An ordinary profession creates the world's strongest

"Shia."

“Y-yes! W-what is it, Hajime-san!”

Hajime called out to Shia, who raised her voice nervously. Hajime's voice seemed even softer than usual... but perhaps that was just Shia's illusion.

"You're strong, we guarantee it. You won't lose to a gol like that, so forget about those extraneous thoughts and just go wild! We'll definitely save you if things get tough."

"...Yes, I will also take care of my disciple."

Shia's eyes welled up with tears at what Hajime and Yue said. She was simply happy. Because they always treated her so casually, she felt a little uneasy. Perhaps they were bothered by her following them... But it seemed her worries were unfounded.

Then, immature people must do their best to do what they can. Shia applied physical enhancement to her entire body and stomped hard on the ground.

"Haha, Hajime-san has been a little gentler towards me. I'm really motivated! Miss Yue, the day when I can rise above my superiors might not be far off."

“…Don’t get carried away.”

Although Hajime and Yue gave her a helpless look, Shia, who was full of energy, ignored them. She faced straight ahead, glaring at the knights.

"※Show your skills!" (Editor's note: lyrics from the Japanese band Kishidan's "Kanka Shoto").

"Uh, so why do you know this joke...ah, I accidentally made a comment."

“…Drink~”

"...I won't complain. I absolutely won't complain."

Fifty Golem Knights were before him, but Hajime had already shown signs of fatigue before the battle. I wonder if the Golem Knights understood Hajime's condition... They all attacked the invaders, intending to split them apart.

The Golem Knights' movements were incredibly agile, belying their massive bodies. Their rapid approach, accompanied by the creaking of metal, combined with the weapons they were equipped with and the expressions in their eyes, displayed a breathtaking aura. It almost gave the illusion of a high wall approaching from all sides.

The first to strike the Golem Knight was Hajime. Although the two electromagnetic cannons he gripped tightly in his left and right hands could only exert less than half of their normal power, they still possessed enough power to easily surpass the anti-weapon rifle.

Hajime fired his electromagnetic cannon at the Golem Knights. The two red flashes struck their targets squarely—the heads of the two Golem Knights, or rather, their eyes. The impact sent the Knights reeling backward, their heads thrown back. The knights behind them swiftly leaped over them, closing in on Hajime and his group. Hajime fired again, breaking their formation to avoid a fatal encirclement.

After several knights withstood Hajime's torrential attack with their shields, swords, and the bodies of their companions, they finally approached Hajime and his men.

But a girl with flowing white hair tinged with bluish light leaped forward, her super-heavy hammer held high—that was Shia Hauria's killing zone. Using her enhanced physical abilities, she unleashed a relentless, unrelenting blow—

“Drink aa ...

She struck with all her might. The hammer, Druken, fell with a terrifying crash, crushing a Golem Knight. Though the knight raised his shield to block the blow, even that defense was crushed.

Druken sunk into the ground, even creating cracks in it. Hit by Shia's full-strength attack, he would be reduced to a corpse—perhaps with such a judgment, the knight who had been holding up his shield to absorb the impact swung his greatsword vigorously, stepping forward to cut Shia in two.

Shia carefully observed the knight's movements with her peripheral vision. She twisted the handle, adjusting the angle of the Drukken, and then pulled the trigger.

With a crackling sound, the Drukken, sunk into the ground, bounced up. Shotgun shells, ejected from the magazine, flew around Shia. Shia didn't let the Drukken's momentum weaken. She spun on the spot and, with a powerful centrifugal force, struck the knight in the flank, just as he was about to swing his sword.

“Drink aa ...

She swung her hammer down with a powerful breath. The knight, struck directly, twisted his body into a U-shape. He flew forward as if being run over by a speeding truck, striking the knights approaching from behind with a powerful blow, knocking them to the ground. The knight's body was crushed and deformed, unable to move.

The whirring sound of wind pressure reached Shia's rabbit ears. She glanced upwards and saw that the greatsword the Golem Knight had raised earlier seemed to have been released when Shia had knocked the knight away, and was now spinning and falling from the sky.

