343 Garden Expansions (1/2)
Zero was busy. Then again, when wasn't he busy? The doctor sighed. Now he understood why the Gods were always looking for an excuse to attend parties. Nobody enjoyed working and Zero wished he could delegate his task over to someone else like Baal. The omnipotent creator of all was also a slave to the never-ending cycle of work. Zero wondered if Solo ever got tired of working. How nice would it be if his entire existence could be like Duu?
Zero indulged the thought for a moment but quickly erased it from his mind. The doctor shuddered thinking about doing nothing for eternity. He did it once and Zero didn't want to go back to those days of doing absolutely nothing. He'd very much be entertained and occupied with work. Having something to do was always better than having nothing to do. Boredom was Zero's worst nightmare after all. If he had to choose a divine entity to relate to better, it would probably be Zesti who is all over the place doing things at her own pace.
After kidnapping Cleo for a while, Zero entered Heaven. The dryad had her long-term visitor work permit pass so not informing anybody about their sudden arrival didn't cause too big of an issue. Ouroboros wasn't expecting to see any visitors but that was about it. Zero went to check on the pasture he had near Garden Eden. With Cleo's professional judgement of the soil's quality, they decided to pay a visit to Arabesque.
Zero's surprise visit didn't trigger the security alarms in Arabesque but Merlin didn't let his student go without meeting him in person first. The doctor introduced Cleo to his magic teacher and they shared a cup of tea while Zero asked his mindscape assistants to put together a list of plants that would grow well in the pasture. Wii volunteered for the task of window shopping online and Mii left it all to her sister.
Merlin listened to Zero's proposal and didn't think there was anything wrong with wanting to grow his medicinal herbs in the pasture they co-shared. However, Merlin expressed his concern over the lack of capable hands to oversee their growth.
Zero was ready for this. With a rough sketch, the design for his garden golem and medical assistants were ready. Merlin looked through both designs and studied the runes in detail while Cleo waited patiently. It wasn't Zero's first time making a golem and this time, Merlin was impressed by how much Zero's understanding of runes has improved. At Zero's current level, it would be sufficient for Zero to be considered a legendary runemaster.
”What are the materials used to build the golem's main body? Rune power has to run on something. If it's in the pastures here, you can siphon mana to keep it powered but if it is elsewhere, you'd better reconsider. Also, you have to find time to maintain the golems every few decades to keep them in good condition.”
There was one problem with using elemental imbued mana metals. Zero didn't have enough time or a fusing chamber to create enough mana metals for thirty golems. Hence, his second alternative was to use mana imbued rocks or crystals. Nobody has ever tried such a strange material for alchemy and Zero needed an expert's opinion on using the alternative material.
Merlin called Lovina over to study Zero's idea and discuss further on how it would be possible to stabilise a golem made from living rocks and crystals imbued with mana. For starters, rocks and crystals possess a life of their own, unlike metal that usually developed a consciousness later on if they became tools and weapons. The reason why metals were used to make special golems was due to the ability to retain parts of their master's soul after creation. On the other hand, rocks and crystals already possess a life of their own making it exceedingly hard to bend them to their creator's will on a higher level. rock golems and crystal golems were usually created as a summons for short-term uses during a battle, meant to be destroyed after their purpose had been fulfilled. Also, elemental golems usually only possess one type of element per core. For Zero to want to incorporate more than one mana core in each golem was unthinkable even to the greatest alchemist alive.
Still, Zero didn't propose this without a solution and Merlin was proud of his student. Zero came up with a way to link the different cores to work together within a golem using runes. The rune formations and spells were exceedingly complicated. Even with about a hundred parallel minds, Merlin was still having difficulties understanding it. There were a total of twenty thousand different spells woven in the rune writings that created the golem's core functioning system. Another fifty thousand spells in the rune writings were used to create the golem's intelligence that Merlin had never seen before.
Lovina felt helpless in front of such a high-levelled rune writing. She was an alchemist and not a very advanced one in Arabesque. The witch gave her master a helpless look. While she might be Merlin's first disciple in alchemy, Zero was Merlin's best magic student who had long surpassed her in terms of knowledge and capability. There was nothing she could do to help Zero when she was staring at an unknown type of magic.
Cleo noticed something wrong when Merlin fell silent and radiated an aura of interest concentration. Sweat dripped from his brow and that look made Zero nervous. Was it bad? Did he do something wrong? Why did Merlin look as if it was very complicated?
In the mindscape, Wii and Mii looked at Merlin with pity. For the wizard to understand this with a glance would be impossible. Wii and Mii worked hard to put this together under Zero's direction. The process wasn't easy and if it wasn't for the time flow difference in Zero's trial dimension, they would never have gotten this formula right.
”Zero, have you tested this one something?” Merlin gave up and asked. If Zero had already tested this one something else, the formula was going to work for sure. There was no need for the wizard to lose brain cells over something like that. Other than Zero, there really wasn't anyone else capable of creating such a thing.
Zero bit his lips. ”Yes. However, it took many trial and errors to get it right. This is what I came up with after almost eight hundred attempts. Rocks and crystals are not the most ideal materials for golem creations but I found out that they could be tampered with if given the right conditions. The trick lies in increasing the spirit's intelligence and awareness within the rock or crystal. Once they awaken, it isn't difficult to build a contract to bind them to the creator.”
Merlin listened to Zero explain about his many failures and his discovery. He gave the witch a look and Lovina quickly wrote down everything that Zero said. Cleo didn't fully understand what Zero was talking about but she did agree with some things that Zero said. As a dread, she was able to hear voices of everything in her territory. The trees, flowers, grass, soil and rocks have voices. If Zero's theory about the voices were right, material plane spirits can also be born. Not all spirits have to originate from the Natural plane. The discovery was huge and Cleo wondered if anyone else knew that.
The discussion took a few hours to conclude. Fortunately, all the magicians agreed that Zero should stick to high-grade mana crystals to create golems out of. Medical golems should be created using light crystal cores while garden golems should be created from earth crystal cores. The rune writings were ignored and Merlin trusted Zero more than he trusted himself with them.
With the miscellaneous matters in Heaven concluded, Zero left the order placing to his trusty assistants while he explained to Cleo what kind of help he would require once the seeds arrived. They returned for late lunch and Zero apologised for the tardiness. After a very satisfying meal, Zero headed to Trigression Falls alone.
The barrier he did up for Trigression Fall's base previously worked very well. All Zero needed to do now was to create a new portal outside of it to divert some water over to Hua Tuo's farm. Creating the portal and sustaining it wasn't the difficult part. The difficult part was picking a spot that wouldn't be blocked by plants or marine creatures. Zero looked around to the rocks that he meditated on before and had an idea.