Chapter 16: Sculpting
Rastel was both amazed and terrified. The hulking golem stood above 2 meters tall and radiated a terrifying aura as it bellowed at him.
ROAR!!!!
It abruptly charged with an amazing speed that if it were not for Rastel's high mentality, he wouldn't have been able to barely see the blur it became.
BANG!!!
It crashed into an invisible barrier as it reached the entrance. The golem was just a few centimeters in front of him but could not touch him. He stood and gazed in awe at the golem as it stared back at him. Gentle steam was continuously emitted from its mouth as it became weirdly calm then it suddenly went to the back of the cave and sat down while staring at Rastel.
"Wow, that was...intense" Rastel finally released the breath he just realized he was holding. The golem was basically oozing with raw power. He had no idea how to go with this.
"I…... I am fucked aren't I?" he thought solemnly
He had barely 10 days and he still didn't know if he would be capable of building something to rival the seemingly flawless creation. He immediately sat down in the cave and started reading the small book. It contained some introduction by the old man about what sculpting was all about.
..... sculpting is an art form portraying control and perfection. The world is your canvass, there is nothing you cannot bend to your will and control to create the perfect image your heart desires...
The man's views were a bit radical but were immensely deep. He showed deep arrogance towards everything and according to him, sought to re-create the whole world in his image. He basically wanted to be a God!
Reading further into the book were some basics about materials and how to carve out basic shapes and create precise incisions. Rastel immersed himself for hours in that section of the book. He took out the beautiful knife and tried cutting into the cave walls.
The knife easily cut through it with little strength and he cut out sizable chunks thereby disfiguring the cave. Upon closer inspection of the cave rock. He noticed it wasn't actually stone but a very hard metal like material
"Is this the material he used to create the golems?" He gazed at it in trepidation.
It felt incredibly solid even though he was able to casually cut through it with the knife. He used the material to practice creating different shapes with varying sizes trying his best to hone his skill
After a while of trial testing, he gained a skill.
DING!
NEW SKILL ACQUIRED! – SCULPTING
Finally! This was what he was waiting for. With the skill, he would be able to gauge his improvement. Now armed with the skill and basic knowledge for sculpting, he continued reading the book.
All sense of fatigue left his body as he found himself getting increasingly excited with the art of creating golems. The different techniques and possibilities were endless.
The book talked about golems that were modeled after animals, demons, dwarves, humans, basically anything you could imagine. The book even vaguely explained sentient golems. Sentient golems! That was basically creating life!
He took a glance at the golem in the other cave calmly staring at him and wondered if it was sentient. It did seem to have a bit of awareness but Rastel wasn't sure if it was commanded to wait or if it was actually sentient.
He spent the entire day familiarizing himself with the different methods and ways. He learned about golem cores and finally knew what they were for. Golem cores were basically a golem's soul. An independent golem would need a core to operate and feed it mana without external interference. Rastel basically had 6 powerful golem cores at his disposal, if he made it away from here in one piece that is.
The book didn't say how to use them exactly in a golem though. The golem Rastel would create had to be manually controlled by him.
After finishing the book, he got a notification alert from the system.
DING!
NEW SKILL ACQUIRED! – BASIC GOLEM
"Finally!" he was relieved.
He opened up the menu to check on the skill's details.
BASIC GOLEM
GIVE LIFE TO ANY RECOGNISED SIMPLE CONSTRUCT CREATED BY YOU. IF THE CONSTRUCT IS TOO COMPLEX, SKILL WILL AUTOMATICALLY FAIL. REQUIRES A BLOOD LINK
He finally got the skill after all that time. He was tired so he checked the real-world time through his menu and found out it was nearly 7'oclock and decide to log out. He had about 3 days in real-life time to complete the mission.
He had to continue living his life and do a bit of research on that side to help him out. But first, he had to go downstairs and get his dinner.
Dinner was a nice affair. He sat down at the table with his mom and Hina as they talked about casual stuff.
"How's the game like?" Hina asked him excitedly.
"You can take a shit if you want"
"So realistic!?"
"Oh, and I got stabbed"
"Did it hurt?" she asked with wide eyes
"Not as much as I thought but yeah"
"I know the game is nice and all but I don't want to see you on it all the time, if your grades drop in school I'll take it from you" his mom said with a stern look.
"No problem mom" he replied with a wry smile.
"Mom I want one too!" Hina pleaded
"No" she replied with a poker face
"Please mom let her play, it will be worth the experience"
"I won't slack off in school, my grades are even better than Reo's"
"Hey!"
His mom sighed as she looked at them.
"Okay, I'll get you one. But till after the end of the school year"
"Thanks mom!" Hina smiled sweetly.
After dinner, Reo went back up to his room and called Natsu and told him all that happened including the dungeon.
"Damn bro, a unique class? You're not joking, are you?"
"I'm serious, I really want this to work out. Do you know anything about golems?"
"I've fought one before. Mad defense, mad strength. But I know nothing about making them."
"I want to check the forums later on and see what comes up."
"Sure, but now that I think about it. There is a guild that has a mage that dabbles in golem making." Natsu said thoughtfully
"Which guild is that?" Reo said excitedly. If he could find some information about how golems were created his progress would be much better.
"Look up Arch-dames"
"Arch-dames?" he was confused
"Yeah, It's a babe's exclusive group. They're super strong though. The guild ranks among the top 100 and has two people in the player rankings. Their group leader ranks among the top 100 and the second person ranks among the top 200." Natsu explained
"That is actually very impressive" Reo was impressed.
The guild rankings rank out the top 100 guilds in the game. In a game filled with literally billions of players and over a million guilds, ranking in the top hundred means you have to be among the cream of the crop, the one percent of the one percent.
And as for the player rankings, it listed out the top 200 people in the game, anybody on this list is a top-tier player far above the normal people in either skill or level.
"Actually, the golem maker you're looking for is the one on the rankings. Rank 178, Armanda aka Golem witch. She is a powerful mage even without her golems. She is rumored to have the power to wipe out an army if she is well prepared. That's from fan theories though, she hasn't done such a thing before."
'People are that strong already?' Reo thought in shame. He couldn't even handle 4 guys without getting beat up.
"I'll check her out then and watch videos of her gameplays. Maybe I'll catch something useful."
"Sure, make sure to tell me if you get the mission done. If you don't die that is" Natsu laughed
"Fuck you" Reo cursed as he switched off the call.
He went on his laptop and checked out any golem related lore in the game and also videos of Armanda, the golem witch. He saw a PVP match between her and another mage in a large circular arena and decided to watch it.
Weekly Power Status
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