Chương 37: Chapter 36

Echo Pulse Lv. 76 (Bronze) I rub my hands and dust them off from the small glass fragments that ended up on it. I step through a warped archway into what looks like the Crucible's first monster chamber. I only found rune plates in the first and second trap rooms. They're natural mana-formed discs where Enchanters can inscribe runes. I carried them back to the Dungeon's hall and left them there. I'll probably be building a small pile of those since in two rooms I've found about a dozen in total.

I wish I had that Interspatial Ring the grumpy middle-aged woman had. The heat rises—not just a haze, but a pressure that slides across my shoulders and burrows into my chest. The floor stretches away under jagged sheets of frosted glass, warped by old magic, fully enveloped in mist. This chamber is so wide, the far end fades behind steam and mirrored refraction. Ceiling lost in darkness. Air thick, close, sharp with the tang of something faintly sweet, like burned sugar.

I wonder why around Clearwater all these Dungeons are Fire-themed or at least Fire-adjacent. The haze in the room doesn't allow me to see much. It's a steam-like substance that rolls off my skin and makes it slightly wet. I briefly check with the Grimoire to make sure it's not poison but thankfully it just appears to be harmless vapor. The room's silent except for the distant crack of cooling glass and the faint drip of condensed water falling onto hot crystal.

I take it slow, sliding my boots over the uneven floor. I pulse Echo Pulse once—mana fans out from my skin and the world overlays itself in a mesh of outlines. My pulse picks up the outline—a shape rises from the floor, twice my height and broad as a wagon. I step closer. Glass Golem [Empowered] – Level 25 The empowered must be because I'm in an Elite Dungeon. It doesn't move at first. Its bulk is cut from translucent panels, fused around a core that flickers with molten gold. Its arms drag almost to its knees.

Its fists end in jagged panes, sharpened like the edge of a diamond saw. Its head's nothing but a crown of broken shards, each one glinting in the blue light. There's more behind it. Four, five, six more shapes—ten feet tall, hunched, looming. Their movements ripple through the glass floor, carrying faint tremors through my soles. Echo Pulse filters the signals, and I see it—a pack of Glass Golems, each one empowered, each one pacing slowly across the vast room like sentinels. None see me yet.

I glance at the nearest golem. The Grimoire flickers up information in my mind. [Glass Golem (Empowered) – Level 25] Core Integrity: 91% Glass Density: Reinforced, triple-layered Flaws: Mana flow crosslinks at joints Rear core node exposed during attack windup This specimen has a resonance flaw on the back of its left leg (potential for shatter if struck precisely) Threat: High A big leap from the Magma Claw. Even the weakest of these things would kill a Bronze Rank in seconds.

These things' levels probably don't match how dangerous they are. With that size, they could rip apart any Bronze ranker. To be a Bronze Ranking Adventurer, you must have a Class and be above level ten. Adventurers between level ten and fifty are broadly considered Bronze. Adventurers between fifty and one hundred are considered Silver, and those between one hundred and one fifty Gold. As you might imagine, one fifty to two hundred means you're a Platinum Ranked Adventurer.

Beyond Platinum, once you enter Diamond, it's one hundred levels, from level two hundred to level three hundred. Beyond that? Even more. The reason why Knights are held in much more regard than Adventurers is that they don't measure Ranks by level alone. Levels are barely a requirement for them, actually. Their Skill Levels and which Skill you can master is much more important. Beyond that, your overall Rank is calculated by Ytrial officials based on which quests you decide to take on.

You might have all the right Skills and the right Class, but if you don't prove yourself in combat, time after time, you'd still have a much lower Rank than your level would suggest. That's why between a Gold Rank Adventurer and a Gold Rank Knight there's the same distance between the sky and the earth. Grimoire, how do I kill that thing? I ask the Skill, activating it again. There's a shimmering halo, just behind the lead golem's leg, its core flickering with pale gold right above it.

I point at it, already drawing on Hell's Sword. Mana flares as the blade forms in the air, runes crawling over the sword's blue edge. The sword whips forward, spinning once before it slams into the golem's back leg. The sound echoes like a dropped anvil. Hell's Sword bounces off with barely a scratch, the blade sliding down the glass and skittering to the floor with a ringing note. A faint smear of molten glass, nothing more, drools down the surface before hardening in an instant. The golem doesn't flinch.

