Chapter 277: A Project Complete (1/2)

-Daniel-

I rolled my shoulders, surprised that the golem project came together this fast. A few days of hard work really paid off, and the night crew blistered past the design process much faster for it. Talking with Diesel, the guy explained that working with the guildleader really spurred them into action. Combine that with the nonexistent building limitations, and the most challenging part of the design was already handled.

Apparently, resource management and the scale of an operation took up a sizable part of the design process. Most mass-produced golems required not only a practical design for their intended purpose, but they also needed a reasonable means of being created. After all, carving the delicate, precise runes into something like metal was a severe challenge all on its own.

Most of the time, they used a kind of welding that let out few sparks. This still left a lot to be desired from a precision standpoint, meaning industrial errors were the norm. Creating machines that processed the body and parts of a golem also took up a lot of time and managing where and when they got the resources for it also required some brainstorming.

I handled all of those operations, so they moved through the entirety of its creation in about a week. To the team, I was like a 3-D printer that worked with something more rigid than metal. That and my runic carving meant they could use far more lettering than expected, streamlining the inscription aspects.

Ophelia was actually a pivotal part of that process. She sped up the mind creation of the golem by orders of magnitude, her experience invaluable. She and Torix were really at odds during these past few days since her perspectives showed differing priorities. Torix wanted the golem to be an unlearning, mindless drone of sorts, similar to his necromantic creations.

Ophelia insisted on the opposite. She wanted the golem to speak telepathically, and she wanted it to have a measure of free will. They argued for hours about that point, and Ophelia eventually out willed Torix more than out reasoned him. The lich spoke about the risks involved with having a golem of such strength operating without strict limits.

In many ways, he was right. These golems would be powerful.

At the same time, Ophelia carried many points in her favor as well. For starters, she kept a policy of constant correction as she called it. The main advantage of a mindful golem was that it could be taught what to do and when. This meant continually updating its mind wasn't necessary. It could do that on its own.

The other benefit involved the nature of its purpose. These golems were supposed to go into the abyssal depths of dungeons and rifts alike. Every dungeon was different, so having each golem adjust to its surroundings was invaluable. Torix ceded to those points since I wanted this golem project to expand to a massive scale.

That wasn't to say Torix's arguments were weak, however. The golem had mind magic and standard wizard spells on its side. Even a veteran classer would struggle to manage it in a real fight. Combine that with its sheer physicality, and these super golems could take on entire battalions of levelers on their own. That guaranteed they'd clear a dungeon no problem. It did mean they could kill our own on a massive scale as well.

Ophelia worked with minds in the past to prevent this kind of problem, and she won over Torix with a few examples of tampering eldritch messing with the encoded rulesets of old golems. She described some of these eldritch like lawyers, many of them finding loopholes in the golems' preprogrammed reasoning.

That argument faltered to Torix's reasoning, his risk aversion winning out at that point. Ophelia pulled an ace out of her sleeve as a counter, however. She argued that free will gave the golems the ability and desire to learn. By ensuring each golem received tutelage under the right person, they could be given a reliable moral compass. It didn't have to be elaborate either, just a few ideas about what was right and wrong. Combine that with simple desires to help our cause, and they'd be super soldiers with some empathy.

That's why I sat there, staring at the designs, several vital pieces converted into the cipher. Ophelia won out, got the specs ready, and now, it was up to me to finish pulling these different parts together. I began by mapping out how I needed to make the beast's entirety, and it all started with a central core, one encoded with its mind. It required stringent, precise carvings, and they would coat its entire surface from top to bottom.

I started on that work, taking out some liquified dimensional fabric. I pooled a considerable amount over the past few days, making sure I had enough for just this purpose. Pulling it out, I stretched the glowing, white mass over my head like star taffy. The engineers and designers watched in the distance, wanting to understand how I made it. Ophelia, Torix, and Diesel watched as well.

Wielding gravity and telekinesis, I shifted the blob into a roughly spherical shape. After getting the outline done, I compressed it down, anchoring it with a gravity well—this gravitational force formed at the center of the metal orb. At the same time, I created an antigravity panel under the process to prevent Earth's gravity from messing up this process.

