CHAPTER 154

For the first time since Earth, Tom woke to an alarm clock.

He startled, jump slightly and roused Everlyn while doing so. Her reaction was like normal as she scooted over to the side with her bow drawn and the magic arrow that had appeared in it crackling with energy.

Tom rubbed his eyes. “It’s okay. I set an alarm to make sure I had time to get things done. I was worried about oversleeping.”

“Yeah, it was a long night.” Everlyn agreed and her weapon vanished. Life faded from her briefly. “Wow. You’re really cutting it fine. You need to fix your golem and then, after that we have to talk.” She saw his expression and smiled. “Nothing bad. I just have a few ideas.”

Tom’s planned approach to the day varied from what had done before the last wave. The broken cage not working complicated things. He couldn’t summon the elemental till after it was repaired. That made the timings difficult, if not impossible, but he had come to an arrangement with Clare, Toni, and Legen to borrow their mana crystals straight after he fixed the ex prison. Providing that process when he used his threshold bonus worked. The mana crystals would let him summon the lesser elemental and the meteorites before the shield came down, and the three lending their mana crystals to him could recharge them in time as well.

By the time he reached the summoning spot, all the crafters were gathered expectantly, waiting for him.

Golly number two was waiting in place and Tom with a flex of his mind plunged into the spell form and opened a path to the broken prison. The more intricate spell form actually supported the manipulation, which made the process that had been a struggle last time into a click of his fingers in terms of difficulty.

There was a hushed silence around him as the part they were fixing was revealed. There were no surprises in his actions, as everything had been discussed and planned beforehand. There were even piles of materials set out ready to supplement the process if extra material was needed. They might have been expecting the prison to emerge, but its presence signified it was almost time and they reacted with mounting excitement. Tom was continually surprised by how engaged they were, but he guessed they were getting more out of the procedure than he was.

They stood waiting. “The countdown hasn’t refreshed yet.” Tom explained.

They waited. Tom checking regularly to see if the connection was available. No one stirred. This was expected, part of their planning that left a couple of minutes of leeway in their timelines between each step.

He checked again. “It’s ready.”

All eyes focused on him, but Tom didn’t care. He was already plunging into himself. Once more, he reached out through his threshold bonus and engaged the incredible intelligence that was there to help people far more advanced than he was.

Thankfully, it responded.

A moment later, it was there in the courtyard with him. He could feel it examining everyone gathered around him and then it assessed the second version of his golem. Annoyed disappointment radiated from the mind. Tom was instantly aware of hundreds of spots where the spell lines weren’t aligned correctly and other locations where he had created a simple line between points instead of a more intricate braid.

Tom hadn’t even known that was possible! That didn’t matter. The consciousness was scathing in its assessment. Ignorance was not an excuse, and it made its view clear.

Then, with Tom having totally failed his task it turned to what it was summoned to do. Tom felt his senses being borrowed to examine the prison’s damage.

Two options were presented. The first was to restore it to its original purpose through admittedly still tier two which would imprison the elemental when summoned and enslave it to perform set tasks. Or the artefact could be reverted to four days previously when the prison and enslavement functions were non-active and instead the item had acted as a convenient home for a friendly elemental.

That one. Tom screamed in his head.

For the slightest moment, there was a hint of approval from the consciousness at him choosing the wiser course rather than the route to quick power. Instructions were downloaded. Once more, they were tailored for him to make use of everyone around them.

It was also more than a straight restore it was a partial upgrade.

Excitement went through him at the thought of getting an improvement, which he suppressed. Emotions now would only reduce his efficiency and he still needed to complete the repair successfully before celebrating any supposed boosts in the item’s functionality.

Tom navigated the process, while talking through everything he was doing and shouting out instructions. Apparently, there are numerous tricks involved in the procedure that made the gathered crafters extremely happy, but there was nothing that was extraordinary in the process as far as Tom was concerned. It was all very mundane work. Fix energy links between point A and B, install some extra semi-precious stones to help the flow of magic, enhance the middle layer of material. First one, then a second, and finally a third ritual was used to achieve each of the outcomes.

With each ritual, Seong confirmed the name had been recorded in full so they could re-use the technique. From the snatches of conversation that penetrated Tom’s crafting focus, apparently blending ritual use in this sort of work was not something any of them had done in the tutorial.

The crafters excitement was palatable, but Tom wanted to tell them to shut up. All that mattered was the result, and their proselyting about the benefits of the new methods instead of focusing on the results of the current experiment was infuriating.

“Focus!”

“Yes Tom,” Seong said with a tone of amusement.

“You can dissect all this later.”

“We know. Watch your focus.” Seong warned him. “This step is more delicate than you realise.”

Tom responded and slowed down. The energy linked perfectly and then they finished the last couple of steps and the repairs completed.

Broken Enhanced Cage - Tier 2 (Functional)

A supreme elemental was imprisoned within this cage. In a fight with a celestial mage, the prison was broken. The fight has downgraded the structure and after fixing it will be considered a tier 2.

