A few hours into the work, I used Golem Understanding on Faker. The same prompts appeared, with assassin instead of archer, and it would take five hours. Once that started, I kept working on a second workshop meant just for making golems. By the time Golem Understanding finished, I was about a quarter of the way through the layout.
While I worked, I sent the two free cameagles to observe the rest of Jishuka's core guild members. I picked Pon and Vantner, since I need more front-liners to back up the assassin and archer golems I plan to make.
I started with Vantner. His class turned out to be Guardian Knight, though that didn't change the timer: five hours, just like Faker. I assumed Pon, a spear knight, would be similar. I feel like five hours might be the baseline for most normal classes, but it probably has more to do with their current skills.
Twelve more hours later, I had two more production methods and a finished workshop layout. Now I needed to head back to one of the villages and buy everything for blacksmithing, alchemy and sculpting.
First, though, it made sense to craft a basic party of golems that Martimer could lead to hunt while I was out. With the cloaks and masks I'd bought, they could pass as NPCs or players, and nobody would be the wiser. Of course, I'd probably need to make the golems similar sizes so regular clothes fit, since auto-fitting clothes are expensive.
That reminds me. I should get a production method for a tailor golem to save myself some time.
Wait. Why don't I do this for every profession? Although it might be better to wait on professions other than tailoring, in case I get a chance at a higher-rated class in those fields later. With that in mind, I sent my last bird to the NPC shops to find a tailor of intermediate rank or lower.
When I headed to the first workshop, Martimer was sitting on the bench, probably waiting for her next job, since she seemed to have finished the small expansion I'd asked for. I sat next to her and waited for Torva to finish the bow she was working on. While I'd been gone, she'd already finished a bow, a shield, a few pieces of armor, a sword and a spear.
From what I can tell by the way Grid crafts, he takes a long time and puts his full concentration into everything. Torva was doing exactly the same, focused like she was in her own world. After a while, she finished the bow, set it on one of the racks, and looked at me.
"Torva, I'll need the workshop to make you two some more companions, so Martimer can go out and hunt without me."
She silently stepped aside and sat on the bench. Once the golems were made, they'd have to go without much armor until Torva could craft enough. I made two archer golems, two assassins, one guardian knight and one spear knight.
The first assassin was the one that changed.
I'd made the archers on autopilot. Ego, body, sculpt, ego, body, sculpt. I gave them plain faces on purpose. Unless a golem was a growth type or somehow broke through, I didn't want to put too much into it, and I made them androgynous for the same reason.
With the assassin, I made the mistake of watching Faker's footage while I worked.
He moved like he wasn't there. He'd vanish in the corner of a room and come out of a shadow on the other side, and the monster wouldn't even turn its head. I caught myself slowing down to match his rhythm. I lengthened the legs a little. I narrowed the shoulders. I thinned out the fingers so they'd sit quietly on a hilt.
When I got to the face, I didn't want it plain. I wanted it still. A face that gave nothing away to anyone, and only showed what it meant through the eyes. I spent an hour on the eyes alone.
When I held the ego vial and thought about what she was for, I thought of the cameagles. Watching. Waiting. Coming home.
The liquid turned the darkest red I'd ever seen.
[A growth-type golem with a growth-type class has been produced. All stats rise by +10, and reputation throughout the continent permanently rises by +50.]
[Growth golems with classes created: 3/5]
Three of five. Torva, Martimer, and now her. Something special was supposed to happen at five.
She opened her eyes, rolled off the table, and landed on one knee without a sound. She didn't say anything. She just knelt there, gray and still, and looked up at me.
"Hello," I said. "Can you talk?"
She nodded.
"Do you want to?"
She considered it. Then she shook her head, very slightly. Her face didn't change at all. Her eyes did. They looked almost apologetic.
Martimer laughed so hard she had to put a hand on the wall.
"Okay," I said. "That's fine. You don't have to. You need a name, though." I thought about Faker vanishing into a corner of a room. "How about Shade?"
Shade's expression didn't move a millimeter. Her eyes lit up like someone had flipped a switch behind them.
"I'll take that as a yes."
She was the only one of the new batch I named, and the only one I didn't make androgynous. The rest came out normal rating, with no growth type among them, and that was fine. You can't win every time.
There were enough weapons and arrows for the golems, but that was about it. I gave them clothes, a cloak and a mask each, and sent them out with Martimer while I headed to Winston for blacksmithing materials and everything else for the second workshop. On the way, Martimer's party cleared the mobs so I had a safe path.
