CHAPTER 42: RICHES?

Grey was in a wide and huge circular, cavernous vault. But instead of dust and death, the floors, the walls, and every conceivable surface were heaped, piled and overflowing with treasure.

His jaw felt like it was touching the floor.

It was a veritable ocean of gold coins, stacked in perfect columns that had slowly collapsed into glittering, spilling mounds.

Interspersed among the rivers of gold were chests overflowing with cut jewels. Rubies the size of Grey’s fist, emeralds that pulsed with soft green light, and diamonds that caught the flambeaux’s light and sprayed rainbows across the ceiling.

The light reflecting off the sheer volume of precious metal was blinding, forcing Grey to squint, but his eyes were wide and shining with raw, visceral excitement.

He had stumbled not just upon a tomb, but the legendary treasury of the tyrant Pharomin, a hoard so vast it defied imagination.

But all this shining treasure had made him unaware of a pyramid shaped raised platform at the center, with a bronze coffin laced with intricate golden linings and a Pschent, the golden red and white crown placed atop.

Grey’s initial shock quickly dissolved into blinding, greedy elation. He rushed forward, his boots sinking slightly into the soft mounds of coins.

He reached a massive, glistening pile, scooped up a handful of chunky gold coins, and let out a breathless, triumphant laugh.

"Hahahaha! I’m rich. I’m fucking rich! I’ll buy all the rare potions, weapons, armors, even the fucking legendary ones, a-and all the trade hubs in the city. At least I’ll be a fucking billionaire in this life. Hahahaha!!"

Grey had seen poverty in both his life, as Austin and also as Grey. The thing that had kept torturing him and making his life miserable, had always been money.

Seeing this mountain of gold in front of him, he couldn’t control himself, his eyes shining with greed and fulfilment. As if this was the solution to every problem in his life.

The metal felt warm in his palm, unnaturally so, given the stale air of the tomb.

But as if all the forces in the universe were jealous of him, his dreams and hopes shattered within a moment.

The heat intensified. Before Grey could fully register the change, the gold coins in his palm began to distort, quickly turning from solid metal to viscous, liquid flow.

It felt like molten butter, and with a hiss, the liquid gold slipped through his fingers and splashed onto the floor.

Grey stared at his now empty, scalded palm, confusion replacing the greed.

A low, resonant fizzing sound filled the chamber. All around him, the unimaginable piles of gold began to melt.

The shear heat radiating from the coins was turning the vast treasure into rivers of bright, glowing yellow liquid that flowed down the slopes of the piles, pooling rapidly on the stone floor.

The treasury was turning into a lake of molten gold.

The flowing metal hissed and steamed as it rushed towards a single, predetermined point in the chamber, creating a whirlpool of liquid wealth.

As the gold flowed, the jewels-the massive rubies, emeralds, diamonds and sapphires rolled down, moving towards the towering whirlpool of liquid gold.

The gems and the liquid gold knitted themselves together into a towering, terrifying shape. In seconds, the chaos resolved into a monstrous, magnificent Golden golem.

It stood at least twenty feet tall, its body composed entirely of perfectly interlocking, gemstones, with the molten liquid forming the shell inside.

The jewel golem slowly raised one crystalline arm, fixing its cold, faceted gaze on Grey, as his excitement was instantly replaced by a familiar, ice-cold dread.

[Crystalline Gold Golem of Greed (Guardian)]

RACE: Monster (Magical automaton)

LEVEL: 48

STAMINA: ∞

STRENGTH: 78

INTELLIGENCE: 10

AGILITY: 28

SKILLS: Thorny crystal wave (B+), Diamond shards throw (C+)

"My destiny is to live as the poorest scum. Why the hell are you so jealous of me heavens!?" Grey looked up as he screamed in frustration.

THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!

The loud sounds of stomps fell on Grey’s ears. Surprised, he moved his gaze down, and saw the huge golem rushing at him with long strides.

The distance between the two of them was not large from the start, and with just a few strides, it was in front of him. Its massive, hammer like fists, with pulsating emeralds and sapphires swinging down at him from above.

Aura rushed to his feet. He activated dash and rushed back immediately.

BOOM!

The whole vault shook. Spiderweb like cracks spread on the floor when the golem’s fist fell right on the spot, where Grey was earlier.

Sharp and pointy crystals with multitude of colors, pierced out of the ground, like massive thorns from the cracks.

"Fuck! This bastard is troublesome." If he hadn’t move from there, he would have turned into a human sieve.

Grey activated his eyes of omniscience. The Golem’s true power centers were instantly visible.

A massive, glowing ruby embedded deep in its chest, along with two sapphires placed adjacent on both the sides, acting as the core collectively, connected by a smoky strand of energy. Also, one massive diamond on each of the limbs, the arms and the legs.

Grey realized that the diamonds were the cores that were supplying energy to the limbs. While the three gemstones on the chest were the main cores, which had to be destroyed together, since the strand of energy was connecting all three of them.

"Let’s immobilize it first. Destroying the core would become easy." Grey decided. He would make it immobile first, breaking the diamonds in the limbs.

The golem lifted its crystallized hand and pointed it towards Grey. Small shards of crystals grew out from the fist’s surface and without a notice, zoomed out like arrows.

Aura gathered on Grey’s fists and feet. He dashed sideways. The golem moved its fist with Grey, as the crystal shards kept chasing him, missing just by an inch.

Grey took an immediate turn and rushed towards the Golem. He paused, bent his knees and like a spring, leaped towards the golem.

He landed on the golem’s firing arm. Using the crystals as his foothold, he rushed towards his head.

The golem stopped the crystal fire. It dropped his hand and swung the other fist at Grey.

But Grey evaded the swing swiftly, jumping upwards with a push of aura. He moved his leg up straight. Aura collected at his heel as he swung it down in an arc, towards the diamond at the shoulder of the golem.

"Demolition axe."

His kick fell right on the diamond’s surface. Cracks spread as it shattered into pieces, and the golem’s arm immediately went limp.

Grey leaped back, landing comfortably. But the smile that was about to creep up his face, vanished instantly.

Another diamond from the pile at the back floated up and flew towards the Golem’s shoulder and embedded it at the empty depression.

The Golem’s arm was moving again. It stood tall and moved that very arm towards Grey, as crystal shards started growing out.

"Shit!"