This artefact has been further enhanced to provide additional conduits for the elemental within it to communicate and control any linked golem. All earth magic used through these connections will be improved by 20%.

Tom whistled in appreciation when he read the upgraded description. The mind was gone, so he couldn’t thank it but he felt privileged that it had helped him. Those bonuses might seem small, but every little thing mattered.

“It’s better.” he declared quietly.

“That threshold boost ability you have is extraordinary.” Seong told him. “I think seeing it in action three times has collectively advanced our crafting, months if not years. It’s extraordinary.” The woman patted Tom on the back. “The fact someone like you got access to it sickens me.” She laughed. “Crazy right. It’s like if I got a soul bound legendary sword. A tier nine masterpiece. Everyone of you fighter types would be obnoxious in the expression of your jealousy.”

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“I wouldn’t, I don’t use a sword.” Tom said, but knew he was lying. For a tier nine blade, he would totally change his fighting style.

She laughed. “Yeah, you would.”

“You’re right.”

The cage now fixed was drawn back into his golem and the spell form snapped into its usual format.

When he arrived earlier he had been given the credits owed for the dancing flowers, almost forty thousand worth and he would have liked to have upgrade his golem with an additional attack option but knew he had neither the mana nor the time to incorporate a new offensive armament into it. With the advanced spell form he had incorporated into the golem, those sorts of changes would take time as well as power. Two hours was his conservative estimate, but he wouldn’t attempt it without at least six hours being available in case it was harder than he was imagining.

For this battle, the elemental would have to rely on itself. Just its natural abilities and access to Earth Manipulation would be enough for it to do damage to the enemies and use the mana engine to its fullest extent.

The three mana crystals were delivered to him, giving him more mana than he typically had available. Without fuss, he summoned his elemental. With his hundred extra mana, it was easy to find and bring in the elemental. It was a joy not having to worry about time and therefore resources wasted when tracking the elemental down.

Tom immediately praised it for what it had done to preserve Golly during the previous fight. It swelled with pride, and then there was an abrupt shift in tone.

A sense of surprise, annoyance, and sadness flashed from a suddenly emotional elemental.

What? He thought.

A flood of images was shared. Ice missiles going through the brains of goblins, a many limbed longjoule having its shield shattered by a chunk of ice as thick as Tom’s leg and then an earth missile sneaking through the resultant gap to destroy it, a blizzard of earth missiles destroying a group of goblins. Within a blink of an eye, every single ranged death Golly had caused was communicated with him.

Tom realised the elemental had discovered the missing offensive options.

Sorry. They were destroyed.

Shame radiated down the link.

Then apologies flowed through to him, a whole mess of them. The shock when the elemental grasped how hard the magic of the creatures they were fighting struck. A plan to destroy them before they could use the magic to hurt the golem shell. The counterattack, then the realisation there were too many. Then the indecision and helplessness when it couldn’t retreat because the humans were exposed. Recognising that it had to weather the storm of magic. Get the attention of the enemy and then the continual, sustained effort to pull stone out of the ground to create a defensive shell even as it was vaporised by the mass of spells striking the golem’s position. The shift to lay the rock in patterns to defend better. When the magic sheared through the defences and struck its core body, the panic intensified. Understanding that the fight was lost, so it morphed its limbs to be defensive only for them to be destroyed. None of it worked.

It wasn’t strong enough, fast enough, or sufficiently clever. It kept trying to defend and failing. If only it was more powerful. Sorry, sorry, the concept crashed over Tom.

I know you did a great job, Tom thought to it. If it was a puppy, he would have embraced it in his arms and cuddled it to make it feel better. Tom carefully kept that idea away from the elemental. He knew exactly how heavy it was.

Happiness followed at Tom’s praise.

Then a moment later, more pouting toward losing the missile options. Tom sent with mental images how he imagined the elemental using the golem’s configuration to fight. Suggestions of when to use the slow spell and the way earth manipulation could be used almost as effectively as missiles. He was telling the elemental what it already knew, but he wanted to make sure it understood. It might lack the easy options, but there were still plenty of ways for it to kill to gain experience.

There was a slightly sullen pulse of agreement and it strode away, and Tom was amused when the ground around the golem’s feet morphed. For a moment, stone blades formed in a circle around it. All of them pointing upwards with a sharpness capable of shredding the feet of almost anything of their rank that was stupid enough to walk on it.

Golly number two piloted by the lesser elemental was going to be just as scary in battle as the previous version he decided.

With a sigh, he sat in the mana recharge circle and set about recharging his crystal so he could cast Harness meteorite at the correct calculated time.

Everlyn sat down next to him. “We need to talk.”

Tom hesitated a moment before he agreed, when he saw Everlyn was taking security seriously. Jin, Toni, Michael and Thor had come up with Everlyn and were positioned to guard them while they chatted.

Tom shut his eyes, stepped into his system room, and accepted the invitation that was waiting.

