The take from the shadow guardian rather surprised me. There was the expected Shadow Guardian mark, but the core was a level 5 military core and I had managed to get two pieces of amorphous shadow. I pulled one out to look at it, and was rather disturbed. It felt a bit like silly putty, only incredibly grainy in texture. I could mold it with my hands easily, but the slightest bit of mana coursing through it would harden it as if it were steel. With all of these golem components, I was going to need to see what the guild could offer me. I wouldn’t be around nearly long enough to spend all the contribution points.

I stood outside the water door an hour later, debating what to do. I was really interested in taking on all of the guardians, but the last two fights had been brutal. Going by the trends so far, water and air were likely to be bosses that tried to evade attacks, drawing out the battle while light was going to be something that self-healed as well as delivered punishing attacks. Would I be able to defeat all of them while still having enough mental fortitude to handle the final boss of the dungeon? “Screw it. I can always come back and beat the dungeon with only one boss defeated.” I firmed up my resolve, and opened the door into the next area.

There was a square of land just inside the door, roughly ten feet across, for entering parties to plan on. The rest of the room was a partially submerged cave, with the water coming up to mid-thigh. Several tiers of rock formations provided plenty of room for ambushes. Something I wasn’t about to deal with. Overcharging the spell, I chanted, “Tear across the frozen wastes, leaving behind desolation. Arctic blast!” Cold air blasted out, turning the area into a winter wonderland. I played the spell back and forth, walking forward to ensure the entire area was covered in ice. I made it nearly to the back before I heard the screaming of an enemy, and I kept the pressure up as I walked around. On the other side of a large rock formation I found the water guardian.

An octopus with a head the size of my torso had seven of his arms frozen to the rock, and was desperately flailing with the last arm, trying to break something free without freezing his only form of attack. “I really wasn’t expecting an octopus. I figured there would be a sea dragon or something.” I said.

“Piss off you cheating bastard!” It cried, swinging at me but missing by a wide margin.

“Cheating? How is freezing the area cheating? Besides, it looks like you were expecting to ambush me.”

“I’ll have your head!”

“Ice spike.” I calmly said, sending a lance of ice shooting through the creature’s head and killing it. “Terrible conversationalist anyway.” I muttered, walking up to loot the body. I got a level 4 military golem core as well as three mats of optical camouflage skin. I headed back out to the main room to recover my mana and plot the next guardian. “Ah screw it. Keep the pattern going.” I said to myself, heading toward the air door.

The air room was disconcerting. I had to walk across a small stone bridge to a large floating platform. The platform was a hundred yards wide by two hundred long, and it had a series of hanging ropes that would dance in the swirling winds. There was no other cover, and the platform was fairly smooth. Across the way was a large T shaped stand with a truly massive golden eagle perched on it. As soon as I crossed the bridge, I gave a shiver. The room seemed to have no bottom. Definitely not for the faint of heart. “Leadweight.” I muttered, increasing my weight so that I wouldn’t be blown around as easily. As I slowly crossed the platform, semi-transparent humanoid figures started appearing near the bird.

“KREEEEE!!” The bird screeched when I had reached a third of the way across, and the forms started heading my direction.

“Stone lance.” I fired off a spell targeting the bird, wanting to see what it would do. Instead of sacrificing themselves, the figures formed a slightly curved line. Each one would give a slight push to the front of the lance, slowly shifting its trajectory until it crashed and slid across the ground. They then turned to me and started rapidly closing the gap, and I could see air magic swirling around their hands.

“Not bad.” I nodded. “But how about this? Sandstorm!” I had let them get within ten feet of me before launching an extremely broad attack, using wind magic to carry small particles of earth through the figures. Giving a nod to several different mythologies, I had mixed it up rather well. Salt, sand, and bits of random rocks just to give a wide variety. It was rather funny how a featureless face can somehow convey a look of abject horror just before the flimsy body is shredded by the opposite magic. As the storm of tiny particles died, I crunched my way forward watching the eagle as it glared at me. At the halfway point, it took off and started spiraling into the sky.

“Do you really think I would let you get away that easily? Gravity well.” I tried to snare it, but to my surprise as soon as the spell latched on to the bird, my body felt incredibly heavy. Forced to a knee, I looked around with magical sight to see that I was the one connected to the spell, and that I couldn’t cancel it!

“KREEEEE!” The eagle gave a cry of victory, then turned and dive bombed my position.

