CORE Vol. 3 pt. 17

With the invention of nova metal – hmm. Should I capitalize that or not? Nova Metal. nova metal.

We invented Nova Metal.

We invented nova metal.

I believe that capitalizing it made sense when we were coming up with its name, but now that the name is established? I am not sure. I am leaning toward not capitalizing it because, if I capitalize that, then should I not be capitalizing Iron and Steel as well? Bronze and Copper? There are many different metals and alloys out there that would not normally have their names capitalized unless they are specifically named after somebody. And while nova metal was named after Novla, the name Novla itself is not part of the name. Therefore, I do not think I should be capitalizing it.

But at the same time, would it be disrespectful to not capitalize it? After all, it was invented within my dungeon by those who served me! Does it not deserve to have its name properly capitalized?

One moment. I will go check with my wives to see what they think of the matter.

Alright, I have returned. As it would turn out, the alloy has been written in other materials in all lowercase letters. However, I now believe that is unacceptable.

From here on until the end of time, it is to be capitalized! Nova Metal! Other metals and alloys? They do not matter. All that matters is Nova Metal because it is what was created within my volcano by my monsters! The only consistency needed is the consistency that the creations made by my monsters deserve better treatment than all else!

Should you ever find yourself in a situation where you must write Nova Metal, keep in mind that you are to capitalize it!

Now that I have made that clear, let us continue on with the rest of this chapter. The rest of this chapter that I, quite frankly, am not sure what I should write about. The Nova Metal bit, I felt, was important enough to stop the speed up of events to go into greater detail for. But now that I have gone over that, there is not much new information for me to talk about.

Hmm. This is difficult.

But difficult is good, is it not? Difficult means that I will get to go against this challenge with all of my might without any need to hold back!

Yes, I will strike my quill down against this paper with all of my might!

…

I broke the quill and stabbed through the sheet of paper and the table underneath it. I have now acquired a new quill and had to rewrite everything on this page again due to the fact that I created a large rip in the center of the previous page.

Today I have learned not to literally strike my quill against paper with all of my might. Or rather, I should not do it with even a small fraction of my strength. I knew that the entire table would be destroyed if I used all of my strength, so I held back as much as I could while still putting at least a bit of effort into my attack.

Apparently, even a minimal amount of effort is too much when it comes to me.

Ha! Leave it to yours truly to be so powerful that it is impossible for him to hold back! Sheets of paper? Wooden tables? Neither can stand against even the tiniest amount of my power!

Alright. Moving on.

Talking about my power has reminded me of what I should tell you about next considering that both the humans and ancients were too cowardly to approach us for the time being, allowing us to fortify our defenses, train the kobolds, and outfit the Obsidian Guard with as much Nova Metal equipment as possible.

But you do not need the details for all of that.

What you do need the details for… is a mystery!

Or perhaps I should say the details for a hunt?

You see, during the night as I sparred with Deiti in my dreams, there was a loud commotion that woke me up.

“My lord!” Dian shouted as Sidi shook me by my shoulder.

Ahti and Corra, who were cuddled up on top of me, were not too happy about being disturbed.

“What,” I paused to yawn, “is it?”

“The basalt constructs at the north post were defeated,” Dian explained.

That woke me up instantly, and I mean completely woke me up. “What?” I accidentally threw Corra and Ahti off of me as I leaned up. “What happened?! Are they alright?!”

Dian held up his hands in front of him in an attempt to calm me. It didn’t work at all. His words, however, did. “They are alive, my lord, but most of their bodies were destroyed.”

I let out a relieved sigh. For as long as the bodies of constructs were alive, they were able to regenerate. Slowly, but slowly was good enough and better than not at all. “Have you brought them back?”

Dian nodded. “They—”

I went to look for them before Dian could finish what he wanted to say next.

What I found were two constructs leaned up against the wall within my territory. Each of them was missing several body parts and suffered what looked like massive blows to their torsos. One construct had both of its legs and an arm destroyed while the other lost the entire left side of its torso, arm and leg included. What they both shared were cracks all throughout their bodies that seemed centered at the middle of their torsos.

