12 Day 56 - 60 (2/2)
{Kei Obtained Ardent ••••• Keeper}
- Day 58
What a strange dream. I wasn't able to hear everything but I got a skill so I know that it wasn't just a dream. Pulling out the purple stone, I used {Perfect Analysis} to see what it was, learning that it's something called an {Amethyst Ardent Stone}. Okay, so that dream had something to do with this stone. Was it telling me not to use it or what? Whatever, I found it so I'll do whatever I want with it and what I want to do with it is make a necklace for myself.
After spending some time doing just that, once I equipped it I received some skills. {Clear Mind} {Serene Heart} {Transmutation} {Enhanced Vision} {Enhanced Foresight}. Huh, okay yeah, this things a keeper. Wait, didn't the dream say something about keeper?
I spent the the morning working on my {Bone Goliath}, my masterpiece, and also created 3 more Stone Golems and 5 Magma Armour Golems that I've decided to name {Fire Dullahan} since while I'm not wearing them, they're not capable of using the magma, only generating flames. I gave them no heads because I felt like it.
My Goliaths bone work was finished by late afternoon but it still felt like it was missing something. I went around the settlement asking the others what they would suggest to add to it. The first person I visited was Fu who posited that I should add rotting flesh to make it look cuter. While it's not a bad idea, I'm unsure of whether it could be called cute, though technically Fu's flesh is rotting and I find her extremely cute. Apparently she heard that somehow and now she's dragging me away.
The next people I spoke to were the human girls who thought that armour might work. When I asked if Emery would be willing to make it, she told me that she had no experience making armour for something like that and apologetically refused. A patted her head and apologised for making such an unreasonable request. Next was Returner who was watching Sigul and Redhead train. She suggested a bunch of crazy methods that went right over my head thanks to her having spent so much time at Velvets side originally.
I waited for Redhead and Sigul to take a break and before asking for her opinion, I asked what her and Redheads level was. She said that red heads level is now 23 and hers is 59. I was shocked at the Valkyries quick growth but she stated that it had to do with the God of Justice and the fact that I was her master. I wasn't sure what she meant by that last part but she looked at me and, using {Ally Communication} Whispered that I ”gave her something else that she felt she had to earn”. I won't deny her work ethic and I certainly won't complain about the results.
When I finally got around to asking about my Golem, she said that, considering what it's based on, I should try to figure out a way to have it use one or some of the elements. I liked the idea and told her so, which she bowed slightly and replied saying that she would help me with anything anytime.
The last person that I visited was Sei who was just finishing up her lessons when I arrived. She suggested that since I used my creativity to get to this point, that I should just continue to do as such. I thanked her while leaving, deep in thought about what to do.
When I arrived back at the Golem, I sat cross legged next to it and continued thinking. I finally just decided to go with whatever I felt like and enchanted the shit out of it. {Miasma of Undeath} {Hellish Roar} {Goliaths Endurance} {Tirelessness} {Durability} {Resilience} {Auto-Repair} {Curse} {Corrosive Breath} {Powerful Bite} {Flight} {Aero Master} and practically every resistance I could think of until I almost fainted from mana exhaustion. I may have gone a little wild...
Before I could activate it, I fell face first on the ground and went to sleep at its feet.
- Day 59
I woke up around noon the next day to the worried faces of Returner, Emery, Fu, Sei and Sigul. Sei informed me that she could feel my mana exhaustion from where she was and told the others who came running only to find me unconscious next to my Golem. Apparently Sei had spent the night sharing her mana with me to try and keep me from getting something called {Debilitating Mana Exhaustion} which one can receive if they go past their mana limit.
Apparently it takes an unbridled amount of willpower to do so and usually only happens in life or death scenarios which I found funny considering how I did it. I was immediately slapped by one of the girls, I don't know who and when I looked up at them I could see that they were all tearing up and quite mad at me. Everyone other than Returner had bags under their eyes from lack of sleep and their eyes themselves were red from crying. I would make a joke about how I keep making girls cry but all I could say was that I was sorry.
The girls proceeded to hug me and wouldn't let go for what felt like forever. The tightness of the hug made it seem like they really did think I was going to die. I need to be more careful. If not for my sake then for these girls who care about me. After they let me go, I asked how Sei shared her mana with me. She smiled weakly and told me that it was a secret. I didn't press any further and told them to get some sleep, promising them that I wouldn't do anything like that again while they weren't around to stop me from going overboard.
Once they left, I turned to face my creation thinking ”you'd better have been worth it”. Staring up at the behemoth of an {Undead Wyvern}. It's bones are covered in curses that have made its bones turn black just as my body was in my fight with the Golem. As an undead Golem it should never require rest and the fact that it can fly, roar and breath corrosive acid on people from above, this thing should be unstoppable on most battlefields.
My pride in my work is dwarfed only by the sour feeling of upsetting and scaring the girls. Calling Rou via {Ally Communication} I told him that I had something to show him but apparently he was going to be busy for a little while longer and would come visit when he's free so I stored my new Golem using {Inter-Dimensional Storage} and went on a short hunting trip with my pets.
