— GREAT EDRYAN, YEAR: 7294. SEASON: COLOR FADING .

  It was late at night when Lawruthian finally left the Hall of Heroes. His job was done, and an owl sat on his shoulder as he made his way toward his laboratory. Minerva rubbed her face against Lawruthian, pressing her head as hard as she could into him. They walked through the halls, silently escorted by Tobi and the Imperius Knights.

  He laughed, “I missed you too, buddy, I missed you too!”

  “It’s good that you’re back. I can finally take a break,” Minerva chirped.

  She still carried the small bracelet on her ankle that would transmit her voice aloud, but Lawruthian didn’t need it to understand her, and she didn’t waste magic activating it.

  Lawruthian laughed even harder before speaking. “I don’t think we’ll ever get a proper break until this quest is over. It’s good that I have time for the next day or so to do some work.”

  His eyes sparkled, and his steps quickened toward Imperius Hall. It’d been such a long time since he got his hands on Golem Earth Materials and Golem Metal Materials. He was going to build, and nobody was going to stop him, nor would he let them, no matter what type of incident came up. Unless the world was falling, Lawruthian would not be disturbed.

  “Oh? Excited to test out your new class? I can’t wait to see its effects.”

  Lawruthian and Minerva didn’t need to verbally discuss to update one another. Even after G.E.N.E.S.I.S., the ability to share and transmit information between one another hadn’t disappeared. In fact, it strengthened but the pair still like to speak aloud when in each other’s presence.

  “Forget my new class, you’ve been busy ,” Lawruthian said. He whistled. “Stratioti, a Spartan-like program attempting to artificially produce Heroes or at least strong consumables.”

  Minerva frowned. “They’re not consumables. They’re specialized soldiers who will get a job done no matter what. They’re part of your super soldier initiative. You should,” Minerva paused in her speech, sensing her partner’s thoughts.

  “Bloodline integration? You want to directly give them your blood and see if they can survive the process of transformation,” Minerva uttered in shock, pausing for a breath as she next spoke. “Lawruthian… what happen to you?”

  Lawruthian didn’t answer, and Minerva didn’t need him to. She’d been awake for two years and had held the opportunity to process everything that occurred with Rasheed. Despite the fact that she hadn’t fully settled down from the events, the time gave her enough to process and begin to move forward. For Lawruthian, although he was nearly twenty, those events happened a short two to three weeks ago. He’d barely processed it before he thrust from one situation to another. Now, he’d announced his intentions and began the preparation to begin the Game.

  They entered Imperius Hall, pausing at the entrance as Lawruthian took it all in. The hall was massive, easily able to accommodate ten-meter-tall golems. It was built modular, allowing specific work stations to be built without having to tear down everything and rebuild it.

  Lawruthian’s steps took him to the storage area where materials from Common to Mythical were stored. He casually grabbed a few, took a bite of a precious ore, and silently chewed while storing the rest in a spatial ring. Minerva watched him, concern on her face. She didn’t know how to help Lawruthian get through this state other than time. It was her general conclusion, and what most psychologists studied from Earth said in her database. Sometimes, one just needed time to adjust to their new reality.

  Lawruthian moved to the crafting area. A chisel and a hew were strewn across his workstation, and large chains hung from the ceiling, allowing a golem to be moved with ease. He dumped the contents of his spatial ring underneath the chains, a small hill piling up.

  “Ok,” Lawruthian muttered, getting into his old habit of talking while he worked. This was his happy place, a place where he could organize his thoughts and plan for the future. “Let’s do this.

  “First, let’s get an understanding of my new skills. All my crafting skills have completely changed, and Imperius Maker is solely devoted to crafting and golem skills. I should get familiar with everything.”

  Minerva hopped off his shoulder, flying to a perch and silently watching. She would let him do what he needed to do to get back into a familiar state.

  “First is Calamity Crafting ,” Lawruthian commented, pulling up the skill.

  “Minerva, what do you think?”

  Minerva perked up. She didn’t expected him to initiate conversation. She’d already decided to call it a night between them while he worked. Her voice was light, with a hint of interest and expectation as she read over the skill description.

  “I think it’s powerful but has drawbacks we won’t fully know until you build something. The skill, Unbound World , seems like a great way to collect unique materials, but I wonder if the golems can hold up traveling in this dimensional plane.”

  Lawruthian nodded silently, agreeing as he pulled up the next skill.

