1.22

A few minutes later, Rocky found himself sitting in the middle of the clearing, and the well still had not formed. He sat with one notification pending.

[Assign workers to Construction Project 0/40]

But Harold and Amber were both practicing their new skills. And even with his limited experience with construction, Rocky intuitively understood that assigning a spider to build a well, while perhaps hilarious for his lack of opposable thumbs, wouldn’t actually build the well.

A solution was needed, but all his citizens were busy or unavailable for the task. ‘Maybe I can assign the golems?’ It didn’t really make sense. They weren’t his citizens after all, but he tried anyway, willing for the three golems to start working on the task.

[Assign workers to Construction Project 3/40]

The golems began working immediately. That is, for all of a few seconds. They quickly realized that their arms, one shaped like a hammer and the other as a normal hand, were not ideal for the task. Though incredibly good for bashing opponents, their appendages were less suited for cutting wood into beams, or dislodging rocks to form the frame of the well. Even more problematic was the issue of digging the well itself.

‘Could it be that my golems aren’t the best for this task?’ Rocky immediately shook off the question. Rocks were the greatest material on earth, and his golems of cold iron would be no different.

He looked through his skills, the status page and skill notifications had never once failed him before. Rocky’s singular eye locked on to his twin abilities of, [Stone Manipulation] and [Summon Stone], having used the former to shape his own body, and the latter to bring out his rock golems, which had since evolved into cold iron.

If he could shape his own body, what’s to say he couldn’t shape, say, a cold iron golem?

[Original Action: You are the first of your species to perform a logical deduction, + ERROR to Intelligence]

Rocky stared at the notification for a moment. So that meant it would work, right? He got to work immediately, noting the three different tasks needed to construct the well.

First, was the need to cut down trees. For that, he made a sharp, axe-like appendage for his first golem. Second, was a need to shape it and move it. The shaping could be done by Axe, as he decided to name the first iron golem, but the carrying would be done by Hands, the second. Hands would have, shocker, two hands, and would ferry the lumber from place to place. Finally, was Pick, who had a shape resembling a pickaxe in place of its hand, which he could shape and send off to be ferried by Hands.

‘Perfection.’ Rocky looked on proudly as they got off to work. The system didn’t build things for its users, but it did seem to streamline the process, because both Rocky and the golems could see the outline of what they were building, as well as just what they needed to make it.

As the golems moved and Rocky.. supervised? Harold and Amber trained to refine their skills, and to begin hunting for the beasts that roamed the forests around their little clearing.

#####

[Break the Line]. Harold roared as he recreated his most powerful hammer blow for the umpteenth time that day.

He and Amber had been testing out their new skills, raising their proficiency through rigorous repetition. Effective, but exhausting nonetheless. Harold found that when the blow was not struck with sufficient force, the skill simply would not activate.

The next question Amber then had, was whether this was a flat strength requirement, or whether it required a certain percentage of his strength each time. To this end, he found himself sprinting around the clearing, stopping occasionally to do push-ups, tiring himself out.

At last, when his arms felt like jello and his knees felt close to snapping, he swung his hammer with all of his remaining power. [Break the Line] activated once more. Amber just nodded off to the side. “Then it requires a certain percentage of your stamina or endurance whenever you use it, regardless of how tired you are.”

Harold took the time to glare at her, panting. While he had been running laps to test his frontliner skill, Amber had had the rather tame job of testing her new [Mana Manipulation], sitting in place and meditating, trying to get a feel for how mana moved through the air and into her body.

Or at least that’s what she said. At this point, Harold felt justified in the difficulty of such a task. Compared to exhausting yourself on purpose, sitting with crossed legs seemed easy.

She got up, walking towards him. Oh God, had she listened in on his thoughts or something? Amber is the greatest, most attractive woman in the whole wide world and-

She gently used her pointer to touch his nose. “Boop.” Pausing to giggle, she looked at his lack of verbal response and kept going. “I can tell what you’re thinking sweetie. And trust me, it’s plenty hard.”

He nodded along. At least tomorrow, they would receive an equal share of the fatigue. Tomorrow, they would be hunting.

#####

He got up to the sound of Rocky’s happy whirring. Though to anyone unacquainted with the rock, it could just as easily have been his death knell. Hell, it still scared Harold sometimes.

Regardless, today was their day to hunt, and boy was Harold ready for it. They had been cooped up in this clearing for the better part of several days, and it was time to get levelling again.

For the hunt today, he had swapped out his war hammer for a spear, summoned through his use of [Gem Manifestation].

Amber had been the one to convince him of a spear’s utility over his familiar hammer. “Any small game we hunt will be a bloody mess by the time you’re done, and any larger game will be rattled by your hammer, but it might not kill. We saw that during our fight with those screamers.”

Harold had agreed, better to use the hammer against more numerous, weaker enemies, than to lack a piercing weapon against a stronger beast like the Orangutans.

They were entering the woods now, with only the Fang spiderling to support them. Rocky’s golems were not exactly stealthy either, and the combat potential did not outweigh the fact that they would be scaring away all of the food in a twenty yard radius.

The pair crept through the dense underbrush, the spiderling swinging overhead to scout forwards. They still couldn’t understand the little monster, but an unspecific warning was better than none at all.

A flock of birds lay ahead, perched atop a relatively large pine tree. Harold whispered, “can you hit them from over here?” Amber looked a bit hesitant, but starting to generate three lesser strength [Fire Lance] spells.

She let them fly, the blazing, condensed streams of fire found two of the birds. The final target, too far away and with the screams of its brethren to warn it, took flight quickly, the spell flying by without even a graze.

