Truly, it was the kind of thing you had nightmares about.

  “Fucking hell,” Ryan groaned, looking around the area. This mascot was a bit too out in the open. There were probably more wandering around in those old shops, so if they were to fight in the middle of the road, they could attract other monsters and end up surrounded. Ryan would really like to drag the mascot off to a more secluded area.

  Ryan picked up a small pebble off the ground, throwing it on the ground near the mascot to see how well it reacted. It seemed to flinch for a moment, glancing at the pebble, and then walked toward it curiously. Though, after staring and kicking at it once or twice, it soon moved on again.

  “Hm …” Ryan sat there and thought for a few moments, trying to find the best spot to lure the monster to. Nearby, there was an alley that seemed like it could provide good cover for them. But at the same time, it was also going to block them from seeing out on the road, and that felt a bit too risky in this circumstance where enemies could come from any direction. And that was when an idea popped into Ryan’s head.

  “Gaia … can you split off your two sub-golems for a moment?” he asked, and Gaia immediately replied with a nod. Two rocks dropped from her torso, quickly becoming humanoid Golems the size of Maximus. And then, Ryan activated one of his skills, Spirit Link. A green thread connected him to Gaia, and his awareness was expanded by what she saw. But that wasn’t all; the thread also expanded to each of the two sub-golems.

  Instead of having information from just one more perspective, he received information from three. It was disorienting beyond belief, much more so than when he had first connected with Maximus, but it wasn’t to the point where Ryan couldn’t handle it when he concentrated properly.

  “This is perfect.” He grinned lightly, turning toward Maximus. “You’ve seen the monster too, right? What weapon do you want?”

  The knight thought about it for a few moments. He held up two fingers, his index finger and thumb specifically, the sign they came up with for the polearms, and then held up his index, middle, and ring fingers, specifying one of the glaives. Ryan pulled it off his armor and handed it to Maximus, who quickly tightened his grasp around it before nodding to Ryan with satisfaction.

  “In that case, let’s get started,” Ryan said, carefully glancing over toward the mascot. He mentally focused on one of the two sub-golems. Since it was just an empty hull without its own consciousness, Ryan was able to control it perfectly. It looked like Gaia did that, usually, but in this case, she ceded that right to Ryan.

  These sub-golems, while a lot smaller, were also a bit faster than Gaia was. That was why Ryan was pretty confident in using them to distract the monster and lure it into the nearby alley. One sub-golem jumped up and down a few times near the monster, and the dragon mascot soon turned toward it. Reacting immediately, the monster started moving toward the small figure, and Ryan instantly had it turn around and run away. The sub-golem hid between some plants, and as the mascot got close enough, the other sub-golem jumped on a shard of a broken pane of glass, cracking it further.

  The mascot’s attention was drawn away from the first over to the second sub-golem. With its attention pulled away, the first sub-golem moved to the next position, and just like that, Ryan carefully guided the clearly quite simple-minded monster into the alleyway. Once inside, Ryan, Maximus, and Gaia followed. Gaia stood at the very back, keeping watch with one of the sub-golems. Ryan stood in front of her, facing the mascot, while Maximus was going to be the main combatant.

  Behind the mascot, trapped at the alley’s dead end, was the other sub-golem, giving Ryan a clear view of every angle of the alleyway.

  And so, he gave Maximus the signal to start the fight.

  Chapter Twelve

  Mascots

  With the glaive in hand, Maximus ran at the monster that only now realized that it had been surrounded. Though the first thing that it laid eyes on was not its attacker but the man who stood so proudly in front of it.

  Seeing the intruder, the dragon mascot immediately reacted; its mouth opened, revealing a half-rotten maw with blackened and yellowed teeth and a snakelike split tongue. It snarled, baring its fangs to try and threaten Ryan, not even realizing that Maximus was jumping to try and cut into its leg. The fabric of the costume was cut just as easily as Ryan thought, but he didn’t expect the dark blood that gushed out from the wound.

