Easy is the descent to hell;

All night long, all day, the doors of dark Hades stand open;

But to retrace the path;

To come you again to the sweet air of Heaven

There is the task, there is the burden.

-Virgil

Zach sat looking at the still broken bronze golem in front of him. It had been nearly two months’ worth of work to get to this point, and as he held the last piece in his hands, he reflected on all that had happened. Remembering that first night in the cave, Andy had a few more fits of coughing but by mid-morning had be able to stand on his own and even carry some weight. So instead of pushing Andy to his limits, Zach had shown him the golem under the boulder. It had taken most of the morning for Zach to use his Stone Shaping spell, but after carving off small chunks of the bolder and having Andy help remove them they had recovered the twisted and torn remains of the golem. After finally uncovering all the rock and dirt around the golem, Zach recovered two additional pieces of equipment and small bits of broken plates that were destroyed beyond repair. After collecting everything Andy and himself carefully built an improvised stretcher from long skinny tree trunks and blankets to carry everything before resting an additional night.

In the morning, Zach use the AutoLoot function on the heaviest items until it said his space was completely full. The nice thing about Zach’s Extra-Dimensional space was that it covert all the weight inside of it to one tenth of what it should have been. The problem was that the Ore, Andy’s Chains, and everything else that was in his inventory still weighed sixty pounds. Piling the Golem Body and the rest of the supplies on the stretcher they started out. The hike back to the village was draining for both Zach and Andy, as they struggled with their ailments and the stretcher. Thankfully the old road and trails were easier to us, but still in the end he gained multiple strength and endurance points from the hike.

When Andy and Zach had finally returned to the Village, they dropped off their gear at their cabins and went to James’ Longhouse. When Andy went inside, Zach saw Milly and Alexa bounce out of their beds and give him a big hug, as James ushered Zach to a stool. Apparently, James’ Heal spell could put you back together quickly but that much forced healing would leave scars. So instead James had decided to use the ritual form of the spell and though it took close to two weeks for Milly, Alexa, and Zach to be healed, they had come out of the whole ordeal without scars or damage to their flexibility.

It was during those two weeks that Zach had used a simple bandage to rip into pieces, and cast the Mend spell repeatedly. Apparently, performing the spell a couple hundred times gains you the ability to thought cast it and raises your mastery level two. Knowing that he had to increase his cultivation level in Earth now, he asked for Milly’s help. Zach had taken a month of 6 hours of mediation to breakthrough to the Foundation stage in Earth and Dark elements. Now that Zach was a higher stage in his cultivation, he could reach out to a ley line or node and fuel large spells with ambient mana. With the next level of Mend unlocked, Zach was finally able to work with metals like copper, tin, lead, and brass, as well as, non-mana infused wood. So Zach started working on the golem repairing when he had time. Soon the days flowed together as he worked with the city golems to finish the Palisade Wall, and then had them start on the smithy. Deciding to improve on his other spells, Zach worked on Shape Stone until his mastery of it reached the second level. Finally, in the evenings he would take a stroll with Courtney around the village listening to her day on the farm and how the goats were far more trouble than what they were worth, and then it was off to the cabin to work on the Golem for an hour before sleep.

Zach was quite happy that Courtney was back in his life. It turned out that after Markus had bought the two Mushroom Goats; they had torn all the grass from his pastures in a couple of weeks. The goats at a tremendous speed and either needed to be escorted out into the woods to other pastures, or someone with the Grow spell needed to work on his pastures every few days. So as Milly, Alexa, and Zach left the longhouse, Markus had come up and demanded that the Grain Golem be used on his field every couple of days.

The smile on Milly face left her and she said, “Markus, I told you not to spend your DP on those goats, and because of your mistake,” she jabbed Markus right in the chest with her finger, “You want to slow down everyone else’s crop growth and have the Grain Golem just work for you?” Markus looked down at Milly like he was going to hit her. That’s when Andy appeared behind him and Markus stood in absolute stillness. Milly took two deep breaths and finally spoke, “My final and only answer is no. However, Zach does have the Grow spell, and if he chooses to use some of his mana that way I won’t stop him, but he would be a fool not to bargain with you.” And with that Milly took a step out of Markus’ reach and gave a stern look at Zach before leaving with Andy and Alexa.

