The Extra is a Hero?-Chapter 293: THE GUARDIAN OF THE DEW
Chapter 289: The Guardian of the Dew
The door to the Heart-Root Chamber didn’t just break; it screamed.
As Leon retracted the Breaker’s Hammer, the shattered remains of the root-gate hissed, bleeding sap that looked disturbingly like black oil. The smell hit us instantly—a cloying, suffocating mixture of ozone, sulfur, and the sweet, sickly scent of rotting orchids.
"Masks up," I ordered, my voice muffled by my scarf. "Don’t breathe the spores."
We stepped over the threshold.
If the previous tunnels were the capillaries of the World Tree, this was the ventricle. The chamber was immense, a spherical hollow carved naturally inside the massive central taproot of the tree. The walls were lined with pulsing, golden veins that thrummed with a rhythm so deep I felt it in the marrow of my bones.
Thrum-thrum. Thrum-thrum.
But my eyes—and the greedy eyes of the Assassin beside me—were drawn to the center.
There, in a natural basin formed by twisted white roots, lay the pool.
It was small, barely three meters across, but it radiated a light so pure it made the rest of the bioluminescence look like cheap candlelight. The liquid inside wasn’t water. It was liquid gold. It swirled sluggishly, heavy and viscous, releasing tiny motes of light that drifted upward into the darkness of the ceiling.
[Item Detected: The Tear of Gaia (Life Dew)]
[Purity: 100%]
[Quantity: 5 Liters]
"It’s real," Leon whispered, lowering his hammer. The holy light of his aura resonated with the pool, causing the gold liquid to ripple in sympathy. "It’s actually real."
"Focus," I snapped. "Look at what’s standing in front of it."
Leon blinked, tearing his gaze away from the treasure. He looked at the massive shadow blocking our path to the basin.
At first glance, it looked like a statue. A twelve-foot-tall construct made of interwoven ironwood roots, jagged stones, and petrified moss. It was shaped vaguely like a humanoid, with massive, trunk-like legs and arms that ended in crushing stone fists.
But as we stepped closer, the "statue" shifted.
Creak... Snap.
The sound of wood twisting under immense tension echoed through the silent chamber. Dust fell from its shoulders.
"It’s waking up," Ren said, his voice dropping to a whisper. He slid two daggers from his sleeves, his body tensing like a coiled spring.
The Golem didn’t have a head in the traditional sense. It had a hump of twisted roots where a neck should be. But in the center of its massive chest, embedded deep within the wood like a fly trapped in amber, was a face.
It wasn’t a carving. It was flesh. Preserved, gray, leathery flesh.
It was the face of an Elf. A woman. Her eyes were sewn shut with thorny vines, and her mouth was frozen in a silent, eternal scream.
Leon took a step back, horror dawning on him. "That face... Michael, that looks like the skeleton outside."
"No," I said, my stomach churning as the pieces clicked together. "The skeleton was the messenger. The apprentice who tried to run with the diary. This..."
I pointed my sword at the abomination.
"This is Elandra. The High Arborist."
The Golem took a heavy step forward. The ground shook.
The sewn eyes of the face on its chest snapped open. There were no pupils. Only the swirling, chaotic purple of the Abyss.
"The... Rot... Must... Feed..."
The voice didn’t come from the mouth. It vibrated from the wood itself, a grinding, tectonic sound layered with the high-pitched, psychic wailing of the trapped soul.
[System Alert: Raid Boss Encounter Initiated]
[Enemy: Corrupted Guardian Elandra]
[Rank: Level 60 (Elite/Construct)]
[HP: ???]
[Attributes: Wood / Decay / Abyssal]
"Level 60," I hissed. "It’s an endgame mid-boss."
"Level 60?" Leon gripped his hammer tighter, his knuckles turning white. "We’re barely level 40 on average! How do we kill that?"
"We don’t fight it fairly," I said, my mind racing through the wiki entry for this specific mob.
