《Golem core》 Chapter 1 I don''t remembermuch after it happened. I blacked out before the ambulance arrived and only briefly regained consciousnessbefore the end. I knew my family were there, my mother and my sister, they held my hands as the machine beeped and they cried when it flatlined. I heard a doctor say something about time and then I was gone. It wasn''t the way I wanted to go, in my sleep at 150 with a fulfilling life and grandchildren surrounding me but at least my family were there at the end. What happened afterwards was unexpected. I had been an atheist before so I had been anticipating oblivion with the little conscious thought I had but when my mind grew less foggy rather than simply vanishing it was alarming. I panicked that I had been wrong and that I would now spend eternity in hell, I had always thought I''d have some strong words for god if I ever met them but when that could have actually happened I had been ready to throw myself at his mercy. That didn''t happen though, obviously, this would have been a very different story if it had. No, instead I found myself falling, a powerful pulling force dragged me downwards until I slammed down at enormous speed, coming to a complete stop instantaneously and yet not feeling any pain. I was blind and deaf for a while, I had freaked out that this would be my entire world now but thankfully that was not the case. I could suddenly sense an enormous eye right in front of me. I won''t lie it scared the life out of me, the eye must have been the size of a small microwave and it looked human. Wrinkled and a cool grey it peered at me, blinking and then suddenly it was gone. "Good potential but weak, not really worthy of a divine creature, Avorius send this one to Malik maybe he can use it for something. A monster or something, maybe let a mage summon it? That would be interesting, do that." The voice was old and weary but with it a power like none other I had ever experienced washed over me and it was almost enough to wipe away what was left of me.This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. I felt like I was moving but that was all and then I lost consciousness.
"beothachadh!" Again I felt the unsettling sensation of having no sight and suddenly gaining it. I was a glass orb, about 5cm in diameter and I was sat on a table full of other glass orbs. Myvision of the table was astounding, I could see the most minute imperfections, it was such remarkable clarity that I almost missed the man that was standing on the table. My extremely acute vision seemed to end at about 3 feet away from my orb but I could see normally past that. The man was in his mid-thirties with a face full of laughter lines, his eyes were an emerald green, his hair a deep chestnut brown. A slim nose pointed towards a pair of small lips that were pressed into a thin line, his brow furrowed in consternation. The majority of his body was hidden by a set of heavy black robes, he looked like something out of a fantasy novel. Now that I was actually given time to ponder my surroundings I began to get an inkling as to what was happening, I had read enough novels to recognise a scene like this. A summoned hero, a tale of reincarnation and growth to be the guardian of this world or something like that. So when the man reached out to me I thought this would be it, the start of my adventure. Then he grabbed the orb about 3 down from me and inspected it. "Perfect! It only took 2 tries for this stupid spell to work, I was expecting at least 4 or 5 tries before I got one." His voiced wavered with excitement. Then with a wave of his arm, I was sent flying out of the door with the other glass orbs and landed in a pile. We had been in a small hut in a large garden, it had a gentle slope down into a meandering river, it was a beautiful scene. An enormous house was perched at the top of the garden, about a hundred meters from the hut I was now sitting outside. I was feeling quite wronged here, the lovely garden doing little to lighten my spirits, I had just been thrown out with the rubbish! That was not how this goes, I mentally ran my hands over my face, a gesture I always did in stressful timesback when I had a body. Now, things had been fairly eventful so far, which is why I wasn''t even surprised when I started rolling off the pile. I had been a little surprised when I rolled all the way down the hill and if I had a face I would have been scowling when I slipped into the water and drifted down river. At least I floated. I''m now bobbing along down a stream, no idea where I''m going and this just popped up in my eyes. Chapter 2
Soul detected Compiling status Error race of soul changed Modifying status
Race: Golem core (Lesser) (Flawed) Master: Unbound Core Stats: Soul Stats: Body Stats:
Core Rank: F Level: 0 Resistance: 1 Control: 10 N/A N/A
Soul Rank: A- Evolution points: 0 Toughness: 1 Intelligence: 10 N/A N/A
Body Rank: N/A Magical perception: 1 Wisdom: 10 N/A N/A
A golem core, enchanted by a novice enchanter and animated by a mediocre mage it is weak and fragile. Inhabited by the soul of a sapient creature (human, non-native) it has tremendous potential for growth. Health: 9/10 Mana: 100/100 Health: N/A
Health regen: 1/hour Mana regen: 1/min Health regen: N/A
Mana: N/A
Mana regen: N/A
Stamina: N/A
Stamina regen: N/A
This was more like it! Finally, something positive coming out of all this. A golem core, huh? That was rather interesting though the words ''weak and fragile'' doesn''t inspire much confidence, neither does ''lesser'' and ''flawed'' either come to think of it. I was suddenly very worried about a possible fishy encounter. There wasn''t much I could do whilst stuck in the river, I couldn''t move no matter how hard I tried and as much as I wanted out of the water, I eventually just settled in to wait and hopefully drift ashore. This brought with it a wonderful opportunity to think. Firstly, if this was going to be some story about the reincarnated hero saving the world it would definitely be from humble beginnings. Secondly, my character sheet said I had mana, could I cast spells? Thirdly. holy fuck I have a character sheet! and finally, if this what my life was going to be as a golem core it sucks. The lack of a body is already getting old and it hadn''t been all that long since I died. Golems usually made their own bodies out of inanimate materials right? Maybe I could do that? I set to work trying to connect to the water I was floating in and found absolutely nothing. What was I supposed to do, wait until someone found me and decided to give me a body? That seemed unlikely. I must just be doing this wrong. Mana? I had it and it was actually my most abundant resource, maybe that was it. I felt inside of me and focused on what I thought mana would be, a mass of flowing energy, bright light or something like that. Instead what I found was a bright blue liquid in the very centre of my being. I could cause it to become gas if I willed it and did just that. The mana gas seeped out of my orb and dissolved in the water around me and with every point, I felt more and more that the water around me was under my control. The more mana, the better control I had and the more water I could grasp too. I ended up with control of about a litre of water but most of it slipped away and after it left my 3-foot sphere of vision I felt my connection to the mana sever. I suppose there are some range limitations, I eventually was able to control the water around me enough to push myself to land. By then though I had to be miles from where I originallyfell in and I was in the middle of the woods. When I pushed my core up and onto the bank, the water around me collapsed back into the river and washed away. Back to just being a glass orb again, I guess, ah well it wasn''t like I had much more anyway. Easy come easy go. I really hope mana comes back on its own.The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. I hadn''t noticed until now since I could still see perfectly in my immediate surroundings but it was getting dark. That was an issue because if I knew anything about anything it is that bad things come out at night. I can only hope that they don''t enjoy the taste of glass. Weirdly, I began to feel tired, I had thought that without a body I wouldn''t need to sleep but maybe it was a soul thing? Not like there''s anyone here that I could ask, even if I could talk. When my mana had filled back up I began releasing it. It seeped into the soil beneath me and I buried myself about 10cm below the surface. I sat there, in a dirt hole on an alien world, staring at the soil around me that I could see perfectly. I began to notice that I didn''t just see it, I could smell it if I wanted to, taste everything around me (which was gross as all hell), I could feel the texture of the soil and I had some other sense too. Like how you always know where your hand is even if your eyes are closed but with everything around me. I could just sense it. I pondered this for a while and released mana around me as I did so, there was no need to just sit at full mana and eventually my mana ran out and everything vanished. I hadn''t exhausted my mana fully in the river, just in case I needed some but it seemed my vision was linked to it somehow. Was it like some kind of echolocation with mana? Weird. It was exactly a minute later that my vision came back. I dug down until my entire 3-foot radius sphere was dirt and completely saturated it with my mana, then I fell asleep.
When I woke it was with none of my usual grogginess. I had never been a morning person and it took at least 15 minutes and a cup of tea to fully wake up but now I snapped to full consciousness immediately. I could certainly get used to that. Then I remembered what was going on and I definitely kept it together, nope didn''t freak at all. After my 10 minutes of being perfectly composed, I noticed that at least half of the dirt around me had lost the connection that I made to it with my mana so there was a time limit too as well as a range limit. Good to know. I spent some time fully saturating the dirt. I wanted to try something. I pulled all of the dirt in closer to me, compacting it as much as I could which left me with a fraction of the volume as before. The soil was soft and organic and I didn''t think it was going to be particularly strong even with it compacted but I was hoping that the flexibility it allowed would help me to move with what I had planned. I slowly began to move my the compacted soil around me. My little sphere of dirt slowly stretched into a cylinder, 30cm long and about 10cm in diameter. First I squeezed the top half into a rough torso shape, rounding the chest out into shoulders which I then grew into arms with some extra dirt I started pulling in and compacting. I wasn''t able to get fingers small enough on each hand to be useful so I created 3 thick digits, like a grabbing machine claw on my hands.With that done, rather than having a neck I just created a rounded head on the top of my torso. With that done I started working on the bottom, I formed two thick legs that ended in large flat feet. It was by no means a masterpiece but I was rather proud of myself nonetheless, I happy carved a little smiling face onto my head. My core was sitting right above the navel surrounded by an extra thick layer of dirt that made my body look a little tubby which I thought was rather amusing. After a few minutes of just inspecting my new body, another screen popped up in my vision.
Compatible body detected Body scanned Claim body?
I figured this would be coming considering that I had body stats on my status screen. I sent a mental pulse of agreement towards the screen.
New body claimed
Body Type: Compacted dirt Body stats:
Body Rank: F- Strength: 2
A small and crudely built body made of the poorest materials. Dirt has been compacted and infused with mana to increase its strength but this body is still weak. Toughness: 2
Dexterity: 3
Health: 20/20
I was a little unhappy about the systems evaluation of my work but I couldn''t really find a way to argue against it. I blinked the message out of my vision and then was dumbfounded when I had actually blinked. I still had a radius around me that I could see in but I also could see from the perspective of the face of my golem, which had undergone some kind of change when I had claimed the body. The eyes could now blink, although they didn''t need to and I could move my mouth like I should be able to. I opened my mouth to try to speak but all I got was some dirt falling off of my face for my troubles, can''t win them all I guess. It''s time to see what this body can do. Chapter 3 As I pushed my body up to its feet I found myself moving joints I definitely hadn''t placed before, my body felt tougher than it had been and I noticed that I could feel things as if my body were an actual body. I managed to drag myself out of the relatively sizeable hole I had created for myself, finding that the control of my body felt intuitive and natural. I moved further away from the edge of the river for fear of falling in again at some point and decided to do a jump to start off with. I managed to leap up about twice my height, which was probably mostly due to the fact that I was very light at the moment. I burst out into a jog and found that I whilst I felt quite fast, my tiny stride meant that I wasn''t going anywhere in a hurry. The upside was that I didn''t seem to be getting tired. That seemed fairly sensible considering I was now made of dirt. I managed to sort of shimmy up a thin tree and dropped off of the bottom branch about 7 feet up. I landed awkwardly, despite being able to perfectly sense how I was going to land. That was going to take some getting used to. That venture had lost me 2 health and they hadn''t come back until I had spent mana to create new compacted dirt and fix my leg. There was no pain but it did give me a vaguely uncomfortable feeling that made me want to fix it fairly quickly. Almost like indigestion but in my leg. Next, I used my grabber hands that somehow now had a joint in each digit to grab a stick and start waving it around. I viciously attacked a tree with it, slowly working on teaching myself the easiest way to swing it. Not being able to feel pain and not getting tired made this a surprisingly fruitful endeavour, I was pretty confident I would be able to adequately club anything that came my way with my new found weapon. Which was quite lucky because I hadn''t considered that all my bashing was making noise. A giant furry creature leapt out of a tree onto the ground near me, It was easily the size of a van, bright orange and sinuous muscles that stretched taught as it padded along towards me. I was still as can be as its claws, like sharpened picks, tore deep indentations in the ground as it walked. Yellow glowing eyes with huge slit pupils gazed at me, causing me to freeze in fear. It was a moment before I remembered that I was small and it was not, in fact, a giant but rather a regular sized cat but that did not change my instinct as for when it hissed in my face I slammed my stick against the side of its head. The cat rolled with the blow and leapt back, clearly a little dazed but in no way seriously injured. Its riposte came in the form of a bat from its claw that left me with gouges in one of my arms and sent me flying to the trunk of the tree I had been wailing on. It pounced at me which I saw clearly with my senses, there was no way I would be able to move out of the way so I swung wildly with my stick, doing something I had not previously considered. My shoulder moved in a way that would be impossible for a regular joint, working exactly the same in the opposite direction and my stick landed squarely in the face of my attacker. This time my strike had been strengthened by the momentum of its pounce and it was sent off course and rolled along the ground. I took the time to get to my feet and start on the attack. It had also managed to get to its feet though it had clearly managed to hurt its foot and blood was running freely from its nose as it hissed at me. Before I reached it I jumped, avoiding a swipe from a paw and putting extra force behind my swing onto its head. It was once more dazed and had clearly been hurt but it managed to bite onto my leg whilst I had been falling through the air. It swung its head from side to side which caused my leg to completely separate from my body and I was sent over its shoulder.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. In my impromptu flight, I managed to grab onto the back of its neck, with my injured arm and began to repeatedly hit the kitty with my stick as it hissed and bucked around. It quickly began to slow but began to roll back and forth, putting uncomfortable pressure on my core and making me lose my stick and my grip. Unfortunately, I then noticed something I hadn''t earlier. The cat was wearing a thin collar which my one leg had gotten trapped in and I was left dangling by my foot. I brought my fists down in a rain of blows upon whenever I could, each time sending my body bouncing around from both the attack and the fact the cat was running around. Eventually, the cat somehow managed to fall into the river and was quickly taken by the quick water here. It began splashing around in even more of a panic and I switched tactics. Instead of attacking with my fists, I took control of some water and manipulated it into the cat''s throat, where I used it to block its airway. I had to fight constantly against it and it used up my mana at a prodigious rate, in the meantime, the cat had managed to crawl back onto dry land but was desperately coughing and hacking. Eventually, not long before my mana ran dry it finally lay still.
Ginger Tabby lvl 5 defeated level up level up
I untangled myself from its collar and flopped onto my back, I opened up my status screen.
