124 Ice Golem

[13-48-32, 98-23-09. Trotter. 128:14:60]

"This is not a code." Robin shook his head, "This is a simple signal. The first one is the co-ordinate, the second one must be the name of the ship, and the last one is the time."

"Time? It's around 5 days, 8 hours, and 14 minutes."

"Looks like it. The coordinate is of the first military stronghold. And I think one of the trotter ships is on the orbit."

Aiden nodded. He took one last glance at the clear red sky before moving towards the cliff again.

"Hey, Charak had woken up. Let me talk to him." Robin informed him.

However, Aiden's eyes continued to observe the ice cliff that was now glowing with four mana circles.

"Ice Golem." Even if Mraz continued to explain, Aiden didn't move eyes from the mana circles. After the mana circles vanished behind the crumbling ice, Aiden spoke, 'That mana circle looked similar to the ice wolves.'

"Of course, they would be the same. After all, both of them are ice puppets."

'But something is different about it.' As Aiden was trying to understand the difference, the fallen pieces of ice reassembled themselves.

The fragments of ice moved on their own and began to converge in one location, as they merged into four 10 meters tall giants.

'The energy sources of them are distinct.' Aiden stared at all the four giants, adding, 'I can't see any ice elves nearby. Are they accumulating mana of ice on their own?'

"They have ice mana cores. The mana core absorbs surrounding mana and drives them."

'So if I take those cores out of their body, will they just stop working?'

"That will be the case."

'So where did you put those cores?'

"Either head or their chest."

[The host has activated innate skill [Blink]]

A long scythe blade extended from the end of the dwarven black metal rod as he swung it to cut off the head of the golem.

It happened in a flash, yet the situation wasn't in favor of Aiden. By the time his scythe would sever the golem's neck, the club of the other golem will hit him.

'They are fast.' Aiden couldn't help but acknowledge the truth.

"It is because of the abundance of ice mana. Higher concentrations of mana enabled them to do the high-speed maneuver."

Aiden had expected that much. However, he grinned and mumbled, "But I am faster."

[The host has activated innate skill [Zone]]

[12.4997]

And Aiden sent the head flying.

[The host has activated innate skill [Blink]]

The world around him slowed down to such a degree that he felt it wasn't moving at all. Even with the ice-cold club close to his face, he had no problem grabbing the ice mana core of the golem's head.

He jumped on to the body of the other golem's body as the supersonic effect of the [Zone] was reaching its limits. Rather than using the scythe, he plunged his bare hand into its head and tore the mana core out of its body.

[The host has activated innate skill [Blink]]

And the body crumbled, but because of another sonic boom, the edge of the cliff shattered too. So did another golem.

[12.8714]

[The host has manually deactivated skill [Zone]]

Aiden had no problem in taking care of the last golem before the effect of [Blink] ended.

Aiden stared at the tennis ball-sized four golem core that was desperately trying to devour the mana out of its body. There was a mana circle, similar to the one he had seen on the cliff, exquisitely drawn on the golem core.

"You need to destroy the mana trace in the mana circle before you can use it yourself."

'Mana trace?' asked Aiden.

"It's like a command. Unless you over-write, it will continue to follow the previous command. Think of it as a slave command. It will continue to follow the order of the previous master unless you make it of your own."

Aiden did as Mraz told him, and soon the four golem cores stopped trying to absorb the mana. It was like they have fallen asleep like a satisfied baby.

'So how can I start it?'

"Pouring mana at the center of the mana circle will do. But put it on the ground. Otherwise, it will absorb the mana from your body."

Aiden did as Mraz told him, and it transformed. However, unlike the white one that had absorbed snow around it, it was of crystal blue.

Aiden signaled the giant to sit down, yet all it did was tilt its head, not understanding what Aiden was asking it to do.

'It's not as intelligent as the ice wolves or the ice clones.' Aiden was a little unsatisfied with its ability.

