Zeke crept through the ruins, mentally and physically exhausted. Once, the place had been crawling with more than a hundred bronze golems. But over the past three weeks, he’d culled their numbers to only a dozen or so. It had been a grueling march toward his goals, and after having his body destroyed and reformed so often, he was wracked with constant phantom pain.

Or perhaps it was genuine. He had no idea what the effect of such a process could have on the human – or cambion, in his case – body. There was every chance that things had gotten twisted during one of his reformations. But if that was the case, it wasn’t as if he could do anything about it, save to hope that his near-constant use of [Metallurgical Repair] would fix any issues.

But after killing seventy-three of the golems, he’d finally reached his goal. Level thirty. Stopping to rest in a somewhat intact alley, he looked at his status:

Name

Ezekiel Blackwood

Class

Arcane Colossus

Level

30

Race

Cambion (F)

Alignment

Unchosen

Titles

n/a

Path

Force (F), Runecraft (F)

Strength (S+)

22

Agility (C)

10

Dexterity (B)

12

Endurance (S+)

20

Vitality (C)

10

Intelligence (A)

14

Wisdom (S)

16

Resistances

Fire

Ice

Water

Earth

Wind

Nature

Arcane

Poison

Disease

S+

D

D

B

D

D

B

C

D

According to his plan, he’d split his free points between agility, dexterity, and vitality, bringing all three into double digits. Once that was done, he’d added the remaining two free points into dexterity, reasoning that he could use the extra coordination more than he needed the other stats. After all, he’d already proven that he could endure the attacks of a creature thirty levels his senior, so investing heavily in endurance or vitality felt like a waste. And he rarely found himself running low on mana - unless he used the mana-hungry version of [Weight of Two Worlds] that split gravity in two – so intelligence and wisdom were out as well. But dexterity was the one stat that would help in both the short- and long-term. In the short, it would make it so much easier to aim his strikes at the comparatively vulnerable joints of the golems. In the long-term, he expected that extra coordination would never go amiss.

So, he’d made the stat allocations accordingly.

But almost as important as his extra levels was the fact that he’d progressed his understanding of his path of force. He felt he still had a long way to go before he could advance to the next stage – how he knew that, he wasn’t sure – but spending weeks getting constantly pummeled by the insanely strong golems had given him some insights into force that would have otherwise been impossible.

In addition, he’d spent at least a few hours studying each golem with his runic sight, and that had pushed his understanding of how golems’ underlying runes worked to an entirely new level. It didn’t really advance his path much, mostly because they were all too similar; his path seemed to need variety to progress. But what it lacked in verifiable advancement, the study made up for it with how it provided insight into how the runes transformed otherwise inert statues into terrifyingly powerful automatons.

Even so, Zeke knew it would be the work of years to truly understand everything about them. He could gain some degree of basic comprehension, but anything more than that was impossible without countless hours of study.

But with level thirty came a bit of a shortcut.

Zeke had expected to gain a skill or a quest, but in retrospect, that had been a silly expectation. After all, the {Arcane Colossus} was aberrant, meaning that it didn’t follow the same path of progression that more structured classes did. So, when he discovered that, instead of getting an actual skill, he gained an empty slot where he could create his own, he was only moderately surprised.

More than that, the slot came with options, presumably based on his experiences. Three of them, to be precise. The first, predictably, was a simple, repeatable attack that would add a significant amount of force to his hammer blows. Once, he’d been told that greatness could often be found in simplicity, and this option seemed to exemplify that trait. This choice would also require the least amount of input from him.

The second option was a mobility skill, though how it worked would be up to him, making the creation of the skill much more difficult and time-consuming. But already, he could imagine how effective something like Talia’s [Alacrity of Undeath] or Abby’s [Cloud Walk] were. He also sensed that he could create a skill that would mimic Carlos’s [Umbral Steps], which basically constituted teleportation, albeit with some limits. There were other types of movement skills, but his intuition – or maybe the instincts that came with his class – told him that they were only partially compatible.

The third and, to Zeke, most attractive option lay in the creation of minions. When he focused on that choice, he’d found that his minions could take on hundreds of different forms. But as seemed to be the case with every part of his class, they all were related to earth, metal, or gravity. For instance, there was one option that would allow him to create temporary constructs that would enhance the gravity in a given area, mimicking [Weight of Two Worlds]. There was also a few abilities that would let him summon various spirits and elementals – all related to the flavor of his class, of course.