In the distance, Torix already channeled a spell to block wind as well. Without much interference from natural forces, I strengthened the gravity well at the center of the sphere. This smoothed its surface, mirroring how a planet formed. With a better sphere than I could hope to eyeball, I flash froze it with a burst of cooling quintessence.

Keeping the perfect orb afloat, I reached out a hand. No direct carving was needed since the runes were already completed in my grimoire. Using the elemental furnace as a fuel source, I funneled mana into the grimoire before the lettering shined after a few minutes.

The glowing lettering floated off the page before wrapping around the sphere. Without any sparks flying out, I riddled the mass with cipheric inscriptions. As I did, I peered back and forth from the blueprint and the sphere to ensure I was doing this right. The last thing I wanted was to have messed this up early on. Everything was made right, so I moved on.

I began work on the rest of the body. With a gravitational wave, I hovered a mass of melted fabric over the sphere. I created a layering of cooled energy between the finished core and the molten body to prevent marred inscriptions. The shape came together over a few seconds, the subtle adjustments made in real-time.

The main body held the core that controlled movement. It was composed of a few interlocked plates covered in an organic, flowing piece of metal. Unlike most metals, the amount of this stuff wasn't an issue, and the floating joints model meant we didn't need to worry as much about pieces clanking together as the golem moved.

With all that in mind, I created shoulder pads aimed at protecting the head. These pauldrons were simple, jagged masses of metal. For each of them, I made two more cores that controlled mind magic and everyday magic. The idea was to feint that the head stored these orbs when they actually rested in the densest clusterings of metal in the golem.

These cores took more time, and I made sure the cipher inscriptions were accurate. I had a few conversations with Ophelia where I bombarded her with questions. This gave me an idea of her ideas and what she was trying to do. To get this right, I replicated her perspective as honestly as I could while carving the cipher.

When the runes floated onto the cores, I hoped it would be enough.

Finalizing the main body, I added several additional strands of runic carving on the golem's surface. These normal runes took seconds to apply. The last addition was implanting a series of telepathic wires that combined the three cores into a single consciousness.

Once set up, I moved onto the limbs. I kept them simple, the hands blunt and broad. They wielded three fingers apiece, enough to grab something but no more than that. This made even the fingers like clubbing weapons, making the hands hard to break in combat. The hands themselves were made large as well, more hulking clubs than typical palms.

These masses flowed into the shoulder pauldrons, making for a menacing outline. The waist of the golem stayed until it reached the legs of the construct. Once there, I molded thick, paneled pieces for the thighs and legs. One of the most essential parts after that was the ankle structure.

We kept to a more interlocking design here. This would let the golem pivot off its feet better, increasing its overall agility. The feet were made wide as well, with three large toes sticking out in all directions. This adjustment allowed it to maneuver across different kinds of terrain despite its heft.

The last part was the head of the being. I kept it dense. Its shoulders ran up high enough that this thing showed no real neck, eliminating a common weak point of most creatures. A bit of crystalized mana made for the eyes, the crystals made porous enough that light leaked into them. This made it possible for the being to see.

Hearing was more difficult to add. I created hollows in the sides of its head, each letting sound into them. After adding carvings into these gaps, I gave the golem the ability to hear and sense its surroundings at a basic, primal level. Taste and smell would too difficult and arduous to set up. It also didn't help the golem with fighting, so it just wasn't necessary.

As for touch, that would be a finicky sense to work with. The golem's skin and the entire body was denser than steel. Adapting receptors on its body to respond to stimulus would be insanely tricky because of that. Hell, my own understanding of touch was warped from being encased in this armor all the time. Stone was soft, and water was like air. The golem would feel the same, and in the end, adding touch was more trouble than it was worth.

Without needing any other additions, I pulled everything together, willing the creature to life. I siphoned mana into the creation to fuel the inscriptions all over its body, yet it remained unmoving. The cipher markings took far longer to fuel, thirty minutes of channeling passing by.

It soaked in mana like a starving creature, and as time passed, the crew behind me grew nervous. We spent a lot of time on this, and seeing it fail would be a massive blow for the team. Just as a few eyes began to drift downward, the golem's eyes glowed white.

It was alive.