It was at that moment that a deal was struck between Markus and Zach. First Markus wouldn’t interfere with Courtney seeing him. Second, since the goats cost a hundred DP to purchase, then Markus had no claim over Courtney’s DP and she could spend it anyway she wanted. Zach made sure that Markus won’t tell her about the deal making him sign a magical contract, because all he wanted for Courtney was to make her own decisions and if she choose not to talk to him then at least he gave her a chance to make her own choices.

The next day, Zach was out in the pasture casting grow on the bare dirt, when Courtney came out to ask what he was doing at their farm. He told Courtney, how her father needed help and that he would help if he just had a chance to talk to her. So, he told her how he was sorry for saying those things about her father and that he was here to help. It took a few more days but Courtney started showing up with the meals again and they began to take their strolls shortly after.

Smiling Zach at his recollection of events, he held the dull green arm up to repair the last piece that was missing from the golem. Zach focused on the spell Mend, pushing mana through the spell, and a soft glow of threaded light played over the two pieces of the golem, showing Zach that he needed to twist the arm slightly to his left. Zach brought the two pieces together and he released the full amount of mana in a final burst sealing them. As the glow dimmed, Zach saw small holes left in the joining of the two pieces, so he picked up the trashed broken pieces of bronze plates and restarted the spell. Small motes of light peel off the broken pieces and settled in the open gaps, fusing themselves with the metal and resetting the corrosion giving the body a brown polish with flecks of red in the metal. Looking at the repaired arm Zach felt a sense of pride at a job well done, as he placed as last little bit of bronze left in a box. As he turned back to finally looked at the completed Golem, blue screen appeared.

Congratulations, you have repaired the Corroded Dwarven Golem! The golems body will be reclassified as a Bronze Utility Golem Body. Due to your hard work in repairing the body, you can restore two of the golem’s previous abilities.

Absorb Mana – The golem can passively restore mana of its element type into all Mana Cores connected to its body. Without this ability the golem will require mana from its Master or City Core periodically.

Analyze – By reviewing an action or task multiple times the golem will be able to gain that action as an ability. If the action or task requires a tool the golem will require the tool before performing the task.

Chopping – The ability to chop down a tree, remove all branches and split tree into smaller sections. This ability requires tools and for the Master or City Core to designate how many pieces the final tree should be in.

Core Communication – The ability to directly link with any Core. Once connected the golems ability to perform complex tasks and handle problems will increase.

Cutting – This ability allows the golem to use tools to cut cloth in the most efficient manner for a specific pattern. The specific pattern and cloth must be shown to the golem prior to starting.

Harvest Crops – This ability allows the golem to use tools or its hands in removing a ripen crop. Hauling is required to bundle or move crops to a central location.

Hauling – The ability to perform the task of lifting and moving heavy object(s). The number of objects held or the speed of the movement can be increase with tools. This ability requires the Master or City Core to designate a final location for the object(s).

Plant Crops – This ability allows the golem to till the dirt, prepare it for seeds, and cover the seeds. Plant summoning or Hauling is needed for it to drop seeds in the prepared holes.

Skill: Observation – The ability to review information about an object. This skill allows the Golem to review objects around them and identify tools or targets.

Observation Update:

The Dwarven Race are Master Craftsmen of all things metal and stone. In order for them to fuel their passion for creation, they created golems to perform menial tasks like farming, hauling, tanning, and cleaning. However, in order for the golems to do the multiple of tasks that the Dwarves did not want to do, their clan of Artificers came up with a plan. The plan was to create a basic frame that was flexible in design and abilities which could be switched out to any number of tasks. Therefore, the clan created a frame with specialize sockets, which when switching out plates or pieces of armor inscribed with different spells and skills, the golems could be made to perform different tasks. One century ago, the golem was originally made and sold as a basic mining golem and sent to scout for a Quarry in the Erirrian Forest. When the golem was trapped under a marble boulder the elemental could no longer perform its contract and was released. Hidden by debris and slowly corroding local artificer found the body and repaired it. With the lost of some of its core abilities the Dwarven Stamp of Craftsmanship can no longer be used.

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You have gained +4 to your Skill: Arcane Inscription!

You have gained +5 to your Skill: Golem Creation!

You have gained +1 to your Skill: Observe!

