Fizzy walked cautiously down a narrow tunnel. She had her trusty wrench in hand and a magical flashlight strapped to her forehead, illuminating the near-black stone walls, ceiling and floor. A simple glance revealed multiple holes and divots where the miners have tried probing the walls of the Reverb Mine in search of useful materials. And they had much to find in the ground beneath Blackthroat Mountain, as the former volcano was host to a plethora of mineral deposits that had been spewed up in its heyday. Coal, iron, nickel, gold, copper, diamonds - it really was a veritable cornucopia of raw materials that continued to be abundant even after thousands of years of exploitation by the dwarven clans.

But the work in this particular mine had ground to a halt, as the maze-like tunnels had been overrun by basilisks. These large eight-legged lizards lived predominantly underground, where they subsided on a diet of rock, stone, and metal ore. Their nests often wound up transforming from holes in the terrain into gigantic caverns. And although that didn’t seem too bad at first, the potential damage their dens would cause should they collapse was too great to ignore.

That wasn’t what had happened here though. Best as Fizzy could gather, the workers had accidentally connected the mine tunnels to the monsters’ den. Must have been some rookie interns digging where they weren’t supposed to, and it was all on their boss’s head. If they had a foreman around who was at least a Level 55 Miner, a specialization of the Gatherer Job, then this would never have happened. The supervisor would’ve been able to use his Survey Skill to detect the hollowed out cave and steer them away from it.

But that hadn’t happened. Meaning that either the foreman in charge of the interns had left them unsupervised, or he or she didn’t have the law-mandated qualifications for the position in the first place. The former would be the foreman’s fault, while the latter would be the owner’s fault. Fizzy didn’t care too much about the details though. In fact, considering how lucrative this Quest had turned out to be, she was quite pleased that someone had fucked up. Making herself whole again was infinitely more important than some meatbags getting turned to stone, and the money she’d earn from this disaster was necessary to make that happen.

Oh? What have we here? exclaimed Fizzy inwardly.

The large access shaft she had just reached had several dwarves that had been petrified on the spot. Some were down on the ground with their hands raised as if to shield their faces, others were frozen mid-run while clutching their chests or throats.

“More victims, huh?” responded Plus. “That’s what, five of them?”

A basilisk’s petrifying gaze was perhaps their most dangerous weapon, as simply staring at their targets would cause them to begin turning to stone from the limbs up. Making eye contact made things even worse, as it sped up the process by leaps and bounds. If allowed to envelop a person’s chest and/or face, the petrification would suffocate them to death while they were trapped inside their own bodies. The whole process was quite merciless, and very similar to what had nearly happened to Moss back in Steelhead.

Make that six victims actually. Maybe seven. I think those rock chunks on the left are… leftovers.

“Yeah, you’re right. What happened to the lizards, though? It’s unlike them to leave a meal unfinished.”

Once they had finished off their prey, a basilisk would continue to solidify their bodies until the petrification enveloped the victim’s insides as well. Eventually they would begin feasting on their rocky remains, but they wouldn’t stop midway through without a very good reason.

That’s what I’m trying to find out… Oh, here we go!

Fizzy went down on one knee next to the mine cart tracks in the middle of the tunnel. She shone her head-mounted lamp on the ground in front of her, illuminating one half of a metal cylinder that had been torn apart. She dropped the wrench she was holding on the ground and picked up the metal shard to get a better look at it. Fizzy immediately recognized what this piece of scrap was, as she was quite familiar with the device this shrapnel belonged to. In fact, she was carrying 5 of those things on her person at this very moment, all of them strapped to the bandolier slung over her right shoulder.

Flashbang. Still smoking, too. Whatever happened here happened less than a few minutes ago.

The golem lifted her head up and took a closer look at her surroundings. There was an oddly shaped scorch mark on the nearby wall, and claw marks in the floor, leading further into the tunnel.

“Well, we still have 4 more of the things to beat into a pulp to fill our quota, so we might as well check it out, right?” suggested Plus.

My thoughts exactly.

Fizzy picked her weapon back up and started following the trail. She had lost her right boot in a scuffle earlier, so her bare metal foot scraped against the stone floor rather loudly as she walked. Well, she was never the quiet, stealthy type, but the tomb-like structure of this place seemed to amplify every sound she made, making tiny echoes that disturbed the overbearing silence.

