by Jez Cajiao
Congratulations! You have raised your spell ‘Raise Weak Skeleton’ to level 9. Once this spell reaches level 10, you may choose its first evolution.
Congratulations! You have raised your spell ‘Raise Weak Skeleton’ to level 10. You may now choose your first evolution of this spell.
Congratulations! You have raised your spell ‘Raise Weak Skeleton’ to its first evolution. You must now pick a path to follow. Will you augment your own abilities to SUMMON, or will you concentrate on your minion and pick the path of the REANIMATOR? Choose carefully, as this choice cannot be undone.
Summoner:
As you have grown more familiar with your spell, you have seen the warp and loss of mana caused by issues with the spell formation. Perhaps you could improve upon this? Your ‘Raise Weak Skeleton’ will evolve to ‘Skeletal Summoning,’ doubling the minions you can control!
Reanimator:
As you grow in familiarity with the dead, you sense… differences… in the corpses around you. Perhaps some bones hold more potential than others? Your ‘Raise Weak Skeleton’ will evolve to ‘Skeletal Reanimator,’ granting a 10% increase in physical attributes, as well as a chance to develop magical talents and increase the level of sentience your minion enjoys.
I stopped and contemplated the potential that these spells opened up for me. If I could double the amount of minions I summoned with every ten additional levels of skill, that’d be two, then four, then eight, then sixteen, then thirty two, then sixty-four, then one hundred and twenty-eight.. at level one hundred, I could summon one thousand and twenty-four minions. That was, if it only increased by double with each level. What if it went higher, or if there were items that could increase my power? Hell, I could command armies of the undead!
I fantasized about that for a second before shaking myself. I was using the spell because it was useful now, not because I was some ‘Lord of the Dead’ type. I quickly switched my attention to the second path. Reanimator could be good. I wouldn’t get a second minion, but if I continued to level Bob and spent time on improving him, I could make him into an absolute beast. Plus, it came with the chance for him to gain powers? Hell yes! I selected ‘Reanimator’ and moved onto the next prompt.
You have chosen ‘Reanimator’ for your first evolution. Your minion Bob has been granted an additional 10% capacity bonus, increasing his damage dealt, his damage resistance, and his sentience. No magical capabilities exist in his current form. Perhaps adding more…unusual… resources to him will improve this?
In addition to the evolution of your spell, you have gained two new abilities:
Clairvoyance:
You have gained the ability to speak to the recently deceased. Costs 10mp to cast, plus 1mp per second active.
Bonemeld:
Through experimentation, you have developed the ability to create new creatures from the bones of the dead. It is now possible for you to meld bones together using this skill, greatly strengthening your creations! Costs 5mp per second active.
I already had a few plans for Bob’s next form, as I suspected I’d need to have something a bit more lethal when fighting outdoors. For the time being, though, I was happy with him. While I’d been playing with my options, Bob had been working away at the pile. Despite the extra power he had, he could only do so much alone. I set my thoughts aside and began digging with him.
Chapter Twenty-One
It took the better part of a day to clear enough rubble to be able to find the chamber hidden beyond. It would have taken twice that, if not for the recently upgraded Bob being the machine that he was. Oracle had flown upstairs and kept an eye out, while Bob and I worked, moving several tons of stone and dirt, until we finally uncovered the top of a doorway.
Barely an hour later, we slowly broke it open to find a partially collapsed storeroom. Most of the room was buried in the rubble, but on the wall to my right, three shelves still stood, the supports half hanging from the wall, and stacks of a grey metal piled beneath it. Each shelf held a single large ruby the size of my fist. Coating it on all sides were bands of silver and bronze. As I picked one up, it began to glow with a weak inner light.
Golem Core
Further Description Yes/No
Details:
This magical artifact forms the core of a multiuse Golem.