At first, Zeke had dismissed the idea. He didn’t need a bunch of weak subordinates, did he? In fact, it took an embarrassingly long time for him to make the connection between the golems and that skill option. But once he did, it all seemed so clear. It was as if the Framework had put him in the mines just so he’d have a chance to run into the bronze golems.

Or Oberon had.

Either way, the moment the idea took hold, Zeke hadn’t spared any more thought to any of the other options. Instead, he focused on the skill’s foundation as provided by his class. It was fairly bare and lacked anything approaching complexity, but it was the start he needed to begin making connections between his new skill’s construction and the golems he’d been fighting.

Even so, it would be some time before he’d figure it all out, and that was okay. If it was easy, it wouldn’t be worthwhile. And he was nothing if not persistent, so the work laid out before him was not a deterrent, but rather, a promise of greatness.

But he couldn’t stop moving forward, so Zeke found himself creeping through the ruined subterranean city, his every sense trained on his surroundings. The population of golems had been culled, but there were still plenty roaming the ruins. And even two of them was too many. So, he remained cautious as he explored the area, making his way to one of the bridges that led across the river and to the better preserved parts of the city.

Zeke hadn’t strayed from the outskirts more than a couple of times over the past few weeks, and even those brief trips had been brief. It wasn’t that he was afraid – though an ominous pall did lay over the inner parts of the city on the other side of that river – but rather that most of the golems stuck to the outskirts, meaning that he had no reason to visit that area.

But now, curiosity had gotten the better of him, and he’d chosen to engage in a little exploration.

Once he reached the bridge, he spent a long time crouched in a nearby alley and studying the area. Crossing the bridge was dangerous, and not just because it looked as if it was going to crumble at any moment. Instead, Zeke’s issues lay in the fact that it was so exposed. Once he mounted that bridge, there would be nowhere to hide.

Not that he would let such danger deter him, of course. He just needed to be careful, and everything would be fine.

So, Zeke stepped out of the alley, crouched low, and crept across the bridge. After the first few steps, he felt the surface crumbling beneath him, but he didn’t panic. Instead, he kept moving forward with steady steps. Even so, there was a certain amount of fear that came with the idea of plummeting into watery abyss of a subterranean river. But he’d done it before, and everything had turned out that time. So, he pushed those fears aside and continued along. Fortunately, the bridge remained intact, though there were a few pieces that fell into the water before he reached the other side.

Still, Zeke was grateful step away from the stone bridge and into the shadow of one of the nearby buildings. There, he waited for a few minutes before deciding that his traversal remained undiscovered.

His heart raced as his mind was enveloped by an ominous feeling that grew stronger with every step into the interior of the city. It was so out of character that it didn’t take Zeke long to come to the conclusion that he was under the influence of some foreign entity. Perhaps there was a powerful monster within he ruins. Or maybe it was just a characteristic of the area. Either way, he pushed it aside and continued forward, searching the buildings as he went along.

Zeke had no idea what he expected to find – treasure of some sort, maybe – but the contents of the buildings had long since decayed into dust. There were a few bones here and there – of a size that suggested that they’d belonged to dwarves – but otherwise, there were no hints as to what had happened within the ruins. So, Zeke kept up with his exploration, slowly working his way toward the city’s center.

Eventually, after he’d been at it for hours, he was forced to stop and rest. He could have kept going, but he knew his body well enough to recognize the dangers of overexertion. Just because he could, didn’t mean that doing so was smart. With that in mind, he found a mostly intact building and settled down to eat and rest.

Fitfully, he slept, and when he awoke, it was to the ominous feeling of half-remembered nightmares. It complimented the blanket of dread that hung over the entirety of the inner city, sending his thoughts spiraling into a pit of despair. Knowing that the emotions originated from some outside source, Zeke endeavored to ignore them, though he only did so to moderate success. For the rest, he simply had to endure. Fortunately, he had plenty of practice in that arena, and after eating, drinking, and taking care of his bodily functions, he moved on with his exploration.

Like this, he continued for three more days until, finally, things changed when he approached a huge square at the center of the city.

