Hp 34/34 Mp 12/12 Str:17 Ag:17 End: 22 Dex: 19 Int: 12
Free points: 2
Class: Golemnist Lv: 2 Affinity: Perpetual/ Blight
Lv:2 / Lv:3
Skills: Identify Entity Engraving
Circles: Flex Command
He sat down and breathed.
“FUCK! Ow ow ow.”
The adrenaline wore off and he felt the damage to his body. It was quite extensive. He got out some spare cloth to bandage his leg and back as best he could.
He threw his free points into endurance, bringing it to 24.
“Pinogrande, get over here.”
Shhhhk….shhhhk…
“Wow, you got fucked up. That fight cost an arm and a leg.”
The golem was missing an arm and a leg. It was crawling slowly towards him using its remaining limbs.
“I need something to eat.”
Reaching into the bag he pulled out the, potentially, poisoned deer and chowed down.
“Mmmhh. It’s like maple bacon.”
He made a fire because he wanted to find a use for this golem that was damaged, and he had a use for it. Once the fire was lit, he ordered Pinogrande for the last time.
“Go into the fire.”
The golem shuffled itself into the fire then stopped. It burned away until nothing was left but ashes.
“Nice.”
Once he was partially healed, he continued onwards. Now headed in a northeast direction. Just one Flynther was not going to scare him out of the woods, it didn’t even kill him, nothing to worry about.
….
“Lucky me.”
It was raining heavily and he had come across a cave. A cave that gave off a very eerie feeling.
“How cozy… NOT!”
He plopped himself on the ground and let out a sigh. It had been two weeks since the Flynther incident, and in those two weeks, the Flynther incident multiplied. They must reproduce like rabbits judging by how many he encountered. Though they were great for leveling.
“3A, attack anything that comes near the opening of this area. 4A, continue onwards deeper into the cave.”
He had built four more golems and just gave them numbers and letters as names since he was sick of thinking up creative names. They were also just as stupid as the first one, but at least he had used hardwood this time. He took a woodworking class back on earth so he knew what he was looking for… kind of. It had been a long time. He had lost some of them in scuffles with beasts. One thing he found out is that if a circle is damaged, it will stop working. He had one golem stiffen up after their flex circle was broken, good thing he had a backup golem just in case.
Squelch
Not that his golems could do much against a slime anyways. Just bashing it wouldn’t do much unless the basher had immense strength. Slimes needed to be cut or get hit in the blob with a spell to die.
“Hello, Mr. slime, what are you doing here?”
He took out a sword and cut the slime down the middle. It burst open and some of its juices got on him.
“ Ow. OW! Fucking FUCK that hurts!”
Turns out, slime juices are acidic.
“4A, stand in front of me and kick back any slimes that come near.”
He ran back outside of the cave and ripped off his clothes while the rain washed away the acid.
“That feels a bit better at least.”
He trudged back inside then changed into a fresh set of clothes. While walking further into the cave for a bit of adventure, he passed by a pile of copper coins where he had killed the slime.
“Huh?”
He backtracked and looked at the pile.
“No way, is this a Dungeon?! Score!”
He had found his own personal dungeon to level in and loot.
“But a whole pile of copper coins?”
He counted 10 copper coins.
<10 copper coins for one slime? This is suspicious, better keep my words to myself from now on, or the dungeon might get angry.>
He had learned about dungeons during his stay at the church. Most dungeons were church-run if you can believe it or not. People pray at the chapel then enter the dungeon, those dungeons were known as divinity-sanctioned. There were some divinity-sanctioned dungeons run by different groups and also some free ones, but he would say that the churches control 70% of the known divinity-sanctioned dungeons. These divinity-sanctioned dungeons were approved by those rotten stinking gods. See, dungeons eat souls. When a living thing dies in a dungeon, it will grab its soul, take a little nibble out of it, then let it go into the reincarnation process to heal.
On the flip side, there are dungeons known as demonic dungeons. No relation to demons specifically, but just referring to their nature. Demonic dungeons are usually more dangerous but offer higher rewards to entice the person deeper. They also eat the entire soul, leaving nothing to go into the reincarnation process. This also allows them to grow faster. They are rare because whenever one pops up, it is squashed by the churches. They do not like them because they eat the entire soul so they often destroy the dungeon cores in the early stages.
“Heh.”
“Haha, I love it.”
He called the golems over and gave himself a shake, ready to do his best acting. He said aloud in a high-pitched voice.
“Oh my, so much treasure. What awaits me in this wonderful place full of riches? It doesn’t look too dangerous for little ol me. Come on, let’s play! Hee hee.”
---
In a room deep in the earth, a blood-red crystal teardrop the size of a marble sat in the middle of a stalactite sandwiched from above and below.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
The core felt a shiver go up its nonexistent spine.
---
After his little speech to make the dungeon lower its guard, he hurried onwards with his two golems.
As he was bouncing down the subterranean hallway killing the rainbow of slimes he stepped on a pressure plate set in the ground. The floor fell out from under him.
“Grab me!”
As he was falling he yelled for his golems. They caught his hand.
“Phew. Fucking bitch dungeon, trying to kill me? Really? Pull me up already.”
The golem hoisted him upwards. When he was back on solid ground he looked below to see many sharpened spikes with something smeared on the tips.
Sniff
“Eww. You dirty dungeon, real dirty. Fuck.”
He had just voiced his complaints about the poop-smeared spike out loud. He hoped the dungeon did not hear him.
Whoever fell on those spikes and survived would be in for a world of hurt with that poop. It would cause infection and just be plain nasty. He was not sure if it would work on him though since he seemed immune to bacteria, case in point, his taste for rotting meat. Moving on, he tried to cheer the dungeon up.
