Broka 25th 10,391
With the act of selection he found himself back in his dim cave. Vibrating with… excitement. He checked his stat sheet and found the section that had previously been filled with three dashes now sported the name, Runeclad Golemchanter.
He could see a new prompt floating at the top.
You have 45 Perk points available to spend.
He checked his logs and saw the awards.
For reaching level 10:
You have earned 10 perk points for being a Fateling
You have earned 25 perk points for having a Predominant class
Also:
You have earned 5 perk points for completing the Enchanting 1 Challenge of 50 items
You have earned 5 perk points for completing the Enchanting Weapons 1 Challenge of 25 weapons.
Math checked out. This was the first time being a fateling did anything, Six was unsure of the significance of that but hey, more points were always good.
Seemed there were challenges. He focused on the Enchanting 1 challenge he had completed and a new box popped up.
Enchanting 2 Challenge:
Enchant 200 items. 93/250
There was one for weapons as well
Enchanting Weapons 2 Challenge:
Enchant 31 weapons. 31/100
The prompts didn’t show how much the rewards would be but they showed him how to progress with his class. He wasn't sure how much he enchanted exactly but he was sure it was less than 100 items so the creation of a weapon enchantment must count towards the general enchantment challenge, that was a nice gimme.
Anyways, time to spend these points.
When he focused on spending the points he could feel his consciousness drifting somewhere and he pulled the intent back.
“Woah. Didn’t like that.”
He stood up and stretched a bit, taking the time to psych himself up before getting comfortable again and throwing himself into the drift. He made his intention to spend the points known and his brain and vision swam for a moment, but it was actually a smooth transition. He found himself standing on a rocky desert.
There was nothing but a small little fir sapling sticking out of the rocks. Surrounding the fir tree were other saplings, more like shoots really, extending out from it perhaps fifty feet away.
Six had no idea how these plants would survive a harsh environment like this but hey, it was a mindscape, it didn’t have to make logical sense.
When he examined the central fir sapling he saw a prompt hover above it.
Class: Runeclad Golemchanter
He looked at one of the distant shoots and took a step towards it. When he put his foot down his body shifted to his intended destination. Almost as if he teleported. The change was abrupt and unexpected but Six didn’t experience any nausea or vertigo.
That was dope.
He actually got caught up for a bit just moving around in this space, it was kinda fun.
He smiled, put on his batman voice and made some sound effects. “Nothing personnel kid. Instant transmission! Shwing! Shwing! Shwing!”
Fuck, he needed something like this in the real world. Shit always got real when the movement skills started to come into play. He jumped to the closest green, a little deciduous shoot and examined the tiny little plant. A prompt popped up above the little shoot.
Increase Material Reservoir 1: 5 perk points
Increases the enchantment potential of a material by increasing the materials stability.
Each rank allows one more enchantment of equal rank to the materials rank to be placed into the item.
The plant was a perk? That’s cool he supposed. He had expected a simple screen or a cosmic sphere grid but this was cool too.
This perk would allow him to work more enchantments into more common materials. This would be good if he didn’t have access to higher tier materials, but he did have access to higher tier materials.
He jumped to the next shoots and examined them all.
Deconstruct Enchantment 1: 5 perk points
Gives the user the ability to deconstruct enchantments and potentially learn them, destroying the item in the process. Chance of learning enchantment techniques increases based on Enchantment skill level, the users intelligence and rank of perk. Difficulty of deconstructing enchantment is based on item complexity and item quality.
Mana Stability 1: 5 perk points
Increases users' mana stability by an additional 5% while enchanting.
Macro Enchantment 1: 5 perk points
Reduces mana requirements for Macro Enchantments by 5%
Micro Enchantment 1: 5 perk points
Allows for enchantment of multiple items at once, reducing mana core wastage. Can enchant 10 items simultaneously.
Charges 1: 5 perk points
Increase number of Charges by 5%
Enchantment Strength 1: 5 perk points
Increases enchantment strength by 5%
Hmmm.
45 points to spend meant he could put one into all of them but he knew that wouldn’t produce a significant noticeable change in him overall. Some were scaling changes while others produced a more ability-like shift.
