The crab and his companions had arrived at the entrance carved into the side of the mountain. Two giant pillars stood to each side of the archway, countless runes and glyphs engraved on them all the way to the top. There was a gaping hole leading inside, into a long, dark tunnel that extended out of sight.

Standing outside the maw of the mountain, Balthazar could hear echoing creaks and the haunting whistle of wind coming from within.

“Sounds ominous…” he said. “Who’s ready to go inside?”

He turned to his two friends, who did not seem all too thrilled to go in.

“Druma think spooky cave is dangerous, boss,” the apprehensive goblin said as he nervously rubbed the hem of his magical cape.

Balthazar sighed. “What about you, Blue? Surely you aren’t scared, right?”

The drake glared at the entrance into the cave from the corner of her eye, before throwing her head back in disdain, letting out a “hmph!” accompanied by a small puff of smoke.

“Guys, I know it doesn’t look like the most inviting of places,” the merchant said. “But we have to go in there. This is the only hope we have of restoring Bouldy. I know you guys want to see our big guy back too, right?”

A sympathetic frown formed above Druma’s big eyes. “Boss think way to bring Bouldy back is there?”

“The old wizard thinks so. And I believe him.”

The small assistant nodded, staring emptily at the dark cave ahead, his eyes still filled with concern.

“But I can’t do this alone,” Balthazar continued. “Who knows what I will find inside. And I can’t risk failing. Not at this. It’s too important. So I… I need your help. I need my loyal right-pincer goblin by my side.” He turned to Blue. “And I definitely need my mighty drake to cover us too.”

Druma tightened his grasp around his magical staff and his nervous expression turned into hesitant determination. “Druma help boss bring Bouldy back!”

The azure drake looked at the goblin for a moment—as if measuring him up—and then turned to the crab and gave him an affirmative nod.

“Alright, into the ominous hole we go!” Balthazar exclaimed, before lowering his voice into a murmur. “Oh, you better not have sent me to the wrong place, you old lunatic…”

Stepping into the howling maw of the mountain, the group soon encountered a gigantic pair of bronze-colored gates, made of some strange alloy Balthazar had never seen before, like metal with the porous texture of stone.

“Maybe I’ll just knock?” the crab said, raising one claw toward the door.

Before his pincer reached the metal, a humming came from his backpack, pulling his attention to it.

“Huh?” said the merchant as he retrieved the hexagonal artifact Tweedus had given him the day before.

It hummed and started shaking in his pincer the closer he brought it to the gates, which in turn reacted with a loud creak, slowly opening for the bearer of the Golemancer’s Mark.

“Well, that was easy!” Balthazar said, shoving the mark back in his pack after it stopped humming and vibrating.

As the party slowly made their way inside, the crab’s eyes soon started adapting to the low light levels. What initially was a rough rocky floor had turned into polished stone, and a dim light grew in the distance as they delved deeper into the tunnel.

The speck of light turned into an opening as they reached it, leading into a grandiose hall, tall and wide enough to nearly lose sight of where it ended. The chamber was lit from high above by basins hanging from the ceiling, each one burning some unknown fuel that gave the flames an unnatural orange glow that seemed to permeate everything with its warm color.

Pillars and columns extended so far up to the distant ceiling that Balthazar could spot a layer of fog above, like a self-contained cloud system. The walls were meticulously carved with complex runes and diagrams the crab could not understand, their composition appearing to be some kind of copper-like stone he had also never seen before.

“Oh boy, this place sure is… orange,” the merchant commented, placing both pincers on the sides of his shell.

Along both sides of the hall were rows of square pedestals, each one with a statue standing on it. They depicted different kinds of armored warriors holding different types of weapons, their immobile visages quietly reflecting the dancing light of the orange flames above off their polished coppery surface.

“A bit eerie, but not as dangerous as I expected,” Balthazar said as he pulled his Monocle of Exposition out of his backpack and placed it in front of his eye.

Right away a big line of text appeared above his field of view.

[Hall of the Golemancers]

“Ah, good! This must be the right place then,” the crab said, moving his gaze to the nearest statue.

