Chapter 3: Fully Operational
We continued down the hallway for what seemed like hours. Every now and again a [Sentry Golem] would appear and attack. Kleid easily swept them away with his martial skills. For someone who looks fresh out of High School, his physical prowess was admirable. Tessa told me when they went through before, there were much more monsters on the prowl. If that was the case, where were the corpses? Asking that, she told me the dungeon "absorbed" them. Some sort of recycling process since places like these were training grounds. Dead bodies go in, fresh combatants go out. I make a mental note to ask more at a later time. Such a strange place.
After traversing a few more floors, we finally reached the outside. A verdant green forest spread out around me as we left the sunken entrance of the dungeon. It was something out of a fairy tale. A dirt road leading from the mouth of the entrance extended outside to what I would assume would be the main road.
"We'll keep going down this dirt path until we reach the highway. Afterwards we'll make camp for the day. Haldin is a half a days walk and we're already short on sunlight for this one."
Hina walked up to me after she spoke to the party.
"We'll talk a bit more at camp. It'll be a good idea to discuss your future plans before we head into town."
She had a soothing smile on her face but I could hear a tinge of worry coming from her voice. I was the giant mechanical elephant in the room right now and what I do next will definitely be critical. For all it's worth, even I don't know. I might was well be stuck in a foreign country. At the very least, I could understand their speech.
The strange thing is, they're not speaking a language I'm familiar with. But it's like I can understand their... intent? Like information is being received and put into words I can understand as though there's a translator in my head. It might well be an effect of being a golem.
Adjusting to this new body was unwieldy at first but slowly I've been getting a hang of it. My sense of touch is gone so I don't know whether, for example, I'm gripping something too hard. Luckily I don't have to consume liquids so cups will be spared my crushing wrath. The strange thing is I can still breathe. I'm pretty sure I don't need oxygen and, for better or worse, I don't seem to smell anything either. Maybe it's some sort of air cooling? Do I have heat sinks in my chest? Giving my chest a light knock, I definitely feel something large clunking around in there. My sight is the third most notable change. It wasn't like seeing while I was alive. It's like I'm wearing a headset over my eyes but what I see looks like some store CCTV footage on a CRT screen. How vintage this is. I remember an old 80's film about an assassin robot from the future who had sight like this. Don't think catchy one liners are going to be in my future though. Not to mention my speech sounded like it was coming out of a speaker. At the very least it sounded like me, even if it did sound grainy and lo-fi. I wonder how they could understand me though? Is what I'm saying translated as well?
The sun had started to set by the time we reached the highway. If you could call it that. It was just a bigger dirt road. The same size you'd find in any farming town back home. We all walked off it and away from the main road. A small hill gave us cover from any walking onlookers and a stream at the other side for water. While they set up camp, I took the time to peek out from the top of the grassy mound, careful not to give myself away. It was quite busy for a road so rustic. Every other minute or two a group of people or a horse drawn carriage would pass by. No cars? Did I step back into the 1800's? Everyone sure is dressed that way. Every once in a while I'd spot a strange figure or two walking along in the groups. They looked like short humans in heavy armor like Kleid or on their carriages hauling what looks like cargo. Even more suspicious were the ones with long ears. Elves? Dwarves? This really seemed like some magical fantasy land. But those elves weren't dressed like "Elves". Not like in those old fantasy books I read as a kid. The way the females dressed made me wish I had a zoom feature on my sight.
I sighed and went back to the fully formed campsite, muttering about my stupid robot body under my breath. This was going to be more problematic than I thought.
The sun was already over the horizon as I sat down next to what was the unlit campfire. Tessa was hovering over it with her staff in hand. Hmm, what is she...?
She pointed her staff down towards the kindling, muttered something unintelligible. A glowing circle appeared from the stave's tip when at last she said "[Ignite]!" A small burst of flame appeared from the kindling and then died down into a respectable fire. I jumped back in shock, crawling away on my metallic ass a good few feet. What the hell did I just see!? Everyone turned their heads towards me.
"What the hell? What the hell was that!?"
"Huh? It's just a basic fire incantation. Why did you freak out like that?"
Tessa's stare was boring into me like I was crazy.
"What!? Magic does... n't... exist..." I, the man in the robot body said. I just realized how much my own statement sounded ridiculous.
"I think you realize what you were trying to utter was nonsense."
Hina was already sitting across the bonfire, nursing a cup of tea in her hand looking matter-of-factly.
"Master, do you think he doesn't know about magic?"
"He might not. But an ancient spirit like him should be familiar with it. This is starting to sound suspicious."
I spoke up, "I didn't know magic existed when I was alive. This is some fantasy novel shit."
"What did you use if you didn't have magic, then?"
