Zelhaut was unhappy. He wanted to improve faster than he already was. Krindle was slowly growing stronger, but it just wasn’t enough.
He decided to go gather information about his class, “Golemnist”. Perhaps he could find some way to boost his power. The first place he looked for was a library, and he did find one. It was an underground library completely encased in the smooth woody roots of a living tree. The roots gathered together to form shelves on which sat many books and scrolls. The area was lit by some magical means as the light seemed to permeate everywhere and had no source.
“Golemnist, golemnist, g, g, AH! Here we go.”
In the g section of the library, he found a couple of scrolls depicting golems on them. Gathering the necessary scrolls, he walked off to a table to begin the study.
“Herr, ah. What the fuck.”
When he tried to open the tube that the scroll was stored in, he found the cap to be stuck. With his strength, he could open 100 pickle jars simultaneously, and yet this stupid tube would not budge an inch.
A librarian walked up to him wearing a scholarly robe.
“Sir? You have to pay to read. Also, could you remove your hat? It’s a bit too big for inside the library.”
“You want my Hat!?”
He quickly stood up and walked over to the woman who wanted to take his hat.
“This is MY hat! Got that?”
The librarian quickly and repeatedly nodded their head, looking like a hyperactive chicken.
He had sacrificed his safety by coming into this store without his full power, just relying on Krindle, and yet these people want to take away his shield!
“Is this enough?”
A couple of silver coins were slammed onto the table, making the librarian flinch.
“Hehe.”
“Y-yes, this is enough. Good day to you.”
“Good. Now leave.”
The librarian quickly took their leave and he was alone again, except for Krindle of course.
“Some people Krindle, don’t know how to respect the hat.”
Krindle just nodded without speaking.
“I’m sure you get it. Hey, how about you get a hat like mine? It’s pretty nice.”
Krindle quickly shook his head.
“Tch, fine, no hat for you. But my special little babies will certainly have th-”
He had sworn to himself never to speak of his technique out loud, lest someone hear it. He had theorized a very special technique for making golems while tinkering away at editing the circles.
While leveling up, he got to choose a guaranteed working circle, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t create his own. Of course, the technique was just a theory for now, but it seemed very possible in his mind. He had yet to fully master this new technique, it required more experiments and information. Something these scrolls would probably help with.
He had thought of the reason for this special technique not being discovered yet.
That’s right. He would be dabbling in creation, the realm of the gods. Of course, the natives wouldn't want to step on their god's toes, would they?
He picked up a small, metal, rune engraved coin that the librarian had dropped onto his table and pressed it against the cap to the scroll. It glowed for a second, then he tried once again to open the scroll tube.
(POP!)
Without further ado, he unrolled the scroll and began to study the contents.
Two hours later he was leaving the library with a scowl on his face.
His face brightened a bit after that, causing some nearby people to flinch away. He ignored these people as he hurried to a blacksmith nearby.
With his smithing skill, he could do it himself and also make the metal stronger with his condense skill.
(Jingle)
A little bell over the door rung as he stepped into a wide building with stone furnaces lined up along the walls. There were people working metal at most of these furnaces, hammering away. Also, a high concentration of dwarves were in this place. They were scurrying too and fro with their short little legs, their beards all but touching the floor.
He went up to the desk along the wall. Nobody seemed to be there. Then a dwarf suddenly popped up behind the desk, his braided beard giving the table a weighty smack.
“What the!”
“Oh. Sorry about that. Just grabbed something below the counter. So, what will it be, one, two hours? Did you bring your own metal, or do you want to purchase some from our store?”
Zelhaut glared at the dwarf in front of him.
“Give me five hours to start with. Also, show me the metal you got.”
The dwarf nodded his head and then gestured for Zelhaut to follow him.
“Here we have iron, copper, silver, orichalcum, Mythril, and so on.”
“What can I get with this much?”
Zelhaut set down a bag of gold coins totaling fifty. The dwarf quickly looked in the bag, then lifted it.
“Fifty gold will get you a fist-sized ball of Mythril, or a fuckton of iron.”
“Tch, expensive. I’ll take the fuckton of iron for now.”
The dwarf nodded his head and led him to his furnace.
He had been able to afford all this because he was constantly in the dungeon, bringing up a lot of loot and corpses to sell off. He had also ranked up his adventurer medallion a few times to four doves. If he wanted to rank up again, he would have to take a guild test, which he didn’t really want to do. The status quo was fine for now.