Race: Golem core (Lesser) (Flawed) Master: Unbound Core Stats: Soul Stats: Body Stats:
Core Rank: F Level: 2 Resistance: 1 Control: 10 Strength: 2
Soul Rank: A- Evolution points: 10 Toughness: 1 Intelligence: 10 Toughness: 2
Body Rank: F- Magical perception: 1 Wisdom: 10 Dexterity: 3
A golem core, enchanted by a novice enchanter and animated by a mediocre mage it is weak and fragile. Inhabited by the soul of a sapient creature (human, non-native) it has tremendous potential for growth. Inhabiting a crude dirt body. Health: 7/10 Mana: 1/100 Health: 2/20
Health regen: 1/hour Mana regen: 1/min Health regen: N/A
Mana: N/A
Mana regen: N/A
Stamina: N/A
Stamina regen: N/A
My body had barely survived that fight, it had been intense, dangerous and exhilarating. I did my best not to think that I had just killed something for the first time and that it had most likely been a family pet. I felt an odd mixture of pride and repulsion at that pride but I managed to square it away under the column of survival. I had been attacked and had not been killed by the first hostile creature I had encountered in this new world and was stronger for it. Chapter 4 I sat there for a moment, letting my mana tick up and going through my thoughts. I had thought that this would be easier but something about the cat being so big compared to me made it much more relatable, it was not some small animal or a pest or a pet, it was its own creature. I never really realised how much my size had affected my outlook on the world around me and how I thought of other creatures before. I had always held much more awe and respect for tigers than I had to cats before arriving here, even when I''d seen them at the zoo but seeing this cat up close and personal had transformed it into a terrifying predator that deserved as much respect. I was just lucky that it was clearly not very well versed in combat against things that could fight back as I thought it would be in a world such as this. Maybe these woods aren''t so dangerous. Its collar spoke to an owner, it had written on it that was in a language I had never seen before but I assumed it was an address or something similar. That meant there were probably people nearby, would they attack me on sight if they saw me? Probably, they would think that I was a monster and that would be that but maybe not. Just as I was thinking this something changed inside of the cat, I had not previously been able to see inside of it before, something that I hadn''t even questioned until now, it had been the same for the trees and the plants that I had come across, but now I could see through it as if it were dirt. I could see all of its muscles and skeleton, its blood and its organs. Everything was exposed to me. It was rather gross but since I was no longer capable of being nauseous that didn''t bother me. It did give me an idea though. Maybe I didn''t need to heal this body, maybe I could just take that one. I decided to try if nothing else it would be educational. I probably wouldn''t stick with it in the long term, the idea of reanimating corpses didn''t sit well with me but maybe I could use it temporarily to at the very least get me somewhere I could find better materials for a body. First, I needed to get my mana back and for that, I would need to wait. Whilst I was waiting though, I could investigate something else. I now had 10 evolution points. It took a few attempts but I managed to find a mental trigger for it.
Evolution Points
Name: Cost: Description:
Full restore 2 Restore health, mana, and stamina of body, core, and soul and heal all injuries.
Boost 2 Boost mana, health, or stamina by 100% for 1 hour (can be extended by 30 minutes per extra point)
Improve statistic 5 Increase one statistic of choice by 1
Learn Random spell 10 Learn a random rank F spell
Learn Random Skill 10 Become proficient in a random activity
Fix core 20 Remove (Flawed) status from core
Improve core 50 Improve core from (Lesser) to (Average)
Evolve N/A Evolve from your current form
Almost everything on the list was educational, I knew there were spells in this world from how I had been summoned but now I had the opportunity to learn one. I didn''t know if skills were a discrete thing, with levels and the like here or if they were more like they had been at home. I was reassured that I could raise my statistics and that I wouldn''t be confined to just the stats that I had now, especially for my core and my soul. I was particularly interested in the two core improvements, I was almost certainly going to go for those as soon as possible, I had a feeling that it would be a much bigger change than just improving my statistics would be. Finally, there was the evolve option. It was currently barred to me and I had little idea what it did. Presumably, I would evolve into a new creature that was stronger and suited to my skills and abilities whilst still being similar to how I am now. Like a pokemon or something, that was sort of cool and a little scary at the same time. Maybe I would be able to choose what to evolve into when I chose that option?Stolen story; please report. I eventually decided not to choose anything just yet, whilst I would be a fool if I died because I was sitting on points I could have used to be strong enough to beat an encounter, I also didn''t want to waste my points just because I was being hasty. I closed the window and looked around me. I really couldn''t see inside of any of the living things around me, did that mean that everything had a soul? Maybe it was something else but that seemed like the most likely answer to me. I had been an atheist before coming here but for some reason, the idea that even grass had a soul seemed weird to me whilst the idea of animals having them didn''t really. Probably just a holdover from growing up in a Christian country, I guess. I inwardly chuckled at the idea of grass heaven and hell where good and bad grass went when it died. I dragged myself over to a dead branch. Unlike my stick had been this was old and dried out, very clearly dead. As soon as it cam inside of my radius I could see inside of it, all the bugs milling around and everything. I quickly retreated, I very much did not want any of those bugs digging around inside of ME,they could stick to their log. I dragged myself back over tothe cat and decided on a short nap whilst I let my mana recover.
I woke to full stats (except body health) and dark sky so I quickly got to work, I pushed my mana into the body of the cat, every cell, hair and fluid. It took all of my mana and another hour of putting every regenerated point into it. In this time I noticed that I was wasting mana, a significant portion of my mana would leak out of holes around myself that I didn''t want it to and seep into the air, ground, or be lost. Eventually, though, I had the body fully saturated with my mana. I also realised that I now knew what the inside of a cats left kidney tasted like and tried my best not to find it gross. I caused the flesh to part and used my dirt body to push my core inside. When I did a familiar screen popped up.
Compatible body detected Body scanned Claim body?
This time though I got a new screen
Organic body Claim body as Undead or Living
I chose living.
New body claimed
Body Type: Flesh (Ginger Tabby) Body stats:
Body Rank: F+ Strength: 4
An organic body that had been killed and restored by the core, it retains none of its memories of its previous life. Though it was beloved and well taken care of by its family is certain. Vitality: 3
Dexterity: 8
Health: 23/30
Health regen: 3/hour
Stamina: 60/60
Stamina regen: 1.5/sec
When I claimed the body my perspective suddenly shifted to the eyes of the cat and I could suddenly see significantly better past my 3-foot radius, even in the dark. The injuries the cat had sustained were mostly healed though some of the more serious injuries in the head were not quite restored fully and I was suddenly reaccustomed to a feeling I had not felt in a while, pain. It was exceptionally strange having a headache when you didn''t think with your head, it felt more like a pain in a limb than an actual headache. The last sentence of that description didn''t help how I was feeling either. After I had gotten over that, yet more sensations returned, hunger, the need to relieve my bowls, breathing. Fortunately, I had expelled the water from my new lungs when I was saturating my new body, I would not like to experience drowning. It was also quite lucky this cat was a boy so I had an idea of how to go about relieving myself. I stood up from the floor and wavered slightly before I found my footing. It quickly felt just as natural as my old body had, though I was pretty sure I was beholden to the way my joints actually moved now. I went over to the river and drank my fill, it would at least stop me from feeling hungry for a while and did my business inside a dense clump of grass. I felt my body want to start flicking up grass at my poop with my back paws but managed to resist doing it. I also resisted grooming myself despite the fact my new body seemed to practically do it on its own, Even if I could already taste everything, which was something I still tried to block out, and I didn''t feel nauseous, I still didn''t want to get a hairball. That would be embarrassing. Chapter 5 I ran around for a little bit and damn was I fast, like seriously if this thing had run away there was approximately no chance that I would have been able to catch it. I could easily leap 8 feet into the air and I ran straight up a tree like it was nothing. Backflipping was a thought away and it was awesome. I was sorely tempted to stay in this body but a few things made me pause. I could get tired, my stamina would only recover when I wasn''t using it so I either had to stop or walk slowly for it to recover. I didn''t have opposable digits so I wouldn''t be able to use tools or weapons, I did have claws now though. Then there was the collar around my next. I really really did not want to be running around inside of somebodies dead pet, not only did that feel incredibly disrespectful, even more sothan killing it since it had tried to kill me first, I lead the risk of them finding me and locking me up in the house or something. That could either be really useful or end up being really bad for my health or sanity. I decided that I would use this body only until I could find some good materials to make a new body out of. Maybe find a quarry or a mine. Maybe they had golem shops with all sorts of bodies on display and I could try to steal one. I wanted to find wherever this little kitty had come from and at least see what it was like. I walked upriver, back to where I had first found the cat and tried to use my vision as a sense as a tracker might. I picked up the "scent" my new body had left behind when it had found me and began following it.
As it turns out the woods are quite safe. I know that because I''m pretty sure I''ve been everywhere in it at this point. This cat was either wandering around here all day or I was a god, awful tracker. Maybe both to be honest. I eventually just got lucky and stumbled upon a well-troddenpath through the forest and followed it back to a small village. I could see maybe 3 dozen buildings from my rooftop perch. None of them looked to be a golem shop which honestly didn''t surprise me but was a littledisappointing. It was still nighttime though so I was holding out hope that there would be golems walking around everywhere later. The houses were pretty much all wood and stone cottages, there was a larger building in the middle that was entirely made of stone but most were just housing. Thathed rooves, dirt roads, very medieval but I was also expecting that. These kinds of worlds were always sort of medieval since they had magic and didn''t really need science. Maybe I could start a technological revolution one day with what I knew from earth. Would that make the gods angry though? I wasn''t really keeping track of my thoughts, I had some time to kill and had let my body fall asleep. That was weird, my core had only recently woken up but my body was tired. I''m just glad that I didn''t need to sleep alongside my body. As I lay there listening to my own soft snoring I watched a few lanterns flicker on in the houses. Some of these people woke up before the sun it would seem, that was not a schedule I could keep. Well... maybe I could now? I was no longer not a morning person. A couple of men came out of their house first, one was pale white with dark black hair, stocky and thick with muscle. The other was skinny, a yellowed ginger colour to his hair and much more tanthan the first, he held a bow and wore a quiver whilst the other had just general work clothes that were heavily stained with dust. They shared a kiss before one took off down the path I had followed here and the other walked down the street towards a covered wagon. He ended up leaning against it on his own for a little while.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. I got up and switched rooves so I could watch what he was doing. It wasn''t much later that more people began to exit their homes, most went to the forest or joined the man at the wagon but a few went about other business. I noticed that all of the others around the man by the wagon wore similarly dirty clothes and were just as thick with muscle. If that was not a group headed for a mine I didn''t know anything. Well, I guess they could be lumberjacks or something but it didn''t really look like soil that was covering them. At some point, one of them scanned the crowd of a dozen or so men and shouted something before hitching some horses up to the wagon as everyone climbed on. I took this opportunity to jump onto the top of the wagon and sit up there. It was no more than a couple of minutes before we were on our way out of the village.
It only took 20 minutes to get to the mine, didn''t really seem to be worth the wagon ride but maybe after a day swinging a pick down there you just couldn''t bear to walk home afterwards, I could definitely see that. I guess they''d need to bring whatever they were digging up somewhere too. When we arrived at the mine I stayed on the roof long enough to watch them all enter the mine and one of them to post up in a hut to one side. I then, as sneakily as I could, jumped down and hopped inside. My stomach gave me a growl when I was outside of the hut and I paused for long enough to make sure the man inside didn''t come out before slipping inside. There was a small room full of hooks, on which were a selection of bags that my nose and my sense told me had food inside. This would probably be the last time I could actually eat food for quite a long time, even if I would be losing this body soon. Someone could donate a sandwich for that cause, right? I managed to pull out some food and pulled apart the cloth covering it, it was some kind of meat and vegetable sandwich between what looked like a brown bread bun. The meat was a bright purple which baffled me for a moment, it was a very innocuous thing but it really drove home how alien this world might be to me. It was sort of amazing actually that the creatures I had seen so far had been people and this cat. Even the trees had looked fairly similar to on earth. I wonder what animal this was from? It tasted remarkably sweet and salty for what I was pretty sure was uncured meat which was odd to me but was undeniably tasty all the same. The bread was clearly fresh, much fresher than I had ever had on earth and was delightful too. I ate my fill which was only half the sandwich and left the other half on the floor, I couldn''t really put it back in. I then slinked further into the mine. I entered a chamber or maybe a cave, around it there were several carts filled with rocks that were on a number of tracks. There were way more than I had expected with only a dozen miners but maybe in this world of stats and magic one man could do the work of 5 back home? That was a thought that was as exciting as it was terrifying. How strong were the strongest people here? Were they armies unto themselves or was there a limit to how strong a person could get? I would like to find out one day. This room was pretty much empty and there was a pile of unlaid tracks piled up in a corner of the room, I was going to just try to use some of the rocks but maybe I could use metal? I mean it wasn''t alive, right? That might be enough. I went over and hid behind the pile and began infusing it with my mana and found out pretty fast that metal took a LOT of mana to saturate. Like, enough metal for just the leg of my old dirt body took more than my entire mana pool. This was going to be a long job, I''m glad I ate something. Chapter 6 So when I arrived on this world I was expecting, you know, adventures abound, battle monster etc. Not to be sat behind a pile of metal trying not to sneeze as a cat. I had been sat here for hours infusing this metal with my mana when somebody had shown up and grabbed a bunch of track. That included about half of what I had infused and it took all of my willpower not to start attacking that man. That setback meant that they had gone home for the day by the time I had enough metal to begin making my body. I removed my core in the middle of the metal and used some of it to push the body away. Weirdly the cat seemed to still be alive, just in some kind of comatose state. I then moulded the metal into a ball around me. Again I started with the torso which was about a 40 cm long and just as wide. Two thick arms, 15cm in diameter and 40cm long, came out of the shoulders, made of solid iron all the way down to the five human-like fingers on each hand. My legs would be 40cm long too for symmetry sake but were both 20cm thick, it would be nice to have proper fingers and toes again. I created a head that was just a solid lump of metal and just for fun spun some of the metal into wires that came out of my head. It looked more like steel wool than actual hair but it was something. I once more created a little face on the flattened front of my head. My core was embedded in the top of the little chamber but covered by 5cm of steel at the top and bottom. I fashioned a sort of half bucket onto my front and my back that was made out of fairly thin metal so that I could carry things if I wanted to. With that, I looked over my new body. It was rounder than it had been when it was made of dirt and about twice as tall. The metal had been rusted and I had kept the rust to the outside of my body so that the inside wouldn''t rust and I wouldn''t be shiny. The result was sort of like have a tan I thought, I sort of looked like tik-tok that had been hitting the gym. It wasn''t long before I got the notification and claimed my body.
