The Quiet Respite

With the golem's schedule settled, Krave bid farewell and left towards the Mage Tower. The rest of the journey was short, and they soon arrived at Christoph and Valentina's store, a half-restaurant half-clinic; the building was quite large compared to the restaurant they were just at, and the signboard hanging above dubbed the place 'The Quiet Respite,' along with the standard city signage showing it had food, drink, rooms to sleep in, and medical services.

"... Kind of a bland name," Omni stated bluntly.

Christoph sighed, "We couldn't come up with anything good; let us know if you have a better name. We haven't been open that long, and we can still change the papers."

The golem shrugged, "I didn't say I was any better at naming."

Valentina puffed her cheeks, "I like the name, and we don't need a fancy name anyways; humble is better."

Christoph led the way inside through nicely carved batwing doors, and the inside was just like the name of the place, bland but comfy. A large space dedicated to tables, benches, and other seating for patrons. There was already a person inside, a dwarf with greying hair, laying on a table surrounded by empty flagons; he was snoring loudly.

Christoph sighed again, "Don't mind him. He's a retired adventurer who began hanging around when he heard a couple of adventurers start up a business, and he just drinks and plays cards all day.

"A paperweight, is it? Does he even pay?" Omni questioned, moving towards what it assumed was the kitchen.

"Of course he does, most of the time," Valentina rebukes, sounding like she doesn't believe what she's saying.

"Of course," Omni replied flatly. The door to the kitchen was also a batwing door; the kitchen itself was quite spacious with several ovens, and a few magic tools clearly meant for preparing food. But, unfortunately, the place was also quite dirty. "Do your employees not clean up after they finish their shift?" The golem asked in an annoyed tone.

Valentina gave a nervous laugh and coughed, and Christoph offered a bitter smile, "We uh, we don't have any employees..."

Omni froze, "No employees? So you've been running the place with just the two of you, do you take shifts? Do you open regularly? How are you managing overflow?" The golem began questioning with an overbearing tone.

Christoph backed off a little, "Well, we open whenever we're free, and we usually work at the same time. And uh, we don't get many customers; it's never been more than we could handle," he replies.

Omni takes a step forward, "This is a business. Do you think of it as a game you can just stop playing whenever you feel like it? What about money? You certainly can't be making a profit with a place this big. Are you just going to run it into the ground and then run away?" It continued, its tone becoming harsh.

"W-well, Krave is paying us twenty-five gold coins a month; we shouldn't run out of funds any time soon," Valentina replied, fidgeting from embarrassment.

"Twenty-five? Impressive, but what is he paying you for? Certainly, that much would need quite a bit of work done. Do you even have the time to be running a store?" The golem shot back.

Valentina was about to say something but stopped and looked at Christoph, who scratched the back of his neck, "Well, uh, since we're the ones who found your core, he's paying us for the ability to research you," the elf admits.

Omni places palm to face, "Haah, I hope you made that deal before I was active, and you knew I was sentient. Now that I am active, do you think he's still going to pay you? Or do you think you own me?" The golem spat its words with venom, a tone making it clear to choose their next words carefully.

Valentina stepped forward, "N-no, not at all! Krave just hasn't mentioned anything about it yet."

The golem relaxed, "That's because he hasn't had the chance; nobody will give anything for free," it turned its attention back to the kitchen, "Where's your cleaning supplies? Do you even have any?"

Christoph breathed a sigh of relief, "There's a closet in the back, oh, it also has a clay golem in it, but we couldn't figure out how to work it."

Omni shook its head, "You have ample access to someone like Krave, and you didn't think to ask him?" It berated, then muttered something under its breath as it moved to the closet tucked in the corner of the kitchen. The golem opened the door revealing a rather sparse pantry; the pair used it to store cleaning supplies and odds and ends rather than food. In the pantry corner was a short golem, roughly five feet tall, with barely any features. Its head was just a cylinder, looking like a large can, its joints were simple, and its hands only had three digits, more of a claw than a hand.

Upon getting close, Omni felt something, an ever-so-subtle tug in the energy in the air. Through Energy Vision, it saw a tiny thread of energy reaching towards it from the clay golem's core. It thought about it and looked through its skills, then activated Harmonize, the only skill it didn't have a clue about, and lo and behold, the clay golem reacted. The thread of energy connected to its own core and vanished, and the clay golem shuddered to life, moving to stand in front of Omni.

An idea sprouted based on the clay golem's reaction.

. . . 𝘎𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘴. Omni ordered in its thoughts, and the clay golem complied, grabbing a bucket, a few rough-looking squares that looked like sponges, and a broom.

𝘕𝘪𝘧𝘵𝘺.

Valentina and Christoph watched with surprise as Omni left the pantry, followed by the clay golem, and after a few experimental orders, the clay golem began to clean the kitchen.

𝘐𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘱𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘣𝘢𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘧𝘧 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘥, 𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘺. 𝘐𝘵 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭𝘴 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴.

"Next, ingredients, they're not in the pantry, so where are you storing them?" Omni asked, its mood better.

Once again, Valentina nervously laughed and coughed, and Omni's mood fell.

"Generally, we buy the ingredients day-of, fresh from the market," Christoph seems proud of this fact.

Omni calmed itself before it spoke, "While I commend your effort, that will not work anymore now that I'm here. Christoph, you will help the clay golem clean while Valentina and I go to the market; I do hope you have money on hand." The golem put forward a hand, clearly wanting money for ingredients.

