A Quarry of Mine Own

John withdrew his phone and pulled up its map to get their location. Vivian’s aimless driving had gone mostly west from his home, which meant they were getting close to the reservoir.

“Take the next left and keep going down that road for a few miles,” John advised. “The reservoir is down that way and there should be plenty of space for us to set up the Barrier without issue.”

“Alright,” Vivian said and followed John’s directions. “Now, if I remember correctly, you had four creature options: beast, plant, machine and golem. We did beast with the tavaren, and I doubt you want to have a go with the machine so soon after yesterday. So, between plant and golem, I figure you want to go with plant.”

Before John could answer, Aeolia chirped up, “I don’t know. John and I already fought plants twice, so I’m going to put my money on golems.”

“So, what are we fighting?” Vivian asked.

“Well,” John said, nervously scratching his cheek, “I was thinking golem. Figure it could be a good way to farm raw ores. We got a wood block from the woads so I hope the base material is something all golems have in their loot tables.”

“Looks like I win this round,” Aeolia said smugly. “You know, next time we should set up some wager. Nothing major, just something for fun. Losers make dinner, that sort of thing.”

“‘Losers’?” John echoed.

“What?” Aeolia queried. “Afraid of some innocent wagers?”

“Of course not,” John quickly retorted, gaming instinct preventing him from declining such a proposal.

“You game for it, Vi?” the winged woman asked their driver.

The redhead bit her lip as she considered the question, then nodded slightly. “Nothing too crazy, right?”

“Nothing too crazy,” Aeolia repeated. “And if the wager’s too much, you can suggest an alternative. Not aiming to be mean or anything.”

“Then it sounds like it could be fun,” Vivian said with a small smile. “Shall we make one before we do the Barrier?”

“How about,” John announced, “who ever kills the least amount of mobs by lunchtime buys lunch?”

“Puts me at a disadvantage,” Vivian remarked.

“What about a two-v-one thing?” Aeolia asked. “You and John versus me. Evens things out enough, right?”

“That sounds more fair,” Vivian answered. “The variety of our abilities and being two people does seem like it’ll balance out your combat experience.”

John nodded in agreement, his strategic mind already working out how to combine their talents to achieve a victory. “On the topic of our competition, do you think I should set the Barrier to the highest level?”

“Let’s go all out,” Aeolia said with a sharp grin.

John returned her grin, confident he and Vivian could keep up with her raw power.

‘In fact,’ John thought, ‘I’ll need to check Vivian’s mana. Given her higher Intelligence, that should mean her pool is larger than Aeolia’s, even with the three level difference. Having more mana means we could outlast Aeolia. Without mana to enhance her glaive, she would be reliant on her raw physical strength. And while it is greater than mine and Vivian’s, golems should be pretty armored. Let her burn her mana out early then we can sweep in later rounds.’

He caught Vivian’s eye in the rearview mirror and quickly winked, hoping to convey his confidence. She flushed slightly but smiled.

“So this is the reservoir, huh?” Aeolia remarked unseen as she rode John’s shoulder. The three of them stood behind a railing that separated them from a rather steep cliff.

“Yep,” John replied, turning back towards the forest behind them. “And this area was set up as something of a nature reserve. Gives us plenty of space to hide away and set up the Barrier unseen.”

“Well, let’s go!” Aeolia exclaimed. “I’ve got lunch to win!”

Aeolia’s confident boast caused Vivian to shrink into herself as they moved to the treeline. John flashed her a reassuring smile and a small nod that seemed to quell some of her nervousness. Once they slipped behind the trees, John cast Instant Barrier and dialed in the Barrier specifics: golem creature type at level six. With one last look to his companions, John created the Barrier.

Reality shifted, and the lightly forested landscape was replaced with barren dusty ground. Even the sky reflected the desolate environment, going from clear to heavy overcast.

“Well, this sure is a less happy picture,” Aeolia remarked as she faded into view and flew up. “We’ve got a big hole over here.”

She darted back in the direction they had come from and John and Vivian followed. The dead earth transitioned into bare stone as they approached the lip of a massive divot in the world, stopping next to what amounted to a sloping path down. It dipped down at least one hundred meters, the walls slanted slightly as they went down like the stone and dirt had been scooped out like ice cream.

Vivian eyed the oblong hole with a critical eye. “This was where the reservoir was, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah,” John answered. “And are you thinking this kind of looks like it?”

Vivian nodded. “I supposed the environment we were in has shaped the Barrier. This must be what the reservoir looks like without all the water.”