As she pushed onward, she gradually realized there was another light source up ahead, around a bend in the tunnel. She picked up the pace and went around the corner with a bit of speed. Her bare foot slipped on a patch of wet floor, causing her to lose her balance and smash into the far wall with a loud crash. She wasn’t hurt, but she made quite a racket when she did so.

“Damn, what the hell was-? Oh.”

She cursed under her breath and looked down at her feet, only to realize the thing she slipped on was a pool of fresh blood. She failed to spot it since her headlamp illuminated only a part of her field of view and had stepped right in it. Her smooth metal sole had made contact with the slick wet stone and failed to gain traction, resulting in her rather embarrassing tumble.

As for the owner of said blood, it was probably one of the three dead dwarves in the lit section of the tunnel. They looked like they had died rather violently, probably overwhelmed by basilisks. They must’ve taken anti-petrification countermeasures, but ended up being killed to death the old fashioned way. The lizards then left their bodies to rot, as they didn’t care for meat and blood all that much. These guys were also probably the owners of that flashbang part she found, as one of them was wearing a bandolier like hers that appeared to be empty. He also had a still-lit lantern on his belt, which served as the dim light source that illuminated the grizzly scene.

As for their killers, they hadn’t gotten far if the chorus of hissing and scraping noises coming towards her from further ahead was any indication. Fizzy wiped her foot on her pant leg to get most of the blood off and readied her trusty wrench. After a few tense seconds basilisks began pouring out of the darkness and into the flickering light of the dead party’s lantern.

The basilisk was a monstrous lizard that crawled along the ground on four pairs of short legs, each tipped with a trio of long claws. Its body was shaped like that of a fat slug, but covered in pale blue scales that were notoriously tough to break through with brute force. Countless sharp spines anywhere between 5 and 30 centimeters in length protruded from its back as if it were some kind of nightmarish hedgehog. It was about 1 meter tall when standing still, and that wasn’t counting the spines, so its size was definitely intimidating to adventurers with gnomish proportions. It had no neck, and its wide head had a massive jaw with two rows of pointy teeth that could chew through stone and armor alike. A pair of milky white eyes glistened above its cavernous maw, locked firmly onto the shiny golem’s face.

Actually there were more than a pair. More like a dozen pairs, but Fizzy wasn’t worried. She was a golem and was therefore naturally resistant against petrification. In fact, if she was a stone golem rather than a metal one, then the incoming basilisks’ combined gazes would do little more than feed her ego. But she wasn’t, and their focused stares began to rapidly petrify her, covering her almost-glowing mithril skin in a layer of gray rock. She reached for a flashbang on her bandolier, but her fist was already petrified and refused to let go of her wrench, which was also slowly but surely being covered in the stuff.

In the end, it had taken just over a second to turn Fizzy into an actual statue, as the sheer number of evil eyes pointed at her seemed to overwhelm her petrification resistance. Satisfied with their successful ‘hunt,’ the roaming pack of basilisks approached the gnome statue while snapping and hissing at each other, likely debating which one would get their share first. The delicious scent of mithril filled their noses, so they were quite eager to sample their latest catch. One of them - the biggest and ugliest of the lot - won the argument by slamming his muscular mace-tipped tail into the sides of each contender.

After establishing who was top dog, the alpha basilisk approached the petrified gnome and opened his jaw to bite off her head.

“Cleanse!”

The layer of stone covering Fizzy crumbled and fell away while yellow light poured out from between the cracks. The biggest lizard of the bunch was smacked in the side of his open mouth before could even comprehend what was going on. The enchanted steel wrench had hit with such force that it smashed up not only the relatively thin scales on his face, but also pulverized his lower jaw.

You have dealt a crushing blow. Target HP -434.

The basilisk’s head swayed to Fizzy’s left from the impact and its body followed suit. The slightly dented tool was then lifted in the air and promptly brought down onto the still reeling monster’s head, flattening it against the ground.

You have dealt a crushing blow. Target HP -501.

The mithril golem quickly raised the wrench and twacked it again, this time feeling her weapon sink into its thick skull a little more while also letting out a sickening crack.