He knew that he wanted to create some more golems next so picking golem related perks would be immediately useful.
That being said, Deconstruct Enchantment was also very good, and applicable to far more situations.
He decided to attempt to satisfy both desires he funneled 5 points into the Deconstruct Enchantment perk and with each point, both the perk shoot and the class sapling grew. Grasses spread out from the saplings and life creeped forward. It wasn’t much but it brought a desperate break in the landscape of the desolate place. The little shoot had grown into a fine cedar sapling, not one of those crappy pyramydalis, a true western red.
When he unlocked it a new rank was shown with a new price, there was also a technique explaining the ability.
Deconstruct Enchantment 2: 10 perk points
Improves the user’s ability to deconstruct enchantments and potentially learn them, destroying the item in the process. Can be used on items held by hostiles and slight chance of improved salvaging materials. Chance of learning enchantment techniques increases based on Enchantment skill level, the users intelligence and rank of perk. Difficulty of deconstructing enchantment is based on item complexity and item quality.
Technique: Deconstruct Enchantment
Rank: Minor
Cooldown: 10 minutes
Range: Melee
Performance Time: Near Instant
Duration: Instant
Mana Cost: 100
Effect: Deconstruct the enchantments of an item and potentially learn them, destroying the item in the process.
Ten points was a doubling of the cost but the next rank gave him the ability to use it offensively, a chance for improved salvage wasn’t bad either. He was also curious as to the cost of the next rank too.
He bought Deconstruct Enchantment 2 and had 30 perk points left.
The price for Deconstruct Enchantment 3 went up to 25 perk points. Too pricey for Six right now.
Instead he purchased Enchantment Strength 1. It was a simple way to increase his power. It’s shoot blasted up and grew into a catalpa sapling. It was only just barely 5 feet tall but impressive against the backdrop of the desert.
Something else happened. New growth shot outward across the rocky ground and wove green life, creating two new shoots. Six smiled at the branching growth. He examined the two new spots of green.
Armor strength 1: 5 perk points
Increases strength of enchantments placed upon armor by 10%
Golem strength 1: 5 perk points
Increases strength of enchantments placed upon golems by 10%
His eyes bugged 10 percent? That was huge! Huuuuge!
He bought the golem strength perk for 5 and looked on amazed as even more shoots revealed themselves, creating a semi circle of vegetation around the constantly growing class tree.
Golem Armor Integration: 50 perk points
The user can integrate armor into their existing golems and they are capable of wearing golems as armor.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
Golemic Fusion: 55 perk points
The user has the unique ability to temporarily merge their consciousness with a golem, enhancing its power and granting them access to the construct's senses. This connection enables the user to experience the battlefield from the golem's perspective and wield its strength as an extension of their own.
Golemic Sacrifice: 50 perk points
The Golemchanter can infuse their own life force into their golems, temporarily granting them a massive surge of power at the cost of their own health.
Golemic Resilience: 50 perk points
The golems become more resistant to damage and can quickly regenerate health when within the range of the Golemchanter's presence.
Golemic Reformation: 60 perk points
The Golemchanter can reconstruct their golems even after they have been destroyed, reforming them with a portion of their original strength.
Golemic Detonation: 50 perk points
The Golemchanter can sacrifice one of their golems, causing it to explode in a powerful burst of elemental energy, dealing significant damage to surrounding foes.
Hoo-eee, these are expensive. He didn’t have enough points for them at the moment so he just brought Enchantment Strength and Golem Strength both to 2.
Enchantment Strength increased to a 10% bonus and Golem Strength went up to 20%, bringing Six to golems that were 30% stronger overall.
He had no more perk points left.
There is nothing more to do other than create his golems.
But he’d do that in the morning. He was tired.
Six opened up his cave and looked out into the dark of night. The stars were far more magical here, denser, brighter. He pulled out his pipe and blazed, considering his journey so far.
Nibbler ambled out to sit at his side. She gazed up at the moon.
Six was doing well. He had his own little piece of paradise and he just had to get strong enough to keep it. He wanted to keep it. There was an ease of mind knowing that you had a place to call your own.
