The Golem Mage

760: Two in One Chapter.

(Added condition).

760: Two in One Chapter.

(Added condition).

“So, what’s this surprise you have for me, old man?” Alec asked, casually gesturing with two fingers.

At his signal, the mages standing before him spread out, forming a neat line, a line that led directly to where the Patriarch stood, as he was still stunned by their transformation.

“We greet the Patriarch!” they all called out in unison, bowing with cupped hands toward George Gordons, who finally started walking toward Alec.

Alec stood next to a large stone pillar that was all the way up to his waist line, atop which a miniature battlefield had been sculpted from earth, depicting small terrains and figures to help visualize battle formations.

But as soon as his grandfather reached him, Alec swiped his hand over the stone pillar, instantly flattening it into the ground, erasing the intricate display in an instant.

“Why do you look so confused?

You said you had a surprise for me, so what is it?” Alec asked, his sharp gaze fixed on his grandfather, while his hands were clasped behind his back.

The Patriarch faltered for a moment, struggling to come up with a response.

Luckily, the Grand Elder stepped in to save him.

“The surprise is…

we came to wish you good luck and another flawless victory!” he declared, giving the Patriarch just enough time to compose himself and regain his usual authoritative demeanour.

Alec, however, wasn’t fooled by this, he definitely knew something was off, but at this moment he just didn’t care, as his focus was entirely elsewhere.

After weeks of rigorous training, the low-rank mages under him had managed to push the basic spells he assigned to them all the way to the peak of the Low Tier.

They had also been made to spend hours practicing with spears and shields, ensuring that each of them mastered both weapons to a competent level.

And all of this was only possible because of Alec’s system, and his newly acquired General title, which granted the mages under his command an unprecedented boost in growth and training efficiency.

While the Low-Rank Mages had only managed to push their spells to the peak of the Low Tier due to their realm restrictions, it was the Mid-Rank Mages that truly exceeded Alec’s expectations.

Not only had every single one of them successfully advanced their assigned spells from the Low Tier to the Mid Tier, but the sheer power they unleashed when casting them together was beyond anything they had imagined.

Even they found it hard to believe that they were capable of wielding such destructive force anytime Alec commanded them to fire.

And now, with the Spirit Equipment Sets that Alec had provided to them which was compatible with their primary element, it made the power output of all their Earth spells skyrocket, except from the physical enhancement that came along with it.

Of course, the Tier 5 and Tier 6 Mages couldn’t help but feel a bit jealous, because they hadn’t received Equipment sets like the low tiers and the Tier 4 Mages, however, they held no grudges against Alec, because even without the Spirit Equipment, they could tell they had improved tremendously under his training.

“That’s not much of a surprise, though, weren’t you both supposed to show up here before we left, to give us your blessings?” Alec said, raising an eyebrow.

The Patriarch quickly tried to play dumb, attempting to steer the conversation elsewhere.

“So, tell me, where exactly did you get this many Spirit Equipment Sets to equip so many of our mages?” He narrowed his eyes at Alec, clearly suspicious.

Alec simply smirked.

“Well, that’s a secret of mine, all you need to know is that I promised to fund this set of mages to battle , and I delivered,” he replied.

As he spoke, he briefly reminisced about how he had used the countless Spirit Equipment Set fragments he had been accumulating from loot drops for a long time to craft full sets for his clan’s mages.

He had them all this time, but a real need had never arisen, until now.

The System Spirit had once informed him that using fragments to craft Spirit Equipment wouldn’t produce specialized equipments like the ones he had astral projection of crafting master craft for him using System Points and Demonic Beast Corpses.

But in the end, he realized that these crafted sets were just as good as the standard Spirit Equipment Sets that were being produced outside in the main world

With that in mind, he had no hesitation in creating them, to help improve his mages chances of staying alive in the battle.

Every night, he had Arthur and Brandon venture into the Beast Forest first door, dropping them near where Earth-Elemental Demonic Beasts resided as that is what he visualized before pushing all of them in, ensuring they kept a steady supply of dead beast materials for refining.

Alec didn’t really mind that the Spirit Equipment Sets weren’t specialized, as far as he was concerned, they were more than good enough.

In fact, all he needed was 100 Spirit Equipment Set Fragments to craft a standard spirit equipment set, which meant that at least for every ten Demonic Beasts of the same realm, same earth element his golems or his clansmen killed, he could generate a new set after the body had been refined by the Ancient Primordial Tree and he got his loot.

The best part was that the system allowed him to choose the shape of the armour, boot, handguard or from the variety of weapons when crafting the sets, that was when he realized he could even equip two weapons from the system’s extensive list.

