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  He returned to the rover, which still had seven percent power left. It was more than enough for what he needed to do with it.

  He uncloaked the rover and stored the mostly-empty crate in the back of it. He deposited the repair tool into his hidden inventory and then hopped into the driver's seat and checked the rover over, making sure it hadn't taken any damage, before he initialized the cloak again and zoomed off around the wall. He decided to keep some distance between him and Gella as he started to approach her. But as he drove to keep a roughly fifty-foot distance away from her, her head turned well before he even got close. He watched her through the viewing window as she watched him driving by. She was seated now, finishing off the last bite of her food-bar. She lifted her hand and waved.

  This made Riley all the more curious, as apparently, she was able to see through the stealth of the vehicle from a pretty decent distance. So she wasn't some low-level player. She had some stealth detection, from what he could tell. Not to mention, she had some sort of passive stealth going on. He wondered if Gella could defeat him in a fight and take the entire base, if she wanted. But apparently, that wasn't on Gella's list of priorities, which he was thankful for.

  He decided to wave back at her as he passed by, even though it felt odd to be waving from the inside of the rover. Maybe she couldn't actually see the rover, but only saw the subtle tracks? Who knew. Apparently she knew enough to assume it was him.

  Regardless, he was soon passing by her and heading over to where he'd engaged the mortar team. He saw the wreckage of the mortar and pulled up about thirty feet from it. The weapons and ammo would be spread out, since the troops had been separated in groups of five. Luckily, their groupings had proven an advantage to him. He was also thankful that it was fifty weaker units, and not a few stronger ones. Else, the engagement might've gone a little differently. He'd been able to use the mortar and its rounds to his advantage. If he had to face those same troopers out in the open, even with his powers, things could've gone quite badly for him.

  He got out of the vehicle and disabled the stealth while he went and got the backpack. It should be able to store all the weapons and ammo. Or maybe he'd need to make a couple trips. He'd find out soon enough.

  He pulled the backpack onto his shoulders and headed over to the destroyed mortar, wondering if any mortar rounds had miraculously survived the explosion. The mortar itself was still pretty damaged. It looked worse than when he'd left it earlier. Surely the explosions of the ammunition had further damaged it. He wondered if he'd be able to haul it back into base and repair it. He wouldn't mind having a mobile mortar platform. But was it really worth the effort? He'd add it to his list of things to deal with, along with everything else.

  He checked around the area, noticing burn marks on the ground from the explosions. He didn't see any signs of a discarded mortar round, though. The boxes that the mortars had been in were gone. They probably took too much damage and were destroyed. Somehow, the mortar had enough hitpoints to survive the explosions, which made it seem worthwhile, even if he'd managed to disable it quickly.

  He sighed, knowing now that he wasn't going to get any free mortars out of it. So he turned his sights on collecting weapons and ammo, along with any other items that the troopers might've been carrying when they died. There were all sorts of simple implants you could provide an NPC. Enhancements, skill boosters, the works. So he was excited to see what was laying around.

  He scanned the dirt, glancing around to where he remembered throwing some of the mortars earlier. He didn't immediately see any weapons. His brow furrowed as he walked around some more. Did the weapons get scattered by the explosions? Maybe the NPCs had been thrown from their initial locations, only to die by subsequent detonations?

  He hummed quietly to himself, checking around the area. Then, he spotted something.

  A small white orb.

  Chapter 7: New Friend

  Riley's eyes widened as he spotted the orb. He whipped around and quickly checked his surroundings. How? How was it here? He'd killed it back in the base! There was no way it could've survived that building self-destructing and collapsing!

  Was there another one? If so, how numerous were they? He still had no idea what the hell it even was.

  He kept glancing at the orb, while also keeping an eye on his immediate surroundings.

  He dropped his crate-pack so that it wouldn't hinder his mobility. He looked over to his vehicle, which was still visible and out in the open. Should he try and make a run for it? Whatever this thing was, it couldn't be that powerful, right? He was a level 100 paragon that could steal powers! He could take it.

