Chapter 462: Golem Creation [II / Bonus - ]

Chapter 462: Golem Creation [II / Bonus Chapter]

The blinding surge of neon-blue magical energy swallowed the testing floor, accompanied by a concussive shockwave of displaced air that hammered against the transparent shield once more.

KRA-BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

The gravity within the heavily reinforced testing chamber completely collapsed.

The massive thousand-pound boulders and jagged granite blocks tore themselves from the massive pile, swirling through the air in a chaotic, frictionless orbit around the glowing blue core stone.

Through the tinted visor of his metal helmet, Silas watched as the runic arrays etched into the individual rocks violently locked onto one another.

The kinetic suspension runes flared with intensity.

KRRRRRR-CLANG! GRIND!

The levitating rocks slammed together with deafening ear-splitting crunches.

The smaller shale and river stones filled the jagged gaps, acting as a flexible, grinding mortar as the chaotic maelstrom of earth suddenly took on a definitive bipedal shape.

The massive glowing core stone anchored itself perfectly into the center of a broad chest.

With a final grinding of tectonic force, the swirling vortex of stones locked into place.

FWOOOOOOSH!

The displaced air rushed back into the center of the room as the gravity aggressively reasserted itself.

Two colossal feet, formed from massive slabs of dense granite, slammed down onto the floorboards, sending a vibrating tremor straight up through the observation deck.

BANG!

The dust slowly settled.

Standing in the absolute center of the testing chamber was a towering fully assembled Stone Golem.

It was utterly massive, standing well over eighteen feet tall. Its broad shoulders were formed from jagged, interlocking boulders, and its thick tree-trunk legs were heavily reinforced with dense river stones.

Faint neon-blue runic circuits pulsed beneath the cracks in its rocky armor, pulsing in time with the central core stone embedded in its chest.

For a long tense second, the massive construct stood completely motionless with its heavy arms hanging loosely at its sides.

"By the gods..." Silas breathed, slowly reaching up to unbuckle his heavy metal helmet.

He pulled it off, his golden ringed blue eyes reflecting the pulsing light of the golem.

Thora ripped her helmet off, tossing it carelessly onto the console. A grin split across her soot-stained face.

"HAH! WE HAVE IGNITION!" Thora roared, her booming voice echoing off the walls. "STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY IS STABLE! CORE MANA CIRCULATION IS AT ONE HUNDRED PERCENT!"

Rowenna pulled her helmet off, her striking blue eyes shining with triumph.

The Rune Master leaned against the railing, letting out a long ecstatic sigh as she brushed a stray strand of violet-black hair from her sweaty forehead.

"The kinetic suspension runes are holding flawlessly," Rowenna observed, her voice trembling slightly with adrenaline. "The gravity wells are keeping the mass from crushing its own joints... It’s a complete success."

"Success?!" Thora cheered, slamming her heavy fist against her leather apron. "It’s a bloody masterpiece!"

Without another word, Thora vaulted over the sky-iron railing of the observation deck!

"Thora, wait!" Rowenna gasped, reaching out, but the forge master had already dropped the fifteen feet down to the testing floor.

Thora landed with a heavy thud, instantly sprinting toward the towering eighteen-foot golem.

She didn’t hesitate as she grabbed onto a protruding ledge of granite on the golem’s thick thigh and began scaling the massive construct like a mountain climber, her muscular arms hauling her up the jagged rocks until she triumphantly scrambled atop the golem’s broad, boulder-like shoulder.

"WOOOOO-HOOOOOO!" Thora bellowed from her eighteen-foot perch, throwing both of her hands into the sweltering air of the forge. "LOOK AT THIS BEAUTY, MY LORD! SHE’S SOLID AS A MOUNTAIN!"

Silas couldn’t help but laugh, leaning over the railing as he looked up at the ecstatic dwarf.

"It is incredible work, Thora! Truly! With a brute like this, cracking the bedrock to reach the deeper deposits will be child’s play!"

"Ah, but here is the rub, Lord Silas!" Thora shouted down at him, patting the massive granite boulder she was sitting on. "This Extra-Large Class Golem is perfect for heavy excavation in wide-open environments! But for a place like Sector KB-22...? Or any narrow, subterranean cavern with regular-sized openings? A beast this big would only serve to completely obstruct the tunnels!"

