"I'm sure that golem is fat enough to have its gravitational force, so a Blackhole would be useless."
"An Implosion didn't seem strong enough either, as if simply shook it off as if you threw a rock at it. Maybe if you just make the Arcane Auger bigger?"
"For it to stomp me in the meanwhile? Maybe I could make some kind of Sniping Auger like I shoot it from far away and chip at him little by little. What do you think?"
"I think the moving rock is just going to, well, move away. It was pretty smart, and even if it didn't avoid the attack, it could just stop it with its reinforced body. Oh, and since he's part Blumar, there's a big chance magical attacks won't be too efficient. Heh, the worst enemy for you."
"...Should I just scratch all that and ask Sahro to take care of it? Nah, never in hell I'm asking that guy for help."
Glenn and Diamanes were discussing an attack plan to take care of the Three-Eyed Golem, (the name was a courtesy from Diamanes), while on their way back to the camp. Even though Glenn had broken his left arm, the situation wasn't too grim. There were no traces of any necromancers, or even undead for that fact, and the only danger stemmed from the golem boss. The smaller ones with only a single crystal were pretty easy to take care of, mainly because they were dumb as fuck, and also thanks to their slowness.
Glenn had met another one of these golems on his way back and had found out quite a few things: first, a Magic Bullet wasn't enough to destroy the crystal, as it simply bounced off it, while a Drilling Bullet would shatter it as if it was glass.
It seemed like the jewels were extremely tough to scratch, but once the smallest bit of damage was made to it, just blowing on the crystal would destroy it. For Glenn who had spells with high penetration, it was a walk in the park to take care of these golems.
The young man's little expedition only took a few hours, so the sun was still hanging high in the sky when he arrived back in the camp. Sahro raised an eyebrow when he spotted him and his broken arm, but didn't say anything. Glenn dragged himself to a shaded spot and carefully looked at his broken arm.
'I would have loved to have a priest of Onnea around to take care of that. What am I supposed to do, put a splinter on it or something? Shit, I should have listened better back then...' He thought bitterly, wincing at each pang of pain that the broken limb shot through his body. Sahro crouched in front of him, smirking while staring at the broken arm.
"Well, well, what happened with you?" The Black Heir asked curiously. Glenn licked his dry lips, before taking out a water flask from his dimensional pouch and drinking a sip from it.
"...I tried punching a rock and went too hard at it," He replied after emptying the whole flask in his mouth. Sahro rested his single arm on the pommel of his sword as his eyes widened, an amused smirk hanging on his lips.
"For real?"
Glenn sighed.
"No, of course not. I met the golems Leveifre told me about," He scowled and poked at his left arm, biting his lower lip at the pain. Sahro chuckled.
"Wow, you got your ass handed over to you by a moving rock? Crap, I get why you look like shit now," He scoffed, rubbing his stump thoughtlessly. Glenn clenched his teeth, before giving up trying to fix his arm himself.
"I met two different kinds of golems for now, one with a single crystal and the size of a house, made of very dense stone. I don't know if they're made of marble or some kind of stuff, but they are quite tough. The best way to take them out is breaking the crystal on their forehead, just as Lefeivre told me. They are stupid and slow, but their attacks are very powerful due to the heaviness behind each punch or stomp," Glenn explained. Sahro nodded, listening intently.
"The other kind I met was a golem thrice that size, and with three crystals instead of one. It was smart, fast, and much more dangerous than its smaller counterparts. Additionally, it was composed of a mixture of both Blumar and the dense stone I mentioned, making it almost impervious to my spells. I didn't try attacking it with a magically created weapon, but I'm pretty sure it's not going to be efficient," Glenn concluded, before shaking his head dejectedly.
"...The worst opponent for me. Shit, I miss my axe now..." The young man despaired. Sahro stood back up, dusting off his shoulders.
"Well, it seemed like you're going to have a hard time taking care of it," The Black Heir said with a mocking tone. Glenn leaned his head backward, annoyance flashing on his face.
"...Wait, maybe I should take care of the big bad rock for you, then? You know that my specialty is cutting things up, after all. Tough rock or not, I'll just split it in two!" Sahro grinned, his finger rapping against the sheath of his curved sword.
Glenn opened his mouth to reply, before closing it.
