On The Hunt

The statue looked over its weapon rack, most of the things it had made so far were shoddy swords and shields. It figured now was the best time to try and make something that would last for a while, and the first thing that came to mind was a memory from long, long ago. All the way back to its time in the orphanage, they had decent funding and were able to afford game consoles. Its only fond memories of that time were the times he was allowed to play, it filled the small gap in its tiny heart from losing its robot action figure.

A particular enemy stood out in being more imposing than the robot, so it decided it should have a similar weapon. It pulled several pieces of stone furniture over to a large worktable and set them next to each other, then it began applying earth magic to begin reshaping the stone into a massive double-bladed ax looking like two crescent moons connected to a pillar. With reinforcement earth magic it becomes sturdy enough to withstand being swung about and is able to smash through the dungeon walls.

Hoisting the ax and giving it a test swing, easily splitting the thick table in half, the wielder is satisfied. 'I'd like to stomp around as I go but it's too slow to move like this,' It thought while imitating the motions it remembered.

It shrugged then rested the ax on its shoulder before leaving the room, then paused to get used to the light in the halls after being in the darkened room for so long. It lamented not being able to tell what time it was but was thankful it didn't need sleep. It moved through the hallways at a brisk pace using its long stride to its advantage and soon came upon a monster.

A solitary skeleton knight wearing full plate armor wielding a mace and shield rattled and took up a stance against the fifteen-foot statue approaching. Ever since the statue began patrolling and tearing apart the nearby monsters the dungeon monsters started to become hostile.

Unfortunately when face with a simple downward swing with the flat side of the massive ax the skeleton crumpled to the ground and quickly turned to dust. It was always odd for it to see not just the monsters but their equipment just fade away, leaving behind a thumb-sized pale crystal as the only sign it even existed.

The statue could only shrug and place the crystal into the pocket it had spent half an hour sculpting, for some reason modifying its own body permanently was much harder than manipulating the dungeon walls. It continued through the hallways while making sure to remember the way back, while it could start a new room fairly easily with its skill it already regarded the room as home.

The next monster it came upon was a salamander, it was quite large at five meters long but was no match for the statue. The non-magical flames it spewed was not enough to harm it, and so it was swiftly decapitated without much of a fight.

Only when it encountered a larger charred black skeleton with embers in its sockets did it have trouble. The fellow had its own platoon of the skeleton knights and seemed efficient in giving commands, executing pincer attacks, and managing to shave away a decent amount of the statue's out layer by the time it crushed all the skeleton knights.

The charred skeleton was able to deflect the massive ax a few times with its broadsword but the sheer weight knocked it back each time, and once it was against the wall the ax's momentum shattered the sword, then the armor, and then the entire skeleton. As soon as it dissolved the statue felt a strange tingling spread throughout that came from its core.

Checking the statues revealed changes, though only slightly. Vitality and energy had gone up by five while Core Durability had gone up three points. And while it seemed small it had nothing else to compare it to, not to mention it figured out how to reinforce its core, so it was a bit excited and sped up its hunting.

It sped through the hallways while swinging the ax recklessly, only slowing down to scoop up the crystals dropped by the monsters. Instead of remembering the way back, it started leaving marks in the walls with earth magic. It encountered more charred skeletons, but unlike the first, they didn't have their own troops and the embers in their eyes weren't as bright, but they still put up a decent defense. But with the amount of noise the statue was making when fighting and running around with thunderous steps it seemed that they all wanted to get rid of it and swarmed.

By the time the statue had filled its single pocket the massive ax way dyed red, blue, and various other colors of blood, which confused it a little bit as to why it didn't disappear, but it shrugged and moved on. Eventually, it came across a pair of bronze doors similar to the ones it broke before and wondered if they would lead to an arena.

It hoisted the ax up and swung down at an angle, cleaving a massive gash into the door but at the cost of cracking the ax, surprising the statue. It repaired the crack with earth magic and realized it was already getting ahead of itself and decided to come to challenge the arena some other time.

It started to head back along the path it marked down, only a few monsters came to intercept the sound and were swiftly dealt with.

Oddly enough though, it came across a ten-meter salamander, but it had its back turned and was focusing on something else.

Taking the element of surprise the statue lowered its body while sprinting and smashed into the side of the salamander with its shoulder, sending it flying into the wall, and then followed up by leaping and slamming the ax down on its neck, cleanly severing it.

*shuffle*

'Hm?'

The statue heard a scuffling noise and turned around to see a small figure with a large backpack that looked quite pale and was sweating vigorously staring back with fear plastered on their face.