"The bodies are still there," I observed aloud to Gwen and approached the corpse of the horse golem the panther had just removed her claws from. "And the System keeps telling me it needs 'manual assistance' to, I guess, make these things into loot."
"This is the only time a body has stayed around isn't it?" Gwen observed.
"Right, but everything else we've seen the System turn into loot has been living and breathing," I admitted. "Maybe it's something to do with that."
I could still hear the gears spinning to a halt within the chest of the equine monster the panther had put down. A strange glowing light was emanating from the hole in its sculpted chestplate, but it was faint.
"The System seems pretty preoccupied with souls," I continued and leaned down to peer into the chest cavity of the creature. "I can absorb something like them from bosses and I'm starting to think that's where experience and mana comes from; maybe, anyway, I'm not so sure about the mana part."
I placed my left hand upon the damaged body of the golem and enshrouded my right hand with a [Flame Cloak].
"Our souls are also linked," Gwen observed. "The System let you do that to save me."
"Yeah, it did; not that you haven't saved me plenty of times since then," I agreed as I maneuvered the light shedding from my hand to flicker into the golem's insides.
The firelight of my spell flickered, bouncing off the whistling cogs and metallic looking pulleys within the clockwork machine.
But it was the faint, flickering glow at the very, deepest core of the strange monster that still drew my eye.
Connected to various wire-like constructs, and locked within a firm and brass-colored setting, a flickering orb, solid and with a glass-like surface, shone with a deep blue illumination.
The System was quick to highlight the name of this item, but the notification seemed to struggle to maintain itself as it flickered and glitched every other second or so.
[Artificial Soulcore.]
[Antimeritium-charged shielding detected. Please disrupt the mystical circuit to allow loot conversion.]
"What do you see?" my panther companion asked me as I felt her vision flash into my own eyes. "Antimeritium? What is that?"
"Well... that would be a good question," I said back, observing the faint flickering that shone over the creature's core. "Looks like the System isn't all-powerful after all."
As I said this I redirected the flames around my hand to flow into my palm; the magical fire danced and reshaped itself into a dagger-sized [Raging Blade].
A fuzzy, flickering energy danced across the soul-core seemed to pulse intermittently--never fully fading--and to surge in jumps back into, and back out of, the various metal-tipped cables that attached to it.
"I'm like forty-percent sure the System is talking about whatever glow is surrounding this thing," I told the panther. "If it's the soulcore it needs to access to make loot, then the glow is the only thing I can think of that would fit the bill of being shielding."
"You're hesitant," Gwen said, no doubt sensing my feelings of apprehension.
"Heh, just trying to figure out if I should cut the blue or red wire," I jested; my flame-formed dagger burned in my hand. "Or any of the wires, honestly."
An image of the 'artificial soulcore' as the System called it, exploding into some sort of magical maelstrom, if I made a mistake, filled my mind's eye.
I sighed. "But I didn't waste all of those resources to walk away empty handed. Just be ready to teleport away if anything stupid happens."
"You're going to cut one of the cables?" Gwen asked, still half-looking through my eyes.
The panther took a step back.
I smiled at Gwen. "First time I've seen you be cautious like that."
The panther growled. "I'm just getting enough space to jump to knock you away from that thing if it explodes."
"Whatever you say," I said aloud and slowly brought my weapon to the edge of one of the four cables that surrounded the glowing, blue orb.
Small, azure sparks fluttered off of the edge of my blade as I touched it to the cable. Some kind of magical feedback, maybe?
"Don't fuck me now, System," I said as I pressed my firey knife against the cable. "And, Gwen, please listen for the ballista; I still don't trust it."
----------------------------------------
My blade pressed through the cable, showering my hand with sparks that tingled against the flesh of my unarmored skin.
The strange, fuzzy glow around the orb intensified and I felt a odd and increasing resistance, that seemed out of sync with the rubber-like material that I was trying to cut through.
My eyes flashed and the flames of my dagger stirred with mana, growing more coherently formed and violently-hot.
I felt the resistance give then.
My adrenaline spiked, and I almost sent the mental alert to Gwen to run, as I cut into the middle of the thick wire.
