In the dark, Greem took out the freshly crafted Clay Golem from his waist pouch. The thumb-sized core was shining indistinctly with the glow of Earth Elementium. The four energy nodes carved on top of it could continually absorb the Earth Elementium in the world around them, turning it into usable energy and storing it for future use.
Out of the four energy nodes, two were illuminated, showing that it was 2/4 charged with Earth Elementium, which should be enough to run some tests.
Greem tilted his head to the side and listened for any movements outside his room. Then he gently opened up the door and stealthily left his room.
At this moment, most of the Apprentices were still gathered in the lecture hall, dealing with the frustration of the compulsory mission. Therefore, Greem didn’t meet with any Apprentices as he left.
Fifteen minutes later, Greem was, once again, walking along the familiar stony trail outside the tower.
The fierce battle between Advanced Apprentices yesterday had clearly killed many of the demons in this swampy land. Along the way, as he saw the demons scattered about, a rare feeling of pity actually emerged in Greem’s mind.
Although these demons look really frightening and evil most days, once they were faced with Apprentice Adepts who were stronger than them, they immediately became trembling cattle, unable to fight against the oppressive forces of the Adepts.
Perhaps, in the eyes of these demons, those Apprentice Adepts were the real monsters, and were even crueler than themselves!
Traveling quickly on the stony trails, Greem soon arrived at the testing field he had chosen – the Muddy Swamp.
Sinbad was dead, having been transformed into the Clay Golem in his hand. Now the Ghost Nannies had no leader, which meant it was the perfect time for him to train here.
Standing firmly at the edge of the Muddy Swamp, five steps away from the filthy and stinking pond, he could indistinctly sense the weak soul ripples of three Ghost Nannies hiding underneath the muddy water.
Greem casually tossed the Clay Golem summoning core at the edge of the pond. When the light yellow core touched the mud, a vague vibration reverberated from it.
Being guided by Greem’s Spirit Energy, no activation spell was required, so a huge amount of earthy yellow smoke started to form around the core. Driven by strange forces, the clay on the ground starting to twist itself together, quickly molding itself into a shape that was roughly human.
Greem closed his eyes and sensed the Clay Golem, quickly finding the core he had crafted on the chest of the clay being.
He opened his eyes and gave it an examining look.
He was trusting that this Clay Golem would change his fate!
Chapter 35
The Golem standing in front of him weighed about 90 kilograms and stood 1.7 meters tall.
The earthy yellow surface of the body was constructed from a loose, damp clay. It had four distinct limbs and a head, but all were very coarse. Also, it didn’t have as many joints as a real human.
Its legs were two thick clay pillars, which seemed to merge with the soil on the ground beneath its feet. Its arms seemed to be able to move in any direction, and on these arms were a pair of gigantic palms, which would likely be able to tightly clench things. It didn’t have a face, but there were some protrusions where a face would normally be.
If looking at it from afar, this Clay Golem would appear to be a bald guy wearing a yellow leather armor. If a robe was put over its body, it could be used to deceive an enemy.
Greem ordered the Clay Golem to walk up and stand in front of him.
This Clay Golem was truly a creature of the Earth, as it could move its heavy body over the soft and damp soil without making a single noise. Its movement was quicker and lighter than a leopard, and no traces of its passage could be found on the ground. However, it did leave strong traces of Earth Elementium in its wake!
When Sinbad’s core was obtained, her soul was captured inside it. As a direct result of being made from a high-quality demon core, this Clay Golem possessed an intermediate intelligence, which was not as rigid as other Titans and Golems. Through the Mind Control runes he had carved on the core, Greem only needed to give it a command and it would do its best to smoothly carry out the order.
Staring at the Clay Golem standing in front of him, Greem stretched his arm out in front of him and touched it. Its skin was rough and solid. Although it was constructed from soft clay, it still had a decent defense. He took out a dagger and stabbed the Clay Golem’s waist a few times. The dagger simply poked through the skin and left behind some marks, which soon disappeared as a faint earthy yellow glow appeared around the mark as the golem regenerated.