"But I-" Christoph starts, but Omni cuts him off, "No, be quiet, you asked for my help, and you are going to have my help; you will do things my way. In my time, if people stepped out of line, they were beaten, burned, and berated until they did things right by those sitting above us. I won't do the same to you, but I expect a good work ethic, understand?"

Christoph opened his mouth to retort, but Valentina gave him a pleading look, and he sighed, "I understand, thank you for your help," he replied, handing over a pouch of coin.

"Good," the golem replied, then turned to Valentina and asked in a nicer tone, "Please guide the way to the market."

Valentina nodded and led the way out while Christoph grabbed a few rags and began to clean.

The pair moved quietly through the streets until Valentina broke the silence. "What was your life like?"

"Painful," is all it responded with.

Valentina went quiet again until they came close to an alley, "Hey, I know a shortcut; we can get to the market in five minutes if we go through here," she says, motioning to the alley, the buildings were close together, making it dark.

"Sure," the golem replied, and the two went into the alley.

The journey was uneventful until they passed a rather inconspicuous-looking pile of trash and mouldy furniture. After they passed, the furniture fell, sealing the path behind, and a few thuggish types came out from the corners ahead of them. They were laughing and brandished blades, "Looks like we caught something special this time, boys," a rather large wolf-man stated.

"W-what do you want?!" Valentina squeaked, taking a defensive stance in front of Omni.

The golem stared back at the thugs.

. . . 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘵.

𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘸𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘨.

It stared into their eyes and saw what was missing from the eyes of everyone it has seen so far, greed, lust, and itself, reflected in the dark.

𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘐 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸, 𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩, 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘷𝘦𝘴, 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭.

"That's quite the fancy rock you got there, should fetch a high price," another thug spoke, a human, the first human Omni had seen since waking in the Labyrinth.

The golem patted Valentina's shoulder, then pulled her back towards the trash and furniture blockading the way, "One moment," Is all it said to her before turning back to the group of thugs. It activated Energy Vision and scanned the area, four thugs in the open, another three still behind the corners, no magical weapons or hint of a capability to use magic.

𝘍𝘰𝘰𝘭𝘴.

The golem approached the group of laughing thugs, the smile carved into its face wider than before, the animated stone cloak rustling with something moving underneath it, and it said the first thing that came to mind, "𝑰 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒚 𝒂 𝒈𝒂𝒎𝒆~," its tone was warm and inviting.

Valentina remained quiet at the back while a few thugs looked confused but not discouraged; while the golem was six feet tall, it was lithe and looked fragile, and with the gold powder embellishments just looked like some noble's ornament. Then, finally, the largest of the group, the wolf-man, approached with a grin, "You want to play? How's this then?"

The wolf-man lunged forward, lifting a leg and aiming a kick at centre mass, intending to snap the thin golem in half. For a moment, he swore he could see the golem's lips open in a grin, and the next moment, the golem side-stepped his kick and grabbed his ankle with one hand and pushed down on his knee with the other.

*𝗦𝗡𝗔𝗣*

And just like that, the wolf-man tumbled to the ground, leg bent in a way it should never have gone, and the man growling in pain. "Gah, fuck! Don't just stand there, smash that thing!" he barked.

The laughter stopped, and the smiles were wiped off their face, "Boss!" A few of them shouted and charged at the golem. The smallest of the group, a cat-woman, wisely backed off. The human was the first to reach the golem, swinging some wrench-like tool at its head.

Omni responded in kind, shifting to the side to let the tool smash into its shoulder, chipping it, while it raised a fist and swung downwards directly onto the man's head, a clear cracking noise resounding throughout the alley.

"Dave!" Another thug shouted, going in with a knife stab to no avail; the metal blade clinked uselessly against the hard stone.

"Let me show you how to use that," the grin on the golem widened, and it grabbed the human's hand, twisted hard and snapping his wrist before guiding his hand and blade back into his left eye. The man screamed bloody murder and fell to the ground grasping at his face; the golem then kicked at the hilt of the blade, driving it into his brain and killing him instantly.

At some point, Valentina covered her eyes but couldn't help but peek through and watch on.

The third man who had a long blunt stick, looking suspiciously similar to a baseball bat, foolishly rushed in as well, thinking he would fare better.

He swung the bat with impressive force, but Omni guarded with one arm, and the non-magical wood splintered and broke in half, the golem's arm not budging in the slightest. The golem grabbed the half that broke off and stabbed the sharp broken part down into the right side of the man's collarbone, then did the same to the left side after his grip loosened on the remaining half of the bat. He fell gurgling and choking on his own blood.

Seeing the clear overwhelming force of the golem, the cat-woman and the hidden thugs made the smart choice of booking it, but Omni was faster, catching the cat-woman while the other three got away. The cat-woman's pleading was cut short by Omni stuffing cloth torn from the shirt of one of the dead thugs into her mouth, then placing a palm to stone, injecting energy into the ground.

Valentina shuddered as she watched the golem manipulate the ground to pull the cat-woman below and bury her alive, then bury the rest of the bodies and traces of a struggle, leaving the wolf-man alone, tears forming in the corners of his eyes as he realizes his life is forfeit.

The wolf-man broke into a cold sweat seeing the grinning face of the golem, "P-please spare me!" he pleaded, dragging himself into a kneeling position despite the pain of his broken leg.