Life

"Awakenings are magically intensive processes." I state as I take out my enchanter's pen and contemplate what sort of an enchantment to put on the golem. Beth watches me curiously, obviously eager to see whatever I'm about to do. 

"In order to awaken something, at least the way that I plan to do it, I need to enchant this lad. I'm just trying to think of what sort of an enchantment I want to place on this fellow." I remark as I study the elegant work of art I've created. 

The tall stone pillar has been reshaped by my perk-guided chiseling and now resembles a powerfully built human man. Of course, the skin tone of the figure makes it clear that the thing is not an actual living being, yet, but thanks to my perks I was able to skillfully transform the nondescript pillar into something vaguely reminiscent of the sort of statues one might see in an art museum on Earth. 

So far my approach to enchanting has been simple. I have exclusively used enchantments that allow an object to achieve its purpose more efficiently. I have enchanted heavy armor to be more defensive in a range of ways, and have on occasion created arcane blades that are kissed by magic in such a way that the weapons are simply better blades. This approach is uncreative, to be sure, but it's also powerfully effective. 

"But before I can even awaken our future friend over here I need to enchant him first. I'm just not sure what enchantment or enchantments I should lay on the lad." I state, continuing to speak to Beth but mostly using her as a means to think out loud. She gazes at the thing curiously, and I momentarily wonder what the doll thinks of golems. 

Dolls and golems are curious things. Both are arcane constructs empowered by powerful processes, and both are capable of remarkable feats of intelligence and strength. After all, I saw Beth and Raquel cut down various foes while we were fighting to protect Oceanos, and I know the two of them are skilled warriors with years of experience protecting their master. 

Golems, at least as I know them, seem considerably less free-willed than the dolls have shown themselves to be. Heck earlier today Raquel had to be persuaded to obey an order! Beth on the other hand either admires golems or at least respects the arcane expertise one needs to have to be able to make one in the first place. 

"Do you know what you plan to do with the golem?" Beth asks, and I turn and glance at her with a smile.

"Yes I do! I want to send this one over to the mine. It'll begin the work of actually using the mine for its intended purpose, which will be what provides the golems who do the labor needed to construct whatever building we make for the animals to live in with the raw resources that that will take." I tell the doll. She considers my answer for a few moments before making a suggestion. 

"In that case why don't you enchant it to be stronger than it would otherwise be? You know elemental magic, don't you? If so, you could use one of your earth spells as the basis for the enchantments you lay on the golem." She deftly suggests, which causes me to smile as I contemplate her suggestion. 

I close my eyes and envision the different spell matrixes I would need to carve into the golem to achieve some variation of this suggestion. I picture different spells that I know "innately", all of which I only know due to perks, and I focus to try and think about how they would affect the golem. 

Over the course of various nights I have begun to mentally unpack assorted sorts of knowledge that was forcibly inserted into my brain during my transition from Earth to here. Such knowledge has been packed into my perks and it has taken me a decent amount of time to be able to meaningfully make use of that knowledge. I know basic facts about golems in part because of this unusual font of knowledge. 

Different types of golems have different capabilities, but golems made of nondescript stone such as the ones I'm planning to make are impressively normal compared to their strange cousins. Stone golems are good at simple, often repetitive tasks, and lack any pronounced supernatural abilities. They make for handy servants for magic users skilled enough to construct them, but are the least impressive kind of golem someone might expect to see if they visit a wizard. 

I know of a handful of handy, but simple spells that if I use them on the golem can make it a useful treasure detector and enhance its ability to mine by improving the destructive ability of its arms. Intertwining them into the thing will only take a few minutes, and so I decide to do just that after briefly thanking Beth for her suggestions. 

I walk over to the golem's back and take the pen in my hand to the thing's solid body. Etching symbols into the golem's body takes me several minutes, and each time I finish etching a symbol I feel a tiny amount of magic get sucked out of me. The sensation is unpleasant but it's also a necessary part of the process for this type of enchanting. My regeneration is swift enough that in the moments between some of my magic getting siphoned out of me and my completion of the next symbol I completely regenerate the drained arcane power. 

Due primarily to a confluence of perks working in tandem this part of the process only takes a handful of minutes. When I'm finished there are a range of symbols crisscrossing the future-creature's back, all of which touch and intersect. Anyone with the ability to physically perceive magic would also see an undercurrent of eldritch energy whenever they looked at the sculpture. I take a step back and admire the arcane sculpture as I ready myself to bring it to life. 