“Sandstorm.” I blasted toward the creature with another sandstorm hoping to blind it as I tried to force my body to move. It wasn’t nearly fast enough, and I got a blast of sand particles sent straight back into me just before a gust of wind slammed into my chest, sending me sprawling. The damn bird started screeching in victory as it took to the skies again.

“Alright ya bastard. Let’s see you fly the unfriendly skies.” I muttered as I let my anger get the best of me. I let it get to the apex of its before I countered. “Let those who dare the skies face the tribulation of the heavens! A hundred motes of light become a thousand burning arrows, streaking forth with your doom. Meteor shower!” To my utter delight, the spell started from behind the bird, so it had absolutely zero warning before it got smashed by several streaks of light. Of course, just because it was injured didn’t mean I wasn’t going to take full advantage of it. I could already feel that the reflected gravity spell was released.

“Let’s just make your day that much worse. Gravity well. Rampart. Reinforced earth. Leadweight.” I tried to guess where the eagle was going to land, and that’s where the gravity well went. Followed by a sideways rampart to ensure that it landed on the hardest bit of land around. It only took a few seconds, but the eagle landed with devastating results. Grinning like a lunatic, I sauntered over to see the wreckage.

The guardian was barely recognizable. The wing bones had shattered, as had the majority of the body. Unsurprisingly, the loot reflected the guardian’s state. I got the mark, along with a stack of 20 heavily damaged air infused feathers. “Damn, these floors are a crafters wet dream.” I muttered as I headed away from the body. Though it did seem to come with a large amount of risks. Had I not been weighted down with both a gravity well and the leadweight spell, there was a rather large chance that bird would have been able to send me flying, and the only thing that could have saved me would have been the series of rings around the island. Grabbing one in the swirling winds while falling and injured from an attack? Yeah, not very likely. I shuddered one more time as I headed out of the room, and took a minute to compose myself before heading to the last door.

This room was meant to intimidate. White marble with gold and silver highlights covered everything, and the only decoration was a raised throne flanked by two white flames in oversized brasiers. Standing as soon as I entered was a golem clad in heavy plate armor, matching the colors of the room. Dangling from its hip was a flanged mace with a rather nasty looking barbed spike on the top. Without a word, the knight charged forward, hiding the vast majority of its body behind its oversized kite shield.

“Dark bolt.” I launched a testing spell at it, unsurprised when it was swallowed up in a flash of light. Had I been paying attention to the slight flicker of the flames beside the throne, things might have gone a bit better for me. Instead, I summoned a vortex shield and prepared for battle. I parried as much as I could, but found myself rapidly retreating under the skilled onslaught of the golem. No matter how I parried, it managed to use the parry to increase the momentum of the weapon as it flowed seamlessly between strikes. “Stone grasp.” I used earth magic to create a stone hand that grabbed the knight by the ankle as he unleashed an overhand strike with his mace, desperate that this plan would work.

My shield knocked his mace off target, and he had no choice but to follow through with the powerful blow. I slipped around behind him, preparing to unleash a powerful strike. “Mage blade!” Just before I could cleave down the middle of his back with a blade of utter darkness, a set of wings shot out and knocked me backwards, sliding along the marble floor until I landed against the stairs at the bottom of the throne.

“OH SHIT!” I cried, frantically rolling to the side. It was just in time, as the mace smashed apart the stairs right where my head used to be. I stumbled away after rolling to my feet, having seen the angel leap into the air, preparing to slam the point of his shield down and crush my chest. Plan failed, it turned to face me, pointing at my chest with his reacquired mace.

“Yeah, yeah, challenge accepted.” I panted, giving him a one fingered salute. It must have recognized either the gesture or my attitude, because it immediately charged in. “Directed darkburst.” As soon as it started to attack, I sent a beam of darkness straight into its face, causing it to stumble at the loss of sight. “Mageblade.” While my right hand kept up the blinding ray of darkness, my left hand slashed at his exposed side with another blade of darkness, only to get a screech of protest and a flare of light at the contact.

“What the?” I muttered, backing off. This time I had immediately seen the flaring of the flames, and a quick switch to magic sight confirmed it. The bastard was using them as a battery to power his mage armor!

“I see that you are too fast for my mace. Prepare yourself then. Angelic armaments: Spear of Longinus!” The mace turned into a sphere of light and flashed into the shield, to be replaced by a rather bland looking spear. It had an 18-inch narrow blade and a simple wooden shaft. It spun it around twice before taking a stance with the shaft balanced in a slight dip in the shield. He only had to shift slightly before he could skewer me at will with the thing, but something was tickling my thoughts.

