“Ya’know, I almost died today. It feels so weird to say that, but every time I close my eyes, I can still see that hideous bone monster, and it terrifies me,” Claire said. She paused, lost in thought with a small sardonic grin. “I have a brother. He’s a tiny runt and a bit of an idiot, but he’s a good kid. He doesn’t deserve any of this, especially not in his condition. Right now, he’s trapped all alone in the other half of the hospital. And all I’ve been able to do is cower under the covers while his life is in danger. Pretty pathetic, isn’t it?” She took a deep breath.

“I’ll go with you. Maybe people can’t change. Maybe I’ll always be afraid, but I want to try,” Claire said.

Clover smiled. “We’ll kill some monsters and save your brother in the process, easy. Two birds with one stone.”

She nodded, then got up, leaving to practice her Skills.

“You got quite the way with words, kid,” the old man on the next bed over said.

Clover jumped a little, having forgotten the senior citizen was there. He turned to face him, then paused, trying to remember his name. Memories of their previous interaction rushed back - he had forgotten to introduce himself and had left in the middle of their conversation without saying anything. How embarrassing!

Taking the chance to fix his mistake, Clover introduced himself, and the old man responded in kind.

“Say, you’re old, right?” Clover asked.

“Yes?” Stav replied. Over his mostly gray hair, he wore a hat - the type only an old person would wear. Clover didn’t know the name of it, but it was round and ugly - vaguely French looking.

“Then that means you’ve seen a lot of things,” Clover continued, leading old Stav down the chain of questions he had prepared. This had a purpose. This was strictly necessary. Probably.

“Yes?” Stav replied, increasingly confused.

“Then that means you know a lot.”

“Yes, some days more than others.”

“So, theoretically, you’d know where to find a gun.”

Stav chuckled. “Go to Walmart; they got a whole selection over there - cheap prices too.”

It seemed luck was on his side. While on the roof, Clover had spotted a Walmart superstore not too far from the factory.

Clover excused himself and returned to his clay. Meeting two new people in one day was good progress. That vastly overshadowed the zero he had met last month. But, he didn't have time to dwell on that; he had work to do.

Clover apologized to his little sculptures, he had called them stupid, but he hadn’t really meant it. He began sculpting, more focused than before. However, after a whole hour of failure, Clover didn't regret calling them stupid all that much. He was frustrated. In the last hour, he had made two more sculptures – both had been failures.

[Sculpting] had reached level 8, but that was little consolation. Clover wanted to unlock [Golem Creation] before his trip outside the safety of the factory, and he was running out of time till sunrise.

His work was interrupted as the deathly pale child who had copied him in making sculptures shot a [Mana Bolt] towards the roof. The blue ball didn’t do any damage, but it did summon an angry Nurse Lee to his side. She reprimanded him and pointed to the sign she had created, but the child was too happy to care.

Clover smiled.

Most of the hospital patients had dedicated themselves to raising their Skill Levels in the past hour. Some followed along simply because they had seen others doing it. Humans were pack animals, after all. Others had a deeper purpose or goal behind their actions.

This wasn’t the first time in the last hour someone had unlocked [Mana Bolt] and used it where they weren’t supposed to. Eventually, the nurses had created a space with rudimentary targets in an unused section of the factory for people who wanted to test out the Skill.

A sign was posted in the center of the factory. In flowing colored bubble letters, it read: Use [Mana Bolt] only in designated practice area!!!

It was quite artistic, not the type of thing he would have expected the strict Asian nurse to make.

Clover grabbed a handful of clay and prepared for his next attempt. This time he was going to make an elephant. Before he started, he checked to see if he had gained any new Paths.

Paths:

Track (0/5), Sculpted Animal (0/5)

Currently, he had 8 Skill Points, so he could finish either one of the Paths in one go. However, Sculpted Animal seemed like it would help him increase the quality of his sculptures and thus unlock [Golem Creation]. So he put his points into that Path.

Relentless in your focus, you have gained a nascent affinity for creating animal sculptures. Provides anatomical knowledge regarding animals and passively increases the quality of animal sculptures. +3 Intelligence, +1 Strength, +1 Dexterity.

He didn’t feel any smarter, but suddenly he knew a whole lot more about animals than before - like how an elephant has only four teeth. It was a strange sensation, but he didn’t mind. Honestly, he had never considered sculpting anything other than animals.