Rarity
Magical
Durability
Charge:
Rare
Yes
99/100
4/100
I hefted it in one hand, feeling a slight tug as it drew mana from me to replenish itself. Inside the ruby, the light began to grow stronger. Slowly spiraling and spinning, the glow flashed with increasing brightness until, at a charge of ten out of one hundred, it seemed to vibrate like a car engine starting. The light changed from a weak flicker to a steady pulse.
I grinned and ordered Bob to grab the remaining two cores from the shelf and as much of the metal on the floor as possible. As he stooped to obey, I set off walking back to the mana well. When I reached it, the damn dwarf was lying in the basin on his back, eyes closed, floating in what seemed his own personal, if small, pool! I coughed and glared down at him, disgruntled at my own dusty, dirty, and exhausted condition, as he merrily waved up at me, floating in comfort.
“Maybe I should name you ‘Gollum’ or something,” I muttered, thinking about how the little bastard had me doing all the work, when he grinned wider and shook his head.
“It be all right, laddie. I saw ye were busy, an’ I dinna want to distract ya, so I named meself. I liked yer legends; Oracle be tellin’ me about yer memories o’ them. So now I be Hephaestus, creator of weapons!”
I frowned and was about to wind him up, when Oracle piped up from behind me as she flew across the room.
“That’s wonderful! Welcome to the family, Hephaestus!” I spun around, and she smiled at me shyly. “You don’t mind me coming back down, now do you? Seneschal has managed to extend his reach to cover the entire Tower now, so you don’t need me out there anymore, right?”
I took a deep breath and shook my head, turning back to the grinning dwarf. I was going to have to get him back soon, or he’d become unbearable. I just knew it.
“Anyway, I see you’ve a core! And Boney over there has some iron for me. Between those and some stone, we can be makin’ a basic golem! Enough to get us started at least!”
“Wait.” I said holding up one hand. “I don’t like how this is going. I’ll listen to your advice, and I don’t mind you naming yourself. I’m totally fine with all of that, Hephaestus, but I want to hear the options before we start.”
“Ach! Aye, o’ course. Sorry, Master. I tend t’ get a wee bit carried away, ‘tis all,” he said, shifting to standing atop the mana well again.
“Call me Jax. That’s fine, but I want to hear the options, all right? And can Seneschal hear us?”
“I can hear you, Jax. Thank you for including me.”
“Ah, that’s great. Welcome to the party, Seneschal,” I said, getting myself comfortable on a pile of rubble. “Okay. Options, people, let’s hear them,” I said, clapping my hands together. Oracle and Hephaestus looked at each other, then the dwarf shrugged and started talking.
“Well, Jax, it be simple. There be only one Genesis Chamber intact, and it be a bit o’ a mess as well, needin’ a class two repair and renovation. Using that, I can make us a basic golem or servitor, difference between them be that a golem be for more heavy work, like diggin’, buildin’, an’ fightin’, while a servitor be more delicate, better at makin’ things, cookin’, that kinda thing. Golems be split into two castes, Construction and War, while Servitors be split into Servant and Crafter. They both have seven ranks, going from basic t’ simple, complex, advanced, greater, lord, an’ king. As a rule o’ thumb, the lower the level, the dumber they be. A ‘basic’ golem has t’ be controlled by meself constantly. A simple one can be given the commands and sent away. Complex can be given a set of things t’ do and ways t’ resp
ond, and will report back for orders if it can’t solve an issue. Each level adds abilities, until you reach ‘King’. A Crafter King can create things the like of which you canna imagine. Only been one, as far as I know, and he… well, he created things like the flying islands, and the Great Portal. Same for a King o’ War, except not only could he fight like nothin’ else, he could assume command of all other golems. Took a lot o’ battles to destroy the only one of those that was ever built. All the Empire and the kingdoms agreed to never build another.” He looked at me, waiting as I digested the information, until I finally spoke.
