“Golems,” Isa whispered, feeling a small wave of nostalgia.
The creature before her was not a true golem. Rather, it was something of a mix between a golem and an Earth elemental. The creature’s form was stocky and short. Its head only reached about waist high.
Isa wasn’t surprised, considering how new the dungeon was. It could either make several weak creatures or a few strong ones.
It seemed this dungeon had gone with the former.
Among deities, it was common knowledge that dungeon cores were living entities – a sapient soul housed in a crystalline vessel. Most retained echoes of their most recent lives. As a race, dungeon cores were unique that way.
Sure, some non-dungeon beings retained bits of memories from previous lives – usually the most recent life, but not always. But those were the exceptions for their races, not the norm.
Manifesting a Lightning Bolt was no harder due to the lack of atmosphere since magical lightning required only mana to work. Within the dungeon, mana was even more abundant than it had been on the outside. Taking advantage of this benefit, Isa sent the Lightning Bolt flying at the nearby creature.
The blast did little more than draw the almost-golem’s ire, making it head in her direction. The former goddess wasn’t worried since it was slow enough not to be much of a threat. She doubted the creature had access to any magic at such a low level, so all she needed to do was kite it around while she tested a few spells against it.
It was great practice for the Spell Crafter, as she hadn’t had much of an opportunity to test her new magic.
Isa rotated through her aspects, free-casting one basic offensive spell from each of her ‘available’ aspects before shifting to the stone beads she carried in her backpack. She could have used additional aspects that she was familiar with, but the mana cost associated with using aspects she had a weak aptitude for restrained her.
She also didn’t want to access Arcane or Storm until the system offered them. Had she not been on a newly ascended world, there would be little reason to really hold back. But given her supposed origin in the Mortal Realm, restraint seemed prudent.
The beads in her bag were all blank, so it took a moment to anchor the spells. Once she finished attaching all five offensive spells she’d tested moments earlier, she began throwing the beads at the almost-golem.
The effects of the anchored spells were much more pronounced than they had been when she cast them manually. It was clear the system was enhancing her class-related magic since she knew with near certainty that the system did not suppress magical ability.
It was why she chose the Omicron system overlay in the first place.
Some systems had various forms of artificial suppression built-in. Omicron did not. The limitations Isa felt were purely based on her new body’s weakness. But that was temporary.
It only took three beads for the golem-like creature to fall. Isa immediately rushed over to the remains, knowing that as long as she remained close, the dungeon could not absorb the material.
It was only mana-infused stone and a broken core, but both were a huge improvement over the mundane beads she was using. Using the new materials, her beads should be significantly stronger, as would any spells she anchored.
One of the creature’s arms was mostly intact, and Isa quickly started shaping the piece with a bit of Air and Ice magic, turning the piece into a short, thick baton. She’d brought a few makeshift weapons with her, but none would have been effective against a stone golem.
Her lack of information had been one of the biggest risks involved with challenging a dungeon on a newly ascended planet… or moon.
“Graden, can you hear me?” Isa asked after activating the microphone built into her helmet band. Unsurprisingly, there was no response.
It had taken her several minutes to defeat the first creature and another fifteen to shape and enchant her new weapon. Feeling comfortable with the amount of time remaining, Isa headed deeper into the dungeon.
“Hey, dungeon core,” she said after muting the microphone once again. “I’m not sure you can hear me. If you can, I’m not sure you can understand what I’m saying. You should be able to…”
Everything she recalled about dungeons implied it should understand her, but she didn’t want to give too much away. It wasn’t like she could admit to being a *former* goddess. Even though no pantheon had claimed the newly ascended planet yet, it was only a matter of time.
In fact, Alpha should be facilitating that covertly now.
“Anyway, you’re on a moon with barely any atmosphere, so you shouldn’t expect any visitors for a while. I’ll try to get a few challenger teams to come visit, but it might take a while. People are pretty freaked out by the whole ascension and magic thing. I doubt many dungeons on Gentrius have even seen visitors yet since everyone lives in cities,” Isa said while traversing the long, sloping corridor.
After carefully bypassing a pair of traps, Isa stepped around a corner and found a pair of almost-golems. Taking a step forward, Isa triggered one of the runes on her new weapon. It wasn’t an anchored spell. It was an actual enchantment.
Unlike practically everyone on the newly ascended planet (and peripherals), Isa didn’t need the system to teach her how to create magical items. She was well versed in runes and sigils, and was fully capable of making use of her knowledge, even with her current weaknesses.
The baton extended into a short staff. The weight hadn’t changed with the increase in size, which was nice since it was pretty heavy to start with.
Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!
With her newly expanded weapon, Isa anchored and cast Air Blast, a spell that sent a compressed blast of air from the tip of her weapon. The effect was much stronger than either of her previous attempts and caught both of her opponents, forcing them back several steps.
Picking one of the mobs, Isa rushed forward, swinging her weapon as she triggered a compound rune that simultaneously strengthened the weapon and created a vibrating spike on the side facing her target. The spike was made to break off upon impact, embedding into her target and hopefully causing additional damage as the vibrations became more violent.
The second mob had already regained its footing and was slowly stomping in her direction by the time Isa hammered the spike into the first almost-golem.
“I like golems too, by the way,” Isa said idly to the unseen dungeon core. She’d decided to just consider the short creatures golems since they were close enough. They certainly weren’t elementals. Isa took several steps back and observed the damage done by her spike.
