Chapter 45 - The Gargoyle's Attributes

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

At this moment, the mechanical gargoyle seemed to have come to life. It moved its fingers, then its legs, and then its powerful wings. The wings continued flapping, and the mechanical gargoyle’s feet were slowly lifted off the ground. With the beating of its wings, it hovered silently in the air.

If the wings were removed from the mechanical gargoyle, it would resemble a mechanical imp.

Mechanical gargoyles were modeled after gargoyles. Legend had it that gargoyles were only rock statues perched on top of roofs. After a millennium of perching after being crafted by their human sculptors, these gargoyles finally had a weak life aura. Then, Necromancers came along, cursed them, and they became enslaved.

Throughout the millennia of fighting against the Undead, the goblins noticed that the gargoyles’ body structure was indeed logical. They were skinny and small, which made them speedy fliers thanks to their light weight. They could also launch long-range magic attacks against their opponents. If an opponent got too close, they would pounce and unleash their claws and fangs on them. Although they were petite, their unique skeletal structures granted them formidable strength. They were terrifying foes in the air. They could even gravely injure large dragons with their sharp claws and fangs.

After studying the gargoyles’ bodily structure carefully, the goblins came up with a grand masterpiece. With the gargoyles as reference, they built a type of mechanical puppet, a mechanical gargoyle. However, the might of the mechanical gargoyle was watered down and popularized. On top of that, when the goblins started producing more powerful mechanical puppets, the diamond dragons, mechanical gargoyles were slowly phased out. The current generation of mechanical gargoyles only had less than one-tenth of the original mechanical gargoyles’ strength.

The gargoyle moved its eyes. It slowly focused its gaze, and its pupils became clearer as well. It looked about itself curiously. It looked at Xiao Ling.

Xiao Ling hesitated for a moment. After all, seeing a conscious mechanical puppet coming to life by his own hands and moving about, Xiao Ling could not help but find this experience surreal.

The mechanical gargoyle muttered a series of strange notes as it flailed its petite arms. Combined with its peculiar expressions, it was almost comical to look at. However, it seemed to like Xiao Ling very much. With another flap of its wings, it plunged into Xiao Ling’s embrace.

Xiao Ling was taken aback, but a smile quickly found its way onto his face. It looked like he would be having another companion from now on. Xiao Ling caressed the mechanical gargoyle’s head. The mechanical gargoyle’s eyes were closed as it made a satisfied expression. It kept brushing against Xiao Ling’s arms.

The mechanical gargoyle’s expression gave rise to a strange feeling within Xiao Ling’s heart. He did not mingle around much. Now that there was suddenly another conscious life form around him, Xiao Ling was having some conflicting feelings.

When a Mechanical Alchemist obtained his mechanical puppet, he would be provided with a sub-space to store the mechanical puppet.

Xiao Ling gave it a light pat on the head. He called up his character panel and noticed the addition of the mechanical gargoyle’s attributes below. Xiao Ling read it.

Mechanical gargoyle:

Attacks: Spell, ranged melee, basic attack.

Spell damage: 200 (average).

Melee damage: 500 (average).

Cooldown between attacks: 3 seconds (spell), 2.5 seconds (melee).

Spell range: 30 yards[1. 1 yard is almost 1 meter, so 27 meters or so.].

Material: Metal. Rank 1 defense enhancements.

Agility: 15.

Health: 800 (regeneration per second: 8).

Spells: Frost Blast (base damage 200), Ring of Frost (base damage 100).

Mana regeneration: 5 per second.

Visibility: 100 (day), 50 (night).

Mechanical gargoyle rank: Rank 1S.

As expected, this gargoyle was only a rank S gargoyle. Its combat strength was the equivalent of a rank 2 mechanical imp. Xiao Ling laughed at himself. With his Journeyman rank engineering skills, it was already a commendable feat for him to craft a gargoyle. On top of that, most of the glyphs the gargoyle was inscribed with were rank 1 glyphs. It was only natural for it to have a lower ranking.

The only praiseworthy thing was that the mechanical gargoyle retained its dual skill attribute. If Xiao Ling was right, that Ring of Frost should be an Ice Mage’s Ring of Frost. This powerful control skill alone could raise this mechanical gargoyle’s value fivefold.

Xiao Ling was quite satisfied with the various attributes of the mechanical gargoyle. Having a mechanical gargoyle meant that he had another combat power. This would certainly help him a lot in his leveling.

Xiao Ling inspected the mechanical gargoyle again. When he confirmed that there were no glitches, he stored the mechanical gargoyle in the sub-space. He would not be able to test the mechanical gargoyle’s strength here. He could only wait for the opportunity to present itself.

Xiao Ling was beginning to feel the exhaustion from a whole night’s work. Having one’s mana sucked away was a taxing task. Xiao Ling crept onto the bed and pondered. Should he tell Tian Kuang that he had built a mechanical gargoyle? If they had a mechanical gargoyle on their side, they would certainly be leveling up much more quickly. However, if he told Tian Kuang that he had built a mechanical gargoyle, how was he supposed to explain where it came from? Should he tell them that he had the attributes of a Mechanical Alchemist and a general Warlock, which made him four classes in one?

Xiao Ling thought about it and promptly shook the idea out of his head. He would keep this a secret for now. He decided to only use his mechanical gargoyle when he was back to soloing.

Xiao Ling entertained his other thoughts on his bed and fell asleep before he knew it.

In the morning, Xiao Ling heard knocks on his door.

Xiao Ling woke up and opened the door. Tian Kuang was waiting for him outside. Tian Fei, Tian Xin, and Lin Fei were already downstairs, ready to depart.

Xiao Ling smiled apologetically. “Sorry, I’ve overslept.”

“Let’s go. The others are waiting,” said Tian Kuang. He went down the stairs, Xiao Ling followed him. The four of them walked toward the Mercenary Guild.

Tian Fei and Tian Xin were both curious about Xiao ling’s activities last night. However, they found it difficult to bring it up when Xiao Ling was not talking about it.

“Our destination today is the Boar Mine. We’ll take all the quests related to it and complete what we can.” As Tian Kuang spoke, he passed some potions to Xiao Ling. “This is a spell damage enhancement potion to increase your spell damage. Take one. We might be fighting a Boss today. If a Boss appears, drink it. Lin Fei is a Rogue and isn’t well-suited to hold down a Boss. We can only reduce her time of holding it at bay by increasing our damage output.”

“Okay,” Xiao Ling responded. He received the spell damage enhancement potion from Tian Kuang. He checked the effects of the potion.

Spell damage enhancement potion: Increase spell damage by 10%. Lasts for two minutes.

Although he did not know how much this potion cost, judging by its effects, he had a feeling that it was not cheap. There was no room for being stingy in matters pertaining to the party’s survival. Xiao Ling stored it in his bag.