Gilgamesh did not rest. His existence was a constant cycle between fighting and runeforging. Every single moment was dedicated to the pursuit of power, and the fruit of his labor was solely his own.
[ Master Golem Core has reached level 6. You are rewarded 5 Attribute Points. ]
[ Spirit: 82 -> 87 ]
Gilgamesh threw it all into Spirit without thinking as his Steel Naga slithered sideways into a feint good enough to make the Training Dummy flinch just slightly. Rather than change its design, Gilgamesh sought to maneuver his serpentine golem more skillfully and his progress in that regard was clearer than ever.
He had formed his Shifting Sand into a more compact and circular crescent blade, like that of a waning crescent moon, and wielded it more fluidly in its continuous attacks. Both of his golems flanked the Training Dummy as they always did, and the Training Dummy fought hard against them.
The Steel Naga landed a deep scratch, but a quick high-low slash from the crescent sand blade forced the Training Dummy to plant its feet to block firmly with its shield. And the Steel Naga landed again.
Gilgamesh maintained the delicate balance of pressure with extreme precision. Each moment slowly wore away at the Training Dummy and brought his golems closer to landing a final blow.
Gilgamesh pressed an all-out attack with his Steel Naga, and the Training Dummy saw its chance. Razor-sharp mana carved through the air as its sword cleaved towards the steel claws.
But at the same time, the path of the claws changed just as Gilgamesh decided they would before he had first struck with them. The Training Dummy’s sword was faster, but timing surpassed speed.
The black sword sliced through one of the claws, but the other pierced through its wooden arm and yanked it off balance. Deft footwork allowed the Training Dummy to correct itself in an instant, but that was an instant too late. It turned the other way with a jolt of its shield, and the crescent Shifting Sand sliced it in half.
The match reset again and for the first time, Gilgamesh was the victor. A serene stillness held the world and Gilgamesh allowed it to linger for a moment. But only for a moment. He turned his intense focus to the Training Dummy once more, and found something strange.
Both of its arms were still held low and stanceless, but it no longer hopped arrogantly as it had at the start of every duel thus far. Now it stood completely still and its featureless face stared straight at him with a subtle intensity.
Gilgamesh's eyes narrowed slightly as he prepared for the unexpected. When the fight began, the Training Dummy feinted half a lunge and swerved around his golems on the side of his Steel Naga.
Gilgamesh wielded his Shifting Sand to soar back around between him and his foe as the Steel Naga moved to stall it, but the Training Dummy read the Naga’s movements with ease. It bashed the steel golem away with its shield as it spun into a lunge. In that same motion, its sword clashed with the crescent blade and its swiping shield bashed the Shifting Sand away too.
Gilgamesh dashed away on his Snake Tail, but the Training Dummy read him just as easily. A feint of a lunge forced him into a disadvantageous position, and a true one brought the sword to claim his life once again.
Gilgamesh reset, even more serious than before, and tried again. He employed a move that had worked many times before. Shifting Sand in chakram form rushed out to halt the Training Dummy in its tracks, as the Steel Naga flanked from the side at maximum speed.
But the Training Dummy employed the perfect counter without hesitation. It blocked the sawing sand chakram with its sword enveloped in Bastion, and bashed the Steel Naga far away with its shield.
A second bash knocked the whirling chakram sideways and the sword carved through the center of its blade until it struck its core. The Training Dummy burst at Gilgamesh and feinted a throw of its sword to provoke a second dash before it impaled him through the chest.
The sparring ring reset again, and this time the Training Dummy slowly raised its sword to rest upon its shoulder as it leaned back in arrogant victory.
“It remembers…” Gilgamesh realized.
No longer did it have to gather knowledge throughout the course of a fight. No longer would it fall victim to lopsided schemes of the past. It knew as much as he did now, which meant each duel was now a contest of pure skill. A contest it held the steep advantage in.
Gilgamesh tried again. In this third time, he predicted how the Training Dummy would act and aimed to counter it. But the Training Dummy moved one step ahead, and utterly defeated him yet again.
“I’m right back where I started…” The feeling that all of his progress up to this point was but a mere illusion started to seep into Gilgamesh. “No… A sham victory against a stunted opponent has no value. Nothing has changed. I need only become stronger.”
Gilgamesh left the Sparring Ring with the intention of honing his golemcrafting further. He had mana and a system of perfect recovery on his side, but not time. Gilgamesh wanted to ensure that he was as prepared for the Trials to come as possible.