“So, we have three Cores. We desperately need to repair things, but we also need to clear away and collect resources. If we can only build ‘basic’ level, I guess that means we need what, two Construction golems and one Servant class servitor?” I asked, looking from him to Oracle, and then concentrating and throwing Seneschal a comment as well.
“Feel free to say if you disagree, mate!”
“I do not disagree.”
Hephaestus grinned at me and nodded. “Aye, laddie; if you’ve got three cores, that be a blessin’. Time was, we had thousands of ‘em here. Even between looters and damage, we’ve probably still got a few dozen lyin’ around. All we gotta do is uncover ’em! There be other storerooms on the first level below ground, but they’re buried for now. We can have one golem clearin’ away the rubble in here and gatherin’ resources; what do you want the other two doin’?”
“I think we need to move the working Genesis Chamber to somewhere more secure, once it’s made the three units. Then the servitor can work on repairing it, while the other golem works on sealing up the ground floor. In the meantime, let’s see if we can make this place a bit more defensible.”
“Aye, laddie, that works. I can have the servitor move my mana well, make it bigger, and maybe have it construct a Creation Table when we get time.” Seeing my confused look, he carried on. “A Creation Table shows the state of a bonded area; in this case, the Tower and its outbuildin’s. It can give information on whatever you want to see, including any notes you want to add to it. It be like a map, but one that you can command the Tower and its capabilities from. There be one at the top o’ the Tower, but I dinna think ye want t’ be climbin’ that far, eh?”
I shuddered at the thought of climbing the Tower every time I wanted to look things over.
“Can one of the golems bring that one down? And why is it at the top, anyway. I mean. Seriously, people, why the hell does everyone have to climb the entire goddamn tower every time? It takes all day!” I said, exasperation staining my voice.
“It can be, or at least there’s no reason it can’t be moved. Also, not everyone would need to. Only the leaders of the Tower were permitted in the higher levels, and they would each be taught a teleport spell as part of their induction.” Oracle said cheerily as I growled at the ridiculousness of it all.
“Well how about teaching me a spell like that?” I asked hopefully
“Well, it requires considerably more mana than you have access to, and it’s only valid for places you’ve already been, so..?”
“How much mana?”
“I think, given your level of skill and abilities…” Oracle frowned as she concentrated, before smiling sunnily and dropping the bombshell. “Just over a thousand mana.”
“Feck.”
“It’s not that bad, Jax; it’s only one hundred points into Intelligence, not including class skills and bonuses.”
“Double feck.” I said, turning back to Hephaestus. “Okay, then. How long will it take to build them?”
“Well, the servitor will take about three hours, normally, but with the state the chamber be in now, I figure about seven. Then it can be workin’ on the chamber while the golems be built. They’ll be takin’ about ten hours each, state my poor chamber be in.” Hephaestus said, shaking his head in sorrow.
“Great, well, get building I guess, but start with a golem, then the servitor and then the second golem. As soon as the first golem is built, get it up to the top of the Tower and bring the Creation Table down. We can set it up on few levels up once I’ve sorted out where we’re going to base ourselves from now on. Then we can set it clearing the ground floor and reinforcing the entrances. I want it sealed up enough that we can at least sleep safely while I decide on the next move.”
“Aye, my lord, and congratulations. You do be on your way to to full control of the Tower now.”
You have achieved progress in your quest ‘A place to lay your head.’
Wisps sworn fealty: 3/3
Locations cleared and secured: 3/5
SporeMother killed: 1/1
Guardians: 0/10
Servitors: 0/10
Reward; The Great Tower is yours to command. Surrounding area will become aware of your rightful ownership. Access to supplies and facilities. 100,000 Exp.
I grinned at them as I dismissed the prompt. I had a hell of a lot to do if I wanted to make this place safe to live in, and that was only the first step. I needed to find Tommy. He could be anywhere, but knowing him, he’d stick out like a sore thumb. All I had to do was get this place ticking along, and then I could get out to look for him.
