Clover rested his hand against a stone wall, manipulating it with [Minor Tactile Terrakinesis]. On the ground, stone shifted in small streams, forming a panda. It was a challenge to use his Skill in this way - extending the range increased the difficulty. Ever since his journey into the Abyss, he found that his Skill's listened to his commands more readily.

[Minor Tactile Terrakinesis] hadn’t increased in Level, but he was now significantly better at using it. As long as he made contact within 10 feet of where he wanted to manipulate the material, he could theoretically do it.

Congratulations! Sculpting has reached Level 30.

Congratulations! Minor Tactile Terrakinesis has reached Level 16.

After a couple more minutes of work, a completed sculpture stared back at him. Though, without color, it was impossible to tell what it really was. This method of [Sculpting] lacked the level of detail he could produce when using his hands. However, it was much faster. If he completely disregarded detail and poured an excess amount of Mana into the Skill, he could make a golem in around thirty seconds.

With a little more practice, he could realistically lower that number even further. However, he wasn’t in the business of making low-quality golems. There was no point. With the limited number he could control, he’d much rather make each golem as good as possible.

As the wind switched direction and a plume of smoke blew toward him, he picked up his sculpture and moved to a place where it was easier to breathe. The clean-up effort was reaching its end - most of the Giant Grasshoppers were nothing more than smoldering ash. Which, he was glad to see. Waiting out here for all these hours not only was boring. Not to mention the fact that it had earned him a sunburn.

To keep himself entertained and use his time productively, he had taken to practicing his golem-making skills. Already he had animated two smaller golems out of concrete and stone. The gang of moving sculptures following him around was slowly growing in size, reaching its former glory. Occasionally, he would see people do a double-take as he rolled on by.

Clover stopped, taking shelter beneath the shade of the hotel building. Here, he continued his golem-making spree. With the help of [Abyssal Perception of a Fragmented Mind], he felt he had finally started to understand how [Golem Creation] worked.

All this time, he had been blindly feeding fake images through his Golem Link, hoping that everything would magically work out. In some ways, it did. His instincts and random guesswork had been enough to bring him a small amount of success. Learning how to layer the images and how to structure them to best fight off the ice’s corrupting influence was no small feat, but now he knew he could do better.

He activated [Abyssal Perception of a Fragmented Mind], observing the ambient Mana flows. He then turned his attention to Mr. Cat. Unlike a human, the golem didn’t have a soul - obviously. However, that didn’t mean the cat golem didn’t cast an aura of influence around its stony body. It was dull, lifeless, and small - the result of energy leaking out of the golem due to an imperfect design. Still, it vaguely resembled his own in a morbid and childish sort of way.

Using [Golem Link] in tandem, Clover increased his perceptual powers and delved within the golem’s structure, tracing the wires of magic animating it. They were most dense around its claws, branching off into smaller, and more intricate designs from there. This feature of its design was likely a byproduct of Mr. Cats Attribute: [Hidden Claws]. The Attribute allowed the cat golem to hide away its claws and marginally increase their size.

At the golem’s centermost point, the wires connected to a circular core covered in flakes of ice.

Congratulations! Golem Link has reached Level 21.

In the previous hours, he had inspected his other golems in the same way and discovered they all shared the same basic structure. All his golems had a core that not only shaped but provided power to the pathways animating the sculptures.

After reviewing the information, he was ready to dig deeper. A simple theory had been brewing in the back of his mind for the last couple of hours: powerful memories can shape and change Mana. Of course, there was only one way to test the theory. Observation would only get him so far. With that said, there was still one matter he had to investigate.

Similar to how he instinctively knew how to leverage the Abyss to view the manifestation of Dr. White’s soul, the paths he had completed also granted him the knowledge of how to press through his golems’ pseudo-auras and peer into their cores. He had put off this last method of investigation for a while now, fearing the backlash he had faced the first time. But, he couldn't delay forever - no risk, no reward. Promising himself to be quick, a glass window to the Abyss appeared covered in its customary static.