Fulfilling this goal was a part of that. Part of the entrenchment. He didn’t wanna give it up. He would not stop building. He would do everything he could.
***
Broka 25th 10,391
Six woke early and did his morning routine. He had a slice of empress pie resetting the buff that was about to lapse, leaving five slices left.
He shared a quick breakfast with Nibbler and then got right into his next project, moving outside and finding an open patch of stony land.
He had two ideas in mind.
For the first he retrieved a superior configured earth core and began to slightly alter it. It was a monumental task to shift the configuration of a superior core but there were no time constraints and Six just went slowly, slowly imbuing it with the Golem Genesis evolution.
This material was far overkill for his current level and abilities but going large right off the bat would greatly improve its starting stats and level.
He could only make a minor earth golem, he lacked the mana to go beyond that and he wasn’t going to wait to see how much he would get from the ley nexus pool. There was also the aspect of control and the difficulty of controlling something or someone higher ranked than you.
Golems were not intelligent per say, but emotions and intent did spring from them and that needed to be controlled. Minor golems were firmly within his realm while the moderate and magnum were more theoretical.
Not to mention a golem stronger than him would most likely start sucking up most of the experience. He needed to be the prominent contributor to continue his growth and he couldn’t have his creations outstrip him.
But he would make the best damn minor golem he could, something that could follow him as he grew. As with anything, craftsmanship is king.
So.
He pulled out the blood branch and three mundane mana cores. His reagents and catalysts.
Golems of a certain rank functioned best while composed of materials of the same rank or one rank higher.
A material too poor and the golem could destabilize, catastrophically.
A material higher than one degree of separation and the golem would function poorly, slow and clumsy, confused and glitchy.
This golem would have a superior core and not be limited to that restriction, the superior core offering superior performance, still the realities of material supply limited his option to one.
Simple mountain stone was to be the material for his earth golem and the blood branch would be the reagent, this should create a powerful effect with the resulting creation. He had considered other options for the reagent like the magic seed or one of the magical ingots or even another superior configured earth core. Those seemed too extravagant or produced unappealing synergy predictions in Six.
He had many mundane materials. Bristlehound hides and boar tusks, simple herbs and magically inert metals.
Those were insufficient, they would most likely weaken the final product.
The blood branch should produce a haste effect or perhaps a constitution buff and, just like the townhall, it should scale pretty well as the golem progressed.
He placed all the requisite items before himself and began the process with a blip of mana.
You are attempting to enchant a Superior Configured Earth Core into a Minor Earth Golem. This will require 218 mana and three Mundane Common Mana Cores to complete and will take materials from the most suitable nearby source. Blood Branch reagent detected. Would you like to begin this enchantment now? Yes/No?
The use of a reagent and genesis evolution inflated the mana price quite a bit but Six could shoulder it.
Six selected Yes and immediately funneled his earth mana into the configured core. It began to grow heavy in his hand as a layer of rock formed around it, the particles of stone rising from the earth itself. The cloud of silica whirled about and condensed as Six fed the nodule of rock more and more mana. There was no room for anything other than complete focus and Six reigned it all in, he was going to push this as far as he could.
The growing ball of stone began to extrude protuberances, little arms and legs with a head. A basic humanoid shape began to take form and Six smiled at what he was creating, a heady thrill came over him and Six just let himself go within the flow state of creation.
There were no problems, no pressing matters, no threats. Just him and the singing mana. He shaped the flow as evenly as he could, just feeling it.
He could hear it reaching a crescendo, but he knew he could wring more song out. He was far from done with the strings of mana that he played.
A sprig of life burst from within the growing golem and a blood red branch began to weave itself along the stony flesh, holding on like a creeping vine but creaking like old wood.
Six could hear it coming, the end. He could end it here but… he enjoyed it too much to go with the safe option.
He played the mana and just before the very last moment, before the final pluck of the thread,
He stopped.
Enchantment Successful.
You have successfully enchanted a Superior Configured Earth Core, achieving an efficiency rating of 64% creating a Minor Earth Golem.