Tessa had a curious look on her.
"A lighter? Guns?"
"Is that a spell?"
"Tools... I don't think we're going to get anywhere with this."
I hung my head low. Trying to look dejected, I walked away towards the stream. Everyone else just looked at each other as they went about their business. Jude stood watch while Kleid was polishing that sword of his with a sleazy look on his face. Does that guy have a thing for weapons? Tessa just sat down by the fire away from Hina, looking at me with worry.
I inched closer to the water, taking a good look at my reflection in the twilight. What was my head was just a metallic brown cube covered in patches of thick dirt. Several tiny red lights dotted the front which is what I assume are my eyes. The only defining feature was another small cube shaped piece at the bottom of my head. Is it suppose to be a chin? I really am some kind of machine. What was it they called me, a golem? I cupped some water from the stream and washed my face. Even in this body, I still feel the need to take a shower. Do they care if I just bathe in the stream? It's not like I got any junk to show off.
It was then that I noticed a presence behind me. Turning around I saw Tessa. She looked as depressed as I wanted to. She just had the face to do it.
"Are you alright, Arlan? I'm sorry if I scared you."
She was really being sincere about this. Hanging around some roughshod people when I was alive numbed me a bit at genuine sincerity.
"Don't worry about it. I was just a bit shook up. I am feeling better though. It's a bit sad to see a depressed golem right?"
She gave an honest laugh. All of a sudden, silence fell between us. I was pretty shit at small talk and I was still trying to get a feel for the people here.
"Hey, Arlan. Do you wanna learn magic?"
"I can? Aren't I a golem?"
"There are golems that can cast spells. I don't see why you can't. It might come easier for you since you're really a human. Besides, you might not be so afraid of it anymore if you figure out how it works."
"So you're still teasing me about that huh? Well, fine. Let's go, teach. I'll show you what's up."
We both walked back to the campfire where everyone was waiting.
"Yo, Arlan! You're going to dip your toes in magic huh?"
Jude was sitting next to Hina. He was taking a break from watch while Klein took his shift. He was still polishing his sword though with that weird expression on his face. Shouldn't he be paying more attention? The etiquette of guard duty has been drilled into my mind and his lack of discipline was triggering my OCD. One of the curses of being a trained soldier, I guess.
"Do you know how to do it Jude?"
"Nah, never had the knack for it. One of the reasons my chosen [Class] is a [Thief]. I prefer subterfuge."
"Yeah, you do have the degenerate look down at least."
Jude crossed his arms and gave me a nasty look. He knew I was just teasing him though. Hina kept nursing her tea, preferring not to say anything at that comment, as if she thought the same.
"Tessa, this'll be practice for you as well. You'll be a master with an apprentice someday. Think of this as a taste of the future. Hopefully Arlan will stick to his lessons better than you did."
"M-Master, I'm a lot more serious about studying than before. I was just a kid then!"
"Go ahead and start the lesson." Hina was not giving her an inch, huh? What a relentless woman.
We both sat down cross legged, facing each other.
"Before anything we need to practice your [Mana Control]"
She explained that to use magic I needed to learn to draw in the surrounding Mana into myself. Draw too little and the spell wont work or be extremely weak, too much and the spell might go out of control, injuring your party or yourself. I thought that means as long as you can draw in mana, you could keep casting but just like working your muscles you start to get exhausted as you keep drawing in mana. It seems like practicing your spells every day allows you to keep casting for much longer. It seemed just like regular strength training to me.
"Now I want you to focus in on your heart. Try to feel your surroundings. We're surrounded in mana. Take it in just like breathing."
I watched her close her eyes as a slight glow emanated from her bosom. Her light frame was alight with what seemed like the mana she was describing.
"This is the first step before using magic. If you can't do this, you won't be able to do anything."
Alright, I'll give it a try. Just focus on my chest and draw in mana into myself. Just like breathing. She told me to draw it into my heart, though. Do I have a heart? It was the last thing I noticed. I didn't realize how much I missed that gentle beating in my chest. That feeling of being "alive". I'm starting to doubt if this would properly translate to something like myself.
It was then that I felt something. Whirls and beeps were escaping from my chest. A faint hum, like a computer booting up. A dull light oozed from my center and slowly made its way to every extremity. Suddenly the light inside of me bursts out like an explosion. It was Tessa's turn to scoot away on her ass in fear as everyone else stood up aghast from the scene. Even Kleid looked up from his diligent maintenance to stare at me with a dumb look on his face.
Finally it died down. That's when I noticed it. The thump thump thump coming from my chest. Is this... my heart?
[System start up process complete. All core processes are now online.]
A weird voice sounded off in my head.
"Wha? What is this!?"
[This Unit is now fully operational.]
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone