Translator: WH

The first thing that caught his eye as he approached was the huge stone statue on the altar in front of the entrance.

He didn’t what kind of stone was put there, but it was made with a shiny midnight blue material, and its size was overwhelming.

It seemed to be well around 10 meters.

It was like a human-shaped lizard with a long trident on its large wings, just like a gargoyle.

It gave off a ferocious vibe.

The muscles that have been pulled so tightly that looked like it was about to burst and the tendons that held them together!

Strong alligator-like jaws and shark-like teeth in them!

Plus a thin, delicately carved wing and a thick, tough tail like a telephone pole!

“I feel like it will come to life at any moment.”

But the moment he finished speaking, trouble arose.

……Greukkkk.

He could hear the stone grinding.

“Huh?”

Passing in front of the statue, Jung Da-woon suddenly stopped walking at the sound from behind.

An ominous feeling struck him suddenly.

“He-, hey now. No way, right?”

Greukkkk.

The head of the gargoyle was moving slowly towards his direction.

Then he looked at Jung Da-woon with a fierce gaze that seemed to eat a person whole.

“Kyao-oh-oh-oh!”

“Huck!?”

When the gargoyle roared furiously and spread its wings wide,

Whoooosh!

A flap of its wings caused a gale of wind, causing Jung Da-woon’s mind to freeze in a daze.

Jung Da-woon automatically took a step back.

Cold sweat broke out from his spine.

“Is the statue really alive? But there’s no sign on the minimap!?”

It wasn’t just that.

“Kyao-oh-oh-oh!”

Flap!

Astonishingly, the wings were not just decorations.

With a flap of its wings, the huge gargoyle flew into the sky despite it being made of heavy rock.

“It can fly!?”

Jung Da-woon was shocked.

The stone-carved 10-meter monster turned sharply in the air, flapping its large wings.

And it quickly swung the trident, aiming for Jung Da-woon.

” “Kyao-oh-oh!”

“Blo-, block it!”

Jung Da-woon shouted instinctively.

“Goo-oh!”

“Goo-oh-oh!”

The gorilla golems blocked Jung Da-woon from the attacks of the gargoyle.

Baaam!

The attack was so strong that the arm of Gorilla No.1, which blocked the trident, was split in half.

But it started regenerating right away,

“Goo-oh-oh-oh!”

Aiming at the gap, three other gorilla golems charged at the gargoyle.

“Kyao-oh-oh!”

Whoooosh!

The gargoyle flew up and easily escaped the attacks.

Then, it turned sharply in the air and grabbed the head of Gorilla No.2 roughly with his strong hind claws.

Splatter!

The head of Gorilla No.2 exploded.

The Gorilla No.2 was restrained from moving until its head was regenerated.

“Why is it so strong!?”

Jung Da-woon, who had believed in the power of the earth golem, was quite flustered.

“Attack it at the same time!”

Upon hearing the order, the four gorilla golems surrounded the gargoyle from all sides.

Boom boom boom boom!

“Goo-oh-oh!”

“Goo-oh-oh-oh-oh!”

The might of the gorilla golems was terrifying.

As many as four final bosses were attacking at the same time and it was extremely menacing!

However, the gargoyle easily flew up, dodged them and rotated as if it was performing aerial acrobatics.

The sharp wings swung like a sickle,

Shluckkkk!

The body of Gorilla No.2, which was regenerating its head, split diagonally.

“Goo-oh-oh……”

Boooom!

“Hold on to it tightly!”

“Goo-oh-oh!”

While Gorilla No.2 fell on the floor, Gorilla No.3 clutched onto the back of the gargoyle from behind.

“Kyao-oh-oh!”

The gargoyle shook it away agitatedly, but the other gorilla golems joined the fight right away and began to bite at the statue.

“Goo-oh!”

“Goo-oh-oh!”

It was a four-to-one power struggle, but it was the gorilla golems who were at a disadvantage because of the difference in durability.

No matter how hard they attacked the hard gargoyle with their fist made of soil, it wouldn’t be able to deal proper damage.

Rather, only the gorilla golems’ fists were crushed.

“That’s ridiculous! Why is it so strong!”

The bodies of the earth golems were made of Master Level soil clumps and had bodies as tough as rock.

But the gargoyle made of real stone was much stronger than that.

Just by looking at that midnight blue hue, he could already feel the difference.

It looked much sturdier than a solid rock.

