Bone Golem

Since there was a week until they got reinforcements, I would ideally destroy the town in four days and leave before reinforcements arrived. Then was the question of who to send. It wasn't that difficult, really. I sent all of the ogres except Trgl and Mgrt. I kept ten of the newborns, but the rest would attack the town. At the speed they walked it would take them two days to get to the city. Two days to sack the place seemed like enough to me. All of them were very eager to get to cut loose and do something other than f.u.c.k.i.n.g. Even those with l.u.s.t-based will circuits had managed to find a d.e.s.i.r.e that could separate them from my brood construct.

My other constructs were going with the ogres to collect the bodies but I got more c.u.m from the ogres than I could harvest from humans. I still wasn't sure what the anti-c.u.m was, the humans in town hadn't mentioned it so I still wasn't sure. Since I didn't know what it was, it probably wouldn't serve a purpose to collect it from the humans. I'd still collect some, there was more to learn after all, but it wouldn't go into the brood construct.

Angie was alone since Euri went back to rally the adventurers. Angie didn't have a particularly high rank, so her helping would be irrelevant before the battle. Angie was the only one that genuinely doubted there would be one, though it could as easily be that the others were assuming the worst in the name of preparation.

She moved without a purpose, but in a habitual direction. So obviously absentminded that she was pulled into an alley by creeps that she had no business failing to notice. They pulled her into the alley due to greed, but l.u.s.t colored their wills once they had her in the alley. I would have thought they'd retreat at that point. They'd grabbed her, so they knew she was wearing armor under the robe. Neither of them were armored and their bodies emitted no mana. Perhaps they had better circuits? Regardless, they advanced quickly after the l.u.s.t colored their wills. The creeps seemed surprised when they grabbed her, though. They jerked back, looking at each other in confusion and worry for a moment before turning their attention back to her. Their caution gave her the chance to wake up from whatever stupor she'd been under and instead of using circuits like I thought she would, she pulled a knife instead.

Whatever had her absentminded was beyond her abilities, but this she understood. The first strike went right into the throat of the first creep. Blood sprayed into her face and I saw a distinct spike of p.l.e.a.s.u.r.e go through Angie's will. It became much more apparent when she drove her knee into the crotch of the other creep. It grew further when her knife opened his throat as he wheezed with agony.

She stood over the corpses for a moment, giggling and rubbing the blood on her face around until it covered the entire surface evenly. She embraced the euphoria with everything she had. She licked her fingers before spitting the blood onto the creep that sprayed it on her. After giggling for a while and stomping on the heads of each creep ten times she returned to the larger street.

As she left, the two creeps stood up. The blood flowed back into their bodies and the wounds closed. Claiming corpses was simple with the use of my nexus constructs. Now that I had bodies, I could build some will gathering circuits into them. The tiny wisp I'd left on Angie was getting annoying. I gained more from eating the wills of the pathetic creeps than it took to animate their bodies anyway. The best use of them was having them explore for targets that I didn't want destroyed. Repositories of knowledge and circuitry would be wonderful. It would also serve a purpose to learn the circuits that protected the city before my ogres broke them.

It didn't take long for her to return to the same state she'd been in before the creeps attacked her. She resumed her seemingly listless plod until she reached a small hut. The wall was only up to her waist and the roof was squat. The abode was merely split in two, one half with a bed and dresser the other with a bar and shelves. Plants and creature parts were on the shelves. In the other, creature parts were organized into a desk and bed. The construction actually reminded me of my own work, a core of bone held together with muscle with a skin on top. All of the construction was made the same way. Even the walls and floor were coated with the same leather that made the roof.

"You're still watching, right?" she spoke to empty air, though her intent showed she was clearly addressing someone. "You haven't taken your eyes off of me since you broke my scry. You're really hard to notice, you know?" she sighed as she sat on her bed. "Not going to say anything? Who are you? What do you want? Why are you still watching me? I led you to the defenders. You know their plan. Please don't hurt me." As soon as she finished talking she sighed and started removing her robe and armor, making sure not to get the blood on her face smeared on anything else.