He had gotten quite skilled at it in these past few days. Every golem now only took one or two attempts at most to get a perfect result. He had already crafted no less than 5 spares for each of his main Low Grade golems so far, since his new strategy revolved around swapping them out when needed.
Gilgamesh had since tested the limits of his golem's mana usage and found that it was related to the duration it took them to fully recover from empty to full, which he had taken to calling a 'Cycle'. The cycle of most standard golems was around one or two hours. If a golem used more than twofold their mana within that amount of time, it cracked. But if he waited beyond that time, the golem could once again use nearly twofold its capacity without consequence.
However, most of his altered golems had inadequate Spirit, so their Cycles lasted over 16 hours. A severe limitation, that could easily be overcome by having a vast amount of spare golems at his disposal. Which is why Gilgamesh devoted the bulk of his time to simply crafting spares over and over.
Though, he had taken the time to optimize his other golems for his ability to wield them directly.
[ Boulder Ape - Golem (Low Grade) ]
Attributes:
Strength - 80
Agility - 30
Vitality - 25
Perception - 0
Force - 0
Spirit - 5
Control - 10
Willpower - 0
Material: Granite (low grade)
Mana Capacity: 150/150
Consumption: 10 motes per minute
Recovery: 5 motes per minute
Boulder Ape was exceedingly simple to alter. Nothing more than the transfer of some Attribute Points from Perception and Spirit to Strength.
[ Bolt Viper - Golem (Low Grade) ]
Attributes:
Strength - 5
Agility - 5
Vitality - 10
Perception - 0
Force - 100
Spirit - 5
Control - 25
Willpower - 0
Feature: Iron Bolt (bronze)
Material: Iron (inferior)
Mana Capacity: 250/250
Consumption: 4 motes per minute
Recovery: 4 motes per minute
Gilgamesh made its design thinner so that it could easily wrap around the other golems and act as a sort of mounted ballista. The golems it rode upon would do the bulk of the aiming via their own movements, which meant most of its Agility could be used to further bolster its Force.
Bolt Viper was still inferior to his Wooden Totem, but Gilgamesh felt there was value in having a physical ranged attacker if a situation arose where he needed one.
[ Forest Hand - Golem (Low Grade) ]
Attributes:
Strength - 20
Agility - 10
Vitality - 25
Perception - 0
Force - 70
Spirit - 5
Control - 25
Willpower - 0
Feature: Levitation (bronze)
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Material: Ironwood (low grade)
Mana Capacity: 250/250
Consumption: 10 motes per minute
Recovery: 0.1 motes per minute
As for Forest Hand, he lowered its Spirit in favor of giving it a more durable Ironwood form. He also put some of its Strength into Force to enhance the speed of its Levitation. 20 Strength was still enough to carry several Heroes fully armored in steel.
[ Floating Shield - Golem (Low Grade) ]
Attributes:
Strength - 55
Agility - 5
Vitality - 50
Perception - 0
Force - 5
Spirit - 5
Control - 25
Willpower - 0
Feature: Levitation (bronze)
Material: Steel (low grade+)
Mana Capacity: 250/250
Consumption: 12 motes per minute
Recovery: 0.1 motes per minute
Floating Shield could not hope to be a well-rounded shield to a level he could entrust his life to, so Gilgamesh took a different approach. He took away nearly all of its speed and maximized its use as a stationary defense.
As with Shifting Sand, Gilgamesh doubled Floating Shield's Vitality to make its steel more durable than what it should be, and bolstered its Strength as much as possible so that it could hold firm against more powerful impacts.
He kept the bare minimum Force and Agility to move and adjust its position as needed, and also increased its size to Large in so that it could defend a larger range.
[ Clay Salamander - Golem (Low Grade) ]
Attributes:
Strength - 5
Agility - 5
Vitality - 10
Perception - 0
Force - 80
Spirit - 25
Control - 25
Willpower - 0
Feature: Fireball (bronze)
Material: Clay (inferior)
Mana Capacity: 50/50
Consumption: 4 motes per minute
Recovery: 0.1 motes per minute
[ Fireball (bronze) ]
'Cast a small ball of flames forward.'
Magnitude: 1.0
Mana Cost: 10 motes
Gilgamesh made his Clay Salamanders much in the same vein as his Bolt Vipers. Those with Features such as Fireball or Acid Arrow were given higher Force as a priority, while those with Poison Smoke and other spells with a set Potency prioritized Spirit.