Choose two Abilities to keep!Absorb ManaAnalyzeChoppingCore CommunicationCuttingHarvest CropsHaulingPlant CropsSkill: Observation

Zach ran his hand down his face feeling the stubble on his chin. The menial abilities of chopping, cutting, and farming just didn’t make sense for Zach to keep. After all, he had a Harvest Golem that could take care of the crops and even did wood shaping which was much more efficient then chopping. He could always skill grind his imprint skill and so there really wasn’t a reason to keep the observation ability. So with three choices left, he went ahead and pressed Analyze. His reasoning was that if the Golem could self-learn then there was always the possibility of it picking up other abilities and skills. The only reason why Zach didn’t choose Absorb Mana was that in a couple of days they were going to head out to the nearest dungeon town with a hand carts filled with goods to trade. Subsequently, they would be headed home with a massive amount of goods and hopefully a few new families. So having Hauling as an Ability would help out the village and himself. Shaking his head he made a decision and pressed Absorb Mana, as a player of strategy games he was always one to play the long game even if it brought him trouble at the beginning so Absorb Mana was just too big of a ability to give up.

The blue screen winked out and soft light seemed to glow from the golem’s body before disappearing. Zach walked over to the skeleton frame of the body, he always thought the body looked like a child had drawn a stick figure of a person and then added a bunch of weird circles at various places. As Zach reached down pressing the cold metal frame against his shoulder, he began to pick up the golems body. Through the weight must have been under a hundred pounds, carrying the metal from inside of his cabin to the summoning stone out back had left him winded. Unlike his first golem, where the circle had been drawn crudely with chalk, Zach had used Stone Shaping to engrave the circles and runes into the large stone stab. During the craving of the circle, Zach had found out that if one had a specific goal or paid attention to details that your skill level with the spell seemed to increase faster than just mindlessly performing the spell over and over again. Now there was a subtle hum to the air around the summoning stone as Zach felt mana bend and flow around the runes and circles. Going to the west cardinal point, Zach placed the Golem’s body in the circle arranging it like a man in the fetal position. Next he went to the eastern circle and placed the large mana core with the imprinted skill of Core Expansion that he had created for this summoning. Zach had enlarged the core close to 600 mana over the last couple of nights by tapping into the Earth Node mana. Granted he couldn’t expand the core past his skill and that if he used the Earth node more than a couple times a day he would start getting a migraine, but it was all worth it in the end.

Walking over the southern circle, Grim placed the contract in it and a blue screen appeared with all the contract language that a battle golem needed. Grim and Zach had review the contract repeatedly, as Zach wanted to make sure he understood the terms needed for the golem to protect him and his group. They added a cause in the contract that if the party needed to escape the elemental would hold their enemies as long as they could before severing there contract allowing the Golem to keep all gains from the contract and mana. Otherwise the contract allowed the Golem to gain all Dark Mana from the creatures that it slain and a standard time of twenty years was set for the end of contract.

Zach went before the blue screen and placed his hands on the edge of the engraved circle. Closing his eyes, Zach went to his mana pool and with the addition of water, his small rocky island in the void looked to be a starry night tropical beach. Zach smiled as he looked around the island with sound of waves rolling into the beach. He felt like he was in one of the photos about Hawaii or a Caribbean Island only instead of a blue sky it was a starry night. Having broken through to the Foundation Stage on Dark and Earth mana the sandy beach had turned into perfect off-white sand and a night sky seemed to cover the top of his island. The only thing that had been a little off putting was that if one looked into the water, large dark shapes seemed to be swimming. Zach sat down on the beach and took of his leather boots off to let the waves come in and barely roll over his toes. It was a moment to relax before he attempted to summon a Dark Elemental.

Unlike summoning one of the other elements that Zach had gathered, the element of Darkness didn’t need a meta-physical representation on his island as it was already present. Apparently, when one first touched their mana pool, whatever element they were strongest in surrounded their mental landscape. For Milly, she saw a lush forest so thick and filled with life that not even the sun penetrated the canopy. While Andy saw endless red, orange, and yellow flowing energy which he had described as if you were staring into a camp fire. For Zach it was the endless void and he couldn’t help but wondered if the gift from the Shadow Panther hadn’t changed his affinity to the elements. Walking into the water, he ventured out to the boundary of his mana pool to see dark runes made from black obsidian as the waves struck against them. Zach reached out to the darkness with his mana and a cold feeling of emptiness came to him as dark mana flooded back into his mana channels. He felt like the cold was settling into his bones, as he every breathe he took came out like mist in the middle of winter. Slowly the Dark mana began to turn in front of Zach and as each complete cycle occur it started to go slightly faster. Zach intone the ritual’s words. “I bespeak the dark and those that dwell in it. I give back the mana that fills me to bring forth a creature willing to bargain. I seek a pact with them to in good faith and openness.”

