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Chapter 279: From Extermination To Raiding

After emerging from their hiding place, Loren tried to approach the cave, but the entrance was completely covered by a wall of flesh and he could not see inside.

As the entrance was completely blocked, no noise could leak out. Wondering what to do, Loren looked down at Dia, who had come up beside him. The Elder moved her face close to the wall of flesh golem she had created, then shook her head as if to say it was hopeless.

“There’s nothing we can do until the order is carried out.”

“We can’t even cut our way through it?”

“If you’re ready to get sloshed with blood and grease, I won’t stop you.”

If one were to use a blade or something to cut through the wall of flesh that covered the large cave’s entrance, one would have to be prepared for the condition Dia had described. Loren was willing to get covered in blood and grease if necessary, but he didn’t want to be in such a situation when he didn’t have to.

Looking toward the cave, Loren noticed that the wall of flesh blocking the entrance was slowly but surely slipping inward.

“What’s going on?”

Gula, who had also noticed the change, tilted her head, and Dia, who was also tilting her head, clapped her hands.

“This cave is quite deep. The flesh golem does not have enough volume to fill the entire cave, so the deeper it goes, the more the flesh wall will be pulled inside.”

“But that doesn’t mean we’re going to be able to move forward as much as the wall being pulled inside.”

Lapis, who was poking her head in to check the condition inside the entrance of the cave, said with a sigh.

The walls of the cave were slick with blood and grease after the flesh golem had passed through; you might slip if you stepped in the wrong direction, and you were sure to get dirty if you touched the walls, so it was not in a condition that one would want to enter. Still, they would need to enter to check inside after the flesh golem destroyed itself, and the thought made Loren feel gloomy. He stared at the wall of flesh moving slowly toward the back of the cave with disgusted eyes, but after a while he noticed that the movement of the wall was a little strange and looked at it more closely.

The wall of flesh, which had been moving steadily inward until then, suddenly stopped moving at a certain depth.

“Hey, it stopped.”

“Has it reached the end?”

The wall had not advanced that far and was still within sight of their group, who were peeking in through the entrance. Thinking that it might be too shallow and too early to have reached the end of the cave, Loren suddenly noticed that the wall of flesh, which had gone deep inside, was coming back toward them.

“Run! That thing is coming back!”

Loren did not consider the flesh golem to be such an inferior creature that it could not distinguish between friend and foe, but the speed of the returning wall was so fast that he thought it might engulf him and the others who were peering into the cave. As he tried to move away from the entrance while giving a warning to everyone, Dia, who was at his back, whispered.

“Collapse.”

With that single word, the flesh golem, whose body had been made of flesh and blood, crumbled as if it had been some kind of joke.

Loren was worried that if the thing collapsed, its remains would flood beneath their feet, and they would be in serious trouble. But his worry was for nothing as the remains of the flesh golem lay on the ground as flesh and blood for a moment, then soon dried up and turned into clumps, which after a while broke into dust.

Crouching down in the remains of the flesh golem, which had self-disintegrated without leaving so much as a smell behind, Dia took a pinch of the dust before the others could stop her and stared at the substances on her fingers.

“Golems basically have no feelings.”

Dia said to no one in particular as she brushed the dust off her fingers.

“But golems made from living organisms, such as flesh golems and bone golems, sometimes retain some kind of residue of emotion.”

“What does that mean?”

“This golem was frightened by something.”

Dia’s gaze turns to the depth of the cave.

It was impossible to see inside the unlit cave with normal vision, but Dia, being an Elder, could see through that level of darkness just as well as in daylight. Loren, too, was able to see as far as her by borrowing Shayna’s vision, although he was unable to see into areas that are not completely lit by his own vision alone. When he turned his gaze toward the depth of the cave as well, all he could see was just a straight stretch of cave; there didn’t seem to be any being that could frighten even a golem as Dia had said.

“It must be quite a thing to frighten even a golem.”

Lapis, who had followed after Loren and peered into the depths of the cave, could also see through the darkness with her magical vision. Gula, too, could do the same thing. Nim was the only one who had a frown on her face after peering into the dark and glancing at the others.

“Loren, do you see anything?”

“No, I can’t. How can I?”

In fact, he could see, but he couldn’t let Nim know that. So Loren had no choice but to tell the elf that he couldn’t.