A flash blinded me for a half-second and then there was a strange, short-circuited sound as the light within the golem's chest was reduced.
The rubber-like cord, now cut by my spell, fell away from the artificial soulcore.
Following that, the strange static-like shielding of the small glass orb flared, one final time, and then dissipated entirely, with most of the energy seeming to disperse out of the metal tip of the thick cord I'd cut away.
[Converting Artificial Soulcore: 100%.]
Unlike it had when I'd gotten my very first System message, when all of the souls of Earth had apparently been brought under the alien-like Sytem's sway, the conversion of the artificial soulcore progressed so rapidly that I didn't even see the progress bar reach one-hundred before I'd noticed the alert appearing.
The glass covered orb shook, shuddered and then a large line appeared down its surface, before many more cracks spider-webbed out from it.
With a final shake, the artificial soulcore shattered.
The light within the orb flashed upwards, forming into a small stream of glowing energy that quickly spiraled out of the dark interior of the golem and into the light of day.
My eyes were struck by the beauty of the thousands of tiny, mana particles, all intertwining and gathering above the corpse of the equine automaton.
As I watched, the body of the automaton itself began to glow and break apart, joining into the gathering mass of energy as it solidified into a glowing blue orb, this time one not enshrouded by any glass at all.
"I guess that's what manual assistance means then," I said aloud to Gwen.
The panther growled and narrowed her eyes at the magical ball of energy.
I reached out to touch the newly formed loot orb.
----------------------------------------
Night had fallen and the two, mostly human-shaped figures stood upon a large canyon column.
One of them squatted down, a look of contemplation on her beautifully chiseled features. Her cheekbones and jawline cut feminine angles that still belied an almost masculine strength, but that did not touch upon the realm of androgyny.
But it was this watcher's bright, amber and sun colored eyes, flecked with bits of the smallest bursting blue droplets, that stood out the most, as they held all of the steadfastness of a universal constant--a feeling almost any mortal observer would be drowned within if they had seen her as she now appeared.
She studied the land far below the elevated earth that her, and her companion, looked down upon.
A small tent, hewn from leather and with a bit of smoke rising from the top, sat in the lower elevation that she observed.
Stolen novel; please report.
"Do you think she'll be the one you choose, Soteria?" the second watcher, its face a hooded blur of changing nothingness, asked the golden-eyed woman. "She is an anomaly, even by our standards, and the System seems to only reward her for it. She certainly seems as determined as you like."
The woman seemed to contemplate the question for a moment, her eyebrow flinching a bit at the exaggerated use of the faceless thing's last few words.
"No, I doubt it," the woman said. "If this Earth survives, if she survives even, the sorceress will be powerful for her world, for a time at least, but power isn't the only thing I'm worried about."
"Even if you are the first to notice her, you won't be the last," the darkness beneath the standing watcher's hood changed form, in an imperceptible way, and then appeared to go back to being the equally as indescribable void it had been before. "One of my other nieces and nephews will no doubt force her into alignment with their Sphere of Idea eventually. Powerful mortals don't simply get to be free, or do I misunderstand your great game?"
The golden eyed woman's annoyance shifted into a frown and a sideways glance at the hooded being. "Odd for you to talk of a lack of freedom, Ending One."
The hooded creature laughed; the sound bellowed from deep in its chest. It was a strong laugh, almost a grandfatherly one.
"Just an observation, my little Idea," the thing said back, as its laugh died off, referring to the golden eyed woman by the odd term of seeming endearment. "Though I would warn you to not mistake an ending for freedom from the reality that led to it--even mine. An ending is just another inevitable."
There was a pause and Soteria stood. Her golden eyes still rested on the small tent below.
"No ending is pre-decided, not even one declared by a godhead of the In-between Trinity; not even one declared by you, uncle," Soteria said, a rouse of challenge evident on her steadfast tone.
"You might be right," the faceless thing replied, ominously, but not aggressively, as its companion suddenly turned to walk away. "Or you may be blinded by your own Sphere."
"We will see if she, or another like her, proves fit to bear the mantle I offer," Soteria seemed to ignore the statement of the one she'd called uncle, as she passed by the odd being.
