Apocalypse Redux

Chapter 9: Golem

As it turned out, there had been an entire meeting room behind the third door in the corridor. It was that strange mixture of state of the art and messy that spoke of a hurried construction built using a significant amount of funds.

A solid looking metal table, surrounded by extremely comfortable chairs stood in the middle of the room while one of the walls was completely covered in eight massive screens, each showing a different angle of the room where they’d be summoning creatures.

Next to the door stood a metal structure, folded up it was clear even in this state that it was intended to be some kind of barrier. That being said, Isaac didn’t have the foggiest what its purpose was. After all, the actual door to the former storage space was, as far as he could tell, stronger.

“I believe you all know why we’re here. Two days ago, the world became quantified. People gained the ability to treat the world as if it were a video game. Along with that came monsters. Not ones that randomly show up, but ones we create for ourselves. Now here we are, researching precisely those monsters. I won’t lie to you, this will not be a simple or safe task. But it will also be the greatest and most impactful task that currently exists. I am honored to be undertaking it with you.” Baily made a short little speech, making Isaac smile a little.

The Professor, as Bailey would simply be known in the future, was only ten or so years older than Isaac, though you wouldn’t know it most of the time. Isaac liked to make stupid jokes even when doing so was incredibly inappropriate. Bailey was just … plain … mature. Except when it came to situations like this. This was one of those occasions when he betrayed his inexperience as a professor, giving a speech like that without prompting. After all, he’d become one less than seventy-two hours ago.

“I’m guessing that means you have a fully fleshed out plan?” Amy asked.

“I do, in fact. We’re going to start by summoning a weak creature without any special powers and observe it for as long as possible.” Bailey explained, then summoned a [System] page with a wave of his hand. Clearly, he'd spent a lot of time reading the manual.

Summoning List (Earth)

Name

Material Cost

Mana Cost

Slate Golem

Tier 1 Circle, Slate

10

Lesser Earth Elemental

Tier 1 Circle, Dirt

25

Animated Garden Gnome

Tier 2 Circle, Ceramic Shards

50

Earth Elemental

Tier 3 Circle, Dirt, Rock

75

Lesser Rock Golem

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Tier 3 Circle, Rock

100

Granite Golem

Tier 4 Circle, Granite

125

Rock Golem

Tier 4 Circle, Rock, Iron, Dirt

150

The Crusher

Tier 5 Circle, Titanium, Iron

250

…

“A Slate Golem. While the names of these creatures might not explain their capabilities perfectly, it will also not contradict their natures either. Which leaves us with an animated piece of rock, specifically, the rather breakable mineral known as slate. Not only do we have an experienced wielder of firearms …” Bailey nodded towards Raul “but we also have a barrier that can be placed in the corridor to completely block it and trap the creatures.”

As he said that, Bailey gestured towards the metal contraption besides the door.

“In addition, we have several sledgehammers that can be used to break a simple creature made from slate.”

“Besides, the cheapest creatures tend to not be all that powerful. They’ve only inflicted significant damage in situations where they are a hard counter to the forces opposing them, such as ghosts that are immune to physical damage or fire spirits that set the whole floor alight the instant they’re summoned.” Patrick added, taking advantage of a short pause of Bailey’s.

“Also, that. Point is, we can deal with this thing. As it stands, the plan is to summon the creature, then observe it for as long as is possible, then kill it and see what we can learn from its body.” Bailey explained, sticking his hand into his pocket as the screens behind him changed to show a diagram of his plan.

Isaac just grinned internally. If Bailey wanted to hide that he was using a remote, then he should have done a better job of it.

The diagrams themselves were clearly hand drawn and also incorrect on what a Slate Golem would actually look like. Clearly, they’d been created by someone who was yet to see one of the damn things.

Isaac knew perfectly well that Bailey was right in how he estimated this type of Golem. They were made from slate, which was rather breakable and pretty small, only reaching up to a normal person’s midsection. Even a normal person with a proper bashing weapon, such as one of the aforementioned sledgehammers, would be able to easily handle one.

“So, quick question on the matter of the summoning. Who’s supplying the mana? I know it’s only ten mana, but the quicker it gets regenerated, the sooner we’re back up to full power. So, what’s everyone’s Mana Regen at? Mine’s at 17.” Isaac interjected.

“12.” “11.” “11.”

