Only I Am A Reader

'Oh.'

Leo didn't even apply that much force with his first attack, but the White Tiger left a deep gash in the golem's arms.

No matter how Leo looked at it, the golem's durability was much worse than Craig's.

'If this is all it has, then…'

It wasn't like Leo wanted tougher opponents, but this fragile statue was disappointing even as the target of an Initiation Mission.

Swish.

Using just Sword Breath, one of the golem's arms fell to the ground. However, that arm grew a few seconds later.

'That's more like it.'

Leo could see the golem's leg momentarily connecting with the ground to replenish the rocky mass that it lost.

"Is this done?"

At the same time, Yulia's Ice already covered a quarter of the space beyond the entrance. Her golem was already a true sculpture.

"Not fully. You still need to ensure its destruction."

Appearing already used to it, Yulia softly struck the frozen golem following Rubin's words. However…

"Not so simple, right?"

While the mass of ice surrounding it broke into pieces, the golem itself remained standing, still covered in a very thin layer of ice.

Now that what constrained it had become much weaker, the icy layer started cracking as the golem tried to break free.

'Does it follow the rules of a standard golem?'

Leo already had a guess as to what might truly end his target, but he still steadily progressed through his list. With swift motions, he deprived the golem of all its limbs.

Even as an unmoving lump, the golem still tried to connect with the ground to regrow again.

'What about this?'

Cutting its link with the floor, Leo used the White Tiger as a lever to throw the golem into the air.

Once it was separated from the ground, Leo kept it that way by using the sword as a racket, all while shaving off the edges of the lump. A feat that further showed his physical strength.

'A Knight or a Heavy Swordsman?'

While Rubin still couldn't read someone else's Role with her detection ability, her observation of Leo further confirmed that the Role he had was more than just a generic Swordsman…

'Sword Breaker would have been better for this.'

Not knowing the details of the mission was one thing, but the watchful eyes made things less convenient for Leo.

However, in the bigger scheme of things, this confused handling was what made this a perfect Initiation mission, to begin with.

Both Leo and Yulia were currently experiencing what it was like to chance on an abnormal event without any prior preparations!

Yulia had it easier with her ability. Although she also resorted to disabling the golem like Leo, covering the lump with ice prevented its immediate growth without any extra effort.

"It's really persistent."

That being said, the lump golem didn't sit still regardless of the state it was in. It kept vibrating in place in an attempt to break the ice once more.

'It didn't stop growing.'

After playing upward tennis with the lump golem for a minute or so, Leo noticed that its limbs were already starting to grow again without any 'mineral supplements'.

While it made it easier for it to recover, the source of the golem's false immortality wasn't the area it spawned in! 𝘣𝘦𝑑𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘦𝑙.𝘯𝑒𝘵

'Time to get rid of this.'

The third golem was almost ready to move, so Leo didn't have any reason to keep his current opponent intact any longer.

On the side, Yulia didn't seem like she wanted to overdo it either, so she also concentrated her frost on one small layer after the other and focused on carving the golem into the smallest size possible.

At this point, Leo had already confirmed his guess, Yulia's progress slowed down once she got closer to the lump's center and so was the case with his shaving.

It didn't take a genius, especially for a reader like him, to figure out that the golem's core needed to be destroyed for it to completely stop moving!

'Time from some skewering.'

Letting the lump finally fall to the ground, Leo utilized the Sword Breath of a Grandmaster to repeatedly stab its center. It cut through like butter until it suddenly hit a hard surface.

'Guess you aren't worse than Medusa after all.'

The rock layer immediately closed to cover what had been momentarily revealed, but Leo had already managed to ascertain the location of his objective.

He just had to stab with a little more force and sharpness!

As usual, activating White Tiger's Metal Qi with Internal Energy was enough for the first attempt. Leo would only add his true trump card if that wasn't enough.

Thud!

Thankfully, on just the second strike, Leo's sword met the floor. It resisted quite a bit, but the hard Core was no longer in one piece! It was only then that the lump finally rested in peace.

'Should I handle the next one?'

Rummaging through the rocks to extract a broken sphere that didn't look too much different from the glowing part of the floor, Leo took a glance at Yulia.

'Even as a witch, she needs a cane at least.'

Her strategy was working, but it was progressing a tad bit slowly. If she wasn't planning on utilizing a weapon, then Leo believed she needed to unleash more of her ability.

'Is it because we are doing the same thing?'

Aside from her stronger performance at the meeting, Leo still felt that Yulia's Ice was far more than she had shown for some reason…

She was holding it back even more now, so things were tougher for her. Leo couldn't help wondering if she was being mindful of him or if she had realized the need to hide her all recently.

Crack!

Once Leo's thoughts wandered in her direction, the air suddenly turned colder as Yulia's freezing powers went up a notch. The white ice devoured the remaining rock ball before shattering into nothingness.

'Is that how it works?'

Immediately following that, however, not only did the golem moving towards Leo grow more aggressive, but the fourth one that was still climbing out was also being ejected much faster.

Most importantly…

'That wasn't their final form?'

The golems had one more unexpected trick up their sleeve!