The void turned faster now and Zach could feel beings slide around each other as if out there contained a great mass of slithering snakes. Slowly dark tendrils came out from the void, caressing the runes as they folded back towards the black mass that was at the edge of Zach’s mana pool. The elemental had come because of an all-powerful hunger that required it to consume anything and everything. This elemental was different from the tiny sand elemental he had summoned, as Zach felt like the runes were just keeping it held back. A deep voice spoke, “Food?”

Zach hands shook as he focused on the agreement and pushed it forward to the Elemental, writing began to appear on the water when the elemental growled. “No. Consume all, not some!” The runes flashed with the backlash of energy as the elemental through itself against the summoning circle. After a few tense moments the being of the void began drifting away leaving the way clear for something else. It wasn’t long before another elemental came, though Zach barely noticed as its essence was about hiding and obscuring, as a dark tendril came out of the void and curled its form in the runic circle. No noise or sound was made, and Zach had a feeling that this was as close of an acknowledgement as he was going to get. So Zach, once again pushed the contract forward and the writing began to appear, but instead of a hiss or a growl, Zach saw inky black shadows move some of the writing around and then it came back to him.

Grim appeared standing on the water with a piece of paper in his hands. “The elemental has some other desires and is willing to extend the contract time and teach you the skill Imprint Abilities, if you work on a its Hide ability with it. Its main concern is that it can be detected by other mana… I think it wants you to debug its ability and upgrade it.” Grim seemed surprise.

“Wait… how does it know I can do that? And can I do that?” Zach asked as he looked over at Grim.

“Well I certainly guess you can. I mean technically Mana Theory allows you to read the runic language and I can help with the translations. You have some knowledge of circuits and an overabundance of working computer logic. If we start framing it like that then it does seem possible and even profitable. As far as, how does it know? Dark elementals tend to find hidden desires and knowledge, it’s possible that it felt your ability to help it as you feed the dark mana back into the void. However, I think we should ask it for the skill Imprint Attributes, instead of Abilities. It might be costlier, but we should be able to make plates like the dwarves did.” Grim said quickly.

Zach shook his head and said, “Try to get both and another ten years on the contract. I wasn’t reborn in a new world to do my old job, so if I am going to do it, then I want a serious paycheck.”

Grim made the alterations and pushed it back to the elemental. Quickly, the elemental looked over the contract and change some text. Zach watched as Grim and the elemental sent the contract back and forth asking his input on the changes only occasionally. Finally, a deal was made and Zach felt the contract being accepted.

As such a blue screen popped up in his field of vision.

Congratulations you have reached an accord with a Medium Shadow Elemental!

The Medium Shadow Elemental has a mana pool of 150 and will be placed in a mana core of 600. The core has the Skill: Core Expansion, therefore the Shadow Elemental will continue its expansion until the core reaches 11,000 mana at which point it will breakthrough to its next cultivation level. The contract will still be in effect should the elemental grow larger.

As per the agreement, the Medium Shadow Elemental will fight all designated targets by you, or should you be incapacitated, it will follow instructions of your Grimoire. It will not directly or indirectly target or harm anyone in your party, and will pass all experience gains to you. The contract duration is set for 40 years and has a cause to add more time and favors if both parties agree. Should the Mana Core be destroyed or the Last Stand order be issued, the contract will be broken and the elemental will be given a total of 24 additional attributes from yourself. Lastly, the contract states that the Shadow Elemental will teach you the following skills:

Golem Creation Subskill Imprint Ability

Golem Creation Subskill Imprint Attribute

As recompense you will devote time in reviewing and improving the Shadow Elemental ability Hide. Improvements should be focused on divination spells and mana movement. As no specific time was set aside per week, you must show progress to this goal within the first month after learning both skills.

Please select which 24 attributes will be removed from you to complete the ritual.

STRDEXCONENDINTWISCHALUCK