New body claimed
Body Type: Cast iron Body stats:
Body Rank: D Strength: 12
A small and crudely built body made of the poor metal, it is strong and tough but heavy. It has been built with containers for transportation. It''s materials make it especially resistant to piercing and slashing damage. Mana saturation has dramatically reduced weight whilst maintaining strength (6x reduction in weight). Toughness: 15
Dexterity: 3
Health: 150/150
I let out a whistle in my head, this body was much stronger than my others had been, I was much stronger now than I was and I felt like a tank. The heaviness did make me rather slow though which was a little awkward. I took several steps and the sound of metal on a rock filled the cave. I weighed a LOT like over half a tonne a lot, though it didn''t seem that it affected me very much, which made me think that the strength attribute didn''t go up linearly, I wonder if the same goes for dexterity? I am definitely less than a third as slow as I was as a cat despite my dexterity being a 3 when it was an 8 then. That was something to look into in the future. I tried to pick up as much of the tracks as I could and I could lift well over a tonne if my guess was right. I didn''t really know how much iron really weighed or if gravity was even the same here but that was something for the future. I made my way out of the mine and back into the forest. Then I was struck with a thought. What now? I don''t know what this world is like, I don''t read the language but assuming that the wizard had been speaking the local language I could at least speak it which was something, I don''t know where I am except for a small village and I don''t even know if I''ll be killed on sight. One of those I could solve fairly easily but it would involve putting my life in danger and I wasn''t quite ready to do that just yet. I didn''t need to worry about food or water. I might need to worry about rusting too much but I can always manipulate rust off of my body so I had time to work with. First things first though, I was going to head back to the village and find somewhere nearby to hide so I could figure out what I was going to do.You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. So I began to plod down the road, taking steady steps and looking into the treeline as I did. Taking time to look around me was nice, I could see small critters that would run away from the sound of me walking along. The vibrant flowers were everywhere and I began noticing that they were sort of different from what I was used to. There was a cluster of bluebells that were bright red by the side of the road. A sunflower curled up into itself when I got too close and there were plain looking daisies that gave off the faint smell of honey when I went over for a closer look. The sun was setting and I watched as it descended behind the land, setting the sky ablaze with a beautiful fire that slowly transformed into the black of night. I had not looked at the sky at night before and it felt off. There were more stars than I had ever seen in the sky but I did not recognise any of them, the moon was noticeably larger than the one on earth had been and it was blue. Not blue as in blue soil but blue as in covered in water, great oceans covered its surface and I couldn''t help but wonder what creatures live there. Finally, the answer as to whether there was other life in the universe had been answered. It was a shame I would never be able to share that information with those back on earth. I had to wonder if others like me were here too. Were all golems secret earthlings that had been summoned and enslaved? That was terrifying if it were true but I didn''t think that was the case. The description of my core on my status seemed to suggest that having a sapient soul wasn''t common, or at least it did to me. So maybe most other golems were filled with the souls of animals, maybe even plants since they apparently had souls too, would a golem that had once been a tree be any use? Could it even move or think? I had been walking for a little over an hour and was pretty sure at this point and was pretty sure I was near the village now so I walked off the road and into the woods. My feet sank deeply into the fresh dirt as I walked and I slowed down so that I could do my best to fill my footsteps with dirt as I walked. That meant it took me quite a while to walk far enough into the forest that I was happy enough I was hidden but it was at least worth it to not scream something was weird to everyone that walked by. I ended up sitting on a log that gave a loud creak as I thought about what I would do. I needed to learn how things worked and maybe the language around here but I could hardly just walk into town for fear of causing an uproar and if the way that miner had carried the track from earlier was anything to go by they were going to be unnaturally strong and I doubted I would last long if they attacked me. Maybe I didn''t have to walk in as a metal man though, maybe I could be something smaller. It would be a waste of all the mana I had put into this body and I would probably have to go through the process of filling it with my mana again if I wanted to come back to it but maybe I could make myself a small body and I hide out in the village somewhere and try to learn what I could. The miners hadn''t spoken much and it seemed to just be general pleasantries that they extended to one another. It didn''t take me very long to figure something out. I wrapped my core in about a half centimetre of metal and extended several spindly legs from it. The result was a sort of spider-shape that could have fit into the palm of a human hand. It earned me another screen.
Body modified Body scanned New characteristics detected
New body claimed
Body Type: Cast iron Body stats:
Body Rank: F Strength: 3
A small crudely made body made for scouting and stealth, it is fragile but makes of for that in manoeuvrability and speed. Toughness: 4
Dexterity: 7
Health: 40/40
I didn''t have a choice in claiming this one as I guess I already had and just altered it. I fit back into my old body and the same process occurred but in reverse. I then dug down and buried myself underneath the log I had been sitting on. There was a round indentation in the bark now and I was pretty sure I would be able to find it again. I then re-separated from my large body and scuttled off towards the village. I was surprisingly fast, almost as fast as I was as a cat but much and nearly as strong but much lighter. I could jump about 10 feet into the air with my tiny weight and I was sure I''d be able to get around just fine. Chapter 7 It took about 10 minutes to run to and I easily managed to slip into one of the houses through an open window. Immediately I froze as I heard the sounds of moans coming from the room next to this one, I thought that a woman was hurt and needed help for a moment before I realised what it was. I would have blushed if I could but instead just decided to look around. This house was only a single floor and I seemed to be in some kind of kitchen. A cauldron sat on a pile of embers and seemed to be full of some sort of stew. There were utensils and jars on shelves dotting the walls and a cabinet was up against one wall. It looked quite cosy and the furniture was much better than I had expected it to be, not the same perfect replicas of modern furniture but every piece was still well made. I gave mental props to the maker of it all when the noises from the bedroom suddenly stopped soon followed by the sounds of footsteps. I scuttled over to a chair and hung to the underside, out of site. The woman and the man came out of the room... followed by two more men. I gave mental props to this woman as well. They were talking but not in a language that I could speak. What were the odds that that wizard from before happened to speak the only language I knew? Maybe it wasn''t that and I could just understand the first language I heard. Fuck that wizard, he was not only incompetent apparently he also fucked up my ability to speak with people. That would be a fantastic way of stopping your golem minions from being able to communicate with the general populous and maybe get ideas on rebelling but still, very inconvenient to me. I watched the four sets of legs move around the room for a while before three of them left and it was just me and the woman left. She sat down on the chair I was on which nearly made me lost my grip, there were now several gouge marks in the wood from where my legs were stuck into it. She was talking to herself and I had absolutely no idea what she was saying but her voice was high and melodic and I couldn''t help but think that she would make an incredible singer. Eventually, she left and returned to bed for good this time and I returned to my scuttling around but didn''t really find much. A cupboard that had a broom and some odds and ends inside and a small room with a toilet. That room was actually quite interesting because it seemed to just drop down into a pit but I could not detect any smell coming from it at all. Magic if I had ever seen it and maybe if it was common enough for people''s toilets there would be more interesting magic around. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. I made my way around several more houses and didn''t have any more interesting episodes. Most houses were very similar with the only differences being decorations and personal affairs. I wasn''t entirely sure what I had been expecting to find, to be honest with you. Some big clue as to the ways of this world would probably be too much to ask. By the time that people were starting to wake up, I found myself at what looked like an empty market. I had lodged myself on the underside of a cart, out of sight but close enough to several stalls that I was sure I could overhear people talking. A couple of hours later there were some vendors set up on the stalls. They all emerged from nearby buildings with arms full of goods. There was a baker and someone selling fresh vegetables, of which I recognised none. There was a vaguely carrot shaped vegetable that was purple, several different types of squash that ranged from a deep blood red to light green in colour. Then what seemed to be a butcher of some sort came out, he had some kind of boxes that were misting with cold but I couldn''t tell if they were full of ice or if they were magic. I had no idea where they would get ice out here though if not magic so I would bet on the latter. People began to come to the stalls and barter, the butcher seemed to be buying the kills of some of the huntsmen, women came carrying small game and birds on strings that were exchanged for meat of coins. The coins that they were using seemed to be made of a bronze metal that was either copper or actual bronze and the occasional silver piece though I didn''t see many of those. I spent the day under that cart, I was pretty sure I had worked out the words for meat bread and most of the vegetable on sale, as well as the numbers 1-5 and a few general greetings and responses. I was pretty proud of that, I had no way of checking if I was correct but it felt right. Maybe this wouldn''t take that long after all.
I was wrong, this was taking forever. I had been hanging around houses, under carts, in stalls and on rooves for nearly 3 days now and I could barely understand anything, I was picking up words for objects here and there but it was much more difficult than I had expected this to be. I don''t know why I thought it would be easy, I had barely been able to manage french in school and I was being carefully taught how to speak that. Patience is a virtue I guess.
It was another two days later that something interesting happened, I got a window.
Language proficiency reached intelligence threshold to learn language "Common", you already know language "Sylvarian", you will be able to learn 3 more languages with your current intelligence. Would you like to learn "Common"?
Yes, yes I would. Chapter 8 Finally, I could understand people, it was as if suddenly everything slotted into place and I could understand. I loved this system, I was starting to worry that I would have to spend months here just to be able to get a passable understanding of the language. Most of what I had been hearing were rumours, there was a rumour about a woman in the village that was some kind of deviant and was "corrupting" some of the local men. I thought that I might have had an idea as to the identity of that woman, although some of the things that were said about her were probably lies. She was not sleeping with a dozen men at once, or at least not the time I had been there. There were other, smaller things. The baker had apparently changed his recipe recently, the game in the woods was quite plentiful. It was springtime and currently the 6th day of the 8 day week. One family''s cat had turned up sick at the mine and had died a couple of days ago. A little girl had been crying on her mother when I heard that and I was tempted to turn myself in to them or at least explain myself but I knew that I couldn''t and I shouldn''t try. From time to time I heard mention of the system. According to his wife, a hunter had recently levelled which was something that was celebrated here like birthdays were back home since after a certain point levels were hard to come by if you weren''t a soldier or a guard. Apparently, professionals did receive experience based on there work, it just accumulated much slower. I eventually heard something about golems too, apparently, the wizard who had summoned me here had been bragging to a messenger from town who had been bringing him some groceries. Showed off his shiny new golem that he had summoned and bound. From what I could tell he was set to make a fair amount of money if the golem was competent but the excited way the kids spoke of it made me think that it was probably not a common thing around here so he wasn''t going to be able to walk into town with my larger body. I had been to check on my body every day and it was still where I had left it. The mana inside of it had diminished a little but not as much as I thought it would and I was able to regain a connection with a little more mana from me and some mental effort. Since I wasn''t using it I had made sure to regain that connection every time I had visited it in the hope that I wouldn''t have to spend so long reclaiming it in the future. Other than that there wasn''t much in town that was of use to me, I couldn''t talk to people and there wasn''t really anything around that I needed. I did find out that there was going to be a shipment from the mine to a larger town somewhere in a few days time, there was only one road that went anywhere other than the mine so I assumed that it was probably that way. I planned on waiting for that cart and trying to follow it to the town. Though it was several days travel. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. So that''s what I did, I returned to my body and dug myself out of the ground. I waited until the dead of night and then travelled down the road for as long 6 hours. I was pretty sure I wouldn''t stumble across anyone and I could just wait for the cart and follow it. I could keep exceptionally still as a metal person for long periods of time which meant that every so often a bit of wildlife would come to investigate me. I managed to kill 5 rats this way before they learnt to stay away which was enough for me to level up again. I again didn''t spend my points at all since I wanted to save up for the fix core option. I had begun to realise just how much of an issue my mana wastage was over the past several days and I was hoping that that would solve it. It was about this time that I realised something new about myself and I was amazed I hadn''t previously. I didn''t get bored anymore, I had been doing a lot of waiting around lately and usually, that would drive me out of my mind but now I could happily let time slip away. Was this something that happened as a golem? I was pretty sure I was immortal as long as nothing killed me so I guess it would make sense that something immortal wouldn''t get bored. I was certainly not complaining though, it would save me from going mad during timeslike these.
A couple of days later, just as expected the cart came down the path, it went right past me and kept going, there were only two people on it. A young boy who was driving and one of the older hunters from back at the village who was wearing a sword and carrying a bow. The rest of the cart was full of barrels. I waited until they were nearly out of sight and then began jogging after them. It was about as fast as I can move in this body and it was probably only slightly faster than the cart was moving at a walk so I kept them just in the distance for as long as possible. Once night fell they stopped to make camp and I hid further down the road as they did. They lit a fire and ate, then the young boy seemed to fall asleep pretty quickly whilst the man kept watch. The older man must be planning on sleeping on the wagon, that wouldn''t be very comfortable and would leave them a little more at risk on the roads but I guess it was one way of getting around the issue of watches. They got up and were on their way with the crack of dawn and it went much the same as the previous day, they travelled, set up camp, ate and the boy slept. All seemed well right up until the howls started and they weren''t in the distance. Chapter 9 Fuck, I couldn''t just stand around and let these people get attacked by wolves, could I? What kind of person would that make me? One of them was just a kid. I started making my way closer to their camp, being careful not to let them see me. The boy had woken up from the howls and had moved up next to the older man. The man had drawn his bow and was looking intently into the woods, fortunately not in the direction I was in. I hid behind a fairly large tree and waited to see what would happen. Everything was quiet for a while and I was just beginning to think that the wolves had wandered off or something when there was a *Thwack* followed by a pained yelp from the treeline, I couldn''t see anything but the man fired off another two arrows, both of which seemed to find their targets as more yelps and dull thuds began to sound in the forest. Suddenly, a group of three large grey wolf-like creature leapt out of the treeline and charged towards the pair. They looked almost exactly like wolves from earth except that these ones had an extra pair of legs sticking out of the sides of their bodies. They stood at least 5 feet high and were about 10 feet long, foamy spittle leaked from between vicious looking fangs as they snarled. One of them barely managed to avoid being hit by an arrow and the three slowed and began to circle the pair. The man continued firing but his arrows were dodged by a hairsbreadth each time. He frowned as he dropped his bow to draw his sword and curled one arm protectively behind him around the boy. One of the wolves had circled around to just in front of the tree I was hiding behind and I decided to take this moment to help. Using all the speed I could muster, I leapt at the wolf and wrapped it in a bear hug, squeezing as tightly as I could. My sheer weight was enough that I knocked it to the ground and I held it there. I had thought that with what I considered my frankly ridiculous strength that I would be able to easily squish it but a combination of my arms barely being able to reach around the wolf and a surprising amount of toughness on the wolfs part it took a great deal of effort before I heard a loud crunching noise as the creature''s spine broke.