- Earth Golem -
Level: 7
Rank: Enhanced
Rarity: Unusual
Weight - 153 KG
Durability 400/400
Traits: Stone from Blood, Move Earth
It was a stocky squat humanoid that stood just under six feet tall and looked incredibly powerful, bulging with rocky muscle. Crimson wood was sinew and connective tissue. Two slight indentations evoked eyes but as a seam split its featureless stone face and a maw opened to reveal rows of fang like thorns, all trace of humanity was lost.
That was properly intimidating.
Unlike the life golems that were level three on creation this golem was level seven, a result of the more powerful starting core.
He unbound one of his life golems and watched as it floated off aimlessly.
Whatever.
He then looked at the earth golem’s hollow sockets and made a connection with his new creation. There was a feeling of indifference, yet hunger. Immovable, yet willing to move. A restless patience.
Six sent the creation plodding around the garden and watched as its joints creaked and rumbled. It wouldn’t be stealthy.
He patted at his chest and cleared his throat before checking his reduced health.
Health: 389/517
Not bad. Best efficiency rating yet too.
He checked its stat sheet, something the static golden wisps lacked.
Name: — Level: 7 (Mortal) Experience:21500
Race: Earth Golem Fame: 0 (Unknown) Clout: 0 (Insignificant)
Heath: 600 Endurance: 160 Mana: 10
Strength:32 Dexterity:10 Constitution:30
Intelligence:1 Wisdom:1 Charisma:1
Endurance:16
Traits:
Stone from Blood:
This golem can heal itself by consuming flesh. HP += 3+0.1*N per 1 kilogram of flesh consumed. Current 3.7 HP
Move Stone:
This golem can move and mold stone and earth with ease.
Both of these abilities were awesome and it received double the amount of health per point of constitution, but Six reminded himself that the golem would do very little on his part without his orders.
He felt satisfied with his creation except for one part.
Name: Poh Doh
There, now his bloodthirsting rock hulk had a name. He named it after an old friend's creation. A tiny rock golem that went on adventures. He could have gone with something like Clayface or Pinocchio, he wanted something more personal.
Poh Doh was a fine creation. Six still took a break to replay the process in his mind and visualize what he did and what he could have done better.
Because it was time to do better.
Six used Stone Wall to create a rudimentary basin in the cool stream of his cave.
He held his arm out over the basin and cut into it carefully, opening himself up just enough to begin bleeding at a manageable pace. He watched as his life blood fell into the basin and began collecting.
Six spent the rest of the morning harvesting his own blood. With Vital Surge and his improved regeneration all he had to do was be ready with food. It was soon enough that he had gathered all he needed.
He still needed more time to attune and configure the enhanced core but it soon passed and all was ready.
He had his materials, he pulled out five mundane cores, and the Concentrated Magic Blood Sap.
Poh Doh was inspiring. There was no extravagance when it came to crafting something that would grow with you. There was no expense to be spared.
You are attempting to enchant a Enhanced Configured Blood Core into a Minor Blood Golem. This will require 420 mana and five Mundane Common Mana Core to complete and will take materials from the most suitable nearby source. Concentrated Magic Blood Sap reagent detected. Would you like to begin this enchantment now? Yes/No?
Hehe… four twenty…
He did some math and figured he would be left with 31 hp.
He checked that twice because he didn’t want to have to waste the materials and reagents on a botched attempt. Or die, he didn’t want to die. The math checked out.
Six selected yes and the basin of blood began to respond to his mana. He almost fumbled the mana stream as he wasn’t prepared for how much harder this type of magic would be to enchant. If elemental magic was wrestling a snake, enchanting blood magic was like wrestling a moose.
Still Six refused to accept failure and brought his mana imbuement back in line.
The blood core sat on the palm of his hand and slowly turned red as the blood he had harvested earlier flew towards the core. Droplets spattered against the crystalline surface and painted it a vibrant red. The form he configured was more analogous to a water elemental or a slime and as such it was easier to control the stability of the entire enchantment. It was more like inflating a balloon rather than sculpting an entire man all at once.
