CHAPTER 4

Matthias leaned back from the Golem and inspected his work. The process had taken four days and four of his five remaining gold NEX bars, but he had completed his first Masterwork Golem. On top of that, he had upgraded the other nine Golems to be more competent in the work they were doing. At the moment he was only using them as hard labor to expand and clear the cavern and the entrance tunnel, but they were able to follow more complex commands and would be able to be sold at a much higher price than he had bought them.

He opened the stats for his strongest creation to date and marveled at what he had accomplished with {POWER OVERWHELMING}. He had stretched the ability to its limits to find the best and most efficient combinations of abilities and powers, using the {BAZAAR} and {SHOP} to research which ones would work best together beyond what his ability could do by itself. And then, at last, he had succeeded in unlocking the construct's stats in the process.

MASTERWORK GOLEM 1

{RACE}

STONE GOLEM

{CLASS}

PRIME CONSTRUCT

{STATS}

STRENGTH

17

AGILITY

3

POWER

1

WISDOM

0

LUCK

0

{CLASS GRADE}

RARE

{ABILITIES}

GOLEM COMMANDER

BASIC LEADERSHIP

BASIC ATTACK

BASIC DEFEND

BASIC FOREMAN

BASIC CONSTRUCT

“Strong as hell but slower than almost anything else,” he muttered. “But perfect for what I need it for. You will definitely be useful.”

He leaned back and looked at the near humanoid construct of rock. A Masterwork Golem was closer in proportions to a person than the other basic version made out of rock. Those were thick, stout, and short. The Masterwork, on the other hand, was tall, lithe, and powerfully built. It was capable of wielding weapons, and wearing armor, and had a base level of sentience that made it far more intelligent and capable than others made of the same class. It was, for all intents and purposes, the height of what was possible for such a basic material.

“You are now in charge of the other Golems,” Matthias ordered. “Your immediate goal is to secure the front tunnel and conceal the entrance while still ensuring it is accessible. Once that is accomplished report back to me.

It turned its head to him, eyes glowing a deep blood red. “Yes… Master,” it ground out it a voice that sounded like two rocks grinding together. The construct then turned and went into the tunnel to fulfill his commands.

Now that the Golems were situated he could focus on getting some actual creatures in his menagerie. Purchasing and upgrading cheap creatures with deadly abilities using his conversion abilities would be key to building a NEX horde that would propel him forward toward his goals. The difficult part, and something that he continued to learn about as he conducted research, was that each creature required what amounted to its own biome. Fire Slimes required hot, lava-like environments to survive and thrive. Griffins required vast aerial domains. Drakes and Dragons needed a variety of environmental needs like water, caves, magma pools, and even piles of gold. All very, very expensive.

But not unachievable.

And while he could purchase them from the {BAZAAR} and the Corporations listed there, he could also locate and capture wild monsters to breed in captivity.

Now that Matthias had a group of workers, namely the Golems, at his disposal he could give them abilities to manage and even train the monsters. Not only that, but those same workers would build the very environments that they would live in, and he could make more.

Matthias learned during his alteration of the Masterwork Golem that his ability could now create very basic Rock Golems from scratch. The basic versions were even cheaper than the ones provided by Creature Holdings LLC, although their Golems came with basic abilities. But if he just needed labor? Ten power a Golem. Now that was dirt cheap.

He would create worker Golems and command Golems, all led by his Masterwork Golem to build the various biomes in large, excavated caverns. He would then breed the creatures, find contracts for specific types, and utilize {POWER OVERWHELMING} to alter them to fit the client's request. Based on his experience with the Golems so far, he was sure that his ability would allow him to create the basic versions once he had edited one to a certain extent. Matthias wasn’t quite sure what that threshold was as of yet, but he would find out.

Matthias stood up and headed to the tunnel where the Golems were working. The noise was immense, as the rocky constructs clearing the area and fortifying the floors, walls, and ceiling were very loud. Wincing, he quickly located a pile of stone that had been stacked near the side of one of the walls. Heading over, he targeted it with {POWER OVERWHELMING} and focused on the intent of creating a new Golem.