Lesser warg lvl 11 defeated level up level up You have reached level 5 traits are now available for purchase with evolution points level up
I blinked the notification away and shoved the corpse off of me, I looked over to the man and the boy to see if they were ok to see a sword pointed in my direction. The two decapitated wolves behind him spoke of what had happened and he didn''t seem particularly afraid. He also didn''t look like he was going to attack me though, merely holding a defensive stance. I slowly got to my feet and raised my hands up into the air. The man suddenly shouted out into the forest. "You can come out, whoever you are. Tell your golem to keep its distance and we can keep this civil. You have my thanks for your assistance." I looked at the man and took a step back. This seemed to mollify him and he let his sword drop to his side. He looked around into the woods expectantly, clearly waiting for whoever my owner was to come out. I had no idea what to do in this situation, I had no master so there was no-one going to step out of these woods, would the man turn hostile if no-one showed up? Would he see through me as an unbound golem? After a minute of too the man spoke again but this time in a more muttering voice, speaking more to himself and the boy than to a hypothetical hidden master. "Suit yourself then ya rude bugger. Mages are a queer sort lad you get used to ''em pulling this kind of thing from time t'' time. Better to just let ''em be all mysterious." he clapped the boy, who was still standing with the man between him and me, on the shoulder and turned back to me "Off with ya then, no use standing there like an ornament unless ya fancy giving me a hand haulin'' these?" He nodded to the wolves and then to the wagon before shooting a sceptical look at me and my somewhat diminutive size. I was pretty sure I could reach the wagon to help put the wolves into it if I wanted to so I just turned and began to walk along the road. I made sure I was out of sight and hid off to the side of the road again to wait till morning. I was quite pleased, my first interaction with people hadn''t resulted in my untimely death, though I''d have been pretty upset if he killed me after I''d tried to save their lives. In hindsight, that guy definitely didn''t need my help at all and I don''t know why I thought he would. This was their world and they were doing this journey with just the two of them so they must have been confident in handling whatever was out here. I needed to remember that the people here were likely far more competent at this sort of thing than the people back home would be and probably than I am too. I had absolutely no doubts that that man would have been the end of me. I considered this a life lesson and resolved to just trail behind the duo for the rest of the journey, no matter what happened from now on. Now, whilst I was waiting I should check out what that notification had meant. about traits. I opened my character screen.If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Race: Golem core (Lesser) (Flawed) Master: Unbound Core Stats: Soul Stats: Body Stats:
Core Rank: F Level: 6 Resistance: 1 Control: 10 Strength: 7
Soul Rank: A- Evolution points: 30 Toughness: 1 Intelligence: 10 Toughness: 15
Body Rank: D Traits: 0 Magical perception: 1 Wisdom: 10 Dexterity: 3
A golem core, enchanted by a novice enchanter and animated by a mediocre mage it is weak and fragile. Inhabited by the soul of a sapient creature (human, non-native) it has tremendous potential for growth. Inhabiting a crude cast iron body. Health: 10/10 Mana: 100/100 Health: 148/150
Health regen: 1/hour Mana regen: 1/min Health regen: N/A
Mana: N/A
Mana regen: N/A
Stamina: N/A
Stamina regen: N/A
I now had enough evolution points to fix my core but I wanted to look at traits first. With some mental effort, I brought up a list which contained dozens and dozens of options. Each one had a different cost associatedbut none cost more than 20 points. They seemed to be small things that would be nice but not particularly powerful. There was one that would let me use mana to roll my core around when I was without a body, there was one that would let very slightly affect the density of materials I controlled. Things like that. I was going to have to spend quite a bit of time going through the list to see if there was anything there that I wanted but my cursory inspection of the list didn''t leave me with anything that really jumped out at me so I closed out of it and opened the evolution points menu.
Evolution Points
Name: Cost: Description:
Full restore 2 Restore health, mana, and stamina of body, core, and soul and heal all injuries.
Boost 2 Boost mana, health, or stamina by 100% for 1 hour (can be extended by 30 minutes per extra point)
Improve statistic 5 Increase one statistic of choice by 1
Learn Random spell 10 Learn a random rank F spell
Learn Random Skill 10 Become proficient in a random activity
Receive random trait 15 Receive a random trait. Possible to obtain traits that are not purchasable.
Fix core 20 Remove (Flawed) status fromcore
Improve core 50 Improve core from (Lesser) to (Average)
Evolve N/A Evolve from your current form
I noted the new addition, that would have to be something else to consider when I was thinking about traits. Still, I knew what I wanted, I willed myself to choose the fix core option. It disappeared from the list and there was a sound like glass shattering. There was a strange wrongness that filled me as my core began to shift. A liquid seeped out of my core and rapidly began to harden. My core twisted and then started shrinking, It became denser and I could tell that the myriad cracks that had been throughout my core had gone. I could suddenly see more, my senses had grown by a foot in every direction and I could see things with even more detail than before. I could see the microscopic bug that filled the soil around me. It wasn''t at the point where I could see individual cells but I was sure that I would get there. Be a living microscope. My core felt tougher too and I checked out my character sheet.
Race: Golem core (Lesser) Master: Unbound Core Stats: Soul Stats: Body Stats:
Core Rank: F+ Level: 6 Resistance: 3 Control: 10 Strength: 7
Soul Rank: A- Evolution points: 10 Toughness: 3 Intelligence: 10 Toughness: 15
Body Rank: D Traits: 0 Magical perception: 3 Wisdom: 10 Dexterity: 3
A golem core, enchanted by a novice enchanter and animated by a mediocre mage it is weak and fragile. It has been improved somewhat through evolution. Inhabited by the soul of a sapient creature (human, non-native) it has tremendous potential for growth. Inhabiting a crude cast iron body. Health: 30/30 Mana: 100/100 Health: 148/150
Health regen: 3/hour Mana regen: 1/min Health regen: N/A
Mana: N/A
Mana regen: N/A
Stamina: N/A
Stamina regen: N/A
It was nice seeing that the flawed status had gone and my core stats had improved by 2 points each which made it cheaper than improving each one individually would have been and I was sure this would come with some more benefits. Like hopefully now I would be able to use my mana less inefficiently. With warm feelings I settled in for the night and got some sleep. Chapter 10 I woke to the rumbling of a cart and watched the duo trundling down the road. Their cart now had 6 of the wolf bodies it the back of it, draped upon barrels of ore. The older man appeared to be sleeping as they passed him by and the boy looked much more tired and more alert than he usually was, constantly sweeping the treeline for threats. I don''t know what good it was doing him since he didn''t spot me at all but it couldn''t be a bad thing to be alert. This time when I began to follow my movements felt much more smooth, it was like my familiarity with my body had multiplied overnight and I was suddenly aware of exactly how I should be moving. It wouldn''t be much but I was sure I could squeeze a little more speed out of this body now if I wanted to. I attributed this to my new and improved core and felt even more pleased with my decision. Other than that the day passed without much ado except that this time they did not stop for camp. When the sun fell the man woke and traded places with the boy and they continued on. I took this to mean that the town was probably within a few hours of here and kept following, this turned out to be the correct assumption as within a couple of hours the forest gave way to farmland and not long after that I began to see a town pop over the horizon. I looked around at the surrounding farms. There wasn''t much to see to be honest since there were 6 foot high crops along either side of the road. It looked like wheat, except that the seeds were small pea-like balls, were bright orange and there was much more stalk that I was used to from wheat fields back home. It looked almost like corn but I would see inside some of the dead seeds on the ground and found that inside they were very fibrous and not juicy like corn was. The road around here was much more compact, clearly having seen more traffic which was presumably from the farmers so I kept alert in case I needed to quickly hide. No-one spotted me though and soon the wagon had reached the walls of a large town. I was still quite far away and was hanging back since there was a lot of activity near the gate. I was eager to note that more than one golem was moving about, although I couldn''t tell if they were accompanied by anyone. Most of them were much taller than I was, usually around 6 feet tall compared to my barely 4 feet. They were all made of either wood or stone though. Not a single metal man was around but it was enough that I hoped I could enter the town with no problems. The gate was open and unguarded which seemed prudent since dozens of people were coming and going but mostly entering the city, presumably they were returning home for the evening. The corn around my current hiding spot was making it difficult to tell how long the walls went on for but they were at least ten feet high, were made of a solid grey rock and there wasn''t a single building outside of them which made me a little confused as to where all these people were headed. I eventually decided to approach and once I got past the edge of the field I saw just how big this place was, the walls extended for miles in either direction and there were several gates along that. I had been wrong when I had said that there were no buildings outside of the walls. Near every gate but apparently, just out of my line of sight there were stables filled with a variety of different animals, the vast majority were horses or cattle but I could see at least one large lizard that was saddled up and in its own, unroofed stall. A market had been erected outside one of the gates that was several to my right and there were hundreds of stalls, multicoloured and selling a variety of things that I couldn''t make out from here. Most of the people were heading from this market which was probably closing down for the night.The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. I had not really expected a settlement this large, this had been described as a town and I was expecting some kind of small, middle of nowhere type towns with a couple of thousand people, depending on how far the town went beyond the walls there could easily be tens of thousands of people here if not hundreds of thousands. I continued to look around as I got closer to the walls and as I did I began to notice something. Some of the people here had a much more graceful air about them, they walked as if gliding and had sharp features and pointed ears. There were elves! I had hoped but hadn''t seen anyone other than humans since arriving and this revelation caused me to notice other things. Some of the people that I thought to be children had beards and there seemed to be two types. There were short but incredibly stocky people who tended towards pot bellies and long beards, and then there were the ones that looked just like children but with facial hair. The former seemed to range from three to five feet tall and I mentally dubbed them dwarves. The latter were between two and four feet and I dubbed them gnomes. To be perfectly honest this wasn''t a huge surprise, I would have thought it would be more jarring to see different races (species?) living together but I had read so many books and watched so many films with those kinds of things in them that I was sort of desensitised. They were the only really distinguishing features that I could make out on each, they differed as much in how they looked, hair colour style, clothes etc as any other person would. When I walked through the crowd I did notice that the dwarves and gnomes would look at me more than anyone else, they would look and then shake their head as if ashamed for me before pointedly not looking at me anymore. I was almost tempted to cover myself with my hands, what was I doing that upset these people so much? I did my best to ignore them as I went into town without much direction. I ended up just wandering down the street and looking around. The houses here were different to the style I had seen in the village, they were essentially Tudor style houses but more colourful. The upper floors tended to overhang the bottom and there was a combination of wood and brick used in their construction. This seemed to be some kind of residential district as there were nothing but houses as far as I could tell. The street I was perfectly straight and every so often there would be streets that went of to either side, I was pretty sure this town was built to be some kind of grid but it was hard to tell from the street. The roads themselves were made of dirt but the pavement was a perfectly smooth stone. I had thought that it was concrete at first but it appeared to just be rock, I was sure some kind of magic was used in it because there was something blocking my magical perception from travelling through it. In fact, every building had been blocking my vision since I had arrived which I imagine is to stop creatures like me from being used to spy on people. I continued down the road for miles, the streets had started off crowded but by the time I began to reach the end of the road most people entered houses or turned off down side streets. The streets were far from deserted though, it was getting late but there was by no means nothing to do in the town when it was dark I was sure. I had been walking not much behind a wooden golem that was particularly large. I could feel the range of their senses and couldn''t help but be cowed by it. It extended a good thirty feet around them, was that the difference between a lesser core and a well made one? We eventually made it to a large central square. In the centre was a small garden full of bushes and flowers with a water feature surrounding a large metal statue of an incredibly muscular man. I had stopped to look around and the wood golem was already walking down another main street so I decided to follow along. This street was vastly different from the last, all of the buildings were covered by metal grates and were closed up. Presumably, this was some kind of shopping district that had been closed for the evening. I watched as the wooden golem approached one of the few shops that weren''t closed so I approached the front of the shop. There was a picture of what looked like the exact wooden golem I had followed here on the front of the store but in duplicate many times. In big bronze stylised letters was a sign reading: "CRAFTED CREATURES" with a smaller sign below it with the tagline: "Golems for hire" Update So I''m an idiot and forgot to set a couple of chapters to release but since people have wanted weekly updates I figured I might as well just wait, I''ll be releasing all the chapters I owe you guys tomorrow! Didn''t want anyone to think I''d just fallen off the face of the earth Thanks to everyone for your support and I hope you enjoy! Don''t forget to leave a review if you like my story and don''t hesitate to tell me if there is something I''m doing wrong! If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Chapter 11 The smart thing to do here was to turn around and walk away. I didn''t know what these people were like, how they would react to an unbound golem or even one inhabited by a sapient. They might kill or enslave me, they might lock me in a cage to study or banish me to some far off wilderness. I still couldn''t bring myself to leave though, if I was going to get answers to what my situation was this would likely be a good place to start. I might be able to come to an arrangement and get some employment out of this and start building up some money for emergencies or to buy some better materials for myself. I was there for far too long as it turns out, just staring at the sign because someone walked out of the shop. They were about two feet tall, with short greying hair and a rough beard covering his face. He wasn''t muscular but there was a wiry strength to his arms and his hands were covered in callouses from a life of working with them. There were multiple splinters in his hands that seemed to be working there way out on their own as he was healing and when he left his store he began staring at me as I turned to face him. "What kind of lunatic lets a golem get into this state of repair, covered in rust, clearly badly built, how did they even afford to make you? Where is your master, I''m going to give her a piece of my mind." His voice was high like a child''s but held the weight of age behind it. The juxtaposition of the two things meant that it took far too long for me to realise what he was saying and in the time it took me to register his words he managed a short chant and a wave of his hand. A golden light shot from his hand and enveloped me, covering my body for a moment and I could feel as it brushed the edges of my core, information seemed to seep out of me into the light and within a second the light gushed back into the man''s hand. His eyes widened slightly and his mouth opened, he turned his head to look up and down the empty street. I shifted my weight on my legs and was just about to turn and run when he spoke, getting his keys out and fumbling with the door he had locked moments ago. "Come inside, if a guard finds out you''re unbound and unregistered you''re gonna be in the middle of a shitstorm you''ll be lucky to escape alive. Not that there aren''t worse things than death mind you." He turned his head again to look at my clearly about to flee form and scowled.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. "Don''t go running off, if you do that I''ll have to get the guards involved myself and I''d rather not have that headache today, it''s been bad enough." I didn''t run but at the same time didn''t know if I could trust this man. If I went through those doors I might be walking into a trap, he might be lying to me, any number of things were wrong with this situation but something about the man struck me as honest. I don''t know how much of that was because he looked like a bearded child but I got the feeling that he truly didn''t want to cause me harm and sooner or later I was going to have to trust somebody, sure it would have been better if I''d had the time to learn something about the people around here but the cat was out of the bag now, so to speak. I waited for him to fumble with the lock, I had just noticed that there were two handles on the door, one on the bottom and one in the normal place in the middle, I was tall enough and small enough I could use either but it would have been difficult for this man to use the higher handle. A moment later the door swung open and he gestured for me to go inside. Mentally holding my breath I walking into the entrance of the shop. The floor was made of thick stone slabs that held my weight without the slightest bit of trouble. I had been causing a little damage to the stone on the pavements that I had been walking on and hoped I wouldn''t get into trouble for it. The whole shop was a mess, there were wood carvings of every sort of creature I could think of covering tables that were strewn across the room, from birds to mice to cats and dogs to larger animals and humanoid shapes that were lined up along the walls. These were not mass produced and had clearly all been carved by hand, the craftsmanship was exquisite. Not everything was a work of art though there were many that were clearly much more ornate than others but every carving was strong and would perform a function and in the centre of each was a hole, varying in size from carving to carving but clearly for the purpose of holding a core. None had a core in them, these were just hollow vessels but they were obviously bodies. There was the occasional metal body here and there but they were small and clearly, the person who had made them was not as proficient with metal as they were with wood. They were better than my body by far though. A smug smile crossed the gnome shopkeepers lips as I paused to look around the rooms. "I''m not usually one to fawn over my own work but it''s impressive if I do say so myself. Now stop staring and move out of the way so I can come in off the street." I nodded and stepped aside, letting the gnome come in and close the door. He rose a single eyebrow at my nod which I barely caught because he quickly schooled his expression. He walked around me and towards the counter, reaching behind it he dragged a small stool out for him to sit on and looked at me. "Welcome to crafted creatures, I''m Ike, it''s a pleasure to meet you. How about we teach you to talk and then you can tell me about yourself?" Chapter 12 Learn to speak? yes, please. Where do we start? I nodded my head vigorously which elicited a chuckle from the gnome. "eager huh? I suppose it must be hard getting around without being able to talk to people, that does tell me that you''re not just some kind of smart animal, however. What are you, a gnome?" I paused for a moment thinking whether to answer him, I hadn''t even considered that he''d be able to tell I was different from just this much. I should probably be more defensive but again there was just something that made me want to trust this man. I shook my head. "Elf?" Nope. "Dwarf?" Nah. "Orc?" No. Wait, Orc? "Fae?" No, my dude, I am not a fairy, how have you not guessed already? There are humans everywhere around here. "Celestial?" his voice raised toward the end and sounded hopeful but I shook my head. "Demonic?" This time I could tell from his voice it would not be in my favour if I said yes so I quickly shook my head once more. How many species were there that could talk? "Beastkin?" "Giant?" "You''re not ogre or goblin, they wouldn''t come here if something happened to them. Centaur?" "Gods forbid, you aren''t a dragon are you?" NO, BUT I WISH I WAS. This went on for a while and somehow he never mentioned human, he looked completely stumped before shrugging. "This is going to be much easier if you can talk so let''s just do this." He walked over to me and told me to bend over. As I did, he slapped his hand directly over where my core was and light, blue this time, shot out from his palm. I panicked for a moment that I''d just let someone cast another spell on me but then a screen popped up.
