Kill? Do I have to kill these humans? This has to be a dream, there’s no way this is real. This is a dream, and I’ll wake back up to Syuna’s voice.
The humans now wore horrified faces as they began to step back away from the Golem. Marco furrowed his brows at the Golem he once thought he could trust. Now the Golem only appeared as an antagonist in his eyes, merely a minion to the Merchant that had trapped them, no different than those traps they encountered. Gus was no longer their salvation, but something to be overcome. Feeling this shift in attitude by their expressions and change in position, a wave of loneliness took over Gus. His past as a human was now meaningless, and now he was only the Golem.
“How interesting. Whoever tinkered with you must have worked very hard, yes, if you have enough intelligence to be feeling sad from this. Well, no matter, tinker all they want but a trial golem will always remain a trial golem, you cannot refuse your destiny.”
“And if I…do?” Gus asked.
“Then I’ll turn you to cobble, yes, and make another one. Very simple. But I’m interested in your existence, Golem, so I’m keeping you around. Don’t test my patience and go against your duty.”
Damn it, what can I even say to this being? Syuna! I really need you to explain who this goddamn merchant is. Once you're back you better tell me the truth! There’s no way what this monster says is true.
“Do you understand me, Golem?”
The humans looked at Golem with eyes prepared for betrayal. There was not a single one of them who believed that the Golem would sacrifice itself for them. And they were right. Gus did not want to die so soon, and it was something he had to accept. There was no other way out.
Is this…is this really the only way?
If he could have, Gus would be gritting his teeth at the moment. Yet like another sad reminder of his existence, he quickly realized he had no teeth to speak of. This was who he was.
“I… understand. I’ll administer the tests,” Gus answered.
“Good. You understand how to obey. Fitting for a golem, yes, which is why I’ll ask you another question. Who gave you intelligence?”
The Merchant got even closer to Gus, swinging its abnormally long tongue like a pendulum in front of the Golem.
I can’t tell the truth to this monster. Who knows what it’ll do if it finds out about Syuna?
“I…don’t know, sir. I just woke up like this, and learned from the books here.”
The Merchant stared at Gus in silence, both of their eyes (or what could be called eyes) less than two inches away from each other. After a couple of seconds, a sigh could be heard from the Merchant as it backed away from Gus.
“...How boring. I should have installed a lie detector, yes, in every golem for this very moment. Who would have guessed one could gain intelligence? Not me, I guess.”
With a sigh, the Merchant retreated its tongue and untwisted its neck back to its normal position, facing back towards the humans. After the rest of its body parts returned to normal, it quickly adjusted its trench coat and began to walk away, tipping its bowler hat in goodbye.
“In any case, I’ll be off. Humans, ask the Golem any question you should have. It should be able to figure things out, yes, as the test administrator of this room. Cheerio! Let’s go Mr. and Mrs. Book, I have some great ink in mind for the two of you. Oh, and Smart Golem, best of luck!”
And just like it came, the Merchant left seemingly into thin air with the two floating books, disappearing as if everything was just a dream. The awkward standoff between both humans and golem left a silence in the room, each side afraid of making the first move. Finally, someone broke the tension.
“Then…when do we start?” Marco asked coldly to Gus, his voice now confident once again.
The Golem turned in response to Marco, its monotone and unmoving face staring directly at him. Looking at it closer, Marco realized that the Golem didn’t even have a proper mouth or eyes. All it had were just dug-in holes and carvings on its head that made it resemble a human face.
‘How does it even speak?’ Marco thought as he stared closer at the monster.
Gus, on the other hand, thought that Marco was staring at him so intensely out of judgment for his betrayal. With no way to defend himself, Gus could only follow what he was told until Syuna came back for help. However, there was one issue for Gus. He didn’t exactly know what to do.
“I guess…we start now,” Gus said.
The moment he said that, however, books that were on the shelves began to glow in different colors within the first level of the library. There were a total of 30 different colors, the same amount as the number of humans in the group. Each challenger went to a different book, moving instinctively to a different color than the rest as if they already knew what their color was. It was only when each human grabbed their first book that they each came to the sudden awareness of their movement.
“What just happened…?” Marco asked, bewildered over the sudden loss of control of his body.
Picking up his book, Marco could tell that this was his book for the test on a subconscious level. It appeared to be the same with the rest of the human group as well.
Gus, on the other hand, had a similar feeling of a subconscious pull, but instead of a book, it was to a stone tablet that had inscriptions written on it in the center. The characters to Gus were foreign, but as he got closer to the mysterious symbols, knowledge began to flood his consciousness.
Ow! Did that just hurt me?
Since the first day he awoke as a Golem, pain was but just a distant blurry memory for Gus that something only as mystical as the Abyss or Syuna could cause. But just now, the tablet on the floor was able to hurt him in a way he never thought possible.
What was that just now? It was like a headache, yet it felt deeper. Like it came from somewhere unknown within me.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Not knowing what to do with this new revelation, Gus decided to focus on the information that had infiltrated his inner thoughts. Yet what he remembered did not help anything, and instead, brought new questions.
How is this possible? I have…I have a map in my head!
Whenever Gus thought about the ruined library he resided in, a 3D map would appear in his mind of everything inside it. Each book was categorized in this new photo-memory map along with tests that he would need for each layer. Inside the map of the library, red dots were scattered around the library along with one giant gray dot. With more testing, Gus found that the red dots were actually the humans while the gray dot was of him.
This is insane! I already knew this place by the back of my hand but this gives me such an accurate recalling that it can’t simply be called remembering.
