Author’s corner: HELLO HELLO! HE’S A HAPPY GOLEM! HE’S A HAPPY GOLEM!
ANYWAY, here is today’s chapter and almost got it late. At least I made a small song that is now stuck in my head and will probably be there for the next few days. Some-times I hate myself.
ALSO, although no boss today, I did show two of the mini-bosses, which, as always, were a last second addition to the story, but I must say that I quite like them. Heck, it might just be one of those times where the Mini-boss might end up even more memorable than the boss. And look who makes an appearance after so long!
ALSO(2), I’m kind of pondering about getting myself one of those donation buttons. Not that I need that money, I’m fine as is. It’s more just to see if I can get some bit of money from writing, but I’m still not so sure myself. But IF (with capital letters, of course) I do get, I should probably tell here this for those who might end up donating:
What WON’T happen if you donate: Faster Insania updates, I’m already doing my all for trying to keep one chapter a day, more is impossible for me.
What WILL happen if you donate: You will be paying for my snacks between classes at college, as well as funding any future games I might get. And you would also get virtual cookies.
What MIGHT happen: Funding secret (evil) plan to take over the world, world peace through complete global domination.
(Sorry, I REALLY wanted to do this joke(^.^), but it’s a fact that I’m considering it.)
ALSO(3), as always, no chapter tomorrow as it’s a full day of classes for me.
ALSO(4), I’m kind of wondering if I would be able to win this month’s submission contest with my non-sense comedy… But it would probably be difficult keeping up the regular updates if I were to write even more… Hmm…
Have a good read!
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“I’m a happy golem! I’m a happy golem!
I mine, I skin; I craft, I win!
I’m a happy golem! I’m a happy golem!
The veins are mine! So full of shine!
So I’m a happy golem! I’m a happy golem!”
I sung cheerfuly as I picked my pick and mined away at the many crystalized mana veins of the cave. The others were taking a rest after around two hours of dungeoning. After the first surprise ambush, the following fights were fairly easy since we had the initiative, so they even gave me permission to start mining away after a fight!
And the best part of this? These ores are freaking amazing!
Crystallized mana Chunk (0.5 ingots)This is piece of super concentrated mana is an unnatural occurrence, but it’s toughness and lightness after being processed is guaranteed.
(crafting material)
And the sheer amount of veins in this cave is above ridiculous, I already have more than fifty chunks! As I said, it’s ridiculous!
That… And:
Crystal-infested Hide (Good)A piece of wolf hide overloaded with mana. These bright colored patches are as tough as iron and makes for an excellent mana conductive.
(crafting material)
Just so you guys have a taste of the kind of loot I get from the wolves I skin.
Yagver’s group were honestly surprised with how I skinned the animals, and Lenny even had to look away from the scene.
Now, about the mobs. Mostly they have been the same all around, but every few rooms, a new kind of drone was added to the groups.
The first new drone was one specialized in throwing big heavy rocks with its hands, which were massive compared to the body, but since their armor was lighter, the Yuu and Lenny could snipe them from afar without much problems. The bad part was that it was really difficult to actually tank them, so they became our first priority targets, as not even I could block those boulders without taking some damage.
The second one was actually a bit of a pain. He looked like a normal drone, but as soon as his armor plating came off he would earn a new skill called Hurried execution, which basically shortens emergency measures cast time to ten seconds. The only true difference was the name, but we didn’t really notice it in time.
Me and Yagver died to this one, but since we were revived by the others afterwards, the death penalty was fairly light, being only 10% of our levels.
There was also a third one, and this was actually a fun one. He had a ridiculously though armor, and even Xredder had trouble breaking his defense, needing at least two armor reducing skills to take his armor off. Besides that, his main weapon were two mining drills instead of hands that simply ignored defense while spinning rapidly.
But he was too slow!
Even Yagver with his full plate armor could outpace the guy while walking!
And there was this time where I tricked the drone into attacking me, but instead he hit a hard crystal on the wall. The drill became stuck, but didn’t stop spinning, making the guy spin around like a mad robot, taking out two wolves on the joke.
I started laughing like a lunatic after seeing that scene. Seriously, I was unable to hold myself back at that moment and started laughing, almost dying to the second drone.
Which lieutenant forced to stab the drill into the ground, and then he also started spinning around like a top, killing the rest of the monsters.
Me and Lieutenant high-fived after the scene, while Xredder face palmed himself and Yagver held his laugh back. Even Yuu giggled a bit, at the scene. Just to make things better, I even dinged at the time!
I decided to put my points into toughness as it was my only defensive stats still on the low side and it felt a bit pitiful.
However, for some reason, the wolves were not getting any kind of alteration even as we went deeper and deeper into the dungeon. But I guess it’s because the path we are taking is the one towards the research area of the cave, since we’ve been getting even more man-made objects as we went in, like pillars, pathways, bridges, ruins and so on.
