Chapter 7.15 - Project Shpaga

"Are you sure it's not too heavy?"

"You are kidding right? I am the one who dumped fine motor control for pure power."

Sigil was working on his golem. Except it wasn't as much 'his' golem as it was 'their' golem. It had been for a few months now. Milian was 'supervising'.

A few months prior, Milian and Sigil had been reassigned to Shurik's division. With mixed feelings on the matter. Urik, the leader of the Transmuted, was glad to see that his people had again possibly found a purpose within the nation. Outside the Thanatos Clan, there was not much his people had been able to do to show their worth. Urik had believed it was only a matter of time, and his patience had yet again paid off. So Milian was gladly assigned to Shurik's division in the hopes he would be able to find a task and purpose for her just as he had her 'brother' Thanatos. 'Purpose drives us to glory' was one of the teachings Urik had absorbed from the Elves.

However, Sigil's team was not very happy. This was because as much as his fellow Construction staff liked to joke that Sigil was a 'big dumb animal', Sigil could move more stone than any 20 other Homunculi or Guardian Gole combined. With his reassignment, the Guardian gole who had previously lumped the lion's share of stockyard work onto Sigil had to reallocate the work between them. And none of them were appreciative. They had originally tried to stop Sigil, saying that they would petition the Guardian Gole Mikael, who was the Guardian Gole representative. This just caused Sigil to laugh.

"You go ahead. Explain how you do 20% of the work and still get paid the same because you are all 'finishers' while I am the one running the stockyard solo. I'll wait."

Now Sigil climbed along his golem. Milian sat on the shoulder. He was checking the embedded systems that Shurik had developed. An aluminum frame exoskeleton plated with mithril. Light and durable. It would help keep the Golem from breaking apart even with severe impact. Next were the weapons systems. Dual Autobolters mounted on the shoulders. 6 Bicep mounted Amethyst mortars. A wizard's staff mounted on the left forearm, the right forearm had a built in 'Ripper'. It used the engine function of an auto cart to power not a wheel but a chain with one end covered in serrated blades.

The hands of their golem were like giant adamantine gloves.

The ingenious part was how all of this was controlled.

"Are we up for trying this thing?"

Milian absently looked at him. Even though she had leveled up quite a bit working together, she still chose to present herself as a young girl. Sigil tried not to think about it. It just made it more awkward.

"Sure."

Sigil encased himself into the torso of the Golem, while Milian filled in the numerous holes and cavities of the Golem. Milian cased around Sigil's hand because that was how he showed what he wanted. It was all about gesture control. The golem copied the movements of Sigil's body, morphing to his wishes, but Sigil was not capable of fine or delicate control. It was gross motor control. Sigil could do the large sweeping motions of major muscle groups. For control of the finer joints and auxiliary systems, that is where Milian came in. While Sigil was the Thunder of the storm, Milian acted as the raindrops dancing through the air. Throughout the entire body of the golem, Milian was spread out, connecting all the new additions to the golem back to Sigil.

For most of the systems, it involved a more advanced version of the [Link] skill. Instead of the [message] spell that was commonly used, there was another, a short ranged spell called [Sensory Link]. Sigil could see through the Golem, and Milain could see through Sigil. Milian knew when Sigil wanted to use a weapon system and whether it was activating the Ripper, or firing the twin mounted autobolters, Milian was on top of it.

For hands Sigil had simply to make the same motions, and Milian, a portion of her body in the hands, would mimic. He could push, grab, climb. Milian had made it so the Golem could dance, if it wished.

He could even wield a giant sword and shield. As Sigil picked it up, a quiet Shurik, who had been watching from his observation tower, grew excited. The sword and shield were made with enough adamantine to make several construction-type homunculi.

There was a problem. As much as Sigil was capable of hefting his shield and swinging his sword. It just did not feel right in his hands. He could throw punches with no issues. But the sword and shield just did not feel natural. Sensing his discomfort Milian spoke to him.

[Before just now, have you ever tried to fight with a sword and shield?]

[No]

[Then what makes you think you can do it now?]

[...]

[Go tell Shurik you need time to practice. He will schedule time for us with Ref in the Training dungeon.]

Feeling slightly defeated, Sigil exited the Golem.

Shurik had already come running over. "What's the issue? Did something break?"

Sigil laughed, "No there wasn't an issue with the frame. I don't have the experience with [one handed] or [shield] skills."

Shurik stopped. Milian hopped down and stood next to Sigil. Sigil could see the gears turning in Shurik's head. Shurik snickered. "Well out of all the show stoppers, this isn't that bad. I will go ahead and have you trained up. Go see Ref in the Training dungeon."

"You mean 'we'." Milian said.

Shurik and Sigil both looked.

Without any displayed emotion, Milian answered matter-of-factly, "I don't have training in those skills either."

***

The training dungeon had turned into a strange place. Specifically, About 2 kilometers straight away from the entrance to the first floor, there was a small cottage that had been built. Inside the cottage was where Ref worked out of. Mostly it was a bit of a storage and workshop, with the addition of a small bunk for naps. The door was made of solid wood, so none of the roaming creatures. Normally, Ref's assignments were Serin or other powerhouses working to increase their weaker leveled skills with the power of Ref's skill. Ref could lower the functional level of a person, which increased the speed in which combat skills were learned since the power gap between the enemy and the user also decreased.

Today was no different. However today were two races that Ref had never worked with.

In front of him stood a short Guardian gole, no golem shell. With him was a Transmuted. She appeared as a young girl with a bored expression. Except there was a tuning fork stuck out of her head. It was the dead giveaway it was a Transmuted. 'Or someone needing immediate medical attention.' Ref joked.

With them was Yuna, a forest elf spellsword. She was to be their teacher. Ref had met Yuna several times, as she had excelled in several forms of fighting with the sword. She had even almost won during a secondary 'solos' tournament of last year's Summer Deathmatch, losing only to Jericho.

Ref looked at the three people here and smirked. "You have 8 hours where if you get ejected from the training dungeon, I will recast when you return. After that I have another appointment. If you need me, I will be in my chair. Enjoy your time." Ref then cast [Dampen] and then wheeled a strange lounge chair made of wood from inside his stone cabin, and a book. His chair was built to raise him about 6 feet off the ground. This made him out of reach of all of the creatures of this floor.

With that Sigil and Milian got to work with Yuna, learning the weapons that would one day make them famous.