He focused back on his task. He had an elephant to make. Now that he could reliably harden clay with the System’s help, he decided to make this sculpture larger than the rest. He grabbed a few extra balls of clay.

Under [Sculpting]’s guidance, he combined the raw material and worked it into shape. First, four stocky legs emerged from the blobby mass above it. Then he rounded out its torso into a more realistic design. The elephant’s midsection turned out kind of fat and pudgy looking, but that was okay – it gave him personality!

As he was working on its head, the lower section of its stomach sank down towards the floor under its own weight. He used one hand to move it back into place and pack it down more firmly while the other finished forming the trunk.

There were a few more occasions where the elephant almost fell apart, but, he was able to catch them early and repair the damage before anything terrible happened. Clover suspected [Sculpting] played some part in fighting gravity’s effect on his creation while he worked. It definitely looked like it should have collapsed under its own weight.

He added the finishing touches to his creation – a few wrinkles on its legs for added realism, then used [Hardening] to cement its design into place. He let the Skill do its work, not daring to interfere lest he ruin the sculpture, like last time.

A ghostly white fog haphazardly poked out of the elephant. After a few seconds, the hardening process finished.

Congratulations! Sculpting has reached Level 9.

Congratulations! Sculpting has reached Level 10.

Congratulations! Hardening has reached Level 3.

He checked the Class Skill Quest and was met with disappointment. High-quality raw material, magic enhancing its durability to supernatural levels, and good craftsmanship - all that, and he still couldn’t make the jump to Uncommon.

He poked the elephant’s tusks, trying to pry the secrets of [Sculpting] out of its lifeless body. “Come on Bob; why are you only Common? What did I do wrong? You’re like 4.2 times better than all my other creations,” Clover said. He wasn’t sure where the name had come from, but the elephant certainly looked like a Bob.

Bob the Elephant did not respond, but a blue box did pop up.

Class Skill Quest Complete:

-5/5 Common Quality Sculptures

-1/1 Uncommon Quality Sculptures

Golem Creation Lvl 0 (Uncommon) - 25 MP

Create and control a maximum of 0/1 Small Golems within a range of 10m.

Clover blinked incredulously; naming the sculpture was all it took? That was bullshit. Giving the sculpture a name didn’t change anything about it. It still looked the same, and it still felt the same.

He moved past his complaints at the prospect of trying out his new magic.

[Sculpting] was not deleted in the evolution process, so he didn’t have much to complain about in the first place. He was coming to like the Skill plus – the hardening Sub-Skill seemed like it would complement Golem Creation quite well.

He grabbed one of his small palm-sized cat sculptures and made a few quick alterations to it. If his golems were to be useful, they would have to be able to do damage. He formed sharp claws at the bottom of the cat’s paws and gave it a cartoonish open mouth full of teeth.

He placed the new and improved sculpture on the floor. Without much fanfare, he activated [Golem Creation], careful to pay attention to what the System was doing. For a fraction of a second, the sound of a mountain rumbling on the edge of collapse rang in his ears. Then the sound disappeared as unbidden images of a simple cat flashed through his subconscious - or somewhere else. He wasn’t quite sure where.

If he didn’t pay careful attention, the images would slip from his perception. Even when he paid attention, they sometimes disappeared. A white light tinted by an earthen brown emanated from the center of the sculpture. After ten seconds, the lights faded, and the images snapped away.

Congratulations! Golem Creation has reached Level 1.

Congratulations! Golem Creation has reached Level 2.

The cat looked the same as before, except when he touched it, he found that the clay had hardened significantly. If he had to guess, he’d say the change was a bit more than when he had used [Hardening].

Which was surprising, but on the other hand, he should have expected it. [Golem Creation] evolved out of [Sculpting], so it made sense that a Sub-Skill – like [Hardening], could have affected that evolution.

Additionally, he felt a new sensation in the back of his mind, kind of like he had a third arm. No, that was inaccurate. If he closed his eyes, he could practically see a pale blue structure stretching out into the darkness, connecting him to something. It was more like a tether or a crossroads. Mentally, he reached out and poked it; the cat golem twitched.

In that strange place, he grasped the tether. Suddenly, it felt like he was in two places at once. Disorientated, he brought a hand to his forehead. The golem copied his movement, moving its paw in a way that should be impossible for a lump of clay.

“So cool,” he whispered under his breath as his eyes practically sparkled in excitement.

He played around, testing his creation’s abilities. Eventually, he discovered that he could separate his movements from the golems. It was a difficult process, but he was quickly growing used to it.

