Chapter 5 General
[Mourning death among sand golems is uncommon, but they always take a grain of sand from their fallen comrades when they can. Some even take a piece of their fallen comrades' core or refuse to leave it behind. Such instances have been seen in every generation. It only shows that those "machines" could truly develop feelings of sorrow and loss. The exact range of their emotions and personal thoughts is still unknown. But one thing is for certain, and that is that sand golems aren't just mindless tools for war.] -excerpt from "Sand golem facts" by Dalium Krad.
...
This fight was one of the hardest fights #11077 fought in.
The two of them struggled fiercely to get up. #11077 core strained to the limits as the vital sand slowly reformed. He watched the worm wiggle inch by inch out of the heavy crystal structure that pinned it down. It tried to gnaw at the pillar but it was just out of reach. It had lost a lot of flexibility when it mutated.
But eventually, both of them got up again. The mana beast dug down and disappeared, while the sand golem reformed his armor and weapons. Holding a long spear in his right and a tower shield in his left he slowly inched towards the cube that was now just a few meters away.
Feeling the approaching worm from below far faster than before, he decided to stand still and abandoned the plan of slowly chipping away its health. Slamming his spear into the ground he poured every grain of core sand out of his body as a large platform formed underneath. The rumbling grew with every passing second. As the worm soared out of the floor, it pushed the whole structure and #11077 into the air. The golem shaped the core sand around the head of the beast and restricted it, shutting its mouth, and making it unable to attack or burrow down again.
The worm slammed its head on the ground multiple times, trying to shack off the sand cover and the pesky golem. It couldn´t even escape underground. The sand tightened and enveloped the monster's whole body. The golem struggled to hold itself onto the beast's head.
He even poured massive amounts of vital sand into its mouth trying to drown it. Sand flew everywhere as the worm reared its head back and slammed it on the floor with all its might. The floor cracked and broke, the golem's core nearly broke but quickly tried to repair itself.
He stood on top of the sand-covered head of the worm as his feet merged with the sand below. Abandoning his armor all the core sand streamed towards his right arm forming a giant spear, trusting downward into the giant monster a crisp crack could be heard.
But the damage still wasn´t enough as the worm spew out a stream of stomach fluid. Perplexed about his sudden change in vision, he was suddenly high in the sky, looking down. The pressure pushed the golem even farther upwards, the acid melted the core sand and the golem lost his grip and feet in the process. Another unexpected skill that the worm gained after mutation.
Having finally shaken off the sand, the crystal worm opened its maw as wide as it could and the hundreds of sharp jagged teeth rotated. Having no time to evade mid-fall, the sand golem remade his armor with the remaining hardened sand and braced himself to be eaten.
The maw with spinning shark-like teeth engulfed him, grinding his sand armor away like cotton candy touching water. But not without any consequences, as the sand on his body turned into spikes and shredded the inside of the beast. In no time his body was being grounded down and thrown into the stomach acid. He tried to do as much damage as he could while being pushed into the stomach, scraping and injuring the upper digestive tract.
With a splash, he landed in the bowls of the monster. His core luckily survived along a small amount of vital and core sand, but the stomach acid was slowly draining his remaining energy as he constantly repaired himself. The acid was so strong that every grain of sand almost immediately disintegrated.
He tried to fight back against the burning feeling of the acid.
#11077 slowed the process down but he was only going to extend the inevitable. For three hours he thought against the stomach acid. He lamented the fact that he failed to complete the mission that he finally got. As his energy was down dangerously low again, he heard loud explosions as he swished around the stomach acid.
The worm convulsed and the core was flushed out of a wound that an explosion created.
On the surface, a giant crystal worm lay dead with giant chunks being blown off all across its body, stomach acid, and clear brown blood spewed out. A single yellow dim glowing crystal ball rolled out of the belly.
The golem may have survived the battle, but now he was low on power, with all of his vital and core sand being melted away. The surrounding energy might be refilling his core, but the stomach acid did more damage than he could repair.
With such little energy left the core's processing power slowed down too. A mechanical voice spoke in his slumber.
[Critical condition detected!]
[Initiating hibernation protocols]
[Reassons: low energy, damaged core]
[Solution: Scanning for nearby energy source!]
[Calculating energy expenditure...]
[Calculating energy expenditure...]
[Calculating energy expenditure...]
[1% energy usage for a minimum scan!]
[Succes rate at 49%!]
[Initiating scan!]
As the inbuilt survival program of #11077 activated his scanner, an almost unnoticeable pulse ran through the sand. A shallow ripple pulsed through the sand in search of a solution to avoid his impending doom.
After 6 pulses the program spoke again.
[High-density energy source detected!]
[Danger! Energy source, unknown!]
[Searching for other solutions...]
[No other solutions found!]
[Calculating risk...]
[Calculating risk...]
[Chance of survival 11%]
[Energy usage 3%]
[Initiating plan...]
Having no other plan the program took over the golem's movements to implement minimum energy usage and maximize the success rate. With the low energy that he has the core produced a small amount of sand and the core began to slowly roll toward the unknown energy source.
