And then I then collapse, a nervous wreck of adrenaline and surging fear. I just fucking killed someone.
Five
someones. Like, yeah, it was self defense, so I don't feel guilty about it, but my life could very well have ended right then and there. It takes me a few minutes to steady my nerves and stand up.
Seeing no reason not to, I check my loot. The bandits have some weapons, and some coins with an unknown value to me. Silver, with someone's face on both sides and some writing which... Wait, I can read this. "Jensin Kingdom. Silver mark." And on the other side "May Jensin Always Prevail". This isn't English. Why am I able to read this? And, wait a minute... before, when I spoke.... Let's try it.
Me, "All good things must come to an end." I recite this aloud, to be sure of something. Just as I thought, that's not English either. I focus, deliberately saying each syllable, and I'm able to say something in my native tongue. But it seems I'm speaking some other language by default. I hope it's the language of this country...
This isn't actionable, so I put it in the back of my mind. I resume looting. Nothing useful to me from the bandits, I assume they have a nearby camp, but I don't see anything and I'm not about to search the woods, so I check the cart. Sorry, two dead guys, but this isn't useful to you anymore, right? The merchants, it seems, have a few coins on them, a ledger which I'm not interested in, and a nice looking dagger. I keep it.
The cart has food in some bag, oh thank goodness, I wolf down some fruit that looks suspiciously like an apple, some strangely hard bread, and... yeah, that sure seems to be cheese. I take my new dagger, cut the apple, and eat it with the cheese and bread. Much better. I take a drink of water from a barrel tied to the corner. In the back is a queen size bed with a thin mattress, nice. Zone reveals to me some sort of false floor, and when I lift up a panel, I see a few gold coins, a bunch of silver, and a handful of small gems. No Amethyst though, shoot.
Maybe I should try making a golem though? The horse out front is dead, shot with an arrow. Poor beastie. You didn't deserve this. But if I'm going to keep this cart, I need some way to propel it, and Drothur did seem to want me to make golems.
My gem sense tells me that Sapphire will make a 'gem-cluster' into a golem. The more Sapphire in a single continuous group, the 'smarter' it is. Okay. Well, let's just use all of my Sapphire for now, and make a hodgepodge of gems as the body? What do I have the most of? Emerald, oddly. It enchants for... strength? Also odd. Increases golem strength too, which is good since I need it to haul this cart. Thanks for the info, gem-sense.
I smash my various Sapphires together, fusing them. Then I try to create a simple two legged golem. Sapphire is the middle part, and Emerald is the legs. I spread it out thinly to make it tall enough to reach the wooden poles out front. I use Telekinesis to undo the horse's connection to the poles, and to move it to the side of the road. Hmm.
I try using telekinesis to move the cart, and it does work, but I feel that I'll run out of whatever it is, let's assume it's some mana-like system, before I get very far. The golem may or may not be better, and if it's not, I'll just have to abandon the cart and carry what I can.
The golem's Emerald legs take shape, extending out from the Sapphire base. It's very basic, but I'll go for fancy when I have more experience. When it's in more or less a good shape, I touch the golem. My sense seems to be waiting for me to issue a command, so I give it one. "Jump".
It jumps. Huh. What do you know?
Well, uh, let's give it a try. I order it to move over to the poles, and I use a bit of gem to permanently (until I undo it) attach it to said poles. It looks kinda weird, a blue sphere, with two green legs, and two green stalks coming out the top wrapping around the cart's leads, but for now it's function over form...
I touch it and command it to walk forward four steps. It valiantly attempts to do so, but it loses traction. Shit. The golem itself is actually _really_ light. Even given its bulk, it's almost entirely hollow, so this makes sense. I have a grim idea to shove a corpse inside of it to make it heavier, and while that would probably work, I'd prefer not to.
I look around for anything to use, and my eyes fall on an ax in the back of the cart. Hmm... why not? I pick it up and swing at a tree. I make a dent. I swing again with telekinesis. It goes a lot deeper. Excellent. I step away and take a few more swings. The tree falls down, and I cut the tree into several pieces with telekinesis-backed strikes. I open up a hole in the golem, shove some wood in, and close it again. The golem is now substantially heavier. I decide to make it horse-shaped. A half hour later, it's a quadruped shaped vaguely like a horse. Its 'torso' is only up to my stomach, but that's okay.
I attach it to the cart again, and command it to take four steps. It... succeeds in pulling the cart, for a moment, before it slips off the pole. Whoops. I take a dagger and make some indents in the poles, then reattach the golem to the poles at those indents, filling the gems in so it can't slip off. If I recall, Emerald is pretty high up on the Mohs scale, so it's damn near indestructible when talking about everyday forces. I think.
I attempt the experiment again, and the golem pulls the horse as usual. Fuck yes!
One last thing to do I guess. I run a thin line of gemstone from the golem to the driver's seat, so I can issue the golem commands from the seat. I slot the thread into a notch in the chair, so it gets stuck, and I can touch it any time I need to.