None of the golems he made with 100 Spirit became anything other than Low Grade, meaning that simply raising a Component was not enough to make it Mid Grade. On that notion, Gilgamesh took out the orange core of his Shifting Sand, and gazed into its runes.
He found an Array large, denser, and grander than any he had ever seen. There was a depth to it beyond the greater number of runes and more intricate glyphs. Despite his admiration of the Array, Gilgamesh did not believe that he lacked the ability to replicate them. However, he did not possess the means to even make the attempt.
Runes were mystical things. He could read the Sigils for exactly what they were, but that did not show him the formula for carving them. Just as the Sigil for Stone did not reveal the number, type, or formation of Basic Runes to create it, neither did any of the Sigils he saw within this Array. And there was one Sigil that stood out above them all.
Intermediate.
The tier of Mid Grade. A Sigil that so clearly held more wonder than Lesser. Without the formula for this, Gilgamesh could not even think about carving Mid Grade golems.
However, he was free to explode what was possible within the limits of Low Grade. When Gilgamesh crafted these Clay Salamanders, he could not shake the feeling that more was possible. And in pursuing that feeling, he came across something better.
[ Wooden Wand - Golem (Low Grade) ]
Attributes:
Strength - 0
Agility - 0
Vitality - 10
Perception - 0
Force - 110
Spirit - 5
Control - 25
Willpower - 0
Features: Fireball (bronze)
Material: Wood (inferior)
Mana Capacity: 50/50
Consumption: 3 motes per minute
Recovery: 0.1 motes per minute
Wooden Wand took the form one would expect, a carved wooden stick, around a foot long with a bulbous end where the core resided. Gilgamesh hadn't even bothered to hide the core. Instead, he designed a simple, sculpted pattern of branches to latch around it.
This was a golem for him to wield personally. Such a strategy carried the significant disadvantage of his slow aim, but its discreet size meant he would be able to activate it in secret and catch his enemies by surprise.
[ Steel Skirmisher - Golem (Low Grade) ]
Attributes:
Strength - 40
Agility - 70
Vitality - 25
Perception - 0
Force - 0
Spirit - 5
Control - 10
Willpower - 0
Material: Steel (low grade)
Mana Capacity: 50/50
Consumption: 8 motes per minute
Recovery 0.1 motes per minute
As Gilgamesh already had his vanguard meant for speed, he decided on a different path for his Skirmisher. He gave it a Steel form and the Strength to make full use of it.
Though he had made a few with all manner of weapons, he gave most of them a shield and lance. Rather than the hit and run tactics of an Ironwood variant, he envisioned these Steel Skirmishers as cavalry to ram through defensive lines and barricades.
[ Clay Sentry - Golem (Low Grade) ]
Strength - 10
Agility - 50
Vitality - 25
Perception - 0
Force - 35
Spirit - 5
Control - 25
Willpower - 0
Feature: Blast Touch (bronze)
Material: Acidic Clay (low grade)
Mana Capacity: 50/50
Consumption: 10 motes per minute
Recovery: 0.1 motes per minute
[ Blast Touch (bronze) ]
'Causes a small explosion of raw mana at the area of contact.'
Magnitude: 1.5
Mana Cost: 20
[ Acid Clay ]
'A low grade clay with latent acidic properties.'
Gilgamesh chose a unique path for his Clay Sentry. He took inspiration from the design of the Bomber variants to replicate the effect with a Sentry.
Blast Touch did not inherently protect its wielder. Thus, Acid Clay Sentry would itself be damaged by its own raw mana blasts, and thus have its body transformed into a splash of acid to further inflict harm on his enemies.
Damage to a golem's form was nothing more than a loss of mana, whereas it could easily be fatal to most Heroes. Since its combat now revolved around a magic attack, Gilgamesh put as much Force as it needed to convert its entire hand into acid, and favored Agility as much as possible with what remained.
All in all, he had drastically improved his arsenal of golems these past several days. But naturally, they were not the only thing that had improved.
[ Gilgamesh - Hero (Iron Rank) ]
Attributes:
Strength - 2
Agility - 7
Vitality - 10
Perception - 30
Force - 3
Spirit - 87
Control - 45
Willpower - 14
Traits:
Incomplete Stigmata (???), Master Golem Core lvl. 6 (silver), Passive Meditator lvl. 4 (bronze), Golem Peerer lvl. 4 (bronze), Mana Insulation lvl. 5 (bronze), Mana Connector lvl. 5 (bronze),
Material: Clay (inferior)
Mana Capacity: 549/870
Unalloted Attribute Points: 0
Passive Meditator and Golem Peerer had both increased a level. The gradually clearer images via his golem perception certainly aided his strength in combat, though he felt the benefits of Passive Meditator far more. With each gain in that Trait, his efficiency in training grew even greater.