[Forge Guardian - Level 25]

Frowning his eyestalks, the merchant stepped forward to inspect the strange statue closer.

“Why does a statue have a leve—”

As the crab approached the pedestal, a loud noise of stone rumbling made him jump in place as the statue came to life, rigidly lifting the sword in its grasp and descending from its resting platform.

“Oh, that’s why!”

Skittering back to his friends, the startled crustacean started quickly rummaging through his backpack.

“Come on, come on! Where is… Aha!”

Pulling his claw out, the merchant revealed the wizard’s gift again.

“I have a Golemancer’s Mark, stay back!” he yelled, holding the runed hexagon out for the statue to see.

The construct, however, did not seem impressed, and continued marching forward toward the eight-legged intruder. There was no expression on its face, only the cold surface of a sculpted helmet with no hint of emotion as it carried on its empty and relentless advance.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

“Argh, does this thing not have eyes?!” Balthazar said, stumbling back as the guardian closed the distance between them.

“Boss!” Druma yelled from a few paces away. “Sir wizard say to press thingy to use it!”

“Oh, that’s right!” said the crab.

Just as the stone warrior raised its sword above him, Balthazar pressed the tip of his pincer into the center of the stone.

An orange glow pulsed outward through the stone and the statue suddenly froze in place.

Eyes wide, the merchant gulped as he stared up at the animated construct towering above him, sword held over its head.

A new line appeared in Balthazar’s system.

[Golemancer’s Mark duration: 30 minutes]

The statue moved again, but this time to calmly lower its weapon. With a stiff, mechanical turn, the guardian simply walked away, seemingly no longer interested in the crab or his companions.

As he watched it leave, Balthazar noticed all the other statues had also come alive and stepped down from their pedestals, each one moving through the chamber as if patrolling the halls.

“Phew, that was close,” the crab said. “Alright, let’s keep going, before this thing expires and these fellas get all murdery again.”

With a hurried pace, the group proceeded through the long hall, their tapping footsteps echoing all around the chamber as they moved between the animated statues, who simply ignored them now that Balthazar had activated the wizard’s artifact.

At the other end of the hall, they came upon a smaller corridor. And by smaller, the crab figured his entire bazaar could still fit inside it and have some room to spare.

Slowing their pace slightly now that they had left the intimidating guardians behind in the hall, the group moved through the corridor with cautious curiosity.

The walls were covered with more carvings and etchings that seemed to depict golems and other constructs in great detail, each section of stone appearing slightly older than the last. It was like looking through an historical record of different constructs from different ages and their incremental improvements over the generations. From small child-sized constructs made of clay in the older, more worn out wall tablets, all the way to the more polished and modern stones depicting gigantic golems made of sturdy metals.

Huh… I wonder why there are no golemancers in this place anymore. Maybe it was the commute. The road accesses outside are terrible.

The crab came upon a cross-shaped intersection of corridors. Not knowing which way to go, he scoffed in annoyance, until his eyes landed on a plaque on a nearby wall.

Walking closer, Balthazar found that the sign also contained strange glyphs like most everything else in that place, which he could not read. Except this time, his monocle displayed a few lines over the sign, seemingly translating its contents.

South - Entrance Hall

West - Golem Parking (1st hour free of charge)

East - Gift Shop & Indoor Outhouses

North - Storage Rooms & Golem Forge

The hell is an indoor outhouse?!

Coming further and further to the conclusion that golemancers were a very odd bunch, the merchant decided to just shrug and keep going north.

The corridors extended for what felt like an eternity with no ending in sight, making the crab keep nervously checking his system for the mark’s protection.

[Golemancer’s Mark duration: 23 minutes]

Picking up the pace, Balthazar skittered faster down the polished stone corridor, a ferrous scent coupled with a vague warmth in the air telling him that the forge had to be close.

As they turned a corner and a brighter light at the end of the hallway came into view, the merchant noticed there was an archway to his right, leading to another room.

Probably the storage the sign mentioned. Doesn’t matter, I can see the forge up a—

His thoughts derailed and his eyes widened as he glanced at the nearby room.

