While they were waiting for the dungeon boundary to come down, Olivander filled everyone in on what the mysterious creature he had captured was, and told them about his personal trial — enough that they wouldn't ask too many questions. He'd tell Gregory and Cooper about it in more detail later.
He cured Wentzle of mindrot after Gloria agreed that all of the healing was now complete, then he cast his cure mindrot spell on everyone else in the great hall.
After he was done, he pulled Gregory and Cooper aside to talk to them while everyone else sat around looking uncomfortable. No one was expecting the party to continue.
"Two more people infected? That is not good…" Olivander said. Both Allison and Reginald reported that they had been cured of infection.
"What's wrong? You cured them right?" Gregory asked.
"I did, but I would be very surprised if this was an isolated incident. Given the attack that Reginald, McKenzie, and Belethor described just a few days ago, there must be a fresh domain nearby. I've never seen what happens when a new one is set up. Usually they're very old."
Gregory looked confused, "What's a domain?"
"I don't know if anyone has studied Ghoul Mimics as much as I have. I came up with the term 'Domain' for their homes myself. When a couple of these creatures get together, they can actually wield some interesting magic. Like I said, they haven't been studied much, so I don't know the true extent of what they can do. I have hypothesized that they can create dimensional spaces with special connections to our world. The extra-dimensional space is the domain. They usually live inside of it, and cultivate a wide variety of death, rot, decay, and other nasty auras. They're typically content to just feed off of those."
Olivander walked over to the captured creature, examining it as it slowly rotated in the air. He had told everyone it was in a form of stasis that would prevent it from escaping, and also prevent it from being able to spread any more infection while it was contained.
"I believe that when they need to expand their domain or add a new element, they need to hunt for more power. I suspect when they feed they gain more than just blood. These are answers I would like to find. But…I am afraid that a new domain might mean they need to collect a lot of resources. That means lots of people dying, and lots of potential to spread and establish a mindrot outbreak."
Olivander fell silent. Contemplating. He truly hoped that things were just getting started, and they wouldn't go back out into a city full of the infected.
Something pulled at Olivander's attention, and he looked up to see an enormous figure darkening the hallway to the kitchens.
"Oh! I almost forgot!"
Olivander jumped up onto a table nearby. Leviana frowned at him from across the room but didn't say anything. Everyone else turned to see what was happening. A few noticed the huge figure in the hallway and stiffened.
"Do not worry my friends! While my previous efforts were quite rudely interrupted, I have commissioned my golem chef here to prepare us a meal! Please, eat and relax. The dungeon boundary has maybe thirty or forty minutes until complete stabilization. Get some food in you before we see what chaos having that boundary pop up in the middle of the city causes us!"
With that, he jumped off the table and nodded to his chef. The golem went back in the kitchen, then two smaller golems emerged pushing carts of food.
Olivander conjured some musical instruments, and with a careful but tricky spell, got them playing themselves. These people were on edge, and the strings softly playing a calm melody seemed to pull down some of their defenses. They accepted the food, and while they didn't start chatting, they did start eating.
"Wow," Gregory said. "This is so good. Your golems made this Olivander?"
"They did! New acquisitions. How did they do?"
"Fantastic."
Cooper just made loud eating sounds as he wolfed down his food. Olivander took that as a compliment.
"Excellent. I won't be trying any today. I'm surprised I can still walk around with the amount of food I ate earlier."
Half an hour later, Olivander began to feel the barrier fall. He dismissed his conjured musical instruments, and spread out his senses. As he had expected, he felt Giles Develie doing the same, trying to sense if there were any problems. When their senses met, Giles paused.
Giles was clearly waiting for Olivander to portal to him, but Olivander had had a long day, and didn't feel like explaining himself to the High Magus. He sent a non-committal pulse of mana in Giles' direction, confirming his presence and that there was nothing majorly wrong. Giles would certainly know that meant Olivander wasn't going to come to him.
"Has the barrier fallen?" Leviana asked. Everyone had noticed when the musical instruments were dismissed.
"It has," Olivander responded, "High Magus Develie likely wants a word with us."
"I'll bring him inside so we can chat," Constable General McKenzie said.
"I didn't say I wanted to have a word with him," Olivander said.
"Olivander. It would really be best if you just talked to the man," Leviana said. "Would you rather just get this over with tonight, or have Giles hunting you down to find out what happened?"
Olivander sighed. "Fair enough, maybe if I'm lucky he'll just want to talk to you and McKenzie."
McKenzie left to fetch the High Magus and some constables. Olivander sat back down next to Gregory and Cooper, who were contentedly sitting back after finishing their meals.
"So you gained the power to conjure, or summon, cooking golems?"
"Yes, technically I'm conjuring them, they cease to exist when I'm done with them. They don't return to some other Realm or plane of existence. I use the terms fairly interchangeably. Remember Gregory, pedantry is never funny."
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
Gregory shook his head. "I'll try to keep that in mind. Does your new class let you do anything else? I have to be honest, it doesn't really sound like you gained anything."
"Evolving a class from Uncommon to Epic is no small matter, I gained a substantial stat increase and a couple skill points. I haven't checked the newly available skills yet, but I'm willing to bet there is some unique stuff in there. Actually, I did forget that I have one more conjuration that I haven't tried yet. I didn't have enough mana after my trial to test them all."
----------------------------------------
Conjure Feast Golem Personal Assistant
* Spell
* Cost: 350 mana (token) + 250 mana/hour (active)
* You conjure a permanent item that you can feed mana into to awaken an advanced feast golem that can assist you in many different ways.