  Minerva blinked as she read the skill. This was…

  “This is incredible. I see why you have designs on the Stratioti. If they were equipped with personalized suits and had the skills of Machine Men …,” Minerva swallowed. The implications were terrifying for any who faced them.

  “It is incredible,” Lawruthian restated, a thoughtful expression on his face. He carefully grabbed some materials, weighing the heavy iron-like ore in his hand as he pulled up the final core skill, casually chatting with Minerva.

  “Dual Mind is a mix of what I wanted. Imperius Maker doesn’t lean into a full combat roll like Imperius Golemking did,” Lawruthian began. “But I can’t call it a support style class either, even if all its abilities are focused on building golems.”

  Minerva nodded in agreement, still on her perch before chirping in response. “It’s a class focused on building specialized golems, and it seemingly gives you a second body now too, giving you more time… giving you the chance to be in two places at once.”

  Lawruthian showed a self-deprecating smile. “I guess I can finally have a bit more time.”

  Minerva didn’t respond, giving Lawruthian the space he needed to sort out his thoughts. She sense a complicated mix of emotions from him that were slowly working their way outward. Only he could come with a resolution for everything that happened. Fortunately, it seemed his new class was helping him with everything, taking his mind away and putting it on one of the few pleasures he had. Lawruthian quickly pulled up a few more of his upgraded class skills.

  “These are going to be my bread and butter of truly creating unique Golem Suits for different situations and environments,” Lawruthian began. “Auxiliary Armaments is likely the most important skill outside of the core skills.”

  “I think they’re important, but you’re underestimating False Anima Spark. It reminds me of the Sins of Seven perk offered in conjunction with the Codex of Earth, except this is only for golems and not living beings. This would allow you to create personalities for your Golem Suits,” Minerva’s eyes sparkled as she spoke. “You could create a Standardized Artificial Intelligence type of being and let them grow based on the personality of the user! This… this is amazing!”

  Lawruthian laughed, his excitement also building as his thoughts cleared. He focused on the final skill of the trio and paused. He cocked his head to the side, carefully pondering over Runic Carving.

  “Isn’t this more important than just how it looks?”

  Minerva read over the information before subtly nodding. “In theory, couldn’t you imbue every skill into the Golem of Dual Mind before having it create golem suits for you? You could directly send it to NARC and have it complete the work.”

  “Or I could have it here while I take a trip myself,” Lawruthian responded. He turned his gaze to the remaining skills. A host of ideas entered his mind on completing two different golems. “What’s important is to first build a Golem Suit and a few Auxiliary Armaments for it just to see exactly what it does and how it works. Once thats done, I can build a golem specifically for Dual Mind and basically have a second body. The only thing I’m worried about is what effects splitting my mind will have on my actual body and sol.”

  Lawruthian turned and gave Minerva a glance. After all, Minerva was a split part of his sol used to interface with the Codex of Earth perk. It was impossible for him as a regular human, no matter how strong, to have the entirety of Earth’s information in his head. He’d likely have gone mad from information overload.

  Minerva stayed quiet and Lawruthian moved onto the last few Class Skills.

  His eyes skimmed over Death Spark and Emergency Overhaul . Both skills seemed like replications of what he previously held, only slightly evolved to suit his new class. What drew his attention was Dimensional Drop Gate. Lawruthian didn’t hesitate and immediately activated the skill.

  “Mmhmph,” Lawruthian grunted. He pulled out a MP potion and fully restored himself. “Twenty-four hundred mana gone but it’s worth it.

  “Heh-ha-ha-ha! This class was definitely worth it!”

  He focused, feeling the space attached to his body. It felt like a large balloon was tied to him. He took a step and the space moved, following him. Lawruthian paced back and forth, feeling the space and how it interacted with the outside. It existed in a different dimension and didn’t occupy anything in the real world except its connection to him.

  “Amazing,” he whispered. “It covers a space of a thousand cubic meters. “The size of a small warehouse.”

  “I could basically have a mobile suit—this would be like having a small mech with me at all times able to be equipped nearly immediately. No,” he paused, still considering. “There isn’t an arbitrary space for each. I could have a mech the size of a small skyscraper depending on the dimensions.

  “Heh…

  “Heh…

  “Hahahahahahahahahaha!”

  His eyes shone with excitement, so much so that he nearly forgot about his last skill. Lawruthian took a deep breath and focused on Party . This was his third class evolution and that meant another property was unlocked.

  This gave him pause and brought a question to his mind.

  Is it time to start adding additional Heroes?