'Wait, maybe I should let him go there. Heh, maybe he'll take care of it, or maybe he'll get stomped just like me. I'm kind of curious now,' He thought, before nodding at Sahro.
"Sure, go and have fun. I'll stay at the camp to guard it, I can't go back fighting it with my broken arm after all," He responded nonchalantly, bringing a look of surprise to Sahro's face. The Black Heir didn't know what to say and only shrugged in answer.
Glenn quickly gave him the directions to go and meet the Three-Eyed golem and dragged himself to a vantage point. The heat was crushing him, and the pain of his broken arm wasn't helping.
"...Maybe I should try to make some stronger shields or something?" He mumbled, trying his best to ignore the pain. Glenn sat with crossed legs on a marble wall, flinching when Javier suddenly appeared in front of him. The Pale Son glanced at the broken arm, then at Glenn, and back to the broken arm. Without giving the young man a chance to ask a question, Javier grabbed Glenn's arm and his shoulder tightly.
The young man gulped.
Crack!
Javier dusted his hands off, his face as blank as ever, before jumping back down to whatever business he was attending. Glenn's forehead pressed against the warm ground in pain while he clenched his left arm in shock.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
'Argh!'
It hurt so much that he lost the capacity to think for a little while until the pain finally receded. The young man hesitantly moved his arm, discovering in surprise that whatever Javier did, it fixed his arm.
"Wow. Uh, I don't know what to say. Couldn't he have warned me before, though?" Glenn was dumbfounded. Diamanes sneered.
'A man of many talents, it seems.'
Glenn nodded, looking at the camp from his perch. Lefeivre was giving orders here and there while the workers were excavating marble blocks one after the other, while the mercenaries under Reed were patrolling the area. The young man knew the men wouldn't be of much help against a golem, but at least they helped cover ground and would warn him if he missed something.
Sigh.
The young man leaned backward, sweat dripping down his face and back. He looked at the marble he was sitting on, trying to imagine it rising and morphing into a small umbrella to protect him from the sun. He let out a strand of Mana, but the ground only squirmed weirdly before his magic dissipated.
"...I'm still not great with ground-type magic," Glenn sneered, before Projecting his Mana Heart outside. It had been a while since he had used that training exercise Redan had taught him, and he couldn't do anything else for now. He held out his right palm upward, the Magellanic Clouds appearing above it, floating silently in a mystical hue. The young man willed the Projection to widen, marveling at the magical sight. It didn't matter how many times he saw it, his Mana Heart was still as breathtaking as ever. Shining so brightly with nebulae, clusters, and young, massive stars that shone with a golden hue embracing them...
'Huh? A golden hue?'
Glenn was lost in thought when he suddenly realized the presence of a golden mist that had never existed before. It wasn't coming from the stars but rather resembled dust that covered everything like a blanket of golden powder.
"The fuck is that?" He frowned, trying to zoom in on the clouds, but nothing happened. It was just a golden-colored cloud, floating around them without much influence on the rest of the Mana Heart. Glenn rubbed his chin, looking at the mist with a troubled expression.
"...Wait, is that the remnants of my Third Circle?" He whispered, resting his head on his fist.
"Sure looks like it, anyway. You still don't want to tell me what that [REDACTED] stuff around how you got your Third Circle is, by the way?" Diamanes commented aloud, grinning shamelessly. Glenn ignored him, trying to will the golden mist to move, but nothing happened.
'It's just...sitting there. I don't know what to think of it, honestly...' He thought rather suspiciously. After observing the golden mist for a few more minutes, he shrugged and concentrated back on his main objective: getting back said Third Circle. It was all very well not having any Mana and not being able to use Diamanes' only interesting skill, but it was seriously starting to get on his nerves.
"Hey, you can still use me to "take" spells, you know?" The entity tried to defend itself, without much success.
'Let's think about it... When I received my First Circle, it was thanks to that steampunk machine back then, whatever its name was. The Second Circle was created when I managed to create my first spell possessing the attribute of my Mana Heart. What would be the next step, then? Simply gathering Mana and forcing the Circle to expand is seemingly a terrible option, so there has to be a better one that isn't just "enlightenment" or some other mystical bullshit...'
Glenn sighed, twisting his thumbs together.
'My "temporary" Third Circle was created thanks to the particular situation and my link with Onnea, but it was only a crutch to let me destroy the Heart of Darkness, but I didn't satisfy any 'personal' requirements to get it.'
