by Ryan DeBruyn
“Azoth, drop it!”
Azoth let go and slunk away like a scolded doggo.
Rocky picked up the pen. Other than slobber, it was in perfect shape. Rocky breathed out in relief and looked to his pet. “Azoth, I’m sorry I—”
Something sparkly caught his eye under Azoth’s stomach. “Azoth, move away from there. Please.” His friend gave him puppy eyes, lowering his head to look up at Rocky. It almost made him laugh, but then he stood straighter. He stepped forward and Azoth relented, moving away from the pile of Crystals, mortar, and pestle he had procured.
He had completely forgotten his pet's obsession with shiny objects. Azoth was worse than a crow. The Chimera used to steal Zippo’s first staff because the top had some sort of gem inside.
Rocky bent down and placed all the Crystals back into his Bag of Holding.
Note to self, don’t leave piles of Crystals near the birdbrain.
Rocky picked up the mortar, and something moved within it. He sighed. Azoth had likely slobbered inside of it. He inspected it to assess the damage. But it wasn’t slobber. Somehow a Crystal had fallen into the bowl. Rocky moved to place it in his Bag and stopped. It was broken in half. But how? He had tried to break it in the past but it had been impossible. The glowing blue Crystal palm-sized snowflake was far sturdier than it looked.
He stared at the palm-sized Crystal that had cracked in half. He brought the mortar up to his eye and peered through the thick diamond side. Grains of blue-tinged sand slid around within its bowl.
Rocky experimentally placed the pestle atop the Crystal. He applied a bit of pressure, and the Crystal cracked further, the half becoming four smaller chips. He worked the device until he was left with shining blue sand. Even without his Ether Sight, he was relatively sure this was the answer. He compared the Mortar and its contents in Meditation. They were an exact match for the tiny sparkles he had seen on the surface of the Enchanted gear.
He uncapped the pen as Azoth slunk back toward him. He pointed at his pet and laughed, “No, Azoth. Go lay down, or hunt, or something. Leave me in peace.” He softened the blow by scratching Azoth vigorously. He kissed him on the forehead. “Thank you, buddy.”
Azoth jogged from the Crafters' Hall and people dove out his way. “Sorry about that, everyone.”
He couldn’t wait a second longer and turned back to his workbench to Analyze the Crystal dust.
Crushed Ether
● Crushed Ether has the ability to hold limited amounts of Ether, but has no value to most of the EtherVerse. It maintains much of its strength from its Crystallized version, and can be used in certain crafting endeavors.
He pulled out his tablet and wrote what he read in it, along with the way to obtain Crushed Ether. If he was right, this material could be used in all forms of crafting. Perhaps smiths could combine it with metals, tailors with cloth, leatherworkers with hides, alchemists with potions, and enchanters with gear. This would be expensive for his people. No wonder Enchanted gear was costly.
He carefully upended the Crushed Ether into the Pen. He pulled out a piece of leather and drew the Rune of Protection on it. After the first line, he removed the pen from the mark he had just made. Other than a slight indent from the Pen’s tip, the material carried no Crystal.
My excitement has gotten the better of me.
He entered Meditation and created an Ether Thread. He connected it with the pen, and the stylus cooled drastically in his palm. The crushed Ether glowed to his Ether Sight, and he drew the Rune of Protection again. A beautiful Ether Channel, suffused with tiny glowing stars, followed his stroke.
He finished the symbol and almost lifted the stylus before looping it back on itself. Sweat pricked his forehead, and he rested his stylus on the leather for a moment, surveying his work. It wasn’t pretty. He had been slower in certain areas, faster in others, and the symbol had thick and thin portions.
The Pen dripped where he had left it and the blotch it created grew larger. He pulled it off and cut off his Ether Channel from the Pen. As soon as he finished, the gear flashed in his Ether Sight, almost blinding him. When he looked back, the sloppy rune stared back.
He exited Meditation and looked at the Leather in the normal spectrum. It wasn’t blackening—yet. He Analyzed it.
