The Land: Monsters

by Aleron Kong

  You have found:

  Slime Core of Nesting Stone Slime

  Gem Class: Unusual

  Gem Clarity: ???

  Carats: ???

  Durability: 94/94

  Weight: 0.8 kg

  Traits: This is the core of a slime. Cores are ubiquitous in slimes, but the high amount of Earth magic in the Nesting Stone Slime has transformed it into a magically active gem.

  So not an emerald exactly, but it sure looked like one. Looking closer, Richter realized he could see a faint light in its center. It was the “magically active” part of the description that caught his eye. This might be something he could use. He wasn’t sure how, but he wouldn’t throw away any potential tool. He’d use anything if it could buy him another day of life. The core went into the ragged pouch he’d made from his shirt.

  Once secured, he let the power of his bloodline flow into the slime’s remains.

  Sadly, he got a red warning prompt.

  The set of remains you are attempting to Harvest has been disturbed. This decreases the chance of a successful Harvest. Do you wish to continue?

  Looked like he couldn’t cheat his new bloodline by butchering an enemy himself and then trying to use Harvest. Richter wasn’t too upset, thinking that the slime core was a good find, but it was important to remember for the future. He still decided to give his new Harvest ability a shot.

  Startling him, a purple-and-green light shot from his hand into the monster’s remains. It danced over the grey lump of dead slime while a line of text traced in front of the chaos lord’s eyes.

  Attempting to Harvest… Success! Yield reduced by 37% due to remains having been disturbed.

  It was a mixed bag, but it was still a win. He watched the magic take hold and sink into the body. Next, the surface of the dead slime started to bubble and dissolve away. To Richter’s surprise, a cylinder of grey stone appeared out of the remains and floated up into the air. He fingers grabbed it easily, and he noted how cool and heavy it was in his grasp. A prompt appeared in Richter’s vision even before the light faded.

  You have found:

  Earth Stone

  Item Class: Uncommon

  Durability: 114/114

  Weight: 3.4 kg

  Traits: Earth stone is rock that has absorbed enough ambient Earth energy to enhance enchantments that use Earth magic.

  Mana level of 2 (base 3 – 37%).

  The outside was rough like concrete, but as Richter’s vile bloodline worked upon it the grey surface smoothed and threads of green crystal appeared. A feeling of grave cold had filled him when the process started. As it continued, he felt absolutely frigid, but the feeling didn’t last long.

  Know This! Your Petrifying Ghost Harvest Bloodline has obtained an uncommon drop from the remains of the Nesting Stone Slime: Earth Stone

  Richter thought that was the end of it, but to his surprise, a wisp of jet black energy shot from his fingers into the cylinder of stone. The ebon power played across the surface before sinking in. A second later, green light started to glow through some cracks in the stone. At the same time, a prompt appeared that made him grin ear-to-ear.

  Your Dark Mastery ability, Hidden Treasures, has triggered, increasing the yield of your find by 30%!

  In addition to the prompt about his new bloodline, a new window showed the change to the Earth Stone.

  You have found:

  Elemental Earth Stone

  Item Class: Unusual

  Durability: 154/154

  Weight: 5.9 kg

  Traits: This stone has been created from an Earth Stone with a mana level of 2; it has been refined to create an Elemental Earth Stone. Elemental Earth Stone is known for striations of emerald which make it an ideal crafting and enchanting material for Earth-magic related goals. It also possesses partial affinities for Life and Light magic.

  Mana level of 3

  Richter couldn’t get rid of the doofy look on his face. Who is the master! Sho-nuff! His new Mastery of Dark magic was already paying off. He didn’t understand the importance of a higher mana level, but based on the prompt, his harvest had evolved into a more useful form. It also now had some affinity for Life and Light magic. That particular detail made sense to the chaos lord. The Basic Elements balanced each other out and could be represented as an eight-figure mandala. Life and Light stood on either side of Earth in the diagram.