Spell learned
Whispering wind You may use mana to control the winds, sending a message to your target. At higher proficiency, you will be able to send multiple messages at once.
The gnome went back to his stool and sat back down. I decided I might as well sit too, not that it made much difference to me. This spell would be incredibly useful so I tested it out immediately. My mana fell by 2 points and I knew that if I thought a short message it would be received. "Hello, thank you for your help, my name is Alex and I was a human." Immediately he shot up, sending his stool out flying from behind him. His eyes wide and full of anger. "You would lie to me after I try to help you?" After a moment he calmed himself, taken aback by his sudden outburst I couldn''t even respond.Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. "It is well known that their gods do not allow the souls of humans to return to this earth, they are like the drow and the oni that way. I understand that you may be afraid and wish to fit in here with the humans but you must speak the truth, I cannot help you if you lie to me." I reshaped my face to be that of a frown, facial expressions were no longer a subconscious thing for me, lie to him? I cast the spell again. "I am not lying, I am a human, I was sent here by..." I realised that I could not remember the names that the god had spoke before I came to reside in my core, nor could I picture that god. In fact, the entire memory of that time was swiftly abandoning me and doing so faster now that I was thinking of it. "... A god, I think. I am not of this world." The wide-eyed look returned to the gnome, not in anger this time but in surprise. He tapped his foot on a stone by his stool and suddenly I was lifted into the middle of the room, suspended by hundreds of ropes made of light, my mana depleted in seconds and I found myself without any control of my body. Despite the panic that was slowly blossoming within me as I realised my situation, I was still confident that this man wouldn''t harm me if I didn''t provoke him. Very quickly after my mana was depleted I was submerged in complete sensory deprivation. Going from having almost complete sense over everything around me to having nothing was jarring. I was completely helpless and could do nothing but wait. I regretted my decisions up until this point and told myself that whatever happened, I would be able to overcome it. I had no idea how long I was like that, time meant very little with no stimulus at all, not even a body or the sound of blood in your ears but eventually, I could see again. I was still bound by ropes of light and my body was one large, unresponsive metal cage but I could see once more. Then I heard a voice. "You will forgive this. World travellers are rare and they do not always have the best of intentions. It was necessary to determine which of the thirteen you hail from." There was a new man in the room, his voice was airy and proper and gave the impression that he was above all else. Ike was stood by the door to his store, looking like he would run at any moment. The man was an elf and stood well over 6 feet tall. He was broad and his every movement belied the strength that his muscles held, he walked almost gingerly but in doing so crossed the room in a couple of strides. He wore royal blue robes that were inlaid with gold in intricate patterns that depicted eyes and a number of animals I did not recognise. He approached me, looking directly at my core as he did so and the ropes brought me so that I was at the level of his eyes. He did not speak or move a muscle but as he stood there staring at me a golden light, orders of magnitude brighter than the one the gnome had cast on me filled his eyes, sending a cone of light onto my core. It scoured my core and my soul, I felt my every secret laid bare to the man, memories I had long forgotten and fantasies I had never shared. He touched upon the memory of my death but as soon as he had done so, it vanished. He did this for a number of minutes, learning every detail of my life up until this point and I knew he could hear my every thought. The feeling of ease I had from the gnome was no longer there, replaced by an all-consuming dread for this man as he laid me bare before him. When the glow left his eyes he turned to the gnome. "You have a title, Ike?" "umm yes, golem friend your holiness. It is new," "Good, it may just have saved this man''s life. He speaks the truth, he is a human and is from another world. A world without magic but with many wonders. It is not one of the thirteen and I must think on what I have learned and speak with the gods. I will need to take him to the temple, perhaps even to the citadel." He turned back to me. "You are a fortunate soul that you have committed no major crimes and that I am here. There is good in you and your theft of the metal for this body was understandable. You will need to repay them in time. I am not here for much longer but you will be staying with me whilst I beseech the gods for guidance in your fate. You will forgive these transgressions upon your person and I will warn you now that it would be unwise to try to rebel." I could not speak but he seemed to sense my agreement with him, this was not a man that I wanted to cross and it didn''t seem like I was in any serious danger. Perhaps this would be a useful learning experience. Chapter 13 The man reached over and plucked my core directly out of my body, the metal around me bent to his fingers as if it were water. "We''ll find you a more... appropriate body." He said it with such disdain I couldn''t help but feel embarrassed. Was my body really that bad? I was sort of proud of it, sure it was a little rusty but that mostly just helped with camouflage. "One''s appearance is an important thing, especially when you can choose your body. A badly made golem made with cheap materials and covered in rust is more vile to some races than bathing in the dung of a troll and considering that you stole those materials I don''t believe it would be correct to allow you to keep them. I will have them made into track once more and returned to that mine. Please refrain from stealing anything else in future." Can this guy read my thoughts? "Yes, whilst we are in contact. It is a blessing from Arya" Well, this got infinitely more difficult. Saying that it isn''t like I have anything to hide from him anymore. The way he said Arya made it clear that she was some form of deity which told me at least that the gods here were a tangible thing, they actually interacted with and influence this world, I''m sure that information will come in handy pretty soon. I was slipped into a pocket and left the shop. I tried very hard not to think anything at all, which is incredibly difficult when you desperately don''t want to think. We casually walked down roads at a pace I didn''t even want to try to work out and the houses around us began to grow larger, every building now had gardens which seemed to swell in size with the houses until we reached the very end of the road. There was a small hut, it was made of dirt and wood. It was decrepit, the wood was rotten and the thatch of the roof was in need of replacing, it was a strange sight amongst the houses that surely belong to the most wealthy and powerful people in this town. The priest- "Archpriest." The archpriest made a small gesture with his hand, curving it into a crescent and then into a fist whilst waving it from side to side, before he opened the door. Inside the small room in the hut was a grand statue of a woman. She wore robes of flowing silver and the light of the sun seemed to shine from behind her head, obscuring her face. It did not matter that we were under a roof or from what angle you viewed her it was always as if the sun shone from behind. The archpriest seemed to see her with perfect clarity regardless and fell to one knee. "Mother Arya I beseech you, grant me your wisdom and your sight. I have with me the soul of a traveller who comes from a world I do not know, is it time for a fourteenth world to be brought into your light and the domain of your pantheon?" He said this to the feet of the statue and I was brought out of his pocket. As he did so my vision was narrowed to her feet also, my senses being lost to me besides a focused cone.Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. The light of the room began to grow brighter and I could feel the temperature rise, it gave me an uncomfortable feeling despite the fact that I should definitely not feel hot as a magical ball of glass. I felt the weight of divine attention fall upon me, something I was certain had not happened before I was summoned here, and it was heavy. The face of the priest changed subtly and he tilted his head as if to hear something better. Minutes passed, my vision remained restricted and my bearer continued to listen until with no warning to me whatsoever the divine attention vanished and the archpriest rose to his feet. He walked over to the statue and picked up a small coin that was between her feet that had definitely not been there when I had been looking. He placed my core into a small bowl on the floor. This was when I began to notice that everything in this room blocked my sight, not just the walls but every speck of dirt on the floor was where my vision ended. As he straightened from his bend he spoke to me again. "A priest will arrive here within an hour and collect you. They will answer your questions and will register you as an unbound golem. I would not advise making it common knowledge that you are human, there are many that will kill you for such a lie and more who would kill you if they knew it to be true. The priest will know everything they need to know, tell them nothing more for they will not listen. I have urgent business that I must conduct elsewhere. Good luck, world traveller. Perhaps one day we will meet again." Without giving me the time to reply he vanished in a blur and left me in the small dirt hut at the feet of a statue to a goddess. I continued to school my thoughts, that man could hear them and I was sure that the goddess could too, especially in this temple. She might not care but I certainly didn''t want to anger a goddess because I was stupid enough to accidentally blaspheme in her temple. True to the archpriest''s word it was at most half an hour before someone arrived. It was a woman in her late thirties who was wearing robes of a dark red. She was slight and small and I would have found her very attractive if I still had a body. She appeared to be human but the slight point to her ears said that wasn''t necessarily correct and after the list of races Ike had gone through I wasn''t as confident anymore in assuming that. She made the same gesture with her hand as she entered and her eyes never once lay upon the statue, remaining fixed to the ground as she knelt in a curtsy and plucked me from the bowl. She did not speak until we had left the hut and when she did it was in a whisper. "You have been blessed by the attention of mother Arya and the archpriest, few are so lucky and fewer survive it, I welcome you to this world and will endeavour to help you find your place. Let us first head to the guild house and you will be registered, it will at least be safe for you to wander the city if you wish. We will then find you a body. Do you have a name?" With her voice came a feeling of warmth and security, I was as certain that this woman would cause no harm to me as I was that my own mother would not. I was pleased that fate had lead me to be in the presence of this woman and I quickly replied so as to not keep her waiting, casting my spell with my now somewhat replenished mana. "My name is Alex, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. Who are you?" She let a small smile grace her lips as she said "My name is Nym, may the warmth of Arya''s light embrace you." Chapter 14 I felt the warmth of Arya''s light as she wished it upon me and it was comforting but it reminded me of the piercing light of the archpriest and that sent shivers down my metaphorical spine. I hope this girl can''t read my mind too but honestly, things are getting a little overwhelming and I don''t think I can just not think any longer. This is my chance to get some answers and even though I wanted to trust this girl I would have to find a way to verify anything she told me. I decided to start with something that was fairly simple but would be useful to know. "Thank you for helping me Nym, would it be ok if I asked you some questions?" I tried to keep my tone respectful as I asked it, we were walking down the street at a regular human pace this time but I wasn''t going to assume she wasn''t strong, especially considering the monster that the archpriest had been. "Of course, you may ask anything. I will try to be honest and forthright but there are some things I may not speak of, not just with you but all those outside of the priesthood so I apologise if we come upon those." That was fair enough I supposed, people were entitled to some secrets. Not that that had seemed to matter with regards to me. I felt the feeling of warmth from Nym fade slightly as I followed this train of thought and hurried to ask my question. "Are unbound golems common here and is there a way to recognise one?" She wrinkled her brow as if to think as she answered. "They are not common but it is not unheard of to cross paths with one. A guilty master may release a sapient golem he has summoned rather than release their soul, dwarves who feel they have much left to accomplish will sometimes choose to have their souls captured by a golem core or in exceptionally rare circumstances, a dungeon core. The methods to do such things are only known by the Supreme Pontiff of the dwarven church and only the most distinguished dwarves are given this as an option. Most unbound are created by the former method" That was more of an answer than I had thought I would get honestly but she continued. "Since unbound golems have the potential for great strength and destructive capability it is required that any unbound bear a symbol that is visible on their bodies. You will find that many will treat you more like a person if you have this symbol as they will realise you are as independent as they but as with all things, there will be some that would wish you harm if they recognise you as unbound. I can only apologise for that." That seemed easy enough I guess, I had expected some people to react badly to an unbound golem but something in the way she said it made me think that maybe it would be more than just the occasional bigot. Either way, I would have time to ponder on the answers to my questions when I was alone, I was going to find out as much as I could now as I was given the chance. Something sprang to mind that had been niggling at the back of my had for a while.Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! "What is a title and what do they do?" "Oh!" She let out a small gasp and suddenly the feeling of warmth and security that I had felt when speaking to her vanished, it was as if a fog that I had not noticed had suddenly lifted from my mind and I found myself able to think thoughts I otherwise could not. "My sincerest apologies, it is uncouth to have mind-altering titles active without explicit permission. I had been running confession before I was asked to come here and I must have forgotten to deactivate it. Malicious use of titles such as those is treat with the highest degree of sincerity by the guard, sadly it is often the case that people get away with such things. If you feel like you must then you can report me to an official within the guild, I hope you don''t however, it sincerely was and I am sure I can find some way to make it up to you. " The pitch of her voice was raised ever so slightly and my sense allowed me to pick up on the subtle twitches of her fingers and the moisture that was beginning to gather on her palms. I believed that she really had not intended anything malicious but the fact that she had been messing with my mind, even accidentally, maybe especially accidentally was frightening. I also had a feeling I knew what "Golem friend" did now and was debating whether or not to ask her advice on the topic. After a slight cough and a subtle attempt at wiping her palms dry on her clothes, she began speaking again, hervoice having returned to its previous pitch. "Titles are granted by the system for certain actions, my for example is called the light of Arya and I received it for becoming a priest of the mother. It makes people feel safe and secure. There are other titles that can have a variety of effects, more than I will ever be able to remember but some examples would be the public speaker title, which merely makes you more confident when speaking in public or the scientist title which makes it easier to avoid bias whilst you work. I only know about the last one because my husband had it." Her expression grew ever so tighter as she spoke, a subtle twitch of her eye, a slight downturn of her mouth. I was noticing an aspect of my new senses I hadn''t considered before. With my mind free from interference and my attention focused it was much easier picking up on the minute expressions a person makes. "Most mind-affecting titles can be resisted without much effort if you are aware of them and you wish to do so. There are exceptions to that with some of the most powerful titles such as the ones born by the royal family but ones such as mine can be resisted. I can help you learn how to do that after we are finished here but we have arrived. This is the guild house of the court, this is where we will get you registered." I hadn''t really been paying much attention to where we were going but as I did so now we were in front of a huge building. It was made entirely out of smooth marble and seemingly all one solid piece. It looked more like a cathedral than any administrative building I had ever seen with spires and huge windows on every wall. It was maybe 6 stories high and the double doors in front of us stretched up to be about 15 feet tall. What was strange about it was that it looked like the wall above it could be opened too if more space was needed but what kind of person would need a door that was more than 15 feet tall to walk through? The doors were open and inside I could see a large reception area with hundreds of people inside. They were mostly resting in chairs throughout the room but there was also a long line that snaked around until ending at a row of kiosks manned by tellers. Good to know that even in a fantasy world queuing was a vital part ofbureaucracy. Chapter 15 There was a brief disturbance in my senses as we walked through the doors, like a sheet of water was stretched across the opening, perfectly transparent when undisturbed but sending out ripples as we touched it. It only brushed across the surface of my core and I assumed that it was a security feature, not that my thoughts had to go unaffirmed. "There is a detection spell completely surrounding the building, no one can walk in or out of the premises, be it through a wall, window or door without being noticed. I could not tell you how it works, my speciality is working with the magic of the mothers light, the ways of the arcane have never interested me." My mind rebelled at the idea that a person would not be interested in magic in a world where it was possible. The idea of being able to cast spells was something that had fascinated me for as long as I could remember but perhaps in this world magic was the equivalent of learning computer programming or engineering. You could do amazing things with it but most people would rather just use what is made by other people. I suppose that if it is what you are used to, even the most mystical things can become mundane. As we walked two guards began to follow us with their gazes, or rather, they followed Nym with their gazes and spared a passing glance at the core in her hand. She turned her head to meet their gazes and she received a small nod from each of them that she returned with a warm smile. I couldn''t see their reactions due to the helmets they wore but the seemed happy enough with the interaction. Nym waited until we had reached the back of one of the lines to speak again. "The priests of Arya have a policy of confidentiality that is respected amongst the authorities. Many of those that come to confession are guards whose hearts have grown heavy in their lines of duty, often the details of such things are confidential so there are few they can turn to. The burden of such knowledge is that some of the guard dislike us for we know things they would not want others to know but did so in a moment of weakness. Others are elated to be able to share their troubles with another, those that dislike us often make things difficult, stopping and questioning us unnecessarily or turning a blind eye to petty crimes against us. Today it seems we have had luck, blessings to Arya for it." I could understand that, I had lost friends before because they opened up to me and regretted sharing their secrets and this would be on another scale. It was good that they at least had somewhere to turn if they needed to. It was at this moment that I realised that Nym had been having quite the one-sided conversation. The effort required to speak now combined with apparently falling out of good habits recently, not to mention the overwhelming day that I was actively trying not to think about had left my manners somewhat failing. I should at least acknowledge that she was speaking.