Once Dian caught up with me, I asked him, “What happened to them? Who did this? Did the humans attack?”

Dian shook his head to the last two questions. “We are not sure, my lord. They cannot tell us themselves, and none of us were there to see what did it to them.”

That wasn’t how ancients fought and I felt like if it was the humans, they would have made another move already.

Or perhaps this was a distraction? Were the humans in the process of launching an attack against us?

Fortunately, Lucia woke up and came over to see what was going on.

“We’re not sure,” I answered when she asked. “Do you think humans did this?”

Lucia looked the constructs over and shook her head. “No. If they did… I don’t see what the point would be. The only way I could justify it being humans, seeing as how they aren’t trying to kill us right now, would be if they were testing our defenses. Even so, I cannot think of anything that would leave constructs in a state like this. Look.” She crouched down and wiped a finger across the chest of the nearest construct. I didn’t even realize that their chests were discolored and darker than usual. “Something scorched them. It’s almost like… an explosive. That would explain the scorch marks and why they look so cracked. Perhaps it was humans after all who used explosive ammunition. It would have had to be very explosive ammo in that case.”

“My lord,” Dian spoke up, “should we scout the nearby tunnels?”

Before I could give Dian an answer, the closest construct grabbed my leg to grab my attention and shook its head.

My constructs may not have been able to talk as they did not exactly have movable mouths until they evolved to gnomes, but they still had other methods of communication.

“What is it?” I asked my construct. “Should I not send them?”

The construct nodded.

“Then I will wait to give that order. Did you see who it was that attacked you?”

Another nod. We were making progress with what limited communication we had.

“Was it the humans?”

This time, it was a shake.

“The ancients?”

Another shake.

With our two main threats ruled out, we were officially in new territory.

And Lucia looked excited about that fact. “Can I go look at where it happened?” she asked.

“Is it safe at the post?” I asked the constructs.

They both nodded. While the northern post itself was safe, neither of them thought it would be good idea to send the Obsidian Guard out to look for whatever attacked them, and I respected that.

“Go,” I said. “Dian, take the Obsidian Guard and go with her. Do not go past the post.”

Dian nodded, gathered the Obsidian Guard, and left for the northern post with Lucia following behind them. She clearly struggled to contain whatever excitement she felt as I had never seen her move with such a skip in her step.

Also, when I say the northern post, I’m referring to the barricades we set up past where the kobolds now lived. It was set up in the tunnel that led down to their former village, and it was technically outside of my territory which meant that I could not visit it myself without expanding the territory and draining my aether even more.

Back to my constructs, I picked each of them up and brought them farther into the dungeon where it would be even safer for them. I had Corra and Ahti assist me in gathering as many loose rocks that we could find to bring them next to the constructs since – well, explaining how constructs were able to regenerate is rather tricky. Normally, all that was needed was their lost limbs and some new rocks for them to steal mass from, but the process was… complicated. Let me just put it this way.

If you took a golem, construct, or gnome who lost their legs, and you put a giant pile of rocks in front of them, then those rocks would slowly decrease in size over time as their legs regrew. It was not something that could be observed, either. It was not as if you could watch and see pieces of minerals magically fly from the rocks over to the new legs or anything of the sort. Instead, the legs simply grew back over time while the rocks grew smaller.

Many have tried to figure out the specifics of how it works, but they were never met with anything but more questions and unknowns. So, if the smartest researchers in the world cannot figure out the exact details, you should not worry about it yourself.

For now, let us end this chapter with the hints that I have given you. You will receive more hints in the next chapter. Until then, try to think about what it might have been that so severely harmed my constructs with the clues provided so that you can see how close you end up being to the truth.

Until the next chapter, my readers.

Ah, and the next chapter will be from Lucia’s perspective, written by me, of course. That is why I am cutting this chapter a bit short. I would rather dedicate a chapter to her perspective and detective work since the alternative is forcing it and shortening it into this chapter.

So, there you have it. Again, until the next chapter!