  What was important was that he had a crafting material now. If only he had tools to work the coke can-sized piece of stone, he might be able to make a wand or something else helpful. His eyes traced over the lines of green light that now glowed along the stone’s surface. Looking at it, he couldn’t help but think that the green tracings looked a lot like blood vessels. In fact, the light was pulsing slowly, almost like a heartbeat.

  An idea struck like a lightning bolt. What he really needed down here was someone to watch his back. He needed an ally. His old shale adder, for instance, would have come in really handy right about now. Of course, the problem with that was he wasn’t skilled enough in Blood Magic to reliably tame any of the high-level monsters down here. If he was able to luck upon a reptile then that might change, but looking at the dry stone around him, he didn’t think that was too likely.

  Even if he did tame something, he’d have to keep casting the spell to keep it under his control. Tame had a two-day duration, but a one-day cooldown. That meant he only had two chances to keep something under his control. With the high-level monsters down here, his chances of success were way under 50%. It just wasn’t a reliable option right now.

  His summoned creatures helped, but they only lasted for minutes and the spells had hours-long cooldowns. He needed something to permanently be on his side. Necromancers could reanimate creatures for long periods of time, sometimes even indefinitely. A robot would be really great right now, he thought to himself jokingly, but since the tech of The Land was medieval, that probably wasn’t going to happen anytime soon. If only, he thought eyeing the cylinder of glowing stone, there was a fantasy equivalent.

  Richter hurriedly reopened his Talent page. This time, he focused on the Tier 1 blue spheres. His target was a branch of his Profession he’d almost completely ignored, macroenchanting. It was one of the six main branches of the first tier. The enchantments let him enchant buildings to be stronger, create siege engines that spit fire and enspell ships that would glide through the air like a plane. The branch that he was interested in was Golem Enchantments.

  Maybe the core could serve as a power source for a golem! And if he happened to qualify and prove that he was good enough for that branch of Tier 2 Talents, then who was it hurting? Not that that mattered at all.

  He pulled up the prompt.

  GOLEM ENCHANTMENTS

  Gain the ability to enchant raw materials for the purpose of making crude golems. These will never equal the power of a Mechanic-created golem, but also take a fraction of the time to create. Increase this Talent to improve the level of your golem as well as other traits. This Talent also allows you to enchant already-constructed Golems.

  Cost: 10 Talent Points

  Feeling like he’d just cracked the code, Richter excitedly spent the points, the cost minimal compared to the cost of Tier 2 enchantments. The prompt that appeared was much longer and more involved than most Talent prompts he’d seen.

  You have Purchased: GOLEM ENCHANTMENTS

  You may now make golems styled after any of the 8 Basic Elements: Life, Earth, Light, Fire, Death, Air, Dark, and Water. To create a golem, a magically active object or material that is compatible with your desired Basic Element must be used. It shall serve as the golem’s base and, as such, will determine many of the characteristics of your creation.

  In addition to a magical focus, your golem must be supplied with large amounts of a material that is compatible with the Basic Element you choose. This material will be consumed during the creation of the golem.

  Unlike constructed golems, the materials that are consumed to make its b
ody will not increase its power; only its magical focus will determine its qualities.

  Criteria affecting Golem creation

  Base Level of the Golem is determined by (Enchanting Skill Level/5)

  Max # of Golems: 1

  Know This! Any interruption in mana flow during creation will arrest the Golem at its current level or cause failure of golem creation.

  Know This! Whichever Basic Element your golem is based upon will determine its character. Its opposing Element will be its anathema. Unlike constructed Golems, Enchanted Golems require frequent contact with materials consistent with their base Element or they will lose power and, ultimately, all cohesion.

