Blocks of various sizes and colors were moving about and building outwards, coming out from the center of the terrain. Like a hive of ants. I saw blocks as small as the tip of my finger to blocks as large as one of the buildings in the cities moving about.

Their speed was fairly slow by my standards and it was very hard to tell what they were constructing. There seemed to be some color coordination going on as well, as certain colors were predominantly next to other colors. Or certain sizes tended to have a majority of one color. It wasn’t just cubes, there were rectangular shapes, curved shapes, but it was all geometry of single colored blocks of various sizes.

The scale was the thing that had caught me off guard as well. Since I could see into the distance, this was happening across a quarter of the zone. I looked up at the sky and it was a uniform white. Not blinding, just bright. There was no more light source or clouds in the sky.

Based on whatever was going on, the shards were at the center of whatever was being constructed. Building any kind of structure signified intelligence and a plan. The intelligence was assumed, but the fact that there was now a plan that involved constructing something, was incredibly concerning.

I kept moving forward and landed on a large gray block that had stopped moving. Suddenly, every single block stopped moving as well. That was very bad in my mind. Since I had been noticed. “Hello?” I called out. There was no response.

The fact that whatever was doing this could control these blocks, meant that advancing was incredibly concerning. I could be crushed or trapped. Going through what appeared to be hallways was not going to happen. I would go over the top of the structure.

I also noted there was absolutely no ambient energy as well. I relaxed slightly at that. At least, whatever controlled this area wasn’t dissolving me. But that made no sense? Why have energy out there, but not where it was building?

The questions just kept piling up like these blocks were piling up. I leapt up to another block that was frozen in the air. It didn’t budge when I landed on it. Also, there was no damage from kicking off hard on the original gray block I had been on. I knelt down and checked this smaller light red block I was standing on.

I couldn’t make out any energy inside of it or around it. No clue how it was staying frozen in mid-air. I leapt to another block as I climbed and advanced forward across this mountain of blocks. During my fourth leap, a golem monster about my size, made of white blocks came out behind a larger block in my path. Two limbs and two legs, so humanoid, but the face was just a white block on top of a larger torso white block. No fingers that I could see.

“Hello?” I called out. There was no response and it raised a limb. I felt an extreme amount of danger. Air Burst! It’s aim tracked me. Air Burst. I went up and closed the distance. Acid Shot x10. A square glowing white shield appeared blocking my attack. Then it pulsed brightly, dispersing, but also scattering my attack. The block golem then unleashed a thin beam.

Its aim, unlike so many other monsters was on point. Air Burst. I tried to dodge, but it was ready. My right leg was clipped. The thin white beam just went straight through and kept going, cutting out a small slice of my leg, which began to bleed.

Radiant Beam. Void Beam. I unleashed my combo long range attack, the white block golem was hit and took moderate damage. A sizable chunk of it had been removed from the annihilation effect. It broke apart into its constituent blocks. Air Burst.

I landed near its remains, breathing heavily. I waited. Nothing happened. The monster didn’t dust. There was no crystal. That confirmed for me it wasn’t a system monster, but something else. Its combat ability was level 7 at a minimum, or a bit beyond that. It wasn’t able to take an attack, but it also had good combat skills and incredible tracking.

My leg was bleeding but it wasn’t that bad. I pulled out a flask of water and life crystal. I checked the water, no energy inside of it. The container was fine as well. All my gear was enchanted. I infused the water with the crystal and drank. The bleeding stopped, but the wound didn’t heal. Curse damage from the attacks. It would take time to fix properly.

The remains of the white block golem were still there and no more had showed up. I was about six miles or ten kilometers from where the shards were. I looked in the distance. More white golems had come out from various points and were standing about.

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I kicked off the ground and leapt into the air. Air Burst. Air Burst. More white block golems everywhere and I noticed larger versions in the distance. This wasn’t just a structure, it was a complex or a super building. Incredibly far away, I could see a dome of some kind being built around where the shards would be.