  The mascot’s mouth opened in pain, as if it was about to yell out and call for others of its kind, but not a single sound left its mouth.

  “So, that’s what he meant … they can’t even call for help,” Ryan muttered to himself. “Though I feel kinda bad; it’s like we’re ganging up on it.”

  Maximus continued cutting into the monster’s leg, causing blood to pour out from every wound, until he struck bone. Ryan could hear a crack as the small knight splintered the mascot’s bone, forcing it to fall to its knee in pain. The monster lashed out with claws sharper than they appeared at first glance, but Maximus was able to avoid the attack pretty easily. It was just the monster haphazardly attacking without even realizing what was going on. Its movements were jolting and awkward, like a mascot’s movements often were in the first place.

  “Maximus, its tail!” Ryan warned, getting information from one of the sub-golems that was still on the other side of the alley, seeing the mascot’s backside. Through it, Ryan noticed that the mascot was trying to use that thick dragon’s tail to swing at Maximus, so was able to warn him.

  However, Maximus was in the midst of a jump, trying to stab into the body of the mascot to actually be able to take it down. With the tail whipping toward Maximus, he was able to twist his body and held the glaive in front of him. He stabbed the tail but was still thrown away back toward Ryan, just with the glaive having been lost; it was now stuck in the mascot’s tail.

  Maximus slid over the ground, his legs getting scratched up as he tried to stop himself. He turned toward Ryan and gave him a signal for a new weapon: a large, two-handed greatsword, which Ryan quickly gave to him.

  But at the same time, Ryan realized something else: he couldn’t just leave Maximus to fight the monsters all on his own. Even if it might lower the experience that Maximus could gain, wouldn’t it speed up the process if Ryan could at least distract or block the monster for a while?

  Ryan stepped up to Gaia, grabbing one of the pieces of metal rebar tied to her. Glancing at the back of his hand, he saw a confused question mark from Tiar, and Ryan immediately shook his head.

  “No, we’re not using that skill right now, sorry,” he stated. “Later, if we need it.”

  Immediately, Ryan stepped up toward the mascot, which was distracted by Maximus’s slashes. It seemed like by now, it had expected Ryan to only act as an observer, so it didn’t notice when the metal bar was swung at it. The metal bar hit the monster’s arm, and Ryan was taken aback by how … dense it felt.

  Frankly, and he wasn’t particularly proud of this, it wasn’t the first time Ryan had used this kind of metal bar to beat someone up, and the person in question was literally a giant almost twice Ryan’s height, and even then, it didn’t feel like he was striking a wall to the level that it did here. Clearly, they weren’t dealing with a Level 1 monster as they had in the other dungeon.

  The way a dungeon monster’s levels worked was similar to that of an Awakened. At Level 1, they were just as strong as they physically could be without the system’s support. Since this mascot was clearly some kind of living being with fabric as skin, its muscles, fat, and bones had to adhere to the biological rules that even the dungeon couldn’t ignore while trying to create these monsters. However, a dungeon didn’t have to create monsters at Level 1 but could strengthen them. If they had enough mana, this could happen at the moment of creation, which seemed to be the case there. Weaker or younger dungeons had to use certain ritualistic patterns to create higher-leveled monsters, as was the case in the Abandoned Copper Foundry, where the monsters were covered in molten copper to increase their level, as if to have them absorb more mana once enough had been gathered.

  But since this dungeon didn’t need to use any mana on expansion, it could gather all that mana within itself to create stronger monsters right off the bat. Ryan figured that this monster was probably Level 3 or 4. Though, compared to a creature made completely of rock and metal, it still seemed much easier to take care of.

  Nonetheless, it seemed like Ryan’s attack wasn’t useless in any way, despite the high physical stats of this monster. While it wasn’t enough to do any real damage, it was enough to at least distract the mascot for a while as Maximus stabbed his sword right into a part of its body where its liver should be. As the monster recoiled in pain for a moment, Ryan swung the rebar at it again, this time aiming for its head. From that first attack, he could tell that he really wouldn’t be able to do more than stun the monster.