“9.” Patrick looked around at the others as he realized how much lower his own stat was when compared to the others. Isaac was fairly certain that meant he’d have a rather high Magic Power instead. Those two Stats, in turn, were linked to a person’s mental capabilities and Isaac was certain Patrick was no less intelligent than anyone else in the room. So if he was deficient in one, he likely made for It in the other.

“How do you already have it up that high?” Amy asked.

“I’ve already levelled up once and absorbed an Aspect that boosts it.” Isaac explained.

“What’s an aspect?” Bailey asked.

“Sometimes, when you kill a creature, it creates an Aspect. If you pay the XP cost, you can absorb it and gain one of the creature’s [Skills], as well as five points in a linked attribute.” Isaac explained “I have an Aspect of the Specter, which gives me plus five Magic Regeneration as well as the ability to walk through walls.”

Aspects

Aspect Skills

Specter

Spectral Shift

[Empty Slot]

With that, Isaac displayed the small part of the status that covered the Aspects.

“Huh. I’d love to take a look at one of those.” Bailey said, seemingly not addressed at anyone in particular, just thinking out loud.

“Sure thing. I’ll bring the next one I get to you.” Isaac promised, intentionally leaving out the Aspect of the Hydra hidden in the walls of his apartment, phased in there alongside most of the cash he’d gotten from Calise. It was literally impossible to get at without a [Skill] like [Spectral Shift] or tearing through the entire wall, including several electrical cables and a water line.

In other words, no one would have been able to easily or properly hide anything behind there using normal means. Hollow walls were a pretty standard bolt hole, but only ones where someone could safely break them down, then re-hang the dry wall.

“That would be great.” Bailey said, then froze for a moment as he thought “… just to be clear, please don’t take any stupid risks. I’d like to see one of those Aspects, but I can’t ask you to put yourself in danger to get some.”

“Don’t worry, I’m careful.” Isaac reassured him.

“Regardless, we have a plan for the experiment we will be conducting today. That pile of paper in the center of the table is the scripts.” Bailey said, picking up the top, stapled together, set of pages and slid them across the table towards Amy.

“Any objections?” Bailey asked, looking around the room, gaze lingering on Wechsler for a moment. The government employee was sitting in one corner of the room, trying to avoid getting in anyone’s way. Clearly, he was taking his role of an outside observer very seriously.

“In that case, I think we’re done. Amy, Isaac, can you draw out the Ritual Circle? There’s water soluble marker and slate in the storeroom.”

And with that, Bailey turned to the wall of monitors and began to switch them back over to the room where they’d be doing the summoning.

“I don’t suppose you know where the storeroom actually is?” Isaac asked as he followed Amy out into the corridor.

“Of course I do, I spent all of yesterday stocking the damn thing.” Amy told him and opened the last door Isaac didn’t know.

It revealed a room even bigger than the meeting room, but its right half was completely filled with shelves. Only a few were actually stocked, the rest empty and waiting to receive anything that Bailey decided the still developing department needed.

Among the things that were stocked were water soluble markers that could create easily removable ritual circles, filler putty that Isaac assumed would be used to repair the floor if the place the Ritual Circle was to be drawn out got chipped and also a multitude of basic summoning components. Lastly, a variety of tools was visible, ranging from the basic surgical scissors and scalpels needed for dissections to an actual sledgehammer.

The other side of the room was mostly empty, several neatly stacked piles of variously sized crates, some of them even in a dismantled state, taking up perhaps a quarter of the available space.

“What are those crates for?” Isaac wondered out loud.

“Storing the bodies of any creature we kill. Those aren’t refrigerated, so we’ll have to stick to inorganic creatures for now, but Professor Bailey says well get refrigerated ones tomorrow or the day after.” Amy explained as she handed him a chunk of slate and one of the markers.

They headed into the actual ritual room with their tools. It was a little smaller than the meeting room, after all, it hadn’t had to store a lot of material, volume wise. But a Tier 5 circle could easily fit inside without any problems. Not that they’d be using one, mind you. The kind of monster that required a circle of that Tier would tear through lead and concrete walls like soft dirt. And even if that ended up bringing down the building on top on it, it’d probably survive that as well.

A gesture from Isaac not only overlayed an image of the required circle onto the ground, it also made said circle visible to everyone. He could have easily drawn one out from memory, but that wasn’t something a person should have been able to reliably do after two days at most.