As Arkhoss said, this was both a mine and a research facility, so my guess is that the big drone is the boss of the research area, while doggy is the boss of the mine. If we consider this, I guess that the other path at the entrance will give us more variation on the wolves.
Actually, for some time now, even the number of wolves we were getting smaller and smaller, so Yuu’s, Hanbei’s and Lieutenant’s skills were getting even more needed to take out the drones.
But for some reason, the deeper we went into the mine, the more sullen Aura would get. The others didn’t seem to notice this, as she was usually very quiet and simply followed along, but me and Lieutenant had noticed this, and were getting a bit worried.
When I finished mining the area, I called the little Freezing tail closer and asked if everything was alright. She looked at me and then towards Lieutenant for a moment before nodding cheerfully, however the lack of her tail wagging left me with a slightly bitter taste in my mouth.
I decided not to pry too much for now, and if this went on I would ask her again. Being too forceful wasn’t any good.
We went back to the group, where the guys were taking a last look at the map.
“So, what’s next?” I asked as we reached them. Yagver lifted his sight from the map and said.
“Well, taking a look at the map, we are almost at the boss…” He said with a slightly hesitant tone.
“But?” I made the question he was expecting.
“But this room here bothers me…” He said pointing to a large room right before the largest room in this sector. “It’s far too big for it to be something with only a few normal monsters like these…”
“But too small for it to be a boss room, right?” I said receiving a nod in response. I sighed loudly as I looked at the map a bit longer.
The room was a large square shape, probably being two to three times bigger than the one we were now, even if it was still only half of the following room, where we thought that the boss will probably be.
“It’s probably either one of these two.” He said while looking at it. “Either it’s an event area, or a mini-boss area.” I looked at it a bit longer and nodded.
I noticed Yuu looking at us a bit confused and smiled while explaining to her.
“An event is something like a special… Event that happens on some occasions. It could be one of many different things. For example, a NPC who comes to do something, a maze with a timer, waves of enemies we have to defeat or something of the likes. It can go from very easy to as difficult as a boss itself. But in general it needs for all the group to have some degree of cooperation to pass.”
She nodded happily after understanding, and we went back to the discussion.
“So, what do you guys think it is?” Han-chan asked.
“The complications of a destined meeting nor a challenge from the gods does not meet with the spirit of the infected.” Forgotten said.
We took a moment to decode his words, but it should be something around the lines of ‘I don’t think it’s an NPC or Puzzle event. It just don’t fit with the dungeon.’
“I agree with roleplayer.” I said nodding. “I’d say that this is probably a wave event or a mini-boss encounter. That is the feeling this dungeon gives me, at least.” Yagver looked at me and nodded.
“I bet on the mini-boss.” Xredder said after a moment. “Wave events don’t really fit these robots.”
“I agree with Xredder.” Lenny said with a nod. “It’s easier to see a single big robot instead of a swarm of small ones.”
I stopped to think and nodded. Their words do make sense, anyway we still had to get there and will find it out anyway, so no need to fret over it too much. We packed up our things, which was basically the map, and walked back to the area showed on the map. We still had a couple of rooms to fight through before getting there anyway, so it would take a couple of minutes before that.
We reached the corridor, where we found a small patrolling group coming ahead, we quickly backed away and prepared a small ambush, using me to get their attention with my mining and then running back to the other room. There we picked the first drone to appear and pretty much one-shot it with all of our firepower after Lieutenant take its armor away. It has been our main strategy for patrols for quite some time now, as we could take out the one with fast explosion pretty fast without needing to worry too much.
But one thing that bothered me was the fact that there was only one single wolf in this group, even when usually there was at least two or three wolves per group. As an unspoken agreement between us was that the wolves would be mine, while they share reclaiming the drones.
However, just as I worried, the number of wolves was really reducing, and in the next group of enemies, there was nothing left for me to skin, so I started to sulk into a corner while I watched them reclaiming the bodies of the drones.
“So… Why don’t you try to strip these guys bare too?” Yagver asked me who was in my depression corner.
“But what would I get from them?” I said while scribbling in the ground.
Yagver and the others looked at each other for a moment and I simply stared at them in expectation of a decent answer.
“Their remaining armor plating?”
…
I stared at them for a long, long moment, leaving them uncomfortable as I raised myself from the ground.
“So… You are saying… That I should take their plating… As crafting materials?” I asked in a low and deliberate tone, making the group take a step back in fear. “Are you… IMPLING… That I, The one who only takes item I craft with the bodies of my own enemies… should take their complete armor… As crafting material?”
“Ye-Yeah?” the group took another step back as I approached them slowly.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
I raised my eyesight slightly, just enough to look at Yagver in his eyes. He swallowed nervously as I put my hand into his shoulder and grabbed it, putting some pressure onto it.
