Chapter 3

Despite barely hanging onto his life, Lugis lay unable to move or think coherently on the gate's floor. Although he had previously been left alone by everything in the gate, the golem parts started to all approach him, before crowding around his body.

The golem parts around Lugis were all of differing types and elements. Despite all crowding around him, not a single golem attempted to attack him. Instead, they all started attacking each other.

It did not matter if they were of similar or completely different types, every golem part decided to start attacking one another. This only took around five minutes, as some parts were clearly stronger than others, even if that did not mean they were strong compared to other monsters.

This led to four golem parts emerging victorious, the reason that there was not only one winner was the golem part's minor intelligence. Every golem part had the same thought which caused the initial fight to the death, if they could not attach to each other, then maybe they could attach themselves to the human body.

This meant the four winners consisted of two golem arms, and two golem legs. Although they were all of different types, they believed that they might be able to fuse together with the human body if it could not be done with each other.

The four parts moved themselves towards Lugis' body in the correct positions to make sure their host would be able to move correctly if they managed to successfully fuse with him.

As soon as the golem parts touched the bleeding stumps that previously would have had Lugis' limbs attached to them, an immense pain shocked the previously unconscious and dying Lugis awake. An even greater pain than the one he felt before hit him as a horrific burning pain was sent through his entire body. He had no idea what was happening to him, as he did not get the chance to see due to his body's tiredness.

This caused him to fall unconscious again from the shock and pain, only to be awoken by the same thing that had knocked him out. This cycle continued for around half an hour until the pain subsided.

After around three hours of having no feelings of pain in his body, Lugis finally awoke to his own surprise as he believed that he should have most certainly been dead. When he raised his head to look at his body, he was not only confused, but also scared of what he saw.

Instead of having his regular arms and legs, or even no arms and legs, Lugis' limbs were now replaced with four different golem parts.

His right arm looked as if it was covered in pitch black armour with an equally black aura covering it, this was a shadow golem's arm. In their completed form, shadow golems were a D rank type of golem that was capable of manipulating darkness while also possessing incredibly high offensive capabilities for their rank.

His left arm was made of rock that was red hot and covered in flames, it was in the shape of a long tube with an opening at the end, this was a flame golem's arm. In their completed form, flame golems were a D rank type of golem that were capable of creating fire and controlling it while also possessing incredibly high offensive capabilities for their rank.

His right leg was made completely of incredibly hard ice that was below freezing if someone touched it, the shape of it resembled a leg and foot despite being larger and covered with ice spikes, this was an ice golem's leg. In their completed form, ice golems were a D rank type of golem that were capable of freezing things around them and controlling and creating ice while also possessing incredibly high defensive capabilities for their rank.

His left leg was made entirely of pale green crystals in an unrefined and spike covered form despite still looking somewhat like a leg, this was a crystal golem's leg. In their completed form, crystal golems were a D rank type of golem that were capable of reflecting magic attacks back at the caster, and reflecting physical attacks back through the form of recoil on the attacker. They were also capable of creating crystals in any form they wanted to and they possessed incredibly high defensive capabilities for their rank.

Lugis knew that this was the case as he had researched everything in the dungeon before he had entered and was confident on his knowledge. However, he had never heard of the golem parts fusing with each other, let alone a human. Not only that, but the previously useless golem parts seemed to have been reinvigorated by fusing with Lugis, as their previous grey and dull forms had turned back into their original ones.

This confused Lugis as he knew that a golem core was needed to make golems work correctly, as without one they would be unable to use any of their abilities which was what made them F rank.

However, this confusion was not long lived as Lugis saw a pure white spherical object protruding from the centre of his chest, 'Is that a golem core? How has this happened? Fuck, first I almost died, and now I've fused with these monsters.'

Despite the odd circumstances, Lugis attempted to stand up with his new body which was much easier than he had expected due to being fully fused with the golem parts. As he no longer had human legs or arms, he was much taller than before and stood at 6'5.

Although his new limbs seemed bulky, they were actually quite flexible and worked much like human limbs as golems were made in the image of humans.

It took around five minutes of walking around and moving his arms for Lugis to get somewhat used to his new body. Once he felt comfortable with moving around, he wondered something, 'If I now have four golem parts attached to me, do I have the ability to evolve them like normal monsters can?'

Lugis wondered this, as he was aware of the capabilities of golems through evolution.

There were many stages of golems:

F Rank Golem Parts.

E Rank Half Golems.

D Rank Golems.

C Rank Golem Captains.

B Rank Golem Generals.

A Rank Golem Kings.

S Rank Golem Emperors.

Anything above this is currently unknown, and not all types of golem have been seen at each rank. With each increase in rank, the type of Golem would become much stronger in terms of its abilities and its capabilities would increase as well.

Currently, Lugis was technically a D rank Golem as he had a working core. This was most likely due to the amount of other golem parts his new limbs had defeated which had caused them to collectively gain enough experience to create a core in Lugis' body.

Another thought came to Lugis, 'If I can now evolve and have abilities like monsters, do I have something similar to the statuses that Hunters have?'

Lugis said aloud, "Status."

In front of his eyes appeared the status board that he had heard about from people who awakened as Hunters.

Name: Lugis Blackthorn

Species: Human / Golem (Shadow, Fire, Ice, Crystal)

Level: 1/50

Rank: D

Attack: 65

Defence: 65

Vitality: 120

Agility: 50

Free Points:

This shocked Lugis, as D rank hunters stats on average look something like this.

Level: 1/50

Rank: D

Attack: 35

Defence: 35

Vitality: 75

Agility: 35

Free Points:

Skills:

This meant that he was much stronger than other D Rank Hunters and Monsters alike which was likely caused by being fused with four different types of Golem. He was also glad to see that he had the same level cap as a regular hunter, which would mean his rank would increase and he would evolve at the same speed as a normal hunter. Lugis was also interested to find out if it was only his Golem body parts that would evolve, or if his human body would as well. The only downside was that he did not have a skills area which was most likely due to not being a Hunter, and only having powers from becoming part Golem.

Now that he had checked everything he felt he could, Lugis only had one thing left to do in the dungeon.

He had to defeat the Boss and escape the gate.