Marcus had walked out the door before Pepper could counter his comment. He didn’t think it was too rude, but he certainly didn’t like the fact that Marcus wasn’t taking his statement regarding Andrea seriously. He took in a deep breath and then proceeded outside to also oversee the delivery of Mala.

  It wasn’t hard to catch up to Marcus. His stride was small, and he walked as if there was plenty of time in the world. Pepper couldn’t help but notice Marcus’s sandals flopping underneath his feet. There was a slight sway in Marcus’s step that left Pepper feeling it was similar to that of a beach surfer.

  He finally walked in line with his roommate. “So, if you don’t mind me asking. How many sponsors do you have?”

  Marcus huffed like he didn’t want to make it a big deal. “Does that really matter?”

  “Well, I’m just curious, I guess. There wasn’t a whole lot of sponsored gladiators back home. At least none that I would really consider friends. It’s kinda nice to meet someone else who seems more, comfortable with it all.”

  Marcus had put his sunglasses on when he walked outside, but now lowered them just slightly. Pepper could see he formed a questionable expression, but finally conceded. “Alright… uhh lets see.” Marcus reached up and tapped the frame of the glasses. “These for one. I am sponsored by Universal Shades, so I got hooked up with a couple of free pairs. I am sponsored by Firehouse Fitness Centers, that covers all my gym memberships and…. there was certainly had some nice views inside them.”

  Pepper rolled his eyes again. He then heard the back door to the house burst open. A quick turn of his head and he saw Amprage tearing across the backyard.

  “He’s after me! He’s after me!”

  A second later Rattler exited the house and was clearly trying to give chase to his familiar. Amprage had the clear speed advantage but the two continued to playfully fight one another in the backyard.

  “Take it easy Amp. I don’t want to waste another afternoon patching you back up.” Pepper warned. He turned back around just as the truck began to lower the back loading dock. Marcus was already greeting the driver and additional crew member, so Pepper went and put in the code to open the workshop door.

  Pepper then looked up to see the original box crate he had stored Mala in. He motioned to the crew and then pointed to the far back corner of the workshop. “That one can go way back there.”

  “Got it kid.” One of the workers replied with a heavy east coast accent. The two crates were unloaded in less than a minute with the driver flicking them a thumbs up. “Good luck with your gladiator thing.”

  Pepper and Marcus both thanked the man and both smiled at each other as they looked over their crates. “I say we pop these bad boys open.” Marcus suggested and began to walk over towards the shop toolbox. He quickly began to look through the multiple drawer options until he finally found a crowbar.

  Marcus began to twirl one of the bars in his hand while extending the other out to Pepper. Pepper took hold of the tool and they each started to pry open the containers. The wood creaked and squawked as the tension was released. A few snaps and cracks later and panels began to fall and slam onto the concrete floor. The loose packing material began to fall down into a billowing pile at the golems feet.

  Pepper had been too distracted with unboxing Mala that he didn’t realize Marcus had been navigating around the workshop. He then heard the voice of his roommate call out from behind him. “Wanna see something cool?” Pepper turned to see a blow torch pointed directly at him. He stepped back and gave Marcus more room while his roommate leaned down and ignited the torch against the packing material.

  The material sparked and Marcus reared back quickly. A giant ball of flames shot upward and they both watched as Mala appeared to be summoned from a great magical fire spell. The effect ended a few seconds later and Mala appeared to be undamaged.

  “See! No clean up. Haha.” Marcus said with a smile and then made his way over to his golem.

  Pepper walked over and watched as Marcus ignited the material at the base of his golem. He was surprised to see the exterior bronze coloration of Marcus’s golem. The fire reflected off the metal surface and added to the effect. Marcus’s golem looked like it was straight out of a comic book or movie. The metal figure stood there in the shape and form of a suited superhero. The head however, was not that of a human head but that of a massive snake head.