“Do you know… What I think of your idea?” I told him in an even lower tone than before.
“S-Sorry… I’ll never say it aga…”
“I LOVE IT!”
And I darted towards the remaining drone, sliding the last few meters to it so that I would be already crouched when I got there, and started by pulling out the remaining of the shattered plates from his body revealing the crystal core within.
Now, how will I go with doing this?
This is completely different from skinning an animal, so I don’t think much that I learned will be applied here…
Oh, I know!
“HEY THERE WALLACE!”
“The hell brat! Don’t go shouting suddenly like this at M’ah head!” I heard his voice coming from the golden feather.
“Oh, come on, it can’t be that bad!” I said cheerfully, and heard a sigh in response.
“So, what’s up brat? Why are you calling this time?”
“Well… I kind of need some help with skinning something new…”
“Oh? Something new? Did you get something with scales?”
“Not yet… It’s something slightly more… Unique…”
“Okay… Tell me…”
“It’s a mana infested mining drone with body made of crystal covered with a really tough armor plating. From the looks of it, the crystal and the armor are fused together, so I’m kind of at loss here on where to start. You see, the crystal is a bit tough and my skinning knife will only get chipped if I try to cut it. So, any idea?”
“…”
“Wallace?”
“…”
“Are you there?”
“Sorry kiddo… Can you repeat that for me?”
“Okay… It’s a mana infested mining drone with body made of crystal covered with a really tough armor plating. From the looks of it, the crystal and the armor are fused together, so I’m kind of at loss here on where to start. You see, the crystal is a bit tough and my skinning knife will only get chipped if I try to cut it. So, any idea?”
“…What the hell have you been doing, kiddo?”
“Hmm? Well, you know… Hunting blazing tails, taming a freezing tail, confusing god of chaos… Nothing too much.”
“Yeah, sure, and next you are going to say you have a god for a pet!”
“… Yeah, sure… That’s… Going a bit too far…” I laughed a bit dryly here.
“Anyway… Why don’t you try chiseling your way with a spare sword?”
“Will that work?”
“HOW THE HELL WOULD AH KNOW? Ah may have skinned dragons, but at least they still had skin and bones! Not Cygnasdamming crystals and armor plating,!”
Waah! There was no need to shout!
Anyway, I used the idea he gave me and tried using a common sword that dropped for Yuu as a chisel and slowly chipped my way through the crystal until I could feel the separation between it and the plate, then yanked the plate back through sheer force.
Crystal-infested Aclhemysteel plating (3.1 ingots)A piece of armor plating made with the long forgotten recipe of alchemysteel. The Crystal infestation made the legendary alloy even stronger
(crafting material)
(Insert shiny eyes here)
I could get around 3 ingots per drone killed, plus two ingots of the crystal from the body! I think I’m in heaven here.
I turned towards the next group I could see up ahead and started to get a bit fidget with excitement, my eyes probably changed into a pair of plating as I raced ahead towards them, sword and shield in hand.
Hmm? Why is the ground suddenly getting closer?
-5 (665/670)
…
Ouch.
“Geez… Thanks god I had Yuu waiting for you…” Hanbei said from behind me. “I had the feeling that you would do that after seeing those greedy eyes.”
I lifted my face from the ground and looked to the kitsune at my side, who was looking at me with some guilty eyes as she held the spear low, probably what she used to trip me.
“I… I am sorry, Shishou… But Han-chan said that…” She started to explain herself a bit awkwardly, and I just smiled at her while petting her head.
“No need to be worried. You weren’t doing anything wrong.” I said while gently petting her, making her give me a slight smile. I turned to the others and gave a slightly awkward smile while looking at them. “Sorry, I got a bit excited there and almost did something silly.”
Yagver gave me a smile and shook his head.
“No need to worry. We all get like that some times.” He told me in a cheerful tone.
“Yeah… I won’t do that mistake again…” I said while looking at the group ahead of us.
In front of us was a large area with not one, but two groups one on each side. The whole room was made into a large semi-circular area with progressive steps downwards, remembering me of an amphitheater or one of those ONU rooms where people gather to discuss.
Of course, the whole room was in ruins, with the left side of the back room completely blocked by rubble, and the steps weathered down by the years into a slope. As always, no remains of the furniture was left, as many crystals pierced the whole area and covered most of the walls and ceilings.
If our map was still valid, if we take the exit through the right side of the bottom, we should be only two rooms away from the mini-bosses room.
I turned to the group of mobs in our way and said.
“Yeah, I won’t do that again.” I looked back at the group and said. “This time I’ll say it right.”
I took a deep breath.
“WARGON JENKINS!”
And charged ahead.
…
“I’m a happy golem! I’m a happy golem!
I mine, I skin; I craft, I win!
I’m a happy golem! I’m a happy golem!
The veins are mine! So full of shine!