The golem stood up, the group of scientists and engineers behind me celebrating as it did. I grinned at the golem, and the quintessent crystals in its eye sockets glistened for a moment. It stood tall, wide, and firm, its glowing eyes made ominous by the dark metal of its outline. The runic carvings followed suit, quintessent mana funneling into the cores and etchings to fuel the creature.

It drew from the material of its making, the golem coming to life. It stared at its hands, wondering where it was and what it could be. I walked up, a few feet taller than the behemoth. I put a hand on its shoulder,

”It's good to meet you. I'm Daniel.”

The golem covered its ears, its newfound senses assaulting it. I connected to the golem telepathically, and the size of its mind surprised me. The three wills fused into one, and they grappled with the world around it. I sent over a sense of calm, and the golem lowered its hands from its ears. It looked up at me, seeing for the first time.

It murmured in a voice like metal, ”Creator?”

I smiled, ”Yup.”

Its mind fully connected to its body, and its clarity and understanding evolved. It kneeled towards me, the floating joints hovering into position. Its fluidity surprised me, and it spoke with reverence,

”I am here to serve, creator.”

I turned to Ophelia, ”It's not what I expected. Didn't you mention a free will?”

Ophelia put her hands on her hips, watching the golem come to life,

”I wanted it to have thoughts and feelings, not the ability to commit mass murder. It can work on its own, and it's a lot harder to trick as is than the alternatives. That's the main reason we gave it so much mind to work with.”

I turned back to the golem, gesturing for it to rise,

”Come on, you don't have to lean down like that.”

It rose up, the ground crushing under its foot despite the gravity enchantments we made to stop just that. It turned, looking at the forest around it,

”There are no monsters here. This place is cleansed. Where would I find monsters to kill?”

The directives seemed stable just off that question alone. I raised a fist, ”We'll get to that. We need to test a few of your abilities first.”

The golem turned towards the engineers behind me, ”Where will I test myself? Those here may be injured in the process. They, too, took part in my creation. I'd wish to avoid taking part in their undoing.”

I pointed towards a part of Mt. Verner distanced from our hollowed base, ”How about there?”

The golem and I made our way there, the both of us deciding to run and jump. The new entity took great joy in just moving, the simple act something unique to the metal giant. Its world wasn't as rich as mine since it lacked as many senses, so it got quite a kick out of the simpler stuff. In a way, I was kind of envious.

We reached the safe zone we scoped out earlier for just this purpose. In view of the engineers yet safely distanced, I pointed at myself with my thumb,

”Would you mind testing yourself against me? Yenno, some sparring.”

The golem raised its hands and lowered its head, ”I...I could never battle against my creator.”

I lifted my fists, ”Give it a shot. I won't tear you down too much.”

It moved its feet, still getting used to its body, ”I...if you say it is so, then let it be.” It stared at me, ”I...I shall fight you.”

My armor wrapped around my face, and a jagged, glowing grin formed, ”Come on then.”

It cleared its thoughts before bending down. Without warning, it charged at me. As it crashed against me, I dragged back several feet, the force of its tackle impressive. A loud boom echoed into the mountainscape as I grabbed its shoulders and slung it sideways while kicking at its feet.

It flopped sideways, crashing into the ground with another booming crash. Each of our movements unleashed waves of sounds like titans clashing, and it gave me chills each time I heard the impacts.

I walked towards it, ”All you have to do is stay away from the engineers.”

It stood up as dust and dirt flew into the air. From that one exchange, bushes uprooted nearby, and trees were leveled. Giving it a few seconds to collect itself, I reached the golem and lifted a fist, aiming to smash its eyes.

The golem rolled sideways before standing up. I dashed at the creature to keep up the pressure. It sidestepped me, aiming to stiff-arm my neck. I grabbed the outstretched limb, flowing on my feet. I turned the force of my charge in an instant before chunking the golem overhead once more. It crashed through two trees, the wood splintering like peanut brittle in a child's hands.

Despite the rough travel, the golem landed on its feet unharmed. I jolted towards the being, but before I grabbed it, the golem stomped the ground, shattering the earth around it. My footing collapsed as roots ripped and tore under us. I stumbled forward, and the golem stepped toward me. It launched a heavy-handed strike, using its hand like a mace.