Leather Tunic of Protection
● This tunic was made from basic grade leather, and has a poor Ether pool absorption pattern. Likely this object will never recharge after the pool is exhausted.
Ether Pool: Tiny
Current Ether Pool: 10/10
Enchantments: Sloppy Protection I (5%)
Okay, it was a piece of junk. But Rocky had never been more excited by an item to date. He pumped his fists up into the air and shouted, “I did it!”
Everyone in Crafters' Hall applauded. It didn’t last long—five seconds at most—a polite tradition, but it still felt good.
For a moment, he was surprised no one came over to see what he had done, but they were all likely working toward crafting breakthroughs of their own. They didn’t have time to inspect each breakthrough.
Rocky enjoyed his celebration for a few more moments before examining the gear. The note about the poor absorption pattern was troublesome.
He entered back into Ether Sight through Meditation and examined his rune. His embarrassment grew when he used a thread of Ether to trace his rune. The edges of the lines were wavy, and many weren’t straight. He was surprised the Enchantment held, but assumed that all of his former ‘practice’ helped him. Slightly. Plus his skill in Enchanting.
His large blotch at the beginning-come-end-of the rune had actually become the Ether pool. His Ether Thread examined the pool and found a tail on it. He remembered the knots or spirals he found on other pools and winced. When he pulled his Pen away, it had created this tail. He exited his Ether Sight and looked at the pen in his hand. He pretended to pull it away while spinning the tip in circles, practicing a spiral. He moved his hand in a small figure eight, and considered that it may create a knot, but only if he pulled the thread through.
He continued to work on piece after piece, keeping careful notes in his Knowledge Tablet. He would tell others about his findings and wanted the map to be as clear as possible. Rocky studied all the gear he held and did his best to draw the complex runes onto the tablet. He tried to describe how to join the symbols. The highest level Enchantment was always a bigger symbol and had to come first in the order of script. If the Enchantments were of the same level, they dominated a similar space.
Congratulations! You have learned a new skill.
Penmanship
● The ability to create legible script. Each point in this skill increases hand stability with a writing utensil by 5%.
Current rank: Weak level 1.
--
Congratulations! You have learned a new skill.
Artistry
● The ability to make beautiful pieces of art. Art can take many shapes, and an Artist can capture them all. Each point increases the user's Artistic Creativity by 1%.
Current rank: Weak level 1.
It was clear that his ‘Penmanship’ and ‘Artistry’ would need to improve right alongside Enchanting if his people were going to get better at this.
Rocky stopped, as he had no more Crystals left in his bag. During his experiments, he had created a set of gear with Protection and +1 Strength on the gloves, tunic, leggings, and boots. He looked outside and found it was already dark.
I think I got a little carried away. One hundred Crystals gone in a few hours.
He glanced back at his workstation, strewn with gear, and he swept the set into the Territorial Inventory. Smith or Sela would find a use for it. He checked his skill page and found Enchanting ready to rank up.
Enchanting
● Enchanting is the study of runes and Ether flow. Many of the runes used in early Enchanting were found naturally in the wild.
Weak
● Rune shaping of the individual increased by 25%.<
br />
Moderate
● Ether Pool creation of the individual improved by 1% per point.
Current rank: Moderate level 1.
Rocky felt much better after finally having some success and chose to return back to Toronto. He wasn’t sure whether he would tell Sela about his trip to New York yet, but he would tell the Golem Knights about the sapient golems—and recruit them to his cause.
He mounted Azoth and said, “Let’s head back to the ship.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
Somehow, preparing the Territory made him feel calm. He had done everything he could. And in the case of his death, people would be able to survive without him. That preparation somehow relieved him. He was breathing easier and had an energy he hadn’t before.