  Pepper then cued in to see a large bulge on the golems back. He then leaned off to the side to try and see what exactly the feature was made of. The light bulb came on inside his mind when he realized, it was the distinct pattern of overlayed scales that was catching his attention.

  “Oh, haha, just wait. Let me power him on.” Marcus said excitedly.

  Pepper dashed a glance over and saw his roommate getting ready to power up the golem. He repositioned himself next to Marcus. A few seconds later and the snake eyes glowed in a sunburnt orange coloration. The golem opened its mouth and Pepper was astonished to see the metal snake tongue shoot out of the mouth. It danced in between two razor sharp fangs that looked like they could pierce through anything.

  Pepper’s ears tuned in to the sound of an unlocking mechanism and then watched as four snake heads slowly appeared from the behind the figure. Each of the four worked independently as their bodies moved like tentacled arms. The golem then rotated its arms and stood in a combative stance, the snake heads then sprang forward and motioned as if they were taking venomous bites out of the air. The heads reared back and then came to a readied but rested position.

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  “I give you copperhead.” Marcus said.

  “Wow.” Was all Pepper could muster. Andrea’s voice entered his mind and reminded him of his Owen Wilson status. He huffed but then checked with Marcus to ensure he had let go of Copperhead’s controls.

  Marcus confirmed and set the control module down on one of the toolboxes. Pepper walked up and ran his fingers across the smooth metal surface. His assumption was confirmed. Why did Marcus make his golem out of pure copper? This thing has got to be a gluten for punishment. But there isn’t a dent or scratch on him at all. Has this thing even been in a real arena?

  Pepper couldn’t help but appreciate the expert craftsmanship the golem had to it. “All copper huh?”

  He could practically hear the smile arrive on Marcus’s face. “Yeah. That was what the company recommended.”

  Marcus’s statement caught him off guard and now he was more curious than ever, but certainly didn’t want to come off as being offensive or rude. “Oh, you didn’t build this yourself?”

  Marcus chuckled. “No way my man. I don’t have any of those kind of skills. There is this company out in my area, Master Forge Works. They pretty much build the majority of golems out in the Southwest area. Granted, there are a few that still build their own, but many of us just hire them to build ours for us.”

  Pepper had heard of others buying golems from builders, but Marcus was the first person he had met who actually had. The statement was another reminder to him of just how small his KBVS club back home was, that or the fact that his club members had been dedicated to investing their time in building their golems.

  “So, what rune manufacturers did you go with?” Pepper asked.

  Marcus brushed off the comment. “Oh man, I don’t know. Whatever the guys put in to Copperhead is what we go with. You know. They’re awesome, it’s like having a pit crew. I tell them what I want, what I am sensing in the controls and they just make the adjustments for me.”

  “That’s…. that’s really cool. If you don’t mind me asking, how much does that kind of support run?”

  Marcus scrunched his face as he looked to be mentally running a varying degree of numbers through his head. He slowly stepped closer towards Pepper and then gave his answer. “It’s like, 120,000 FLEX a year.”

  “I’m sorry, what?” The information entered Peppers ears and mentally stunned him. He blinked rapidly and took a deep breath. “Did… did you say a 120,000 FLEX a year?”

  Marcus seemed a bit embarrassed at that moment. “Yeah… kinda large price tag, but that’s apparently what it costs to get ahead. Am I right?” Marcus leaned in and gave Pepper’s shoulder a nudge. Marcus chuckled and then paused, his eyes shifted and looked as if he read Pepper’s demeanor. “Wait… you.” Marcus paused and pointed over to Mala. “You built your golem? Yourself? By hand?”

  Pepper smiled and lifted his eye brows. “Guilty.”

  “Dude! That is so sick man. We gotta post about this!” Marcus immediately went through getting his holodex loaded up. Pepper tried to softly encourage Marcus to not make another video, but his effort went unnoticed. Pepper could see the small icon appear which informed him they were live on Marcus’s account. “What’s going on everyone!”