I’m a happy golem! I’m a happy golem!
The drones are dead! Their plates are left!
So I’m a happy golem! I’m a happy golem!”
I sang cheerfully as I removed the plating of my two drones worth of the mobs. Just as I finished my first one, I felt as two hands grabbed each of my shoulders. One was small a thin, while the other was bigger and covered in fur with some claws at the end.
I turned towards the Hanbei and Xredder who were looking at me with dead eyes and beamed them a smile.
Afterwards I took two minutes worth of beating from each one of them, with Forgotten healing me to keep me alive.
Et tu, Forgotten? I thought you considered me your guide!
After the two felines were finally satisfied with delivering pain to my person, and I was barely able to feel my limbs, they left with a smile in their faces and said nothing more. Not that they spoke anything during the entire beating, but the message was crystal clear for me.
The next few rooms were without any further… Accidents. And we quickly reached the room right before the boss, and when we saw the room ahead, I saw Hanbei extending her hand towards Lenny and getting two silver coins from a pouting harpy. I raised an eyebrow to the scene and she told me cheerfully.
“I bet that there wouldn’t be just a single mini-boss!”
I widened my eyes and nodded. Then she did win the bet, because:
Foreman drone Pk1 [lvl 20] [Boss]
Equivalent level: 24
(aggressive)HP: 6000/6000
Energy: 0/100
-Rapid fire Crystal
-Safety measures
-Procedural execution
Heavy-duty Mining drone C4-T [lvl 20] [Boss]
Equivalent level: 24
(aggressive)HP: 7000/7000
-Heavy-duty plating
-Drilling protocols
-Crush boulderHeavy-duty plating (9) (infinite duration)
It was a scene that kind of reminded me of that old comedy movie with a fat, short guy, and a tall skinny one.
The foreman drone was much skinnier and feebler looking than the other drones we found so far, and if we checked his skills, he didn’t even have the Heavy-plating skill, which was wonderful news for us, as well as being horrible, because there is now way in hell that can actually be good. From his gauntlet-like hands came some long, scary looking crystal fingers that looked like it could cut boulder like butter. Actually, a good part of his body wasn’t even covered, with his fore-arm, thighs and neck completely at show.
The heavy-duty was a bit shorter, but was much, much bulkier. He looked like one of those guys we fought earlier with drill-hands. Except that his were massive and had even meaner looking ends. Besides, from here it looked like his armor was around as thick as my arm, and that is scary as hell.
And did I mention that the SHORT one was around 1.8 meters and the tall one was around 2 meters? The smaller drones were at most at my shoulder height!
“Okay. Just so we can be clear, I’m not liking this already.” I said looking at the comedy duo standing still, each on the side of a huge door.
“Yeah… I really don’t think my attacks can pass through that armor…” Xredder said looking at the fat one.
“I actually don’t like the lanky one.” Yagver said with a grimace. “He looks too… Weak? That is not a good sign. And that Energy indicator? That’s bad. Really bad.”
“But did you see the big one’s buff?” Han-chan said while focusing on the buff beneath fatty’s window. Different from mobs skills, you can still check their buffs and debuffs if they have one. “That thing reduces damage taken by ten percent per stack!” She said with an confused voice. “But it also reduces movement speed by ten percent, which is a bit odd…”
I looked at the duo and once again a took a quick read at their skills. The names are very similar to the skills that most of the drones had before we fought.
“I think those skills… Are improved versions of the smaller drones.” I said while looking back at the group. “And if I’m right, that safety measure is probably…” The group widened their eyes and gulped loudly at this. It seems that they got the idea.
“Then, maybe that energy is for Safety measures?” Lenny said after some time, and I nodded after some thought. “Then, what about that procedural execution? What does it do different from hurried execution?”
“Procedural can be understood as the act of repeating something over time.” Yuu gave her thoughts. “Maybe he gets better each time he casts the skill?”
And this is a freaking MINING-BOSS?
See what I did there?
We took our time before jumping in and kicking their alchemysteel butts by planning our basic strategy. For now, our biggest problem was the lanky one, as if he kept casting safety measures we would be pretty much dead in no time, so we should focus on him. Since drilly-billy is untankable, it would be best to leave someone kiting him.
“Kiting is when someone keeps moving with an enemy focused on him, this way he can avoid skills and the tank has one less problem to deal with.” I explained to our dear noob fox, who nodded avidly afterwards.
In the end, it was decided that I would be the one to kite the boss, as Yuu had a few spells she found easier to use when standing still and Lenny loses half of her damage if she isn’t standing still at the time of the shot.
So I took out my bow and prepared myself for the fight and we all walked together towards the fight ahead of us.
Until…
“Please, wait for a moment!” Yuu suddenly said. We all looked at her surprised and she blushed slightly embarrassed from the sudden attention. “My father is calling me…”
Why is it always on the time for the boss?