Chapter 32. An Army of Stone

[Skill: Golem Summon]

Rank: 5
Type: Active

Description:
Summons one or more golems by consuming mana in a single burst. Golems obey only simple orders and cannot carry out complex or abstract commands. If necessary, they can act autonomously, provided the target is clearly defined.

Limitations:
– The number of simultaneously summoned golems is unlimited.
– A golem disappears when critically damaged.
– Each golem has a lifespan based on its rank.

Mana Cost and Duration:
• Rank 1 — 80 MP / 3 hours
• Rank 2 — 160 MP / 6 hours
• Rank 3 — 500 MP / 12 hours
• Rank 4 — 2,000 MP / 24 hours
• Rank 5 — 10,000 MP / 48 hours

---

Chapter 32. An Army of Stone

How long have I been here?

About thirty days. Probably.

Right now, I’m in Alisar’s training room — a space created by his skill. This place feels remarkably real: walls, floor, air, silence. Everything seems normal. But once you approach the only window, the illusion fades.

Beyond the glass — only white clouds.
No horizon. No sun. No motion.

It’s always the same brightness. As if it’s always daytime.
No night ever comes. No changes.
So there’s no real way to tell how much time has passed.

At first, my plan seemed great.
And now… it still seems great.
I just didn’t realize back then just how great it was.

Summoning golems out there, outside this room, using up all my mana…
Then returning here, where time flows hundreds of times faster, and recovering my mana in peace,
so I can go back again—and repeat.
Again and again.

It was simple.
And it felt brilliant.

According to what I heard in the guild, when someone tries to destroy the dungeon’s core, it triggers what’s called a “panic attack.”
At that point, the dungeon fights back—sending out wave after wave of monsters.
These waves don’t stop for at least two or three days.

That means… we only have two or three days to survive.

But if I’m here, and time is accelerated by even just a factor of a hundred…
For every hour in reality, I get a full hundred hours here.
Over those two or three days out there… more than two hundred days will pass in here.

And if I calculated correctly…
I’ll be able to leave this room about four hundred times.
Four hundred times—to summon golems until my mana is gone.

That means… I’ll be able to create around 3,200 fifth-rank golems.
Until this whole thing is over.
More than three thousand fifth-rank golems…

That should give us a chance.
A chance to survive.

Yes, they’re not immortal.
Fourth-rank monsters can destroy them—especially when attacking in groups.
But that’ll take time.
And effort.

If things go as I hope…
We might be able to hold the line.
We might actually have a real chance.

But gods, it’s so boring here… and lonely.

For the first few days, I just rested.
Slept.
Waited for my mana to recover.

Thankfully, I had enough food and water stored.
Even a few books.
But I’ve reread them so many times…
They’re more irritating than entertaining now.

So I mostly train. Or sleep.
At first, I tried using those strange things that look like training tools — the ones Alisar uses. He explained how he trains here once.

But…
They’re too light.
Way too light for me.
They don’t do anything.
At all.

So that leaves only one thing — training with my sword.

Every time I leave this place to summon more golems, I give them just one command:

— Destroy all monsters that approach the stone wall.

And every time, I feel there are more and more of them.
My golems.
And at the same time — more and more that have been destroyed.

Yes.
If I could only summon eight each time…
It wouldn’t be enough.
Because with every new wave, more and more golems fall.

But there’s a bright side to that.
Every time a new wave begins, my golems slaughter monsters.
And when the wave ends, I receive a huge amount of experience points —
Far more than ever before, and all at once.

Oh, looks like another monster wave just ended.
And I’ve just gained an enormous amount of experience —
Over 400 million.

---

Name: Rem
Level: 129 (0 / 295,000,000)
Rank: 5

HP: 86,510 + 9,600
MP: 86,370 + 81,600
Strength: 2,873 + 320
Defense: 2,870 + 320
Speed: 2,908 + 320
Intellect: 2,884 + 2,720
Magic Power: 2,875 + 2,720
Magic Defense: 2,878 + 2,720
Free Attribute Points: 0

Skills:
— Swordsman (Rank 4)
— Martial Artist (Rank 5)
— Storage (Rank 3)
— Appraisal (Rank 2)

Special Skills:
— Golem Summon (Rank 5)

Unused Experience Points: 46,562,980

---

That’s what my status looks like now. Since this started, I’ve gone from level 119 to 129.

I’ve invested all my free stat points into Intellect, Magic Power, and Magic Defense.
It’s the only way I’ve been able to increase my mana pool enough to summon so many golems at once.
It was a forced choice. For our survival.

I need mana.
We need golems.

And that — that’s my biggest regret.
I know I’ve skewed my development. But otherwise, we wouldn’t have increased our chances of survival.

I’ll fix it later. When this is over — I’ll build up my physical stats.
Strength, defense, speed.
I’ll catch up on what I’ve left behind.

But for now — mana only.

---

Day 51

Water...

My water supplies are running low. Yes, I had a lot — I prepared.
But the consumption is far higher than I expected.
Water goes much faster than food. Way faster.

No problem with food. I’ve got enough.
But water… that’s become a real issue.

I had to ask Alisar to find more somewhere.
And he did. Said someone helped him.

It should last another twenty or thirty days.

---

Day 119

Every time I go out there to summon more golems beyond the wall, I feel more of them are being destroyed each time.
It’s a good thing I’m gaining so much experience, and each time I can summon more golems.
Yes, we need more golems.

