It took the Golems nearly two days to excavate the room that Matthias required. During that time, he continued to work and experiment with various constructs. Alyssa also made several trips back to him with reports of what she had found, giving him another thing to do while he waited. The information she shared gave him a much better idea of the region that they were in.
Alyssa’s description allowed him to draw out a large map on the cavern wall. Turns out their island was large, much larger than many of the islands that surrounded them and larger than he thought it was. Their floating land mass contained four distinct biomes within it, the plains, the jungle, and forest, and a very small desert on the southern end. The creatures within those biomes were just as diverse as he had thought, particularly within the jungle.
According to Alyssa, there were dozens of large lizard-like species there. Most seemed to be herbivorous, but there was a half dozen predator-like species as well. She continued to ascertain that the three-meter-tall lizards with feathers were the most dangerous, as they hunted in packs and seemed highly intelligent compared to the others there.
The plains biome held the sabretooth lions, also pack creatures, as well as large buffalo, a fat land-based bird of some kind, and a porcupine that could fire its quills. The latter was also the size of a small truck. The plains also contained a plant that highly resembled wheat, although Alyssa couldn’t get close to them to check as it seemed to be the favored food for the porcupine.
There were no animals of any kind that the Fairy could find in the desert. Only an odd cactus with vines growing out of it. She did, however, see many, many mineral deposits. This confirmed to Matthias that there were natural resources here to exploit. Possibly even magical ores, but that remained to be seen. He cautioned her to avoid the desert for now, as something there didn’t quite seem right.
The last, and oddest, of the four biomes was the forest. There were no animals or creatures of any kind that roamed the area. Alyssa told him that even though she never saw anything, she always had the feeling she was being watched. By whom, or what was never found out. She did hear the laughter several times though, particularly when she got flustered or scared. The entire place freaked her out to such a degree that she never fully explored the area.
Compiling her reports together, Matthias flushed out the map on the wall. He had plans to make it interactive eventually, but for now, a crude carving with attached notes would do. Between creating the map, exploring the {BAZAAR}, and working on several side projects the days passed quickly. All too soon it was time for him to set up the Assembler and begin creating his Mobs.
He watched as the Masterwork and several Golems carefully moved the Assembler and Tri-Phase Generator into the room. Once they were in place he began to power up the generator. Tapping at the controls, he pulled a large lever several times. Each time he pulled a loud tick echoed through the room. On the fifth pull, the generator turned over and started humming. A screen on the front came to life and showed a battered symbol with a lightning bolt in the middle. It slowly filled up as he watched it carefully, occasionally pulling a second lever and discharging power into a grounding rod.
Tri-Phase Generators were the most common types of generators in use currently, however, they had one fatal flaw. If they overloaded on startup, which happens sometimes, they ran the risk of exploding. Matthias had to carefully monitor and discharge power if it built up too fast, or he would run the risk of an overload. It took constant and careful observation, but after several hours the generator hummed to life.
Wiping his face off with his sleeve, Matthias took a step back and watched the machine for a moment. Nodding to himself in acceptance, he grabbed the thick power cable from the side of the generator and had a Golem help him drag it over to the Assembler. Between the two of them, the cable was hooked into the advanced machine and locked into place.
A soft hum sounded through the room as the Assembler greedily began taking power. After a minute or so of this, a soft click sounded and the touchscreen control panel on the front of the machine glared to life. It displayed all of the start-up information for the machine along with diagnostic information. Once the check was complete, Matthias watched it fully turn on as running lights came on and illuminated the room.
“Finally. About time. These start-up times always take forever,” he complained even while he grinned in complete satisfaction. He turned to the Golem in the room with him. “Grab that sabretooth body and bring it down here,” he ordered.
The Golem walked out of the room at its usual lumbering gait to obey his orders. Grumbling at the slow automaton, but grateful for it nonetheless, Matthias waited patiently for it to return with the corpse. Fifteen minutes later the Golem was standing in the room with him as he fiddled with the Assembler.