{POWER OVERWHELMING}

BASIC GOLEM CREATION

MATERIAL – ROCK

AMOUNT – 500 KILOS

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

COST – 11 POWER

“Holy shit that’s a lot of stone,” he grunted. He eyed the pile that was in front of him, seeing that it was just over one hundred kilos. That was quite a bit less than he needed. He called one of the Golems over and ordered it to shift more stone into the pile. The rocky construct obeyed, moving and working quickly to shift the amount of rock and tunnel debris needed to more than quadruple the size of the waste pile. After a few minutes Matthias had all the stone he needed, so he activated his ability.

Most of the stone in the pile turned into a grey slush-like slurry and melted down into a large puddle. The remaining rock remained in its natural state as it hadn’t been utilized by his ability for anything yet. Eyeing the puddle and wondering what it was going to do, he got a bit closer. That single step, however, taught him two very important lessons.

The first was that the puddle was hot. Beyond hot. He had crossed some threshold hold and was nearly incinerated as the hairs on his arms immediately melted. If he hadn’t had innate resistance to heat he would have died immediately.

Matthias leaped back with a cry, landing on his rear as he eyed the remains of the sleeves of his suit jacket and pants. They had simply ceased existing due to the absolutely insane heat being contained within the invisible borders surrounding the puddle. With no warning, the grey good shot upwards and filled out the silhouette of a person. Stopping at the height of the other Golems, it rapidly filled itself in with more grey goo until the entire puddle had been used. After a short few minutes, there was a roughhewn, brand-new construct standing in front of him looking like it had just been hewn out of the tunnel wall itself.

“Note to self, stay the fuck outside the area that my abilities work in,” he muttered, then he paused as he recognized the offensive capabilities of {POWER OVERWHELMING}. “Second note to self, activate this under any bastard I instantly want to be vaporized.”

As he watched, the Golem slowly activated, its eyes becoming blood red as it powered up. After roughly a minute it turned to him, awaiting orders.

“Go join the others in their tasks. Check-in with the Masterwork Golem and it will direct you further,” Matthias ordered, watching the newly minted construct wander off. Its lumbering gait was heavy and slow, not ideal for anything other than very basic movement and labor. Blinking, he had another sudden thought.

He reached down and picked up a long, skinny piece of stone that weighed a kilo. Hefting it, he targeted it with his power, struggling to hold it from activating. Focusing, he imagined the humerus bone in the upper arm. Once he had a vivid picture in his mind and his intent was crystal clear, he let the restraints on the ability go. The stone in his hand shed flakes as it carved itself into a perfect replica of a human’s upper arm bone. The humorous bone. At least… he thought so.

“I… can make custom constructs in the shape of anything. It doesn’t have to be just a blocky rock humanoid,” he muttered to himself. “I wonder why no one has done this before? If I can do an arm… can I do any other shape? Definitely need to look into this later.”

Matthias took the arm bone back to his desk and set it down. Sitting, he winced. Stone seats were not comfortable. Period. Eying the bone in contemplation for another moment or two, he turned his attention back to the {BAZAAR}. The storage unit that was hidden several hours away would need to be retrieved. That was the most important step for now, as the materials and resources contained within would give him a launching pad to outfit the rest of the Headquarters with the equipment needed. The Assembler in particular would be needed, as he would be able to create nearly anything by feeding it the proper materials, saving him immensely on NEX and Power.

Heavy footsteps drew his eyes up as he watched the Masterwork Golem walk into the cavern proper and make its way over to him. It stopped in front of the desk and said, “Task complete. Awaiting instructions.”

He winced. The voice was rough, loud, and sounded not entirely unlike a somewhat quiet landslide. Conversating was definitely out of the question until he could fix that. He focused intent into {POWER OVERWHELMING}, forming a blue line leading out of the cavern.