  Marcus adjusted his holodex camera to ensure he captured them both. “I know I just got on here and posted about my roommate, my man with the awesome energy drink, but you guys. You guys, fam… you will not believe this. Check out my roomies skills over here!”

  Marcus started to walk over to Mala and turned the camera to show everyone his crafted work. “My man hand crafted his golem! You want to talk about being an OG, Pepper is it. Look at this detail fam, just look at it!” Marcus turned and began pointing out a majority of areas Pepper had intricately formed Mala’s chiseled muscle structure.

  “I’m telling you, this kid is going to be a Golem Master. I can feel it. Like, you all know me.” Marcus then turned towards the camera but positioned himself to ensure Mala was directly behind him. “You all know I have been out here grinding away on working to get up in this Golem League action.”

  Pepper arched an eyebrow in judgement while he just watched his roommate talk into the camera. Though he had only been given very little information regarding Marcus’s experience in competing in the club scene. It didn’t leave Pepper feeling like Marcus had really devoted a whole lot of time towards the effort.

  Marcus then brought his free hand up and placed it on his own chest. “But trust me you guys. I know a real gladiator when I see one. My man Pepper is going to be up there with the best of the best. Just wait and see. Go give him a follow and hit him up if you have questions on how to build epic golems like his right here!”

  A dark shroud of fear immediately came over Pepper when he heard Marcus encourage people to reach out to him. He had already been overwhelmed by the sheer volume of people that had started to follow him off of Ryan’s efforts. Marcus’s earlier video only adding onto that and Pepper cringed and hated even thinking about loading up his Golem Chat account. The cringe began to latch onto him internally and Pepper felt his body tense all over.

  “Alright Golem Chat fam. We are going to go get back at making sure our Golem’s are ready for this regional invitation card, you feel me? Chat later.” Marcus ended the broadcast and took a deep breath.

  Pepper felt a little spark of relief at his finishing words. “Oh, so what do you want to start working on?”

  A surprised looked came over Marcus’s face. He looked side to side and then finally conceded and asked. “What are you talking about?”

  Pepper reared his head back slightly and pointed in his direction. “Well, you just told everyone we were going to go back to making sure our golems were ready. So, what do you want to start working on? I’d be happy to help out, or we could even partner up and help each other out. More hands makes less work, am I right?”

  A playful smile appeared and then Marcus’s made a comical expression. “Oh that. My man, I was just playing to the audience. I got my guys flying out like three days before the invitational and they’ll do all that work.”

  “Oh… so, does your audience know about that whole…”

  Pepper was immediately cut off. “No way man. I mean, there are a lot of sides of the business that people don’t need to know about. Am I right? Like the money aspect, sponsorships, the benny’s that we get for pushing merchandise and brands.”

  Marcus started to walk towards him. “You got to remember, a lot of this is all acting. The fans expect a certain… product. I am just here to give it to them.” Marcus smiled and pointed a finger as if he was posing for a magazine photoshoot. “Just so happens I am pretty good at it.”

  Pepper’s heart sank a little bit. A slight amount of disappointment started to come over him. There was a lot of great qualities that he admired about Marcus. The charisma, the easy going vibe and optimistic mindset. He thought he had found someone who could become a close fried as he took this next step in his career. But now, it seemed like even that was becoming a fa?ade.

  “Well, what do you want to now?” Pepper asked.

  “We could go grab some groceries. I have some friends coming out in a couple days that want to come hangout, and we’re gonna need to stock up soon anyways.” Marcus suggested.

  That’s actually not a bad idea. His mind then tried to inventory what few items were already supplied for them and what they would possibly need over the next couple of days. He then thought about a Buzz Podz and getting one ordered up, but just when he was about to recommend it, his eyes saw Marcus’s truck.

  “You mind driving?”

  Marcus chuckled. “Not at all. But… you mind throwing me a few FLEX for gas?”

  “Done.”