhaled a relief breath witnessing it.
Bangstick and Suckit came running while cheering, "I can't believe you people managed to take it down!"
Undo who saw them, displayed a disgusted glance. While Flowerrain shot a few range attacks at them.
"Hey! What are you doing?" Suckit complained.
Flowerrain looked at Dasher who had come back after being thrown away by the golem previously. His HP was nearly depleted. But now that the battle is over, his Natural Body Recovery skill started to replenish it.
"Are you okay?" She asked him. "Thanks for protecting us earlier."
He did not answer, but his heart was beating crazily. Flowerrain took him for not replying to him trying to act cool about it, so she didn't bother him anymore and walked away. Dasher had the urge to bang his head on a wall, why did he freeze up? He was supposed to take this chance to deepen their relationship.
Jack came over to the place where the golem had fallen. There were a few coins and two drops, an uncommon grade saber and a small piece of yellow-colored rock. The small rock was identified as Heart of Rock, it was listed as rare material.
'What's this for?' Jack asked Peniel in his mind as he held the tiny yellow rock.
"Keep it. It was a good drop, unexpected for an elite monster to drop this. You can't use it yet, so just store it first," Peniel answered.
It was a vague answer, but nevertheless, he trusted the fairy. He stored the yellow rock and the coins, then observed the uncommon weapon. He could use it to be fed to his Storm Breaker, but people might get suspicious if a Mage took a saber.
"Dasher, Come here!" He called.
Dasher who was still lamenting about himself being frozen up when he got the chance to converse with Flowerrain, was startled by the call. He came forward uneasily. Did he make a mistake? Was their party leader about to scold him?
"Here," Jack said as he threw the saber at him. "You can change that common sword of yours with this uncommon one."
Dasher was elated by the gift. He immediately changed his weapon equipment. "Thank you!" He said sincerely.
"You deserved it," Jack said. "You didn't cower when others retreat. You take your stand despite your shortcomings when your comrades needed you, your heroic deserved to be rewarded."
Warpath was irked. He had also taken a stand against the golem, why was he not rewarded? Although the weapon was only uncommon grade, it was still better than the common grades they were using at the moment.
They were the bottom feeder of Death Associates members, the guild would not waste resources to invest in them, so they mostly only got common grades equipment which could be bought at city shops. Unless they were lucky enough to encounter a good drop, they would continue to use this common-grade equipment for a long time. Hence when Jack gave the uncommon weapon to Dasher, the others were a bit jealous of him.
"Okay, our business here is done," Jack announced to them. "We will return to our usual path, taking out the Lizardmen and Grey Sabrecat, and then we can call it a day."
The others were relieved to hear that. If he asked them to do a fourth run again, they would rebel, no matter the consequences!
The Lizardmen and Grey Sabrecats were nothing compared to the golem. They fought ferociously, eager to get back to their bed soon. Dasher was especially vigorous, his mood was good after receiving a better weapon. He was keen to let Flowerrain see his improvement with the new saber.
Before they came out of the woods that brought them not far from the North gate of the capital, Jack noticed the weird player group again. They are still waiting? What the hell are they waiting for exactly? But he was not interested to be a busybody, plus it is late already, he needed to rest his tired body, so he ignored them as he did the previous two times.
After they entered the capital, Jack told them to go rest. They would meet up again tomorrow morning at the field where Death Associates used to gather. He wanted to hand over the portion of coins promised for the guild, before they went back for another hunting quest trip again.
"Again?" They simultaneously asked.
Jack nodded, "yeah. Anyone got a problem?"
They shook helplessly, then went away with gloomy expressions.
Jack went to the Hunters Association to submit the quests. It was still open late at night. In fact, Peniel said the Hunters and Adventurers associations open twenty-four hours every day. He picked up the same quests again except for the Small Rock Golem. It was too troublesome, the melee players were completely useless against this creature.
He received 35 silver coins, 5200 experience points, and 91 hunter points for the last run. He set aside 14 silver coins for the guild. From the trophy loots, unfortunately the rock golem didn't drop a trophy loot, so he received less than the previous, 2 gold and 10 silver coins. He set aside the portion for the guild and put them together with the previous pool, he had 3 gold and 26 silver coins to give to the guild tomorrow.
He wondered if this amount would impress them, maybe he shouldn't have haggled on the coin contribution. Never mind, he would think of another way if it's not enough to make him stand out.
The next morning, it was Scarface himself who received his coins. Jack could also see Red Death not far away. She seemed to be organizing her team. Scarface observed the amount Jack had handed over, he then looked at the bunch behind Jack. He then turned to Bigarm and gave him a sharp stare. The fellow seemed to shrink a bit from the stare.
"You collected this amount with that team?" He asked.
Jack nodded.
"And this is only 40% of the total you had collected?"
Jack nodded again. "Undo here can testify if you doubt the amount."
"That won't be necessary," Scarface said. "In fact, this 40% of yours is more than the amount our top team had collected."
Bigarm's mouth formed an O when he heard it. He had the urge to come forward and check the coins in Scarface's hands and made sure that he had not made a mistake. But he restrained himself, he knew Scarface would admonish him later for assigning these low-level players onto Jack, so it's better he did not add any additional offense.
"How do you do it?" Scarface asked Jack.
"Good teamwork and excellent leadership," Jack replied without hesitation.
His team members behind him almost fell over after hearing it.
