The crab and his panions had arrived at the entrance carved into the side of the mountain. Two giant pilrs stood to each side of the archway, tless runes and glyphs engraved on them all the way to the top. There ing hole leading inside, into a long, dark tuhat extended out of sight.

  Standing outside the maw of the mountain, Balthazar could hear eg creaks and the haunting whistle of wind ing from within.

  “Sounds ominous…” he said. “Who’s ready to go inside?”

  He turo his two friends, who did not seem all too thrilled to go in.

  “Druma think spooky cave is dangerous, boss,” the apprehensive goblin said as he nervously rubbed the hem of his magical cape.

  Balthazar sighed. “What about you, Blue? Surely you aren’t scared, right?”

  The drake gred at the entrao the cave from the er of her eye, before throwing her head ba disdaiing out a “hmph!” apanied by a small puff of smoke.

  “Guys, I know it doesn’t look like the most inviting of pces,” the mert said. “But we have to go in there. This is the only hope we have of rest Bouldy. I know you guys want to see guy back tht?”

  A sympathetic frown formed above Druma’s big eyes. “Boss think way t Bouldy back is there?”

  “The old wizard thinks so. And I believe him.”

  The small assistant nodded, stariily at the dark cave ahead, his eyes still filled with .

  “But I ’t do this alone,” Balthazar tinued. “Who knows what I will find inside. And I ’t risk failing. Not at this. It’s too important. So I… I need your help. I need my loyal right-pincer goblin by my side.” He turo Blue. “And I definitely need my mighty drake to cover us too.”

  Druma tightened his grasp around his magical staff and his nervous expression turned into hesitaermination. “Druma help boss bring Bouldy back!”

  The azure drake looked at the goblin for a moment—as if measuring him up—and then turo the crab and gave him an affirmative nod.

  “Alright, into the ominous hole we go!” Balthazar excimed, before l his voito a murmur. “Oh, you better not have seo the wrong pce, you old lunatic…”

  Stepping into the howling maw of the mountain, the group soon entered a gigantic pair of bronze-cates, made of some strange alloy Balthazar had never seen before, like metal with the porous texture of stone.

  “Maybe I’ll just knock?” the crab said, raising one cw toward the door.

  Before his pincer reached the metal, a humming came from his backpack, pulling his attention to it.

  “Huh?” said the mert as he retrieved the hexagonal artifact Tweedus had given him the day before.

  It hummed and started shaking in his pihe closer he brought it to the gates, whi tured with a loud creak, slowly opening for the bearer of the Golemancer’s Mark.

  “Well, that was easy!” Balthazar said, shoving the mark ba his pack after it stopped humming and vibrating.

  As the party slowly made their way ihe crab’s eyes soon started adapting to the low light levels. What initially was a rough rocky floor had turned into polished stone, and a dim light grew in the distance as they delved deeper into the tunnel.

  The speck of light turned into an opening as they reached it, leading into a grandiose hall, tall and wide enough to nearly lose sight of where it ehe chamber was lit from high above by basins hanging from the ceiling, eae burning some unknowhat gave the fmes an unnatural e glow that seemed to permeate everything with its warm color.

  Pilrs and ended so far up to the distant ceiling that Balthazar could spot a yer of fog above, like a self-tained cloud system. The walls were meticulously carved with plex runes and diagrams the crab could not uand, their position appearing to be some kind of copper-like stone he had also never seen before.

  “Oh boy, this pce sure is… e,” the mert ented, pg both pincers on the sides of his shell.

  Along both sides of the hall were rows of square pedestals, eae with a statue standing on it. They depicted different kinds of armored warriors holding different types of ons, their immobile visages quietly refleg the dang light of the e fmes above off their polished coppery surface.

  “A bit eerie, but not as dangerous as I expected,” Balthazar said as he pulled his Monocle of Exposition out of his backpad pced it in front of his eye.

  Right away a big line of text appeared above his field of view.

  [Hall of the Golemancers]

  “Ah, good! This must be the right pce then,” the crab said, moving his gaze to the statue.