Corrupted Guardians have high physical resistance and immunity to poison. Weakness: Fire (Risk of environmental collapse) and Holy (High damage but triggers frenzy).
"Ren!" I barked. "Flank right! Target the joints behind the knees! Sever the mobility!"
"Understood." Ren vanished into the shadows, a blur of motion.
"Leon! You are the aggro magnet. Keep its attention on you. Do not let it turn toward the pool!"
"And you?" Leon asked, stepping forward and banging his hammer against his shield.
"I’m going to perform surgery," I said, eyeing the pulsing purple core visible through the cracks in the Golem’s wooden ribcage—directly behind the screaming face of Elandra.
"Intruders..." The Golem raised a massive arm. The roots that formed its fist unraveled, turning into a cluster of spear-like spikes. "Become... Soil."
It lunged.
For a construct of wood and stone, it was terrifyingly fast. The spear-arm thrust forward like a piston.
"Hah!" Leon roared, stepping into the attack.
He didn’t dodge. He tanked.
CLANG.
The impact was like a train collision. The wooden spears slammed into Leon’s tower shield. The Hero slid backward five meters, his boots carving deep furrows in the mossy floor, but he held his ground.
"Heavy!" Leon grunted, his arms shaking under the strain. "Michael! It hits like a truck!"
"Hold it!" I shouted, sprinting to the left.
The Golem tried to follow me, but Leon slammed the Breaker’s Hammer into its shin.
CRACK.
The Impact Echo triggered. The stone armor on the Golem’s leg fractured, revealing the black, rotting wood beneath.
"Pain..." The Golem roared, turning its attention back to Leon. It raised both fists for a crush attack.
That was the opening.
I sprinted up the debris of the shattered door, jumped, and activated [Wire Maneuver]. The grappling hook shot out, latching onto a hanging root above the Golem.
I swung.
As I flew over the beast’s shoulder, I saw it.
On its back, protected by a thick layer of bark, were nodes. Pulsing, purple tumors that connected the Golem to the floor of the chamber.
Regeneration Nodes.
It wasn’t just guarding the pool. It was drawing power from the corrupted roots below. As long as those nodes were intact, it would heal any damage we dealt.
"Ren!" I shouted into the comms crystal. "Forget the knees! The back! Cut the vines on its back!"
From the darkness, a silver flash appeared.
Ren materialized on the Golem’s back, clinging to the rough bark like a spider.
"Target acquired," Ren said flatly.
He drove both daggers into the first node.
SPLAT.
The tumor burst, spraying black ichor.
"SCREEEEE!"
The face on the chest screamed. The sound was a psychic blast that staggered all of us.
[System Warning: Mental Attack. Willpower Check: Passed.]
Leon fell to one knee, clutching his head. "Get out of my head!"
"Don’t listen to it!" I landed behind the Golem, severing a second vine with my steel sword. "It’s just noise! Leon, get up!"
The Golem thrashed, spinning its torso with unnatural flexibility. It reached behind itself, trying to grab Ren.
Ren backflipped off, landing gracefully ten meters away.
"It is regenerating," Ren observed calmly. "The severed vines are growing back."
I looked. He was right. The black rot was surging from the floor, reattaching to the Golem’s heels, pumping energy back into the system. The cracks in its leg armor were already sealing.
"It’s drawing from the room," I realized. "We can’t out-DPS the World Tree’s root system. We have to sever the connection permanently."
"How?" Leon yelled, blocking another massive strike. His shield was dented now, the metal groaning.
"The Core," I said, looking at the screaming face of Elandra. "We have to destroy the Core. But it’s protected by the host body."
I looked at the face. The eyes were pleading.
Kill me, the expression seemed to say. Free me.
"Leon!" I shouted. "I need you to break the ribcage! Open it up!"
"Are you crazy?" Leon shouted back. "That’s where the person is!"