  Nothing in the area was moving except for him. He kept walking around, not remaining in one spot for more than a second. He was trying to move unpredictably. He had no idea what sort of attack to expect. The base's system and aerial drone were unable to detect whatever this thing was, so there was no use in ordering the drone to come fly by him.

  He looked back to the orb, watching it for a few seconds, before glancing around again. He couldn't run. Whatever it was, he had to fight it. His new base wouldn't be safe otherwise. At least he was out in the open, and not in a confined space like the inside of the storage building.

  "Come out, dammit," he murmured as he kept twisting and turning around, trying to see everything at once.

  He looked at the orb again, studying its features as if he could somehow discern any meaning from its existence.

  He stared at it.

  He wanted to look away, but couldn't.

  His body didn't respond. He was frozen in place, paralyzed.

  An indicator had appeared in the corner of his vision. An indicator for paralysis. It was slowly…slowly ticking down from ten seconds. Nine…

  The air shimmered above him. He couldn't look at it directly, but something was appearing. It was almost as if it was phasing into reality. Long, dark tendrils extended toward the ground. There was some sort of gelatinous, undulating mass about fifteen or twenty feet up in the air. A thin glinting thread connected it to the glowing orb. Riley couldn't make out any details of the creature above. It was still dark. The sky hadn't fully lightened yet. The creature was like some kind of rounded manta-ray or jellyfish. Its tendrils came down from an opening. It had an always shifting bell-like shape. Squishing down and expanding out with its movements. It was hard to pinpoint.

  Six seconds…

  Its tendrils wrapped around the rover and swiftly pulled the vehicle up into its waiting, unseen maw.

  Five seconds. Four.

  The rover had vanished and the creature hovered over toward him, directly above him. He couldn't see it anymore.

  Three seconds.

  Slick, squeezing tendrils curled around his torso and legs. Then, he was lifted up, still frozen in place.

  Two seconds.

  His vision went black as darkness encapsulated him. The last thing he saw was the flash of jagged teeth and black, scaly flaps.

  His vision flashed red as he felt tiny jagged spikes pressing and squeezing on his form.

  One second.

  The damage was building rapidly. He could see it in his vision. His health was plummeting in increments of 2-3 damage at a time. Each tooth pierced into him. He had no idea how many there were but his health was falling quickly to the onslaught.

  His body unfroze from the paralysis. He didn't have much time to act. He had to stop this damage and get free.

  He froze the area around him. He didn't have more than a few seconds. His energy had fully recovered, thanks to the food-bar he'd eaten earlier. This at least gave him a fighting chance. He was surrounded by jagged teeth, all squeezing in on him like some sort of tight wrapper. But he had enough room to squeeze his right hand into a fist. A gelatinous orange slime rapidly secreted from the palm of his hand and encompassed his arm. With his thoughts, he was able to will that orange slime into form. He pushed it up above him and spread it out, thinning it and expanding it like a bubble. It opened
up the mouth he'd been drawn into. He drew the orange slime down into more of a sharpened blade, which he tore down into the tendrils, cutting himself free of them. Simultaneously, the creature's name appeared as he caused damage to it. It was known as a Golem Angler Jelly.

  Which meant that Gella's Golem creatures had reached Sigil Online.

  Everything was still stopped in time, so despite how he pushed on the creature, its body didn't move beyond what he was doing to it.

  With the last tendril severed, nothing was holding him aloft. He fell down roughly twenty feet to the ground.

  When his feet landed with a thump, his time-stop was over.

  He could clearly see the creature now. Its body was much more like a jellyfish's than he had originally made out. But instead of translucent skin, it was made up of oily-looking black scales, much like a fish.

  Just as Gella had described.

  Free of the hindrance of the time-stop, the creature writhed and lashed about with a series of new tendrils that extended out from a flap around its mouth. It retracted the tendrils that had been severed. The meaty flesh that he'd cut off was already dematerializing into particles.