  Upgrade this Talent to rank 2 for 20 Talent Points to:

  Increase the Base Level of the Golem to (Enchanting Skill Level/4)

  Max # of Golems: 2

  You have: 207 Talent Points remaining

  The prompt cleared up a lot of questions Richter had. First, it specifically quantified why his Talent prompts had continually implied that an enchanted golem would be weaker than a constructed golem. Back on Earth when he’d thought The Land was only a game, there had been an artificer that had spent about a hundred thousand in real-world dollars to buy a large quantity of mithril in-game.

  That man had then spent more than a year making a constructed golem that was formed completely of the dense metal. Richter hadn’t understood everything that went into its construction, in-depth engineering had never really been his thing, but he did remember the international waves the golem had made when finally unveiled. It had absolutely wrecked entire armies.

  Both its speed and attack value were pretty high due to whatever power source the artificer had used, but what was most insane was the defense. One thing that had remained true between the game and the real life of The Land was how damage was calculated. To overcome the defense of a +5 piece of armor, a weapon needed at least a +5 attack.

  Of course, real life wasn’t as cut-and-dried as that. Even if a hammer blow was blocked by a shield, the shield might be fine, but the muscles propping up the shield might be shredded, or bones shattered, if the force was strong enough. Similarly, while a breastplate might turn aside a sword stroke, a thrust at the right angle into the armor’s weak spot would factor in other modifiers.

  Removing all other variables though, attack and defense values gave a pretty reliable indication of the strength of your gear. Having weapons and armor made of better materials could make you an absolute nightmare to your enemies. Just ask the many goblins that had had stupid shocked looks on their faces when his elementum short sword cleaved through their lesser-quality, inferior-material weapons. Of course, you couldn’t do that. That was because right after he carved through their gear, they had come down with a fatal case of there’s-a-sharp-piece-of- metal-sticking-out-of-me-itis.

  In the game though, the artificer’s golem had been unstoppable because even high-level weapons had barely scratched the mithril monster. The man that created it had named it Dreadnaught. While Richter fully understood that The Land wasn’t a game, many of the same principles applied. If his enchanted golem was made out of just dirt and roots, there was no way it could stand up against a constructed golem made out of orichalum or high steel.

  It also looked like golems would be reliant on having their base element nearby them at all times. That reminded Richter of an old myth from his past life. Hercules had destroyed an Earth golem by lifting it off the ground. Without a connection to the ground, the golem had died. It was another example of how a constructed golem, reliant on engineering rather than magic, was superior to an enchanted golem.

  That meant he wouldn’t be making a Light golem down here in these tunnels. The surrounding darkness would snuff it out and probably inhibit its powers. On the other hand, an Earth golem would be perfect down here. The elemental earth cylinder that was going to serve as its magical focus was also compatible with Life magic, but Earth was almost certainly a better option in a fight.

  On the plus side, the prompt made it clear that enchanted golems were substantially easier to make than their constructed cousins. Outside of the fact that he had neither the tools, nor the knowledge, nor the materials to build a golem, it probably took weeks to months. Just the cost of the materials alone might bankrupt his whole village.

  The main reason Richter remembered the story of the artificer from his past life was what had happened in real life afterwards. There had been a follow-up story about how the man had bankrupted his family just to purchase the in-game mithril. As the chaos lord recalled, the man’s wife had tazed him in the nuts after hearing he had spent their nest egg.

  To make an enchanted golem, on the other hand, all he needed was the cylinder in his hand and a good amount of a common material. Glancing around at the stone tunnel he was standing in, that didn’t look to be a problem. It also kept his goolies safe, something he was always in favor of.

  The Golem Enchantments prompt also gave him other needed info. Namely, how many golems he could make. The Land was a place of great power, but it always had a price. An Enchanter who could make an army of golems would be seriously overpowered. Seeing as how he hadn’t heard about any enchanter warlords yet, barring his own fine self, of course, it had been a safe bet that the power of golems was limited somehow. The answer was that his Enchanting skill would determine the number he could create.

  He also found out that the golem’s level was dependent on his skill level in Enchanting. That meant he could make a level twelve golem. That was when Richter remembered that he had another 75% of Enchanting percentages to distribute. It was the work of a second to increase his Enchanting once again.