Good, it had a basic defense, was mostly immune to piercing damage, and could heal itself. In brief, the basic defense of a Clay Golem was equal to a human fighter who wore a full set of leather armor. Of course, it couldn’t be compared with that of a Stone or Iron Golem, and the only feature worth mentioning was the self-healing ability.
Greem walked in a circle around the Clay Golem. He thought the 1.7 meter height of the golem didn’t make it look powerful enough. Thus he tried to make the Clay Golem bigger.
Following Greem’s command, the quiet Clay Golem started to grow taller and bigger. However, the once solid clay body actually became soft and light. When it finally reached a height of four meters, its entire body looked like a clump of gray mist. The once solid clay body had become a gas-like Earth Elementium body.
What was wrong?
After communicated with the Chip, Greem finally understood. The demon core used to create this Clay Golem only had the ability of an Advanced Apprentice. Hence, it could only control a total of ninety kilograms of Earth Elementium. Once this weight was exceeded, it would lose any substantial form it formerly had.
The height of 1.7 meters was the most optimized height after extensive calculations performed by the Chip. Being at such a size, the density of the Earth Elementium was at an optimum level, giving it its maximum defense ability. If he attempted to make it taller, the total volume of the Earth Elementium remained unchanged, making the defense strength of Clay Golem drop significantly. So, although it looked taller, its density decreased. As a result, it was going to be difficult to protect the core hidden within its body.
Sighing helplessly, Greem had no choice but let the Clay Golem resumed its former form.
Next, he needed to test the few basic skills that came with this Clay Golem.
Although weakened, the Quake skill that came with this golem was still an offensive ability. When it was activated, the surrounding ground would shake as the Clay Golem moved around. Greem had tested it, and the vibrations had a greater impact on smaller creatures, as they could hardly stand still around the Clay Golem, let alone launch attacks against it. It could also be used decently against middle-sized creatures. As for larger creature, this skill was useless.
The second offensive skill to test was Clod of Mud.
In order to test it, Greem had the Clay Golem lure three lurking Ghost Nannies from a nearby pond. As a result, the Clay Golem and the three Ghost Nannies put on a ‘big fight’ for Greem.
Strictly speaking, compared to a Ghost Nanny, who barely had any good offensive or defensive skills, the Clay Golem, who was the equivalent of a pseudo-summon demon, could easily suppress them in all aspects. No matter how these three Ghost Nannies kept scratching or biting on its solid skin, all the scratch marks would disappear in the blink of an eye. But when Clay Golem attacked with its heavy fists, the Ghost Nannies would be knocked away, suffering heavily.
Following Greem’s orders, Clay Golem grabbed a Ghost Nanny with one of its hands and squeezed it until a cracking noise could be heard. Then it threw it off into the distance. While the Ghost Nanny was still flying through the air, the Clay Golem grabbed at the air above its head and, immediately, a meter long spear of hardened mud appeared in its grip.
It threw the spear through the air, penetrating the Ghost Nanny’s weak body
and nailing it to a Killer Tree growing at the edge of the pond. As a demon itself, the Ghost Nanny had a strong vitality. Although its body had been punctured by the spear, it still restlessly struggled and tried to free itself.
A second spear was released, slamming straight through the Ghost Nanny’s head. It was left hanging motionlessly from the Killer Tree.
At this moment, the two remaining Ghost Nannies hung themselves on Clay Golem’s body like two mad dogs clamping onto a meaty bone. With both arms, Clay Golem forcefully pulled them away from its body and threw them onto the ground. While they were struggling to get up, the Clay Golem raised both of its arms high up into the air. In the next second, countless dirt spikes poked up through the ground and turned them into two shish kabobs.
In a brief moment, all three Ghost Nannies had been annihilated, and the Clay Golem remained undamaged.
Throughout the entire process, Greem had remained an indifferent spectator, letting the Chip collect real-time data from the battle so that it could work out a better-optimized strategy for using the Clay Golem in combat.
Soon, detailed battle data of the Clay Golem was projected into Greem’s mind.