On my way back, I found a hunting party of goblins being attacked by a group of humans and, while ordering my pets to stay back, I assisted in the goblins escape by pulling a crossbow from my storage and firing it at the humans from various positions while using {Presence Erasure} so they couldn't find me. They retreated after a few more shots and after I made myself known to the goblins, I assisted the injured and helped them get back to the cave.
Speaking with Rou about what I saw, we both came to the conclusion that the war between the humans and elves is growing in ferocity and scale and we would soon need to intervene one way or another in order to keep our settlement safe. Rou smiled when I called it ”our settlement” noting that I must finally consider it a home. I shrugged and told him to come outside so that I could show him my new Golem. The moment I brought the {Undead Wyvern} out of storage he began to salivate. I smacked him over the head and told him that making it almost killed me so there was no way I was letting him eat it. He sighed dejectedly but accepted my reasoning while complimenting me on my creation stating that it would be a big help in any upcoming battles.
- Day 60
I awoke with start as my {Total Area Perception} started going off like crazy, showing me that there was a large group headed towards the entrance to the cave. It seems that Rou ordered every one else to wake up as well and when we got there, we noticed he onslaught of Skeletons that would usually have been guarding Velvets tomb chasing a large group of Kobolds. The Kobold soldiers were trying to hold the skeletons back while the civilians fled but they were slowly and surely losing ground.
Rou's response was to order [Hatred] and [Anger], the squads led by Kichi and Sato, to run out and face the skeletons while the mage squad [Agony], led by Sei, supported them with magic. I asked if I should send some of my golems out but when Returner explained to us that a {Greater Skeleton} would continue to summon more, he got a smile on his face and called for a level-up festival using blunt attacks to take down the skeletons with every squad participating.
Rou suggested that I stay out of it for now and I reluctantly complied, creating a seat with {Earth Control} and pulling a cushion I'd made out of my storage before sitting down and watching everyone fight. Whenever someone received an injury they would come visit either Ji the healer, Rou or myself to be healed. When dawn finally arrived, Rou called a close on the festival and stood up, inviting me to do the same. Rou stated that alone, it would probably take him ten seconds to defeat the rest of the skeletons. I replied by saying I could do it in five.
Without another word, we both races off towards he onslaught of skeletons, counting each second that passed. With both both of us pulling our wait, every Skeleton was defeated within 4 seconds. We both enjoyed the snack we received from the greater Skeleton. {Summoning: Lesser Undead} {Greater Equipment Materialisation} {Mana Absorption} {Lesser Damage Reduction} {Lesser Magic Damage Reduction}.
By the time Ji had finished healing the injured Kobolds, the sun had risen completely and morning activities resumed after a short rest.
The Kobolds were thrown in prison until we could figure something out so I went back to working on my golems. I decided to bring the number of {Clay Golems} to an even 50 which meant making another 15 of them. Sigul and Returner kept a sharp eye on me the whole time to make sure I didn't do anything unnecessary.
After that was done, I decided to try out {Summoning: Lesser Undead} and, after a while, I managed to summon {skeletons}, {Greater skeletons}, both of which I dismantled immediately, storing away their bones to be used later, {Zombies} that I gave to Fu at her behest. It was actually endearing, in a strange kind of way, that I could make something that she seemed to find so delicious. Lastly, some ghosts appeared which I found especially exciting since I'd finally get to try out {Soul Grasp}. Without another seconds hesitation, I proceeded to suck up the wayward spirit, gaining the {Phasing} and {Spirit Caller} skills. {Phasing}, as I've found, allows me two seconds of intangibility to phase through objects or attacks, in other words, another extremely op ability. {Spirit Caller} on the other hand, seems to be a passive that, as long as I don't turn it off, makes things like ghosts and other spirits more likely to appear when Summoning.Now I want to try it in conjunction with my other Summoning skills but I'll leave that for later.
After summoning a few more spirits and not gaining any new skills, I had the brilliant idea to try inserting them into some of my golems. I tried it at first with a rock golem and it's shown good results. It no longer requires my mana to operate and it moves around much smoother than before. I think I'll call these improved golems {Spirit Golems} to differentiate. I ended up making 10 in total with different kinds of golem as their bases. The most interesting one was the {Dullahan} which now truly lived up to its name. I think I'll change the armours without ghosts to just {Golem Armours}.
By afternoon I was finished with my experimentation for the time being and when I went out to the main area, I heard a commotion from the prison and saw a rather amusing scene between Rou and the Kobolds. They were bowing to him with their tails between their legs and calling him lord.
[Rou] ”I'll be blunt but...you know we've eaten a lot of your kind. Is it alright that you're bowing your heads despite that?”
[Kobold Leader?] ”We expected as much! We eat our own all the time. The weak is to be eaten in order to fulfil our ambition of becoming a lord such as you!”
Huh, so they're cannibals...Hm...well no matter, it looks like we have some new comrades and oh wait, Rou is having them put on slave collars. They were something he found in Velvets tomb but I decided not to eat it's essence since, considering Rou almost couldn't eat it because of the taste, imagine how bad its pure essence would be.
Synthesis Results: {Wild Charge} +{Beasts Charge} = {Wild Beasts Charge}