  And just as he thought, the attack didn’t do much damage, but it had stunned it enough for Maximus to climb up its body and stab his sword between its ribs, into its heart. The mascot opened its mouth for a cry of pain as its body was covered in deep cuts and dark blood. It was going to die now, most certainly, but even so, it couldn’t scream.

  However, staring into that dark maw, Ryan saw something. A small spark.

  “Oh, fuck off,” Ryan groaned, kicking the monster’s chest. It still didn’t react much, but already being injured and weakened so much, and on its knee due to its broken bones, the monster lost its balance to a degree. Maximus reacted as fast as he could, jumping up at the monster’s throat. With a quick slash, the flames that the dragon mascot was conjuring up were diffused, not escaping through its mouth as they should but through its gargled, wet throat.

  An explosion of blood and flesh shot outward, covering Ryan and Maximus in the gore of the now clearly dead mascot, also giving Ryan a perfect view of the monster’s interior for a few moments. Just like he thought, it was like a person in the shape of a mascot rather than just a costume that had come to life. A heart, flesh, muscles, bones; it had everything that it needed, in mostly the right places, just stretched out to fill the disproportionate body of a mascot.

  Truthfully, the sight almost made Ryan hurl right there, especially because of the blood and flesh stuck to his clothes and in his hair, but luckily, the monster fell apart almost immediately after its death. Not only the parts that were on the ground in front of Ryan but also the parts that were covering him soon fell apart into mana and dissipated into the air until there wasn’t a single trace of the gory scene that they had found themselves in just a few moments earlier.

  [You have killed a Level 3 -Dragon Mascot-]

  Ryan stared at the message in front of him. It was just as he thought; a dungeon as old as this would have its monsters established within the system. The Copper Foundry just referred to everything as “Dungeon Monsters,” but here, they were probably given more-unique names.

  With a loud groan, Ryan looked down at his body to make sure that everything had really disappeared and then looked at Maximus. With a smile, he spoke to the knight.

  “Good job, man. I guess these guys really are pretty … passive. I get why Runar said we should go with these ones first,” Ryan pointed out, watching the monster’s corpse disappear. “They’re dull and can’t move well. While they’re physically strong, they’re not invincible … They’re really easy to trick, can’t call for more monsters, and have regular humanoid weaknesses. Even if clearly they have some more abilities than that … they’re probably some of the best opponents we could ask for right now.”

  He said this for a few reasons. For one, because they were clearly quite easy for them to handle, and also because it helped Ryan and Maximus get used to this … sight. Though Maximus didn’t seem all too bothered in the first place. But Ryan felt kind of sick; he had just killed a monster that might as well have been a person, though they didn’t appear like it at first glance. Plenty of dungeon monsters looked and acted like living creatures, though they weren’t really alive in any sense of the word. Getting used to taking them down was imperative.

  Once the mascot fully broke apart and disappeared, there were only two things lying in the spot where the corpse had been just a few moments earlier. For one, the glaive that was stuck in the mascot’s tail, and two, a small coin. Curiously, Ryan picked it up from the ground and took a closer look. It was made of hard plastic and had a very simple design.

  “Hm … So … what is this supposed to be?” Ryan asked, though of course, he didn’t get a response from anyone. Runar was watching from afar, but it didn’t seem like he would care to fill Ryan in at this point. So, Ryan picked up the glaive, placed it back onto the slot on his clothes, and walked over to Gaia and placed the coin into the backpack.

  “Are you ready to continue?” Ryan asked. He still had a few minutes left on the Spirit Link to Gaia, and he wanted to try and make use of it somehow. Since everyone seemed ready to go, Ryan quickly walked over to the sub-golems and picked them up, and the small group carefully made its way back onto the main road, Ryan in the front, carefully crouching around. Whenever there were corners or things he was trying to hide behind, he held the sub-golems forward to use them as extra pairs of eyes that were easier to hide than he himself.