Thora nimbly slid down the front of the golem, using the jagged rocks as stepping stones before dropping the last few feet to the floor.

"If this thing tries to swing a pickaxe in a thirty-foot cavern, it’ll bring the entire ceiling down on top of our vanguard!" Thora explained, walking back toward the observation deck. "So, while this initial integration is a massive success, we need versatility on the field."

Thora reached into the deep leather pouch strapped to her waist and pulled out a sleek, polished rectangular slab of dark ore.

The surface of the tablet was completely smooth, save for a series of intricat dormant runes etched into the metal.

She tossed the heavy tablet up to the observation deck.

Silas caught it effortlessly with one hand, examining the smooth surface.

It looked almost exactly like a magical tablet device.

"Rowenna, if you would do the honors of explaining the secondary sequence?" Thora grinned, crossing her thick arms over her chest.

Rowenna stepped up beside Silas with her slender fingers gently tracing the edge of the runic tablet.

"This is the master control terminal, Lord Silas," Rowenna explained as though she was a Professor and then the woman tapped the center of the tablet.

The metal immediately hummed to life, the etched runes glowing with a soft neon-blue light that perfectly matched the core of the golem standing below them.

"Through this terminal, we have established a direct magical tether to the golem’s central consciousness rune," Rowenna continued, her blue eyes reflecting the light of the screen. "With a single command, we can initiate Phase Two of the deployment sequence. We call it ’Fissure Division.’"

Silas raised an eyebrow, his instincts immediately recognizing the value. "Division? You can split the mass?"

"Exactly," Rowenna smiled proudly. "We designed the runic architecture so that the central core stone is not actually a single entity, but an amalgamation of three smaller cores functioning in unison. When we trigger the Fissure command, the Extra-Large golem will intentionally short-circuit its primary gravitational well, splitting its total mass into three distinct maneuverable Phase 2 Golems."

"They will be significantly smaller," Thora called out from the floor. "Which means they can easily fit into the narrow limestone corridors of the goblin caves without scraping the walls! But don’t let the size fool you... they are still powerhouses! They are designed with massive flat reinforced stone backs specifically meant to carry the heavy mining carts I’ve been fabricating!"

"Not only that," Rowenna added, her finger hovering over a specific glowing rune on the tablet. "But we integrated external weapon racks into their spinal columns. In the event of an ambush or a sudden monster attack in the deep tunnels, the warriors of Blessed Land won’t have to rely solely on their equipped weapons. The golems will act as mobile armories, holding heavy backup spears, shields, and explosive charges that the girls can grab instantly."

Silas stared at the tablet, his mind rapidly calculating the logistical superiority this gave his territory.

Automated heavy lifting, terrain adaptability, and mobile supply lines all rolled into a single magically constructed unit?

"It’s perfect," Silas stated, a genuine smile of admiration crossing his face. "Absolutely perfect... Let’s see it in action, Rowenna."

"With pleasure, my Lord."

Rowenna firmly pressed her thumb against the glowing Fissure rune.

BZZZZT-CRACK!

The massive eighteen-foot golem standing in the center of the room violently seized.

The glowing blue circuits running through its rocky exterior flared with intensity, sparking wildly like a short-circuiting power grid.

KRRRRRR-BOOM!

With a grinding explosion of kinetic force, the massive construct completely blew itself apart.

The rocks flew outward, hovering in the air for a fraction of a second before the primary core stone fractured into three distinct brilliantly glowing orbs.

The gravity wells instantly recalibrated as the massive pile of rocks divided perfectly into three equal thirds, swirling around the new cores and rapidly snapping into place.

CLACK-CLACK-CLACK-CLANG!

The entire process took less than three seconds.

Where the towering giant had just stood, there were now three identical, heavily armored Phase 2 Golems.

They were significantly smaller than their predecessor, but they were still immensely bulky and intimidating, easily standing nine feet tall... looming over Silas’s broad frame.

Their torsos were wide and flat, their backs forming a perfect reinforced stone plateau designed to haul immense weights.

Jutting from their stone shoulders were jagged hooks explicitly designed to cradle heavy weaponry.

"Phase Two deployment successful!" Rowenna cheered, clapping her hands together as the three golems stood perfectly still, their blue cores pulsing in synchronized harmony.