The ‘borrowed’ starship took a total of five minutes to fly south and drop off Rocky and the Golem Knights. It hadn’t taken much in the way of convincing for the five to accompany him. Rocky suggesting that the New York golems were sapient was enough for the Knights to sign on. They insisted Adam be left in the Grotto. Rocky hadn’t even considered bringing the young man on this possible suicide mission. He hadn’t even told Sela.
If this went sideways, the Grotto needed one of its leaders alive and uncompromised. At least, that was what he told himself. If he told Sela, she would try to stop him. He would have loved her help, but what he truly needed were people who believed in this mission as much as he did.
Maybe, if he failed, she would be able to amass enough power to one day save his family. It was a long shot, but he had to believe it.
***
Rocky and Azoth landed beside the area where the Golem Knights had HALO jumped, minus the parachutes. The Knights were pulling themselves out of small landing craters.
Rocky dismounted and turned to his friend, scratching Azoth’s chest. “This is as far as we go for now. Go back to help Sela. The Golem Knights will be in touch. Okay?”
Azoth shook his head violently, barely avoiding goring Rocky with his horns in the process. “Azoth. This is an order. You can’t help me in New York.”
His horns have really grown.
Azoth stomped his front paws and continued shaking his head. “Azoth, please. I can’t bring you with me. If I have any chance of finding my family, I need to go without you.”
Azoth hung his head and pawed at the soft soil. Then pointed at it with that same paw.
Rocky nodded. “Exactly like the underground Dungeons you couldn’t fit in.”
Azoth growled but seemed to accept Rocky’s order.
Once he had offered a sufficient parting gift to the Chimera—vigorous pets and treats—Azoth loped away, glancing at Rocky over his shoulder. Rocky shook his head and smiled at the creature’s antics.
Once he was airborne, Rocky jogged over to Epsilon. “You all understand the plans?”
Gamma answered for Epsilon. “Plan A, if the golems aren’t intelligent, sneak you in on our shoulders to find the humans. Plan B, if the golems are sapient, act like you are our slave and join them while attempting to find humans. Plan C, escape if they are hostile and sapient. They aren’t very creative plans, idiot, and of course, we know them.”
“We will leave you with the humans if we discover them. Then you can find your family. Once accomplished, we will make a trip to inform Sela or Azoth that you are ready for pick up. Are you not worried that you did not tell your Knight about this?” said Epsilon.
Epsilon assumed Sela was his Knight, which might have been amusing if the situation was different. Her lack of immediate support still stung. However, it was better than both of them dying.
“Let’s get moving. Daylight is fading, and we need to get to the area where the city used to be.”
On the ship, Rocky had shown the Golem Knights the satellite images and the surrounding area. The plans had taken what he had seen of moving golems into account.
The figure that sat on the mountainous throne at the city center intrigued the Golem Knights the most. Rocky never wanted to see it in person, but he feared he might very soon. With the Parliament Buildings beside him, Rocky concluded that the one on-screen was a golem converted from the Empire State Building. The patterned windows and concrete composed its medieval plate armor, and the weapon it wielded looked like the lightning rod that King Kong himself had hung from in Hollywood movies.
Rocky struggled to keep up with the Knights on foot. His stats had increased his speed drastically, and he estimated his speed to be faster than a car on the freeway. However, there was only so much stats could do when your legs were significantly shorter than your companions. Not to mention, they were all Master Classes. For all he knew, their stats doubled his. Eventually, Tao took pity on him, and Rocky clung to the hilt of the Knight’s sword.
The trip took far less time when, to Rocky’s shame, the golems sprinted at full speed. The fact that these five ‘small’ golems were this strong meant that the creature thirty times their size was terrifying.
The rubble-strewn city came into view, and the golems revved the speed down, coasting to a stop. Rocky focused on the horrendous honeycomb of perversion below him. Strangely, the city still had a shape, like a sandcastle left out to weather the tide. Piles of rubble, destroyed cars, and outlines of streets were visible. In some areas, the curb highlighted the edges of what used to be a sidewalk and road. The asphalt was gone, though, and only the grey stone remained underneath. The stones were slowly becoming a fine sand. Golems walked in pairs, indicating areas and digging through rubble or breaking large chunks apart. Humans came by and picked up the smaller pieces of debris, loading it into the flatbeds of trucks or trailers.