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. "It''s noble that you continue to hold confession despite all of that but don''t you get as many criminals as good people confessing?" " Ah! I had feared that I had offended you such that you would not speak to me." she replied with a light, if a little awkward laugh. "We hear of many small crimes that weigh upon those who have committed them but those who have serious misdeeds would not dare set foot into a temple to the mother, not even a temple of the congregation, lest her light cast judgement against them. There have been those that the mother has deemed evil enough to smite upon the spot as they entered her temple but if one came to us to confess then we would listen and allow the gods to pass judgement unto their souls." The lines had been moving faster than I was used to and it was at this point that Nym stepped forwards and approached the kiosk. "How may we help you today priestess?" "I have brought an unbound golem to register and i have a report from the archpriest I was asked to deliver to you." Her voice was quiet but seemed to carry well enough in the room and I noticed a few glances directed my way at her statement, there was no malice in their eyes but more curiosity than I would have hoped to see. The clerk nodded and turned to look at my core. "It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, I will have someone with you shortly to cover the registration process. You will required to do this alone but I assure you that you will be as safe with us as with priestess Nym." she turned back to Nym as she said her name. "I will take you to the scribing room as I assume this is not a public report? We will be passing the room for the registration so we can drop your friend off there on our way. Would that be ok?" "That will be acceptable and you would be correct in your assumption." Nym beat me to speaking but I figured I should also reply. "Sounds good to me." "Oh! Excellent you have a way of speaking, it''s surprising how rare that is amongst your kind when they register, it will make things much easier." She said with a smile and a slight laugh before gesturing to one side to a door before standing up and walking in the same direction. We followed her and we entered into a small hallway, there was no distinguishable light source, which threw me for a moment, light just seemed to be present and no shadows were cast. It made the world look a little like a badly rendered computer game in my opinion but we only walked through it for a moment before we came to a room. "This is where we register all of our golems, we haven''t had any sapient golems in these premises yet so please feel free to let us know if you have any complaints." She swung the door open to reveal a simple room with a table and two chairs. One of the chairs was heavily reinforced and there was a small indent in the table in front of it. I assumed that was where the golems sat and as if to confirm, the clerk plucked me from Nym''s hand and placed me into the indent on the table. "Someone will be with you in a few minutes, I apologise for the wait." Chapter 16 When the door closed I was left in darkness, not that that changed anything since my vision spanned most of the room. The walls were an eggshell white and decorated with meandering patterns, there was no two-way glass and the room was far too bright for it to feel like an interrogation room but I was starting to feel anxious nonetheless. This was also the first time I had been left alone somewhere I felt somewhat safe and my mind began to take that as a cue that I could finally start panicking. I was somewhat incredulous that I had kept it together for so long and hadn''t just had a breakdown yet but that seemed to just make it worse. The more I thought about how the archpriest had invaded my mind the more violated I felt. No-one should have the right to do something like that. Every private memory, secret and thought was pulled from me and I didn''t even know how to feel about it. Especially since afterwards he acted as though it was nothing and left me to be picked up by an underling like some kind of trash. To have yourself so thoroughly exposed and then... dismissed felt almost as hurtful as the act as itself, then the realisation that in my first day of being in contact with actual people for the first time I had been mindfucked by not one but three people. Granted Nym did it unintentionally and seemed sincerely apologetic but this was insane. Was this going to be my life if I chose to be around people? Constantly forced to worry that something is influencing my mind? How could I even trust someone knowing how easily it could just be some title making me like them? After I get out of here and have a body again I am going back out into the woods, I need some time to think and to recuperate, I would rather worry about being attacked by wolves than being mentally enslaved to some person because they happened to have a title that screwed me over. What kind of world was this? I was expecting magic and monsters but mind control being so common, ridiculous gods and their worshippers. Wait, thinking of gods didn''t they say something about bringing my planet under their domain or something? At that point, the door opened and a well-dressed woman entered the room. She had bright scarlet hair tied back into a ponytail and a thin pair of spectacles perched on her slightly pointed nose. Her features were slightly gaunt and pointed and She looked to be in her mid-fifties by the slight sag of her face and web of cracks that formed next to her eyes as she gave a firm, business smile to me. She was pale enough that I floated the idea of her being vampiric, unable to venture beneath the sun but perhaps she really was just an office worker. She had full-length robes of a silver-grey with darker grey trimmings and large shoulders. She quickly flowed across the room and into the chair opposite from me. As she sat she brushed a stray lock of hair from in front of her ear, drawing my attention to their pointed nature. She sharply clapped and the lights came on in the room just as the door closed, again there didn''t seem to be a source to the light, it was as if everything had its own glow to it and light was just there. With the lights on her eyes focused on me, not just my general location and she began speaking. "Good evening, my name is Daena and I will be helping you today, I am lead to understand that you have a method of communication so may I inquire as to your name?" Her tone was polite and business-like but not cold, I got the feeling she didn''t dislike doing this and that settled my somewhat frayed nerves a little. I quickly began to compose myself, trying desperately to stuff the genie of panic back into its bottle and barely succeeding. I then cast the spell and replied. "I''m Alex, it''s a pleasure to meet you and thanks for helping me in this matter." I hoped that my emotions didn''t bleed through into my words and she seemed pleased with my words. "Ah, whispering wind, always a somewhat eerie spell but effective enough. A polite one too, it''s a refreshing change from the usual sort that we get here. It''s been nearly 50 years since I registered another unbound and I had to have him animate a pencil since we didn''t have a mage present at the time. I honestly didn''t know it was possible to write so many curses in such a brief amount of time but here I am, a wiser woman for it. Sorry, a little bit of a tangent, since you are using a spell to communicate you should save your mana to answer my questions, I''ll try to explain thoroughly but if you do need to ask something feel free to interrupt. Now where to begin?"If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. She reached up the sleeve of her robe and fished out a roll of parchment and then a pencil and began to unroll it. I could surprisingly read what was on the page though it wasn''t common, I knew somehow that it was written in sylvarian though I didn''t know what the significance of that was, I don''t even know how I learned that language. It was written in the same boring way all contracts are written, full of jargon and in ways that made my non-existent head hurt so I just waited for her to continue. "Might as well start from the top, is it just Alex or do you have a family name?" I paused at this one, I didn''t know whether to give my family name. My family wasn''t on this world. I guess I could always give them it later if I needed to but something was telling me I should keep my full name private. I had read enough novels where names had power and I wouldn''t be surprised if that was true here. "Just Alex is fine." To which she nodded and wrote something down. "Very well, just be aware that if you are attempting to find your way back to a clan or family then it would be able to lend more aid if we knew more. Would you also like to keep your race to yourself? Likewise, it doesn''t really matter to us but it would help in locating loved ones." "I would, please." "Alright, and what were the circumstances of your return to this world? Was it intentional or by chance and did you have a master previously? How long has it been?" "Umm, by chance, no master and I was summoned a couple of weeks ago I think? I haven''t really been keeping track of time." She wrote down everything I had said, I was surprised that my vague answers were ok. When she had finished speaking she reached up her other sleeve and pulled out a metal rod. "Now, we I can either do a quick scan of your status now to get an idea of your baseline stats or we can have a truthseer come in and I can record what you tell us if there is something on there you would like to keep private. As you may know, if you have had children this is done to everyone as a newborn to ensure that we don''t get anything from the abyss or the dungeon or anything inhabiting a body. Which would you prefer?" "Just scan me." What did it really matter if my secrets were once more stolen from me, at least this time I was given an option and it seemed like a reasonable request. It did bring up a couple of questions. She reached over and lightly tapped the rod to me. Rather than the piercing light of the last time, this felt more like a request, I could fight it if I wanted to though I am sure she would know if I did that. She scowled as she looked at the side of the wand. "You got a bad draw on that core, I can hardly believe it has held together so well, I assume you''ve strengthened it somehow. Your soul seems healthy and normal, hard to say if it''s weak or strong. Usually, there is a definite skew in the stats, it''s rare to have them balanced like yours, it will give you a firm base to build from and I can see that your soul is quite malleable. You''ll grow quickly but be careful, soul magic will affect you more strongly that it will others. You''re under level 10 so you won''t be gaining any non-language skills just yet and it looks like you have at least a year for your newborn stage so you have plenty of time to learn some. You''ll make a fine golem Alex, I''m sure." So much to tease apart there, it seems like not everyone''s stats started at 10 then like I had expected, I don''t know if that is just my natural soul or if coming to this world had something to do with that. Malleable soul? soul magic? Newborn stage? Won''t gain any skills until level 10? I was going to have a lot of questions for Nym. I don''t know if I should be asking questions about this system to Daena, I don''t really want to tell anyone else that I am a world traveller. "Ok well that''s really all there is to it, you don''t seem unhinged and I doubt you''re inherently evil since you came in with a priestess of Arya, you''ve got good potential but I don''t think we''re gonna have a lunar golem on our hands any time soon." she let out a throaty chuckle. "It really was a pleasure to meet you and I wish you luck in your endeavours... Oh! almost forgot, we need to get you a symbol." She tapped the same metal wand onto the sheet of parchment and ink spread out across it. It swirled around until it resembled a bird taking flight, surrounded by lots of different markings. She tore off the paper and placed it on me, it instantly absorbed a point of my mana and was under my control so I stuck it to my core. "Just inscribe any body you make somewhere visible with that symbol and officials will recognise you as an unbound, if they don''t and they give you a hard time, then you send them my way or come here and report it. I''ll sort them out. I will send Nym back in here when she is finished to collect you since I was told she was taking you to get a body. Don''t steal any materials for your body, you may technically be a monster now but the law is still the law and it applies to you." With that, she turned and left the room leaving me slightly baffled. I was expecting a much more thorough investigation than that, though I guess that was essentially just filling out a birth certificate for me? Weird but honestly I couldn''t bring myself to care enough about it. I began to ponder on the questions I would ask Nym when she came back and settled in to wait. Chapter 17 I had more questions than I probably had time to ask. I needed to know everything about the system I could, I need to know how to get stronger, I need to know how to stop titles from messing with my head, I need to know how this city and the wider world works, I need to know how to stop people messing with my soul, I need to know how to not get smitten by a god...the list goes on and I haven''t even managed to go through them when the door opens and Nym walks into the room, the same clerk outside the door waiting with a commercial smile. "Hello Alex, I trust all was well with your registration. You have your symbol i can see, let''s go get you a body to put it on." "I can''t wait." I wasn''t even lying, I felt naked with my core out in the open and I was pretty much at the whim of anybody walking by if Nym wanted to she could just throw me at a wall until I cracked and I couldn''t do anything about it. A body sounds good. We left the guild building and Nym had another small exchange with the guards on her way out. The sun was rising and I realised I hadn''t even internalised the fact that it was night. I had no trouble seeing immediately around me and I had been rather distracted but I couldn''t help but chide myself. I need to pay attention to what is going on, I''m not safe right now and I wouldn''t be until I was on my own and given some time to figure myself out. I cast whispering wind to Nym. "Where are we going to go for my new body?" "Well we have a few options, nothing is going to be open for at least a couple more hours so I suppose it doesn''t matter which. I have been given a budget, it is generous but it will not be enough for anything metallic that is of reasonable size so your options are wood, stone, clay or maybe flesh if you really wanted to but it wouldn''t be an impressive animal. If you wanted wood then Crafted Creatures is the place, stone or clay then probably the masons and I suppose we could visit a butcher for flesh. I''m sure you could use other things but I don''t really know that much about golems." Crafted Creatures was out fo the question, absolutely no way and I didn''t really want another flesh body. I don''t know what the difference between a clay and a stone golem so I decided to ask. "I think clay golems tend to have better fine motor skills whilst stone golems are tougher and stronger. If you''re planning on being an artist or some kind of craftsman I would suggest clay, if not for most things stone is probably better." "Stone it is then." Like I said before, I wasn''t an artist and I don''t really have plans for any kind of craftsmanship. Nym took off walking again and I tried to decide what my next question would be. Eventually, I decided on asking a vague question to see if she would offer up information I wouldn''t have thought to ask. "What can you tell me about this system, levels, skills, stats, evolution points, everything?" "Evolution points? Of course, you are technically a monster. I''ll try to explain what I can. The system governs all, the gods as well as us. It causes monsters to spawn, it is believed to be the origin of mana and it allows us to grow stronger than we ever could without it. Everything has a race and the stats for each race are slightly different. An elf with a 10 in dexterity will be faster and more graceful than a human with the same 10, for example. I don''t know how it changes for every race but gnomes have better intelligence, dwarves toughness, orc have strength but a weaker intelligence and humans have a lot of variation. As far as I know for golems it varies even more. We have two sets of stats but you have three. Your multipliers can change with your core and your body but your soul will just as fixed as ours." "Non-monster races receive classes rather than evolution points, that''s most of the sapient races although some, like goblins and golems, are still considered monsters. Maybe because they are not always sapient. Classes are awarded based on someone''s skills and action. One cannot just be a swordsman, they would have to train with a sword to a certain point, they would have to work their body to be strong and tough, they would need to spar and fight. A miner would need to mine, a farmer farm and so on. Classes will give skills and statistic points as you level. You can level by performing tasks that the system deems as significant. Most jobs that someone would be willing to pay someone to do will provide some amount of experience, even just menial labour. More complex and difficult jobs will provide more experience. Another way to earn experience is to kill things, this is why often soldiers and adventurers who brave the dungeon will be the highest level people you come across.