“Nim, you can’t see?”

“I can to some extent… But not to the end of the path.”

“I also can’t see anything?”

“Me neither.”

Gula and Lapis, still peering into the cave, lied one after the other.

Dia was looking at Loren and the others with a look that seemed to say ‘What are you talking about’, but they just couldn’t let Nim know the truth.

“I guess we’ll just have to get some light and go in there. Thankfully, the blood on the walls and floor seems to be gone.”

As the flesh golem self-destructed, the blood and grease that had wet the walls of the cave also self-destructed and turned to dust, perhaps because they were also parts of the golem. As Loren was thinking that it would be no problem to touch the walls even though they might have to pay some attention to the dust under feet, Dia curiously asked.

“We’re going to go in and investigate?”

“Yeah. Maybe there are some survivors left, and probably something else in there that scared the flesh golem too?”

Although Loren had a rather brutal thought that it would be less troublesome if there were no survivors left, he believed it would be a good idea to investigate what had frightened the golem.

The reason was simple: of all the beings that might inhabit Mt. Fire Flute, the only one powerful enough to drive away even a supposedly emotionless golem would be the Ancient Dragon that they had come to see.

He did think that it might be unlikely, since Dia and Lapis could not feel anything when they came close, but he also thought that it would be a much more productive idea than trying to search the entire mountain, as long as there were no other clues.

“I’m not forcing you to follow me. I’ll go on my own.”

“There’s no way I can let Loren go alone.”

Nim said with her bow at the ready. Lapis nodded, her face showing some dissatisfaction at having been beaten to the punch.

“If everyone is going, I can’t bear to be the only one left behind.”

“I have to go, too, if that’s the way it’s going.”

In the end, it was decided that they would all go inside together.

The cave was large enough for two people to walk side by side. Loren and Dia, who had a magic light on her fingertips, walked in the front, Gula was in the middle, and Lapis and Nim walked side-by-side behind her.

“I thought it would stink… but it doesn’t.”

Even without the presence of the flesh golem, Loren had expected the place to be filthy and stinking, as it had probably been the home of orcs. But the air inside the cave they stepped into, although a bit damp, did not contain the foul odor he had expected.

“The golem was in here first. All the dirt and smells have already been taken in.”

Dia said that if they had gone in first, perhaps the cave would be in the condition Loren had expected. But the flesh golem had charged in first, and as it went deeper inside, rubbing its body against the cave wall, it seemed that it had also taken dirt and other things into its body. Those things were broken down with the golem when it self-destructed and turned into the dust that filled the area underfoot, so there was no scent or dirt left behind.

“That’s handy.”

“Originally, golems were meant to be used as tools.”

“They look horrible, though.”

“It’s more charming when they have at least one flaw.”

Loren continued through the cave, wondering if that appearance, which was made from internal organs and muscles kneaded together, could simply be considered as a fault.

The flesh golem itself did not go very far into the cave; it turned around in the middle of the path, so Loren wondered if there might still be some orcs left in the back. But when the party went deeper inside, there was no sign of orcs, nor were there any leftover food like dead bodies lying around.

“Looks like it did a good job of cleaning up.”

Dia said with satisfaction while checking the situation by holding out magic lights here and there.

The cave was deep. Loren was somewhat curious as to how the flesh golem, which had only made it to a rather shallow part of the cave, had gotten rid of the orcs that might have been in the back. However, he could not carelessly ask Dia about it, considering that he might get some absurd answer.

As for the result, Loren thought that it would be good enough if the orcs had been exterminated.

“The survivors were cleaned up, too, weren’t they?”

Gula, who was walking behind Loren and Dia, spoke to the Elder in a somewhat dismayed tone. But Dia puffed out her chest lightly and firmly stated.

“I don’t see anything like survivors, so perhaps they were never here!”

“Wow… Loren, this Elder has become defiant.”

“I certainly did expect them to be here, but since we can’t know for sure whether they really were here or not, you cannot argue that they really were.”

Lapis somehow managed to convince Gula, who was dumbfounded.

“Loren, you should choose your friends better.”

Loren listened to Nim’s worried words of advice as he alone kept his eyes on their surroundings. There must be something in their path that frightened even a golem, but where had his companions left their sense of urgency, he wondered?