Shia leaped and caught the falling greatsword, then launched it at the approaching Golem Knight with all her might.

The greatsword flew at incredible speed, colliding with the Golem Knight's shield and violently deflecting it. Shia didn't miss this opening. She stepped forward and swung the Deluken upwards, as if to knock her opponent back. The impact struck the Knight's abdomen, sending his massive body flying into the air.

The knight tried to swing down with his sword in agony, but Shia, taking advantage of the momentum of Drukken's upward swing, spun around and dodged the sword. Then, this time at an angle, she sent Drukken crashing down towards the knight, who was still flying in midair.

Just like the Golem Knight from before, the Golem Knight transformed into a cannonball and flew out, engulfing the following knights along with it, before its massive, flattened body collapsed to the ground.

A smile played on Shia's lips. It wasn't because she felt happy in the battle, but because she was actually able to fight. She felt certain that she could travel with Hajime and the others. And at that moment, she was a little careless.

On the battlefield, complacency can be fatal. When she came to her senses, the incoming shields of the knights filled her vision. A golem knight had unexpectedly hurled its shield at Shia. Was that a true golem? The shield, launched with astonishing force, wouldn't have fatally wounded Shia, who was strengthening her body, but the force would surely have caused a concussion. If that happened, it was easy to imagine the situation she would be in if the knights piled on her.

Shia hadn't expected the Golem Knight to throw his shield. Even a true knight wouldn't use such a brutal method. She didn't even have time to think, "Oh no!"

She braced herself, at least to withstand the incoming blow. Just before her shield struck Shia, a jet of water shot out like a laser, colliding with the shield and deflecting its trajectory. The shield narrowly missed Shia's head and slammed into the Golem Knight behind her, knocking him down.

"...You were careless. The punishment will be tripled."

"Eh!? Was it Miss Yue just now? I'm sorry, thank you so much! ...Triple the punishment!?"

"Hmm...don't let your guard down."

"Yeah! I'll do my best!"

After Yue's childlike reprimand, Shia realized she had become a bit too proud and careless. Reflecting on her actions and trying to regain her composure, she noticed again—a laser-like stream of water shot out from behind to defeat the approaching Golem Knight. The water stream cleanly split the Golem Knight, who was trying to sneak up on her from behind, in two.

Xia understood Yue's ability to protect her blind spot, and felt warmed from the bottom of her heart. In order not to embarrass herself in front of her master, Xia worked even harder.

Afterward, any knight who attempted to sneak into Shia's blind spot during her rampage was met with a stream of water. Sharper than a blade, the water sliced ​​through the knights one by one. It was Yue's intermediate water magic, "Break." It was a water blade released by super-compressing the moisture in the air.

Yue held a large metal canteen in each hand, and two more hung from her shoulder straps. These were the items she was about to retrieve from Hajime's "treasure vault." Yue held the canteen, and every time she chanted a spell, water blades shot out from the canteen, slicing through her enemies.

Yue's idea was that rather than using magic to collect moisture from the air, it would be better to compress the existing moisture, thus reducing the consumption of magical power. Furthermore, by aiming the canteen's spout at the enemy, he could aim the water blades, and since the water blades he shot out contained no magical power, they wouldn't dissipate due to decomposition.

Shia's explosive close-quarters attack, coupled with Yue's water blades to close her blind spot, left the knights unable to break through their combined attack and forced them to be driven away one by one.

Hajime glanced at Yue and Shia, who were displaying their wonderful cooperation, and gave a wry smile.

"Hey, hey, you're really jealous, aren't you? If I don't show you how amazing I am, will you despise me?"

Hajime joked by himself while freely wielding the Donner & Hulak in close combat.

He parried the knight's sword with the shaft of his slingshot, then used his right hand's donal to hold the armor against him, firing at point-blank range. Without even a glance at the sent-back knight, he used the slingshot, which had deflected the attack, to fire directly at the knight behind him. He then rolled over, ducked low to avoid the incoming sword, and crossed his arms to fire at the knights on either side.

