Wood-shattering thuds resound through the forest every few minutes whenever Omni overstretches itself, jumping before looking or unable to turn in time. The larger trees are left with dents while the smaller trees are pushed over, snapping completely. Omni found the experience exhilarating despite the occasional flub, at least compared to being stuck in the dungeon.
After enlarging the claws on its paws and reshaping them to resemble climbing hooks, it began to climb the trees and try to jump from tree to tree, branch to branch. The first time the golem falls, it gets an unwelcome flashback to what started all of this but quickly pushes that out of its mind. Things are different now, and it has more freedom than ever before, free to change its body, to go wherever it wants, free to ๐ค๐ข๐ฅ๐ฅ-? *๐ป๐๐๐ *
The second fall was particularly high, causing much of the delicately shaped stone to snap off, shaking Omni from its train of thought. The golem gathers up the wayward stone and pulls them back into its body before climbing back up.
It considers its body for a moment before adding more mass to its tail and adding a grappling hook-like claw to the end to assist in swinging on branches and catching itself. The new addition helps a lot after getting used to it, lowering the rate of falls quite a bit.
Omni continues moving through the massive forest like a bat out of hell, mapping a good chunk of it. Making such rapid movements by controlling stone seemed to affect its core positively. Feeling the changes, the golem is reminded that it hasn't checked on its status in a while and calls up the window without slowing down.
[ Name: Ad Omne Argentum
Race: Canine?
Vitality: 800
Energy: 1050
Core: Lapis Crystal, Sacred Silver, Reาsili๐nt Soul
Durability: 250/โ
Skills: Adv. Earth Magic - Adv. Water Magic - Adv. Lightning Magic - Gravity Magic - Advanced Identify - Energy Manipulation - Energy Vision - Flee - Harmonize - Hazard Storage - Lock Picking - Vacuum ]
'๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ข๐ณ๐ฅ ๐ช๐ด ๐ข๐ด ๐ด๐ช๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ด ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ, ๐ฎ๐บ ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ณ๐จ๐บ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ท๐ช๐ต๐ข๐ญ๐ช๐ต๐บ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ ๐ฆ๐น๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ช๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ข ๐ญ๐ข๐ณ๐จ๐ฆ ๐ซ๐ถ๐ฎ๐ฑ, ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฃ๐ข๐ฃ๐ญ๐บ ๐ง๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ๐ฏ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ง๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ ๐๐ณ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ. ๐๐ข๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ญ๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ต๐ฏ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฎ๐ข๐จ๐ช๐ค ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ญ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฅ๐บ ๐ข๐ต ๐๐ฅ๐ท๐ข๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ช๐ค๐ฉ ๐ช๐ด๐ฏ'๐ต ๐ข ๐ด๐ถ๐ณ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ช๐ด๐ฆ, ๐๐ณ๐ข๐ท๐ช๐ต๐บ ๐ช๐ด๐ฏ'๐ต ๐ข๐ฅ๐ท๐ข๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐บ๐ฆ๐ต ๐ฃ๐ถ๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต'๐ด ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ต ๐ข ๐ด๐ถ๐ณ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ช๐ด๐ฆ ๐ฆ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ, ๐ด๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ญ๐ช๐ฌ๐ฆ ๐๐ณ๐ข๐ท๐ช๐ต๐บ ๐ช๐ด๐ฏ'๐ต ๐ด๐ฐ ๐ด๐ช๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ฆ. ๐๐ถ๐ต ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ข๐ต'๐ด ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ฎ๐ถ๐ฅ๐จ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐๐ฆ๐ด๐ช๐ญ๐ช๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต ๐๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ?'
Omni's focus was drawn towards the... glitch? Smudge? These things shouldn't have errors, should they? But reality quickly broke the golem's focus as it jumped from a branch and landed on nothing. With the status window out of the way, Omni saw what happened; it ran out of trees to jump to, finding itself in a large clearing and falling.
Bracing itself so it wouldn't break apart, Omni landed with a resounding thud, leaving a small crater in the grass and dirt. Unfurling itself and looking around, it was indeed in a large clearingโa hill in the center with a large burrow at the base laid in the middle. A person was sleeping on a worn chair in front, a guard presumably, who was now wide awake with the earth-shaking bang making it jump out of its chair.