  It didn’t take long until the found the next monster. It was inside an old restaurant. Like the one before, it was a mascot, but instead of a dragon, it seemed to be some kind of winged wolf. Ryan didn’t know what it was supposed to be, but that didn’t really matter, anyway. They just had to be careful when dealing with this monster, like before.

  Ryan carefully led the others inside the restaurant, having Gaia stay in a spot where she was safe and covered, while leaving one of the sub-golems near the door. The other one, he let go near the wall, having it make its way to the other side of the room to provide another perspective, before Ryan and Maximus hid behind a counter. The monster wandered around the room, kicking at furniture that was in its way and staring at some of the random decorations, standing still for a while whenever it did.

  Ryan glanced down at Maximus and pointed in the direction he should go, since the mascot wasn’t looking. With a nod, the knight did as told and carefully sneaked over toward the wall under the cover of the old furniture. At that point, Ryan moved around the counter toward the monster, which had its back turned. He held the rebar tightly and took a deep breath before swinging the metal bar at the monster’s leg.

  Frankly, this was most likely a stupid idea, but Ryan was almost actively trying to act reckless in this case. He trusted his uncle to step in if something went wrong; plus, they had the healer on call when needed. It was probably the best time for Ryan to experiment with his role in this partnership with the spirits, particularly in combat, to try and see where and how he could be useful without impeding Maximus’s growth.

  However, in this case, it might have been a bit too reckless, as this monster seemed physically even stronger than the one they had just taken down. Its leg slightly buckled at the attack, but the wolf didn’t drop; it swung its body around to Ryan. It lunged at him with its massive fangs, and he instinctively stabbed the rebar into the monster’s mouth. Almost impaling itself on the blunt weapon, the monster continued to try and attack Ryan with its claws and its feet; Ryan could feel himself being pushed back.

  The mascot was strong, incredibly so, and was easily fighting Ryan. He slid over the ground as if he were standing on ice, still tightly holding on to the metal bar, until they passed by the spot where Maximus had been standing. He jumped out and swung his greatsword at the monster’s ankle, activating his Knight’s Attack skill to coat it with aura. With the monster’s own momentum and said aura working together, Maximus was able to cleanly detach the mascot’s foot from its body, causing it to stumble forward before it could even realize what had happened.

  Ryan let go of the rebar and stepped aside, hooking the monster’s other foot with his own, destroying any chance it had of stopping the fall. Due to its generally dull movements, the mascot soon fell forward. The metal rebar pierced its throat and came out through the back of its neck, just barely missing completely shattering its spine. The monster was flailing as a puddle of blood formed around it, and Maximus quickly jumped onto its body and stabbed the aura-coated sword through the back of its head, killing the monster instantly.

  [You have killed a Level 4 -Fenrir Mascot-]

  [Maximus has leveled up!]

  [The -Knight’s Attack- Skill has leveled up]

  “A fenrir mascot, huh? So that’s what that was …” Ryan muttered, looking down at the monster’s body as it fell apart. At the same time, Ryan looked down at the small knight beside him.

  “Congrats on reaching Level 4, bud.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Cores Galore

  Putting the large pot down in the corner of the rooftop garden, Ryan let out a long breath. He turned toward Gaia, who was currently watering the small plots of dirt that seemed to be coming along quite well.

  This area currently carried the seeds of the three magical plants that they had attained through Gaia’s class: Blue Mint, Glass Tulips, and Blood Roses. They were coming along quite well under the Golem’s care, and due to their magical nature, they had already sprouted, and those sprouts were seemingly growing on Gaia’s body as well.

  The seeds that were being germinated in the greenhouse were growing well too, though they would take some time longer to grow well. Gaia put the watering can to the side and carefully patted down some of the soil, and a system message popped up in front of Ryan’s eyes.

  [Gaia has leveled up!]

  Immediately, Ryan turned his head toward the spirit. “Oh! Gaia, you’re level 4!”

  The Golem nodded excitedly, and Ryan quickly waved the message away before pulling up Gaia’s status window to give it a quick look.

  [Gaia]

  [Garden Golem | Level - 4(+1)]