Thora let out another booming laugh, walking around the three constructs and slapping their thick stone legs approvingly.

"Look at them! Beautiful! Absolutely beautiful! They’re ready to haul tons of raw ores right out of the mountain!"

"The remote terminal is incredibly intuitive," Rowenna noted, showing Silas the glowing interface. "You simply tap the corresponding directional runes to guide them, or use the macro commands for specific tasks like loading, unloading, and defensive clustering."

"And if the terminal breaks?" Silas asked, playing devil’s advocate as he handed the tablet back to Rowenna. "The Umbral Basin is chaotic. If we get ambushed by a Tier-3 beast and this tablet gets crushed in the crossfire, do we lose control of the extraction units entirely?"

"I’m glad you asked, Lord Silas!" Thora grinned, walking back to the base of the observation deck and looking up at him. "Because I designed a completely foolproof failsafe for that exact scenario!"

Thora crossed her arms. "I specifically had Rowenna help me program another rune into their core stones. In case some incredibly dumb, reckless, ham-fisted idiot like Brida, for example accidentally steps on the remote or crunches it during a fight, the golems can be operated entirely through Voice Command!"

Silas frowned slightly, leaning over the railing.

"Hey now, don’t call Brida dumb. She’s one of the most effective and loyal commanders we have. Her combat instincts are razor-sharp too."

Thora snorted, rolling her eyes affectionately. "Oh, I know she can swing an axe, my Lord but if you put a delicate, intricate piece of magical technology in that woman’s hands, she’ll try to use it to hammer a nail. She’s as sharp as a sack of wet leather when it comes to runic engineering."

Silas blinked, completely pausing as his brain tried to process the dwarven idiom. "...As sharp as a sack of wet leather? What does that even mean?"

"It means she lacks the necessary structural density for high-tier magical comprehension," Thora stated with deadpan confidence.

Silas opened his mouth to question the logic of that insult, but eventually just shook his head, deciding it wasn’t worth the headache of unraveling dwarven linguistics. "Just show me the voice commands, Thora."

"Right!" Thora turned on her heel, facing the three massive, nine-foot golems.

She drew a deep breath, her voice booming with a commanding volume.

"UNITS! ENTER REST MODE!"

The three golems instantly reacted.

The glowing blue light emanating from their core stones dimmed to a faint pulse.

With heavy, synchronized movements, the three constructs dropped to one knee, lowering their massive flat backs to a perfectly horizontal, accessible level.

They froze in place, becoming completely rigid and inert like normal statues.

"Perfect!" Thora cheered, thumping her fists against her hips. "In this mode, they consume less than one percent of their total mana reserves, and their backs are perfectly aligned to be loaded with the heavy extraction carts!"

Thora pointed at the golem on the far right.

"UNIT THREE! AWAKEN! FORWARD MARCH!"

The core stone of the rightmost golem flared back to life.

It stood up smoothly, its massive stone feet hitting the floorboards with rhythmic thuds.

STOMP! STOMP! STOMP!

It walked forward on two legs, its gait perfectly balanced and incredibly stable despite its massive bulk.

"And for incredibly steep inclines or unstable cavern terrain where bipedal balance is compromised!" Thora shouted, raising a hand. "ALL FOURS!"

The golem immediately pitched forward.

It planted its massive stone hands onto the floor, its posture shifting seamlessly into a brutal quadrupedal stance like a massive silverback gorilla.

It continued to move forward, its weight perfectly distributed across four points of contact, making it virtually impossible to knock over.

Silas watched the massive stone beast navigate the floor with genuine awe.

"It’s amazing," Silas commended, his voice filled with deep respect for their craft. "You two have outdone yourselves... The engineering, the magical integration... it’s flawless. This completely changes our logistical capabilities."

Thora beamed with absolute pride. "ALL UNITS! DEACTIVATE!"

The walking golem immediately stopped, standing upright as all three constructs powered down, their core stones dimming entirely as they returned to the state of ordinary lifeless boulders.

"We gathered a massive surplus of heavy rocks from the western perimeter for this initial test," Thora said, wiping the sweat from her brow as sighed. "But there are a lot of places the girls need to be deployed tomorrow, and if you want a full fleet of these extraction golems ready by sunrise, Rowenna and I are going to need to source a lot more dense granite to form better optimized units."