Dana accepted the Golem spell book and hesitantly stroked the cover, hoping that she would be able to use this one the way that Karl did [Shred].
After a moment of hesitation, she flipped open the cover, and the book vanished. Prince Axel and the other mages didn’t look surprised, but Dana was nearly vibrating with joy as she learned the spell, improving her repertoire to three spells in total.
“Now cast it, and we can see how it turns out. Each mage has a different Golem, based on their proficiencies, and it’s the best way to tell the forward path for them.” Prince Axel explained.
Dana cast the Golem, which came out looking more like an ancient statue, white marble and distinctly lacking clothes, other than a loincloth. As soon as she saw it, she blushed bright red, and she was about to dismiss it, but the teacher stopped her.
“It will come back the same way every time. But a stone Golem is a good one, second only to the Iron Golems in versatility. Most of the students get a clay, wood or sand Golem, which aren’t as strong, though the sand Golem is quite difficult to damage.
The clear visualization of the human form is actually a sign of superior mana control, which improves its agility, and it should be as physically strong as a monster at your Rank, so it won’t be weak in battle.” The professor explained.
“Once you learn the [Mage Armour] spell, you can dress it in proper clothing.” The Prince whispered in a teasing tone.
Karl examined it for a few seconds, wondering why it looked so familiar, even though he had seen numerous golem spells cast by students since he arrived, and one of the other team leaders in the Saturday group had a large mud Golem among his spells.
Then his mind went to the training Golems in the rooms that the other two members of his team on the first day chose. That was where he had seen this sort of detailed Golem before, but those were both armoured, and not in some sort of semi nudist classical art style.
The teacher smiled at Dana’s embarrassment, but his satisfaction was immense. Not only had two of their first year students made it to Awakened Rank this week, but the senior Elites saw fit to grant both of them and the school some new abilities to teach the students. Nothing was going to bring him down off that high today.
“How well can a stone statue stand up against a magical attack, though?” Dana asked, as she had never personally fought against one before.
“The stone is magical as well. Though it looks like a simple statue, hacking at it with a regular sword will do nothing, and hitting it with an Awakened Rank spell will only do minor damage most of the time.” The professor explained.
“It appears that I no longer have the advantage in numbers or in power.” Karl joked as Hawk gave the statue an evil glare.
Every Hawk knew that stones were hard, and it probably wouldn’t break easily if he attacked it, so the big stone guy was a threat to his position as top pet. It was just a good thing that it couldn’t fly, so it was unable to steal his scouting spot.
Sergeant Rita patted Karl on the shoulder as she consoled him. “Just wait. Once we find a suitable target pet, we will try getting you to bond with another monster. But the advantage that you have in growth rate is definitely way above most of your classmates.”
Drake, the burly Overlord Rank Elite that arrived with the Prince, smiled at Hawk and then sighed.
“I always liked birds. I will make sure that the Academy gets approved to try feeding him some special resources to see if he can either learn some new skills or advance faster. If nothing else, we can at least spare him some of the Ascended and Commander Rank monster blood to mix with the strength stones.
That concoction should keep him growing at a steady pace for a little while, until his body has reached the limits of its natural potential. The labs have tested that already, and it works on almost all monsters.” The big Elite explained.
“I would appreciate it. The faster he grows, the faster I grow, which helps both of us keep going. I think that once he has reached Commander Rank, it might be difficult, but Hawk has confidence that he can make it there with just a little help.” Karl replied.
Drake nodded in satisfaction. “Good, keep up that confidence, it’s key to become strong. Once you lose confidence, you start becoming more cowardly. Once you start down that path, it’s difficult to turn around, and you have to spend time undoing the mental damage you did to yourself.”
So the aura of dominance that all the stronger Elites gave off wasn’t just the arrogance of the strong, but a mental trick to keep themselves from falling off the path to greater strength? That was not going to be an easy attitude to emulate, but keeping a certain level of confidence shouldn’t be too difficult.
The Prince’s assistants were tapping their wrists, indicating that he needed to hurry up, so Karl and Dana both bowed politely and looked toward the door, hoping to excuse themselves from any more formalities now that they had gotten all the benefits without upsetting anyone.
“Yes, we should all get back to our business. Don’t forget to dismiss the Golem, they’re not allowed in the hallways.” Prince Axel agreed, then gestured for his assistants to hand over the information that they had brought him and walked out of the room.
Sergeant Rita smiled at the students as the senior officials left. “Well, I must say that went better than any of us could have hoped for. If you’re done socializing with the soldiers, you should get something to eat and then meditate or practice to consolidate your gains. New spells and skills can be tricky the first few times even if you have used a Skill Book to learn them, so don’t overestimate yourselves.”
The Special Forces team leader chuckled. “Not that we would know, none of them were publicly available when we were in the Academy.”