Tapping the icons on the machine, a large tray unfolded, and the metal side of the machine slid up. Matthias directed the Golem to lay the somewhat decomposed corpse on the tray. Once that step was complete it slid back in, and the wall closed.
“Now… let's scan this and then decide what we want to make first,” he muttered to himself.
“What's going on Boss?” Alyssa said from next to him as she hovered in the air. Matthias screamed like a little girl. Alyssa screamed like an actual girl. The Golem threw its hands in the air as if in disgust with the entire situation.
“Don’t do that!” he said angrily, turning to the fairy. She was regularly able to sneak up on him. One of these times he would be doing something dangerous or technical and there would be consequences. Matthias rapidly calmed down once he saw the chastised Fairy was apologetic.
He cleared his throat and said in a far calmer manner, “Look, I know he is stealthy by nature. I understand that. But please, announce yourself somehow. Or get my attention. Should you disturb me when doing something technical or dangerous such a distraction could kill us all.”
Alyssa’s eyes opened in alarm and she nodded rapidly in understanding. “Sorry Boss. I understand. Going forward I will be way more cautious about distracting you. Maybe I could just wait or something?” she said emphatically.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
“Yes. Waiting might be good,” he agreed, maintaining eye contact. Then he sighed. “That’s partly my fault too. I should have furniture or food or something to keep you occupied if you have to wait. That will be going on my to-do list. For now, however, I need to get back to this,” he explained while gesturing at the machine.
“Oh. Ok!” Alyssa said cheerfully as Matthias turned back to the Assembler. Then she asked, “What are you doing anyway Boss?”
Rubbing his eyes in frustration he explained. “I am trying to figure out what creature I want to print first. I am a bit low on organic matter and minerals, and the Golems are not intelligent enough to gather those by themselves. Your scouting has also shown that there are threats out there that we will need defenses against. On top of that, I need a way to make more NEX to fund our ongoing efforts here.”
The Fairy nodded. “Gotchya. That’s a conundrum alright. People always need more NEX. I mean, shoot, if I needed more NEX I would just sell the fiddly bits off the things I kill and use the rest of it for that organic stuff to build creatures that could gather what I couldn’t hunt.”
Matthias stared at the Fairy, who stared right back. He wasn’t sure if she was mocking him, making a helpful suggestion, or was an utterly unrecognized genius. Regardless, she had just given him a roadmap to solving his issue. He hadn’t even thought about selling the raw monster materials to other Corps and using only what he needed.
“Those are good ideas, Alyssa. Remind me to give you a bonus,” he said, turning back to the machine. Rewarding outside-the-box thinking and problem-solving was key to a successful corporation. That would have to wait, however, as he flipped to a section of the database that he now had in mind. While Golems could not mine or gather materials, they could certainly hunt and drag back the bodies of whatever they killed. He needed a creature that could do the technical bits. Creatures that were smart, but cheap. That excluded Goblins and Orkin, they were too expensive anyway. Lizard-kin, on the other hand, fit perfectly into the task at hand.
He opened the option for the race of monsters and began perusing the various types. As with any of the creatures in the database, there were more than a dozen subtypes. But what he wanted was the forest variant. They were versatile, could traverse anything but outright arctic terrain, and self-propagated in large numbers fairly quickly. Not only that but they were fairly intelligent, were capable of learning, and could craft basic items, tools, and weapons for themselves.
He also had just enough matter to create a male and female progenitor of the species.
Tapping the machine and selecting his options for one of each gender, it began to hum slightly. It would take a couple of hours for the work to be completed. Within that time, he needed to get a basic hatchery up and going. It would cost him some NEX, Power, and Golem hours, but he could have a small one going fairly quickly. Expansions would be needed for the lizards' first clutch of eggs, but that was a future need.
He turned to the Golem in the room. “Follow me,” he ordered as he headed out of the room with Golem and Fairy in tow. He quickly located the Masterwork and issued an order to have a small side cavern excavated. He specified several nooks to be built as well as a receding floor. He would fill it with water and plants at some point. But for now, making it moist and warm was a requirement to ensure the propagation of the Lizard-kin.
