Chương 55: Find A Monster, Any Old Monster

By now, WARHOL had a guess what this thing could do: its description told him about 'monster energy conversion.' How would he know what that meant until he could find and kill a monster? Before he left, he had one final experiment: he held the item in his hand and withdrew from his dimensional space the space-rock artifact he had discovered some time ago. The artifact remained touchy — meaning, spiky — with him which demanded he use his [Ghost Hand] to withdraw it.

It hovered in his hand while his latest artifact he held. He had his System Scan the artifact; he wondered, would the System be able to scan it this time? [Artifact Identified: Soul Sticher's Ornament: Gradient: Unknown {Still Gathering Information}] A 'soul stitcher' artifact? The name alone sent chills down his spine. But its gradient remained unknown. That was important information to have. When would the System be done 'gathering' information? He sighed and placed the artifact back in storage.

"Soon, you will bend your mysteries to me!" He placed his other artifact in his robe and levitated off in search of a monster to slay. An old growth forest was nearby. Monsters hostile to man could usually be found there, so he pushed more mana into his [Levitate] incantation and zipped through the forest. Odd though it be, he didn't find any monsters. Were they all hiding? He had hidden his mana aura, so that shouldn't be an issue...

"Strange..." Warhol continued his search but still nothing turned up. He blinked to another old growth forest near the prairie. Yet found nothing there, too.

"Even stranger. I'll take any old monster, at this point..." Finally, tired of flying around like a human-bird, Warhol [Teleported] to a new continent all-together. He had chosen the Rusty Piles to continue his search, a many mile-ed mound of mechanical junk whose wasting and leaky magical residue gave rise to many a gear-like creature. By all scholarly accounts, the 'gear beasts' here were considered monstrous, due to their misshapen nature of their birth.

Not wanting to waste precious time in searching for a monster, he incanted [Aggrevate] and threw enough mana in the incantation to draw a herd of angry bison-tigers toward him. And so, he waited — and with luck on his side, he didn't have to wait long. Several mechanical monsters rushed him from the rust piles. One of the monsters which rushed him were called 'Gear Golems,' who had humanoid shapes made wholly out of gears. Another was called 'Party Clouds.'

Despite their happy sounding name, they were but collections of magified waste brought together by the unseen bindings subtending the universe. Each of the monsters radiated a vicious aura.

"Strange for a machine to have bloodlust. Oh well." Warhol let the monsters approach him before he took out his artifact. He observed the artifact as the monsters gained more ground; he saw no reaction on the part of the artifact — good to know! Just as the mechanical creatures were to take bites out of him, he threw up a [Hostile Barrier].

When the monsters struck the barrier with their metallic fangs, the barrier's counter activated and turned each offending monster to ash, their bodies being incinerated in moments. Upon the creature's deaths was when the artifact activated: hidden ports within the artifact opened like vents and sucked in the remnants of the monster's faded essences, which even now, wafted slowly to the heavens. The artifact glowed a bleak color, then closed, its vents again seamless to its body.

Holding the artifact in his hands, it felt colder than it had when he first picked it up from the testing boulder. He guessed that meant the artifact grew chiller when it absorbed monstrous essence. As long as it did not become colder than ice, it was fine. With his experiments done for the moment, he put the artifact back into his storage dimension and blinked to the Headquarters for the Council. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

Warhol spent the next few days before his son's next training excursion testing the artifact's limits. He spent hours [Teleporting] around the world fighting all manner of beasts big and small, elemental and non-elemental. His campaign culminated with a return to the Oldest Complex. Having decided to kill two birds with one stone, he took Frank along with him, so that the Council Leader could gain more XP.

Several more Guardians, each a thousand or more levels higher than the last, fell before them; and to his surprise, the artifact absorbed the fallen magical essences of each Guardian without issue. Warhol had initially thought the artifact might see its limits revealed when it attempted to absorb the essence of such powerful creatures, some of the more powerful ones, outside of wannabe 'Gods,' he had ever fought. Yet, no such limit had been revealed. The artifact took the essences without even so much a burp.

It was at the end of he and Frank's excursion that the artifact pulsed rhythmically. No less than a dozen Guardian Constructs had fallen before them. Could it be that the artifact had filled to its breaking point with monster essences?

"Frank," he called.

"Will you be fine, here? This artifact needs some special attention. Do you want to continue without me or head home?"

"Argh! I want to continue cleaving my way forward! Have fun with your toy!" He chuckled. It was rare to see Frank so heated up and ready for battle. It was like seeing a snapshot of him thirty-five years earlier, when he was in his prime and full of vinegar.

"Very well! Best of luck!" Warhol vanished through a portal and returned to his secret hideout, The Grotto. Back in his lair, Warhol reinforced the ever-vigilant sigils within the base. Never had something punctured the many-layered wards, but he didn't want to take risks now and risk his base and home destroyed. He placed the artifact in the center of the room and placed a barrier around it and himself, then a third barrier which encased both of them together, along with their individual barriers.

He again picked the artifact up and felt its vibration and pulsations. Now the question was, 'how did he use this thing?' A valid question. Each artifact had different use requirements. Some activated passively, as this one did, coincidentally, when presented with monstrous energy to absorb. Others required the use of 'Power Words' or special tools. If this artifact required either of those, then he was shit-out-of-luck.

If one did not know the requirements for an artifact, one could ask the System, but it was unlikely the System would reveal such information, so he didn't bother asking; his next best option would be to cast holy identifying magic on it, but he rejected this idea, too, because this was not something celestial magic would fix. No, his best bet would be to incant a Void Identification spell on it... that would probably get him the bare minimum. Only problem was, however, that he lacked a Voided Identification spell.

Because, frankly, who had need of such an incantation?! So, Warhol did something he hadn't done in forever. He got on his knees and prayed. The Holy Shop opened before him and he sorted by [Elemental: Void: Identification] input. Only one option came before him, an incantation called [Void Information Gleam]. It cost a strange sum of Boon Points, a full twenty-five! He paid the fee to acquire the spell, but by doing so, saw the final number of his Boon Points leave.

He opened his eyes and incanted his new spell upon the artifact. He hoped this was worth his final points. The information the incant returned to him was... odd. From his dimensional storage, he withdrew the first space-rock artifact: he again told the System to scan it. This time, the scan was finished with all of its information revealed: [Artifact Identified: Soul Sticker's Ornament: Gradient: Living Flesh Forge]. A 'living flesh forge'? Two, at that?! That sounded... dark.

It was at that point that Warhol wondered if he had maybe gotten himself into more than he could chew his way out of... mixed metaphor, perhaps, but it held and at the end of his wit as he was, he knew he had no choice. If this artifact would help him in fighting the Horror from Beyond, then he had to put himself out there. So, he did the only thing he could do in a situation like, this, he closed his eyes, centered himself, and entered his mind palace. It was time for research!