“Wait, did you say Longinus?” I asked. “Why do I know that name? It sounds Roman.”

“Truly, you must be a fiend.” The golem stated. “None of the others have recognized that name. In the name of the Light, I will SMITE THEE!” It cried, glowing dangerously bright as power was fed from the flames into the spear. With no time for subtlety, I simply shot a concentrated ray of dark mana down the mana tentacle I had almost connected with one of the flames. As the contrary energies came into contact, they immediately started destabilizing each other. I simply kept forcing mana through, looking to overwhelm the response.

“What are you doing? Stop that!” The guardian cried, attempting to launch its skill. Unfortunately, it couldn’t disengage in time and a tendril of dark mana streaked from the brasier to the spear, causing an eruption of energy and sending the both of us sprawling.

“Ow, fuck that hurts.” I moaned, trying to sit up while cradling my poor arm. Once again I had landed on my right shoulder, the same one that kept getting blunt trauma. I took a minute to get over the disorientation, and took in my surroundings. Both of the brasiers had been knocked over, and the angel’s armor was covered in scorch marks. “Stone bindings.” I muttered, watching as the floor molded over several parts of the angel’s body, namely its arms, legs, waist, and neck. I wasn’t about to take any chances against this thing.

“So. This is how I am to meet my end. Far from the Grace of the Trinity at the hands of a fiend of the Pit.”

“Trinity? Pit?” I asked, then it all clicked. “Are you from Earth?” I asked, eyes widening in optimism.

“I’ll not tell you of my homeworld, fiend.”

“It’s my homeworld too, and I have a feeling you were forced here against your will just like I was.” I said. “Maybe, if we work together, we can both make it home.”

“Never.” The angel said. “A seraphim would never stoop so low as to aid a demon, lest we fall as well! No. You have bested me, so do what you demons do. Slay me and devour my essence. Just know this. Even as you claim a portion of my power, my knowledge will never aid you.”

“Very well.” I said, shaking my head. Maybe his core was damaged, or maybe he had gone insane from being trapped in this dungeon, but either way I was never going to be able to get this thing to cooperate. But even as I stabbed into the chest with a blade of darkness, I still had hope. If something like a seraphim could be summoned here, then there had to be a way for me to return home. I looted the body for his mark, a cracked level 5 military core, and twenty angel feathers. On a whim, I headed toward the throne and inspected it. Just like the vampires so long ago, the angel had hidden something within the back of the throne. I managed to force open the hidden compartment with mana tentacles, though I did trigger a set of poison darts to fire where someone normally would have been. Inside was a small book.

Advanced Righteous Rune

This skill book contains the advanced form of the Righteous rune, and details its applications. Those who master it will know how to properly attach nodes and lines to create powerful enchantments that will do increased damage to those who are aligned with evil.

Requires:

Basic Righteous Rune knowledge OR Master level skill in craftsmanship, enchanting, and runic languages.

“This really is a crafter dungeon.” I muttered, sending the book into my inventory. I headed back out, and made my way back toward the munitions closet. Once there, I took out each of the marks, and placed them into the slots. Once they were all in place, they glowed with their respective mana colors for a few seconds before I heard a click. The door swung open a few inches, and I reached out and opened it the rest of the way. Inside was a treasure trove of materials. Twenty ingots of high quality mithril, one set unaligned and one set for each of the six base elements. Twenty more ingots of gold and silver, five of platinum, along with enough leather to make several new sets of equipment. Three pristine medium civilian golem cores took up the second to last shelf, but the highest shelf had the most expensive items. Three skill books.

Basics of Golem core creation

This book details the theory behind golem core creation, as well as how to build up to the basic mid grade civilian golem core. It is recommended you be a master craftsman in both enchanting and blacksmithing.

Basic Golem creation

This book details how to properly construct the basics of golems. Everything you need, from motor nodes to mana conduits. It is recommended you be a master craftsman in blacksmithing and leatherworking.

Intermediate golem creation

Golems can be adapted to a wide variety of uses. This book will detail how to go about properly setting up unusual configurations, from extra limbs to basic weaponry and armor. It is highly recommended that you be a master craftsman in blacksmithing and leatherworking, as well as having at least an advanced understanding of the basic golem creation. It is suggested that you be an evolved species.