He began to shovel coal into the furnace. The temperature started to rise while some of the dwarven staff deposited a large amount of iron next to his furnace.
“Krindle, guard the spot.”
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He went and bought a hammer, along with a couple of other tools from the dwarf.
“Krindle, you help.”
And so began a smithing marathon.
…
With Zelhaut and Krindle both hammering away with strength only those living in a fantasy world would have, they managed to make 10 golem bodies in 10 hours. All of the bodies were uniform, 2 meters tall, no faces, sharp claws at the tips of six-fingered hands. Also, spikes came out in the same places Krindle had them, the spine and forearms. These bodies were very similar to Krindle, just without the tail.
A Warlock was a magical class that specialized in making deals with energy entities. Energy entities such as spirits. From what info he had on hand, spirits could also have classes. The spirits would use the mana of their host, with who they made a deal, to fuel the use of their skills and spells. So facing a Warlock was a gamble, because you never knew what their spirits classes were. Warlocks were unpredictable.
Warlocks could also summon demons apparently, but that was outlawed. Demons caused problems, not to mention that they were the bane of most of the civilized races.
Zelhaut managed to post a ‘Warlock needed’ quest onto the mission board at the adventurers guild. Within a day, the quest was fulfilled.
“Hello, my name’s Pile. So, you want some spirits to inhabit those golems of yours? Hmm? Well, I'm just your guy, I've got summons fever I do. Summon here, summon there, just a summon everywhere.”
The lizardman standing in front of him sported a rainbow robe with yellow scales. Its face was slightly elongated like a lizard and they had a tail coming out of the bottom of their robe. Not exactly what he had imagined as a warlock. There wasn’t a speck of black anywhere on the man, except for the pupil of his eyes.
“Yes. I need ten of them.”
“Ten? You're able to keep up with that mana cost? Daaamn, you must have a mana pool the size of these muscles here.”
Pile brought his arm up and flexed.
He looked down at his own arms.
“Yes, I have a large mana pool. Now let's go somewhere else to begin the summoning, preferably somewhere away from prying eyes.”
Lying came so naturally to him. A large mana pool? More like the smallest any magician had ever seen.
“Sure, lead the way.”
They soon arrived on the outskirts of town amid the forest surrounding the city. Once there, Zelhaut beckoned the metal golems forwards. He scratched out his command circle, causing the metal golems to stiffen up and stop moving.
Spirits would not enter the body of a golem with a command circle on it, instead, you had to make a deal with them. He had engraved channels for mana throughout the golem's body, allowing the spirits to more easily move mana. Including the recent spirit circle he had read about in the scroll, the golems were perfectly prepared to store the spirits.
“So, what’s you're affinity? I'm sure you already know, but If the spirit you have working for you matches your affinity, it makes them stronger and more mana efficient.”
“Tch. I’m not telling. Just summon a blank spirit.”
“Blank? Those rare ones will cost you extra. Do you know how long it takes to find one? One extra gold per summon, that’s the lowest I’ll go.”
“Are you lizards related to dragons? Because it looks like you inherited their shit greed.”
“Whoah, slow your roll buddy! I’m just saying they're rare. It will take so much of my precious mana to summon one. The gold will give me the strength to go on!”
The lizard spread his arms wide in mock exhaustion.
Zelhaut managed to respond through his gritted teeth.
“Can you summon specific classes?”
“Of course! But, alas, it will cost one more gold!”
He made up his mind and smiled beneath his large hat. Black blood dripped down his throat as he bit his cheek in anticipation.
“Very well. Here's thirty gold. The first one I want is a warlock.”
The lizard caught the bag of gold flying towards him and quickly looked inside. Golden glitter of coins reflected off its yellow scales as the lizard stared inside the leather bag.
“Hehe. Pleasure doin business. How did you even get so rich?”
The lizard began spreading a salt-like substance onto the ground in a wide circle while occasionally looking back at him.
“You’d be surprised by what people drop in the dungeon while they're running away. Especially in the dark side tunnels and dead ends. It's almost like gold just falls into your hands. There's sometimes blood on the coins, but nothing that can’t wash off.”
“Oh really? Haha.”
The lizard's tail twitched. Then the summoning began, the lizard chanting words that he couldn’t understand, making weird hand signs that held no meaning to himself.
His golems began to spread in a circle, Krindle going all the way around to the other side.
