Harpies. A humanoid female race, with clawed bird feet and wings for arms. A certain subrace, vulture harpies. Vulture harpies have the addition of a wrinkly red head.

It was these vulture harpies that Zelhaut saw. The red wrinkly bastards had found his diamond pit.

Zelhaut was once again laid flat against a dune looking over the edge. There were four vulture harpies, all crowded around the pit, looking into it. One of the harpies backed away and began to flap her wings and lift into the air.

“Split up. Krindle, go deal with the flyer, here’s a spear. The rest of us will deal with the remaining three on the ground.”

“I don’t need a spear.”

Zelhaut turned his head to look at Krindle.

“What do you mean you don't need a spear? How else are you gonna reach her?”

Krindle held up his hand, and Zelhaut watched as a spear formed from thin air.

“What the fuck? How’d you do that?”

“I am a dungeon core after all. I created it out of mana.”

Zelhaut looked at Krindle with shock.

“Why didn't you do that before?!”

“Well, I lost many of my abilities once I transferred over, one of which was creating loot. But since my increase in strength, I have gained some abilities back. Also, in case you’re wondering, no I can not supply everyone with weapons. The weapons dissipate after a while if I’m not touching them.”

“Well, isn't that something. Anyways, get going before you lose sight of that harpy fuck.”

Krindle's metal body lengthened as if it was made of a liquid. Then the dungeon core slithered quickly across the sand like a snake.

“Unholy shit, that is cool. You know what, Raldo, you are such a disappointment compared to Krindle.”

The only other sentient being in a golem body, Raldo, turned to face him.

‘You know, I also have feelings.’

“You are a mass-murdering spirit, stop being such a pussy cat.”

‘Meow?’

“Oh, fuck off. Let’s go.”

Zelhaut rose to his feet and charged. The rest of his golems charged with him, kicking up a cloud of dust.

One of the harpies yelled in an angry squawky voice.

“Intruders!”

The three harpies began to flap their wings.

Zelhaut threw the spear in his hand. The spear flew true, striking one of the bird-women in the wing, effectively grounding it. Six other spears flew, thrown by his golems. Unfortunately, his golems are shit at throwing spears. Five spears missed completely, with only one of them hitting a harpy in the chest. A chest that was protected by bronze-colored plate armor. All the spear did was make the harpy stumble back a bit before she righted herself and took off into the air.

“Your all shit! What am I even insulting you for, you're not even cognizant!”

Zelhaut brought out his main weapon, his glaive, and hurried toward the grounded harpy. The harpy meanwhile pulled out the spear and brought her own weapon to bear. A crossbow. But a very strange crossbow that had four limbs on all four sides of the square shaft.

He raised his glaive in preparation for the bolt.

The crossbow fired. Zelhaut focused on the bolt headed his way. He raised the flat side of his glaive and blocked the crossbow bolt that was headed straight for his face. As his view was blocked, he felt a bolt pierce his leg.

Zelhaut moved the Glaive in time to see another bolt headed his way, this time headed for his face again. Instead of blocking, he chose to dodge this time. His head jerked to one side, and this time he got to see the next bolt fired right after the one he just dodged.

Jumping to the left and rolling across the sand to dodge the bolt, he looked up at the harpy. She had her foot at the end of the crossbow and was frantically reloading new bolts into it. Bolts, plural.

Seeing a shadow pass over his head, he jumped and rolled again. Behind him, four more bolts struck the sand where he just was.

“Tch. I need more spears.”

He ran to fetch one of the spears stuck in the sand thrown by his golems. All the while he had to occasionally jump and roll around. Unfortunately, even with the jumping and rolling, he still got hit.

When he finally got to one of the spears, he looked like a pincushion. In his mind, he thanked his past self for investing so many stat points into endurance. Plus, the Blight affinity just made his body naturally stronger and more resistant.

While his golems mobbed the downed harpy, Zelhaut took aim and threw his spear into the sky. The spear flew up and struck one of the harpies in the wing, sending her plummeting to the ground. The harpy hit the ground with a wet thud and a plume of dust. Zelhaut picked up another nearby spear and threw it at the one remaining harpy in the sky. She dodged to the right and fired her crossbow at him.