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. For you, it will be a little different. You will not get a class and instead, you will get evolution points, you can use these to modify yourself and to be better and stronger than before and to buy skills and traits. You can get evolution points by either levelling up or by draining the cores of the monsters that you might find in the dungeon. There might be other ways but I''m honestly not sure and you would know better than me what your exact options for spending them are. Traits are usually something people get at birth, although you will be able to get them though EP, and usually provide some form of effect on the person. They aren''t always beneficial and they often come with drawbacks if they are strong but most are inconsequential. There are families that have strong traits that they try to make as powerful as possible from generation to generation and they can be quite scary. No-one receives skills until they reach level 10 except language skills. Which is probably so that children can learn to speak without having to get a job although most people will reach level 10 by age 8 or so as the system grants them experience for things like learning to walk and the like. Before level 10 any progress towards a skill will instead raise your affinity to it, making it stronger when you are finally able to attain it. People who train magic from being children often make more powerful mages, not just through practice but because of their affinity for the skills. Skills usually develop faster during what is known as the newborn stage, depending on the race there will be a period of time where the person will learn skills faster or train affinity faster. This time starts at birth and can range from a few months for the fast developing races to decades for races like elves. I''m not sure how long it will be for you since you weren''t really born so much as summoned but I''m sure you have been informed how long it is if it isn''t over?" "I was told it was about a year I think." "More than I would have thought, usually you are far too incompetent to actually get any use out of this stage but for you, it could be invaluable. I think that''s about everything, the system is slightly different to everyone depending on the soul so that you can best interpret it. Mine is shown to me in the light of my goddess so that I may know what is available to me, yours may appear differently." So it didn''t look like a game for everyone then? I suppose it would make sense that this would be the best way to show me all of this information, it is the closest thing we have on earth to all of this. I picked up on a few more things that I wanted answers about from that spiel too. Nym was actually a pretty good exposition fairy it seems. "You mentioned a dungeon and cores?" "Yes, the dungeon is an entity that lives beneath the earth, some believe that the dungeon itself is our world and there is merely debris over it. Regardless, it is, in essence, an underground system of tunnels and rooms. The mana in the dungeon is many times more potent than it is on the surface and monsters there grow stronger and more dangerous. The dungeon is far too deep for most to travel to but there are occasional places where one can enter a dungeon. There is some kind of natural spacial magic involved that I personally don''t understand but it is possible to teleport to the dungeon through these entrances. For the most part, where there are people you will find an entrance. Diving into the dungeon is a driving force of both the economy and the strength of the people so it is rare to find a town or city far from one. The closest one to us is at a small garrison several miles north of here, though you will have to enter the adventurers guild to go down there and they won''t accept you until you are at least level 20 and can hold your own in a fight. Too many people have died down there from just rushing down in the hopes of glory. Some of the monsters in the dungeon will develop monster cores due to the higher mana levels. Those cores aren''t like a golem core, that contains the soul that powers the golem, they are a solidified form of mana that forms inside a monster. It is possible that a golem could also have a monster core. As you are a golem you will be able to drain these cores for evolution points that you can use to fuel your growth, I warn you though that that route can be expensive. The demand for cores is high as we use them to power out enchantments and as sources of mana for potions and mages." She paused for a moment to catch her breathe, she had been speaking for quite some time and I was pretty sure we would be at the mason''s fairly soon. I asked her a few more questions in the meantime, learning how I would be able to find work if I wanted it as well as how to interact with the locals without getting myself in trouble which was basically just to be nice and not to disrespect people. She also promised to teach me to resist the effect of titles after I had my body but couldn''t help me with my soul problem. I had thought as a priest that would be her domain but apparently, any magic relating to changing a soul was a massive taboo and was highly illegal basically everywhere. It wasn''t long before I found myself standing outside of a large, red brick building with that was apparently the shop of one of the better Mason''s in the city and that Nym had found out had a few golem bodies for sale. Chapter 18 The outside of the shop was extremely plain. It had no windows, no decorations, it was just redbrick. There wasn''t even a name for the store, it was such a juxtaposition against all of the ostentatious shops around that the plainness drew the eye, rather than be ignored. It was odd. Nym didn''t hesitate outside of this store as she did outside of the guild building. She immediately pushed the door open and stepped inside. Inside the store was as beautiful as the outside was plain. On every shelf, every table and lined across the walls were a collection of beautifully made statues and sculptures, some were of humanoid races, others beasts that were mythical to me and others I did not recognise at all but each was as intricate as the last. The attention to detail was astounding, individual scales had been carved into the dragon that was the centrepiece of the room, not a large one, maybe four feet from snout to tail but every detail was painstakingly carved. Not only was the craftsmanship high but there was also colour everywhere, everything seemed to be alive. The stones weren''t painted, it seemed like they had been turned into various colours that perfectly mimicked real life. I looked into the eyes of a woman who was so well made that I could have sworn I could see the sheen of moisture on her eyeballs. I did not doubt that every single piece here was worth a small fortune. How much money were we going to spend? I had been so engrossed in the merchandise that I had completely missed as the shopkeeper and Nym exchanged pleasantries and spoke and we were now moving into a back room. As we moved, we went passed a workshop filled with half-finished statues. Tools of more types than I could fathom uses were scattered around each and a collection of wands was hanging off of one wall. That was all the glimpse that I got through as we moved passed that room and into a small storage room. There wasn''t much in this room, some more things that maybe didn''t quite fit in in the front of the store but it seemed that was where the majority of the stock was kept, on one wall there stood three statues. One a gnome, another a dwarf, the third a human and the last an elf. One for each of the major races in the city. The gnome and the human were both females and I immediately decided against them. Gender may not matter to a golem but I had been a man in my past life and I didn''t quite feel ready looking like a woman. Maybe one day, who knows? The dwarf shopkeeper pulled me out of my thoughts as she spoke. "They''re all made to the same quality as everythin'' ''at comes out of my workshop, the gnome an'' the dwarf will obviously be faster an'' weaker than the human an'' the elf since their smaller an'' doubly so for the gnome. I dunno about the elf an'' the human, can never quite tell until they''ve been inhabited. Never thought I''d be selling to a sentient golem, I won''t lie to ya, thought they''d end up as some kind of collection for some fancy noble or somethin'' but gotta say I''m glad they''ll see some use.This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. The smaller ''ens are gonna be fifty gold but the bigger ''ens''ll be seventy. They''re bigger an'' took a lot more work, they''ll pack more stats too. I''ll leave yas to look an'' talk but you break it ya buy it." Her speech was rough but had a feminine quality to it. There was no Scottish accent that I had secretly hoped for but it sounded like she''d been raised in the country. She gave us a quick wave and then went back to the front of the shop. Nym spoke next. "The archpriest left me with eighty gold, I have no idea what he did that he felt the need for such a sum but it would cover any of these and of course you may keep the difference. Which do you think you prefer?" Her eyebrows had an ever so slight arch to them and the corner of her mouth was curved very slightly upwards as she looked down at me. "I think I will go for the elf, I was a man once and would like to continue that way, at least in appearance. I''m also over being short." The elf was a little over six feet tall, smaller than I had been in my old life but still closer than the bodies I had had so far. I would need to keep my core somewhere near the middle of the body but that didn''t really matter. "I did not know you were a man, very well then, I will fetch Sharina. You should begin to infuse this statue." She places my core into the hand of the elf statue that had his hands cupped lightly in front of his stomach and went out to the front of the store. The elf, me, was naked, every muscle on his body was clearly carved and coloured making it look incredibly realistic. He had a messy mop of blonde hair and thin eyebrows but otherwise, his body was completely hairless. It was a little odd, to a person it would look almost exactly like a real elf but I could see the little imperfections and chisel marks in the rock that assured me it was not real. I began to release my mana into the statue, slowly saturating it with my mana. The stone reacted incredibly quickly and seemed to drink my mana, a job that I thought would take hours and many times over my mana was completed in minutes and with less than half of my maximum. I''m not sure what Sharina did to this rock but I loved her for it. I let my core flow into the rock, hiding behind the navel of my new body. It took a moment but soon the notification popped up.
New body claimed
Body Type: Deep stone Body stats:
Body Rank: B Strength: 14
A body, exquisitely made by a talented craftswoman. The properties of the Deepstone it is made from along with the design allow this body to be stronger and more durable than most non-magical metals whilst still being lighter. Mana conductive materials allow for mana to be manipulated more efficiently. Toughness: 18
Dexterity: 10
Health: 180/180
Good gods this was crazy, this wasn''t even a metal body and all of my stats had gone up and not by an insignificant amount. I could kiss that dwarf. This was when I heard the returning to the room and that was also about the time that I realised I was in an incredibly realistic male body, my hands moved on their own to cover my junk as the two women returned to the room. Chapter 19 It wasn''t really a conscious decision, it was born of years of habit and I only realised how foolish it was when the two women entered the room. Nym was hiding a smile behind one hard and Sharina just gave a snort. "Boy, I made tha'' body, ain''t nothin'' there ya need ta hide from me." Feeling a little silly, I moved my hands away from my crotch, we had just spent several minutes inspecting the bodies. There really was no point in modesty, it just felt weird to be in such a human-like body and be naked out in the open. Sharina walked a quick circle around me, nodding. She went over to a small chest at the side of the room, from which she produced a cheap set of wool clothes that she passed to me. "''ere it''ll keep ya modest when ya go out an'' stop ya scarin'' thakids. If tha''s all ya needs then I gotta ask tha'' ya be goin''. Gotta a shop ta run an'' all tha''." Nym thanked her for her time as I quickly put on the clothes, I had to be careful as I did so as I felt that I could easily tear the cloth apart. When I was suitably covered, we left the store and entered the street. "Do not forget to engrave your symbol onto your body. It would be unfortunate if you were arrested so soon after gaining this body. I must say, it is nice to not have to carry you." I nodded at her words and furrowed my brow in concentration. My body had an actual face, one that was much more lifelike than my vague one and I could form actual facial expressions. I had to intentionally do them but I figure it would be a good habit to get into. I looked at the image that was still stuck to my core and slowly began to trace the pattern into the back of my new hand, it wasn''t overly complex or difficult to draw but I had the feeling that precision mattered with it so I took my time and ensured that I got it perfect. We walked for several blocks as I did this and when I finally looked up Nym had stopped in front of a building that looked remarkably like a church from home. "I said that I would be willing to teach you how to resist weak mental effects like those from titles and such. We would need to do such things inside the temple so as to avoid conflict with the guards and I can answer any more questions you might have." I was reluctant to go inside and Nym almost certainly noticed but she didn''t mention anything. I nodded and gestured towards the door for her to lead the way. She swung open the double doors and the interior was not what I was expecting. I had been expecting pews, candles, fonts and the like. That was the only kind of religious building I''d ever been in,back home but this was different. Firstly it was bigger on the inside, the building was about the size of a village church but inside it was like an enormous cathedral, the ceilings were hundreds of feet high and sunlight seemed to pour in, there were thousands of people inside, way more than there should be for a town, even as big as this one. There was clearly some magic at play, was the door actually a portal to a cathedral elsewhere in the world? Was it some kind of pocket dimension? I don''t know if I even want an answer to those questions. The room was large and open. Doors dotted the edge of the room but other than that were only 7 immense pillars of crystal that poured out even more light than the roof. I was sure that if I had functioning eyes that I would be hard-pressed not to squint whilst I was in the room but Nym barely even blinked at the transition. People stood facing the pillars, heads tilted towards the ceiling and arms out wide as they basked in the light and prayed. It was a little cultish in my opinion but I had always thought that of other religious organisations back on earth too.Everyone inside was an elf it seemed, at least with my passing inspection, there were some that I couldn''t really be sure of, like Nym, they didn''t appear like most of the other elves I had seen. This organisation held way too much power for my liking, it scared me and I just wanted to be away from it. Unfortunately, I needed to know how to stop people from messing with my mind and I could deal with being uncomfortable a little while longer. I began to martial my thoughts again being in this place, I had no doubt that it didn''t matter, I was sure the goddess would be able to know my feelings regardless but still, it felt like a sensible decision. I was led, silently, through a set of doors to the right of the entrance and into a smaller, much more reasonably lit room. Inside it, there were chairs that lined the edges but it was empty. Nym sat down and winced when I was about to do the same.This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. "I apologise but these chairs are not reinforced and would break easily beneath your weight. If you would rather sit than stand I can have a suitable chair brought to you." I blinked at her, somehow managing to do so instinctively rather than my usual still face, then it hit me, was a golem. I was made of stone. It was easier to forget since if I didn''t focus on it my body was enough like my old one that I could act as I had before. I wasn''t sure if it was a good sign that I was comfortable in this body or if it was concerning that I could so easily forget my nature, even after being a golem for quite a while. I shook my head and moved so that I would be in front of her and stood. "Forgive me if you do not feel it is my place to say but I would suggest getting another way of speaking at some point. Your spell leaves you rather taciturn and the voice is rather ominous in itself, you may find people are more friendly if you have a better way of conversing. There are a variety of trinkets available for such things, they are often cheaper than paying a healer to fix injuries affecting the voice. Though it is your decision." She said it with a somewhat uncomfortable smile like she disliked pointing out a flaw in me and it did not go away until I smiled and nodded towards her. "Before we begin, do I have your explicit permission to activate my title only for the purpose of teaching you?" I nodded. She had a glazed look in her eye for a second and then suddenly I was filled with a feeling of warmth and security. "There, now the first thing you need to know if how to recognise that you are being affected. The actual resisting part is often easier than the sensing. You will find it easier because you were aware of my title