Sensing a crisis, Jung Da-woon quickly hid himself inside the elephant golem.

“Kyao-oh-oh!”

Crack!

In the meantime, another golem’s leg was broken by the trident of the gargoyle and collapsed.

“This can’t go on. Let’s retreat first!”

With the overwhelming difference in power, there was no chance of winning.

Facing this overwhelming power from the entrance forth, he wasn’t confident that he could handle more, as he was far from even entering the historical site.

Jung Da-woon ordered the gorilla golems.

“Retreat! No.4, stay behind and stall for time while the rest of us retreats!”

“Goo-oh-oh!”

Gripped!

Compared to the other gorilla golems, Gorilla No. 4 was relatively fine, and it gripped the gargoyle firmly with its arms.

Due to the size difference, it was as if a short child was hanging on to an adult.

“Kyao-oh-oh!”

As the other gorilla golems recovered and approached the elephant golem, the lizard statue’s eyes turned towards them.

Jung Da-woon ordered the elephant to fling a ball of spikes he prepared beforehand.

“Boo-oh-oh!

Boooom!

“Kyao-ack!”

The gargoyle staggered when the ball of spikes hit its body.

It didn’t cause a big damage, but Gorilla No.4 was able to grip him up even more firmly.

Jung Da-woon fled as far away as possible from the historical site, leaving Gorilla No.4 behind.

The gargoyle roared fiercely towards Da-woon who was running away.

“Kyao-oh-oh!”

It shook off the persistent Gorilla No. 4 and stabbed the gorilla’s back with the trident.

Shluckkk!

“Goo-oh……!”

The gorilla golem’s body hardened instantaneously.

The tip of the trident penetrated through the core of the earth golem.

Gorilla No. 4 turned into a pile of soil and crumbled down.

The gargoyle stabbed the pile of dirt several times, and then turned its eyes to the direction where Jung Da-woon ran away to.

But when nothing was seen in sight, the gargoyle went back up to the altar with an indifferent glance and settled down.

* * *

“Phew, I survived.”

Jung Da-woon staggered and dropped his chest down.

His legs were shaking.

The earth golem, which had been reliable so far, lost completely without being able to do anything.

Their attacks didn’t work at all.

He lost a gorilla golem, but it was fortunate that he met such a scary monster early on and that the damage stopped at this level.

“What the fuck was with that historical site?”

A monster who couldn’t be beaten by four of the Stage-1’s final boss?

Such a monster was only the gatekeeper of the historical site?

Even on the mini-map, the statue was still not marked with a red dot.

Perhaps the statue itself was not the monster, but a trap-like structure.

“Don’t tell me that was some sort of final stage? No, it can’t be, it’s outside the domain of the stage.”

Anyway, it was clear that something was there.

He thought about taking a different route, but in the first place, he chose this path because he was looking for a safer route where he could avoid confronting the monster rats.

In the end, it would still be dangerous wherever he went.

“Now that I see it, the reason why the rats didn’t come this way was because of the historical site. There must be a secret hidden within.”

Jung Da-woon was determined to explore the site somehow.

“I need to make the earth golems stronger to catch the gargoyle. Should I make them some weapons?”

It wasn’t possible to break a rock with soil.

But what if it was attacked with a weapon made of stone?

There were plenty of rocks around.

Jung Da-woon went around the rocky mountain and found the rock that looked the hardest.

The color was also a midnight blue hue.

Perhaps it was a rock material similar to the gargoyle.

If he attacked it with this, he could probably inflict damage to it.

“Okay then, let’s make a weapon out of this rock.”

Jung Da-woon decided to make a handaxe.[T/N: a handaxe is a sharpened stone used in the prehistoric erea.]

A proper weapon was meaningless for the earth golems.

It would be more than enough if they could throw the sharpened rock with both hands.

However, even though it was just a handaxe, he had to sharpen the rock so that it would be over 1 meter in size to be held in the hands of the earth golems.

“Wait a minute. Carving it is way easier than sharpening it.”

The rock was so hard that it was not possible to grind it with a whetstone.

The whetstone would wear out instead.

He thought it would be much easier and sharper to chip at it rather than sharpening it.

“Vigor of the One-Horned Boar! Uarghhhhh!”

Jung Da-woon picked up a rock as big as his body and smashed it on the stone floor with all his might.

Kaboooom! Crack!

There was a slight crack.

Just a little bit, around the edges.