---

Day 312

I’ve gotten used to living in this place.
All I do is eat, sleep, and train to pass the time.
I haven’t had a proper conversation with anyone in ages.
I only see Alisar — and even then, just for a few seconds. A minute at most. A few words exchanged — that’s it.

During this time, I’ve leveled up.
I’ve received so many experience points I can hardly believe it’s real.
My strength has increased massively.
When I go out to summon more golems, I feel that several hundred are being destroyed with each wave.
But I manage to summon golems 7–8 times during each wave.
Now I can summon over two hundred golems in one round.
And with every wave, instead of hundreds being lost, more than a thousand new golems take their place.

---

Name: Rem
Level: 224 (0 / 5,900,000,000)
Rank: 6

HP: 96,110 + 138,240
MP: 167,970 + 2,939,040
Strength: 3,193 + 4,608
Defense: 3,190 + 4,608
Speed: 3,228 + 4,608
Intellect: 5,604 + 97,968
Magic Power: 5,595 + 97,968
Magic Defense: 5,598 + 97,968
Free Attribute Points: 0

Skills:
— Swordsman (Rank 4)
— Martial Artist (Rank 5)
— Storage (Rank 3)
— Appraisal (Rank 2)

Special Skills:
— Golem Summon (Rank 5)

Unused Experience Points: 3,170,346,783

---

Yes, now I’m almost sure — we’ll survive this.

Now I could summon over three hundred golems at once.
The numbers no longer mattered. It became routine.
Summon, return, recover, summon again.
Everything was polished. Precise. No mistakes.

Mana fully restored.
Alisar should appear soon.

I stood and got ready. He appeared — suddenly, as always.
I grabbed his hand. He grabbed mine.
And we appeared in the tent.

That tent.
I’d been there over five hundred times. Maybe more than six hundred.
I stopped counting.

I raised my hand, ready to summon, but at that moment someone hugged me from behind.

I smelled something familiar. Subtle. Warm. Soft. So familiar.

— That’s enough, Rem… it’s over. You don’t have to keep going. We won.

A voice. So familiar. Nostalgic.
Like it came from another time.

I turned around quickly.

And in my arms — was Sherial.

Sherial…

I hadn’t seen her in so long.
It felt like an eternity had passed.

— We… won? — I whispered, not believing my own words.

— Yes, — she nodded, — we won. Thanks to you.

I don’t know why, but there were tears in her eyes.
And in mine too.

As if something broke inside — and finally let my emotions out.

— It’s over… we survived. We survived…

I hugged Sherial tightly.
Tighter than I ever had. No holding back.
No fear. No thoughts of the next step.
Just now. Just us.

---

POV: Darmon

How long has it been?

Probably around forty-eight hours. Almost two days… but not quite. When night falls, it’ll be exactly two days. A couple more hours to go.

Kraiv, Elina, and I have been standing here the whole time. Guarding the tent.
The tent where she is.

The girl who summons the golems.

I think I made the right decision. We didn’t leave.
We stayed.

Our help at the wall hasn’t been needed.
If things had gone badly, Trevar would’ve called for me. He absolutely would have. But — silence.

No signals.
No messengers.
No shouting from the top.

I could’ve gone up myself to check.
Climbed up, looked around. But…

It’s better to stay here.

She’s still summoning golems.
Two full days. Without stopping.

It’s beyond anything I can understand.

And yet — it’s working.

We haven’t had a single injury.
Not one loss.

I hope this ends soon. One more day, at most.
But can she hold on?
Can that girl really keep summoning for another full day?

Because without her, without her golems, we will take losses.
And honestly — I don’t think we’d survive.
She’s the only thing holding the entire front together.

Suddenly, I noticed a figure descending the stairs by the wall.
It was Salisa — my friend and one of our most reliable team members.

She was coming down slowly, not rushing, heading straight toward us.

No, it wasn’t urgent.
If something had happened, she would’ve shouted, and I’d have heard.
And she would’ve been running.

But her face… it was hard to read.
No joy. No concern.
Not good news, not bad. Just… something in between.

When she got closer, I asked:

— Did something happen?

— It’s over.
The monster waves have stopped — she said.

Her voice had no joy. No worry.
Just… emptiness.

"Why?
If it’s really over… shouldn’t she be happy?"

— Did something happen? — I asked. — Please… tell me. What’s going on?

— It’s hard to explain. You have to see it for yourself, — she replied quietly.

"Damn… could something have happened to Trevar…?"

I rushed toward the wall and leapt up in a single bound.

My eyes immediately locked onto Trevar.

He was alive. Standing tall. Unharmed.
Just… staring ahead. Silently.

Good. He’s okay.

I approached and stood beside him, not saying a word.
Only then did I look in the same direction as him.

And I…

I couldn’t believe it.

Couldn’t believe my eyes.

What I saw made no sense.

Golems.
So many golems stood before the wall — a solid stone army.
Yes, they were the same ones the girl summoned.
Five-meter-tall masses of gray stone, each one a walking fortress.
Each one a fifth-rank.

Each one strong enough to fight me.

Not just stall me or distract me — no.
Each one could match me in combat.
Even a single one would be a serious threat.

But that wasn’t what shocked me.

I expected to see a few hundred. Maybe a couple thousand —
if she’d been summoning non-stop between waves.
Even then, many of them should’ve been destroyed in battle.
Even with persistence and full mana use, I didn’t expect more than three thousand.

But what I saw…

The whole road.
The entire valley.
And even further beyond.

Five, maybe six kilometers ahead — as far as the eye could see —
was filled with golems.
Stone giants, all identical. Recognizable instantly.

There were tens of thousands of them.