Over fifty humans hauled on ropes, dragging a destroyed bus over the gravel.
Rocky gasped. “What is this place? Does that thing really need a larger throne?”
“Another question is why all of these buildings aren’t golems. There shouldn’t be rubble like this. It didn’t happen like this in Ottawa—” Omega stopped speaking as one of the scavenger golems pulled a golem’s head out of the nearby rubble.
Tao jerked under him, his shoulders rising up toward his ears.
Rocky was going to say something, but a few nearby golems stopped work and began to pay attention to their approach.
Ten golems easily the size of the Ottawa Knights stopped working and studied them. As Rocky and the Knights approached, they arrayed themselves in a defensive position.
Epsilon held up a hand in the universal sign of stopping. His brothers came to an abrupt halt, and he called, “What is going on here?”
The ten golems relaxed at his words, and one of them stepped forward. At first, Rocky couldn’t make out what formed the golem. He was far smaller than the converted buildings around him and seemed to contain no joints in the material.
He used Analyze.
William Shakespeare
Master-Bard
Level 51
Health Points 2900 / 2900
Rocky felt his mouth drop open. That was the statue of William Shakespeare? He hadn’t seen any statues in Ottawa that came to life.
William Shakespeare spoke, confirming Rocky's suspicions of intelligence. “Welcome to New York, fellow Elders. May I escort you to our Lord Empire?”
“Like, do we have an option?” Omega asked. The other nine golems grew aggressive again, and Omega held up his hands defensively. “It was just a question. Chill, bros.”
Rocky Analyzed a white golem with black rings wrapping its body. He could be the Michelin Man’s twin. It stepped forward aggressively, pointing at Rocky.
Guggenheim
Master-Artist
Level 77
Health Points 2750 / 2750
“You have one of those flesh sacks on your sword. You can leave it here to join our teams.”
Rocky’s sphincter clenched, and Tao just nodded. “This one is ours. If we choose to stay, we will place him with the vermin. Thank you for the offer.”
“How many of us are there?�
� Gamma meant sapient golems, and his usual tone of anger was missing, replaced with excited.
“Golems like us. You mean that are intelligent? Right now, there are probably a couple hundred,” said Shakespeare.
Tao whispered, “Rocky, hide your Bag and that weapon. You are lucky they didn’t notice it already.”
Rocky did as suggested and tucked the Bag of Holding into the inside of his belt, then mentally turned his Soul Sword to its liquid form. He had grown so accustomed to the weight of both the items mentioned that he barely noticed them anymore.
Shakespeare led the way through gravel-strewn streets, giving the Knights a tour of sorts.
“Where are the non-sapient golems?” asked Epsilon when the group hadn’t passed any in a good long while.
Shakespeare scoffed and pointed at the pieces of rubble engaging nearby humans with dragging duty. “They are nothing more than hollow shells. Empire ordered their destruction. We are to stack the pieces to create more of our brethren.”
“Are you sure that’s even possible, bro?” Shakespeare glared, and Omega raised both hands innocently. “Just asking, guy…”
The group walked down a broad gravel path teeming with activity. A mountain of rubble stood a few miles away, Empire seated atop the makeshift throne. It was like a Titan from Greek mythology. Its size and presence so impressive, Rocky thought his soul fled his body. Even Tao had a small hitch in his step.
It took nearly five minutes to walk to the mountain of debris, and the Empire State Building golem continued to grow. By the time they arrived at the creature’s sabatons, Rocky couldn’t see over the creature’s knees even when craning his neck. The sound of a rockslide filled the air as Empire stood to full height. Rocky could swear a cloud must have blocked the view of Empire’s head, because he still couldn’t see it.
A voice echoed from the heavens. “What have you brought me, tiny one?”