and knew that I was activating it but your mind will try to skip over those thoughts. You need to focus on them, look for a place where your mind feels fuzzy if it seems like your thoughts are interrupted by a new idea that agrees with the title. Focus there." As Nym spoke the feeling of trust, I had in her deepened and I felt safe. I tried to do as she said, she was showing me that she was affecting my mind but that didn''t matter because she was safe. Wait, I tried to focus on that thought but my mind was distracted at the feeling of warmth I felt from being near her. It seemed stronger than it had before, I remember the feeling of indignation and fear when I had found out about it after that and focused on just how silly I was to feel like that towards her. After a few minutes of my thoughts swirling like this, she got a glazed look in her eye again and the feeling evaporated and I was once again was terrified at the effect she had on my thoughts. "Don''t worry, it''s not something you''ll be able to do immediately and I will deactivate it periodically so that you can reflect." It ended up taking nearly three hours before I managed it, it was difficult but I could feel the seams of where the influence affected me. I could see the exhaustion that was painted across Nym''s face, she hadn''t complained once throughout this process and had only offered gentle encouragement. I felt bad for her, she had been showing me around for a while now and she had been working before that. As soon as I had managed to find where the influence over me was, resisting it was quite easy and I could do it naturally. It wasn''t perfect, I still felt more attached to her than I should but I was in control of my thoughts and actions as much as I could tell. I spent another half an hour working on resisting it before telling her that I think I had the hang of it. A smile bloomed on her face as her shoulders sagged in relief. "That is quite fortunate as I was going to have to leave soon, I have grown quite exhausted and I don''t know if I would be of much more use to you today, I am sorry. If you do need my help at any point, you may seek me out, if I can I will aid you but I do have duties as a priest." "Thank you for your help today." I nodded as I spoke and she stood. "It is no trouble, it has been an enjoyable experience to help situate you in the world. If you would like a place to rest then there are many inns to the east of here, you won''t miss them. You would not even need a room, I suppose but you would need to come to an understanding with the innkeep. I would not sleep on the streets, even if it were not illegal then you are likely to be robbed. Wait here one moment." She went through a door that was on the other side of the room to where we had entered and returned a few moments later."This is the remainder of the money I had been left for you. I have exchanged some of the gold for silver and copper coins, it is not always wise to announce you are carrying around a significant amount of gold. You can use this to buy yourself some equipment or to rent someplace to stay. Since you don''t need food nor drink I imagine it would last you longer than most. I wish you luck Alex and may Arya''s light reveal your path." The light around us grew slightly more intense as she spoke that last sentence. I took the small pouch that she had given to me, gingerly tying it to the belt of my new clothes and desperately trying not to snap the strings. I gave Nym a smile and a wave by means of goodbye and left the strange temple. I was, for the first time in a little while once more free to do what I wished and what I wished was nothing more than to leave this town as fast as my legs could carry me. So that''s what I did. Chapter 20 It didn''t take long to reach the edge of the woods but I didn''t stop when I did, I walked off of the road and into the shaded cover of the forest canopy. My feet didn''t sink nearly as much into the soft dirt as they had before but I did leave a distinct trail behind me. I carried on like this for at least an hour, until I was sure that there was no-one around and I slumped against a tree. It shook as I did so but it was plenty sturdy enough to support my weight. As I slid down the tree towards the soil I let my control on my thoughts slip. All of the anger, frustration and helplessness that I had felt over the last day or so washed over me in a cascade of shitty emotions. I span around and slammed my fist into the tree, it left a large dent and a large cracking noise echoed through the forest. I didn''t pay attention and punched again with my other fist, again and again. Eventually, the tree fell, it was some sort of oak and was about 30 feet high. I pushed with all of my strength and it collapsed away from me. It was not as cathartic as I had hoped it would be. There was no pain from punching tree and I didn''t even feel tired from the exertion. I couldn''t even take out my frustrations by lashing out anymore. I began to realise just how inhuman I was now. It wasn''t until now, in the most human body I had been in, that it set in fully. I was just a rock in a statue, I had no voice, no true face, no real body of my own. The only thing that remained of me until now had been my thoughts and my memories. They weren''t even just mine anymore, that elf had taken those too. Was I even me anymore? If they were the things that defined me and they were no longer just mine, was I an individual? I missed my family, there really wasn''t anyone here that I could really trust. Nym was nice but that was still her job, she still worshipped that same goddess and I don''t know if she''d have done the same thing if she''d been in the same position as the archpriest but she probably would. What I wouldn''t give to just be sat watching the same boring kids movie for the fiftieth time, I had been given a second chance in this world but I wasn''t so sure anymore that was a good or a bad thing. I had died and then I had woken up here, no explanation, no transition, nothing. Wait, that wasn''t quite right. I swear there had been something else, something in between and I couldn''t even remember that. Had there been some go that had explained to me why I was here? Did I have some goal I couldn''t remember? Honestly, I could use something to work towards right now. A goal I could use to further myself, to detract me from this world of arseholes and stop me from just feeling aimless.Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. It was a few hourslater that I started to actually think rationally again, my problems weren''t solved, I hadn''t gotten over what had happened to me and I still had no idea what I was going to do with my life here but I felt like I could function. I was going to have to return to the town at some point, I had no idea where anywhere else was or even if it would be any better, at least here I had a rough understanding of how things worked. Whilst I could just live my life as a forest hermit, I didn''t want to waste my life doing that, I wanted to get stronger. I wasn''t given some mystical powerful purpose by a god, sure but I wanted to at least be in a position where I didn''t have to fear the people around me. For that I needed experience and cores, I could get both of those from the dungeon so that was where I was going to head but I was going to need to level up and join the adventurers before I could do that. I could level up by hunting monsters but that seemed needlessly dangerous, I needed to learn how to fight, learn how to fight. I might be made of rock but I don''t know the creatures of this world and I sincerely doubted that I would be the scariest thing around here. Maybe I shouldn''t be out in these woods. If I was going to go back to town I would need to get a job, that would apparently get me some experience but I didn''t really want to be stuck doing something boring, like farm work, whilst I didn''t get bored I would still rather be doing something more interesting and develop some useful skills. I wasn''t like I was going to need to grow food for myself. Well, I guess if I had a flesh body then maybe but I didn''t see myself doing that too often. I had an idea though. I had no skills at all and apparently would get any until I was level 10. I would earn skill affinity though which sounded important so I should definitely start training the skills I want to get now rather than just levelling up. It would be best if I could find a job that would make me a stronger golem and there was one that sprang to mind. Blacksmithing, the heat wouldn''t bother me and I wouldn''t get tired or bored from swinging a hammer all day, I needed a useful skill and alongside that, if I knew what I was doing I might be able to make myself a more acceptable body than my last one. I had seen a blacksmith when Nym had carried me to the Mason''s and figured that could be a good a place as any. I would also need to find somewhere to learn to fight but I had no idea where one would be able to do that. I would have to ask around. By this point, the sun was starting to get low. I couldn''t quite face going back to the city just then so I spent the night there, lying on the tree that I had knocked over, looking up at the still foreign stars I fell asleep. Chapter 21 I awoke the next morning without much fanfare and headed back the way I had come. It was a little rash to run into the woods but I needed the escape and the sleep helped. I still walked back to town perhaps a little slower than I normally would but I got there in the end. The difference to the first time entered the town was astounding, the funny looks had gone but I drew a lot more attention than I had the first time, no disgusted looks this time but those who people''s eyes lingered on my hand for longer than they normally would and afterwards they would send a furtive glance at me from time to time. It was like I was a sports car in a backwater town, people weren''t freaking out but they were definitely looking. I couldn''t say I blamed them but I still felt a little uncomfortable with all the attention. It was the last thing I wanted right now but there wasn''t much I could do about it. I picked up my pace so that I wasn''t lingering around the same people for too long and eventually I made it where I wanted to go. It was a small grey brick shop with a sign out the front with a hammer and anvil emblazoned on it. "Ore Else" was written in a dangerous font underneath it that made me shake my head, it would appear that they have puns here too. I pushed open the door to the shop to find a small reception area, there were example weapons hung on the walls around the room, they were mostly swords of varying sizes but there was also an abundance of hammers, axes, spears, daggers, and the like too. Behind the counter was a young girl, an actual child I was pretty sure and not just a gnome, she was maybe seven or eight and she gave him a goofy grin. "Welcome to the shop mister, the best place in town for anything to chop, stab or bash with. Can I help you with anything?" When I didn''t say anything but drew a little closer she frowned and looked disappointed. "Oh, you''re just a golem, you guys are never any fun to talk to." I chuckled inwardly at that and cast my spell. "Well, I''m sorry that most of us aren''t very good at talking but I''m not just any old golem. I used to be a man you know?" She jumped when she heard my voice and ran off screaming. That could have gone better I suppose. A moment later a huge man came out of the back, the young girl hiding protectively behind his legs. He was a human, about a half a foot taller than me and about as wide. This dude was jacked and something told me that it wasn''t vanity muscle. He was covered in soot and wearing a stained blacksmith''s apron, an outfit of equally stained and slightly singed cotton clothes that barely kept themselves together over his massive frame and had a large black beard that covered the lower half of his head. "What''re you here for and who''s your master? I hope you''re here for a reason because I won''t take kindly to people sending their pets to scare me daughter. If you had a brain you''d have thought twice before you came in here an-" His eyes happened to glance at my hand as he was eyeing me up and down and his words caught in his throat. "Well I''ll be, you''re actually a person." If I could have awkwardly coughed before speaking I would have but the spell I had didn''t really allow for such things. "Yeah, I didn''t mean to scare anyone. As you can tell, this way of speaking is a little scary to some people." I didn''t actually know what I sounded like but considering people''s reactions to it so far it couldn''t have been good. "I''m sorry for scaring your daughter but I was actually looking for work." He was a little taken aback by my voice and seemed even more so by what I had said but after a moment a thoughtful look crossed his face. "Work? I suppose I could find something for you to do, I can''t promise you steady pay you''ll get whatever you earn but I could probably make something work. I''m gonna need you to find a better way of talking than that though, can''t have you caring my daughter, or the customers for that matter, away every time you talk to someone. Might be good for the shop, people would probably come in just to get a look at you. Why don''t you go see what you can do about that voice and come back to me tomorrow? We can work something out then." The little girl''s eyes went wide after her dad started talking and grew wider still as he continued. She was rapidly looking back and forth between the two of us like she was watching the most intense game of tennis ever played. It was hilarious, if a little dizzying, to watch.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. "That would be amazing, thank you, do you know where I might be able to find something? I had heard that there are charms or something for it but I have no idea where to go about buying one." He placed his heavy hand on his daughters head to stop it from twitching so much, probably to stop her giving herself brain damage or from making him dizzy. "There isa jeweller a few stores down, his wife''s an enchanter, I bet she could probably knock something up for you. Tell them I sent you. I''m Dave by the way." "Alex, thank you, Dave, I''ll be back tomorrow morning. Have a good day." "May Vulcan bless your work." Vulcan? Wasn''t that one of the Roman gods? They were real? That was a bit of a bombshell to just sort of drop on someone, not that he knew I didn''t know. That raises so many questions that I have no way of figuring out. It could have just been a coincidence but that seemed unlikely considering I''m pretty sure that he was the god of the forge or something along those lines and Dave was a blacksmith. I walked down a couple of shops until I found the jeweller and walked inside, I was distracted again by my thoughts and wasn''t really paying attention to what was around me until a voice entered my ears and brought me back to reality. "Hello sir, how can I help you today?" The voice was masculine but effeminate and came from a slender elf behind a glass display case on one side of the room. The room was full of such cases, filled with glittering gems and finely crafted jewellery. Rather than waiting for him to notice that I was a golem, I decided to immediately answer. "Good morning, my name is Alex. I''m an unbound golem and I was hoping that your wife would be able to make something so that I could speak a bit more casually. This mode of speaking is a little sinister, don''t you think? Dave said that she might be able to help." To his credit, the guy didn''t even twitch, whether it was because he had seen my hand and was already expecting it or because he was just very good at keeping a straight face I wasn''t sure but he immediately gave me a businesslike smile. "Of course sir, if you give me a moment I''ll go fetch her." He came back nearly twenty minutes later with a gnome. It made me incredibly uncomfortable to think that these two were married she looked like a young child, even if she as a fully grown woman. The idea of not letting race get in the way of love and my instinctual reaction towards paedophilia clashed hard and I was glad that I had complete control over my face. Customs would have to be different here and I was likely to cause quite a lot of fuss if I made a big deal out of this. She didn''t introduce herself, say hello or anything, she just threw a small gem at me which I caught out of the air. After that, she put her hands on her hips and said "Channel your mana into it to charge it up, then as long as it''s in contact with you it''ll react to your thoughts. It''ll work for you anywhere inside your domain though, you being a golem and all. Let me know if you ever want any enchantments on your body, that could be a fun project, now I''m busy, my husband will take you through the sale." then she left. That was another thing about this world, people had a tendency to just walk away when they were done with you. It was incredibly rude. Maybe my voice was just so unpleasant they didn''t want to give me the chance to speak? Who knows? The gem cost me five silver, which I paid and then I embedded it into my a mouth that I excavated for this purpose. It took about 10 mana to charge the thingand then I spoke. "Hello, world." I had expected it to be garbled and roboty for some reason and I thought it would be a funny joke, even if only I would get it but it had come out as my voice, my real voice from my old life and that realisation made me laugh with joy, which for the first time in a long while actually happened, rather than just being in my head. It made me feel so much better, that bit more human and gave me hope for the future. It was amazing what the little things can do for you. Rewrite So I know this will likely annoy a lot of people but I''m not entirely happy with how I wrote some parts of this story so far so I''m going to go back over and change them before I get too far into this story. It''s very unlikely that the main events will change in any meaningful way whilst I''m writing but I feel like some of the events would benefit from some changes and I don''t want to write more chapters until I know exactly how those events play out (sometimes things go differently to how you originally plan them to go whilst you''re writing). With my story being pretty short already I doubt it will take me long to rewrite them all (maybe a couple of weeks), I''m gonna release them as new chapters for now and leave the old ones up so people can compare and let me know if you think I''ve made anything worse instead of better. I have no doubts that I''ll lose some followers due to this but I don''t want to throw just effort at something I''m not happy with, this is a hobby at the end of the day, I don''t make anything from writing this and I want to enjoy it too A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. With that said, thank you to all of you who are supporting the story and to those of you that have left constructive criticism if you didn''t, hope you''re all doing well and that you enjoy the story!