Matthias pointed a finger up the tunnel leading to the outside world. “Take four Basic Golems and retrieve the storage token from where I hid it. Follow the blue line there and retrieve it. Once you are there pick it up and follow the green line back. Put it on the floor over there away from anything else.” The Masterwork Golem turned and immediately set out to complete its task, this time without a word.

“That’s one thing less to do. Now why don’t we go take a look at what’s around us exactly? Finding a basic town or city to trade in would be nice, but I…” he paused. “And I’m talking to myself again. Fuck.”

He held no reservations that there were monsters in this world. The giant cat that used him as a momentary perch was proof of that. What was still in question was what kinds of races, if any, were on the planet as well. Were they friendly to other races? Was there pure xenophobia? Were they land-based, or in the oceans and seas? If there were sentient races, what was their level of technological development?

So many questions that would affect how he would move forward and conduct himself. So very many questions. And he needed answers sooner rather than later. The Golems were useless as scouts. Too large, too loud, and far too unwieldy. Matthias had zero illusion of them being mistaken for a monster and attacked should they be discovered.

No. He needed something far more versatile. Something that was fast, could report back and could help locate very specific things. Something smart. Possibly even sentient. Something he could afford. Matthias sighed heavily and put his face in his hands. It didn’t look like he had much choice. There was only one creature that could possibly fit that description and wouldn’t cost him a fortune he didn’t have.

He needed a fairy.

Fairies were, for all intents and purposes, the most annoying creatures in existence. At least to Matthias, they were. They never stopped talking, were know-it-alls, were insanely difficult to work with, and took massive upkeep in the form of food, lodging, and care. They were also immensely particular with whom they worked with. But they were dirt cheap, often signing away as indentured servants due to them being so incredibly particular.

He drew his hands down his face as he thought about the annoying steps he would have to go through to keep a fairy happy. But on the other hand, they had some serious upsides too. They could cast defensive, and offensive magics, were fast, damn near invisible, and extremely quiet. On top of that, they were excellent report writers… at least if you found the right fairy for the job that was.

But they still annoyed the shit out of him.

Unlike previous times he had hired fairies, usually through HR at Trion, he would have to search the {BAZAAR} manually to fill this particular need. Opening up the screen, he leafed through the dozens of corporations offering fairies. Not seeing any one particular company that would fit his needs, he ended up selecting one that seemed the most… fairy-like.

Rainbow Land Incorporated was a fairy-built, fairy-run corporation that was all about… fairies. That was it. That was all they offered. Indentured contracts for thousands and thousands and thousands of fairies. Fairies of every make, model, and persuasion.

Mathias rapidly clicked off that portion of the company’s screen. That bit was… simply not for him. He didn’t even know how that would work with the tiny magical creatures being that tiny, and he didn’t want to know. Some people weren’t into all kinds of weird things.

Finding a search box, he put in several parameters that he was looking for. Surprisingly, a fairy that was capable of both scouting and administrative duties was unusual and there were not many contracts for sale. In fact, there were only six fairies that met those parameters period. Four were expensive, insanely so for a fairy. The fifth was a Death Fairy, not something he wanted to fuck with. Just thinking about it sent shivers down his spine.

The last fairy, however, was perfect. An entry-level scout with rare skills in administration, an Explorer Fairy would meet his needs perfectly as a scout and assistant. Matthias hit the purchase option, immediately buying out the contract for five thousand NEX. He only had a second to look up as the fairy coalesced over the Corporate Core in a soft flash of light.

The fairy was tiny, a mere six inches tall at most. Female, she sat on top of the blood-red core and looked around the cavern. As she examined her surroundings, Matthias, in turn, examined her. She was a fairy unlike any other he had seen before. Wearing leather armor, with a tiny needle blade on her hip and a fairy-sized backpack on her back, she shattered his expectations of what a fairy should look like.

Right up until she spoke.

“Well, this place is a fucking dump,” she chittered, eyes locking onto him as she blurred over to float in front of his face. “I’m Alyssa, Explorer Fairy extraordinaire. You can praise me now. Let’s talk accommodations and compensation.”

Fuck, this was going to be a long day.