A wind swept through the canyon and the two were gone, but not before the faceless thing's masculine esque voice drifted onto that breeze one final time:
"Yes, my young niece, we'll see all manner of interesting things before the curtains draw."
----------------------------------------
The ballistas' towers had been empty and completely unmanned. As far as Gwen and I could tell the weapons were built into the walls of the stone itself; they had either run out of ammo, which I figured to be unlikely, or something had called them off.
What that something was, or if it was just some quirk of the towers' programing, remained to be seen.
Much like I had done with the first, I had aided the System in freeing the odd, artificial soulcores of the many golems. Of course, that meant I'd, unfortunately, lost out on the loot from the golem we'd knocked over the side of the bridge.
We'd traveled through the open gateway of the large walls at the end of said long path, carefully making our way to a somewhat secluded area in a small valley before night had come.
A decent amount of loot, plundered from the golems in question, was now spread out in front of me as we sat beneath the canopy of our tent.
Five of the golems had given me [Greater Mana Shards] from out of their converted soulcores.
Three of those shards were now brewing in pottery withdrawn from my inventory, almost fully brewed into mana potions by now.
The remaining two shards, meanwhile, sat in front of me. Along with a few chunks of brass-colored metal, a dozen or so mundane rocks I'd gathered, a red gem, and a strange harpoon bearing metal bracer.
The fight with the golems had made a few things apparent.
First was that I was far too reliant on mana potions to keep up in a large and drawn out fight, especially if there was more than a few opponents to deal with.
I had a lot of mana and my flame spells were pretty efficient now, but I couldn't just cast spells forever.
My mana regeneration was already pretty tuned up, but combat moved fast and it really wasn't too much of a factor until the fight was over.
I had plenty of mana outside of battle, a practically limitless supply for practice and utility honestly, as long as I was willing to wait the few minutes for my mana bar to recover.
I just needed to figure out a way to harness that supply inside of battle. I needed a sustainable alternative to just burning up my mana with every attack.
I was pretty sure I had a partial solution though. One that had come into my mind when thinking about how the pebbles I'd thrown at the golems hadn't done anything, in contrast to the inferno I'd opened the battle against the Webspinner's minions with.
I reached out to grab one of the mundane rocks. Holding it in my hand it seemed solid enough to survive a throw, but there was nothing special about it and the thing felt somewhat jagged and uncomfortable in my hand.
I took a deep breath and a brown aura slowly seeped from out of the hand that grasped the rock as I activated [Shape Earth].
With a lot more mana now at my disposal than when I'd first created the spell, it wasn't so difficult now to shave away the jagged edges of the stone, until it was a perfect oval in my hand.
Throwing and holding such a comfortable stone would be easy now.
My eyes flared with fire and the brown glow floated off into the air as my palm flashed red against the rock. I poured a massive amount of mana into the rune that I cast on the surface of the rock, determined to make the casting as potent as I possibly could.
To my surprise, however, after a few moments of this, the rock shattered in my grasp.
Did I overdo it?
I opened my palm to stare at the shattered remnants of the stone I'd tried to enchant.
I'd only been able to imbue about an eighth of my mana pool into the rock before it had crumbled, taking the rune I'd cast onto it and my expended mana along with it.
Do certain materials have limitations for how much magic they can store? Strange that this rule didn't seem to apply to living beings, though.
I reached for another of the unshaped rocks, repeating the casting of [Shape Earth] and then once more attempting to imbue a fire rune into the stone.
This time, however, I paid close attention to the entire process. Just as I approached the point of mana expenditure that the previous rock had shattered under, I felt the stone I currently held begin to tremble.
I pulled my mana away immediately and allowed the rune to solidify with what mystical energy it already had within it.
Opening my palm, I felt a little thrill of excitement as I observed the shaped stone within my hand. It was identical to the previous one, before it had shattered, except that it had a rune of flame emblazoned upon it.
I could feel the trigger existing somewhere between my mental command and the stone's rune. With the amount of mana I'd managed to put into it, the stone should pack the same amount of punch as a relatively powerful [Fireball].
And the best part? It wouldn't cost me a single point of mana in battle to use.