  With a single reactionary thought of just wanting to kill this thing, he pulled his arm back and extended the orange gel coming from his arm. It stretched out like a rope, and at the end, it went jagged like a harpoon. Luckily, the gel was controlled by his thoughts. He didn't have to grab it, it just reacted. The harpoon plunged into the sky and speared the side of the jellyfish. It was starting to lift away. Perhaps it was withdrawing, only to come hunt him again later? Perhaps the jelly's only damaging capability was in the surprise capture of its prey? It didn't matter, he wasn't going to let it get a second chance.

  It had tried to kill him and it failed.

  Now it was his turn.

  With both arm and mind, he twisted and pulled the harpoon down to the ground, taking the jellyfish with it. It might've been big, roughly the size of a large truck, if squished together and elongated. But luckily, it was very light. It plunged to the ground with a wet smack.

  Riley released the harpoon and changed its shape into that of a sharp-looking tendril. With that, he rapidly pulled it back and stabbed repeatedly into the jellyfish's skin, piercing through the micro scales and sinking deep into its flesh, causing 75-82 damage a hit, from what he could see. The creature's health had a maximum of 1220, and he'd already reduced it to 341.

  The creature tried to get away, flapping against the ground, but Riley shifted the impaling tendril into more of a hook and pulled it right back down. The creature didn't even try to fight at this point. Its tendrils were being used to push at the ground to gain leverage, instead of trying to capture him again.

  Riley stabbed and tore into its flesh, watching its health drop and drop, until its health bar emptied, reaching zero. The creature went limp, and a moment later, its body dematerialized in a flash of particles.

  Upon doing so, the beat-up looking rover suddenly appeared and landed with a crunch on the ground. Then came a clattering of metal as numerous rifles and magazines fell from the upper portion of where the jellyfish had been.

  Riley watched as the Golem pinata gave him all these gifts. Which, to be fair, weren't really gifts, since he'd already earned or made the majority of the stuff.

  As the last rifle and magazine dropped onto the rover and slid off, he heard a new sound. The clinking of metal.

  He glanced over toward his base and saw a shimmer of red and blue. The sun was warming the horizon in the distance.

  A partial smile came to his lips as Gella headed toward him, but not at a hostile momentum. She slowed well before she got close, removing her helmet.

  "I found one of your monsters," he said, glancing to all the loot he'd just regained. "Apparently it was in my base a while ago. I thought I'd killed it. What the hell is it?"

  Gella took a few steps forward, her expression one of obvious concern. "I'm sure you saw its name. It's…well, we have these Angler Jellies in Mage World. Golem mimicked the design of those creatures and added in some of its own lethality. I spotted it hovering in the air when I looked over to see what you were up to over here. I wasn't in range to warn you. Then, as I was getting closer, it had already ensnared you. I'm sure you realized that if you stare at its orb for too long, you become paralyzed. It's dependent on your Mind stat, but the paralysis could last around ten seconds or so."

  "Well yeah, it was a bit long," Riley murmured, as he went over to collect his crate while speaking to Gella. "So do these things travel in packs? Or are they solo?"

  "They're some of the forerunners of Golem's arsenal. They head out and collect easy prey in the form of low-level monsters, NPCs, loose items, lone players. Anything they can detect and seize. They collect these things to then dematerialize into sludge. But any sludge it would've stored would've been destroyed when it died, leaving only the items it was currently digesting."

  Riley looked through the items.

  "So, how many are likely to be in the area, do you think?"

  "I really have no idea. I've seen three on a single outing before. I've seen up to twelve in a day. But if these things arrived how I did, then it's likely that they're very spread out. You should warn your friends and allies. Its orb trick can be pretty lethal to an unsuspecting player. We lost a lot of assets that way in Mage World before we realized what those things were."