It was two medium sized birds that fell to the ground, feathers charred black at the point of impact. The fire on them wasn’t going out, small flames left behind by the flame lances left them singed on even the furthest points from contact. Harold couldn’t tell what species they were before, and he sure as hell wasn’t going to be able to tell now.

The three [Flame Lance] spells had certainly made their mark, but the sparks left behind by the strikes had flown in every which way. Most fizzled out, but one set the brush beside him on fire.

It was small at first, going unnoticed by all three members of the party. That is, until the smoke became so noticeable that the smell alerted Harold of the issue, and the heat began to press into the back of his leather armor.

The fire was out of hand now, blazing away at the brush, and a plume of grey smoke made its way into the sky. Quickly, Harold placed his heater shield above the fire as if it were the lid of a pot, sealing the flame and smothering it.

The fire burned itself out rather quickly, the brush no longer able to sustain its intensity, but the heat had rendered his shield unusable. Both, because the strap to hold it was burned off, and because the heat had rendered it untouchable for the next several minutes.

Amber glanced down at the steaming shield, quickly grabbing Harold’s hands. She looked ready to say something, but was interrupted by an angry snarl in the distance, carried to their ears by the wind. Only now did they both realize the full extent of the problem. Finger over her mouth, shushing him, she took cover behind one of the pine trees with her staff in hand.

With her free hand, she gestured for him to do the same, with their spiderling retreating once more to the treetops.

A large group burst onto the scene, eight in all. At a glimpse, Harold recognized one of the trademark creatures of the fantasy genre.

[Lvl 10 Kobold Spear Warrior]

...

[Lvl 13 Kobold Spear Warrior]

Grimacing, he observed the humanoid, reptilian beasts kick at the charred remains of the brush. One of them, the largest one of the lot, picked up his discarded heater shield from the ground, the strap still charred black. Unusable, by any metric. Another walked to the two burned birds the group had left behind when beating their hasty retreat. Sniffing it once, the warrior discarded the piles of burnt flesh.

Both resources had been rendered unuseful, but the Kobolds didn’t seem to care. One of the smaller ones hissed in their reptilian language. The group fanned out, scanning the surrounding area, presumably looking for the person who had dropped the shield and birds.

He glanced over at Amber. The Kobolds would be on to them soon. Drawing an imaginary line across his neck, he used his arms to gesture for an explosion. ‘[Fireball].’

She nodded, her eyes knit in concentration as a ball of heat began to accumulate at the tip of her staff. Harold hefted his spear in anticipation. Having no shield would also mean an extreme vulnerability to any kind of piercing weapon, especially with only leather armor standing between the assailant and his vital organs.

Almost… almost… now!

Amber whirled around the tree she was hiding behind, stepping into full view of the entire Kobold patrol. The reptile nearest to her immediately caught sight of the mage charging an attack, and barreled towards her, spear levelled to pierce her stomach.

The last thing the lizard saw was a flash of burning light, as the full strength [Fireball] incinerated him where he stood, leaving burns on the two Kobolds who had dared to join his charge.

Harold took the initiative, breaking cover and sprinting forward, stabbing the first injured Kobold through the neck. The blood spurting out drew his eyes, and he only just barely dodged the next spear blow from the other injured foe.

Backpedaling now, Harold found his balance and knocked the incoming spear away, and used the shaft of his own weapon to shove the Kobold back. The deflected spear made a glancing pass at his left arm anyway, leaving a small, crimson mark.

Six enemies now remained, though the sole survivor of their initial onslaught looked much worse for wear.

Harold cursed his own lack of foresight as the six Kobolds split up into two groups. Three to each subgroup. The three nearest to him advanced towards him, simultaneously levelling their spears in his direction. The remaining three, including the badly singed survivor, made their way towards Amber.

Their spiderling chose to make his appearance now, dropping down on one of the three advancing towards Amber, sinking his fangs into the reptile’s shoulder. The gap left by the sudden attack allowed Amber to make space between her and the assailants. The spiderling closely followed, scuttling after her.

The three looking to kill Harold immediately tried to flank him. He couldn’t let that go unanswered, and swung his spear in an arc, [Break the Line].

Before he had even gotten a single word out, the Kobolds were already darting backwards, apparently wary of any magic after a single fireball had downed several of their brethren. The empowered strike whisked by, unable to catch any of his three foes.

They came forward immediately, aiming to take advantage of his spear’s displacement. He backpedaled once more, but a spear nicked him in the arm. Another, in his leg. The third very nearly stabbing into his shoulder.

Harold’s spear was back in place now, but the damage was done. The Kobolds were no longer aiming at his torso. Instead, they cut and jabbed at his exposed limbs, seemingly content to see him slowly bleed his lifeblood onto the ground.

He fell over, his legs shaky from overexertion. Harold knew he looked weak now. Hell, he knew he was weak right now. So as the lizard raised his spear to end his life, he silently thanked Amber for their training.

[Break the Line]. This time, the reptiles were not ready for him, and his empowered swing cut through all three Kobolds, leaving bright red gashes in each one’s torso. It forced them to stumble back, and Harold took the time to right himself, still dazed from blood loss and the extended fight.

One of the Kobolds recovered first however, rushing him without care for skill or finesse. He sidestepped well enough, stabbing his spear into the reptile’s back as it ran past. Another simply chose to run, dropping its spear and sprinting away in a random direction. Straight into the wood, where he was obscured by a number of trees.

The third lay bleeding out on the forest floor, and one swift stab to the throat ended it for good.

Amber and the spiderling were similarly cleaning up the fight, and began heading towards him. Wordlessly, he gestured towards the trail of blood the Kobold had left while running.

They followed it slowly, careful not to step into an ambush of the reptile’s making.

The group crested a small hill, and Harold’s heart sank.

They laid their eyes on a Kobold encampment.