His vision split in two, and he found his perception thrust into the golem’s core. There he found a familiar scene. A cat and a detailed diagram of a pair of claws extending - the original pair of images he had sent down the golem link while creating Mr. Cat. Though, now that he was able to completely immerse himself in the scene, the images he had created felt hollow and fake.

Clover nodded and closed the window to the Abyss, having seen enough.

Congratulations! Abyssal Perception of a Fragmented Mind has reached Level 13.

With his perception Skills still in use, Clover activated [Golem Creation]. After a short delay, a blue tether that he was becoming increasingly familiar with snapped into existence, tying him to the golem. Additionally, within the tether, he felt room open up for him to paint whatever image he wanted. However, he had no desire to create a hollow and fake image this time.

This would be the golem’s soul. The blueprint it would use to sustain itself. He was trying to trick the world and the System into believing the golem was a living and breathing entity. He couldn’t manage that grand task with something that wasn’t real.

Going with the theory that memories could shape magic, he conjured up one of his own. It wasn’t his proudest, but it jumped to the front of his mind. He recalled that fearful elementary school day when he had been forced to hide from a bully in an empty and dark classroom. He remembered how his heart had raced, how each one of his breathes sounded louder than a bomb. Looking back on it now, he had been over dramatic, but, at the time, the danger had felt real.

Colors and emotions came to life within the link, recreating the memory. Now that he had started the process, it almost continued under its own momentum without any of his input.

His mind stretched, holding the scene together, bringing together the final details. In the end, on that lonely and fearful day, he had succeeded. Not by luck either; to this day, he still remembered the techniques he had used to hide.

The memory solidified and rocketed down the tether. The usual corrupting influence of the ice reared its head in full force, but for the most part, it couldn't sink its teeth into the image. The biting cold slid off of it like water on a windshield. Still, Clover had to stretch his abilities to the limit to protect the memory from the small amount of ice that got in. It was especially ferocious today.

Not long after the process started, it ended. The memory reached the end of the tether and entered the golem, forming a core that then sprouted branches, providing Mana to the entire structure.

Congratulations! Golem Creation has reached Level 23.

Congratulations! Golem Creation has reached Level 24.

Congratulations! Golem Creation has reached Level 25.

Congratulations! Golem Status Screen has reached Level 5.

Name: Panda-Golem

Quality: Rare

Size: Small

Durability: 70/70

SP: ?/?

MP: ?/?

Strength: 7

Endurance: 9

Recovery: ?

Vitality: 7

Dexterity: 15

Agility: ?

Perception: ?

Intelligence: 0

Mana: ?

Magic: 5

Myth: 2

Skills: Stealth Lvl 0.

Attributes: [Silent Steps]

Clover softly clapped after making sure no one was looking. The experiment was a massive success. Creating a Rare quality golem with such little effort was a huge accomplishment. This new way of doing things was clearly better. Even with a mediocre base sculpture, he had managed to reach a new tier of rarity.

The one downside was that it left him tired in a way he had never experienced before. He wasn't physically exhausted; in that regard he felt fine, and he didn't feel the strain of overusing his Mana. This was different. It felt like he was a bit more hollow than before. Clover shook his head and moved his focus away from the sensation; it was already fading.

Not only did the panda golem have good Stats, but it also had a Skill - something he had never seen before in a golem.

From the looks of things, the golem could become more powerful by increasing [Stealth]'s Level. Which sounded quite overpowered. Not to mention the fact that it had a useful Attribute.

From what he had seen of the System, he was willing to bet that the upgrade wasn’t as great as it seemed. It would probably be exceedingly difficult to get the golem to level up [Stealth]. And if the animated sculpture was ever destroyed, he would likely lose all the progress the golem had made.