I curse, sweating, because the Grimoire's direction isn't enough. I can see the flaw, but the sword can't break it. The glass is too dense or the flaw is too shallow or I aimed at the wrong angle. I have Hell's Sword fly against the leg thrice more. It's just the same result. Meanwhile the golem lifts its head. Its eyes, two dimly-lit cores, settle on me. Shit, I curse. Holy shit. This is bad. The golem lumbers forward, dragging one foot with a grinding scrape that sends shivers up the walls.

Each step crushes glass dust underfoot, booming through the mist-choked chamber. Its massive frame parts the fog, shoving it aside in swirling waves. The sound of those pounding steps rolls through the room and shakes the haze loose from the floor, and I hear more footsteps answering from deep in the mist. The echo grows louder, the rhythm doubling as the other golems stir. I can't see them yet, but the stomping fills the air, closing in from all sides.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Every other golem in the room shifts. The glass creaks. Their feet slam down in perfect, slow rhythm. The hall trembles with each step, the glass ringing from wall to wall. Every golem turns, shuffling as a group toward me. If I stand still or screw up the timing, I'm finished. I check the way back—glass has already flowed over the exit. No way to run, no way to back off, no time to level up or rest.

I run, boots grinding over razor-edged dust, and I sweep around the lead golem. I keep my distance, because, through the mist, I can see two more hulking shapes closing in from the left and another bearing down behind me. The Grimoire snaps another overlay in my vision, and for a second I see myself—just a point of energy, a figure darting through a shifting maze of death. The flaw in the back leg pulses again, but this time, I try and use another Skill.

It's been since the duel with Julius Shellford that I haven't really had a chance to use the rest of my Class Skills. Architect's Insight (Passive) Reveals the mana structure of enemy fire, heat, and energy-based Skills. You see cracks in the design, and gain bonus precision when targeting flaws mid-combat. I close my eyes, now so grateful for this Skill that I had thought useless since I have the Grimoire.

Instead, this is absolutely perfect because in this case, the Grimoire points out the flaw, like it does with Skills, but the same way it happens with Skills, I don't usually manage to fix everything at once. I turn Architect's Insight while I look at the Glass Golem I attacked first, and I see that the glass isn't just dense, but also layered in a spiral, and the flaw only weakens when the golem steps with its full weight. I need to level up Architect's Insight if I want to take a better shot.

That's going to be a problem. I immediately open the Grimoire, summoning the actual book, and have it compile flaws, but there are too many Glass Golems closing in, boxing me in. I count five now, maybe six, very close to me. Their cores burn behind plates of almost unbreakable glass, each one protected by a lattice of runes that channel their mana into armor. If I stand and fight, I'll die in seconds. I activate Fire Walk and skate away from them.

However, for the first time since I entered the room, I have to get close to one of them and I almost get clipped. Similar to the Molten Snappers that I met in the Emberdeep Cave, the Glass Golems walk slowly, but as soon as I enter one's range, its torso twists, swirling on the legs like a composite doll, and a giant, spiked fist flies my way.

"Damn it!" The only thing I can do is activate Fire Shield, and use Flameform Blueprint to ignite Fire Walk's mana and turn it into jet-like propulsion to get away. The fist is barely slowed down by the Fire Shield and comes inches from turning me into paste. Now I understand why Guildmaster Dorn was so smug and wouldn't even want me to pay the fee. If I didn't have my current Class and the Grimoire, I would have been dead ten times over.

Unluckily for Guildmaster Dorn, I do have a Rainbow Skill and a very mysterious Class, a powerful variant of whatever someone with the Hell's Sword set would have gotten, and all thanks to my Rainbow Skill.

"Architect's Insight," I whisper, letting the command ride the flow of mana.

"Show me what's wrong with you." The world shifts. Pages turn behind my eyes, lines of blue script folding into diagrams. The Skill peels open, vein by vein, thread by thread. [Architect's Insight – Silver Rank – Passive Skill] Top Three Flaws (by clarity obstruction): Blind Framing Bias – Insight prioritizes static structures over mobile entities, reducing flaw resolution on moving targets. Suggested fix: Channel mana through the Third Eye Vein in the forehead during combat.