The bullet, fired without using 『Thunderbolt』, ricocheted off the knight's shield and struck the neighboring knight in the knee, knocking it off balance. Hajime then somersaulted sideways, reversed his gaze, and simultaneously destroyed the knight above him and the one beside him.

Hajime kicked away the greatsword aimed at him the moment he landed, leaping back into the air. He fired in all directions, smashing the heads of four knights. The moment he landed, he pulled bullets from his 'treasure chest', instantly reloaded his pistol, and fired again, spinning. The surrounding knights were sent flying in a radial pattern.

He slaughtered the Golem Knights one by one, unconsciously avoiding damaging the room itself. However...

"...?"

Hajime dodged the Golem Knights' attacks and counterattacked, his brow furrowed in confusion. They should have destroyed a considerable number of Golem Knights since then, but the density of the attacking Knights hadn't changed at all.

Yue and Shia seemed to share this doubt. They carefully surveyed the battlefield, only to find that the Golem Knight they had initially defeated was nowhere to be seen.

"…Regenerated?"

"It seems so."

“How could this happen!? This will never end!”

That's right, after the Golem Knights were destroyed, they were instantly filled with the same light as their eyes, and then they regenerated in the blink of an eye and rejoined the battle.

Shia screamed in dismay as she swept aside the advancing Golem Knights. It was pointless to defeat any number of knights, so it was no wonder she screamed like that.

In contrast to her reaction, Hajime and Yue remained calm, showing no signs of panic. They thought as they sent the Golem Knight flying. This was the so-called experience gap. They had already experienced this level of adversity countless times at the bottom of Naraku. Rather, they were far stronger than they had been then, and even had some room to spare.

“…Hajime, since it’s a golium, it should have a core.”

As Yue had said, golems usually have a core within them, and the core is their source of power. The core is crafted from the magic stone of monsters, as described in Oscar's cleaning doll design book. Yue intended to destroy that core.

However, Yue's proposal made Hajime look embarrassed.

"Well, these guys don't have a core."

“…Are you sure?”

"That's right. I checked with the Mystic Eye Stone, but there's no reaction from the core. I can sense a small amount of magic power from the golem itself, but..."

"K-What should we do next?! This is going to get worse!"

Shia finally let out a panicked cry. Hajime ignored her cries and used Mineral Identification. He wondered—could a golem without a core to power it be made of a special ore?

＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝

Induction Stone

A mineral with the ability to bind magic. If two or more sensor stones are bound to the same magic, touching one of them allows remote control of the other minerals and the bound magic.

＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝

This meant that the Golem Knights, created from this sensory stone, were likely being remotely controlled. It seemed that what they considered regeneration was simply the other party directly manipulating the ore, reshaping its form or replenishing any deficiencies. Rather than regeneration, it was more like reconstruction.

A closer look revealed that the floor was also covered in sensor stones, and some areas were missing, as if they had been chipped away. These must have been used to replace the knight's damaged parts. If the manipulator wasn't defeated immediately, this would truly be an endless struggle.

"Tsuki, Shia. Someone is manipulating these guys. This is going to be endless, so we have to force our way through!"

"Um!"

"Breakthrough? Got it!"

At Hajime's signal, Yue and Shia turned back and rushed towards the altar. Hajime fired a barrage of shots at Donal and Shulak, destroying the knights in their path and creating a gap in the formation. Simultaneously, he threw two grenades at the Golem Knights approaching from behind. A massive explosion erupted behind them, and the shockwave and wind gust knocked the Golem Knights down one by one.

Shia leaped into the gap created by Hajime, powerfully spinning Druken's hammer, sweeping across the surrounding Golem Knights. The Golem Knights, attempting to throw their shields and greatswords at Shia, who was paralyzed by the aftermath of the skill, were shattered by Yue's 『Break』.

