Now all Zach had to do was decide on the type of Golem he needed. Grim and Sentos started talking back and forth about different combat Golems, Harvesting Golems, and even Construction Golems. Milly seemed to look the two of them and simply smiled waiting for Zach to make a decision. Zach thought back to the argument that he had with Grim out in the forest. The needed materials that were imbued with mana channels so that they could move. Milly was offering to summon materials, like stone or wood, but it would take months for Zach to build up his skill to imbue all the materials. Not to mention the way Grim was answering Sentos the restriction of 10 mana in the core would keep the golem to the size of his hand. A construction golem the size of his hand wouldn’t do much, besides summon materials. A harvest golem that size could probably grab herbs but nothing else. Grim seemed to agree that a Dark Mana Combat Golem would be effective, but then Milly could help them with summoning the materials.

It all came down to mana; what type, how much, even contract wording or what type of instructions he could give them. A life golem would be idea to harvest herbs, but change it to light golem and it made for a wonderful mapping companion that sought out dark places, and with it all the town needed more of everything. It was almost like mana was like an electricity that powered everything, and with that realization Zach turned around at Grim and Sentos.

“Quiet!” The look of surprise on Grim and Sentos’ face was amazing, but Zach needed to speak his idea. “Grim can you ask Sentos would it be possible to create a golem that cultivated mana and pump excess into the city core?” Grim looked absolutely shocked.

After a brief time of conversing with Sentos, Grim simply shrugged. “Sentos says that it’s never been done. Your talking about a created Mana Source… Usually a mana font or living beings generate mana not an object. Even the City Core just gets mana from those sources, it doesn’t cultivate it. In order to cultivate it you would need an intelligent being…” Grim stood there for a moment and whispered back and forth with Sentos. “We could summon a very low level elemental and give it a safe place to cultivate for hundreds of years. What were you thinking, exactly, Zach?”

Zach gave Grim a devilish smile, “Wardenclyffe Tower.” Fucking Tesla had been a genus, a wireless power system for the whole city that would also enable communications. What if instead of electricity it was suppling mana constantly to spells and people to help make them grow stronger? Of course, that would probably take years of research, but right now he just needed a small nuclear reactor.

Milly looked at Zach and asked what a Wardenclyffe Tower was. Zach thought about it for a moment before he spoke, “I once was told about story of a powerful mage, he had an idea about how to supply mana and use it to communicate to other people. So he brought his idea to a noble and they tried to build it, but it was never completed because they lacked the funds to complete it. I just thought instead of creating a huge tower to do it, I would create something the small and then see if I can’t grow it.”

Milly was impressed at the idea. Grim finally came over, “Zach... I am not sure if we can create that, but after talking with Sentos we should be able to create a cultivating device. It will only be able to cultivate its element and the mana core will only be able to hold ten mana points… but if it is sending the overflow to the city core it will be fine. However… how does it transfer the mana?”

Zach smiled at Grim, because for this question he had an answer. “Imprint Skill: Mana Manipulation and Imprint Skill: Core Creation.”

Grim just started mumbling. “What… no… maybe, but…” Grim looked at Sentos, and the Golem simply shrugged. “Ok, I get Core Creation as it could generate cores and we just feed them to City Core… but mana manipulation?” Zach nodded waiting for Grim to think it over. “Well, I mean it would allow the golem to control a couple of points of mana and if he just moved them into the core, but why would you need Core Creation then.”

“How else do you think the mana core is going to grow?” Zach said, and when it all clicked in Grim’s mind, he simply sat down thinking about it.

Zach waited for what seemed like an hour but was nothing more then a few minutes when Grim got back up. “Ok, first, with a mana core that can only contain 10 mana, the golem would kill itself trying to create another core, so we would either have to use your few points of DP to raise the level or grind it out. Second, since you are directly feeding the City Core, we will need a pedestal with mana channels to and from the core. Think power lines, because if we give a golem mana manipulation, they may be able to pass it on to the core, but without a body with senses its better if it has a predetermined path. Third, currently we can only create a core, not expand one, so we will have to mess around with the skill to do that before we imprint it. Lastly, Sentos says that with the current mana core we can only get the tiniest of elementals to help us, and since they will only be cultivating, not experiencing the world less of them will likely come forth. However, should we get one it will generate round 10 mana per day for the core to use. Of course, if the crystal can expand then elemental can grow as well slowly increasing its ability to cultivate.”