At least this solved the issue of getting across the void. But the block golems were too strong. I would need about 240 uses of Air Burst to cross that distance in a straight line. That was 12,000 energy. But the problem was the tracking and range attacks. If I had to dodge at altitude, then I was looking at double or even triple that amount to reach the shards in the distance.

And I wasn’t regenerating energy. But there was no energy pressure on me. If I had low energy and left this block terrain, what would happen? I also wasn’t confident in dodging. The tracking of the block golem had been incredible.

I frowned. There was no endowed name to the monsters either. Nothing clicked into place. I had just labeled it, but there wasn’t that mental click with an endowed name. Which made sense since there was no ambient energy. I landed back on the ground after my leap into the air.

I looked down at the remains and picked up a piece. It was incredibly durable as I could only slightly deform it under my grip. I had 300,000 in my Body stat. Definitely on par with a level 7 at the very least. I checked the damaged blocks. The insides of the damaged block were just solid material. No, that was wrong. There were tiny pathways and faint traces of energy.

I dropped the current block I was holding and checked the larger chest piece. After looking it over I put it on the ground. Acid Shot. Force Shot. A chunk of the outside was blown away. Acid Shot. No damage on the pieces to the side or the terrain. Only annihilation effects worked, and only so well.

The inside of the chest block showed a small spherical cavity with tiny scratches on the inside. No, not scratches, markings. Incredibly tiny markings, I could barely make out, but there was a pattern to them. Some kind of energy based core or reactor? I set the chest piece down, and began destroying the bits around the core, which was about the size of my fist. It was partially damaged, but it would be useful to bring back. I put it in my backpack.

To advance or retreat? That was the question. If I advanced, then it would be incredibly dangerous. Just thinking about moving forward triggered my danger sense. Whatever this thing was building, couldn’t be allowed to complete either.

I didn’t know what to do. Every possible decision seemed wrong. I looked down at my leg. At least the bleeding had stopped. If I retreated, then I could use an airship to launch me at super sonic speeds at the center of this place and use the airship as a bomb. But waiting could give whatever this thing was doing, time to finish building its structure.

Reaching down I felt the material, it was solid and there was only a small amount of give as I pushed down on it. If I retreated maybe Jacob could cook up something with a resonance-based attack. If I moved forward, then there would be a big risk in regards to my energy. I would be gambling with my life. But if I didn’t act now, was I gambling with no chance at victory.

I focused and my energy wasn’t coming back. That was not good in my mind. This thing, whatever it was, was blocking off my ability to regenerate energy. I picked up the head of the block golem. I had an idea. If this didn’t work then I would retreat. I leapt up to the next block structure. I could see a white block golem just ahead of me as my danger sense spiked.

It raised its arms and I didn’t move. It waited and I waited. I leapt to the next platform, with the head in my hand. My danger sense spiked while I was in the air, and I quickly moved the head of the previous golem in the way of the beam attack. The attack did some damage, but not enough to punch through. Air Burst. I moved forward towards the monster.

I punched at its chest while aiming downwards, it slammed down into the ground. I brought up my foot and stamped down on its chest. It shook once and then stopped moving. I tossed the head away. It took some pressing and a bit of effort but I created a hand hold for my left hand on the back of the block golem.

That would be my new shield. Small channels to move energy inside of the thing made it vulnerable unlike the monsters which had some kind of adapted biology for the most part. Their defense and attack were balanced as well. And there were only two types so far. Human sized and giant sized. The giant sized in the distance were probably much more dangerous, but their numbers were also less.

I kicked off the blocks I was standing on and advanced without hesitation. A golem fired a beam at me and I easily blocked the attack with the chest piece. There was some damage, but it would hold through several more attacks. Whatever was controlling these monsters needed a wider range. Their tracking was impressive, and their base stats. But thankfully I was able to damage them enough to make progress.

The only question was if there would be a response. Normal monsters didn’t really change. Even level 7 monsters, tended to be fairly straight forward with their behaviors. But if there was an actual intelligence, micro-managing things, then this could get tricky.

I checked behind myself a couple of times, but my path wasn’t being cut off. That was nice to see, but could change in a single moment as I slowly made my way towards the center of this block construction.