Chapter 177: Crafting a Golem

In the laboratory, Heatherway held a carving knife and worked on the body of the clay golem. Numerous lines appeared under the knife and were quickly covered by silvery ones. As the knife continued its work on the clay golem, more and more silvery lines emerged on its body.

The clay golem’s body was made in separate parts, to be assembled only after all components were finished. Su Lun had designed the clay golem in a human form, though with some abstraction. Its head was oval-shaped, without a neck, and could rotate 360 degrees. Its chest was broad and thick, its arms hung past the knees and could also move in all directions. Its fingers were thick but very nimble. Its legs were only half the length of its body, and its feet were broad.

Although the entire clay golem looked somewhat odd, it had good stability and flexibility.

Soon, all parts of the clay golem were fully engraved. Heatherway put the tool in her hand back into the toolbox, then used Wizard’s Hand to begin assembling the clay golem.

Heatherway took out her wand and stood in a specially made rune array. She lightly tapped the wand on the experimental bench. A flash of brilliant, colorful light burst forth, and the arcane dust on the lab table shimmered with multicolored radiance. Then it rose into the air like a colorful ribbon, flying directly toward the clay golem.

The colorful magical light enveloped the entire clay golem, clinging tightly to its surface like flowing water. After a few breaths, all the colorful light merged into the clay golem’s body. Next, Heatherway lightly tapped the clay golem’s chest with her wand, and a slot opened there. She placed a soul crystal inside, and the slot closed automatically.

Then Heatherway let out a sigh of relief and began the final step.

“Animate Construct!”

An elemental energy appeared in the laboratory and quickly gathered around Heatherway. She chanted obscure, difficult incantations without any errors, having prepared many times before. The elemental energy swiftly converged in her hands, then flowed through the wand into the clay golem before her. In that instant, the clay golem seemed to gain a hint of life.

“Divine Magic!” Another flash of light occurred, and purple soul energy poured into the golem’s body. A wave of soul force radiated from the clay golem.

“Resurrection Art!”

Pale green life energy quickly merged into the clay golem’s body. Several consecutive spells were cast upon the clay golem, and these magical energies created a wondrous reaction inside it. A life energy completely different from that of flesh-and-blood beings merged into the construct golem.

The spellcasting soon ended. The clay golem lying in the rune array suddenly had its eyes light up. Its massive body trembled slightly, and then the entire golem emitted a dull noise.

The whole clay golem stood about two and a half meters tall and weighed around 750 jin. After activation, the clay golem stood quietly in front of Heatherway, awaiting her commands.

“Take two steps!”

After circling the clay golem twice, Heatherway spoke. The large clay golem started up instantly, taking two steps forward.

“Move this box over there.” Heatherway pointed with her wand to a box nearby. The clay golem immediately moved, bending down to pick up the box and placing it on the other side of the laboratory.

Then Su Lun watched as Heatherway, like a child with a new toy, continuously directed the clay golem to do this and that, having great fun. The seemingly silly clay golem showed no impatience at all; it worked diligently and completed all commands without fail.

After playing for a while, Heatherway reluctantly stopped. Su Lun was also quite curious about this golem puppet. He circled the big clumsy figure a few times and tried commanding it. However, the clay golem completely ignored Su Lun’s orders, showing no reaction at all.

“How ungrateful. I was the one who designed it, and now it ignores me!” Su Lun glared discontentedly at the clay golem.

“Haha!” Heatherway couldn’t help but laugh beside him. “Your information wasn’t recorded in the clay golem. It won’t pay attention to you.”

“By the way, why can’t this big guy talk?” Su Lun suddenly asked.

“The clay golem doesn’t have a speech function.” Heatherway pouted.

“I made some modifications to the clay golem. I removed its original combat abilities and improved its comprehension, so it can accept more complex instructions. Its arms can also transform into various tools. This clay golem is an assistant golem.”

“The control center of a golem is the soul crystal. The soul crystal contains memory fragments of a life. After crafting it into a soul core, it becomes a simple soul. Depending on the quality of the soul crystal, the resulting soul core can vary. The stronger the soul core, the more commands it can understand.”

“This clay golem’s soul core is roughly equivalent to that of a seven- or eight-year-old child. But they have no self-awareness; they can only perform relatively simple tasks based on their master’s commands. It’s said that high-level wizard towers are managed by tower spirits. Those tower spirits can understand almost all commands, though I’ve only heard about it and never seen one.”

Heatherway said with a dreamy expression, “Creating a soul construct like a tower spirit requires at least legendary tier. It’s too early to think about that now.”

“But since this clay golem succeeded, it means I’ve successfully advanced to a high-level alchemist!” Heatherway said excitedly.

Su Lun saw from the system panel that Heatherway’s level had increased by one, and her intermediate alchemist rank had become advanced. She also gained several new skills.

“Ding! Host participated in the creation of a golem puppet. Because you possess the Mechanical Mastery skill, you gained some information about puppet golems…”

“Ding! Host participated in the creation of a golem puppet. Because you possess the Mechanical Mastery skill, you gained some information about arcane power…”

“Ding! Host participated in the creation of a golem puppet. Because you possess the Mechanical Mastery skill, you gained some information about runic energy transmission…”

A few messages appeared in the system log that piqued his interest. It seemed the Mechanical Mastery skill was related to golem puppets. This skill wasn’t very powerful in the previous game; many heroes had it. Its effect in the game was to create several mechanical puppets upon entering the battlefield.

Thinking of this, Su Lun had some ideas. However, without more information, Su Lun couldn’t verify them.