“Hey, Hephaestus…” I said, a sudden thought coming to mind. “Do you have any golem designs that can fly?”
“Several, laddie, but none that can be built right now. We’d need more cores, more resources, and t’ level the Genesis Chamber up t’ ‘Advanced’ level for true flight. Why?”
“I want to scout the area surrounding the Tower.” I said, unable to hide my disappointment.
“Ach, we can do that easily enough. I thought you meant really fly! We could build a basic scout, nowt more than a glider, and we’d have t’ get its core back t’ the Tower t’ see what it saw, but we could build one sharp enough. We’d need, let’s see…” Hephaestus flicked up a screen in the air and started drawing, discarding designs and improving on others. After a few minutes, he flipped it around so that I could see it and grinned up at me. “Well, what do ye think?”
I stared at the design in amazement. It was a giant eyeball that hung down from a long ‘wing,’ much in the same way the body of a microlight hung below its canopy. Dozens of small wings extended from the main one, slowly moving in different directions as the image shifted.
“It’d no be capable o’ real flight, ye understand, but chuck it from the top o’ the Tower, and it’d glide for at least a day. Then we just collect it and bring it back. We can then update the maps from whatever it sees.”
“It’s brilliant, Heph, but what about the collecting? How do we find it?”
“Heph, is it? Humph! Well, it do be a mouthful, I suppose, but no callin’ me that around company! Anyway, we tell it to land somewhere we can find it, o’ course! Send your minion out to wait at that location, and it can bring it back while we all do the real work.”
“What would we need to make it?”
“That’s where it becomes a wee bit more tricky. We need a Golem Core, a damn ton of wood‒about twenty boards should do it, give or take with damage, and then we’d have t’ cut the core free when it was recovered‒something t’ protect the core and keep the eye safe, so maybe ten ingots o’ iron. Yeah, that should be enough,” Heph said nodding to himself in satisfaction.
“Okay, where the hell will I find another core?” I asked. “I know we can get wood when the golem starts clearing the first floor, so that’s no issue, and the iron we found should be enough, right?”
“Hmm, well, it’ll be enough fer one, but that’d be all that we have left. We need t’ get the rest o’ the storeroom cleared and get this whole room sorted out. There be more buried here than just that, after all. Anyway, another Core, ye say? There will be some in the tower, probably dozens still intact, but where is anyone’s guess. I’d bet the safest place t’ find them be where the old golems were. Might take a while t’ find an intact core, but there were dozens of War golems destroyed on the first floor, dozens mor
e higher up where they made their last stand. Ye might be able t’ salvage some gear from them?” Heph shrugged. “Beyond that, yer guess is as good as mine, laddie, I’d bet looters have had bits away, and the SporeMother will have drained any cores it could find, so maybe search this room too?”
“I’ll leave this room to the golem, and I’ll start on the ground level,” I decided, summoning Bob and setting off across the room with a casual wave to Heph as we left. He was already absorbed in building the first golem, with bits of materials floating upright and spiraling into the chamber at his command.
We jogged up until we exited out into what I was coming to think of as the atrium, a huge room that took the majority of the ground floor. There were obvious windows that had been buried and broken, and piles of debris blocking as much of the light as possible. The narrow exits that I could see were heavily overgrown, and I realized I had no clue where to start.
“Uhh, Seneschal, little help here, buddy?”
“Of course, Jax. To your left, there is a concentration of high-grade metals and resources. I believe this to be a golem corpse. I will make each deposit more identifiable for you momentarily.”
“Thanks, Seneschal!”
I broke the connection and turned my attention to the area he’d indicated. In one corner, there was a noticeable mound, covered in overgrown moss and fungus and the black tar-like crap the Sporelings had left everywhere. I shrugged and dispatched Bob to the pile, letting him tear into it. After a few minutes of examining the rest of the room, I started to notice certain areas giving off a faint glow, similar to the way my enhanced vision worked.
“Hey, Sen..”
