[The golem Torva has received enlightenment by witnessing a legendary item. All skills have risen in level, and the chance of making a legendary item has increased by 1%.]
This. This is exactly why I knew Torva would grow fast. I just didn't expect Grid to make a legendary sword this soon, considering how many normal-rated weapons he'd been churning out. That's fine, though. The sooner the better.
I smiled a little when I saw Grid crying over Khan as he took him to the clinic. I'd be the same way with my golems. I know they can't actually die, since they're recalled into my inventory at 0 HP, but that doesn't mean it wouldn't hurt me if it happened.
I care about my golems like they're my children, since I created them. Although I might see a few of them as a bit more than children. I won't say who, just in case my golems can read emotions.
What Grid did next made me laugh so hard I lost my concentration on the golem I was working on and fell onto the floor. Every golem in the hideout looked at me and wondered why I was laughing so hard. Then I explained.
Grid had sold the sword for 200,000 gold. He could have sold it for a small fortune at the auction house, since I know for a fact the top rankers are close to advanced mastery in some skills.
When I thought about the sword some more, I wanted to steal it. There wouldn't be much of an opportunity unless the Yatan church won its fight against Earl Steim's knights, and with that sword on the knights' side, the Yatan church would have a hard time. That didn't stop me from sending a few assassin golems, rare in both class and type, to the battlefield to see if they could scavenge anything.
To my surprise, the Yatan church won and gravely wounded the knight wielding the sword. I didn't let the opportunity pass. The moment they got away from the battlefield and stopped to rest, my assassins stole the sword and left an epic one Torva had made in its place.
The main reason I wanted the sword was to let Torva make rapid progress by trying to understand and replicate it.
When I gave her the sword, though, she didn't start dismantling it right away. She asked for head pats first, because she was disappointed in herself for missing something simple. What was it, you ask? When Grid made a new hammer, she learned that a hammer could do wonders for an item's quality.
It took her about twelve tries, but she made her first unique item.
[Torva's Blacksmith Hammer]
Rating: Unique
Durability: 420/420 Attack Power: 100–120
Odds of making a rare-rated item: +12%
Odds of making an epic-rated item: +3%
Odds of making a unique-rated item: +2%
Made with Torva's unbreakable determination and her will to surpass the craftsman she watches and learns from. She has amazing potential and skill, but lacks the experience and reputation to truly reach her goal.
This hammer was made with only its creator and her master in mind, so it isn't suitable for anyone else to use as a blacksmith's hammer.
Conditions of Use: Torva, Daz
Weight: 100
It isn't as good as Grid's hammer on the rare and epic odds, but it comes out on top because it raises the chance of unique items, which she needs to upgrade her class.
While I was grinding out and deconstructing normal-class golems, hoping for a unique one, I saw Grid working on a strange item to deal with Kesan Canyon.
Well, I call it strange because he hadn't made it yet. He was just talking to himself about it. Then he concluded he'd make an invisibility cloak!
I hadn't even thought of that! He must need to go to Kesan Canyon for his class quest, but if he's making the hood from Sylphid scales, it'll take him a while to reach the right level or stats. Unless he makes an item to deal with them, too.
If my golem teams had a higher average level, I'd send them to hunt Frostlight Orcs. They were still leveling fast, though, so they should be able to soon.
If Torva could make a production method for an invisibility cloak the way Grid did, we could put them on our assassins. Better still, she could add more materials than just scales for better defense, like high-level orc skin or dire wolf hide. That would have to wait until Grid made his first one, so she could use it as a reference.
I decided my golems should focus on leveling for now. I called all my goblin miners back to base, so they didn't need protecting. Then all my golem teams started rapidly raiding the higher dungeon floors. They didn't do it recklessly, since that would defeat the point.
They knew I wanted an average level of at least 90 before sending them after the Frostlight Orcs. They surpassed my expectations. Not a single one was defeated, and after three days their average level was 100, which drove me to level 120.
Torva was lower, at level 90. That's fine. She forges a ton of items, but crafting doesn't generate as much experience as fighting. She did tell me Grid was trying to get into the canyon where Piaro lived, for some kind of swordsmanship, so I was looking forward to her picking it up.
After a while, I called the golems back and sent them on an expedition into Frostlight Orc territory. As long as Martimer was the main tank, they'd be fine no matter how many orcs there were.
Plus, she'd made two undead by combining an orc's body with a dire wolf's legs and head. Undead were-orcs, apparently. Unnaturally fast, tanky, and only ten levels below Martimer herself. They could also wear equipment, so Torva made larger armor and greatswords to fit their bigger frames.
They arrived around the time Grid left, after defeating the field boss. Once they got there, Martimer reorganized all the golems from ten small teams into two large ones. She seemed to be a natural leader.
When they started attacking the orcs, it was a one-sided slaughter, and my golems handled them with ease. Maybe sending more than 100 golems averaging level 100 at Frostlight Orcs averaging 120–140 was a bit overkill, since the orcs normally only travel in groups of six to ten.