“Don’t think there was a mining operation at the bottom,” Aeolia said, pointing her glaive down into the earthen pit. Several pieces of equipment, mostly picks, carts and crates, littered the ground for as far as they could see, though not all of these were unused.

Their targets toiled away below, seemingly unaware of their presence or unperturbed by it. They were lumbering things, wide stone cylinders with a small dome for a head with equally bulky limbs, their arms hanging down like an ape’s just barely clear of the ground in contrast to their stubby legs.

John equipped his goggles and lowered the lenses to get a better look. With the five times zoom, he was able to better make out the details of the golems. Each was covered in carved glyphs, some of which were half filled with moss.

‘Can I Observe from here?’ John thought as he focused on one and used the skill.

“Well, I can Observe through the goggles,” he announced, slipping said instrument onto his brow and leaning back slightly to give the girls an unobstructed view of the golem’s info.

“Pretty basic,” Aeolia remarked, sounding a little disappointed. “And boring drops.”

“It is only level four,” John pointed out. “Every low level mob drops basic loot. We can still use the ore for crafting, though I’m going to guess I’ll need to turn it into an ingot first. Which is a bit annoying, but whatever.”

“So, how are we going to start this competition thing?” Vivian asked, a hint of apprehension creeping into her voice.

“Well, my plan is to just fly down there and see what these guys are made of,” Aeolia answered, bouncing her glaive on her shoulder.

Before Aeolia could put her plan into action, John lightly placed his hand on her unoccupied shoulder.

“We should probably set an end time,” he said, eyes sweeping through the great depression below them. “There are a lot of them down there. I count at least twelve and we’ve got no idea if there are any outside of our range or hidden away. How about we set a timer? Think two hours is enough?”

“Should be plenty,” Aeolia cockily replied, flexing her wings. “How are we going to keep the time anyway? Can’t really fight while holding one of your phones.” Her confident smile shifted into a more sly one as she eyed John. “Or are you trying to put me at a disadvantage? Trying to give yourself more time, hmm?”

She leaned up into John’s face, her smile widening at John’s minor discomfort before she closed the distance and pecked his cheek.

“You’re cute when you’re all flustered,” she sighed. “You’re too nice to try and cheat like that. But there’s still the problem with keeping track of the time.”

“I think I can help with that,” Vivian chimed in. “A time keeping array isn’t something that’ll be too hard to set up. I’ll just need a few minutes to work out all the details and….”

She trailed off as Shine Dust began to flow from a recently produced bottle. John and Aeolia watched as the silvery powder twisted into shapes, patterns and glyphs while Vivian muttered to herself, one hand directing her creation, the other holding her phone as she measured the passing of seconds.

After a few minutes of work, the array solidified into its final form. It wasn’t too dissimilar from what an old fashioned watch looked like on the inside, several circles of varying sizes pressed together like cogs.

“Done,” Vivian announced with a satisfied look on her face. “And I managed to work in a way to keep track of our kills.”

She lifted a finger to one of the circles and gave the glyph in the center a tap. It quivered a second, then morphed into another shape.

“Rather analog, I know,” Vivian explained, her confidence slipping slightly, “but it’s the best I could come up with given the time frame. Just try not to touch it until you mean to. I wasn’t able to come up with a way to reduce the count without making things overly cumbersome.”

Aeolia whistled appreciatively. “I don’t know a damn thing about these complicated things, but I figure setting up a timer and kill counter in like five minutes from scratch is pretty impressive. And I think that work needs a reward.”

Before Vivian could react, Aeolia cupped her face and drew her into a kiss. The redhead froze for a second before melting into Aeolia’s affection. Likewise, John stood locked in place, his pants quickly tightening at the sight of the two lost in each other. When they broke apart, Aeolia wore a smug smile as she took in Vivian’s flushed, but happy expression.

“Well, then,” Aeolia breathily said. “How about we get going?”

“Now who’s using dirty tricks?” John remarked as Vivian shook herself out of her kiss induced stupor and quickly began to produce a second array, purposefully avoiding looking at either of her companions.

“Who? Me?” Aeolia shot back with a sly smile. “Like I said, good work deserves rewarding. If you can win this, maybe I’ll reward you too.”

Spurred on by her teasing, John grinned. “I plan to.”

“Now that I like,” she purred. “Let’s see if you can keep that promise.”

Once Vivian had produced the second array, and explained its full functionality, they agreed to part and wait ten minutes before starting. Aeolia had flown a little bit away, leaving John and Vivian at the ramp. Despite the positive reinforcement, the redhead fidgeted as she watched the time tick down.

“You okay?” John inquired softly as he equipped his glove, causing her to jostle slightly.

