The Golem Mage

“It’s not like we have to give an answer to his ridiculous demands anytime soon; we’ll just stall for time like we’ve been doing all along,” the Patriarch began.

“For now, do your best to gather the kids back to the clan, the lockdowns will be extended, and for those studying in faraway places like Alec and the others, they’ll be safe where they are as the city lord has no powers in those institutions and won’t be able to draw us out with such threats, all we need to do is make sure nothing happens during the closures—understood?” he said as everyone nodded to show they understood the role they are faced with

“As for me, I’ll be leaving the clan estate in disguise to move through the city and find any valuable information on why things have escalated to this point. Then, we’ll know how best to proceed. If it comes to the worst, we may have to leave this city...” George concluded, earning nods from everyone in the room—except two elders.

Those two were the youngest—Draco and Zack.

The idea of leaving the city they had lived in all their lives felt foreign, impossible even, when the Patriarch mentioned it so casually, Draco couldn’t help but speak up.

“What do you mean move? We can’t just abandon our clan house and decide, ‘Hey, it’s time to get up and go somewhere else.’ We’d be losing so much, all because a couple of people got jealous of us,” Draco said, hands spread wide, looking completely baffled.\\

“If you’re worried about the clan house, you shouldn’t be,” the Grand Elder replied.

“It has a function to shrink so we can carry it with us, just like the other secret features we’ve explained before. However, that shrinking ability is only to be used in times of war when the clan’s fate is uncertain and it drains a lot of energy from those who activate it—which is why it wasn’t mentioned to you or Zack earlier.”

“As no one expected things to reach this point, but if it does comes to it, and the clan has to relocate, this will be our course of action,” he continued.

–

Alec stood before the plant holding the red salamander’s body, taking a deep breath, time seemed to stall as he tapped it, prompting a harvesting option that required him to pay a hundred thousand system points to pop up.

Without hesitation, he agreed on the pay option, eager to see his new gains before diving back into the Beast Forest.

[Ding]

-1x Memory Card

-10x Tier 7 Cultivation Pills

-5x Tier 7 Mental Pills

-2x Tier 7 Healing Pills

-1x Random Tier 7 Astral Spell Card

-1x High Flame Element Power Crystal

-100x Tier 7 Bestial Spirit Equipment Set Fragments

The loot was almost identical to what he’d received from the Tier 7 goblins, except for the addition of a flaming power crystal, this was an unexpected prize, elemental power crystals, especially of this caliber, were notoriously difficult to obtain.

Even after slaying an elemental demonic beast, there was no guarantee of one dropping, as probability always played a role in getting one and a very low probability at that.

If Alec were to put this Tier 7 flaming crystal up for sale, nearby academies would send envoys with offers in an instant.

Its applications were too numerous, making it incredibly valuable.

However, selling it never crossed his mind, he knew such a crystal could serve as a material for crafting a high-rank spirit equipment set for himself. Normally, he would have to pay an astronomical amount for it in the system store, but having acquired it here meant he could save a significant amount of system points, points that always seemed to vanish too quickly these days.

With that settled, he summoned all eight of his golems, who in turn summoned their minions, and sent them charging into the second door of the Beast Forest; after the battle with the red salamander, Alec felt they would be far more useful on the second level than the first.

There, they could at least help him farm for system points, beast souls, and carcasses, resources he could convert into points to upgrade both his and Brandon’s spirit equipment sets.

In Alec’s mind, having his minion golems farm points that way was far better than taking them into the third level, where they’d likely become cannon fodder and be wiped out the moment the real battle began, with the minions dispatched, he turned his focus to harvesting the rest of his loot before heading into the third level of the beast forest.

—

Once again, Alec entered the familiar world of the beast forest.

This time, as he passed through the third door, he tried visualizing the flaming special regions. However, he only managed to land in the central region.

Fortunately, it was still close to the flaming regions, he knew this because he saw it while free falling from the skies, the moment he arrived, he summoned his eight golems, better prepared than during his last visit.

Having already endured the pressure once before, he knew he wouldn’t be left helpless for those critical first seconds again.

But when he reached the edge of the region, Alec was surprised. And that was because the place he’d seen from afar and traced, turned out not to be the fiery special region at all—but it was a desert-like environment.

“Surely, I’m not that bad at navigating, right?” Alec muttered, glancing at the golem body the system spirit inhabited.

“Emmr, don’t talk to me, you unfilially host, you abandoned me in that dark space you call a space pouch for so long,” the system spirit replied grumpily.

“I apologized, didn’t I?” Alec shot back.

“Well, it seems this region has some type of gravitational force controlling it, if you wait long enough, another region will replace it. If you’re that fixated on this fiery region, head that way. I’m sure after walking for a while, we’ll come across it.” The system spirit pointed to the right.

“Nah, I don’t think we have that much time. Since we’re already here, let’s just brace it. It’s not like the desert has any environmental pressure that would make it hard for the Golems to fight,” Alec said, placing his left hand on the Changdao hilt resting at his waist.

Just below it hung the bone katana. Alec took the lead, followed by Titan, Oni, and Butcher. Hive Queen and Hunter formed the next line alongside the system spirit, who they seemed to be protecting.

At the rear, Legion, Magnito, and Saint brought up the formation as they crossed the bridge into the dessert like special region.

–

Note : The reason I haven’t been able to update any Chapters for the past few days is because I was under observation at the hospital for high blood pressure. While I haven’t been fully cleared yet, I’m home now and able to continue updating. Some days, updates might arrive a bit late, but I’ll keep posting until I receive a clean bill of health from my doctor. Also, just to inform my readers—my exams start in

September, so expect slower updates then as well. Thank you all so much for the support.

Mystic cares.