I can already see some of my perks which affect enchantments working their magic on the enchantments I've weaved into the, currently inanimate, sculpture. Some of my perks, particularly "Old, Patient Magic" and "Living Magic" both of which are perks that allow enchantments to grow in power with time and use as opposed to being static, one-time things that boost an object or person's, with the right perks at least, attributes or confer new abilities.

"This thing will definitely grow up to be quite powerful…" I remark as I glance at the arcane energy slowly creeping across it. I mentally review my list of usable perks and smile when I find one worth using in the last moments before I awaken the object. I step forward and place my hand on the shoulder of the sculpture while thinking about names that exemplify what I want the thing to be able to do. 

"Your name will be Mammon the Miner." I proclaim, grandly. This elicits a snicker from Beth and I smile internally as I realize how nerdy the name is, but the sculpture begins to faintly glow as the name takes hold. I have just used the "Named Creationst" perk, which allows me to name my creations and in doing so infuse them with the ability to take on properties related to their names. If someone had a shield and named it "The Invulnerable" it'd be harder to destroy. 

I want this golem to be a handy, successful miner so I have given it a name that reflects that. My plans for this bad boy are simple but this being is going to be important in the days to come so ensuring that it has all the tools needed to succeed matters. I keep my hand on the thing's head as I shut my eyes and prepare to awaken the being. My intention is registered by the perk and I feel a sudden and dramatic loss of arcane energy as my magical power begins to flow into the sculpture, finally transforming it from a simple, yet handsome, work of art into a living being of sorts. 

As my energy flows into the art I have created a mental textbox appears in my mind's eye. This is a facet of awakening something I have created, as opposed to awakening an animal. The textbox asks me to design the golem's personality and determine how intelligent the thing is going to be. 

I take a few moments to design a simple personality for my first living creation. I want the golem to be loyal to me above all things, to be eager to learn both as it relates to its duties and in general, and to be a workaholic. I also elect to make the golem as intelligent as I can make it, which costs extra arcane power but I can tell intuitively will be worth it in the long run. 

Beth delightedly gasps as she watches the sculpture and I can feel the light it begins to dramatically emanate. At the same time I get an "Achievement", which I can intuitively sense is connected to my nature as a "Gamer" of some sort, related to what I have just done, as well as a skill named "Golem making". 

I have a natural understanding of these terms in this context, which is handy since it's the first time I'm seeing them. To be fair, creating a golem is no easy task even if my perks make it seem mildly easy if a bit time consuming to do, so it makes sense to reward me for my completion of this task. 

The light feels warm on my skin and it takes several seconds before it dies down. When the light vanishes I open my eyes and spot the golem which is now smiling at me. 

"Hello, master." The thing utters, its voice a baritone thing. It is looking at me quite kindly, and I pull my hand off of its shoulder as I study it. 

"Good afternoon Mammon. How are you feeling?" I ask. The statue considers my question for a few moments before looking around and beginning to smile. 

"Well master… I feel alive. And that is rather excellent." The statue thoughtfully remarks. It seems my newest companion is an optimist. I study the figure for a few moments before deciding to ask it something. 

"Do you feel prepared to go out and do what you were made to do?" I ask the sculpture, curiously. It considers my question for a beat before nodding at me. This makes me smile. 

"Okay, in that case Mammon… I have my first order for you." I state, happily. 

"Beth, please guide our new friend over to the mine. Today I would like to experiment and see how much he can mine without us forging specialized gear for him. Mammon, please go to the mine and see how much metal you can safely mine without any gear." I ask, and the golem grins joyfully at me. The two quickly exit the room and I find myself alone with a chance to catch my breath and allow my stores of arcane energy to begin to recover. 

Once I begin to recover from what the damage my latest work did to my stores of arcane energy I quickly head to the kitchen and begin to make a simple meal for myself. Raquel is still working on a space to give the animals and is currently redecorating the small garage that is near the back of the estate to make it a temporary shelter for our animals while I slowly work towards creating a more permanent place for them to live. 

I take a beat to create a sandwich by hand, which grants me a "Skill" labeled "Cooking". While gaining a skill is neat, I did this by hand for the sake of activating the "Mastercrafting" perk. It seems my nature as a gamer is growing more pronounced… The perk I activated is a handy one that improves all facets of things I craft whenever I seriously try while creating something. The sandwich that I create while doing this is delicious and powerfully restorative, activating "Arcanovore" and bolstering my natural arcane energy regeneration rate, which is handy since I plan to create more golems today.