Both Mana Insulation and Mana Connector had gained two levels in this time. Their compatibility and complementary nature were even better than he first suspected. Merely existing with effort rapidly improved both in the background of his other focuses.
Gilgamesh was about to withdraw his novice guidebook, but someone caught his eye. Someone who provoked his bitter feelings of resentment. Attila calmly walked through the Training Grounds with a firm but welcoming expression, as though nothing was even worth his arrogance. And Gilgamesh's resentment rose further.
“There you are~”
Gilgamesh turned at the voice to find a woman of such beauty that his thoughts were stilled for a moment. Long, silky hair of a rich purple reserved solely for the most regal flowed down her light copper skin.
She wore silk clothes of the finest make, an ancient Egyptian gown of white and gold that seemed more revealing than it truly was. But even more striking than the painted jewelry that adorned her body, were her eyes.
Domineering amber eyes like those of a lioness, accentuated further by the distinct eyeliner painted around them. They overflowed with jubilation and an intensity that Gilgamesh could not quite place, as she gazed into him with a smile that knew no defiance nor such joy before.
“I’ve been looking, ever since I felt you in the colosseum. Such a vast place, these grounds, ah, but you are so radiant.”
Gilgamesh did not know this woman, and immediately he became wary of her. “A Narmer? I have no connection with them. What is her intention? Is she just mad?”
“How hurtful~ I assure you, I'm quite sane.” She smiled with her coy words.
“A mindreader?!” Gilgamesh immediately focused his mind solely on one unimportant thing with all his effort.
“That doesn’t work~” She teased, as she slid in closer. Too close. “I can read much deeper than that.”
Gilgamesh’s urgency heightened. An enemy that knew too much was dangerous.
“This Narmer-”
“Sereth. And there’s no need to worry so much. I’m not at all interested in those secrets.” She strolled around him casually and leaned her soft body against his bandaged arm, knowing full well that such physical contact worsened his pain.
“What is your animosity towards Attila?” Gilgamesh did not have to answer, for she had already learned it from his mind the moment she asked. And it made her chuckle sweetly. “How petty~”
She glanced up at him with coy provocation. “I suppose you are one of many in that regard.”
Malice struck her back, though along with the instinctual sense of danger, it seemed being the brunt of his subconscious instinct sent a wave of pleasure flowed through her as well.
“Well~ I do understand. There is nothing worse than one who is utterly… barren.”
As he mused on her meaning, she oriented herself back in front of him, softly sliding her hand across Gilgamesh’s chest.
“Fear is also understandable~”
Gilgamesh grabbed her arm off of him as a deeper malice surged out than before. She shivered under the weight of it in equal parts aversion and twisted bliss. Her composure and dignity faltered for a moment, but she soon found them again, and her intensity soared to a height that confused Gilgamesh.
“You are… the only one like you I’ve ever met.” Sereth leaned in close to whisper in his ear. “Please don’t lose to fate.”
With those last words, she vanished away. Gilgamesh did not know what to make of her, but he knew what to make of her powers. She was dangerous to be around, so he decided it would be best to avoid her however he could.
As he decided that, Gilgamesh saw someone else he recognized. Someone who was the complete opposite of the gifted talents that were beginning to appear more frequently with each passing day. Gilgamesh hesitated a moment, then approached her on his own volition.
“Heroine.” He called out bluntly with no expectation.
She turned to look at him and her expression soured with both unsure resentment and an indecisive aversion. Heroine lingered for a few moments as she glanced around, then looked directly at him.
“Go away...”
Gilgamesh ignored her request. “Why are you bothering to train those barbarian abilities when you have such power?”
“I don…” She started to answer. “...mind your own business.”
Gilgamesh did not respond nor did he move. He waited as he stared at her in thought, the awkward silence of which seemed to unnerve her a little more. She was not likely to aid him after his betrayal in the Fourth Trial, at least not without benefit. But she was the only one he knew to be like him and perhaps the only one who could answer his questions.
“...have you improved a Trait yet?” He asked.
“Do you think it’s that easy to…” Her words drifted off as she realized what he just asked. “H-how… How do you know that..?”
Gilgamesh had expected shock and caution, but not fear. At least not this potent.
“No, you…” She took a step back without thinking as panic invaded her bearing. “Why are you here? You said you couldn’t get in…”
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