'๐๐ต'๐ด... ๐ข ๐ญ๐ช๐ต๐ต๐ญ๐ฆ ๐จ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ฎ๐ข๐ฏ? ๐๐ด ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐บ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐๐ฐ๐ด๐ธ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ญ?'
Omni pondered the strange creature; it wore nothing but a brown loincloth and a necklace with some small animal bones on it, wielded a shabby-looking spear, and appeared to be quite scared of the wolf(?) monster in front of it.
"Gi! Gigigi!" It shouts in a high voice before pulling a horn from somewhere and blowing on it, presumably alerting whatever was inside the hill.
Omni couldn't detect any magical energy coming from the guard's spear, so it waited with curiosity to see what would happen. The wolf golem sat down and watched while a large number of the little green men came out from the hill; the structure seemed to be pretty significant given how many came out. If it were an average person or even a low-level adventurer, most would be afraid of seeing such a large number of goblins, but to Omni, who didn't know what they were, it thought they were somewhat cute.
The older goblins stood ahead of the younger ones, brandishing shabby spears and swords in a defensive formation. After nearly a minute of standing off, another goblin came out from the hill, this one older than the rest with wrinkled skin and matted white hair. The old goblin chittered at the group, and the original goblin replied.
Omni was confused and unsure if repeating 'Gi!' repeatedly could even count as a language, but they seemed to be conversing despite the simplicity. The old goblin glanced between the wolf golem and the young guard before nodding in understanding, then walked past the defensive line towards Omni. Some goblins protested, but the elder shushed them and strode forward without fear.
The elder stood in front of Omni, easily dwarfed by its sizeable canine form, and began making random noises. Or at least that is what it sounded like to Omni, and after tilting its head in confusion, the elder almost took a step back before reassuring itself.
The old goblin mouthed out some words without making noise before asking, "Foe? Friend?"
Its pronunciation was a little weird, but it was enough for Omni to understand. "Not foe," the golem replied; it was a little worried the elder wouldn't like the answer, but he seemed ecstatic and chittered at the rest of the goblins excitedly, who lowered their weapons immediately.
Omni took the time to look at the clearing in-depth; thick thorny vines covered the tree line from the ground up until relatively high up, preventing entry. The golem couldn't tell if it had gone through the vines or was just higher than they reached when it fell from the trees.
Its attention was drawn back to the goblins after a few younger goblins who had begun to climb on its back drew blood after being poked by the sharp stone fur. Instead of being worried, both young and old goblins laughed it off while the elder knelt beside the injured and emitted a soft green pulse from his hand. After the elder wiped away the trickles of blood Omni could see the tiny holes were gone.
'๐๐ฆ๐ข๐ญ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฎ๐ข๐จ๐ช๐ค? ๐'๐ญ๐ญ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ข๐ด๐ฌ ๐๐ณ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ ๐จ๐ฆ๐ต ๐ฃ๐ข๐ค๐ฌ... ๐๐ข๐ช๐ต, ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ๐ฏ'๐ต ๐๐ข๐ญ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐ช๐ฏ๐ข ๐ฃ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ต๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ค๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ช๐ค๐ฆ? ๐๐ฉ, ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ๐ด ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ญ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ.'
The uncanny jubilation of the goblins is interrupted by the growling stomachs of several goblins; looking at them closer, Omni realized they were rather skinny. Were they having trouble with food?
The elder goblin prostrated himself in front of the wolf golem, "Hunt?" It asked in a pleading tone.
Omni shrugged; it didn't have anything to lose by helping these little green men, Valentina might even praise it for building rapport instead of blind violence. It nodded and stood up to its full height with a good feeling in its chest. Glancing back at the hill burrow, Omni realized it could also benefit from this, "Ores," it stated, "I'll trade meat for any ores or metal you can provide."
The goblin elder looked confused for a bit, clearly mulling over what Omni said, not understanding for a moment. Once realization crosses his face, the elder nods excitedly and chitters to the rest of the goblins who return to the burrow.
With a trade presumably secured Omni turns around and begins scaling the thorny vines, they weren't magical in nature so they had no chance of even scratching the golem's shell, and with a clear goal in mind, Omni bounds back into the trees with vigor.