With the golem now pulling us down the road, I resume taking inventory of the cart. I find a hand mirror, and see my new body. It looks sort of similar, but markedly different to myself as a young man. I think I looked like this when i was 19 or 20. I'm pretty sexy, in my own, probably-biased opinion. I'm curious... I take off my peasant-flavored shirt, and I like my chest. It's not muscular, but it's not scrawny either. Removing my lowerwear as well, I see I'm a decently in shape fellow all around. I fool around with my privates, make sure everything's in working order, and I notice it's... wow, it's a lot thicker. It's not just swollen right? No, seems to be the shape of this one. I'm really happy with this.
The golem abruptly stops, and the cart jerks to a stop. Uh oh. I clothe myself again, and go out to the golem. I touch it and try to get an idea of what's wrong. It seems there's something... missing... oh.
I take some Jet out of my pocket, 'snip' off a segment, spread it as thin as I can, and apply it to the back of the beast. When I fuse it on, it suddenly resumes moving. I jump out of the way of the cart, and then jog to catch up to it again. Noted, the golems actually _need_ Jet to move, and though it seems they have some mana built in to start with, it gets exhausted quickly. I'll keep that in mind. My skill seems to imply it is perhaps bad for a gemstone to be devoid of mana, so I'll try not to make this mistake again.
Taking a seat on the cart again, I consider my new circumstances while watching the 'horse' pull the cart. It's not like I have a choice in the matter, but is this okay? Not to be arrogant, but it seems I'm fairly powerful with my rings alone. Did I luck into an incredibly powerful combo, or were those bandits just the weaklings of society? If given the option, would I go back? I'm... not sure. This world is new and exciting, it's got magic, and I seem strong. The old world is boring and somewhat unsatisfying, but safe. I'm not able to come to a conclusion immediately.
Oh, there was one other thing I wanted to try. I look at the road for a pebble, and after finding one, bring it to myself with telekinesis. I attempt to deform it like I do with gems. After a minute of pushing, nothing. I toss the pebble out. I take out my new dagger, and try to push on the hilt. It moves just a little. The metal is harder to manipulate; as I continue mushing the hilt, it seems like it takes a lot more time to do compared to gems. Wood is completely unresponsive, as is water, and my food stock. I consider trying my finger, but I decide against it; even if I succeed, I might give myself finger cancer or something.
Not an hour later, I come upon a town. I decide to ride in. People give my golem funny looks, but I guess in a world where magic... seems to exist?, a golem is unusual, but not unheard of. I try talking to somebody, and it seems they actually can understand me. That's a relief. I ask if there is an inn where I can park my cart. He gives me directions, and I head over.
The inn seems a bit poor, but I don't have any inns in this world to compare it to, so I go for it. I park the cart out front. Someone comes out to see me. "Yeh can park'n yer cart out back, if'n yer stayin'. I'd offer to feed yer horse, but that don't look like the kinda beast what eats food."
Me, "Quite right, this steed won't need to eat. How much for one night?" He gives me a price in coppers, and while I have no idea if it's reasonable or not, I toss a silver to him and ask for the change when I come in. He nods, and I carefully order my golem to walk around the back of the inn. I park next to another cart, it seems this inn has 3 designated cart parking spaces. Maybe I'll get the VIP treatment. Trusting in the merchants who've come before me, I put most of my valuables in the hidden floorboard. Truly, I am standing on the shoulders of giants.
Walking inside, it's a bit gloomy, but I can see fine. I walk up to the owner, nod, and he hands me some coppers. I act as though I quickly count them, then pocket them. He grabs a key, walks me up some stairs. He comes to a door, unlocks it, then hands me the key. "If it's just one day, I'll need yeh out bah noon tomorruh. Thanks fer stopin' in." I check the room, it seems nice enough, but I'll pass on using a chamber pot. I head out into town.
First stop is extra food, the traveling kind. I stop by a couple stores before I find one that sells it. Not much of a selection, mostly hard bread, but this one has a bunch of berries, which the owner assures me will stay well for 2 or 3 weeks. I guess this will work. I run it back to my cart. She also sells me a water crystal. Huh. That seems convenient. It's a bit expensive at just under a silver, but I won't have to worry about running out of water for a long time.
Next is to gather information. Where the hell do I go from here? I guess, go look for a gemstone mining town? I ask around, and it seems that it's common knowledge that there's a nearby village named Farnn that has a big Rhodonite output, as well as coal. What the hell is Rhodonite? I've never even heard of that before. Luckily, someone has a bit of raw Rhodonite at their house. Walking over, he shows it to me. It's pinkish. My gem-sense informs me that it will enchant for expanded mana capacity, and it does the same for any golem or gem-cluster it's inside. Oh,
that
sounds really nice. Can I make a golem with telekinesis and a huge mana pool, and take on an army? I laugh to myself. I'm sure it's not that simple. Still, I decide to travel to that mining town tomorrow.
Me, "How much would you like for that Rhodonite? It's pretty."
Villager, "Hrm. 8 copper seems fair to me."
Me, "6 and you've got a deal."
He nods, and we make the exchange. Judging by his grin, I feel he's taken advantage of me, but this represents power to me, so let's just call it a good deal for both sides. Walking away, I use my ability to extract the raw from the stone it's inside, resulting in a pure Rhodonite crystal. I pocket it.
I would like to see what else this town has to offer, so I do. It's fairly small, but maybe there's something interesting here?