Of course, this cost more fragments, but it gave him the perfect excuse to implement spear and shield training, as this was to give his mages a longer reach weapon while at the same time they would have a defensive measure to keep the zombies at bay.

To make things even better, he customized the sets by adding each mage’s primary weapon as an extra piece when forging their gear, he did this after asking each Mage.

Those fragments, which had been useless until now, had finally found their purpose in Alec’s eyes.

When Alec first equipped the Tier 1 Mages, instructing them to bind with them so they could hide their Spirit Equipment Sets inside them until the battle, the other mages had been jealous.

But, as Alec had promised, he had made sure each and every one of them received their own Equipment set all the way to the Tier 4 Mage realm.

However, for the leaders of each rank, he went a step further, he provided them with specialized armour sets, this meant that even Brandon now had his own Spirit Equipment Set, called the Terra Sovereign Set.

[ Terra Sovereign Set (Tier 5)]

[Bedrock Carapace] (Chest Armour)

+100 Endurance

+100 Strength

× All low-rank physical attacks are nullified.

× All Earth and Sand element mid-rank attacks are reduced by 10%.

× Increases physical resistance by 10%.

[Dune Striders] (Boots)

+150 Agility

+50 Endurance

× All Earth and Sand element low-rank spell consumption is reduced by 70%.

× All Earth and Sand element mid-rank spell consumption is reduced by 30%.

× The user can shift between solid and fluid terrain seamlessly, allowing effortless movement across sand, rock, or unstable ground.

× Stores up to 50,000 mana for emergency use.

[Titan bound Hand Guards] (Hand Guards)

+50 Strength

× Increases grip strength and weapon durability by 20%.

× Enhances Earth and Sand element attacks by imbuing them with seismic force, causing minor shockwaves upon impact.

× When blocking or parrying, absorbs a portion of kinetic energy and releases it as a counterattack (max stored energy: 3 hits, cool down: 5 minutes).

[Complete Set Bonus]

20% bonus to all Earth and Sand element attacks.

20% bonus to all physical attacks, stackable with elemental attacks.

30% increase in mana.

+5 to all mental stats.

× Gains [Terra’s Dominion] – The user can momentarily petrify enemies struck with a heavy attack or entrap them in quicksand (cool down: 10 minutes).

If Alec were asked about the resources he had provided to the mages under him, he would easily say that Brandon had benefited the most.

Even though Alec couldn’t craft or provide Spirit Equipment Armour for the Tier 5 Mages as a whole, he made sure that their leader at least received a specialized Spirit Equipment Set.

And this wasn’t just any set, it was on the same level as his own Infernal Mantle Set, costing him just as much.

While Alec did have Spirit Equipment Set Fragments for Tier 5 Mages, he didn’t have enough to equip the entire team, and that was why he didn’t bother distributing them, as he preferred either to equip them all or have them all unequipped.

As for Tier 6 Specialized Armour set or even spirit armour, he didn’t even consider it.

To Alec, Tier 6 Demonic Beasts were still the peak of his capabilities in the Beast forest, and while he did have enough fragments to equip his five strongest subordinates, especially after refining all the Tier 6 Demonic Beasts given to him by the academy for business, he chose not to.

His reasoning was simple, if the Tier 5 Mages weren’t getting their own armour sets, then the Tier 6 Mages would have to wait as well.

However, as compensation, Alec provided both Tiers with cultivation pills, which made them happier than ever, as their dreams of advancing further after the Blood Moon War became more realistic than ever.

—

“Well, even if you don’t want to tell us how you got all this gear, you still owe us an explanation for why you requested we have a meeting with the City Lord before you lead our mages into battle, right?” the Grand Elder asked.

“Yeah, that’s right, I just want to add a little term to your agreement with him., and I’m sure he won’t disagree since it’s nothing major.” Alec replied.

This caused the Patriarch to narrow his eyes.

“So, what exactly is this thing you desire so much that you’ve delayed our march out of the city gates?”

“It’s quite simple, really, I want all the zombie corpses we kill to be handed over to us, none of them should be burned.” Alec said with a wide smile.

He paused, letting his words sink in before continuing.

“I know the usual practice is to burn them to prevent the Z-Virus from infecting the land and mutating creatures, but instead of destroying them, have the City Lord order his forces to leave all the corpses slain for the Gordon Clan.

I’m sure he won’t have much of a problem with that.”

As Alec spoke, his smile widened, his mind already racing with the possibilities of what he would get when refining the zombie corpses.

But while Alec was clearly excited, his expression was starting to seriously creep out both his grandfather and the Grand Elder.