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“The golem population still keeps on increasing. This monster must be able to Respawn (a phenomenon where a monster, after dying, is able to reappear once again after some time has passed)” 1
“Noona, but those things…aren’t they coming towards Lee-kyung-ie?”
Things didn’t go as smoothly as I thought it would.
We thought we had almost gotten rid of the Fondue Golems, but those monsters began reappearing from the boiling Chocolate river, once again resuming their wandering. Unlike before when the golems travelled alone, they started flocking in groups of three or four.
Moreover, a group of six golems–the largest group we could see–began to slowly approach the cracker hill where I hid.
Even if I tried to retreat down the hill with my back flat against the planes of the ground, it would not take long for me to be caught. Even if I ran with all my might, the area was a vast plain with nowhere to properly hide.
Seeing me struggle, Kim Olim approached me, the stress wrinkles on her forehead pronounced. “If these golems are a respawn-type mob, there’s no particular reason to clear them out. Lackey and Kim Sangyoon wouldn’t be able to deal with 6 of them straight away anyway.”
After checking that Kim Sangyoon was far away, I lowered my voice and asked, “Then? Is it better to run?”
“You probably need to defeat another monster, not those golems, to move on. Since you can’t find it here, it would be better to relocate.”
I glanced towards Seo Dawon and Jung Garam, but they didn’t seem to disagree. So, I beckoned Kim Sangyoon, who stood at a distance from me.
“Yes! Do you need something!” Kim Sangyoon called back.
“Right now, a large number of golems are closing in on us,” I said.
“I think I can handle up to three of them.”
“There’s six of them.”
Kim Sangyoon opened his eyes wide, surprised by the sudden, out-of-the-blue increase in the number of Fondue Golems. Quickly grasping the direness of the situation, he whispered, “Do we need to run away?”
“That would be for the best. Besides, it takes a while for them to respawn.”
“Understood. I’ll lead the way.”
“Yep…”
After responding, Kim Sangyoon immediately took the lead and started moving us away from the Fondue Golems. I followed closely behind–nearly stuck to his back; Lackey kept a watchful eye on our rear.
However, Kim Sangyoon suddenly stopped walking and turned towards me. “I can see some strange monsters in front of us…”
“Strange monsters?” After hearing that, I turned to look in the direction the Warrior pointed out. And there stood a huge…mass of white clouds–as if several individual clouds were moving together.
‘…What on earth is that?’
Under the cloud-like top, there was what seemed like an inverted brown triangle at its base. However, as the monsters were still at a far distance, it was hard to accurately pinpoint its identity or shape.
However, Seo Dawon, who also looked when I did, answered my unvoiced question in a calm voice, “It’s a Soft-cone King.” 2
“Huh?” As I looked up, doubtful, Seo Dawon reached his large hands towards me and covered my eyes. I was a bit perplexed, but I stayed still. Soon the darkness melted away from my eyes, and, as if I had zoomed in through a telescope, I could see the distant clouds clearly.
The monsters, through this view, really did appear like ‘Soft-Serve Cones.’
The head–including its face–was a twisted white ice cream that looked as if it would melt at any moment; it stood on the brown cone with its pointed end stabbed into the ground. They moved around–jumping and leaping–freely: after kicking up off the ground, the cones would leap to great heights before piercing the ground at another location.
Looking at the sharply drawn eyes, nose, and smiling mouth drawn in chocolate syrup, I decided I never wanted to eat another soft-serve ice cream cone ever again. I tapped Seo Dawon’s hand; I had seen enough. The mage removed his hand.
“Haah…Is it okay to go over there?”
No matter how I looked at it, no vague hypothesis on how to defeat the monster came to mind. Just looking at the size, it appeared twice as big as the Fondue Golems…
I subconsciously looked at Seo Dawon, but I reminded myself that, this time, Kim Sangyoon and I were attempting to raid on our own merits. I swallowed the reflexive question that bubbled up.
“It looks like they are higher level than the Golems,” I sighed.
“Right? Considering its large size…”
[Clack Clack?]
Kim Sangyoon, in the lead, also didn’t look so optimistic as he looked at the new monsters through the telescope that hung around his neck.