But the mana draw was tremendous and just like with the previous creation Six’s health began to be burned for mana. The pain of his blood ripping itself from his pores was minor, it was not something to be considered during this expression of creativity. The extra blood was actually a benefit as the waste blood of the enchantment was also caught in the pull and incorporated.
A ball of blood grew upon Six’s hand, sticky, wet, and smelling of metal. Before him the Concentrated Magic Blood Sap began to bubble in its container and a full half of the powerful reagent shot up like an erupting volcano to join the dance of blood mist. Infusing the red blob with a shimmering crimson arcane power.
And still Six lost blood. More power was needed. More will was needed. More.
Six wanted this to succeed, he wanted to relax, he wanted peace. He wanted everything.
He didn’t want the song to end.
Yet his pride demanded he perform at his best and there was an end to this song.
Enchantment Successful.
You have successfully enchanted a Enhanced Configured Blood Core, achieving an efficiency rating of 66% creating a Minor Blood Golem.
- Blood Golem -
Level: 6
Rank: Enhanced
Rarity: Unusual
Weight - 8 KG
Durability 200/200
Traits: Blood Casting, Blood Reservoir
Six checked his health and found it higher than he anticipated. Health: 47/517
Six dismissed another golden wisp and made a connection with the bubble of blood that he held.
It was… hungry. Impatient. Impetuous.
It resisted him?
Six laughed at the golem’s temerity before solidifying his control over it. If it had been a moderate golem Six might have been in trouble there.
He checked its stat sheet.
Name: — Level: 5 (Mortal) Experience:10500
Race: Blood Golem Fame: 0 (Unknown) Clout: 0 (Insignificant)
Heath: 310 Endurance: 200 Mana: 80
Strength:5 Dexterity:15 Constitution:31
Intelligence:8 Wisdom:8 Charisma:10
Endurance:20
Traits:
Blood Casting:
Can exchange 2 hp for 1.2 mana. Can be immediately used in spells and rituals.
Blood Reservoir:
Can absorb blood in the immediate environment to be used later. Can retain blood up to an amount that equates to 4X the golem’s Health Pool.
Spells:
Blood Dart
Skill Increase: Blood Casting - Initiate - 8
Skill Increase: Blood Magic - Initiate - 7
He expressed his will upon the ball of blood and had it crawl its way upon him, Six couldn’t get it to sit within his armor but it stuck to him well enough. It sat on his shoulder, looking like a red jube jube. Nibbler sniffed and hissed at it but eventually accepted its presence.
This wasn’t exactly what he was expecting but he was more than happy at the results.
“Hmm, your name is Lump. Cause you're a lump.”
Six smiled and put the remaining Concentrated Magic Blood Sap away, grateful that only half was consumed in use as a reagent. He chewed on some rootbust and reachleaf and meditated until he had enough mana to cast a Vital Surge. He recovered and centered himself.
He wasn't done. The life golems were not going to help him against Kytaligan, he needed more muscle.
He pulled out more mundane mana cores and cringed when he saw his supply getting low. It had taken much butchery to gather so many and now to see them depleted to a mere 18 made Six uncomfortable. He would have to hunt a bit after this.
He made two more simple static earth golems and released the life golems.
- Earth Golem -
Level: 3
Rank: Mundane
Rarity: Unusual
Weight - 121 KG
Durability 300/300
Traits: Move Earth
These earth golems were smaller and weaker than Poh Doh but still packed a punch and should help Six against the waiting threat.
Six practiced with Lump’s Blood Dart spell. It was a low cooldown low damage projectile spell that Six could activate with a mental command to Ichor. It used Lump’s own health to power it and while the golem benefitted from Sovereign restoration it was not enough to fire it endlessly in battle. But still, it was still an incredible tool that required very little effort.
He practiced moving the earth golems in patterns and formations. It was difficult at first but then he thought of it like playing a real time strategy game. He had to micro his golems. Yes, he could just send them all at a target but actually controlling the fine positioning of these base intelligences would greatly improve their efficacy.
So he practiced. Slowly improving his control.
It was late when he opened his cave. The sun setting. Six stepped out flanked by three earth golems, Nibbler at his side and a blood red polyp on his shoulder.
He was tired, but it was time to get this over with.