  "Yeah, I had a bit of trouble with one earlier. I'm kinda hoping it was this one. Do you know how long it takes for one to digest the items?"

  Gella shrugged. "It has a digestion rate and max capacity, I think. So if it's full, it takes a while to go through all those items. If it picks up just one item, it'll probably eat it up pretty quickly."

  "I see," Riley murmured, as he started collecting the assault rifles and dematerializing them into the crate on his back. His right arm was still orange, but the orange gel was simply acting as a thin layer of skin. "So my troops are probably dead, and their weapons digested, but it doesn't look as though it was able to eat through all this stuff too quickly."

  "So, what's with the orange arm?" Gella asked, pointing to it. "I'm very curious after watching you fight, albeit from a distance. The trick you pulled with being shot out of its mouth in an instant was pretty cool."

  Riley stopped gathering and looked down at his arm. "Ah, it's actually amber," he commented. Thankfully, he'd ran into Amber Impaler, another guild mate, before he'd left for the outpost that morning. Amber Impaler was one of those players who was usually online, so even if he didn't want to share his ability, Riley still had access to it. With a mere pat on the shoulder, Riley had gained Amber Impaler's strange gel-like powers for himself. "But yeah…um…I, uh…" He wondered how much he should actually say. "How about this, if you want to know my powers, tell me what yours are first? Otherwise, we can both agree to keep our secrets for now?" he said with a smile.

  Gella sighed and shook her head. "Alright, yeah, sorry. You're right. That's probably best. Good call. I think one of the few advantages I and my friends from Mage World have is the fact that most Sigil Players won't know what we're capable of, which might help us stay alive longer."

  Riley nodded. "Yeah, I mean…I don't even know where to begin to advise you on what you and your guild should do. If you hit the nearest city, you're going to see players, both in hero and monster form. Probably people from my own alliance. We're kind of in a territory war with other guilds right now, so you may want to keep as low a profile as possible. But maybe your guild and the alliance I'm in could work something out. I'll try and send word of your arrival, and the fact that there'll be more of you appearing around the game. But I was having trouble communicating with my home base earlier."

  "I definitely don't want to jump right into hostilities," said Gella. "We will need to get our bearings first. Any assistance would definitely be appreciated. But don't feel you need to go out of your way for us. From the sound of it, we could be all over your server. I de
finitely have a long task ahead of me."

  "Anything else you can tell me about these Golem creatures, before I head back into my base?" Riley asked, as he was collecting the last few magazines off the ground.

  "Just be very careful. If you see anything out of the ordinary, or new, assume that it might be Golem. You know what they look like now. They can mimic things from our game, so I assume they can do the same here. But they'll have those black scales. They'll try to keep hidden until they can establish a strong foundation. I recommend letting as many people know of Golem's existence as you can. If you can fight it back across your server, you might be able to prevent the death of your game world."

  Riley wasn't sure if the woman was simply over-dramatizing the situation, but there was definite sincerity behind her words. "I'll do my best to convince who I can. This stuff is really that bad?"

  Gella nodded. "Whatever terrible things you've fought on this server, this thing is worse. Because it's made up of all those terrible things, and it's trying to grow more terrible every day."

  Riley sighed, his gaze having fallen to the ground. "Alright, thanks for the information. I'll see what I can do. Good luck, again."

  Gella shot him a thumbs-up. "Sure thing, new friend," she said with a smirk. "Stay friendly!" With that, she turned and headed off in the direction of what used to be Gargantuan City.

  Chapter 8: Management

  Riley had returned to his command center after Gella's departure. Luckily, he hadn't seen any sign of any other Golem creatures. As far as he was aware. At least, he hadn't seen any other white orbs. He was keeping a close eye out for those.

  His first task had been to ask the system if it was able to communicate with Chrono yet. But apparently the static was still prevalent. Riley had kinda hoped that the Golem Jelly had been the cause, so that with its death, he'd have restored communications. But this was not the case.