Energy and pixels spiraled around a shard of obsidian stuck into the ground, fallen from the sky. The light show dissipated. Enoch materialized.

The standard prompt popped up, “In accordance to standard league rules, pain receptors have been set at 5%. Time dilatation set at X144.”

The next prompt surprised him, “Chose your bonded artifact.” That’s right, the new feature.

Three items popped out of thin air right in front of Enoch.

Ring of domination | Bonded Artifact | Rarity 4

Charisma 2 | Starts with the Spell Dominate.

Attributes | Willpower 1 | Charisma 1

Personality | Dominant

Hum. Enoch had never liked pets, especially permanent ones. Too slow to keep up with him. No point in dominating a monster and then leaving it behind. Wasted effort. Charisma was his most common dump stats, the +2 wouldn’t matter much. At best, it would save him a fraction of money on trades. Plus, he wasn’t keen on the artifact’s dominant personality. Hard pass.

The new items had their own personality. Not good. He played solo to focus on the game, not interested by relationship drama. This new feature had the potential to be mighty annoying.

Power Halo | Bonded Artifact | Rarity 3

Willpower 3 | Fights alongside its owner.

Attributes | Agility 1 | Willpower 1

Personality | Arrogant

It looked like a saint’s halo. Bright yellow. This one seemed good. Simple enough, it would presumably hover behind his head. Could probably keep up with him.

Specialized for combat, it could help him with the power creep caused by these new items. The more he thought about it, the less he liked the feature. Did his taste matter? Could he do something about it? No? No point in wallowing then.

Golem Core | Bonded Artifact | Rarity 2

Natural crafter | Summons golems.

Attributes | Intellect 1 | Crafts 1

Personality | Jolly

A ball within a ball. Slits into the outer shell revealed the inner core, spinning, crackling with purple mana. Interesting.

Enoch’s build had its advantages, but it lacked versatility. This artifact could Craft. It would open a multitude of options usually out of his reach.

How would the golems come into play? The item’s status didn’t mention anything. Hopefully they’d be summons. A permanent pet would slow him down. The core itself was tiny, it would easily fit into his inventory if it couldn’t keep up.

He wished he had more information on the whole system. Had to admit it was the whole point. They often threw major update right before a final to inject chaos. It rewarded innovative players, punished copycat optimizers, and made for a great show.

Enoch could adapt easily, but there was a lot of luck in this system. Some players would start with a high rarity artifact. Out of his ninety-nine opponents, some were sure to end up with an overpowered item with Rarity 9 or 10.

No point in wasting any more time on this. His mind already set. He wanted some of that sweet crafting. Too bad about the “Jolly” personality. Why couldn’t it be “Polite” or “Silent”. Oh well, he would find a better fit eventually. Why worry, this was only the Continental Final after all.

He selected the Golem Core. The two other choices dissipated in a mist of pixels. Shifting lines and blurry visual took Enoch to the artifact’s tiny sphere, the horizon so close it triggered his vertigo. Used to the feeling, he shrugged it off.

A moon of polished metal and purple light. Great visuals, as expected. A prompt appeared.

Name |

Enoch hesitated. If he liked the item, it would follow him from one game to the other. He needed a good one. Azazel fit with his own nick. He had a hard time picturing a jolly golem core with a fallen angel’s name.

Arch might work. It made a play on Archmage and Archangel. Arch Golem Core. Neat.

The chat came alive after the usual delay. He took a peek. His viewers had their own idea.

“Choo Choo.”

“Choo Choo.” | Tip 10$

“Choo Choo Ogre Train.”

“The commentator is right. Choo Choo is a perfect fit.”

“Choo Choo or I unsubscribe.”

Enoch came back to the name selection. Hesitated.

“He saw our suggestion. He has to take it now.”

“Choo Choo!”

The chat had its own way. He couldn’t ignore it now.

“Look at him, he’s so mad.” Tip | 0.69$

Enoch sighed and concentrated. The letters appeared.

Name | Choo Choo

The core came alive. Flew around him, shouting his name. “Choo Choo! Choo Choo!”

Enoch slapped his hand on his face, slowly dragged it down. The fragged thing had picked up the meaning of his name instantly. Too clever by half.

“Greeting Master Meat. At your service.”

“Enoch please. Nice to meet you.”

“Meeting Master Meat. An honor.”

The jolly ball put an emphasis on his atrocious pun by zapping Enoch in the flank with a spark. Leaking slag, that’s exactly why he played solo. He took a deep breath. No point in arguing with an AI, especially one described as “Jolly”.

He peeked at the options while the chat caught up to the “Meat Master” disaster. Walls upon walls of acronyms and rioting emojis. At least they were entertained.

The sheer volume of comments made him smile. Tips rained down. The annoying core might do wonder for his rating if they survived long enough.

Enoch ignored the chat and the buzzing core. He concentrated on his next task, adrift in deep space, gravity barely holding him down on the artifact’s tiny Skill Sphere. Two points to spend instead of six. It made sense balance wise. The items shouldn’t overshadow the players.

The first node on the Intellect path was already unlocked. It forked to more Intellect and a specialized attribute named Crafts. The first node in Crafts had also been unlocked, hence Choo Choo’s starting attributes.

Enoch wanted to select Luck, but he couldn’t afford it with only two points. He spent one point to go further on the Crafts path.

Intellect 1 | Attribute | Rarity 1

Multiplier 2 | Mana +10 | Reroll 2%

Crafts 2 | Attribute | Rarity 2

Crafts basic items up to Rarity 2 | Can design 2 Blueprints per day | 20% chance to learn a blueprint after each use.

The path, neon purple, branched to three nodes, one empty and two Spells. He’d have to spend a point on the empty node to progress further on the Craft path. No way he’d waste his second point. He needed something useful right away. He looked at the two spells.

Animate Object 1 | Spell | Rarity 4

Invests an object with the caster’s mana. The object flies around on its own and follows mental commands.

Duration 30 minutes | Refresh 1 minute

Cost 20 Mana | Capacity 10 pounds x1

Summon Drone Golem 1 | Spell | Rarity 1

Summons a Drone Golem | Health 80 | Mana 100 | Damage 1 | Crafts 3 | +2 Crafts on assist

Duration 1 hour | Refresh 5 minutes

Cost 40 Mana | Capacity 30 pounds

Good. Golem had a specific duration. Which meant a temporary pet. He could use it with out worries. He could simply leave the summon behind if he had to bolt.

Not sure if he wanted to invest in a Drone, Choo Choo already had Craft. Animated Object, on the other hand, seemed like a ton of fun. Couldn’t go wrong with a knife missile. He selected the node, confirmed and “pouf,” back to the main game.