The salt-like substance began to glow with a metallic light. Its light grew stronger and stronger with each passing second until he was unable to look at it directly, shielding his eyes with his fingers.
With one last surge of light, everything calmed, the light quickly retreated into forming a slightly glowing circle.
The lizard had dropped to one knee and was panting, yet not a drop of sweat could be seen. It reached into a bag at its side and pulled out an ice cube that it popped into its mouth.
Zelhaut looked at the lizard with a confused expression, which did not go unnoticed.
“I can’t sweat.”
“Hmm.”
He looked towards the center of the circle where there was swirling gaseous energy. It did not have a color, being clear and seethrough, yet the shimmer in the air told him that something was there.
“Right. So what you need to do now is step inside the circle, be careful not to break the Unthrade salt line, and begin the terms of your deal with the spirit.”
Zelhuat nodded his head and stepped over the glowing line of this ‘Unthrade salt’, he would need to buy some before he moves on.
As soon as he set foot inside the circle the mass of energy rushed towards him and stopped in front of his face. Soon a whisper of a voice reached his ears.
“Why has this one been summoned. What do you need? This one is at your service.”
“I need your-”
“HA!”
Suddenly the whisper turned loud in his ears and cut him off.
“As if! What are you, a human? You know what? Doesn't matter. Why would I, the great Raldo Bunnelspout, listen to some fleshy human!? Seriously, how do you people live with all that flesh on your bones, Hurgh, it's disgusting!”
Zelhuat slowly turned his towards the lizard. The lizard shrugged in response to his gaze.
“What? I can’t hear the spirit while outside the circle. But the Blank ones are often proud of themselves. No refunds.”
Zelhaut began to think of how he could deal with this spirit.
“I can provide a body.”
“Hmph, as if I would want some fleshy body.”
“It is a metal golem body.”
The shifting mass of energy seemed to slow, as if in thought.
“Metal huh? Better, but still not enough.”
Zelhaut went silent as he began to think of what else he could give this spirit.
“If that is all, then I would like to go back now. Where is that warlock scoundrel, summoning me into this fleshy world? Honestly, how do the other spirits put up with those summoning fleshies? I wish all the fleshies could just be destroyed.”
“Oh?”
“Come closer. I think I have a proposition that is to your liking.”
The spirit seemed to hesitate. Then it slowly drifted to encompass his head.
Zelhaut dropped his voice to a whisper.
“Our overarching goals seem to align. If I succeed in my plan, none of these ‘fleshies’, as you call them, will be left. We can start with the warlock that summoned you. I do have a need for more spirits though, that is where you come in.”
The spirit responded in an equally hushed voice.
“Truly? That damnable warlock will die? Hmm, very interesting offer. But I must ask what affinity you have. I do not want to accept a shit affinity.”
Zelhauts face scrunched up at this question.
“Well… I would rather not say it out loud. My affinity does have a drawback, but I have managed to work my way around that. I am unsure what will happen to you honestly.”
“That does not sound very reassuring.”
“Well hold on. Just listen to my deal first. The terms are pretty simple. You will be under my command and obey every order I give you. You are not allowed to kill me, or my allies. And for the final term, once I die, you are free. My mana affinity works in a peculiar way, so once I die, you will probably still be provided mana.”
“Now THAT is very tempting. Very well, you have yourself a deal. Now, where is that body you promised?”
Zelhaut stepped out of the circle and grabbed a metal golem. He then proceeded to heft the thing on his shoulder and walk torwards the circle.
The lizard cocked his head.
“I guess you have made the deal?”
Zelhuat didn't bother turning his head to respond.
“Yes.”
He stepped inside the circle and dropped the golem onto the ground.
“Here you go. How will you gain my affinity?”
The mass swirled.
“Just push some mana into the body as I enter.”
He nodded his head.
“Ok. I’m ready”
The mass of energy entered the body as Zelhuat struggled to push perpetual affinity into the golem. Tiny spinning particles of gold left his hand and entered the golem's body.
Soon the flow of mana stopped as he felt his heartbeat speed up, the blight in his body rushing to his hand, quelling the mana.
//
You have entered a deal with the spirit known as (Raldo Bunnelspout)
//
Suddenly, Zelhaut heard a voice inside of his mind that echoed as if he was in a cave.
‘Oh! What is this!? This affinity, I can feel it! It feels like a neverending circle. This will be very interesting, hehe!’