Damn, Zach thought, so maybe not a nuclear reactor and more like a triple A battery, but if it would grow on its own eventually it would become its own nuclear reactor. Biting his lower lip Zach thought about everything. Grinding out Core Creation wouldn’t be so bad, but how the hell was he going to grind out Imprint Skill, when he didn’t have a golem. It was then his eyes drifted back to Sentos and he realized that he did have a golem. “Ok, so I have to skill grind a little bit and we need to build a pedestal. Anything else, Grim?”

“The Contract,” Grim said with a bit of trepidation. “Since, we aren’t asking elementals to fight or heal, but to cultivate. Sentos and myself will need to work out an entirely new contract. Good news is that we can be doing that while you skill grind, bad news is that it will take a few months for us to iron everything out.” Zach started to grind his teeth in frustration. He had finally come up with an awesome idea and it was going to take months of work to pull it off. When he had been writing his own stories it had been so much easier just to say the MC had built a nuclear reactor spell and was OP. However, this world wanted him to grind out skills and then create the reactor and wait for it to grow. If Zach had a log off button he would have raged quit.

Looking over at Milly, he took a moment to count to ten before he spoke. “Could you please tell me about the talisman trial and any guidance you could give me would be appreciated.”

Milly smiled and nodded, “Simply put a Talisman Trial is a test to gain a spell or ability presented by the Gods and Goddesses. So when we completed the hidden quest by the core, we were all given the opportunity to gain a spell. Additionally, when you increase in skill enough to gain a power a Talisman Trial will appear in your mana pool. Some trials don’t have options on how to take them, an example you be a combat power. When you gain enough skill to gain the power ‘Thrust’ it will likely be a combat trial where you face off against something that can use that power. Mend is a utility power, so it has given you the choice of trial; Combat, Skill, or Puzzle. You make a choice and say it out load before touching the talisman, if you successfully complete it you will gain the knowledge of how to use the spell. If you fail at the trial the talisman will disappear and you will have to wait for someone to teach you the spell.”

“Other than that basic information, I can’t tell you anything about what you will face, as the Trials will change to become harder based on the knowledge you bring into them. Now before you go, would you be so kind as to drop the Mana Core out into space, that way I can summon your house while you take your trial.” Zach did what Milly said and dropped the small pea size mana core out into the void. Slowly the gem began to glow. Then as if someone had turned on a small lightbulb the mana core began to set off light. Vines from Milly’s mana pool reached out and touched the light before moving away from Zach’s mana pool.

Looking back at the medallion Zach went over to it and pondered what he wanted to do. Combat seemed out, because the last thing he wanted was to try and beat something with his spear. So that left puzzle or skill, and with great all his skills were, he decided to go with Puzzle. Zach gave Grim a thumbs up and said, “Puzzle!” Reaching out to touch the medallion, Zach could have sworn that he heard Grim say, “What a dumb ass.”

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Zach blinked and was no longer at his mana pool. He was in a dark stone room that seemed to have a wooden table and one chair. Walking over to the table he saw an engraved grid system with eight small cups. Inside the cups there were small colored stones. Looking at the board he saw that it was a nine by nine grid system and on some of the corners of the grids had a painted dot. There were a total of five painted dots with the color brown on them. Pulling back the chair, he saw a small piece of paper on it. 

Picking up the paper, Zach read it:

Dear Player,

Welcome to the Game of Kotan.

The rules are simple, but mastery of them will unlock the universe:

1) The board represents the universe and as such must be treated with respect and balance. Each intersection of a line without a dot, the player can place a stone that represents one of the aspects of mana. Lines with a color must have the same color stone placed on it or one that works in harmony.

2) Where a painted dot is placed stands a Mana nexus point in the board. After a player places their stone, a stone will appear either on one of the dots or next to it.

3) The goal is to balance the board so that none of the nexus points connect to one another.

4) Stones that are in conflict with one another cannot be place next to each other. Example: Light or a White Stone can’t be set next to a Dark or grey stone.

Use the following mana theory: Life>>Water>>Darkness>>Earth>>Death>>Fire>>Light>>Air>>Life

Or

Green>>Blue>>Grey>>Brown>>Black>>Red>>Yellow>>White>>Green

Good Luck you have 10 tries to complete the board. If you wish to give up earlier say, ‘I no longer wish to play.’