“It’s not that bad. Just a little poo, everybody does it at some point in their life. Don’t be ashamed... Heh. I did not just laugh, that was just heavy breathing. Anyways, onwards!”
He made it through the cave layer of the dungeon, killing rats and slimes until the boss room.
The door to the boss room was made of some type of shiny metal and depicted a treasure chest. Obviously to lure people in with the promise of treasure.
<3A, open the door.>
The golem pushed the door open and…. Nothing happened.
“Hmm.”
He cautiously entered with his sword at the ready. Just because he did not have a sword-wielding class didn’t mean he couldn’t wield one. He was also getting pretty good with the sword through his battle experience. He needed to have a weapon, his golems were often just not enough. He was also stuck at two golems for now. The command circle is tied to his mind and put’s a strain on it, two is the limit he can take for right now, as his class goes higher in the levels he will be able to command more of them. It was currently at lv.4.
He looked around the room and once his golems were past the door it slammed shut.
The way out was closed and he saw something rising from the far corner of the room.
It was large and round and… pink?
Boing
A large pink slime bounced out of the corner. It wobbled a bit as it landed and sent a vibration through the room that caused him to tumble.
While he was on the ground trying to get back up, the slime extended a tentacle and pulled 4A into itself. The golem did nothing to stop it.
He charged forward with 3A running right in front of him. The slime extended a tentacle to swipe at the charger and hit the golem aside. He took his opportunity to stab it.
“Haha-oof”
The slime swatted him away. He was thrown against the wall and landed hard while trying to brace himself, winding him and breaking a finger. He tried to breathe and looked around for 3A. It was moving towards him, still intact but showing some definitive cracks. 4A was still in the slime being dissolved. It was still active as the pressure of the command circle was still there.
<3A, run around the slime but don’t get caught.>
The golem took off to distract the slime.
The golem distracting the slime was getting more and more cracks in it as it ran around trying to buy time.
He took out a knife and ran towards the slime then-
Sloop
Into it.
He could feel the acid burning him and closed his eyes. He took the knife and cut his palm. Blood flowed out of the wound and suffused the inside of the slime a darker shade. He waited until
POP!
The slime burst like a bubble and the digestive juices flowed out into the room.
Splat.
He fell to the floor and gasped for air.
“It worked. Also, fuck.”
He looked at his hands and found them to be almost stripped completely of skin, showing his muscle underneath. Laying there he went over his plan once more.
He had gambled on his blood containing the blight affinity to stop all magic in the slime. Since slimes were held together with mana and were very magical in nature he had hoped the blight would cause it to fall apart by stopping the mana flow. That gamble had paid off, but in hindsight, he did not need to run into the slime to achieve that. He could have just covered his blade in blood, but that would have taken much longer.
Level up!
Level up!
Level up!
Level up!
Level up!
Hp:10/49 Mp:21/21 Str:25 Ag:33 End:39 Dex:27 Int:21
Free points:14
Class:Golemnist Lv: 9 Affinity: Perpetual/ Blight Lv: 11/ Lv: 11
Skills: Identify Entity Engraving Carving
Circles: Flex Command
“Nice.”
He had forgotten to spend his free points when he had leveled up in the forest but he spent them now. Ten into endurance bringing it to 49 and four into dexterity bringing it to thirty-one.
He soon got his answer as his scalp grew very itchy. He scratched it and saw hair falling in front of his face.
“Am I already going bald? Jeez, must be the stress.”
He kept scratching his head with his skinless hands until he had no hair left. No hair anywhere on his entire body. He was hairless.
Then a he felt even itchier like needles were poking him everywhere he used to have hair. He scratched his head furiously and tore off what little skin was still on his scalp as he felt something growing in.
When it finally stopped itching he felt his head.
He looked between his legs and confirmed it. Where he used to have dark green hair, specifically #042927 judging by his eye, he now had the same color of feathers in place of hair.
“Am I supposed to be a bird?”
He wondered at what he was to become but gave up as there was no telling what would happen.
He looked around the room and found a half-melted golem and a severely cracked golem.
“They’re done for, good thing I carved some extras.”
He had prepared for this eventuality by carving some beforehand. He wasn’t able to carve any circles on them because then they wouldn’t go into the bag.
“Destruct.”
The two barely functioning golems slumped to the ground as their circles cracked.
He brought out a pre-carved golem and was about to start the engraving process when he noticed that the golem looked slightly off. He could tell all the imperfections and weak sections of the carving.
He made some adjustments to the golem using his carving skill. He guessed that it must be a passive skill that was active always and didn’t use mana. It was just like he had become a master carver. The golem came out looking very nice. He continued to the next step and engraved it.
When the golem was activated he told it to walk forwards.
It seemed that his carving skill had other uses than making a pretty golem. It made them move better and smoother.
He spent a day readjusting the carving’s and another two days engraving them. He now could command 3 golems without going insane from the pressure on his mind. He also had a theory of what decided the number of golems he could have.
He had no way of testing that now that he had already spent his points, but now that he had a theory he would save them again and then test it later.
“Ok. Let’s get moving.”
He walked to the opposite side of where he entered from towards another door depicting treasure.
“Oh shit. How did I forget the treasure.”
He stopped and looked around the room for a chest.
“Ah, there it is.”
It was a wide flat chest that honestly looked like a pancake.
“Let’s see what we got here.”
He opened the chest and found a very wide, flat, red, metal hat with a point in the middle. It had about a meter, three-foot, diameter. He put it on and slung the strap under his chin.
Plus 5 End
His identify skill did not work on items, only living things. He would need the appraise skill to see what items are called and grade them.
“Wow, what fantastic treasure!”
He kept up his act towards the dungeon but there was some truth in that statement. He was going to get rich in here.