Joseph

There were many things in this new world that were strange to him, things that had changed, things that seemed outright wrong.

The various machines, for one. Not to mention the System and the Skills it provided, though that was clearly strange to modern people as well.

But his current slate of opponents was downright unnatural, an affront to everything divine. Possibly even other profane things as well.

At first, the silent statues had seemed like lesser golems, beings like Joseph himself, likewise made out of stone and lacking a voice, but with every passing second, it was becoming ever clearer just how wrong this was.

The System’s statues were empty, in a way words failed to adequately convey. Lacking not just what many considered to be the divine spark of creation that drove humans, but the human-made act of life-giving that sat at Joseph’s core.

These beings were more unnatural than even the undead that had attacked a few days ago. Perversions of the glorious magic that was the creation of golems by the learned men of the Jewish faith.

Yet this fundamental difference showed. His foes, distasteful as they were, had swiftly been reduced to nothing more than punching bags. Or rather, training dummies, as the modern humans would phrase it.

Joseph had started to learn how to reshape his limbs in combat, and decided to take this as a chance to use them with minimal risk.

[Armory of Gaia] hardened the outer layers of his body and reshaped his knuckles into not the usual blades but rather short, stubby, spikes designed to focus the force of his punches into a single point without snapping.

And then, he began to tear into his enemies. At first, it was merely individual, powerful, punches that tore through walking slabs of stone or metal with ease, but soon, he graduated to drawing fully on his abilities, his arms elongating slightly to increase his reach, armor shifting around to add more mass to his fists and just in general, doing anything and everything he could to make him hit as hard as possible.

A massive stone bear, larger than he was, rose to its back feet in his path, a Field Boss that might actually have been able to slow him for a couple of seconds … if the [System] had not granted him the ability to surpass his limits.

[Titan’s Fist] threw his right fist forward with immense and inexorable force, blasting through the monster’s chest with such force that its fragments blew apart nearby statues as well.

And that was largely how the fight kept going. There were stronger enemies around, the so-called Raid Bosses, but none that had gone after him, nor were there any that lasted long enough for him to go help.

Eventually, night fell, and the battle continued, but even as the people within the fortress started sleeping in shifts, Joseph kept going, the power Rabbi Loew had imbued into him granting him nigh-limitless endurance.

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So he continued to fight until the Germanic Emperor finally announced that the battle was over, and Joseph began the return march to Prague. While being here had protected his home (and most of the continent as well), it wasn’t his home. Besides, Tristan knew where to find him, and would fetch him if he was needed.

Or rather, when, because the next wave would hit with the same certainty as the sun rising in the morning.

The humans could and, according to the Emperor, would deal with all the tiny statuettes that had snuck inside during the fight. Something called a “Lego”?

***

Tristan

Murderous Legos … no joke. That was seriously what we were facing after almost a day of continuous fighting.

Nothing overly dramatic by today’s standards. Murderous monsters were a daily occurrence.

But still … Legos.

Apparently, there had been far more statues animated than just the big ones, tiny toys gained the ability to walk, and … that was about it. The most they could do was try to get underfoot, or stuff themselves down someone’s throat.

It was devastatingly dangerous to the vast majority of the world’s population as all the little tchotchkes in their homes unexpectedly came to life, but thankfully, Europe was mostly fine, since we had taken all the heat on that front.

Millions of tiny little critters that had gone completely unnoticed amidst the larger statues and then gone to ground, hiding, even going so far as burying themselves.

And when we’d started resting, they’d “attacked” by slowly creeping in.

With even Charlemagne asleep, those damn legos had managed to kill someone who’d decided to sleep too close to an arrowslit. Literally climbing down the soldier’s throat, a thought that made me cringe just by thinking about it even though I hadn’t even seen the body. And sure as shit didn’t want to.

Which meant that everyone had to sleep in either the throne room or mess hall, with a constant watch making sure nothing snuck up on us while others went hunting.

Flamethrowers worked, but so did simply stomping on them or, in the case of legos, simply dismantling them.

Of course, I didn’t participate in any of that, at best, I’d waste everyone’s time due to needing too much instruction, at worst, I’d just get in the way.

So while that went on, and Charlemagne directed people with his [Empire Sense], I studied magic.

Though I had a feeling he’d be upgrading that Skill every chance he got until it kept working even when he was asleep after this debacle.

***

Two days after the third wave had started, the Untersberg was officially monster free, most people were ready to sleep for a week, and so many had left for other tasks that the fortress felt like university dorms in the off-season.

I’d already used portals to send Fionn to Dublin, and Arthur to Greece. They still had a big ass leonine Raid Boss, the Nemean Lion, roaming around and the British King had wanted to bring it down.

Joseph had also marched off, but he’d left behind a message requesting to be recalled for the next new challenge, and any Nation Boss fights too.

And Continent Boss. And World Boss. And whatever came after that. I had some thoughts on the power scale I really hadn’t wanted to finish but sadly had, and now I had trouble sleeping.

My own fault, obviously, but that didn’t change the issue.

Anyway, I was staying here for the next few days, studying and doing research, while Dietrich took Mia hunting.

As for the other Ancients, Genghis Khan had apparently won his fight, and Francis Drake had been utterly bored, since there were no statues to be seen in the sea. So he’d gone off on a “humanitarian” mission to the nearest coastline, which happened to western Africa.

Near as I could tell, it basically boiled down to “shoot any enemies far enough from anyone and anything else that the chance for collateral damage was functionally zero.”

So yeah, everyone had spread out doing what felt like completely random stuff, but what the hell. We still had forty-seven days and a bit left to prepare, and said preparation would largely fall to Charlemagne, Fionn, and, in a small part, myself.

Should be doable.