Through this detailed data, Greem was able to have a better understanding of this Clay Golem he had created.
Judging from this data, the Clay Golem was merely comparable to an Intermediate Apprentice. But, upon considering its self-healing and lack of fear towards death, it could unleash a basic combat strength that was similar to that of an Advanced Apprentice.
According to Greem’s understanding, the damage that could be inflicted by a spell cast by an Advanced Apprentice Adept was around 20-30 points, varying based on the caster’s Spirit. As for the defensive spells of an Advanced Apprentice, they had a defensive value of around 30-40 points, so two attacks from a similar level opponent would be enough to rip a defensive spell apart.
In this aspect, a Clay Golem’s offensive strength was rather weak. If faced with an Advanced Apprentice, the Clay Golem would need offensive support from Greem. Only then would it have a possibility of defeating the enemy. After all, Greem’s Fire Arrow spell could inflict 13-18 points of Fire damage and 6-7 points of Physical damage. If he and Clay Golem worked in tandem, they might be able to break the defenses of an Advanced Apprentice in a single round of attacks.
And once the enemy lost his magical defenses, unless he was a Body Refining Adept, he would just be like a tame sheep that Greem could kill easily, not even worth mentioning. So, as long as he didn’t have to face someone like Evil Bugs or that frightening little Loli, the combination of Greem and the Clay Golem was enough to threaten even an Advanced Apprentice.
But, too bad, the Underground Cave Investigation mission exceeded the abilities of an Advanced Apprentice. Most likely, he would be working with a group of Pseudo-Adepts, thus, although he had a Clay Golem now, Greem was still too weak.
According to the requirements of the mission, they had to set off in half a month in order to arrive at the mission location. So, Greem was left with fifteen days to prepare. Such a short amount of time was, clearly, not enough for Greem to improve his magical abilities. Therefore, he had to keep digging into the potential provided by Golems, so he could increase his strength while he still had the chance.
Greem remained where he was, pondering upon what this meant for him. Finally, he looked off into the distance, to another area of the swamp, which was obscured by thick fog.
He was looking toward the habitat of the Giant Alligators, which he reckoned were also Earth demons.
If he could kill the Giant Alligator King in there, he would likely acquire another handy Earth Elementium core. As for the Water Elementium core, Greem just couldn’t think of a demon in this swampy land which fit the requirements.
“Fine, I’ll spend the next few days fighting those Giant Alligators!”
With a ferocious look shining in his eyes, he viciously spoke that while facing in the direction where those Giant Alligators lived.
After that, he motioned at the Clay Golem, making the human-sized Golem collapse. Freed from the bounds of the Earth Elementium, a large amount of clay had formed a pile where the golem used to be standing.
Greem grabbed the summoning core, rolled it around in his palms, and examined it closely. Initially, there were two illuminated energy nodes, but now, one of them had slightly dimmed. According to this consumption rate, with all four energy nodes illuminated, perhaps this Clay Golem could only fight in an intense battle for fifteen minutes. If it was not a fierce fight, perhaps it could last longer.
As the energy stored in Clay Golem was not suitable to hunt that Giant Alligator King today, Greem put away the summoning core. Then, using the Burning Hand, he ignited all three broken bodies of the Ghost Nannies. He pulled up his hood and disappeared into the misty fog.
Chapter 36
Once Greem was gone, all that was left was a pile of dirt and three charred bodies. On top of a tilted Killer Tree, not far from the scene, a Scavenger Crow with blood red eyes let out a soft caw, and flapped its wings, flying up into the foggy air.
But, right at this moment, a silky smooth, snow-like arm suddenly stretched out, tightly grabbing the Scavenger Crow before it could get too far. Without allowing this stupid creature to struggle, the tiny palm casually clenched, and so one of the demons who had the title of ‘Scavenger of Swamp’ was crushed into meat paste, and small bloody chunks flew in all directions.
The curvy, seductive body of Mary appeared on the top branch of the Killer Tree.
She gracefully stood there, staring off into the direction Greem had left. A small smile appeared on her face. Then, as suddenly as she had appeared, she disappeared.
