The group of six departed from home making their way along a small animal trail. On their persons, they carried weapons, supplies, and empty sacks. At the front, Urist and Rat were cutting through the jungle bush with their machetes. In the center of the group was Reaver with her tamed dogs and tigers walking along with Uroa. Finally, at the back was Arben and Unicy taking up the rear in case of animal ambush.

While cutting through the brush, Urist's mind was inwardly scratching his head. Just a few minutes ago she was pointing a nocked arrow at me. Now she was jumping to go, ready to explore under my lead... It makes me question why women are such fickle creatures.

He understood that they were strangers meeting in strange circumstances, but it didn't justify threatening him with death. Knowing that she was now watching his back placed him on edge and couldn't stop himself from wondering what she was scheming.

What is her angle? What does she want to accomplish? Such thoughts came and went as he and Rat took turns in cutting the path forward. Although he was having an inner struggle, they were making good time towards the mountain holding the oxygen crystals.

His only worry besides Unicy putting an arrow in his back and wild animals attacking them had to be if any of those creatures had been born. 

If just one of them is born one of them might just die. It’s a good thing I did a little research on the item beforehand.

Thanks to his whim for information, he found out how devilish oxygen light crystals could become. In the document he brought from the market, he found that the diamond-like crystals were not just simple stones, but instead was a strange lifeform. If that’s all it was to the material it wouldn’t be such a flaw.

To start their food source was carbon dioxide to which they then could expel breathable oxygen and light. The consumed carbon dioxide would be used to then grow their bodies bit by bit to which is where the problem lay. 

When they grew to a certain mass the unmoving and unintelligent crystal would gain sentience. And if the crystal grew big enough it would grow into a golem which could be considered an adult at that point. 

When such a crystal grew into an adult, it would become a hyper-aggressive creature that smashed all living creatures in sight with exception to its own kind. And that wasn’t the end of the report, the golem crystal could, in theory, keep growing way past this point and be a force to be wracked with.

He grew a bit excited thinking that Reaver could tame some of the golem’s only to be disappointed. The report said it was untameable as the whole body was its brain, the problem was that the brain was broken into crystal stands into the millions if not billions.

There was more in the report saying if a crystal grew large enough it had the potential to destroy cities with ease. He didn't dwell on the report anymore, the information he got on it was enough to form a plan of attack. Which is why everyone was carrying a pick or hammer in case they came across one. Since even if it's diamond-like, diamonds can still crack and break.

It took a few hours to get into the mountain that was marked to have the crystal resource.

“Be careful from this point on, we don’t know if any golems have been created. From the info in the book I got, the bigger they are the smarter they get. And don’t let their large bodies fool you, it also states that they move faster than us. So if we run into one and are spotted by it we must fight!”

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Everyone nodded their heads and got ready to move out to gather the crystals. They walked slowly towards the mountain keeping their wits about them. Still, they had become quite surprised at what they found when they got closer.

Small little crystals were poking out of rocks, the ground, trees, and even in water. Their size was as big as a fingernail and seemed quite harmless. Urist breathed a breath of relief, it seemed that the crystals were just in their growing phase.

With such a size it must mean that there was a healthy supply of oxygen. The dwarfs got to work picking out the pinkie-sized stones out of the ground. It was easy going to pick them up and place them in their bags. They worked, quickly filling their bags with the stones as Unicy watched the surroundings.

They finished filling up their bags and headed out when Unicy heard movement. By the sound of it, the thing was rushing down from the mountain at a good clip. So there is a grown adult golem what our bad luck.

He wasn’t greedy for the crystals of an adult since they could raise their own. He made the call with Unicy told him at what clip it was moving at, saying they wouldn't be able to outrun it.

“Tch. So an adult is protecting them. Everyone, get moving we are heading to that hill since it’s a defensible location!”

Listening to Urist, the dwarfs moved to a nearby hill with their loot and readied themselves for a fight.

Soon even Urist could hear the sound of the crystal monster coming to their location. He could painfully hear the grinding of crystals charging at him.

Readying themselves for a fight, Urist stood at the front, hammer at the ready. With each passing second, the grating sound grew louder in his ears. The other dwarfs frowned at the noise and asked if they couldn’t just leave the crystal here and retreat.

As he readied himself to fight, Urist thought about his decision to come to this dangerous area Thinking was it even worth it to risk their lives for some rocks in the ground? They were already living an alright life. So why risk their lives for some stones?

The answer that nagged at the back of his mind were the events, who knew if one day a dragon descended upon them? What if a poison fog covered the land and they died from not being able to breathe? What if?

Those what questions of what might happen in the future, drove him to make sure they needed to be ready for anything. With that line of thought, he knew he couldn’t cower from challenges that the world threw at them. They needed to fight for their future one step at a time.

That was the price that they needed to pay for survival.

“It’s almost upon us. Get ready to fight!”

When Unicy declared so, the crystal being jumped out from the bush. The appearance of the creature gave them a fright even for Urist who had mentally prepared himself. The crystal being was the shape of a wolf, it wore translucent crystals armor that was bulky like a bear. From within he could see that It had tense carbon fibers that made up its muscles.

Its eyes shone like the wicked moon, cold and full of bloodlust. The beast struck fear into the dwarfs as they held their hammers and pickaxes at the ready.

Urist raised his hammer into the air to increase morale and roared, “Brothers and sisters follow me into battle!”

“OHHHHHH!”