His surrounding changed, and he was sitting on the couch looking at smouldering coals in the fireplace that left a chill in the air because of the icy window. He was not sure if this was part of the natural cycle she had set in motion in her system room or whether the choice was more deliberate on her part.

Mentally, he shrugged. The effect was interesting. “What’s so urgent.”

Everlyn shook her head. “Nothing per se, and we don’t need to rush. We have as long as we need. They’ll guard and alert us if anything goes wrong.”

“As long as we want provided it is less than an hour,” Tom joked, when the dome came down ready or not they would be fighting. “And I’ll have to leave to fill up my mana crystal every four minutes.”

“I know, and I don’t expect this to take that long. You’ve slept on the situation. Have you changed your mind on anything?”

Tom chuckled nervously. “No. We’ll find out who it is tonight or tomorrow morning with my questions. After that, my plan is to play it by ear.”

“Play it by ear. Not kill on sight.” She smiled to show she was half joking.

“I’m not ruling that out as an option.” Tom answered quietly. “I actually think it is one of the more likely outcomes. But I’m not judging before I have the facts.”

“I don’t know if this is you being sensible or you suffering unredeemable optimism.”

“The first.” Tom smiled crookedly. “I’m not going to back down. Despite your different views, I’m not ready to state outright that I’ll kill them the moment I know.” He lowered his voice. “What happens if it’s Michael. He saved my life.”

“So did I.”

“I know,” Tom said with an enormous sigh. “I don’t know why, but I need to look them in the eye and find out why before I can condemn someone to death.”

“Fine. I spent a lot of time thinking about this last night. If you’re unwilling to do what it takes, I won’t hesitate. Tell me the names and I’ll take care of it.” She was deadly serious.

“No. No. Evie that’s not right. If they have to die, we’ll do it together.”

She nodded and looked more than a little relieved. “Anyway, we need to discuss what to do if the tier six defences continue to frustrate you.”

“Ritual for us and root for everyone else.”

She smiled. “You studied. So, we agree we’ll buy the ritual and reagents for our friends and key people and inform the others about the root.”

“Yes.”

“You know Evie, the ritual opens up interesting options other than execution.”

“No.” Everlyn stated angrily.

“Hear me out. If we do the ritual, we don’t have to fear them anymore. We could force them to accompany us. Fourteen protected people and the killers. Give them a chance of redemption.”

“We’re not doing that.”

“I didn’t necessarily mean us.” Tom said defensively, raising his hands.

“Yes, you did. You’re thinking you can use the murderers as what? Shock troopers to execute your plan?”

Reluctantly, Tom nodded. That was exactly what he was envisaging. Provided sufficient controls were put in place.

Everlyn said nothing a thoughtful look on her face. “You’re dead set on using them?”

“They owe humanity for those five deaths. Yes, absolutely I want to use them.”

“It seems dangerous. Tom. These people have killed. They are unpredictable. Potentially insane. How do you think you can possibly control them?”

“Well, we can permanently stop them feeding on us. That will go a long way to guaranteeing control.”

Everlyn laughed at that. “Unless it’s Harry.”

“I don’t think it’s him. That curse bloodline seems more suitable to someone a lot more… physical.”

“You’re naïve Tom. Harry is devastatingly competent. Extra energy control and or stealth are skills that would directly help a ritualist like Harry.” Everlyn sighed. “I wish this was over. I hate not knowing and having to fear everyone.”

“We’re safe until we have a name.” Tom reminded her. “And immediately after we get a name, Harry does the ritual and then we’re permanently protected.” Tom paused the thought that ‘unless the killer is Harry,’ hung in the air. “I don’t know what I’m going to do if someone close to us is a killer.”

Everlyn moved as if to comfort him and then remembered where they were and stopped herself. “We’re all in the same position. Back to using them. I won’t work with the killers.”

“I’m not talking about working with them as friends. They’ll be prisoners who need to earn their keep.”

“How?”

“We’re in a magic land. There are ways.”

No text appeared on any of the walls to show the different ways. They both knew what sort of items existed.

Everlyn sighed. “Yes, there are. But I don’t like it.”

“I know.” Tom told her. “But it’ll just be like sentencing someone to twenty years in prison back on Earth.”

“It’s a dangerous idea.”

“I know.”

“Tom, if you’re committed to this be careful. I can guarantee that if the name slips out before you’re ready, there’s going to be a mob, and the choice will be taken out of your hands.”

“Wait. You’re entertaining the possibility?” he asked surprised that she was even willing to consider the idea.

“If you can figure out a way to use them safely, I’ll accept that. But it has to be watertight not a gentleman’s agreement. Then we act, but when we move on the killers, we need to make sure that no one else finds out if they find out we’re in trouble. Not just them. A mob will form to take the killers.”

“Why can’t Existentia just be about killing monsters?”

Everlyn laughed. “I ask myself the same almost every day.”

With a shift of perspective, they were back in the real world. Everlyn hugged him and then gave him a look that said. We are in this together and we’re going to solve it as a couple.