Clover wiped a bead off his brow, noticing the ever-present ice pressing against him. With his enhanced senses, he could almost feel its chill. In a way, now that he had learned more about it, he was almost more concerned about the natural Mana that seemed to hate him. From what he had seen, it served as a natural regulator of sorts, removing memories from the atmosphere before they could affect the ambient Mana overly much.

That made sense to him. What didn’t make sense was why the ice seemed to target him so vehemently. It didn’t press against anyone else, trying to erase them from existence. What memory lodged in his skull was so offensive to the natural order of the world? What did he know that he should not?

He sighed, watching small chunks of ice float across the battlefield, targeting things he could not see.

Congratulations! Abyssal Perception of a Fragmented Mind has reached Level 14.

A commotion got Clover’s attention, distracting him before he had the chance to conduct a more rigorous experiment to determine the effects of incorporating monster parts into his golems. To his pleasant surprise, it wasn’t a monster, and another fight hadn’t broken out among the cleanup crew. He wheeled over, intent on checking out what was the big deal.

A man knelt on the ground, shifting rubble out of the way - most of the clean-up crew stood around watching him work. As he got closer, he saw a light flickering under the ground. With nothing better to do, he controlled Bob the Elephant and helped move shattered stones out of the way, slowly revealing a hole. Clover blinked. No, it wasn’t a hole. A whole store had been teleported just below the surface of the ground and not in the usual System fashion.

The walls of the store had been cut off in a wavy pattern, lacking the System’s trademark precision. Sure, the System had a penchant for putting things in random places, but it was always clean with its work. Here it looked like it hadn’t known what to do - stuck between two conflicting ideas.

Clover watched as a group descended into the shallow hole and explored the store. With his increased Stats, he didn’t have to go under the ground to see most of its wares. Not that Clover wanted to go down there. He hated tight spaces underground. Plus, it wasn’t like he could get down there easily.

The search group didn’t find anyone in the store, though they did find a lot of radio equipment. Which was lucky in two ways. First, it meant that the owner hadn’t been there when the building was teleported. That would have been a terrible way to die - trapped underground with no way out.

Second, from what he had heard, now that most cell towers had been knocked down, radio equipment was exceedingly valuable. One of the men who had entered the store just so happened to know how to use the equipment. Clover watched as the man fiddled with dials. To his surprise, a heavily static-covered voice echoed out of the machine.

“The signal is strong. They can’t be broadcasting from too far away - less than 50 miles for sure,” the resident radio expert said.

Clover strained his ears, listening to what was being said. In the end, he couldn’t be sure of the specifics because about every other word was missing or unintelligible. From what he could tell, the broadcast was sharing information about their new reality: what Stat Points were, how Paths generally worked, and not to go outside during the night, that sort of thing.

It was all basic information, nothing he didn't already know. But it was a positive sign that someone nearby was willing to broadcast the information to the public. The signal cut out, fading completely to static.

“Damn, I lost it,” Radio-man said. Clover wasn’t so sure he was an expert anymore.

“Well, get it back you idiot. I thought you said the signal was strong?”

“I’m trying. Stop distracting me.”

Clover listened to the two bicker for a bit. They didn’t end up finding the signal again.

In light of discovering these new resources, plans were changed, and the clean-up crew was given the new orders to scavenge the radio equipment.

It was slow going - craning heavy equipment out of the ground was hard work. In total, it took over two hours to finish. By that point, the sun had already drawn low on the horizon, casting golden rays over the city. In the fading sunlight, the clean-up crew was slowly transported back to the factory one car full at a time.

As the last van left, leaving only Doctor White and Clover out on the street, Clover looked up at the pink clouds above and took a deep breath. It would take the driver at least ten minutes to drop off his passengers and come back to pick them up. This was his chance - he’d never get a better one.

“Hey, Doc, you got a minute?”

“I got a few. What’s up?” The man leaned against the wall next to him.

Clover licked his lips. “Have you been mind controlling people?”