“……It’s not as easy as I thought?”

After hitting the rock several times on the floor, it was concluded that it was difficult to break it into the desired form in this way.

As it was like two stones chipping on each other, it either slightly scratched or cracked.

It might take some time, but he thought it would be better to chip the stones with chisels and hammers.

“Inventory.”

Jung Da-woon took the iron spikes out of his inventory and lodged it on the rock.

Then he hammered the other side with a flat stone as a substitute hammer.

“Oh, it works!”

The stone broke in the direction that he wanted.

Jung Da-woon felt a sense of familiarity at what he was doing, as if he went back to being the hardworking fellow.

Last time, it was digging, this time, he started stone crafting.

He felt as if he became a primitive man who evolved from the Earthenware Age to the Stone Age……

If he continued this way, when will he be able to give the golems weapons. Even more so if he wanted to give them two weapons each.

“How about y’all stop watching and help out, you bastards.”

“Goo-oh?”

“Goo-oh-oh?”

The gorilla golems tilted their heads and gathered round by the side of Jung Da-woon upon hearing his orders.

Then, they each carried one iron spike and one stone,

Clank clank. Clank clank clank.

“Goo-oh?”

“That’s right, you’re doing good.”

Clank clank. Clank clank.

The gorilla golems were crouching side by side on the floor, mimicking Jung Da-woon and chiselled the stones.

“That’s the way. Like an otter breaking open a shell, clank clank.”

They did a sham job.

The iron spikes bent because they couldn’t control their strength.

Tilting?

“Goo-oh?”

“……Nevermind. Just hold the stone.”

In the end, the labour work was up to Jung Da-woon.

* * *

Thunk, thunk, thunk!

At the hillside of the Death Mountains.

There lived a stonemason on a mountain full of nothing but rocks.

Thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk!

“…….”

A rough beard that had not been shaved for a long time.

Indifferently, he stared blankly at the stone in front of his eyes.

He chewed on smoked meat like it was a habit,

Thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk!

It was Jung Da-woon, a stonemason who was carving stones without any thoughts.

“…….”

Thunk, thunk, thunk!

After days and days of going on like this, his hair was just like a decoration.

If he was bored and thought about something else, he would make mistakes.

After emptying his head as much as possible and chipping away at a stone like a machine,

“This isn’t right!”

Jung Da-woon suddenly sprang up.

He accidentally moved the shaft of the handaxe and chipped his tooth.

“Pokyuuu?”

Its owner opened his mouth for the first time in a long time, so Pokyuu’s eyes glistened.

Pokyuu climbed up to his shoulder and he calmed it down by stroking it.

Soft belly, fluffy back.

Well-fed and plump buttocks.

“Kyuuuit?”

He felt a little better when he saw Pokyuu who was fiddling around as if it had an itch.

“Phew! Whoohh……. Let’s not get angry. You lose if you’re angry.”

Jung Da-woon, who played with Pokyuu for a bit, refreshed his mind and sat back down again.

There were five completed handaxes laying around behind him, but there was a long way to go.

The number of earth golem also increased while he was making the handaxe.

Four gorilla golems and one elephant golem.

With the addition of a new gorilla golem, there were 4 of them again.

In other words, he had been carving stones for a month already.

Of course, it wasn’t as if he did nothing but carved rocks.

In case the gargoyle came, he built a hideout in the corner of the rocky mountain, and set up a line of defense by constructing a wall of dirt on the side of the crossroad in case monster rats came up.

After making sure he had minimal safety, the next thing he needed was minimal welfare facilities.

Then he found water from the valley near the rocky mountain.

He brought water from there and solved the supply of both bath water and drinking water.

Although it was a temporary place to stay, he wanted to live like a normal human being.

“Well then, let’s start again.”

Jung Da-woon brought a new stone out and pointed the iron spike towards it.

Still, he didn’t chisel at it like a Paleolithic primitive man anymore.

On the way to make the earth golem, he found the bodies of the Stage-1 participants and picked up a ‘Metal Hammer’ from the weapons that were dropped there.

The ‘Metal Hammer’ was a weapon with a heavy axe-like iron hammer at the end of a long spear shaft.

Thunk!

But then,

It was the moment when the Metal Hammer hit the end of the iron spike.

Shinggggg!

“Huh?”

Suddenly a message window appeared, with a golden light enveloping his whole body.

“Master Stonemason!”

– Reward: Skill

“Huh?”

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