Signed Kotan, God of Magic

Zach once again analyzed the board, the game seemed simple like the board game of Go that he use to play back in college. Of course, Go was also extremely complex and that was just two players working against one another. Since the dots were brown that meant the board would drawing earth to one another. So since the note suggested the board needed to be balance Zach figured he would use Yellow stones to lock key movement of the board. So picking up several Zach played a Yellow to block two nexus points from directly joining. So a brown stone appeared over the dot and Zach placed another yellow stone to block a direct path.

Stones appeared and were placed, after the sixth yellow stone that Zach placed, numerous lines across the board began to appear where black and grey stones needed to be played. So Zach continued loading the board with yellow stones trying his best to block paths. So after the 20th stone was played Zach realized that several key locations were never going to accept a yellow stone and in fact the board was showing close to a dozen key points that had to be brown.

Deciding to stick with his strategy to the end to see how it all played out, he continued with his yellow stones until a direct line between two nexus points were showing all brown. Before placing the last stone, Zach looked the board and tried to understand why it reacted the way it did and how to counteract some of the problems. Coming up with a new tactic of using yellow, white and red as his key colors he decided to use yellow at key junctions and alternate between read and white for sub critical adjustments.

____*****_____

Ok so maybe eighth time is the charm, Zach thought as the pieces disappeared. His Second through fifth game had tested his theory of a three stone defense setup. The game become a lot closer by using only a yellow stone every third turn, but on his sixth game he happened to place a brown stone in the middle of a cornered off section of the board, and it adjusted almost all of the lines and in some cases freeing new moves for him. It was breakthrough of sorts, the next few games he realized that if he placed a brown stone every few moves to readjust the lines, he could take quite a few more key positions without losing.

So Zach sat thinking at the board as his hand began tapping against a cup with a yellow stone in his hand. “Let’s think this out the board, is the universe and it seeks balance. So when I play with air, earth can’t come within a couple of points of it, that lesson had served me well. Using about six of them I could lock up the middle grid system to a point that earth couldn’t connect without validating the rules. It’s the outside grid that is killing me, by locking up those tactic points I always seem to leave a path on the outside. So let’s this play the middle expect for two key positions. Play the perimeter on the opposite side, and right before it gets the board secures the connections. Play on the Key positions and for the board to pivot its tactics.”

Zach placed his stone down on the table and started the game with a plan. Quickly, he secured his key positions and then started locking the outside. He was playing a risky stance leaving a path in the middle gird and with the boards each turn, lines change to keep the board balance. Feeling it was time to make his move, Zach went back and covered the two key positions on the inside. All at once the lines were redrawn and Zach saw that the game would be over in three more moves. Picking up a yellow stone, he placed it one a key point and saw a brown stone appear. The lines redrew themselves, and Zach knew that he needed to rebalance the board to secure the last position. Quickly placing his next to moves after the board, the lines redrew themselves and finally a stable grid came up. Stones flashed into place and as the last one appeared the board image burned into Zach’s mind. Words and hand gestures came to his mind, right before everything went dark.

Zach opened his eyes and saw that it was nearly sundown in the glade. Stretching for a bit, Zach got up and a blue screen appeared before him.

Congratulations, you have passed the Novice Puzzle Trial of Balance and Earned the spell Mend! Know this that having defeated your first Kotan Puzzle Trial without practice you have earn two additional rewards! Spell Name: Mend Spell Mastery: 0 Spell Cost: 5 mana Spell Description: When focusing on a piece of clothing made of cloth, leather, or any other light material the caster can cause any seam or rip to join through the use of this spell. Further mastery of this spell will reduce the cost of mana and can increase the number of materials it can work on. Know this a one of your rewards the Spell: Mend will be inheritable to your bloodline. Grimoire Upgrade: Summon Kotan Board Mana Cost: 5 Item Description: You are now able to summon a Kotan Board and play any Trial on the board or other players. As one grows in mastery of a spell they can review the board and obtain additional information of placement tokens. Once a spell reaches 50% mastery, you have the ability to transfer the Kotan Puzzle Trial to other people’s boards. (Unlocked) With your Companion Bloodline upgrade your Companion can now help on Trials that have been given to you by someone else. Know this as the second of your rewards, this item is inherited.  

Smiling Zach dismissed the screen and headed off to Milly’s and Andy’s cabin for his evening meal.