Clutter glances down at the sphere in his hands as if remembering that it exists in the first place. He slowly turns it around a few times, then places it gingerly in my hands. The moment he stops touching it his spell fades, and a brilliant green-filled sphere appears before me. Seems like he had the same idea to target the one there was the fewest of.

"I'll be… right back." He trails his gaze over the destruction behind me, then runs off. I watch him go until he reaches the edge of my awareness, then turn back to the mass of destroyed constructs.

Now that–that felt like a tutorial fight. One to get us acquainted with the constructs, puts their weak points on display, and gives us enough time to fight them before they can get too close. I bet next time I see these things something significant will have changed–either how they approach, their bodies in general, or even the amount of magic in their heads. Because at a third full, there's still two-thirds of empty space left to go.

'Course, that's assuming this wave is the only one that's going to show up for now. I could easily be proven wrong any second, but if this is actually just a way to get us accustomed to how things work in this quest, then I've got a feeling Clutter's on cleanup duty. Definitely would've been much worse if we had a single other person here who isn't allied with us, too, so if the same quest gets given to everyone, it can't be too dangerous.

I nod to myself, fairly confident in my appraisal of the situation, and hold the head-sphere at arm's length. Time to see what I can glean from this thing; Clutter mentioned a rune connecting the body to the head. I spin the head around a few times to check for any sign of magic, but the only stuff I can sense is the green adrenaline-inducing stuff inside.

"So whatever lets the head connect to the body is either only on the body, or worked into the magic liquid itself." I lean against the tower and take out my Class Card–whose note-taking function is luckily still there. "To greatly oversimplify things; red explodes, blue defends, green buffs, and yellow fights. None of their bodies were any different from each other, and I'll have to ask Clutter if the runes on each one corresponds to the colour in their head, or if those are all the same, too."

As I type down my findings, another thought pops into my mind. Since destroying the heads makes the body die off, there's a chance reconnecting an undamaged head would restart the body. I turn and look at the previously yellow-headed construct that's just a few feet away from me. There's no harm in testing out a theory, right?

Nah, definitely not. I walk right over to the thing, throw down a purification to clear away all the red and blue that still coat the stone, and lean down to inspect the rune on its 'neck'. A simple circle with a dot in the center stares back up at me, and without a head connected to it, I can't feel a drop of magic from the thing. I run my fingers over the slight indent, feeling the stone that's as smooth as a pebble at the bottom of a river, then my finger catches in the center dot.

And pulls it through the stone towards the outer edge. I stare at the rune in confusion for a few seconds, then pull the dot around the circle like it's some kind of inlaid disk. But it isn't. The thing is one solid piece, and I'm moving around a dot something carved into the material. Without it giving off any magical signs in the slightest.

"Now what does this do?" I murmur as I continue to mess with the rune. "Will you be more aggressive if I bring the dot closer to the edge? Or will you even connect to the head if you're not in the perfect position? If only I had a way to find out."

I lick my lips and position the head right over the rune. Crackling bolts of electricity-like magic zap between the bottom of the head and the rune, and I slowly rotate the grey sphere to see how they react. Absolutely nothing changes no matter how I spin it–the grey magic takes the shortest path between the sphere and the outer ring of the rune. But… huh. It only touches the carved outer ring. Not the uncarved material inside of it or the dot that I was just messing with.

Carefully, I move the head closer and closer to the body. The limbs lie limply there without so much as a twitch, even as the arcs of magic between the head and the rune shrink to barely two inches. Before I close those last few inches, I palm a shield coin, then place the head against the rune.

The body twitches ever so slightly. I take a step back and ready my coin as I try to keep an eye on the dot in the center, but it disappears under the sloshing green magic. As the limbs work themselves into motion, I frown and cross my arms; it looks like any head works with any body. And it also looks like moving that dot did absolutely nothing.

I throw up the shield before the body can fully get to its feet, enclosing it in a fairly large box so I can observe it further. Like a puppet being pulled upwards on its strings, the construct stands bolt upright and turns directly at me. It takes a few steps forward, smacks against my barrier, and doesn't stop.

"So not intelligent. Probably only programmed to walk straight at what it deems a threat." I summon another shield and press it against the box. "How'll you react to this?"

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

My second coin flickers, and a wedge of a shield appears right next to the head and the body. It shoves forward an instant later, pushing the head further and further away from the body, but no matter how far it goes the magic arcs won't disconnect. And now that I've got a better look at the rune while it's operating, I can see that the dot is perfectly in the middle again. But it's moving slightly to the side so it's positioned under the head.