Zelhaut rolled over to the next spear but forgot that he looked like a pincushion. As his back landed on the ground, all of the crossbow bolts were driven into him further under his own weight.

“Fuck.”

Zelhaut completed the roll, now gasping from the pain. He picked up a spear and threw it, the crossbow bolts grinding against his bones at the violent movement.

The spear speared the harpy through the neck, instantly killing her. The last harpy fell to the ground, then there was silence. Silent except for Zelhauts own breathing, becoming increasingly strained.

“Hack!”

He coughed and black blood hit the sand. The blood quickly dried and clumped together into mushy rings.

His golems ran towards him and began to pull out the Crossbow bolts. The first one slid out carrying a healthy helping of his own flesh on the tip.

The crossbow bolts were barbed, ensuring that the following minutes were as painful as possible.

When it was all said and done, his body was riddled with bloody holes. Bloody bleeding holes. It was a good thing he had thought ahead and got one of the golems to make a fire.

Zelhaut crawled into the fire, letting the open flame cauterize his wounds. Once he was sure all the wounds were cauterized nicely, he crawled back out and lay on the ground. He struggled to breathe as his one lung slowly repaired itself.

Krindle slithered next to him, then proceeded to change back into his previous violent spiked form.

“Did you, hmg, get her?”

“Yes. What's wrong with your breathing?”

“Hmg, lung.”

Krindle nodded his head and then stopped moving, just standing there.

{You are correct. I never tire.}

A smile split Krindle’s face.

{Indeed I am.}

Zelhaut lay on the ground, continuing to heal. But just because he wasn't moving, didn’t mean the golems had to do the same. He directed the golems over to the pit to begin construction.

First, six thick posts were hammered into the ground, three on either side of the hole connecting together to form two half pyramids. On top of these two half pyramids, a metal circle was attached. Through these metal circles, a thick log was inserted. On the end of the log, a crank was attached.

Then began the platform construction. A simple flat platform was partially constructed, but not fully because then it wouldn't fit through the hole. The platform was divided into three pieces that when put together would make a large circle.

A hole was drilled through the large log and the thick rope was wound through and then tied tight in a knot.

Off of the main rope, four shorter lengths of rope were tied to the end.

The two ends of the circular platform were tied to these pieces of rope, two tied to each piece. The pieces of the platform were slowly lowered into the hole using the crank on the log to unwind the length of rope wrapped around it.

Once the two pieces were below the edge of the hole, four golems shimmied their way down the rope. Then the middle piece of the circle was lowered by other golems down to the four in the hole. These four golems attached the middle piece of the platform.

And there it was, a crank elevator with a platform that would reach the sides of the cylindrical diamond pit. Zelhaut likened the design to a wishing well.

“Well, get to mining I guess.”

The golems quickly got to work and soon the ringing of pickaxes hitting stones could be heard. Two golems working the crank brought the elevator up and down, unloading diamonds each time. The shiny gems hit the sand and Zelhaut could see the money rolling in.

“We are going to be so rich.”

“About that, why don't you use the diamonds to create golems?”

Zelhaut turned his head to look at Krindle.

“Hmmm. Maybe. Like, engrave the circles on the diamonds?”

“Yes.”

Zelhaut turned towards the blue sky and began to think.

“It could work.”

Krindle nodded his head, then left to patrol around the area for any more harpies.

‘Commander, when will I get to summon my brethren?’

“When I say. Now go with Krindle to patrol around.”

Raldo inclined his head and then followed after Krindle.

Zelhaut brought his hat forwards to cover his face from the sun.

He brought his fingers to his temples and rubbed his head, trying to think.

Zelhaut kicked the sand, accidentally hitting a scorpion that decided, “I want to sting this guy” and stabbed his foot.

He reached down with his hand and pulled the scorpion off, throwing it into his mouth for a light snack.

Ever since the Blight, raw meat had increased its palatability immensely. In fact, lately, all he ever ate was raw meat. But sometimes, he just wanted some normal food. Normal food had that charm of being just normal. It wasn't like all other food had suddenly lost flavor except raw meat, hopefully. It had been a while since normal food had graced his mouth with its normalcy.

“I want pancakes.”