Partway through the meal I have made for myself Beth contacts me through the party system and informs me that she has taken Mammon to the mine. I ask her to go to the other "Grand Constructs" and to tell me what, if anything, any of them need, a mission the doll happily accepts.

Once I finish eating the food I immediately go back to the art studio and throw myself into my work. Over the course of the next handful of hours I delicately sculpt another golem, this time making it of a woman dressed in a robe. During this time I gain another skill, this one being a skill for sculpting. When the process is over I give the statue enchantments that bolster its ability to observe things, and then name it "Anna the Architect" before awakening it. I give her a more energetic personality than I gave Mammon, as I plan for this particular golem to be an active planner who works as a builder but specializes in buildings and other such grand things. 

When this golem is constructed I welcome her into the world and then give her her first mission: go and figure out where best to put a barn for the animals in my retinue. She is eager to complete her mission and immediately departs from my presence. I take a few more hours to sculpt, enchant, and awaken another golem, this time naming him "Gerald the Guard" and also construct a weapon for him by using the "Crafting System" function of my nature as a gamer and some of the leftover stones from the pillars. The spear is constructed in such a way that it still benefits from many of my perks, particularly "Form equals function", a perk which makes it so that the better something looks the better it functions, as the spear is an artistically made object and that is nice since it makes it more effective as a weapon. 

I give him a simple task: to patrol the area around the estate, and even add him to the party consisting of Beth, Raquel, and myself, so he can non-verbally communicate with us if need be. It is partway through the process of constructing the guard that Raquel appears and tells me she has fed and, for the time being, housed the animals in our retinue. 

Raquel and I make dinner for her, the two golems in the area, and myself, which thanks to me using some of my items only takes a few minutes to do. As we all eat I get to watch "Spirit of the kitchen" activate, empowering the golems, Raquel, and myself subtly. 

"Spirit of the kitchen" is one of my favorite, and ultimate, perks. It is not a fast perk, in terms of delivering visible results, but it is a comprehensive beast of a perk that allows me to empower anything I feed, and feed anything to anyone or anything with no complications. 

Shortly after dinner I go to bed. Beth is still away on her mission, and so Raquel and I spend the night together but given how much I worked today I do not feel like doing anything especially lewd so in minutes I drift off to sleep beside the doll. I dream of the aquatic city again, and still find it mysteriously empty. 

When I awaken hours have passed and I find Beth next to me in the bed. Both of my dolls warmly greet me, and Beth takes a few minutes to inform me of the state of various "Grand Constructs". 

The existing constructs are an enchanted mine, an observatory, an outdoor garden, and a dock. All four constructs, as far as we can tell, are in good shape, but the observatory remains locked and cannot be unlocked until I approach the place with my portable monitor. We eventually get out of bed and I spend almost an hour making food not only for the dolls and myself but also for the animals. When everyone is fed I hurl myself into the day's work, which I begin by making clothes for the creatures I saved from Sophia's pirate fleet. 

I create and enchant a total of ten outfits. Each of the outfits is designed to bolster the animal wearing it in a myriad of ways, and they are all personalized to the animals in question. 

This, unsurprisingly, gives me a "Tailor" skill, and when I finish the last outfit I am surprised to see a notification alerting me to the fact that my victory over a skilled "Style Warrior", coupled with what I have just spent the morning doing has allowed me to begin to walk the path of a "Style Warrior" myself! I feel my mind adjusting as I gain ownership of various new perks, the bottom tier of the perks which style warriors are capable of. I have also earned the "Trinkets and Baubles" perk, which is a tamer perk that gives me the ability to create special accessories for my pets that enhance them in a range of ways.

As a low-tier style warrior I get another career-type perk offering me a decade of experience in something art-related of my choice. I elect to gain a decade of experience as an artist who makes sculptures, and in doing so I feel my instincts grow and my muscles gain new memories. I also get a decade's worth of experience with a fighting style of my choice, and I elect to use that to get a decade's worth of experience with swordplay. 

During the afternoon I create the remaining pair of golems that I have the stone pillars for. I make one of them a miner named "Mario the miner" that I add to my party and send with Beth over to Mammon, along with some simple, and of curious enchanted, tools. 

The last golem I construct begins as a sculpture of a woman that I enchant to be swift and enduring and I name her "Sara the Scout". I task her with exploring the areas that my dolls and I have yet to explore, and I even experiment and manage to successfully add her to the bizarre network that links my dolls and I telepathically! This is a significant victory that showcases that this power is a controllable one and is something I can someday master. 