The process was a slow one, with every little step the system had to recalculate again and again, but something was messing with the core. In one moment the success rate climbs up as high as 89% and in the next instance, it drops to <5%, but it never reached 0%. After hours of calculating and optimizing the remaining energy, the core finally touched its objective.
A 30 cm large core came into contact with a 15cm pure yellow-gold crystal cube. Upon coming into contact with the cube, energy rushed into the core, but the energy was too much, and cracks appeared.
But despite the cracks, the core mended itself with the excess energy. Slowly but surely the core was filled and the cracks were repaired. It slightly grew in size as the light inside the cube dimmed, ever so slightly.
The core pushed core and vital sand out in mass, as the body slowly reformed for the x-time. The golem stood there unmoving as the core sand armor slowly wrapped around the body, but this time with a 2-meter tall spear on his back.
As his senses returned, he felt his body in perfect shape, no, it was more than perfect. His body grew a few centimeters, making him a 1,8 meter-tall human-shaped sand soldier golem. The hardened sand protecting his core doubled, making him far more durable. Even his energy capacity increased, enabling him to sustain himself for 1 year without any problems.
Checking his status he noticed that everything was toped off, in addition to a few changes.
[Golem #11077
Type: Uncommon General
Learned typed: Common Scout/ Common Shieldberear/ Elite Spear Thrower/ Common Footsoldier
System Rank: 6
Energy: 110%!
Core endurance: 100%
Vital Sand Capacity: 100%
Core Sand Capacity: 100%]
Under Command: 0/2
Claimed Territory: 0/1]
Flexing his hand he felt the strength behind it. But the new changes in his stats made him think.
Setting that aside for the moment, the panel indicates that he was now an Uncommon General-type sand golem. It should have been impossible to change one's type without humans' help. Even his System Rank bumped up to 6. It was normally caped off at 5 for common grade golems.
As a general he could command sand soldiers, even allowing him to claim an area for the empire. It was a tactic from the Sakata empire to send out small delegations of soldiers to reclaim or claim land, those claimed land are all marked by the Sakata empire's flag before the main force arrives.
The spear on his back only further indicated that he now was a general, as the Sakata empire used to attach flags on the spears to show might. But it was also used to capture territories or turn the tide on battlefields by planting the spear into the ground. It would then automatically change the surrounding into a suitable environment for the sand golems. The changes and range all depended on the energy spending. Generals would usually use it at a last-ditch effort on a battlefield or reinforce strategic positions as the spears are very limited as the weapon contained a small amount of "essence of Rukia", or so the Sakata called the fluid inside the tip of the spear.
He felt a slight joy. It was surely a gift by the goddess herself, but what would those powers bring him... He can't just create sand soldiers out of thin air. No, sand golems could never create another. Only the human mages and core shapers could.
The closest thing to that was the field medic golems. They could repair cracked cores and refill them with energy, or the few "summoner" golems that are able to create sand beasts with pseudo-cores that can fulfill simple commands. But sadly non of them survived the initial fall of humans and #11077 couldn´t learn their abilities. And the weapon on his back would only be wasted as he can't stay in one place for a long time, it would be meaningless.
He would still wander the desert alone and with only one initial goal. To survive and protect an already fallen empire, his birthplace.
Shacking those unnecessary thoughts away he looked around finding the small yellow cube that was almost completely burrowed in the sand, poking out just next to him. Checking his surrounding, 11077 found a small gathering of earth bugs skittering around the core. Looking around he saw the crystal worm unmoving, with a lot of shattered chunks all around the area.
They were very likely the cause of its death and the reason why the success rate was going haywire. It can't save him every time, but it still managed to pull him out of quite a few sticky situations. Especially during his early years.
Complicated situations where the golems were incapable of executing could be preprogrammed into, adapted, or learned. It was because of that ability that #11077 learned the types of Common Scout #5553, Common Shieldbearer #476, and Elite Spear Thrower #50.
Of course, such programs were time-consuming and expensive, but the sand golems were the first and last line of defense, so every sand golem was fitted with one. But sadly #11077 was just a regular guard, he got only the basic programs, not like the hight tiered ones that were used as imperial guards or high commanders in wars. They were at least 10 times better than any common sand golem, in every way. But also highly expensive and specialized in their task.
Doing a core scan, the golem found out that his durability increased, his speed stayed the same, but his processing and reflexes increased by a great margin. He was no longer a common footsoldier.
Sand golems are capable of learning, and adapting but unable to increase their intelligence passed a certain point. So finding out that his processing increased was a big discovery. It was as if some kind of shackle broke, and the world slowed down ever so slightly. He hasn´t experienced such a change in a very long time. His senses sharpened and some strange feeling welled up inside of him.
His system showed that he was running at 100% efficiency and there were no problems, but still he felt different. Though he couldn't point to what it was. It needed a more thorough examination but all in due time.
Finishing his scan he kneeled down on one leg and touched the cube. It was finally time to fulfill his mission.