They went to work and the circle rapidly took shape. Two minutes later, it was complete and Isaac placed the chunk of slate inside.

“Alright, please double check that the circle is perfect, then charge it and get out of there.” Bailey’s voice rang out over a speaker Isaac quickly located in one corner of the ceiling.

Isaac obeyed, looking down at the ground one last time. Spotting any mistakes would have been child’s play though, given that there was literally an image of the correct version overlayed. A mere thought was enough to drop the pittance of ten mana needed to charge it into the circle and then, the two of them beat a hasty retreat.

Well, Amy did. Isaac just matched her speed. He knew from experience that there was literally no way for that thing to randomly trigger and dump a Slate Golem in their laps. But Amy didn’t have the same certainty. All she knew was that they’d just taken all the actions needed to call a dangerous creature into this room, a creature the likes of whom had been seen on the news, killing people. Even if the instructions had said that one could charge up the circle and then activate it after getting a little distance.

In fact, those were some of the only instructions available on the process of summoning. The point of what little was written down was to ensure that it seemed safe, with options to get the hell out of dodge before the creature appeared, and the like.

What wasn’t written down were issues like the fact that leaving a monster in place for too long would result in similar creatures appearing without humans needed to conduct the summoning.

It was just as well that the people Isaac had chosen to work with were so careful. Sufficient caution and preparation would easily let one avoid most of the pitfalls baked into the Summoning System. Unfortunately, very few people were that cautious, which was why there had even been a problem in the other timeline, after all.

The heavy door slammed shut behind them with a bang, closed by hidden motors that had clearly been activated from the meeting room.

The meeting room was in a state of incredible tension and excitement, with everyone staring at the screens on the wall, showing the ritual circle glowing a soft, pale blue. It was something that even the most basic video editing program could have created, hell, there were probably some chemicals you could use to replicate that effect.

But this was no movie, no video game, no fake image born of the mind of some author or screenwriter and brought to life by a talented artist or editor. This was real life, something that was occurring a mere ten or so meters in front of them, even if they were only indirectly seeing it.

Something entirely beyond the normal was happening, a preternatural effect likely none of them had ever seen before. Something they’d heard about on the news, whose aftereffects they’d seen, but now, they were doing it.

Isaac decided to just wait a couple of minutes and not interrupt their moment of wonder. Once that time was up, however, he decided to break the silence.

“So, should I summon it now?” he asked, calling up the relevant [System] screen so everyone could see it.

Would you like to activate the summoning circle and summon [Slate Golem]?

“Do it. Ok, moment of truth time.” Bailey said breathily, voice incredibly exited.

“Sure thing. [Activate Summoning Circle].” Isaac said. While verbal [Skill] activation wasn’t necessary, it tended to be rather helpful while working together with other people to let them know what one was doing.

In the middle of the room, the intricate circle of runes dimmed in a flash. Nothing seemed to happen for a mere moment … and then the hunk of slate in the middle of the circle seemed to explode, dark grey particles being flung around. The space between the particles began to rapidly get filled in with more dark grey stone until a stout creature stood there.

A grinding of stone echoed through the room as it pushed itself to its feet. The slate golem stood around a meter tall, but it was also at least half a meter wide and deep, with a head that looked like a squashed sphere, attached without a proper neck.

“My God …” Bailey whispered.

The Golem began to walk towards a corner of the room, every step taking several seconds to complete. It might have been a tough looking being for a summoning cost of a mere ten mana, but it was so slow as to practically be harmless.

“How do you think it’s moving?” Patrick asked, voice at a normal conversational level. In other words, far louder than the hushed voices of the others in the room.

“It sounds like it should be damaging itself with every step, but there isn’t any dust flaking off. Also, it clearly doesn’t have any visible musculature or anything comparable. What is it using to provide locomotion?”

“Magic?” Amy suggested, sticking her tongue out when Patrick turned to her.

“I’m being serious here.” Patrick told her sternly.

“Yeah, me too. Magic is apparently a thing now and while we don’t know how it works, what we’re doing now is trying to understand just what it is. Then we can say ‘it moves via magic, as per so and so’s effect and’-“

‘Thud’

Amy went silent and stared at the monitors.

‘Thud’

On the screen, the Golem was visible punching one of the room’s corners.

Raul spoke up, nervousness creeping into his voice.

“Uh, that’s the corner closest to where we are, isn’t it?”