The square itself was mostly unremarkable – just an open space with a statue of a heroic dwarf at the center. It was at least fifty feet tall, and though the features were similar to those of the stone dwarves with which he was familiar, Zeke couldn’t shake the feeling that it was subtly different. Perhaps it was the set of its noble brow or some indefinable aura of which he was only vaguely aware, but the dwarf depicted by the statue was like a rainbow to the stone dwarves’ colorless existence.

But though that feeling was formless, Zeke felt it with a certainty he couldn’t even begin to explain.

The rest of the square was unremarkable, save for the existence of hundreds of plinths, each of which was empty. It didn’t take Zeke long to make the connection between the bronze golems and the collection of raised platforms. There were also unattached earth spirits, which presented as clouds of yellow dust, drifting aimlessly around the area.

For some time, Zeke sat back in observation, but he didn’t come to any firm conclusions. However, he did form a few theories, chiefly that the golems had once functioned as guardians for the city – at least until the city was destroyed and its dwarven occupants were killed. After that, the earth spirits – which were, as far as Zeke could tell, naturally occurring so far underground – formed bonds and possessed the automatons, and it had been like that ever since.

Or that was the explanation that made the most sense to Zeke. He knew there was every possibility he was wrong, but he’d never fancied himself an investigator or a scientist. Instead, he often felt as if he was blundering through the various mysteries of the world into which he’d been reborn. Some smarter – like Tucker, maybe – would probably be able to draw many more conclusions, but Zeke just wasn’t built like that.

If you needed someone to bash something with a hammer, he was your guy, but unraveling the mysteries of the universe was beyond his skills. But that was okay. Everyone had different strengths and weaknesses, and he wasn’t immune to that fundamental truth, regardless of how much power he managed to accumulate.

He was busy thinking about how to proceed when he got the shock of a lifetime. Suddenly, the noble dwarf turned its head to look at him. To that point, it had been entirely immobile, like a normal statue, so Zeke had convinced himself that that was what it was. However, it seemed his assumption was absolutely in error, and the dwarven statue had more in common with the golems than he’d first thought.

Zeke backed away into the shadows of the alley where he’d established his position, but the moment he moved, his every muscle locked up. He grunted, trying to force himself to move, but his body simply wouldn’t respond. Instead, he was smothered beneath an undeniable will. Whatever illusions he’d had about his own level of power, in that moment of absolute vulnerability, they were destroyed.

He'd gained a few levels and gotten stronger, but he had barely taken the first few steps on his path. He might’ve climbed to the top in the Mortal Realm, and he had potential – but that potential meant nothing at that moment. Not when faced with true strength. With its mere attention, the statue had immobilized him.

But Zeke wasn’t going to simply give up. He didn’t have surrender in his blood. So, he instinctively embraced his path of force, letting it suffuse his entire body. Green energy erupted from his body, twining and twirling around his limbs. And for a second, he could move. It was only an inch or two, but even that tiny victory spurred him on.

That’s when the statue truly focused on him.

It didn’t move. Its brow didn’t furrow. Nor did its eyes narrow. But still, Zeke felt the weight of its attention as a palpable force. The green energy winked out, and he was driven to the ground. The ground cracked beneath Zeke’s feet, evidence of the pressure pressing down on him. But still, he wouldn’t give up. Roaring, he pushed with every point of strength he could muster. He clutched tightly to his path, forcing it to the fore.

It wasn’t enough to free him.

Still, he struggled against the implacable force of the statue’s will because he simply couldn’t contemplate any other path. He might lose. He might die. But that had always been a possibility, and he’d long since come to terms with the consequences of the life he’d chosen to lead.

For how long Zeke struggled, he had no idea. But he never moved an inch, regardless of how desperately he pushed against that unstoppable will.

Then, after what felt like an eternity, the pressure disappeared.

Zeke stumbled to the ground, blood mingling with green energy as it misted around his body. Instinctively, he embraced [Metallurgical Repair], and he felt the soothing flow of earthen energy.

It only lasted for a second before the statue reached out with an open palm, and suddenly, Zeke was somewhere else.

It took only a moment for him to recognize the roar of battle, the all-too-familiar clash of metal against metal dancing in his ears. He looked up to see that he was still in the square, but it was different. For one, hundreds – maybe thousands – of dwarves fought, one against the other. For another, the city seemed to be at the height of its power, and the crumbling buildings had been replaced by their more intact past selves.

“W-what the…”

Zeke didn’t have a chance to finish that question, because a second later, he felt a blade bite into his back.