"Pretend I'm not here, you know, it doesn't offend me at all," commented Diamanes sarcastically, but Glenn continued to ignore him, too focused on trying to regain his power. He felt he'd found the thread of the solution, but it was extremely fragile and was swaying in the wind.
'Let me think... Could it be that instead of relying on enlightenment, I should try and find a way to 'understand' my Mana Heart, like back with my Second Circle, somehow 'forcing' enlightenment? This is stupidly complicated... Shit, can't I just gather Mana and naturally level up or something? Killing stuff isn't even beneficial to me...'
"Oh, so you're not interested in the money you make by killing shit?" Diamanes sneered. Glenn nodded with a smile.
'Yeah, I take that back. Nonetheless, it doesn't get me one inch closer to that damned Circle.'
He silently made the Projection of his Mana Heart spin, the stars shining their mystical light on him, his face plunged in deep thought.
'Let's try to start somewhere. So far, what do I understand of my Mana Heart? I somehow know that its name is the Magellanic Clouds, and most spells that I created are affiliated with space and stars. Implosion was, as its name lets one guess, the implosion of a star to create a powerful attack. Blackhole is even simpler to understand, while the Nitrogen Lance was a mix of Diamanes' power and a Blackhole. That makes me think, I have next to no spells that are using the specialty of my Mana Heart.'
Glenn summoned a tiny Blackhole in his palm, feeding it barely enough Mana to let it exist.
'I know I'm lazy, but relying on just two spells because they're already super strong seems like a good idea to stop developing. I need more tools to deal with the situations presented to me, and those tools would be hard to create especially powerful spells. What should I call them, though, since they're extremely different from more 'ordinary' spells like Magic Bullet or a Magic Wall? The 'Star' category? Sounds dumb as fuck...'
The sound of a wheel spinning echoed in his mind while the clapping of an illusory public accompanied it. Glenn sighed.
"And, for your greatest pleasure once again, the name specialist, Diamanes! Let the wheel spin..."
The clapping dimmed as Diamanes waited for the result of the wheel he created himself.
"...Let me check the result...Hah! Not a bad one!"
Glenn drew a deep breath and painfully rubbed his temple. He didn't know what was worse, between Diamanes' tomfoolery or the fact that the entity was better at naming things than he was.
"...The winner is..." A drum roll made the suspense grow, "...Astral Sorcery!" exclaimed Diamanes with a satisfied tone. Glenn nodded tiredly.
"Yeah, sure, Astral Sorcery it is, then. So, how does that make us progress, exactly?" The young man asked in an irritated manner. Diamanes smiled widely.
"You know how important it is to name things, Glenn! After all, without a name, it was as if it didn't exist or remained in the blur of incomprehension." The entity grinned wickedly, before sinking back into Glenn's purple left palm. The young man pondered silently.
'Things without a name do not exist...Are names that important? Wait, isn't the School of Word using 'names' to create spells? So, wouldn't names be equivalent to keys for power? And maybe the Dragon School is simply using these 'names' differently so that they don't need to be said aloud to work...'
'Not everything I say is a matter for you to think about so deeply, man...' Diamanes chuckled mockingly, making Glenn wince.
'I'm just trying to grab at any straws I can find, alright?'
A rumble coming from the depths of the quarry suddenly stopped him in his thoughts, as the closest marble wall suddenly crumbled, letting a figure in the dust dash through it. Glenn jumped to his feet, Mana swirling madly around his right arm. The figure suddenly appeared out of the dust cloud, bearing an enormous amount of Blumar under its arm. The figure's forehead was visible, a familiar white mark shining on it. Glenn squinted.
"...Sahro?"
The Black Heir ran without stopping, dropping the Blumar under his arm on the ground before turning back from where he came from. A dozen red lights shone through the dust, the ground trembling as gigantic weights moved toward the camp.
"Glenn, I have one good news and one bad news. Which one do you want?" Sahro exclaimed nervously, a crackle of electricity running around his unsheathed curved sword. Glenn jumped next to him, staring at the dozen golems approaching through the dust.
"...I feel like I know what the bad news is, so just give me the good one," Glenn clenched his teeth, a flurry of Drilling Bullets appearing around him. Sahro turned his head toward his friend, grinning with all his teeth.
"We're rich!"