Chapter 8

John decided to make a memorial for all his golems who were destroyed in the battle. He transformed part of the still under construction 6th floor into a dedication corner for his fallen minions. He dug a shallow uncovered grave with the words (For my brave golems) and kept some of their broken soil pieces inside, the rest of their broken bodies remained scattered where they fallen in his dungeon. As for the corpse of the dead predator, John ordered 6 golems to carry it to the 2nd floor and store it along with the rest of the corpses. After dealing with the aftermath of the battle, John did a close inspection on the golems from Team B and C. The last 2 golems from team C absorbed most of the animal's life force and showed signs of behaving differently from the rest. John observed them for awhile and felt they seem to move more naturally then the other golems. He gave the whole group of golems some mock orders and the 2 golems did things smarter then the rest . he made a note to keep observing this 2 golems in future, what he can confirm now is absorbing life energy made his golems smarter. After he finished inspecting his golems, John started to create more golems to replace the ones he lost, this time he wanted to have 30 golems in the dungeon before he lured in another animal. Time passed as John alternated between creating golems and resting to recover his mana. By now the 6 rabbit souls had totally lost their original energetic movement, now they were just slowly moving about randomly in his dungeon, maybe still searching for a way out or maybe they became stupid, John had no idea. His little collection of animal corpses did not rot, instead they remained as fresh as the moment they died. John was puzzled by this but there was no explanation he could of except for maybe his mana was somehow preserving the dead bodies, anyway not rotting is good, he didn't like the idea of being inside a smelly dungeon.

After boosting his forces to 30 golems and with ample mana reserves, it was time to lure in another animal and complete his evolution. He used 2 [Basic Lure] right from the start and was prepared for another big battle. Luckily for him it was a simple mid size herbivore who went straight for the lure in the shop and was promptly surrounded by the golems hiding nearby. John immediately stop the lures so that his easy battle won't be interrupted by another animal coming in. What followed was not even a battle but the straightforward killing of a poor animal at the bottom of the food chain. John felt slightly guilty at killing a defenceless animal, in fact fighting the predator felt better. It was exciting, no guilt and gave more rewards, the life energy that spilled out from this poor animal was maybe only half of the mace tail predator from the previous battle, but at least its soul was the same grade. After eating the soul of this animal, John became very sleepy and he struggled to give his golems orders before falling into deep sleep.

An indeterminable period of time slowly passed, the mana mists peacefully drifting around John suddenly started to roil about like the stormy seas. Thick bolts of mana jumped from mist to mist, looking as if a miniature lightning storm surrounded John's crystal body. All the mana in the room became unstable and started vibrating in an uncontrollable manner. The bolts of mana lightning went out of control and struck John's crystal body, each painful strike vaporizing a small chunk of his precious crystal body. After ten strikes, leaving behind ten small holes, John felt a vast and hostile will directed at him before fading away. The mana mists around him gradually calmed down again and his crystal room resumed the appearance of a peaceful magical place filled with gentle mana. John also gradually came back to his senses, that was scary! While sleeping he had entered a semi aware state and underwent many changes without any issues. However just as his evolution was completed, he had sensed his evolution went against the nature of the world and had slightly disturbed its usual peaceful slumber, the sleeping world conscience had usurped control over his mana and gave a half hearted attempt at smacking him to death before losing focus and going back to sleep again.

John couldn't help but feel lingering fear in him over the attack by the world's will. He always thought his mana was his alone and felt greatly disturbed by how it had been controlled by others, how could he prevent such things from happening ? What can he do to make the mana totally his alone ?. He also sensed that this disturbance might have attracted the attention of other powerful beings and he felt an urgent need to get stronger. Sigh, more power more worries, no rest for the wicked. Since his existence was against this world, then he might as well!!, thinking till here, John still felt hesitation. He was going to say he might as well kill wantonly and absorb as many souls as necessary to grow stronger and ensure his survival. But was this really what he wanted?. Sigh, is becoming a monster the only path left for him ?. Who here will know human John, the one capable of love and friendship. Sigh... John felt sad for himself…..he felt so lonely, missed his family and friends, and now his slowly turning into a bloodthirsty violent monster. It took a long time before he looked up with determination once more. Human or Monster, he wanted to live on. Yes, he was afraid ! afraid of death! and whoever or whatever that might come had better be prepared for him !. John carefully examined himself, his golem spell had changed to [Advance Golem] and while nothing exciting or surprising, this ability remain his key support to staying alive. Next his lure spell had also changed to [Improved Lure], instinct told him that this spell can attract even semi intelligent races if they were nearby. Lastly he found a new memory in his mind again, this was a complete explanation of his unique circumstances as well as an apology by the god like being.

John was still angry at losing his life because of some stupid accident but there really was nothing he could do, the god like being had also pointed out that every year people died from total accidents beyond their control and very rarely was there any compensation to their souls. His intact memories of who he was and a way back to earth if he could get strong enough, this were the compensation given to him. The god like being had also provided him a excellent crystal body, one much more powerful then a dungeon of his age should have and also bonus knowledge of basic spells to help his early stage survival, thats how all his golem and lure spells appeared from nowhere. However now that John had evolved to the stage of attracting this world's attention, he will have to figure out the rest by himself. The final passing words were a hint of 2 more abilities he should have at his level and a promise of 2 more memories containing a spell to transform his crystal into a human body and a spell to teleport back to earth. Both will reveal themselves if John makes it to an appropriate magical level. After learning about the possibility to transform into a human and go back to earth, John became very excited. With renewed hope he decided to plan out his next steps carefully. So far he could depend on his golems and the lure spell to keep him fed but his human side is slowing down his growth. With some reluctance, John decided to grow as fast as he can and go full speed ahead with killing animals. Being nice won't matter if others come to kill him. As for his other abilities, he will just have to figure them out as he grow. John found a patch of soil in the 6th floor to cast the [Advance Golem] spell and another soil golem appeared, no matter how much he inspected this new golem it was just like the golem from the [Basic Golem] spell. John felt puzzled by this and he realised why the god like being had told him to figure things out himself. So the spell came free but without any instruction manual. Since absorbing life energy made his golems smarter, then this spell should be making them stronger. Perhaps what he has been doing wrong is casting the spell on soil again, he could try casting the spell on stronger materials like stone or iron and see if it works. However there isnt much stone or iron around his domain, only soil, tree roots and some small rocks. John was undecided for awhile, should he keep building his dungeon deeper or send scouting parties out to find better materials. doing things half half might sound like the ideal solution but it also meant that if enemies came, his dungeon won't be as deep as it could be, or his scouting parties might fail because he didn't send enough golems out to cover all possible areas.