He selected two of the Golems for a different task, however. “You two head into the grasslands and find my a few more creatures. Kill them and bring them back here to the bottom of the tunnel. When you have ten, stop and come and get me.”
The Golems marched out of the cavern even as the sounds of rock smashing rock filled the area. It was going to be a loud several hours as everything came together. Wincing at the noise, Matthias headed up the tunnel himself and sat down at the top with his back against the rock. Closing his eyes, he took stock of his abilities and stats. He hadn’t checked them for a while, and it was important to do so on a regular basis. Changes were rarely, if ever, announced by the System.
MATTHIAS R. MOB
{RACE}
SHADOW GOBLIN
{SUB-RACE}
INFERNO IMP
{CLASS}
NEXMANCER
{CLASS GRADE}
LEGENDARY
{STAGE}
1
{LEVEL}
1
{STATS}
CONVERTED TO POWER
POWER
25
{ABILITIES}
CONVERT WEALTH II
CONVERT POWER II
CONTRACT
POWER OVERWHELMING II
POWERHOUSE
BALANCE SHEET
{BALANCE SHEET}
REMAINING POWER – 158
NEX BALANCE – 205,000
DENOMINATIONS
10K GOLD NEX BAR– 1
1K GOLD NEX COINS – 52
500 SILVER NEX COINS – 327
As he reviewed his stats he was surprised to see that several of his abilities had a numerical number next to them now. Curious, he opened up the ability descriptions and was shocked at the new information within:
{CONVERT WEALTH II}
CONVERT NEX INTO POWER
RATIO 50:1
{CONVERT POWER II}
CONVERT POWER INTO NEX
RATIO 10:1
{POWER OVERWHELMING II}
SPEND POWER TO ACT UPON THE WORLD AROUND YOU
IMBUE OTHERS WITH THE POWER TO ACT IN YOUR STEAD
“What does that mean?” Matthias wondered aloud. He was startled by the new information next to his abilities. As far as he knew, abilities didn’t grow like his just did. Granted he was very new to this entire thing, as well as being able to use his openly and freely for the first time in his life. But he had read, learned, and gathered information for many years prior to this point. But he had never heard of abilities growing.
Thinking it over he called out to the Fairy who was buzzing around the area in front of the entrance. “Alyssa, come here for a moment.”
She flew over to him, stopping a few feet from eye level, “What’s up Boss?” she asked cheerfully.
“I’m going to use an ability on you and give you a task. Let me know what happens,” he said as the Fairy frowned at him.
Alyssa shook her head, “Sorry to tell you boss, but passive abilities and enchantments don’t work on us Fairies. We are immune to those as a race perk. On the other hand, we don’t get abilities due to our natural magical tendencies,” she explained.
Matthias nodded at that, however, and replied, “I know all that. Consider this an experiment of sorts.”
“Whatever you say, Boss, it's your Power,” she replied doubtfully.
He activated {POWER OVERWHELMING II} and held the ability in the front of his mind. At first, it was difficult to do, as it was a new function that he had never employed before. It became easier by the second, however, as he practiced with hold and releasing it. After a few minutes, he held the ability in his mind and cast it on Alyssa.
As the ability enveloped the Fairy, her eyes went wide and he ordered, “Alyssa, I want you to go over to the forest, select a rock, and use my Power to carve the number one into it. Then bring it back to me.”
Alyssa exploded into action even as Matthias felt the Power drain from him. It had cost him two points, a meager sum really, but every point was incredibly important right now. A moment later the Fairy came speeding back up to him and dropped a small stone into the palm of his hand. He saw a small number one carved into it.
He looked up at her, his wide eyes meeting her own. “This is going to change everything,” he said quietly.
“Yeah Boss. It is,” the Fairy said back. Contrary to his wariness, however, she practically glowed with excitement. After all, it wasn’t every day that an impossibility happened within the System.
The System was anything but generous.