At that point I didn't need to keep watching, and I let out the breath I'd been holding. I'd worried for nothing. Since half the golems were sitting idle, I sent half of them back to grind nearby dungeons, which was more efficient than having them sit in the back line doing nothing. Martimer also got an explosive increase in stats from the Frostlight Orcs.
Sadly, she can't keep absorbing the same type of enemy for the same stat increase, since the gains shrink over time. That isn't true for players, though.
How do I know? As half my golems were leaving, a group of about 30 male players, level 120–140, started looking at my golems with perverted eyes. I ordered my golems to attack them on sight. I didn't need to know what they were planning. Their eyes and faces said it all.
Nobody touches my golems except me and the people I permit.
According to Martimer, since every player is different, even ones with the same class, absorbing one gives her a small percentage of their stats. It only works once per player, but the stat loss is permanent for that player.
Do I feel bad for the players Martimer hit? No. They still gave my golems experience, and they were going to attack them anyway.
Once that was over, the half delayed by the incident made it back to the dungeons, while Martimer's half kept hunting orcs. I told her to keep going until their average level was around 130–140.
Something I found absurd: during this time, Torva made two unique swords, and one of them was a greatsword. I had her keep the greatsword and put the shortsword on a rack for now, since none of my assassins had shown progress toward an epic or unique class. I guess that's the limit of watching Faker. I'll need to find a more powerful assassin to watch at some point. They can almost perfectly mimic Faker now. The only thing that would let him beat them is the level difference.
One of my swordsmen, though, became an Advanced Swordsman at epic rating. I named him Gladius. It might seem weird for me to head-pat a male golem, but I did it anyway, since I treat all my golems, except a few, like my children. He's shown the fastest progress of all the swordsman golems and became the leader of one of the golem teams.
It's kind of funny, since Gladius is barely five feet tall and looks like a teenage boy, similar to Ibellin of the Tzedakah guild. He still can't grasp Piaro's techniques, but that's fine. I'm sure you'd have to be on the cusp of becoming a legend to get there.
I noticed Piaro had started observing Grid when Grid entered the canyon. Piaro had most of the cameagles flying around him, with Duke on his shoulder. I warned all my swordsmen that Piaro might have an encounter with Grid, and they temporarily stopped hunting to watch.
[Piaro's POV]
It seemed luck had played a huge role in the man named Grid defeating a canyon spider. Piaro still admired him all the same.
"His ability grows every time he hunts a monster. His potential is beyond imagination... He seems like a good choice to take revenge for me."
Piaro had once been the strongest knight of the Saharan Empire. He'd been a knight captain, until Asmophel framed him as a traitor and he went into hiding in Kesan Canyon. If his eagle friends hadn't shown up when they did, his mind would have been fixed solely on revenge. Now revenge was only his first priority. His second was training, and feeding his new friends.
"Asmophel... I will make sure you die a cruel death!"
Trackers were looking for Piaro all across the continent. Even with the eagles there to warn him of danger, he couldn't leave the canyon. They might be caught and killed, and that was the last thing he wanted. So he needed someone else to get rid of Asmophel, the man who had ruined the lives of Piaro and his colleagues.
He was convinced Grid was that person.
[Daz's POV]
I thought Piaro would go to Grid right away, but it turns out he'd keep observing him for a while longer. Disappointed, I gave my swordsmen head pats, sent them off, and told them to keep an eye out for when Piaro and Grid finally met face to face.
I went back to observing Grid while grinding out more golems. He seemed to be settling some personal grudge with a few players he'd met who were trapped by a canyon spider. It must have something to do with his past in real life. I could spend money digging up his past, but that would be a waste of time and money.
I found it funny how Grid used the trapped players' situation to extort every item they had. Not that I mind. In a similar situation, even with no grudge, I'd do the same thing. Or just kill them and take it from their corpses.
I was thinking of making the canyon my golems' next hunting spot, since the highest-level mobs in the dungeons were around level 130. For that to work, I'd need to make sure Piaro didn't try to recruit my golems for his revenge quest. That shouldn't be too hard if the cameagles act friendly toward them when they meet. My golems can tell him the cameagles are native to their homeland. That's for later, though, once my golems have milked their current hunting grounds for all they're worth.
I checked on the cameagle I'd passed to Agnus to give to Yura. The cool thing about cameagles is that players can register them as pets, and the system treats them as pets. I can still observe through them regardless. When a player or NPC registers a cameagle as a pet, they can view their surroundings through it. It's like a third-person view. Or, should I say, a bird's-eye view.
Apparently that's what made Piaro's life in the desert much easier, and now it's helping Yura scout villages and towns near the Yatan church, since she happens to be its 'Eighth' Servant. Obviously I can't make a production method from her class with that absurd level gap, but I should be able to in the future. I won't rush it, in case she gets another class change.
Still thinking about pets, I wondered if I could make a wyvern golem, and if it could evolve into an actual dragon. Dragons are basically myths in this game, so it would be awesome to have one. I'd need to find someone with a wyvern first, and reach a similar level to it.
I'll think about that in the future. For now, I'll focus on making more golems.