* Feast golem personal assistant can work as a private chef, and has cooking skills on par with a feast golem chef, as well as the same ability to direct a brigade of lesser feast golems.
* In combat, the feast golem personal assistant will enhance you and your allies. It is also a skilled spellcaster, and has several spells that can drain and feast on opponents. It can also use any spells you have mastered, but will consume your own mana to do so.
----------------------------------------
"Interesting. This will act more like a summons, but I'll have to carry around the token to resummon the construct. It seems much more useful in combat than my other golems."
Olivander stood and gathered up power. Then he summoned the personal assistant golem.
It was a diminutive figure. Much smaller than even the lesser feast golems. It was similar in that it was made from clockwork gears and had a humanoid figure. Two glowing lenses functioned as eyes, and it looked around, taking in the world around it.
A moment later, it folded in on itself completely, becoming a thin disk of complicated mechanisms that floated into Olivander's hand.
----------------------------------------
Feast Golem Personal Assistant Token
* Conjured Item
* Infusing this token with 250 mana/hour will activate the feast golem personal assistant within.
* This item is bound to Olivander Casumus, and cannot be used by anyone else.
* This item can be re-conjured in its last known configuration for 350 mana.
----------------------------------------
"Wow, that was so cool! Can you bring it back out? Does it have a name? What should we call it?" Gregory said.
"Cooper Junior!"
"Why not Gregory Junior?"
"Because I said it first!"
"He has you there, Gregory. I don't know if it comes with a name. Now, let's see what it can do."
Olivander gathered up another huge chunk of mana, this time carefully drawing the mana through his grimoire. He had already pulled most of the mana out of the great hall.
The token unfolded again and the small construct floated in the air.
"Greetings! I am Feast Golem Personal Assistant, and I'm here to help! You must be my creator, Olivander! It is a genuine pleasure to meet you. You are looking great, by the way!"
Olivander glanced down at his robes, which he had cleaned with a little magic but were still full of holes from the rat hedgehogs. The holes would close up on their own with the self repair magic that Gregory's sister, Helga, had imbued in them, but it would probably take a day or two.
"Wow! He's so cool! Do you have a name? I'm Gregory."
"It is absolutely stupendous to meet you Gregory. I don't have a name! That sounds nice though!"
"Nope!" Olivander said.
Gregory looked at him, confused. The small construct turned towards him.
"Nope?" it asked.
"Listen, you seem great, but I already have an adorable companion and a happy-go-lucky idiot. I'm not sure I have a place for you on the team."
"Uh, ok. I'm not really sure what I should do here."
"Let me think about it and get back to you."
Olivander withdrew his mana and the construct returned to its token form.
"That seemed a little harsh!" Gregory said. "Wait, did you call me an idiot?"
"You're certainly not the adorable one."
A few minutes later, McKenzie returned with a few men and women in tow. One of which spotted Olivander and walked over. Olivander stood and approached before Giles reached the table.
"High Magus. It's truly the highlight of my day to see you again," Olivander said with an exaggerated bow.
"I don't want to talk to you any more than you want to talk to me, Olivander, but this is my city, and I need to know what happened here. A dungeon boundary doesn't just go away on its own. What did you do?"
"While I agree with you, it is refreshing to speak with someone who understands sarcasm. Now, as for what happened…I encountered a god."
"Sarcasm and lying are different things, Olivander. Be serious so we can be done with one another."
Olivander overheard Cooper mentally asking Gregory what sarcasm was, and while he really wanted to hear Gregory try to explain the concept, he kept his focus on Giles.
"I wish I was, Giles. I apparently qualified for an appearance from the god of feasts. He forced me into a personal trial. That's why the boundary was here, and why it faded."
Giles was taken aback by that. "A personal trial…really?"
"I swear on my soul."
"Well, I guess that makes things easy enough. I take it you cleared the trial. No other issues?"
"I wouldn't say that," Olivander pointed towards the impromptu holding cell made from magical interconnected rituals.
With a gesture, the cell floated over to where they were speaking, giving Giles a closer look.
"Is that a Ghoul Mimic? Where did you find one? There aren't any domains within two hundred miles of here."
Olivander had presented all of his findings about the creatures to the High Magi council, so Giles was both familiar with the creatures, and the terminology Olivander had described to Gregory and Cooper.
"It is. I found it right here, in this house. It fed on that young man over there," he pointed to Wentzle. "I think it would have just returned to its domain directly, but it couldn't get through the dungeon barrier."
Giles took a reflexive step back. "You think there's a domain nearby!?"
"I do. And a new one. This mimic was only level eighty. I think they might need to hunt to help establish their domain. McKenzie and the adventurer over there, Reginald, described an attack a few days ago."
Color drained from Giles' face.
"Did anyone get infected?"
"Three people. Oh, and my furry friend there. I cured them all."
"Olivander…Oh gods."
Olivander had never heard anything out of Giles' mouth but thinly veiled contempt, so the raw emotion he had on display was disconcerting.
"What is it?" he asked, a feeling of impending doom manifesting deep within his gut.
"I…I heard you were in the boundary. I assumed the worst, that we might be dealing with a dungeon we had no chance of keeping under control. I ordered a general evacuation. People are fleeing the city as we speak. Some might even be portaling away."
Then Olivander understood.
A mass exodus from the city. A massive outflow of people who, unbeknownst to them, might be carrying incubating mindrot infections to every corner of the kingdom.