  Congratulations! You have reached skill level 51 in Enchanting. All enchantments are now +51% more effective and you have an increased chance of enchantments taking hold.

  Advancing Enchanting wouldn’t increase his golem’s level, but that was only because the Talent was still only rank one. If he increased it to level two, it should increase the golem’s level from twelve to thirteen. Which was something he was going to do right now.

  You have: 187 Talent Points remaining

  He read the prompt that appeared, and just like he’d thought, if he upgraded it one more time, the base level of the golem would increase again. This upgrade cost 40 TPs, which made him hesitate, but he went for it anyway. He didn’t enjoy investing so many points in one area, but if he was miserly, and his golem was under leveled for the dangers they would face, then those points would be a cold comfort in death.

  He bought the next upgrade and read the prompt.

  Congratulations!

  GOLEM ENCHANTMENTS is now Rank 3!

  Base Level of the Golem is now determined by (Enchanting Skill Level/3)

  Max # of Golems: 3

  Upgrade this Talent to rank 4 for 80 Talent Points to:

  Increase the Base Level of the Golem to (Enchanting Skill Level/2)

  Max # of Golems: 4

  You have: 147 Talent Points remaining

  He really hoped he wouldn’t regret spending so many points on a single Talent later. Only time would tell. For now, he focused on the two Talents that had been revealed when he bought Golem Enchanting. Unnoticed by Richter, the fog had also pulled back on the second Tier.

  Congratulations! You have revealed 2 new Tier 1, Orbit 3 Talents!

  HEAL GOLEM

  This Talent allows you to use your mana to heal your enchanted Golem. Base healing will be at a cost of 5 MP per 1 HP healed. Copious amounts of the Basic Element your golem is formed from are required to effect healing. Max distance: 5 yards

  Cost: 20 Talent Points

  This one was definitely a gimme. If he didn’t grab it, any damage his golem suffered would be permanent. It looked like his healing spells wouldn’t work. Reading the next option though, he realized why it was smart not to make purchases before shopping around. You never knew when there was going to be something awesome around the corner.

  TRUE GROWTH<
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  Your golem will not be able to collect experience no matter how many foes it slays. That is the true weakness of golems, but this Talent surmounts that obstacle. Purchasing this will allow a golem to gain XP as it battles.

  Cost: 42 Talent Points

  This one was absolutely essential. It would let his golem get stronger over time. He hoped his bloodline would provide more magically active materials, but he couldn’t bank on that. If this golem died, then that was all she wrote.

  Richter decided to buy Heal Golem and True Growth.

  You have Purchased: HEAL GOLEM

  You may now heal your golem provided that it is in contact with material consistent with its nature.

  Base Healing Cost: 5 MP per 1 HP healed

  Base Healing Time: 1 HP/sec

  Max Range: 15 yards

  Upgrade this Talent to rank 2 for 46 Talent Points to:

  Base Healing Cost: 10 MP per 4 HP healed

  Base Healing Time: 2 HP/sec

  Max Range: 50 yards

  The upgrade doubled the cost of healing but quadrupled the effect. It also increased the speed of healing and really upped the range that it could work. If Richter had googobs of points, he’d have purchased the second rank. Seeing as how he didn’t though, he moved on.

  You have Purchased: TRUE GROWTH

  Your golem will now be able to collect experience and level up by defeating foes.

  *No further upgrades for this Talent

  You have: 85 Talent Points remaining

  And like that, he was back in double digits. There weren’t any other prompts coming off those two. That was fine by him. He had everything he needed to start making his golem. As soon as he was done, he could start moving again. This time his construct would take point and hopefully trigger any monster attacks that might come along. He wouldn’t know its capabilities until it was created, but no matter what, it would be a good idea to have a tank to soak up some damage. A much better idea than his own unarmored body getting pummeled, especially until he got rid of these damned debuffs.