Perplexed by this new power, Gus totally forgot about his happenstance as a Trial Guardian, already neglecting his newfound duty. At first, nothing occurred to him as he fidgeted with his new map, too engrossed with the manifestation to realize the humans were now done grabbing their books and were waiting on standby for the golem’s words. But as time went on…
OW! What was that!?
A sharp pain similar to a zap occurred once again to Gus, one that caused a similar pain to when he read the stone tablet. In shock of this newfound pain he thought he once abandoned, Gus looked around to see what could have been the culprit. A few more seconds, however…
OW! There it is again!
The pain this time had grown from the previous sting, yet not at an alarming rate. Still, this created a sense of urgency within Gus to find the source of the pain, less he wanted even worse. Looking around the room, he was unable to find any discrepancies that might have triggered this chain reaction, so Gus resorted to pulling up his map once again. Yet what he found surprised him. Now colored red instead of the usual light blue, the map had changed, containing a giant warning sign in its center that now covered the map’s content behind. On it read:
‘Awaiting Trial Duties. Further punishment will be imposed on the Golem in charge if they remain inactive'
Trial duties? Where do I find that?
In a panic, Gus attempted to press the warning screen in his head by using his finger, looking like a madman to the rest of the humans.
“psh…Marco. What is he doing?” Primis whispered to her leader.
“I’m not sure.”
Oh c'mon, mind map, just show me it! Ah, finally!
After a few attempts to navigate the system installed in his head, Gus finally managed to end up on a page where his directions were located.
Okay…okay, so I just need to repeat basically what that book said earlier and add some extra details. And the tests…ah there they are!
Surprisingly the greater being known as the Merchant was actually pretty good at organizing and wording things efficiently in a way that made reading easily understandable.
He should’ve been one of those CEOs I read about instead of hosting ridiculous trials like this.
After reading all the most important information, Gus finally turned towards the crowd of humans, ready for his first time on the job.
Please, everyone, succeed and survive. I don’t even want to imagine going against that monster. But if a time comes for it…
“Hello everyone…my name is Gus, though you already know that. I will be your overseer for this match, handing out the tests. Um…your books should be with you now, just study them within the two months, and um, do well on the test. It will be just like everyone saw in… Mr. and Mrs. Book before. Just ask me if you have any questions.”
There was silence from the human group, each staring at the other with worrying looks. Finally, one of them talked. The one who always seems to take charge in these situations.
“Are you going to kill us if we fail those tests?” Marco asked, staring intently at Gus as if he could see through the golem’s soul.
“That…I don’t know. All I ask is that everyone succeeds so that we don’t ever get to that point. Oh! I should add these books should be easy for humans to understand. I read them all, and from what I was told, this should be easy human material!”
The humans stared at the Golem with suspicion. How could they trust its words when right before it hinted that it might kill everyone here if they can’t manage to pass their tests?
“Um…well that’s it for instructions. Oh, time starts now just saying so uh—”
But before the Golem could continue, the humans were already frantically grabbing their books.
“Yeah that's…that should be all,” Gus concluded with a hint of sadness.
Now the real question is what I should do from now on? I don’t think the humans want me anywhere close to them, so staying on this level is a little awkward. But I can’t really abandon this level either, or else that pain might return for me not doing my duty. Hmmm, what to do…
“Excuse me, Gus…?” A quiet feminine voice called out.
“...Huh? Wait, did someone call for me?” Gus let out in surprise, looking up to see the owner of the voice.
“Yeah, that would be *cough* *cough* me,” the sickly woman let out.
Oh…this might be harder than I thought.
Standing with a couple of books, an oddly dressed young woman with short, messy, dirty blonde hair was raising her hand. Despite being of short stature, she was wearing an oversized wrinkled lab coat over a black t-shirt and blue jeans, a sharp contrast to the rest of the group who were practical in their clothing except for their odd leader. The most noticeable detail about her, however, was that she was wearing a bright blue surgical mask. Looking closer, Gus saw that her skin was a pale ill color and her face was gaunt enough to be fatal. Yet despite that, her eyes were fierce and unwavering, her determination evident in every part of her body.
But…even then. Human bodies have a limit. There’s no way this woman could survive combat training.
The sickly woman continued to stare at the golem that stood in silence, no emotion showing on her face, unlike the rest of the group which only added to her unworldly aura. Marco, noticing the commotion turned around to see what was up and then quickly froze. His confident mask that he always wore on his face was quickly shredded, and what looked like fear and panic quickly surfaced.
“What…what are you doing, Cri—”
“It's fine, Marco. I just wanted to ask a *cough* question,” The sickly woman interrupted.
“But—”
“It’s alright. I’m sure you felt it too. Gus here wants to be friendly with us. It was simply forced into this position.”
What is going on? Here I thought she would be just like the rest of them, but it's almost like…she understands me?
Noticing he had been silent for too long, Gus put his hand up to his mouth and emulated a cough, which surprised the group of humans.
“Haha…it seems even a Golem can’t help but cough too. How funny *cough*, how very funny,” the small, skinny woman weakly laughed.
“Well…not actually, but I can make noises like it. Oh, your question! What did you want to ask?” Gus said in an excitement that even surprised him.
“Quick to the point! I like it. Well, it's about one of these books. I can understand these are language books we have to learn, with this one being a College-Level English textbook, this one being a simple Japanese picture book, and these other two being Spanish and Russian language guides, but this last one confuses me.”
“What do you mean?” Gus asked, staring at the last book of her five.
“Well…I can’t help but ask…”
The twig-like woman paused, her calm face twitching as if she was trying to suppress her worries.
“What is the Stageneer language?”
“...What do you mean? It’s a language?” Gus asked in confusion.
The sickly woman stared at Gus, a look of horror creeping into her eyes that were once full of strength.
“But Gus…that language doesn’t exist on Earth?”