XXXIII. Golem

Golem, a monster made out of hard materials such as rock, usually taking the appearance of a thick humanoid body made out of those materials.

Golem can be born in an area that is rich with mana, a place where the sprinkle of magic spreads everywhere, like the forests, caves, and mountains. When a place had way too much mana in the air and there are not enough living being that can absorb it, the wild mana will condense itself into a tiny ball, similar to how a supernova happened.

Except, if supernova is a process of the destruction of a star, then condensation of wild mana is actually a process of creation, once the nearby mana has been condensed, it's now called a Golem Core, and as the name implies, this condensed mana will act as the heart of the new soon-to-be-born Golem.

A condensed mana was believed to be a sentient being, in its current state, it was like the Golem was still in its baby state, after it has formed, the Golem Core will then search for a material to choose, in order to provide better protection to its heart, the Golem Core will almost certainly choose something tough.

Once it found a perfect material to absorb, the Golem core then pulled every materials that roughly had the same appearance and toughness into itself in a specified radius, slowly building its body, this process could take days or even weeks if the place the Golem Core spawned lacks any hard materials, if that happened, the Golem Core would have to wander far-far away just to get to a new location.

After the Golem's body has been constructed, that's when its actual life began, a Golem doesn't eat, it doesn't drink, it survives off of the surroundings wild mana, absorbing all kinds of materials along its way, if nothing disrupt its progress, the Golem will grow into a Giant in a few hundreds of years.

Similar to how a remote controlled object works, if its battery, in this case Golem Core, has run out of mana, the Golem will find a place to rest, sleeping for years just to regain its energy, unless the Golem was destroyed, it will continue living like this, for thousands of years.

***

"HEY! LOOK OVER THERE!!" Hughen screamed, pointing his finger towards the towering Golem in the distance.

"HUH!?" Everyone quickly looked at the place where Hughen's finger was pointing at, finally they then saw the Golem, it was made out of stones.

"WHAT THE FUCK!" Deon shouted in horror, his feets trembled upon seeing the sight of the Golem.

"DAMN, HOW BIG IS THAT THING!? ISN'T THAT AN ANCIENT GOLEM!?" Seir also shouted, he knows that Golems will grow bigger as time goes on, and considering that the one that he's seeing was multiple times taller than the trees around him, means that the Golem is undoubtedly old.

HNNGGGG!!!

The giant Golem opened its mouth and let out a scream, it sounded like a distorted low-pitch siren, with how massive it was, the sound it makes almost deafened everyone in the surroundings. the Golem's body rose from the ground, it stood at a height of 40 meters.

Once the Golem was standing tall on its two legs, that's when the earthquake stopped, Calea who was watching the golem the whole time, noticed something on its head, there was a bit of destroyed wood logs residue, a smooth log that had been split in half, hanging just beneath the Golem's head like a strand of hair.

'H- huh.. Wait, DON'T TELL ME!—' Calea screamed, her brain was connecting something.

She realized that the Golem was standing at the exact place where the cliff was located, since it was a place used to observe everything, everyone in the shack can also see it, and after that Golem's appearance, the cliff that usually sit idly in the distance now had disappeared.

'THAT CLIFF WAS PART OF THE GOLEM!' Calea said to herself. 'Also!.. That wood logs, that ruined structure! It's a house! There's a house at the top of the cliff!? Is it the other instructor's shack?.. No– It wouldn't make sense that it was placed there.. Then– If that cliff was made to observe all of us– The instructors?!'

It was as if a balloon had just popped inside of Calea's head, all this time she wondered where the instructor's sleep, and now that that question is answered, she felt like a new opportunity might arise.

"No one told me it was a golem.." Scythe said as he saw the Golem in the distance.

If the instructors camp was destroyed, that means many of his subordinates was killed, and that also means that the other instructors would also need to re-strategize for the future.

A few seconds passed, the Golem hasn't made a move yet. Meanwhile, from inside the forest, there was a loud rustling sound being heard, the noise was getting louder, and soon a few shadows jumped out of the bushes, it landed near Scythe, as it turns out that shadows was just the other instructors.

'That's.. Hammer, Dagger, and Spear..' Calea thought, she chosed not to interfere as it can gain unwanted attention.

"You guys, i assume there's an urgent meeting?" Scythe said to his three friends, they all nodded as a response, confirming his guess.

"That's right, there's no time to waste, you must've seen it too." Dagger replied.

"Understood." Scythe nodded and followed the three of them.

The four of them dashes into the forest, leaving the students by themselves, for the first time ever, they were left alone.

"...Isn't this.. The perfect chance to escape?.." Said Seir.

"Huh? i don't know.. Didn't Scythe said that if we stray too far from them, our collar will get activated?.." Endi responded, he was a bit reluctant.

"Do you really believe him!? What if he's just bluffing!?" Seir gave another response, saying the possibility of Scythe's words being a lie.

"Hmm, it's honestly a fifty-fifty, unless we try– We will never know, would you gamble your freedom?" Carsel suddenly spoke up about his opinion. "Either yes or no, it's as simple as that."

Kalios gulped, Hughen looked around, anxious with someone hearing their conversation, Deon was making a confident face, as if he was crazy enough to try it.

'No.. Scythe had never lied to us before, shit.. I know this place is fucked up, but i can't get rid of this thought that his words are true.. If we escape now, we'll die..' Calea said to herself, a few drops of sweat made its way down to her neck.

"So?.. What should we do?" Zayn said, his voice sounded normal for the first time.