"What do you expect? They didn't design these golems for these purposes. A trigger to sense any movement near it, and as soon as it wakes up, all it needs to do is kill. A simple command."

"The mana circles of ice clones or ice wolves are almost upper middle grade. And this simple mana circle is barely lower grade."

Mraz smirked, adding, "If you want, you can make one of your own. All you need to do is to merge the two mana circles and inscribe on a mana crystal."

'That would be a great idea.' One of the biggest problems Aiden face with both of the spells was the limitation because of the distance he could supply mana. If he really can solve the problem…

"What the hell is that?" A surprise voice screamed inside his helmet, and Aiden was sure that it wasn't Robin. Aiden cut off the feed without hesitation.

Aiden frowned as he extended his hand, and the golem core shot out of its body into his hand. The shell of ice golem crumbled like a house of cards.

Aiden soon returned to the transporter. Charak greeted him with an excited face and fell on the floor with a slap to his chest.

After he stood up and looked at Aiden with fearful eyes, Aiden recited the command of no harm and no talking policy before taking a seat.

"Don't worry too much about it." Robin patted Charak's shoulders with a grin, adding, "Welcome to my world. Things you will see or learn will blow your mind, yet you won't be able to talk about it to anyone."

"So, where are we going to go?" Robin started the transporter as he asked. "The spaceport or military stronghold no 1?"

"I think massage is transmitted all known from the spaceship. I don't think any transmitter in the stronghold can transmit directly in the helmet. The void transmitter of a spaceship is the only option."

Aiden turned to Charak, who was still standing there with a face full of fear, and asked, "Do you have any way to get out of the planet?"

"What?" Charak failed to understand how Aiden knew about it. But before he could solve the mystery, the pain in his chest continued to grow.

"As long as you answer him, the pain will go away." Robin gave a comforting smile, "but it must be the truth."

Charak grabbed his chest as his face twisted in pain. Yet he continued to stare at Aiden, "yes."

"Good. Then we are going to the spaceport." Aiden said without hesitation. "After all, we don't know what type of setting they had at the military stronghold #1."

"Okay." Robin nodded, "What about the road? According to the GMPS, we need to go through the crater."

"Keep about 700-800 meters' distance from the cliff and drive around it." Robin nodded and drove towards the directed path.

"What the heck did you do to me?" Charak glared at Aiden.

"That is a slave tattoo. As long as you don't disobey me, you won't die."

"Slave? Disobey? Do you know what will happen to you if I tell all of this to him?"

"You will die before you can tell him," Robin replied for Aiden. He turned to Aiden, asking, "he has the tattoo too. I can tell him, right?"

After getting his confirmation, Robin pointed at his heart, "I have that too. It won't do anything unless you try to harm him or tell someone else about his secret."

"He could have just asked me." Charak frowned.

"What you have done if the person funding you asked about it?" Robin smirked.

"If he had asked me politely, I wouldn't have talked about it."

"Then just don't talk about it. You won't die. It is as simple as that." Robin maintained his smile and pointed at his heart again, "believe it or not, but because of this thing and him, I could survive in the wilderness for a month."

"It doesn't matter what you think." Aiden spoke, "Ira had told me you have a way to get us out of the planet. So it is just an equivalent exchange. I will take you to the spaceport unharmed, and you will take us out of the planet."

"What about my research data?" Charak frowned, "There were many more people in there. What about them?"

Aiden sighed, "Let me give an update on the situation. The monsters that were terrorizing the planet till now were the small part of an enormous army. And now that enormous army is here. Do you think anybody will survive?"

"In case you don't know, the army has taken back control of all the research posts they had lost." Charak snorted, "They might have lost because of the element of surprise, but the monster poses no threat to the army now."

Seeing the fed-up expression on Aiden's face, Robin explained, "They have destroyed the satellites. The GCN system is down. We can't even contact another stronghold, much less outside the planet."

"On top of that, the monsters are hunting us down. There are only two things you can do right now. Either leave the planet or become their food."