"It is a pivot point. But… why? Wouldn't having it on a flat surface serve exactly the same purpose?" I muse as I summon a projectile to finish the job. "No, that's like questioning why circuitry looks the way it does without knowing anything about it. There has to be some runic, magical reason for the dot."

I dismiss my shields and flick the projectile at the construct's head, then walk away to put the tower between me and it. Once my awareness confirms I'm out of line of sight, I detonate the projectile. And the construct's green head detonates at the exact same time. I open up my Class Card and add my findings to the notes I already made, then frown down at them as I realize I've forgotten the obvious.

Identify still works here, since Clutter used it on the catalyst. Even if my information tab is greyed out, the initial information identify gives shouldn't be greyed out. Which makes my thorough destruction of the constructs more than a little hasty.

I shake my head and groan in annoyance at myself. Then I push off the tower with the sole of my shoe and walk until I can see the constructs Clutter's dealing with. "Clutter! Did you bother identifying these things?"

An invisible paindne pauses with a construct in a headlock. He looks down at it, then at the four constructs he hasn't decapitated. "Um… no. But I saved one of each colour. Want to split the cost?"

"We'll check two first and see if they have the same description. Which one do you want?"

He raises his chin, then taps the head of the one he's got immobilized. "This blue one."

"Then I'll take the green." I focus on the green one and point a finger at it. "Identify."

Identification Cost: 100 Worth.

Continue: Y or N?

Ah, that explains the hundred Worth the quest so generously gave out before. I guess if someone came in here with next to no Worth to their name, they'd be hard locked out of identifying these things. Which… is probably easy to live with, honestly. Anyway, I press Y.

100 Worth consumed.

Target Identified as: Liquid Magic Transportation Construct(Modified).

A construct designed to transport liquid magic. Cannot normally function without a command from a registered user, though this model has been modified to do so.

I carefully read it over twice, and no mention of a colour of magic randomly appears the second time through. From how Clutter frowns at his own Class Card, I'm pretty sure he's reading the exact same thing I am.

"No mention of the colours of magic in yours?" I ask, just to be sure.

He shakes his head. "Nope. Just that they're supposed to be commanded, and now they don't have to be. But doesn't this feel like too little information?"

I shrug and swipe to my notes, copy down what identify told me, then send my Class Card away. "I don't expect a history lesson when I identify something."

"Well, yes, but… hrm." Clutter clutches his arm, and the construct's head pops clean off. He gracefully catches it before it can hit the ground, then sends it to his inventory. "I don't know why it bugs me. Usually it'd at least say what the construct is made of, or what its proper name is. This feels like we're getting the absolute least information we need to make an okay decision."

"I mean, we can kind of assume that whatever the system isn't telling us is a secret for a reason. Like, it didn't tell us about the runes, or that they can carry different kinds of magic. Think of it like this; If we weren't stupid, what's the first thing you'd do if you saw these things walking at us."

Clutter raises an eyebrow, then laughs and shakes his head. "I guess I'd identify them. And it was easy enough to test the things the system didn't tell us… ah, whatever. Maybe this is another way the system evens the playing field for all the different clearances."

"Or it could just not want to tell us everything up-front. You know, because of spoilers." I grin and motion at the three remaining constructs. "Nice work on the others, by the way. Clean kills all around?"

He frowns and walks up to the closest construct, locks it in a headlock, and jams his fingers into the small space he made between its body and head. Magic shimmers down his wraps, and the crackling connective magic starts to visibly weaken. After about ten seconds of concentration, he pops off the head and sends it to his inventory.

"I'm not really sure this is considered killing them." He says reluctantly as he kicks away the body. "They're just magic powering a construct. I bet you could completely 'heal' one of these just by reattaching the head. Ooh, we should try that next!"

"Already tried it. Worked like a charm."

Clutter slightly deflates. "Oh. Okay. Give me thirty seconds and I'll be done here; go ahead and teleport back to the top."

I nod and tug on the connection to my relocation coin. "See you there in a minute."

As he nods back, I trigger the spell. Everything shifts ever so slightly, and I take a quick look around the tower for anything new. The scent is gone, so that's a plus, and the tower of circles is almost flush with the floor. Not quite sure if that was time-based or enemies-defeated based, but either way, it looks like it's going to finish… right about… now.

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