She gave him a slight smile, then looked down at the working golems.

“I just hope I’m not too much of a burden for this,” she admitted. “I doubt my concussive array will do much to these golems and I can’t think of any other methods of attacking.”

John drew her into a side hug, causing her to lean into him. “We’ll do fine. It’s not like this bet thing is a big deal, and I’ve got a bit of a plan.”

“Already?” Vivian asked, not moving from her nestled position.

“Well, it’s more of a ‘I know how Aeolia is going to fight, so I know her weakness’ kind of thing,” John clarified. “When I woke up, I got an update to my powers. When I look up someone’s Character Sheet, I get an idea just how much mana they have in relation to mine. Aeolia only has between 125 and 150 mana. She’s likely to burn out faster than us.”

Vivian hummed and tilted her head up to look at John. “You know where mine falls?”

“Not yet,” John replied, smiling down at her. “But I can. Want to know?”

“Of course I want to know,” she retorted. “It’s one thing to be able to vaguely feel how much mana someone can have, but being able to put even rough numbers to it is an invaluable asset.”

“Okay,” John said. “One Observe coming up.”

“Well, you’ve got at least 150,” John reported. “Six out of seven means you’ve got at least fifty percent more mana than I do, but less than seventy-five. And since I’m just a few points shy of one hundred, that means, at best, you’ve got just less than one seventy-five.”

Vivian hummed as she considered the numbers. “From those numbers and what I could tell from empirically, I figure Aeolia is closer to the high end of her ranking while I’m nearer the low. I’ve had the impression that we’re not too far apart, mana wise.”

“Okay,” John said, adding that assessment to his plans. “I think my idea will still work. Golems usually have high HP in games and the woads took a few hits from Aeolia before they went down. So I think Aeolia either will burn her mana out quickly or will be conservative and won’t be able to just mow down the golems. Either way gives us time to come up with a way to deal with the golems in a more efficient manner.”

“You think we’ll have enough time to figure out a way to do that?” Vivian asked, eyeing the array as it counted down.

John flashed her a smile. “I think if we put our heads together, we can find some exploit. Maybe those glyphs could be something we could mess with. Reprogram one to fight for us?”

“I doubt it’ll be that easy to hack their programming like that,” Vivian replied sadly. “But I suppose they could reveal some of their movement and combat protocols. Not all, since the more complex controls should be bound to an internal command core. You know, it is a little weird that there are glyphs on the outside. Wear and tear would slowly but surely erode the glyphs and lead to operational issues.”

“Maybe the external glyphs are for something other than behavior,” John mused before he glanced at the timer. “One minute left. Think we should go for one of the isolated ones and give it a few hits to determine how much damage we can deal?”

“Sounds like a good plan,” Vivian agreed. “If these guys aren’t resistant to magic, my paralysis array should be easier to use than it was last time.”

John nodded, and when the counter reached zero, letting out a brief flash as it shifted to the two hour countdown, he and Vivian proceeded down the ramp at a brisk pace, eyes sweeping over the golems until they spied one working a far distance from its fellows.

The golems did not seem to mind them walking into their area. The bulking beings of stone just kept moving about, hauling crates of supplies, pulling carts laden with rocks and ores, and digging into the earth below with massive shovels and pickaxes. The duo’s target, whether by chance or design, was toiling away at a wall. Like all the other golems, it remained oblivious to them as they stopped a few meters away.

“Okay,” John said, lifting his left hand up, the embedded crystal aglow with flame, “let’s see what this can do.”

Vivian nodded and lifted her arms in front of her, crossing them into an ‘x’ shape with her palms down. “Just in case, I’m going to distort the view between us and the rest. Make it a big old mess of random blurs.”

“Good idea.” John smiled at her then focused on the golem as she cast her spell, a concave space becoming a mess of colors and blurred shapes between them and the rest of the workers. A quick Observe put it at level four like the one he’d scanned earlier, his action still not drawing any recognition from it, and he cast Fiery Pursuit.

The orb of fire sparked into existence and John willed it to approach the golem slowly, gauging its reaction to the approaching attack. It remained at work, unfazed, and John gave Vivian one last nod before sending the flame crashing into the stone creation’s exposed side.

28 DMG

The fire exploded with a sharp roar and the golem’s repetitive picking stopped, its tool raised high above its dome-like head. Its leg moved and the whole lumbering chunk of stone pivoted to face them.

Then, with ponderous steps, it began to approach.

Thanks again for reading this little story. If you liked the chapter, please hit that thumbs up, and if you want to support my writing, check out my Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/ScrapCrow. Get access to my chapters before they’re published here and join my private Discord.