[Congratulations! Your intent and inventiveness have allowed you to create a new item.]
[For your ingenuity, you will be granted a small reward.]
[+5 Enchanting, +5 Earth Manipulation, +5 Fire Manipulation.]
As my eyes scanned over the System's notification, a small item description opened off to the side of the runestone I'd created.
[Runestone Grenade (Fire) [Un]: A small stone imbued with the power of a moderately strong Rune of Flame.]
Well, hell yeah. Battles were about to become a lot easier if I could keep finding new ways to harness my powers. I just needed to make a lot more of the grenades.
But I couldn't rest on my laurels.
I dismissed the newly created rune grenade into my inventory and reached for the only thing that appeared to be a weapon out of the loot I'd accumulated.
The bracer appeared to be a smaller, and hollow version, of the forearms of the chain-spear wielding golems. It was brass-colored and had a tiny spear tip coming eking out of its front.
[Antimeritium Grappling Line [R]: A weaponized bracer crafted from antimeritium. Within this piece of armor exists a grappling spear attached to an incredibly thin and tightly wound metallic cord. Wounds or damage created by this weapon are harder to repair via the use of magic.]
A grappling hook would be useful, even outside of using its extra effects to damage enemies who could heal themselves with magic. If I could master it then I'd be able to possibly avoid relying on [Mana Flicker] so much, or I'd at least have a mana-free alternative to it.
Of course, I wasn't quite done sorting through my loot.
Forgoing equipping my new weapon quite yet, I reached for the magic gem I'd looted off of the spear-wielding avian golem.
The thing glowed a violent bright red.
[Gem of the Automaton [R]: A unique, magic gem. Can be socketed into items during enchanting.]
At my command, the enchanting menu opened before me.
[Enchanting Menu]
Available Gems: Gem of the Automaton [R].
Available Items: Antimeritium Grappling Line.
Enchanting Skill: 60 (Apprentice).
Perks: Your perk, [Soul of the Enchanter], allows you to utilize magical gems one level higher than your current skill-level should allow.
Having few options available, I selected those that I did have. Though I was curious what effects [Soul of the Enchanter], a perk I'd gained from being the first soul from Earth to enchant an item, might have if I ever maxed my [Enchanting] skill.
[Awakened Antimeritium Grappling Line]
Description: A weaponized bracer crafted from antimeritium. Within this piece of armor exists a grappling spear attached to an incredibly thin and tightly wound metallic cord. Wounds or damage created by this weapon are harder to repair via the use of magic.
Enchanted Effect: The enchanted gem placed within the grappling spear of this item allows the wielder to direct its movements with their mind.
Create Weapon: y/n?
I selected yes without much caution. A grappling line that could move and target things, based on only mental signals? Yeah, that could definitely come in handy and was just my style.
[Gem of the Automaton [R] removed from inventory.]
[Antimeritium Grappling Line has become Awakened Antimeritium Grappling Line.]
The bracer that I held flashed into a familiar looking mass of white energy, shifting slightly in my hands.
This didn't last long, however, as the now-enchanted weapon reformed into a shape that was almost identical to the one it had held before--except that it now had a red gem slotted onto the side of the spearhead that jutted out of it and was also now a bit better suited to my size.
As the weapon solidified into its new shape, I selected the option to equip it.
The bracer glowed brightly, one final time, and then appeared on my arm.
I admired the weapon and then smiled. I'd have to practice with it soon.
I didn't have long before I'd have to claim my brewing potions before they burned. Still, there was one more thing I wanted to do.
My eyes shifted to the chunks of brass colored metal and the [Greater Mana Shards] that remained in front of me.
I reached for one of the shards.
"System, create a spell that allows me to shape metal," I ordered.
[Error: Your affinity with the element of earth is too low to allow for the manipulation of metal.]
I frowned and my eyes shifted back to the [Antimeritium Plating] that I'd managed to loot.
I'd have to train my Earth-Manipulation then... and the ideas I'd had would have to wait.
For now, I'd need to focus on the final thing I'd gotten from the golems' loot orbs. The coordinates to something the System called The Ringed Citadel.