They were surprisingly good at fighting. Even though most of the new golems weren't very mentally advanced, except Shade, they did their jobs well. The assassins pulled mobs, the guardian knight and Martimer held aggro, and the rest of the party took the mobs down systematically and quickly.
By the time I arrived in Winston, Martimer's party had headed back into the forest to hunt and gather as many materials as they could, to ease the burden on my wallet.
Before I reached the chain of NPC shops I needed, a little birdie found me an intermediate tailor. It turned out to be a player named 'deezmuts'.
They must be on the older side, because, man, is that joke outdated.
For the first time, when I used Golem Understanding on him, the production method had a growth-type class but not a growth-type golem, so it wouldn't count toward my class's growth golem counter. That kind of sucks, but I'm sure it'll be fine. It just means the golem can't level up through tailoring, only grow its skill level, so I'd need to send it out with hunting groups in the future.
It would take 10 hours, so I put it off until tomorrow, since I'd already been on for a long time. After buying everything I needed, plus a large stack of cloaks and extra masks, I checked on Grid to see how he was progressing.
Through the cameagle, I saw him fighting some outlaws with an arrow.
...Wait. He's using an arrow as a weapon? Doesn't he have anything else? I'd seen him equip a sword before, so I expected him to use that. My guess was that it needed repairs. That still didn't explain why he had no backup weapon and was somehow using a consumable as one.
He was doing a good chunk of damage, too, despite the level difference. After fighting for a while, he started yelling at the NPC blacksmith to lend him his sword. A good choice, if I say so myself.
While I watched, I wondered if I could somehow let Torva see through the cameagle, so she could learn by watching him. That didn't seem possible, but I found an alternative. If she used her appraisal skill and repeatedly disassembled and reassembled a cameagle, she could learn to make her own!
I sent my last cameagle to Torva and had her do exactly that. If she could learn from the original, she could improve, and maybe even surpass his skill. Hee hee hee.
After Grid defeated the outlaws, he took Khan to the nearby clinic, since Khan had passed out. At that point, I stopped paying attention and had Martimer's party pick me up at the edge of the forest. Even though I'd reached level 25, the forest was still dangerous for me, given its wide range of monster levels.
When I got back to the hideout, Torva was assembling and disassembling the cameagle over and over. She made only a little progress each time, so it would take a while, but there was a bright shine in her eyes once she understood why she was doing it.
I set up the second workshop, dropped everything else into the hideout's makeshift storage, and logged off. Out of the capsule, I did my usual stretches, cooked some turkey, worked out for an hour or so, showered, and logged back in.
As soon as I was back, I started observing 'deezmuts', then checked on Torva's progress. The cameagle was perched on a ledge, and I could hear the banging of Torva's hammer. Looks like she'd fully understood the cameagle and was working on one of her own.
Meanwhile, I checked the materials in storage. I had enough for another team: one archer, one assassin, one spear knight and one guardian knight.
That was the moment I realized a glaring weakness in my golems' team makeup. I was missing a healer!
I sent my free cameagle to find a priest on the double, since I needed to make one ASAP. The only way my golems regenerate health is by waiting, and they can't use potions. How did I not think of this before? I'm glad I remembered it early. I can't imagine what would have happened if I'd realized it later.
It didn't take the cameagle long to find a priest in a party with a mage, a knight, a warrior and an archer. A normal mage was another one I'd forgotten about. Oh well. No time like the present.
The priest and the mage would each take four hours, so I started with the priest while I put the finishing touches on the second workshop. When it finished, I gave my full attention to making a few priest golems instead of just one.
After a few hours, I had four. None were growth types, but one came out rare, so I got a slight increase in stats. I got them clothes, cloaks and masks right away. Following the policy I'd made earlier, all of them looked androgynous.
I had some staffs lying in storage, which would have to do until Torva could craft more. I might need to make some normal blacksmith golems eventually, but for now I'd let Torva be the focus for blacksmithing.
I recalled Martimer's party and had two priests join them before sending them back out. Shade was the last one through the door. She stopped, looked back at me, and gave the smallest nod. Her face did nothing. Her eyes said thank you so loudly I almost answered out loud.
Torva had finished two cameagles by then. She sent one to follow the main hunting group and survey their surroundings, and the other to follow Grid. I called back the cameagle that had been following Grid and put it on standby.