The Novice Village had more than enough houses to take all ten thousand residents. This was somewhat strange to Faust.
Were more people supposed to come later? He could see that being a game element later. One he wasn't very interested in.
He found an empty house close to the Southern gate. Now that he thought about it, Faust hadn't explored what was south of the Novice Village yet, but he wasn't even done facing everything in the North.
His temporary home was the same as all the other Novice village houses. A simple bungalow made from brown wood. One living room, a cooking area and bedroom with a toilet that had no running water….
No baths for now it seems.
He took off his clothes and flopped onto the bed, sighing. "It's been a long day. At least I don't have mana exhaustion this time."
He had only slept once a few hours ago in a forest, but the long battle has strained his body to its limits. Now he had a real bed.
Goblins weren't much of a threat, but there were so many of them. In the final waves he even killed some level three goblins.
But something bugged his tired mind. Something he hadn't done recently.
He reached down to his Spatial bag and pulled out some materials. The first thing he pulled out was stone spider parts he collected after his battle with the Velvet Arachne and the Mage Hunter.
He laid the black stone on the edge of the bed and activated his Craft Golem skill. The edges of the pieces began to glow faintly. He picked up one of them and immediately another piece began glowing brighter.
It's guiding me on how to make the golem.
With skills you could take a lot of personal routes, but they often showed the most obvious things. Kind of like how he hadn't noticed footsteps or traps with Observe until he focused on them and the traces they left.
So he began by thinking mechanically of what type of golem he wanted to make.
If he wanted a fighter he'd pull out the Bronze Jackal fangs. If he wanted to make an Acid launcher he needed a sling shot and a reloading hand.
But starting simple was probably better.
How about a scout?
The Velvet Arachne had many eyes in the forest. Though she used them as a swarm, in the beginning they were probably scouts. They found threats and prey for the queen and helped her stay alive to build an army.
I can use them to find strong monsters, treasure chests, maybe even dungeons.
There was also the Gate that the event spawned. He wanted to explore what was beyond that gate. There might be a hidden quest behind the entire event.
The glowing portions of the pieces of stone began to change as the specifics of what he wanted to make became clear. Fast, wall climbing, strong joints.
Another thing haunted his tired mind other than crafting.
The third wave he watched on Novice Village #9712's Stream. He was sure what destroyed Novice Village #1284 was the third wave too.
That wave was a significant jump in power. Monsters at level 5 began to come out of the Gate, the minimum level for monsters was two. Flying monsters, wall breakers that would go straight for their city, and more physically powerful monsters.
The second wave was easy to handle. They planned ahead, knew what to expect, and had similar levels to the monsters. But the next wave would not only be more powerful, and similar in numbers to them.
We need coordination to get past that.
Livestream.
He scrolled the near endless channels, looking for anyone facing the third wave right now. In the meantime, he began piecing together his scout. It would be necessary for infiltrating the gate in the next wave.
Yawaning, he placed a pillow against the headboard. "I really need some sleep. Just need to make three or four. Maybe five?"
Each time he placed a piece of black rock against one of the glowing corners a surge of magic left him and connected them. Sometimes he didn't like the placement and Craft Golem offered him an alternative, or even allowed him to detach pieces.
He had just found a stream in the third wave and was watching when he finished the first golem.
"Finally. Ooff… these guys are getting destroyed."
The third wave was truly strange. Even the fourth wave wasn't this bad. The gate stayed open for too long, the enemies were too strong, too many.
The stream showed a desperate group retreating into their Novice village for a last stand. The walls were reinforced with a black glassy material, had turrets on their ramparts, launching sharpened darts.
These guys aren't even scrubs…
They were genuinely prepared, it just seemed that their participation was low. Bad participation meant you'd have less people fighting, but it also meant you'd have less Schemas or System users at your disposal.
That meant less options and power.
Faust cursed under his breath. Imagine someone hiding with an extremely busted schema, like large scale healing or summoning more constructs. It was ridiculous.
Sighing, He reached for the eyes of his golem and found them unresponsive to his Craft Golem Skill.
"What the hell?"
He tried attaching them himself, but nothing happened. It was the ruby eyes from the original stone spiders, just slightly cracked. But did it really matter? This thing didn't have a nervous system or a brain anyway.
It's the only rare material on the spider though, maybe they have to be intact.
He rubbed his chin, thinking for a moment. Then he snapped his fingers. "I got eight Arachne eyes in my rewards."
His back popped and groaned as he twisted his body and grabbed the Spatial Bag on the floor.
"Ouch," he murmured reflexively, even though he wasn't in pain.
The Eight Arachne eyes he got were like tiny ruby spheres, unblemished and perfect. They had a slight glow to them that hinted at a special nature.
He used Craft Golem and immediately a small dot on the face of his Scout golem began glowing.
"Nice," he said, placing the eye down. A large amount of mana flowed from him into the gap between the eye and stone. And soon they were merged.
"Crafting game completed. I should get a reward—even though this is essentially one of those easy games you see in Christmas ads."
But something was wrong.
The Ruby eye of the golem wasn't glowing like he expected.
"Please don't tell me I just wasted one of Arachne's eyes. I still want to use some for the hex stuff."
He shook his head. "No it's okay. I can detach it."
Appraise.
[Stone Spider Golem]
[Grade: Bronze]
[Details: A golem made from simple materials. The use of an Arachne Eye has given it the ability to share sight with whoever is bound to that eye.]