It looked like the Tzedakah guild was preparing to take on the Yatan church's Sixth Servant, Malacus. In all honesty, that probably wouldn't end well for them. From what I've seen of Yura's interactions, Malacus is a pretty high level. Grid was there as well. I wondered if they'd somehow get through it. I assumed his Pagma's Swordsmanship was much stronger than Torva's, since she has an epic class and he has a legendary one.
The whole fight was honestly a mess, but through sheer luck and items, Grid managed to defeat Malacus. Then he showed off his terrible greed, since apparently Jishuka had set the item drops to go to her. Once they sorted out the item situation, I stopped watching and went back to making golems.
Unless Grid was fighting or learning new swordsmanship, I'd just ignore what he was doing. Torva watches him plenty anyway.
At some point I took a break to relax, pet Fenrir, and ride on his back to check on all the golems again. Here's where everyone stood:
Torva only needs to make three more unique items to upgrade her class.Martimer still has a while before her class upgrade.Shade just reached an epic class, so she's nowhere near unique.Joul also just reached epic.Gladius says he feels close, yet so far away.Crimson: I have no idea how close Crimson is, or what Crimson's requirements are.
I think I'll be able to upgrade my class in about two months, maybe less, depending on my luck.
I started focusing on making berserkers, since only one golem team had one, and Izarail leads his. With a berserker on every team, their mobbing speed and damage should go up a good amount.
While I worked on the berserkers, Fenrir went off to help Torva with her swordsmanship, since it was that time in her schedule. That left Crimson by my side. My golems had agreed that someone should always guard me if Fenrir wasn't there. Of course I tried to refuse, but since everyone had agreed, there was nothing I could do. I could have ordered them not to, and they can't defy me since I made them. But I don't want to rule them with an iron fist.
When I logged off, I did my usual routine, except this time something was different. Agnus had decided to move in with me, since his current place wasn't treating him well.
I greeted him at the door and gave him a hug. Then I helped him move into a room on the first floor and set up his capsule.
He stopped in the hallway on the way in, in front of the shelf. The stuffed wolf was still sitting there, crooked ear and all, under a layer of dust I'd never been able to make myself wipe off.
"You still have him," Agnus said.
"Yeah."
He didn't say anything else. He just reached up, straightened the wolf so it sat a little more upright, and went to unpack.
Afterward, I started cooking. Agnus acted like a kid with a new toy when he noticed. He was practically vibrating at the table by the time I brought the food out: grilled chicken with rice, corn and broccoli, with some melted cheese over the broccoli.
It was the first time in a long time that there were two plates on that table. Neither of us mentioned it.
Once we finished eating, we both got back into Satisfy right away.
When I opened my eyes, Fenrir was asleep on my lap again. I moved him to my shoulder and got straight to work. After a few hours, I'd concluded Fenrir is a pretty heavy sleeper. That, or he just finds my shoulder and lap comfortable. Probably the latter.
I kept making berserker golems that day, since I needed four more for every team to have one. I also out-leveled all my golems except Fenrir and reached level 190. Getting experience from every one of my golems is finally showing its worth now that I have so many.
While making one of the berserkers, I checked on my targets and almost burst out laughing at Grid before remembering Fenrir was still asleep. Grid had sold a unique spear and two epic spears for just 800,000 gold.
I don't have to worry about money, so I don't have Torva sell anything she makes. She stores it or outfits the golems. But I do keep an eye on market prices, and he could have sold all three to Pon for at least 1.2 million gold. It was hard to hold in my laughter, but I managed.
After finishing the berserkers, I started on golems with the martial artist class. The class doesn't seem that great, but if Torva makes them some gauntlets, they could probably do serious damage. I made enough golems for five new teams first, before making the martial artists. That would take a while, but I hoped to get at least one unique, preferably a growth type.
Fenrir is still the only unique growth golem I've made.
When Fenrir finally woke up, he crawled up and snuggled onto my head, then watched me make more golems from there.
Some of the assassins, including Shade, reported in. They'd found a tailor I could make a production method from, and Shade had found a jewel crafter.
That meant I owed Shade three days of endless head pats. She said she'd decide when to redeem them. Her face said nothing. Her eyes said she'd been planning it for a while.
The surprise was that this jewel crafter was protected by someone with an epic or higher class that let him control dungeons. Shade had already left a cameagle there, which was great for me.
Through the cameagle, I saw two people talking. One was a girl named Elizabeth, who I assumed was the jewel crafter. The other was a man with the username 'Eat Spicy Jokbal'. It seemed like a Korean thing I probably wouldn't understand. Oh well.
When I used Golem Understanding on Eat Spicy Jokbal, I got the familiar notification saying I couldn't make a production method from his class right now, because of the level difference. Elizabeth, though, I could.