Inside, sitting on a shelf at the very center of the chamber, was a single ingot of pure gold, shiny and beautiful, softly reflecting the light on its perfectly smooth surface as if to beckon the crab to come closer.

“Boss?” said Druma, a few paces behind. “Why is boss’s mouth open like that?”

The slack jawed merchant did not respond, lost as he was in the enthralling appeal of the golden treasure inside that storage room.

I need it!

His eyestalks glanced down the corridor, at the glow of the forge ahead, and then at the Golemancer’s Mark timer at the corner of his sight.

Still 20 minutes left. The ingot is right there. Just a quick in and out. What could go wrong?

“Let’s go,” the crab muttered to himself as he skittered into the storage hall.

“Boss?!” the goblin assistant called, looking confused.

“I’ll be right back, Druma! You guys just wait there for a moment.”

Pinching his pincers in anticipation, Balthazar made a beeline to the shelf that contained the golden ingot.

Finally, after so long, he’d finally get his claws on another bar of gold. Images of his glorious golden carapace floated around his mind already, plastering a big smile on his face.

A sign on the wall next to the entrance caught his attention. Like the one before, it was written in some ancient language, but his monocle revealed a line of text upon inspection.

[Golem Forge Storage Room]

[Registered golemancers only]

Good thing I got this nifty mark thing! Balthazar thought, continuing into the room with a shrug.

As he walked around a few empty cabinets to reach the place where the ingot was, the crab saw another sign at the start of the rows of storage shelves.

[Stored materials are not for public use]

Good thing there’s no public left around this place anymore!

[Official forge personnel only]

Golemancer’s pass, baby!

[Restricted access beyond this point (even if carrying a Golemancer’s Mark)]

Oh no, my monocle is a little foggy, I can’t read that last part!

Hurriedly skittering between the shelves, Balthazar reached the one containing his coveted treasure.

“Ugh, come on…” the merchant muttered, stretching his arm as high as he could.

The shelf, clearly not built for the superior anatomy of giant crustaceans, was too tall for him to reach the top, where the shiny beacon of opulence rested.

“Just… a little… further…”

Frustrated and pressed for time, Balthazar considered his options. There were no stools or other platforms he could use nearby. The storage was mostly empty, save for a few other chunks of rock and metal, all lacking any shiny appeal to them and thus entirely worthless in the crab’s eyes.

Calling Druma over was an option, but the goblin wouldn’t be able to reach the top shelf on his own either. He would have to stand on the crab’s shell, and that was a tough fight between Balthazar’s pride and his greed for gold.

“Argh!” he exclaimed in frustration, wrapping his pincer around one of the shelf’s supports and shaking it vigorously. “Give me your gold!”

To his surprise, the piece of furniture obliged. Maybe for being old, or perhaps because the crab was just that intimidating, the shelf wobbled, and the ingot slipped from the top, dropping to the floor with a heavy thud.

“Oh,” Balthazar said, looking around with surprise. “Well… There’s no one left in this place, so it can’t count as stealing.”

With a shrug and a big grin, the crab lifted the ingot from the floor with both claws.

Huffing and puffing, he carefully stored the dense metal into his backpack when something clattered past the next row of shelves behind him.

“I told you to wait back there, Druma. I’m almost done he—” He lifted his gaze from his pack. “Oh, crabapples…”

A bronze statue stomped forward between the storage shelves, carrying a huge halberd made of the same material as its body.

[Storage Keeper - Level 30]

The guardian, even taller than the ones from the entry hall, walked toward the crab with a menacing and determined pace.

“Golemancer’s Mark! Golemancer’s Mark!” Balthazar exclaimed nervously as he backed away, holding up the stone hexagon for the construct to see.

But the animated statue did not seem to care.

With a ground-shaking stomp, the keeper caught up to the looting crab and leaned down with surprising swiftness for its size.

With just one hand, the guardian lifted the trespasser from the ground by the top of his carapace.

“Ow! Let me go! That hurts!” Balthazar yelled as he felt the crushing grasp begin to crack his shell and a flashing warning appeared in his eyes.

[Health: 190/240]