Hajime held the rear, firing his electromagnetic cannon at the Golem Knights approaching from behind. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Shia broke through the encirclement and held the altar. Yue then flew over the altar and arrived in front of the door.

"Ms. Yue! How's the door!?"

"Hmm...it's sealed after all."

“Ah, is that so?!”

The altar and door looked suspicious, so being sealed was expected. That was why they had chosen the troublesome annihilation battle at the outset, to calmly remove the seal from the door. Shia grumbled about the expected outcome as she sent the knight climbing the stairs flying.

"The task of removing the seal will be left to Yue. It seems that it will take some time to break through through the alchemy."

Hajime, standing at the rear, stood beside Shia. As Hajime had said, while it was possible to forcefully break through the door using alchemy, doing so in this area would consume a considerable amount of mana and take a considerable amount of time. Given the altar, with its yellow crystal, breaking the seal by following the proper procedures would surely be faster. Hajime concluded, handing the task of removing the seal to Yue, who would be using up excess energy in battle.

"Hmm... leave it to me."

Yue immediately agreed and then picked up the yellow crystal on the altar. The crystal was a regular double quadrangular pyramid, and upon closer inspection, it seemed to be composed of several small three-dimensional cubes.

Yue looked back at the door behind her. It had three grooves. After a moment's thought, she began to decompose the regular biquadrilateral. She planned to break it down and then reassemble the individual pieces to create a new cube that would fit into the grooves of the door.

As Yue disassembled the door, she observed the grooves on it. Then, she noticed some words faintly engraved on the door that required careful observation. It read...

"Can you solve it? Can you solve it?"

"If you don't hurry up, you'll die~"

"But there's nothing I can do about it! You're just a mortal, unlike me!"

"It's okay! I can survive even if I'm mentally ill... I bet! What a shame~! Puffha——!"

It was the usual annoying text. Furious, Yue's face was even more expressionless than usual. She suppressed the urge to punch the door and focused on deciphering the puzzle.

Feeling the rage of Hajime and Shia behind them, they decided it would be best to mind their own business to avoid getting into trouble, and focused on eliminating the swarm of Golem Knights before them.

“Hajime-san~ Please take care of them with a ‘bang bang!’ like you did just now~”

Shia asked Hajime to use grenades while dodging the black creatures that looked like they were found in the kitchen and the Golem Knights that were swarming towards her stubbornly.

"Idiot. You can only throw it where you know there are no traps. If you throw it near the stairs, who knows what will happen."

"But the floor is already so madly trampled by golems, right?"

"No, since it's Meredith Raison, there's a good chance they've installed a device that won't react to golems, right?"

"Ugh, I can't deny this..."

In a sense, Hajime and Shia were chatting while they fought off the Golem Knights. Shia, who had initially shown signs of anxiety due to the endless fighting, seemed to calm down after seeing Hajime and the others' calm demeanor.

"But I'm kind of happy."

"what?"

Shia defeated another Golem Knight and kicked him away, muttering:

“Not long ago, I could only run away, but now I can fight alongside Hajime-san like this… I’m very happy.”

"...You really have strange tastes."

"Hehe. After I conquer this dungeon, I'm going to make out with Hajime-san!"

"Hey, you're not only being so inexplicable, but you're also blatantly raising the death flag. The role of the tragic heroine is too heavy for you. You'd better give it up."

“Is this what you mean by ‘You must not die, my dear☆’? Hajime-san is really annoying!”

"You're interpreting things too much. Lately, I've started to find your positive thinking a bit scary... Stop talking nonsense..."

They continued to fight off the knights while chatting. A few minutes later, between the two, who seemed to be flirting, a dark figure suddenly appeared. It was Yue.

"...No affectionate behavior allowed."

"No, we didn't."

"Hehe, does it look like that? So embarrassing~"

"Just shut up..."

Hajime glanced at Shia with a weary expression, while Yue looked at him with a somewhat displeased look. However, she changed her mind and realized that this was not the right time to do that, so she instead conveyed the mission's completion with a somewhat smug look.