  [Fuardian - Level 25]

  Frowning his eyestalks, the mert stepped forward to ihe straatue closer.

  “Why does a statue have a leve—”

  As the crab approached the pedestal, a loud noise of stone rumbling made him jump in pce as the statue came to life, rigidly lifting the sword in its grasp and desding from its resting ptform.

  “Oh, that’s why!”

  Skittering back to his friends, the startled crusta started quickly rummaging through his backpack.

  “e on, e on! Where is… Aha!”

  Pulling his cw out, the mert revealed the wizard’s gift again.

  “I have a Golemancer’s Mark, stay back!” he yelled, holding the runed hexagon out for the statue to see.

  The struct, however, did not seem impressed, and tinued marg forward toward the eight-legged intruder. There was no expression on its face, only the cold surface of a sculpted helmet with no hint of emotion as it carried on its empty aless advance.

  “Argh, does this thing not have eyes?!” Balthazar said, stumbling back as the guardian closed the distaween them.

  “Boss!” Druma yelled from a few paces away. “Sir wizard say to press thingy to use it!”

  “Oh, that’s right!” said the crab.

  Just as the stone warrior raised its sword above him, Balthazar pressed the tip of his pincer into the ter of the stone.

  An e glow pulsed outward through the stone and the statue suddenly froze in pce.

  Eyes wide, the mert gulped as he stared up at the animated struct t above him, sword held over its head.

  A new line appeared in Balthazar’s system.

  [Golemancer’s Mark duration: 30 minutes]

  The statue moved again, but this time to calmly lower its on. With a stiff, meical turn, the guardian simply walked away, seemingly no longer ied in the crab or his panions.

  As he watched it leave, Balthazar noticed all the other statues had also e alive and stepped down from their pedestals, eaoving through the chamber as if patrolling the halls.

  “Phew, that was close,” the crab said. “Alright, let’s keep going, before this thing expires and these fels get all murdery again.”

  With a hurried pace, the group proceeded through the long hall, their tapping footsteps eg all around the chamber as they moved between the animated statues, who simply ighem now that Balthazar had activated the wizard’s artifact.

  At the other end of the hall, they came upon a smaller corridor. And by smaller, the crab figured his entire bazaar could still fit i and have some room to spare.

  Slowing their pace slightly now that they had left the intimidating guardians behind in the hall, the group moved through the corridor with cautious curiosity.

  The walls were covered with more carvings ags that seemed to depis and other structs i detail, each se of stone appearing slightly older tha. It was like looking through an historical record of different structs from different ages and their ial improvements over the geions. From small child-sized structs made of the older, more worn out wall tablets, all the way to the more polished and modern stones depig gigantis made of sturdy metals.

  Huh… I wonder why there are no golemancers in this pymore. Maybe it was the ute. The road accesses outside are terrible.

  The crab came upon a cross-shaped interse of corridors. Not knowing which way to go, he scoffed in annoyance, until his eyes nded on a pque on a nearby wall.

  Walking closer, Balthazar found that the sign also tairange glyphs like most everything else in that pce, which he could not read. Except this time, his monocle dispyed a few lines over the sign, seemingly transting its tents.

  South - Entrance Hall

  West - Golem Parking (1st hour free of charge)

  East - Gift Shop & Indoor Outhouses

  North - Ste Rooms & Golem Fe

  The hell is an indoor outhouse?!

  ing further and further to the clusion that golemancers were a very odd bunch, the mert decided to just shrug and keep going north.

  The corridors extended for what felt like ay with no ending in sight, making the crab keep nervously cheg his system for the mark’s prote.

  [Golemancer’s Mark duration: 23 minutes]

  Pig up the pace, Balthazar skittered faster down the polished stone corridor, a ferrous st coupled with a vague warmth in the air telling him that the fe had to be close.

  As they turned a er and a brighter light at the end of the hallway came into view, the mert noticed there was an archway to his right, leading to another room.

  Probably the ste the sigioned. Doesn’t matter, I see the fe up a—

  His thoughts derailed and his eyes widened as he g the nearby room.