At the same time, we recognized that we needed to step towards the [Soft Cone King] to avoid the Fondue Golems. We were now even closer to the Chocolate River; our taste buds grew tired of the sweet and familiar scent even before it could taste the chocolate.
[Co-one.]
[You’ve discovered ‘Soft Cone King.’]
[100% pure milk! It’s the best-selling ice cream in summer. Though the ice cream may be plain, each bite until the last tastes sweet due to the sprinkling of chocolate syrup. The enjoyable chewy yet hard waffle cone is a plus! All ingredients are of the finest quality.]
Eventually–maybe because we stepped foot within the [Soft-cone King]’s domain–we heard the monster’s cry; the system message had manifested belatedly.
Furthermore, we could vividly feel the echo that rippled out from the huge ice cream cone hitting the ground. Chills passed through me; it felt as if a giant dinosaur was passing by.
Fortunately, at least, the [Soft-cone King] never turned around to look at us approaching from behind. Every now and then, the monster jumped randomly near me, leaving holes in the soil, but I didn’t think it could freely change direction due to its structure.
However, the closer we got to the [Soft-cone King], the more vigorously it stamped on the ground, the echoes compounding with the cold atmosphere. Anxiously, we began to crawl on the floor in a prone position. If by any chance we were caught, we would have no solution.
“Are the golems still following us?”
“Gasp, Yes… I mean, don’t mobs usually give up when their targets enter different domains?”
Furthermore, we still had the issue where the Fondue Golems behind us were still ambling towards us. I wondered if they wouldn’t relent until they were right in front of our noses, but the Fondue Golems showed no hesitation in their chase.
Furthermore, as we began to crawl forwards, we encountered another annoying problem: small, squirrel-sized cookies that stepped on our hands or the hems of our clothes.
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In the [Cookie House] dungeon, the most important thing to keep in mind is not to step on or break the small automated sweets. So, if they bump into or stick to you, you must move them gently aside… Once set aside, you may think that was it, but some cookies decide to come back. In various ways, this rule was so burdensome.
When I looked back to check on Lackey, I was startled to see the small cookies popping out of its empty eye sockets. The sweets clung to Lackey like eye boogers; I reached out to the skeleton and removed the cookies. When I instructed Lackey to not destroy the small cookies, it seemed that the skeleton had opted to ignore the sweets and allow them to climb all over its body.
[Clack Clack…]
“It’s still following us…We’re not far from that soft-serve ice cream monster though…” Kim Sangyoon, a little ways ahead of me, said, flustered. I too couldn’t think of a proper way forward, so I watched the Fondue Golems approach slowly.
We were stuck in a dilemma–with no knowledge of what to do.
[Co-one!]
Suddenly, the [Soft-cone King], which had previously been looking resolutely forward, began to turn its body and look at us.
Startled, I moved to stand up, but Seo Dawon, who had stayed still until now, pressed on my shoulders. Kim Sangyoon saw that I had remained prone, so he stayed calm as well. Lackey was the same.
[Fon-due!!!]
Behind us, the Fondue Golems roared, as if they were excited.
The cone poured something white and squishy–like giant bird droppings–over the head of the roaring Fondue Golems. With a ‘plop!’ the mysterious white things–soft-serve ice cream?–fell.
“W-What’s going on?” I asked.
“Those two…they don’t seem to have a good relationship,” Kim Sangyoon said.
With a heavy thumping sound, the Soft-cone Kings, hobbling around on their waffle cones as if they were one-legged, began to rush at the Fondue Golems all at once. Like a screw, the ice cream monsters began twisting their heads; at each rotation, more soft-serve ice cream fell over the Golems’ heads.
To be honest, it didn’t seem like a very dangerous attack other than the fact that it might feel cold, but the Fondue Golems seemed to find it threatening. The golems scattered immediately; the first one who got hit by the soft-serve ice cream floundered.
Then soon, right where that golem stood…
Crack–!
A colossal [Soft-cone King] crashed down. The Waffle cone smashed through the Golem’s waist and pierced the ground.
TL: Coupled with the system’s descriptions of the monsters…I wonder if they’re truly edible or, if you eat them, you’ll get food poisoning etc.
Also, I’ve gotten sick! Just a heads up if I’m late with an update!
Footnotes
the original uses Regen, but that has a different connotation in English gaming language. Soft-cone = soft serve cone, basically ice cream.