Forces the Skill to refresh every second and recalibrate focus zones based on motion. Ambient Bleed – High-density mana fields distort overlay sharpness. Suggested fix: Layer Spirit-channeling through the Inferior Spine Veins to buffer the intake stream. Tightens the signal band and filters excess interference from elemental fields. Fragment Sync Delay – Insight lags behind real-time when paired with high-speed feedback Skills like Echo Pulse.

Suggested fix: Synchronize pulse timing by routing both Skills through the same anchor vein—preferably the Inner Flame Channel just below the sternum. That aligns burst intervals and removes stutter.

"Let's see if I can do this on the go," I mutter. There's also one more Skill from my Class that is perfect for this occasion. * Back at the Clearwater Adventurers' Guild, the Dungeon Map pulses in slow rhythm, casting pale blue light over the quiet hall. The green dot on the first monster floor moves like a spark—jerky at first, then smoother, gliding in wide arcs around a half-ring of red shapes that blink and shift in slow pursuit. Guildmaster Dorn leans forward, arms crossed, jaw clenched.

The crowd has swelled again.

"That dot," someone mutters, "he's skating around the golems like he knows exactly where their reach ends."

"He's not dodging by luck," another adds.

"He's reading their timing. That's not Bronze Rank movement. That's closer to what a Duelist does in the pits." The clerk with the betting slips doesn't even look up.

"Doesn't matter. Those are Empowered Golems. Even standard ones tank through normal Gold Skills like it's nothing."

"You think he can't scratch them?" a younger adventurer asks, watching the flickering halo.

"He's fast enough. What if he's got a powerful artifcat?"

"The kid has a Hell's Sword Class," the clerk replies.

"Haven't you seen him duel Julius Shellford?"

"A Hell's Sword Class?" someone whistles.

"Still not enough," a veteran Gold Rank Adventuter snorts, "I fought a regular Glass Golem at level forty-two. It broke my sword and barely flinched. That was a normal one. These? They're worse." The clerk nods.

"Glass Golems have triple-layered core shielding and elemental reinforcement on all major joints. They're immune to slashing-type Skills below Silver Rank unless you land a perfect structural hit. With that density, even a very powerful Silver Rank fighter has to aim precisely." Guildmaster Dorn watches the green dot loop around the red ones again. Each pass is tighter than the last. The red dots close in, reposition, fan out—but the green one doesn't slow. It dances between the margins, just out of reach.

"He's dodging them really well," Felisia says, more impressed with this display of ability than everything else Jacob has done so far.

"He must have gotten a good grasp on their patterns." Sir Greyson gives a small nod, still staring up.

"Young Jacob is a rare talent, milady. But…"

"But he won't get through," one of the older adventurers says.

"Even if he finds the core, he won't break it. Not without some Skill that goes through mana shielding. Not with a basic fire blade." Dorn finally speaks.

"Then he dies. Doesn't matter how clever he is. If you can't deal damage, the rest is just dancing."

"If he didn't die, however," a dissenting voice rises from the crowd, "can you imagine how much experience he would get? All those Empowereds? That's a prime meal for someone his level."

"As if!" a woman's voice shuts him off.

"Who do you think could take an Elite Dungeon at level nine?!" The chasing continues for the better part of an hour, to the point that most people in the crowd are bored. Suddenly, however, the green dot stops fleeing and closes in on one of the red dots.

"Hah!" Dorn slams his fist on the table.

"He must be running out of Mana, that rat! Let's see how long he lasts before he dies!" A ripple passes through the Guild hall. Several adventurers lean forward. The scribe at the betting table drops his quill. Even the half-asleep Silver Rank drinking in the corner raises his head.

"He's diving one?" the clerk says, blinking.

"He's actually going in?" Dorn's voice cuts above the murmurs.

"Of course he is. Idiot must've burned through his Mana. Fire Walk and Fire Shield don't run on air. If he thinks he can brawl it out, he's dumber than I gave him credit for." Sir Greyson doesn't speak. His eyes stay fixed on the halo. A man in heavy leather armor nods grimly.

"At level nine, he won't be able to even scratch—" Then the map shifts. The green dot doesn't just reach the red one—it punches straight through it. One second, they overlap. Next, the red dot vanishes. The room falls silent. A long beat passes.

"That—" the scribe says the obvious with a thin voice.

"That was one of the golems. He killed it." Dorn's mouth opens. No words come out. And the green dot is already on the move again. Circling. Lining up the next Glass Golem.