  Inside, sitting on a shelf at the very ter of the chamber, was a single ingot of pure gold, shiny aiful, softly refleg the light on its perfectly smooth surface as if to be the crab to e closer.

  “Boss?” said Druma, a few paces behind. “Why is boss’s mouth open like that?”

  The sck jawed mert did not respond, lost as he was ihralling appeal of the golden treasure ihat ste room.

  I !

  His eyestalks gnced down the corridor, at the glow of the fe ahead, and then at the Golemancer’s Mark timer at the er of his sight.

  Still 20 minutes left. The ingot is right there. Just a qui and out. What could g?

  “Let’s go,” the crab muttered to himself as he skittered into the ste hall.

  “Boss?!” the goblin assistant called, looking fused.

  “I’ll be right back, Druma! You guys just wait there for a moment.”

  Ping his pincers in anticipation, Balthazar made a beelio the shelf that taihe golden ingot.

  Finally, after so long, he’d finally get his cws on another bar of gold. Images of his glorious golden carapace floated around his mind already, pstering a big smile on his face.

  A sign on the wall o the entrance caught his attention. Like the one before, it was written in some a nguage, but his monocle revealed a line of text upon iion.

  [Golem Fe Ste Room]

  [Registered golemancers only]

  Good thing I got this nifty mark thing! Balthazar thought, tinuing into the room with a shrug.

  As he walked around a few empty ets to reach the pce where the ingot was, the crab saw ann at the start of the rows of ste shelves.

  [Stored materials are not for public use]

  Good thing there’s no public left around this pymore!

  [Official fe personnel only]

  Golemancer’s pass, baby!

  [Restricted access beyond this point (even if carrying a Golemancer’s Mark)]

  Oh no, my monocle is a little foggy, I ’t read that st part!

  Hurriedly skitteriween the shelves, Balthazar reached the one taining his coveted treasure.

  “Ugh, e on…” the mert muttered, stretg his arm as high as he could.

  The shelf, clearly not built for the superior anatomy of giant crustas, was too tall for him to reach the top, where the shiny bea of opulence rested.

  “Just… a little… further…”

  Frustrated and pressed for time, Balthazar sidered his options. There were no stools or other ptforms he could use nearby. The ste was mostly empty, save for a few other ks of rod metal, all g any shiny appeal to them and thus entirely worthless in the crab’s eyes.

  Calling Druma over tion, but the goblin wouldn’t be able to reach the top shelf on his owher. He would have to stand on the crab’s shell, and that was a tough fight between Balthazar’s pride and his greed fold.

  “Argh!” he excimed in frustration, ing his pincer around one of the shelf’s supports and shaking it vigorously. “Give me yold!”

  To his surprise, the piece of furniture obliged. Maybe for being old, or perhaps because the crab was just that intimidating, the shelf wobbled, and the ingot slipped from the top, dropping to the floor with a heavy thud.

  “Oh,” Balthazar said, looking around with surprise. “Well… There’s no o in this pce, so it ’t t as stealing.”

  With a shrug and a big grin, the crab lifted the ingot from the floor with both cws.

  Huffing and puffing, he carefully stored the deal into his backpack when something cttered past the row of shelves behind him.

  “I told you to wait back there, Druma. I’m almost done he—” He lifted his gaze from his pack. “Oh, crabapples…”

  A broatue stomped forward betweee shelves, carrying a huge halberd made of the same material as its body.

  [Ste Keeper - Level 30]

  The guardian, even taller than the ones from the entry hall, walked toward the crab with a menag aermined pace.

  “Golemancer’s Mark! Golemancer’s Mark!” Balthazar excimed nervously as he backed away, holding up the stone hexagon for the struct to see.

  But the animated statue did not seem to care.

  With a ground-shaking stomp, the keeper caught up to the looting crab and leaned down with surprising swiftness for its size.

  With just one hand, the guardian lifted the trespasser from the ground by the top of his carapace.

  “Ow! Let me go! That hurts!” Balthazar yelled as he felt the crushing grasp begin to crack his shell and a fshing warning appeared in his eyes.

  [Health: 190/240]