Her class was Accessory Maker, and it would take two full in-game days to make the production method. Her skill level must be advanced. All the better for me. I should only need one accessory maker golem for now. There's a limit of three, but I don't think I'll need that many anytime soon.
When I confirmed the skill, I sent the first new golem team to be geared up by Torva, and told her about the gauntlets for the new martial artists. None of them came out epic or better. They were all rare. That didn't bother me much, since even rare golems give me a stat boost.
I decided to relax on the couch in the smithy, with Fenrir sprawled across my lap while I patted his head. I kept Elizabeth in the corner of my eye while I watched what was going on in front of me.
It was time for Torva's swordsmanship practice with Fenrir, except this time I was watching. Torva said she wanted to master her current skills before trying the others on the mural.
In every exchange, Fenrir broke Torva's footing before she could pull off the sword dance her skills required. She was trying to execute them faster. She'd even made boots that raised her skill speed by 15%, but even that wasn't enough against Fenrir. It made sense. Fenrir was level 300, and Torva was level 145. With Torva's stats, though, she could probably pass for a level 200.
During her training, I discovered that Crimson was extremely fluffy, and I couldn't stop petting him, or her. Honestly, Crimson is the only golem I don't know is male, female, or neither. Looking down there won't help either, because I didn't design my male golems with anything down there.
Apparently they grew something as they leveled. I really wish they hadn't told me that.
While I was contemplating ways to solve the world's problems through the power of fluffiness, Torva and Fenrir's spar ended. Torva had managed to pull off one skill. That might not sound like much, but given the gap in stats, level and skill between them, it was a miracle.
Torva said she needed to 'recharge', even though she has infinite stamina, and sat on my lap while I patted her head. We sat like that for about an hour, until Shade came to report that the Giants guild was attacking the Tzedakah guild.
I didn't plan on revealing myself or my golems yet, so I just watched. After a while, the Tzedakah guild drove the Giants guild back, with Grid's help. The only thing I really learned was that Grid's skills had more power or shorter cooldowns than Torva's. That was expected, since his class is two grades higher.
It also turns out that blood can be used in the forging process. And my golems, if they're a high enough level, can produce blood.
How did I find out? The moment Torva learned it, she slit her own wrist with a knife while forging a greatsword for herself.
"TORVA!"
"It's fine, Praetor. It will close." She didn't even look up from the anvil. "Hold still, Crimson, you're in my light."
The greatsword came out unique. A few more of those, and she upgrades her class. I made her promise to warn me next time. She promised. Her eyes said she was already planning the next one.
I went back to secluding myself to make golems. I rarely run low on materials, thanks to the goblin miners and constant dungeon runs by the lower-level golems. When I got back to work, Fenrir rested on my head again. All was at peace while I worked.
When I saw Grid enter the golem labyrinth and just mine the golems to death, I found it funny. They weren't very advanced golems, just large, hulking tanks. Thankfully, every ore I need is available in the dungeons my golems can access.
Then I started on a golem that would be different. I wanted to combine parts from a few different classes, just to see what would happen. Mage and berserker, mostly. Something that could hit like Izarail but understand the world the way my mages did. I put all my attention into it.
It took five in-game days.
I started with the frame, the way I always do. It came out small. Smaller than I meant it to. I told myself it was so the mage parts would fit, and I believed that for about a day.
The face took the longest. I kept fixing it. The nose was wrong, so I fixed it. Then the chin was wrong. Then the eyes were too far apart, and when I fixed that, they were almost right, and almost right was so much worse than wrong that I had to put the chisel down and walk around the workshop twice.
I knew what I was doing by day three. I didn't stop.
She had silver hair. All of it, not just the streak she'd been so proud of. I used to tell her it would take over her whole head someday, and she'd say good. She had blue eyes, her mother's eyes, and the light tan she always got by June because she refused to wear a hat. She was about the same size as Fenrir in his kid form.
I thought about the stuffed wolf. About the hospital room with the bad wallpaper, where she asked me if heaven had video games. I told her yes. I didn't know. I wanted it to be true so badly that I'm still not sure I was lying.
I thought about Jane at the kitchen table a year later, very quietly saying her chest felt tight, and me saying you should lie down, instead of the thing I should have said.
I set the ego core last. I didn't think about what she was for. I couldn't think about anything.
Before I finalized the golem, I started crying on top of it.
All the bad memories of my wife and daughter came back at once. I didn't stop crying for a few hours. All my tears landed on the golem.
My golems gathered around me, Fenrir included, and tried to comfort me. Torva had her hand on my back. Martimer and Joul stood on either side of the table. Shade was in the doorway, and for once even her eyes weren't hiding anything. They all thought I'd failed to make a golem for the first time.
Then something crazy happened.
[Something unprecedented has happened.]