Ah. She was addressing me. That was quite intriguing, though. I hadn't directly touched her flesh with my will. She was the first to notice my will without direct contact. I was even wise to Nagt's trick, keeping my will from flowing into her nose with the air. "What gave me away?"

She jumped off the bed and fell to the ground. The surprise was so strong it removed everything else from her will for quite a while. "F.u.c.k! Oh, spawn! You actually were watching me this whole time? F.u.c.k! You aren't going to hurt me…right?" Oh, was it guess work? Why, though? If she didn't feel me…why act like she did? "Oh, right. Your question…gave away…nothing gave you away. My Master was just a really paranoid old guy. He wanted me as paranoid as him so he'd follow me with traces every once in a while. I could never figure it out so I just started acting like it was always on me. Since he ditched me, I've just couldn't break the habit." Embarrassment colored the fear that had replaced her surprise.

An interesting habit. Well…cat's out of the bag now. Might as well get some questions answered. "How did you know I was watching before you started sprinting for the city?" that wasn't habitual paranoiac acting. She'd sprinted all the way to the city. It had taken her three days of no rest. That didn't happen because of a baseless habit.

"I was thinking about my scry and how it felt weird when you broke it. Kind of like how it felt when my Master used to break my scry. Like something else was shoving itself into my spell backwards. You were so fast it took me a minute to realize you could trace me. With reaction speed like that…what are you?" her fear was weakening. Curiosity and exhaustion were corroding it ever so slowly. "I barely even got a second before you caught me."

"You said your Master was a fourth tier class three wizard. What does that mean?" I didn't even know how to answer her question, so I ignored it. If I called myself a will that wouldn't explain anything. I wasn't a will construct anymore either, since I wasn't bound to my bodies. I was now just a will.

Angie sighed, giving up on getting me to answer questions. Seeing the curiosity deflate was a little disappointing but it would make answering my questions easier. "It's a way to refer to soul spell. Tier is how big, class is how badass. Not sure…how to explain it…four wide three deep…maybe? Wasn't even a real wizard when I got the boot so…sorry?" She grabbed her chin and looked down intently. She held up a hand and scripted her scry circuit as basic as it could be with one circle. "Tier one, class one." Another circle was slowly engraved into the air. Her version was so time-consuming to create. No wonder she'd used a knife on the creeps. "Tier two, class one is my limit." Oh. That was her point. So tier was the number of circles. "I can't make a class two spell, sorry."

That made sense. If it was another function of a circuit it made sense for class to reference a composite circuit. Just to make sure I built one of the ogre composite circuits I knew. "So this is a tier four class three spell?" she gulped as she looked at the circuit. Wonder obliterated everything else in her will as she nodded. I dissipated the circuit. "What is a soul spell?" I knew she called circuits spells, but I wasn't sure what a soul was supposed to be.

"Deep question. Don't really get it either. Not at all, actually. Like…sit still for a long time. Somewhere nobody else is and just listen to yourself breathe. Once you feel the mana in the air, that's your soul. Your soul is…your mana eyes." That didn't make any sense at all. Did every wizard call will something different? Why couldn't they agree on anything?

"If so, what is will and what is aura?" maybe they were slightly different things. Possible, but I wasn't sure what else she could be referring to. Will was the impression a self pressed into mana. What else would sense mana apart from the will?

Angie was fading as the exhaustion eroded her fear. "Aura's…other souls? Like spread your soul out to write spells and the spread out bit is aura. Don't know what you mean by will." So only my Creator used will? Interesting. Maybe it was because he was a necromancer. It also helped to know that a soul was their idea of a will-core while aura was their will. Maybe. That was the impression I got from her, at least.

Well…she had been useful. She could also become a valuable resource for me in learning what to steal before I broke the place. My creeps were looking, but she probably already knew where all the things I wanted were. "If you will worship me, I will make sure you survive my invasion."