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 originally fell 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.

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.