"She’s already dead, Leon! That’s just a battery! Smash it, or we all die!"
Leon hesitated. The Hero’s dilemma. He couldn’t strike a "person."
The Golem sensed the hesitation. It didn’t strike. It opened the mouth on its chest.
A cloud of purple spores erupted from Elandra’s lips, engulfing Leon.
"Leon!"
The Hero coughed, dropping his shield. He fell to his knees, clawing at his throat.
[Status Alert: Ally [Leon] - Poisoned (Abyssal Rot)]
[Effect: Rapid HP Drain. Hallucinations.]
"Ren, cover him!" I ordered, charging forward.
"Negative," Ren said. He was standing near the pool of Life Dew now. He wasn’t looking at the fight. He was looking at the liquid gold.
"Ren!"
"I am securing the objective," Ren said, reaching for a flask. "You handle the distraction."
The traitor.
He was leaving us to die while he grabbed the loot.
"Fine," I snarled. "I’ll do it myself."
I didn’t have the Breaker’s Hammer. I didn’t have Holy Magic.
But I had the [Void Vault].
I didn’t pull out a weapon. I pulled out the Thermal Stone I had saved from the train. The C-Grade heating element.
I sprinted at the Golem. It raised a fist to crush me.
I slid.
I went right between its massive legs, sliding through the mud and rot. As I passed underneath, I jammed the Thermal Stone into the open wound on its shin—the one Leon had cracked earlier.
"Active!" I shouted, slapping the rune.
The stone flared to life. It wasn’t an explosion. It was intense, concentrated heat.
The black sap inside the Golem’s leg boiled instantly.
"GRAAAH!"
The Golem stumbled, its leg blowing apart from the internal pressure. It crashed onto one knee, its chest level with my eyes.
The face of Elandra was right in front of me. The spores were still pouring from her mouth.
I gripped my sword with both hands.
I didn’t have mana for a skill. But I had A-rank Strength. And I knew exactly where to cut.
"I’m sorry," I whispered to the face.
I didn’t aim for the face. I aimed for the wood around it. The setting.
I thrust the sword into the gap between the flesh and the bark. I twisted.
CRACK.
I pried the ribcage open.
Inside, pulsating with a sickly purple light, was the Heart. A crystalline sphere of corrupted mana, swirling with black mist.
"Leon! Now! The Hammer!" I screamed, holding the wound open with my sword, my muscles screaming against the pressure of the regenerating wood trying to crush me.
Leon looked up. His face was purple, veins bulging from the poison. But he saw me. He saw the opening.
He roared—a guttural, primal sound.
He grabbed the hammer from the ground. He didn’t stand. He swung it upward from his knees, an uppercut of pure desperation.
BOOM.
The hammer struck the exposed Heart Crystal.
The sound was like a bell tolling the end of the world.
The crystal shattered.
The purple light vanished instantly. The Golem went rigid. The screaming stopped. The regeneration vines withered and turned to dust.
The massive construct collapsed backward, falling into the moss with a shaking thud.
Silence returned to the chamber.
I stood there, panting, my sword bent, my arms numb.
Leon collapsed face-first into the dirt, the hammer rolling from his grip.
"Leon!" I rushed over to him. I checked his pulse. It was erratic, but strong. The poison source was gone, so his high vitality was already fighting it off.
I looked up.
Ren was standing by the pool. He held a crystal vial filled with the golden Life Dew.
He held it up to the light, smiling.
"Excellent work, Captain," Ren said. "The distraction was perfect."
I stood up slowly, wiping the black sap from my face.
"Put the vial down, Ren."
Ren turned to face me. The mask was gone completely now. There was only the cold, amused look of a predator who had finished playing with his food.
"I don’t think I will," Ren said.
He slipped the vial into his pocket.
"After all," he said, drawing his second dagger. "You have served your purpose."
The Boss was dead. But the Raid wasn’t over.
(To be Continued)