You have dealt a crushing blow. Target HP -583.

Level up!

Congratulations, you are now a Level 36 Metal Golem! STR +3. END +3. AGI +2. FTH +1.

“Wait, we Leveled up already?! But we just hit 35 when we started several hours ago!”

I know! These guys give way too much XP for how easy they are!

“You might’ve spoken too soon, Fizzy! Here come the rest!”

One of the remaining 11 basilisks leaped into the air and tucked its head between its legs, rolling up into a wheel and charging at Fizzy with its spear-like spines out, threatening to run her over and riddle her full of holes. The golem deftly avoided the charge by pivoting around her right foot while simultaneously swinging her weapon in a horizontal arc.

You have dealt a solid blow. Target HP -239.

Her attack did significantly less damage since she hit the lizard’s midriff instead of its head, but it still did the job and sent the scaly wheel careening into wall somewhere behind her. Using the momentum of the attack, Fizzy spun around her left leg and thrust her wrench forward as if it she was trying to stab the next basilisk in the face.

“Heavy Gong!”

The Martial Art activated beautifully, wrapping her weapon in a sheen of red light as it plowed right into her target’s snout.

You have dealt a solid blow. Target HP -311.

Target stunned for 2 seconds.

The lizard staggered backwards and collapsed while its black blood oozed from its pulverized face. Two more of them approached Fizzy from either side and snapped at her with their powerful jaws. She already knew from experience those things were strong enough to puncture her hide, so she didn’t hesitate to use her Armored Charge to dash forward while ignoring trivial things like momentum or inertia.

You have dealt a glancing blow. Target HP -63.

She managed to avoid the stunned lizard on the ground, headbutting another one. Her forehead was not a weapon, so she only did enough damage to push it back slightly and thoroughly piss it off. The enraged lizard lunged forward in an attempt to bite her head off, but she swatted its jaws away from below by swinging her wrench in an uppercut-like motion.

You have dealt a crushing blow. Target HP -418.

At the same time, a spiked tail came swinging in from the side. She managed to palce her wrench between herself and the incoming attack-

You have suffered blunt force trauma. HP -259.

-but the blow was too heavy to block with just one arm. Her elbow made a rather ominous cracking noise as the join was bent at a weird angle, and she was knocked off her feet and onto her side. She immediately rolled over to her left to avoid having her face stomped on by a clawed foot and scrambled to her feet. She saw another claw swipe coming from the side, but was still off-balance so she couldn’t do anything about it, other than let it slash her across the face.

You have suffered a deep cut. HP -455.

“Okay! That’s enough joking around! Let’s kick thing into high gear!”

Considering she just lost a third of her HP in just two hits, Fizzy was already way ahead of her other self.

“Parallel One!”

The Paladin’s left eye was set ablaze with an emerald green flame. A bright yellow-green halo appeared over her head and her weapon was enveloped by a similar light as she also triggered her Divine Wrath Skill.

“Grand Slam!”

Now infused with holy energy, the unassuming steel wrench was swung in a wide horizontal arc while red light mixed in with the green and the yellow to produce a rather flashy attack.

You have fractured your opponent’s skull. Target HP -852.

You have dealt a devastating blow. Target stunned for 5 seconds.

It struck the basilisk with so much force that it had no choice but to collapse on the spot.

“Judgement!”

No sooner did it hit the ground that Plus hit it with her sole offensive Spell, causing a huge brick of solid light to smash into the creature from above, crushing it against the floor and finishing it off.

“One down! Ten to go!”

Next up was the one that tried to stomp on her. She moved in and dodged its incoming jaws while smashing two of its left kneecaps in. She was aiming for its head, but her damaged elbow made her attack veer off-course. Plus bathed both of them in healing light in the next instant, restoring her joint to pristine order and covering up the deep scratches on her face. Another tail swipe came at her from behind, hitting her in the back of the head and causing her to stumble forward, right into the gaping maw of a basilisk that bit into her right shoulder.

“Eat this!”

