Chapter 5

The first thing John did was to dispell the lure spell but he discovered the magic was already gone, probably all used up after attracting the unfortunate boar to its doom. Next he got afew golems to carry the boar's corpse to a room in the 2nd floor for storage as he wasn't sure what to do with the corpse. He shifted his vision to check on the injured golems and found them already tending to their injuries, they just needed to cover any holes with more soil and their body will slowly self repair. The golem that lost its leg was holding the leg against its thigh and waiting for the magic to patch it back. John also realised something, in future if he use rare materials to make golems he should remember that the rarer the material, the harder it is to repair. Overall his golems were quite lacking in strength and intelligence for combat. They were slow, not really hard hitters and needed him to coordinate them. On the other hand, they follow orders blindly, their bodies can take hits and their easy to repair/replace, making them ideal as cannon fodder.

John ordered his golems to repair the battle scars and soon the first floor was as good as new except for the unremovable bloodstains. With nothing much to hold his attention, he starts thinking again of his family and friends back on earth... Sniff... He misses them terribly, if crystals could cry John would be flooding his chambers by now. His mother who always had a comforting word for him, his dad the quiet strong pillar in their family. His wife who he can always depend on and have been lovingly taking care of his needs. His children who he loved and wanted to see grow up. His few friends who went through the ups and downs of life together. So many faces he loved, now forever parted. John controlled his golems to draw various murals on the walls of his personal room, the murals depict a patchwork of the best memories he can remember and below the murals were written descriptions of the events and names of the people involved. John told himself once again, he is a human with a loving family supporting him, not some alien monster !.

Sometimes animals would wander into the ceiling tunnel, John can feel a living creature intrude into his domain but all he ever saw was their nose or snouts as whatever animals all ran away after smelling something. Each time he can't help the urgent craving for more kills, try as he might to control himself, John found himself casting the next [Basic Lure] just 2 days after completing the murals. This time he casted the spell inside a shop near the tunnel, he also got his golems to hide in the nearby shops. The plan is to trap the prey in the shop and then...beat it to death! Soon the next animal arrived and dropped from the ceiling again, this time it was a large rabbit like creature with pronounced teeth and fangs, their front legs ended in weird suction cups best described as bigger octopus suction pads with tough rims. Not only 1 of this toothy rabbit came in, after the first rabbit drop another 5 dropped in succession. The toothy rabbits cautiously sniffed the air as they searched for whatever attracted them into this strange cave. They were even wondering in their rabbit brains, why such a nice cave had nothing living in it. They can still smell the scent of death here, it smelled fresh, still tasty.

The pack of toothy rabbits also smelled flesh, smells like the boar they sometimes hunt only when their starving. it was strange, the smell of death and the smell of flesh coming from different places. Anyway it mattered not to them, for there was delicious meat and they would hunt it down. The rabbits ignored the magical lure in the shop because the lure was already empty, its mana exhausted from luring in the rabbits. A mis-calculation by John, he could only watch in chargin as the rabbits hop down the stairs to the 2nd floor. What should he do now, will they find his crystal and use their teeth to gnaw little chunks off. John trembled like a jelly at his own defenceless position, only 2 female golems against 6 rabbits and the golems suck in battle. John hurriedly recalled all his golems, it wasnt going to be easy fighting the 6 agile rabbits with his slow moving golems.

To John's big relief, the rabbits didn't go deeper down but stopped at the 2nd floor, sniffing their way slowly to the shop with the boar's corpse, John's golems spread out at the 3 nearby staircases on the first floor, John waited till the rabbits were busy eating the boar, then the golems quietly lumbered down the stairs, slowly spreading out from the staircases to encircle the poor rabbits in yet another trap. Unfortunately as they got nearer, their footsteps were heard by the rabbits. The rabbits bolted out the room and ran left and right till they figured out they were trapped. In a moment of decisive action, they ran towards the right as there was lesser golems on that side. The rabbits charged straight at the golems, John was prepared! He won't let them get away. The golems kept their hands close to their body, ready for anything but the leading rabbits zoomed past between their legs. Seeing this, John ordered the golems to dive catch the rest but the nimble rabbits simply jumped over their body or zig zagged past them.

The rabbits were free and they ran back quickly to the first floor, on the other hand John cautiously pulled back half his golems to guard his crystal, sending only half his forces to chase after the rabbits. The rabbits were trying hard to return to the surface, some even digging away at the walls and giving John a phantom itchy feeling, he ignored the feeling and it went to the back of his mind. When the rabbits saw the group of golems come near, they ran away to a different spot and a game of catching began. Unfortunately for the rabbits, the golems didn't need to eat or rest. Although it was easy for the rabbit to run away, the key point is the golems kept chasing them and they couldn't get to eat or rest. After half a day of being chased around the upper floors they got fed up and ran to the first floor, then when the golems got there they ran all the way down to the 5th floor where the mana felt uncomfortable and oxygen was less. They did this hoping that the increased distance will let them rest longer. The rabbit leader was worried as he could already sense their eventual defeat. After a short rest, the leader roused the group and brought them to explore the deepest floor, looking for a way to survive. The walls here didn't feel so tough and the rabbits occasionally tested by digging here n there. John had to focus hard to keep his wall's integrity intact against the rabbits desperate digging, luckily the rabbits didnt try to dig for a long time, they mostly just try to dig for awhile and if nothing happens they will stop to pick a new spot. Indeed for the rabbits, the 5th floor was their best opportunity to escape as the golems didn't really reinforce the magical runes there yet. If they had all concentrated on digging at the same area together, John will probably lose and they could have broken through the walls, perhaps digging upwards to their freedom.

The rabbits never stop long in one place and soon discovered his crystal room, instinct told the rabbit leader this was the weak point of the enemy that was chasing them. The rabbits warily entered the room, eyeing the densely packed group of golems across them. The moment they entered the room John knew he was in possible danger and he panic order the other golems to hurry up. Without warning, the group of rabbits charged forward in a burst of speed, rapidly closing the distance between them. John's golems were arrayed outside the crystal room's only doorway like a solid block of defenders and they tried stomping the fast running rabbits to death. It was a battle of speed vs many legs, the rabbits tried their best to avoid the mass of legs but not all were able to, sometimes they were just plain unlucky and ran into a unavoidable situation, out of the 6 rabbits, 3 were blocked by the golems and were currently being stomped to death, the other 3 rushed into the crystal room. The 2 female golems were guarding next to the crystal, they tried their best to fend off the rabbits but the rabbits easily avoided their hands. The rabbits used their sharp claws to whack John's crystal, giving him a sense of mortal danger and intense pain whenever the rabbit claws chipped away bits and pieces of his crystal. KILL THE RABBITS , John roared in his mind. The damn golems were TOO SLOW !. The golems outside rushed into the crystal room, leaving behind only afew golems to continue wringing the life out of the 3 defeated rabbits outside.