After this I let her begin her journey, telling her to update the rest of us often. For dinner I use the Traveler's Dream to visit the dock at the edge of the shore not terribly far from my estate and give an offering to the nereids, which they gleefully accept and devour in front of me. I even cook something for Neptunia herself, and ask them to deliver it to her on my behalf as a sign of my delight at being her neighbor. They eagerly accept the food, curious to see what sort of food I could think worthy of being devoured by their mistress. 

I end the day back home and dream of the aquatic city once more. It remains empty but I still manage to find something of note: deep inside of it is a huge temple dedicated to a figure who resembles a beautiful blue-haired mermaid with skin somewhat darker than copper. 

When I wake up I ask my companions what sort of weapons and gear they'd like. I am surprised to hear Raquel inform me that she wants metal armor, a heavy weapon she can use for smashing things, and knives she can throw and manipulate in mid-air. Beth tells me she wants fur armor, a bow and arrows that she can direct in mid-air, and a sword. I accept both of those sets of requests and tell them that I'll be trying to get them done today, but also that I'm making no promises which they both happily accept. 

We begin the day with breakfast, which is once again a large undertaking. Sara telepathically informs us that past the mine is a large forest and I ask her to investigate the place. When breakfast is done I head to the metalworking room and get to work on creating the gear for my companions. I spend the whole day working on the various items I need to forge, taking a break for lunch with the animals and dolls and taking an extra hour to begin to train my furry and feathered friends. This hour is productive as I get to see how the animals act when they are free to behave as they wish too, and I even get reminded of their huge sizes when they momentarily transform back into their true forms. 

Forging the totality of the gear I want to make for the dolls will take the next day and a half, partially due to the fact that I take breaks to eat, train with the animals, and eventually begin brewing potions as well. Eventually the gear is finished and Beth and Raquel are able to be outfitted with the gear I made specifically for them, where every stray item is especially enchanted, named, and awakened. 

Beth is clad in an outfit made from fur I harvested using "Ethically Sourced", that gives her the appearance of a joyful huntress. She has a living bow and an enchanted quiver that can generate arrows crafted from its own internal stores of energy. She possesses a long sword made of alchemical metal that can adjust its length mid-strike. The process of creating the sword also allows me to learn how to become an entry-level alchemist: I need to make potions of various types, not just potions of healing and arcane energy restoration but also potions that confer one type of damage resistance and a poison of some sort. 

Raquel wears an elegant looking suit of armor and her gloves are enchanted to be capable of drawing on arcane energy from around her to create temporary knives she can hurl at foes. She also wears a ring that can shapeshift into a hammer. 

During the day and a half it takes me to make the gear I get to have two dreams. Both of these dreams allow me to visit the strange underwater city, and allow me to explore the temple. It doesn't take me long to wonder if Neptunia would like a place of worship dedicated to her on the surface world.

When I awaken the morning after I finish making Raquel and Beth's gear I momentarily wonder if we should depart for the observatory today. I lay in bed for a time, talking to Raquel and Beth as I internally debate whether or not I should make myself some real gear. I end up deciding that today will be the day that I head to the observatory while I am making breakfast for my friends and pets, and during this time I also go ahead and complete the quest to become an introductory level alchemist, using my "Crafting System" to make the items I needed to make after spending some money using "Universal Bartering". 

I have gained the ability to make a choice regarding another decade worth of experience. I elect not to make this choice immediately, as I have more important things on my mind at the moment, but I still gain the other entry-level perks and I delight in the sensation that comes with gaining new perk-based knowledge. It feels like studying for a test and finding that everything makes sense. It's a fun feeling. 

I inform the group as to my decision, and also state that we're going to visit the golems before we head to the distant observatory. After breakfast we hop into the Traveler's Dream and I spend some time conversing with Gerald, Anna, and the other constructs I've made, ordering them to continue their assigned tasks, and even adding them to the network and receiving a "Psionics" skill as a reward for both learning about the ability and making use of it. When that is done I order Beth to take us to the observatory, a trip that will take a handful of hours but culminate with us approaching a huge building situated on top of a tall hill. Just past the hill is a steep drop that ends with someone hitting the ocean hard. 

"Alright Amy… We're officially on our way." I remark as I exit the Traveler's Dream and step towards the enormous building where I hope to be reunited with another of the dollmaker's creations.