Fizzy let out a cry of frustration rather than pain. She momentarily let go of her wrench and reached down to flip the switch on the charge pack strapped to her back, setting it all the way to ‘vaporize’ in one go. The device immediately sprang to life, sending an unreasonable amount of electricity through her metal frame and into the basilisk’s mouth. The massive jolt was transferred directly into the basilisk’s body, bypassing its thick hide and earthen scales and dealing far more damage than it would have otherwise. The overwhelming shock caused its jaw muscles to tense up, preventing it from letting go of Fizzy no matter how much it tried.

After a few seconds of thrashing about while hissing loudly it went limp. Even if it was an earth-attuned monster and was naturally resistant to lightning, all that meant was that it clung to life a little bit longer. Once she was sure her assailant was dead, Fizzy deactivated the portable power plant, threw its smoking jowls off her shoulder, and turned her attention to the remaining 9 monsters. Seeing three of their numbers - including the strongest - die in rapid succession had given them pause. Their opponent was not only smaller than them, but she was literally a walking delicacy. They had underestimated her, and only now did their primitive minds realize they had to take a more cautious approach and observe their quarry from a bit of distance away.

Big mistake.

Now that she had some time to herself, Fizzy reached out and applied her Magnetize Skill to one of the cart tracks in the middle of the passageway. The long steel beam groaned and creaked for a fraction of a second before it was uprooted from its spot and smashed into the gathered gaggle of lizards. It swept them off their feet and threw them against the wall, giving the golem the opening she needed to charge in. The wrench that she was forced to drop moments before suddenly took flight seemingly on its own, smacking one of the still standing monsters across the face with a loud thud. Fizzy used an Armored Charge to close the distance and shoulder-smashed its face, shattering a few teeth in the process. She snatched the wrench out of the air by the handle and swung it down while screaming at the top of her artificial lungs-

“Love Tap!”

The weapon glowing with multiple colors smashed into the creature’s upper back, making it bounce off the ground and gain some air under the influence of the Bonecrusher War Art. Now that it was momentarily airborne and unable to dodge, Fizzy swung her weapon around like a windmill, smashing it diagonally from below in the jaw and sending it flying backwards. It even managed to do a few flips before it crashed into the wall.

Plus had already healed and Cleansed their body of the petrification build up while her boss was doing her thing, and was now working the Magnetize Skill yet again. One of the deceased adventurers’ swords came to life and flew straight into a random opponent's’ eyes while Fizzy flew a flashbang into the air. The metal canister exploded in a flash of white light that was especially effective against creatures that had adapted to the low-light conditions of living underground. Most of them were blinded, and a few were even stunned, allowing the Artificer-cum-Paladin-cum-Metal Golem to resume her work uninterrupted.

In the following 3 or so minutes, Fizzy and Plus proceeded to stab, maim, break, pummel, electrocute, pulverize, smash and generally destroy each and every one of those basilisks. Those lizards kept battering her frame from all sides, and even tried to collapse the tunnel on top of her when they got desperate, but to no avail. Any damage they did was healed up, and their repeated attempts to petrify her were met with nothing but failure.

And violence.

Lots and lots of violence.

When all was said and done, Fizzy was left standing in the middle of 12 corpses, all of them bigger than herself. She had to use her Engine of Destruction Skill halfway through the fight to recharge her MP, which left her mithril hide glowing red from the intense heat she generated. The excess heat caused the various bits of lizard blood and viscera that clung to her body to burn and melt, wrapping her in a thin layer of smoke and the distinct stench of burning flesh. Her clothes had more or less burned to cinders, including the straps keeping her headlamp and charge pack in place. Well, the former had gotten smashed in the fight while the latter was already out of juice, so carrying them around had become something of a hinderance anyway.

However, even though everything around her was dead, Fizzy wasn’t quite done yet.

“The God of Death demands his due!” she screamed with a fanatic smile on her face. “And the servant of Chaos shall deliver it with a side order of guts and glory! Extra well done! Hahahahaha!”

Fizzy slammed the head of her beaten, bent and bloodied wrench into the ground besides her while holding onto the edge of the handle. It was a triumphant pose to go along with her very loud declaration of victory. She basked in the glory of victory for several seconds more, at which point her one million GP smile gradually faded away. Her mood was steadily turning sour as, once her combat high wore off, she had suddenly realized there was no audience around to bear witness to her greatness.