He made the golem run circles around his wheelchair. His direct control was clumsy at best, but he found that he could give simple mental commands to the golem. “Achieve world domination within the hour” didn’t work, but “run circles around my chair” did. When following an order, its movements smoothed out into something more natural. It still didn’t move like a normal animal, but Mr. Cat was made out of clay, so he could look the other way.

In his testing, he also discovered that the cat could jump a solid two feet into the air, which was quite a lot considering its small size. After running approximately 23 circles around his chair, he concluded that Mr. Cat wasn’t very fast; he ran a bit faster than a normal adult human’s walking speed. His little legs worked their hardest, but it wasn’t enough to make up for his size. Really, his specialty was pouncing. He could move pretty fast when leaping from place to place.

With [Golem Creation] at Level 2, its range had increased to 20m, and he could make another small golem. Clover had quite a bit of Mana left, so he felt it would be worthwhile. It never hurt to have a backup.

“Bob, it’s your time to shine.” With a mental command, Mr. Cat hopped onto his shoulder to watch, and Clover placed the big sculpture on the floor. The cat’s sharp claws uncomfortably dug into his shoulder.

He had paid close attention last time while the System guided the Skill, and he felt he was close to figuring out what the System had done. First, the System had painted a story with a series of images, then somehow, using the mental tether, it shoved that story into the sculpture, breathing it to life. Is that what the System did? The back of his neck tingled. He wasn't sure, but it sounded right.

He could just let the System handle the use of his Skills, but something told him that was a highly inefficient way of doing things. He wasn’t sure why, but he felt that way quite strongly. Besides, it wasn't like he would be doing all the heavy lifting himself. The System still assisted, even when he took a more direct role.

With his mind made up, he activated [Golem Creation]. He closed his eyes and watched as a pale blue crossroads formed in the darkness, right next to the one connecting him to the cat-golem.

Copying what the System had done, inside the pale blue connection, he imagined a mighty protector capable of shaking off any attack. He had a bit of practice sending his thoughts down the tether, so he was able to do it without too much difficulty. It was very similar to what he did to make his golems move. He added a few ancillary details to the scene - a colorful sunset, some trees, and tall grass.

The image snapped into place, and to him, it became real. He could see it clear as day as if he was standing there. Within that mental crossroads, he could even feel the setting sun on his shoulders. It felt nice.

Everything lurched as the scene moved down the tether, towards the sculpture. A force pressed against his mind, and tendrils of ice began to creep into the image. Wherever the ice went, it corrupted and distorted - a tree shattered into tiny snowflake-sized pieces.

Clover began to panic as a lance of cold pain crept down his back. Quickly, he marshaled his will against the approaching corruption. Like a high-stakes game of whack-a-mole, Clover blasted away the ice. Here, in this image, he was in control - allowing him to combat the cold in ways he never could in real life.

However, the frost was never-ending - more of it came with every second. Clover pushed against the ever-approaching frost as hard as he could, reaching a sort of stalemate. Which, ultimately, was a winning situation for him. The image was still slowly moving down the link, towards the golem.

A painful series of coughs ripped through his lungs, distracting him. He blinked, finding himself back in the factory - the elephant and the savannah surrounding it gone. A lance of cold icelike pain stabbed into his chest.

This wasn’t good. He took a deep breath and tried to regain his focus; a chill spread across his chest. Clover clenched his fist; this amount of pain was nothing compared to what he had to go through every day.

Clover closed his eyes and returned to the pale blue crossroad, jumping back into the scene.

Ice had descended, blotting out the sun and sapping color from the grass. More surprisingly, the elephant the image had centered itself around trumpeted a mighty call as it rampaged through the savannah, crushing every speck of ice it found.

What the hell is going on? With no other choice, he continued fighting back the tendrils of corruption. With the elephant's help, he managed to restore the environment to its previous pristine state. The image reached the end of its journey, slowly seeping into the sculpture.

Before it completely disappeared, the elephant swung its trunk in a mimicry of a goodbye wave.

Without much fanfare, the Skill ended, and he once again found himself back in the factory. A new connection solidified in Clover’s mind. He stared at Bob the Elephant - its eyes were blank, lacking the spark of intelligence it had possessed while in his image.

Congratulations! Golem Creation has reached Level 3.

Congratulations! Golem Creation has reached Level 4.

Congratulations! Golem Creation has reached Level 5.