“I plan to come back again soon, but I don’t know how long it will take. I need more material to work with.” She held up the short stone staff. “An actual weapon would be nice, though I can fashion my own, as you can probably see,” Isa added conversationally before sending a Water Lance into the neck area of the approaching golem.
Though there was no actual neck, she considered the part connecting the creature’s head to its torso close enough. There was a definite line separating the two body parts. Unlike most creatures, decapitating a golem (or whatever analog this creature was) would not defeat them.
Though it was satisfying to watch the head fall away, it did not slow the creature down. To defeat them, she had to destroy or remove the crystalline core within their chest. She’d destroyed the last one, and while she’d collected the shards, she’d much rather obtain a fully functioning core to work with if she could.
“I have to leave after this exchange,” she said, unbothered by the lack of response. “I know it was only two encounters, but your dungeon is a lot deeper than I expected, and these guys are tough. I told my companion I’d be back in an hour. But don’t worry, I’ll leave the gifts I brought for you before I go. I’m not sure you’ll be able to do anything with them until we get the atmosphere situation dealt with, but at least you’ll have them.”
Isa didn’t know if the dungeon understood what she was saying or not. Considering the recent ascension and the fact that the dungeon was on a moon, she wasn’t sure what kind of soul might have been reincarnated into the core. They were always sapient, but that was a pretty broad classification.
Her new weapon worked wonderfully, and she took out the two mobs after a few more hits. Isa wasn’t able to obtain an unbroken core, but she hadn’t really expected to. It would have been nice, but it was a bit unrealistic, given her limited strength and current lack of magical power.
After collecting everything she could, Isa brushed the dust off her hands and adjusted her backpack. “Okay, as promised, here are a few plants from the colony’s greenhouse and a recently laid egg. I also brought some feathers, a few different types of wood, some scraps of metal, a leather strap, and some cloth.”
Isa placed the items on the ground in front of her. “I hope those help you grow. I’m sorry I couldn’t bring you anything better. It’s hard finding stuff in space… even on a moon colony.”
The former goddess headed toward the exit, adjusting the weight on her back several times. The stone she collected was heavy, but it was within tolerance.
As she got close to the exit, Isa paused and removed two of the remaining stone beads that had already been enchanted to create Air. “Here. You might want these, too. I’m going to activate one and not the other. That way, you can see what it does and maybe absorb the Air. It would be super helpful if you turned some of your excess mana into Air to help build the atmosphere, but no worries if you can’t.”
After tossing the beads behind her, she added, “See you next time!” before stepping out of the dungeon.
----------------------------------------
Graden looked immensely relieved when she exited the dungeon. Jumping out of the vehicle, he rushed over to her, nearly stumbling in his hurry.
“What took you so long?” he demanded. “Ms. Scallard has been asking for updates every five minutes for the last half-hour!”
“What did you tell her?” Isa asked curiously, ignoring his question.
The mechanic looked slightly taken aback. “I told her the formation was active and you were exploring an anomaly we found at our last stop. She didn’t seem happy that you took off on your own.”
Isa nodded. “Yeah. We should have probably reported it before exploring together,” she said with a pointed look, causing the man to look away.
“Well, you should report in now that whatever was blocking your signal is no longer interfering.”
It only took a few minutes to update the Colony Leader on her findings. The formation was drawing mana from the environment to power itself, but it wouldn’t last indefinitely. She suspected it would likely fail before they made it back to the colony, mostly due to the mundane material she’d been forced to use.
But now that she had a better source of materials…
“Alright. Return to base. I’ll wait for you to return before briefing Gentrius Station. I assume the Commander will want to talk to you anyway,” Ms. Scallard said when she finished her report. The last sentence sounded almost jealous, but Isa didn’t care. The woman’s insecurities were not her concern.
Isa struggled to suppress the satisfied grin as they traveled back to the colony. Things seemed to be working out nicely, and she’d even managed to gain a level! Though she’d only defeated three opponents, she’d fought alone, and that had impacted her gains.
Name: Isamie Stone
Race: Human – E Grade
Level: 2
Class: Spell Crafter
Attributes:
Mind: 23
Memory: 25
Cognition: 24
Perception: 20
Body: 17
Strength: 14
Flexibility: 21
Recovery: 17
Spirit: 28
Control: 28
Sensitivity: 29
Manifestation: 26
Available Points: 3
Class Abilities:
Spell Anchor
Class Spells:
Stun
Learned Abilities:
Enchanting
Mana Manipulation
Mana Sight
Meditation
Rune Crafting
Sigil Crafting
Learned Spells:
Air Blast
Create Air
Icicle
Lightning Bolt
Water Lance
With the addition of her ‘learned’ abilities and spells, her status would quickly grow crowded.
To resolve the issue, Isa decided to collapse the display, modifying it to only show spells that she had already demonstrated the ability to use publicly. She didn’t need to go through such efforts to keep things organized, especially not with her AI. But doing it this way would give her a visual representation of how advanced she’d presented herself.
After tweaking the system display, the former goddess contemplated her available points.
Though it was one of her highest attributes, her capabilities with Manifestation outside her class abilities were completely underwhelming. It was something she needed to remedy.
She also needed to strengthen her body and mind. Isa was certain her cognitive functions were being dramatically limited by her physical body, so investing in her mind attributes would likely provide an overall boost to her capabilities.
Deciding to split the points evenly for the foreseeable future, she added one point to Cognition, one to Strength, and a point to Manifestation. The only category that showed an overall increase was Body, bringing it to an average of eighteen.
It was a good start.