Or was there?

“By my father’s beard…”

A sheepish voice came from the wall next to Fizzy. The red hot golem immediately snapped into a combat pose, ready to smash whatever was-

“Woah, woah! Easy there!”

One of the dwarves she had written off as dead was leaning up against the wall and raising his hands in the air to show he meant no harm.

“… A survivor?”

“Yeah! That’s me! I didn’t mean to startle you, was just playing dead to avoid attracting those beasties’ attention!”

Basilisks had good instincts, but they weren’t too smart. If they thought they had killed something before they had a chance to petrify it, they would likely leave it alone. Some would deem that to be a cowardly tactic, but those types of people normally didn’t last long as adventurers.

This particular coward was a male dwarf with black, medium-length hair that had been slicked back and tied in a short ponytail to keep it out of his small, gray eyes. Overall his face looked lively and youthful, although the braided beard and full moustache made it difficult to guess his age. It was hard to deny he had a certain dignified charm about him. His relatively lean body was draped in a long dark blue coat with silver studs in the cuffs, collar, lapels and around the edge of the skirt. He had steel greaves and gauntlets protecting his limbs and a chainmail vest beneath the coat, which had been ripped open and bloodied by a trio of deep cuts.

“Well, aren’t you lucky?” said Fizzy while being wary of any other surprises.

“Yeah. Lucky… Anyway, uh, pleasure to make your acquaintance, miss. My name is Drummir Ironshout, and as you can see I’m in a bit of a bind.”

He tapped on his right kneecap with his armored knuckles, producing a dull and hollow sound. Upon closer inspection, the steel plating on his right shin had a series of circular holes punctured through. A basilisk had likely bitten him, but there was no blood anywhere near them.

“Petrifying venom,” he stated. “Some of the bastards have a Skill for it, and it can overpower the petrification vaccine me and my… former colleagues here took before we came down here. Bottom line is, I can’t walk, and I’d appreciate it if you could Cleanse this off me.”

Being turned partially to stone was one of those lingering afflictions that would not heal naturally. They had to be treated, either through magic or through alchemy, otherwise the person would permanently lose the limb.

“So you’ve been awake the entire time?” asked Fizzy in a slightly hopeful tone.

“I was indeed.”

“And you saw my glorious victory?”

“Oh, yes! It was a spectacular battle that clearly demonstrated milady’s combat prowess! The stunning sight of your noble form bringing down divine retribution upon those vile creatures is something I shall not forget!”

“… And?”

“And I’ll be sure to sing your praises to everyone when I get back to town! I’ll make sure they know of the radiant holy golem with the face of an angel and the arm of a devil who took pity on this poor soul and saved them from damnation!”

“Well, aren’t you a smooth operator? Do all Bards try to sweet talk golems or only desperate ones like you?”

“Ah… found me out did you?”

It wasn’t like being a wordsmith was bad in and of itself, but the Job certainly had some negative connotations attached to it. Bards were just as known for their ability to awe with song, dance and poetry as they were for being con artists, womanizers and brown-nosers.

“Truthfully, I’m a Shaman by trade. Being a Bard is just how I, shall we say, find companionship.”

And judging from his words, this guy leaned more towards the latter part of that spectrum. That was fine, though. Luckily for him, Fizzy had a use for someone who was really good at boasting. She had a reputation to build up, so having a professional bullshitter help her out was certainly a step in the right direction.

“I don’t mind. I’ll cure you and heal you right up straight away. I’d even escort you to the surface.”

“Really? You’d do that for me?!”

“Sure, why not. I was about to head out anyway,” replied the golem with a wide smile. “Provided you do me a few favors in return.”

“Favors… you say?”

“Of course! Ain’t nothing in this world for free!”

“Ah-hah. Certainly, you are most wise, your holiness. This humble one swears upon his ancestors to repay you for this kindness in whatever manner you see fit. I am sure such a wondrous and benevolent construct such as yourself is deserving of everything and anything she deems necessary.”

Fizzy nodded along with his words while letting out a few approving hums.

“Drummir, I think this is the start of a b-e-a-utiful friendship.”

After all, there was nothing like a little bit of extortion to bring two people together.