Although Greem thought himself clever, he had underestimated just how bizarre and unpredictable magic spells could be. There was nowhere in this Magic Swamp where one could hide their activities. The Scavenger Crows, which could be found everywhere, were, in fact, Hawkeye’s spies, secretly spying on the activities of every single Apprentice for him.
In the dead of night, when Apprentice Adepts were hiding in their rooms, performing all kinds of strange magical experiments, they would never think that, in the night sky outside the Tower, there was a pair of blood red eyes spying on them.
With regards to this flying spy, only those who possessed sharp and sensitive Spiritual Senses could notice the difference.
If this spy had not been killed, Greem’s trick would have been related back to Hawkeye within half an hour. Therefore, although Hawkeye had the lowest combat strength among the Advanced Adepts, his ability to obtaining information was, no doubt, the highest.
Hence, the only way any Apprentice could keep secrets safe was to make sure that these ‘spies’, who could be found everywhere, were removed from the equation.
…………
Greem had no idea of what had just happened behind him. Although his Elementium vision had discovered the Scavenger Crow, he didn’t think to relate it to Hawkeye.
After sneaking his way back to his room, Greem was unable to restrain himself and started tidying up his belongings.
Other than Sinbad’s core, he had earned quite a few items from the events involving the fight with the Loli the other day. As he was rushing to turn the best resource he had into his personal strength, Greem had put all his focus on Sinbad’s core, and hadn’t taken the time to properly examine the other items!
Sinbad’s core had been the most valuable of them, and it had been turned into the summoning core of the Clay Golem. Of all eight premium quality Blood Sacks he found, Mary had swallowed seven of them, leaving him with just one. A delicacy like this was something only Adept Anderson could eat for sustenance without considering it wasteful.
As everyone knew, with the exception of Body Refining Adepts and Bloodline Adepts, most Adepts had very weak bodies. Constantly dealing with Elementium Corrosion and long hours spent reading spell books and magical scrolls… A lifestyle like this would only bring about a l
ousy body. Thus, though most Adepts were not so frail as to be unable to stand up to a gust of wind, almost all had weak constitutions.
If one focused too much on the utilization and strengthening of their Spirit, but neglected their body, they would often have very weak bodies, and have no choice but to take extreme measures, using tonics to strengthen their body.
The Blood Sack, harvested from the root of the Bloodsucking Rattan, was an excellent supplement for nourishing blood and qi. However, if one could find an Alchemist and get them to help them concoct it into a ‘Bloody Banshee Potion’, it could increase the Physique of a weak Adept by up to 2. Of course, this Bloody Banshee Potion only worked for those with 10 or less Physique, and it only worked once.
Obviously, Greem didn’t have the resources or abilities to get an Alchemist to concoct a Bloody Banshee Potion for him! Therefore, though he knew that consuming it directly would waste most of the essence contained within, Greem ate the Blood Sack.
When the soft, jelly-like Blood Sack broke in his mouth, a strong, bloody, and sweet taste exploded on his tongue. As the sticky essence of blood started to flow down his throat and into his stomach, a warm sensation started to surge within Greem’s body.
*Beep* “Unknown energy detected in Host’s body, unable to predict what changes said energy will cause to Host’s vitality. Does Host wish to cleanse it? If no answer is received from Host, cleansing procedure will automatically commence in 5 seconds…”
…
“5… 4… 3…”
“Cancel the cleansing procedure!”
“Host’s command received, cleansing procedure terminated… Would the Host like to monitor internal body data in real-time?”
“Yes!”
“Host’s command received. Commencing real-time monitoring of body’s internal data…”
A series of indistinct beeps followed, then data on his body was projected into his mind.
While examining the information on his body, Greem discovered something unexpected. Aside from both Physique and Health Points, which were slowly rising, it seemed his experience had increased as well. If his memory served him, he only had around 530 Experience Points during the last self-inspection, but now it had increased to 650. This… this was a huge leap of over 100 points!
Age of Adepts c1-1513 Page 26