Chapter 153 - 52: [Meeting of the Dead]

Chapter 153: Chapter 52: [Meeting of the Dead]

CLANG!

A spider-like Nether Copper construct, standing over a man’s height and sporting the familiar one-eyed Bell-shaped Helmet, wobbled across the dirt ground. Three of its Nether Copper Limbs sank into the soil while two others stepped on a buried rock. It crashed heavily onto the uneven terrain, its six massive Nether Copper Limbs flailing wildly and sending clods of dirt flying in every direction.

To reduce weight and improve overall agility, it had not been fitted with an outer shell. Its internal mechanisms were completely exposed; the power wheels and transmission structures whirred as they spun, catching and pulling against one another.

Amidst the whirring noise, the Nether Copper momentum wheel gyroscope spun rapidly. It worked in tandem with the wildly kicking limbs, desperately trying to flip its heavy chassis upright.

But it was to no avail. The massive body, composed entirely of Nether Copper, was simply too heavy to turn over.

Samael slapped his Hand Armor against his own helmet to spare himself the sight of the failed construct’s disastrous posture. He wearily delivered a swift kick, shattering the construct into a scattered pile of loose components.

THUD. A heavy Nether Copper Power Wheel detached from the gyroscope and rolled away, crashing with a loud SMACK into a Bell-shaped Helmet Corpse Demon in the distance.

The heavy Nether Copper Wheel, standing more than half a man’s height, flattened the Corpse Demon. It rolled straight over the demon’s face, leaving a deep tire track behind. It crushed a groove into the armor on its body and completely flattened the Nether Bronze Snare Drum attached to its chest plate.

CLANG! The power wheel slammed into a thick Rusted Copper Tree and spun to a halt on the ground.

The Corpse Demon sluggishly climbed to its feet. It slowly raised its arm, tilting its one-eyed Bell-shaped Helmet down to examine the perfectly straight tread mark running from its foot all the way up to its face. Then, it looked up, locking eyes with the Necromancer Monarch Samael in total innocence.

"Come here. Let me fix you up," Samael said. He wanted to sigh, but his body no longer possessed that biological function.

He pressed a hand against the Knight Armor Corpse Demon, rapidly repairing the Nether Copper damage, and waved it away.

CLANK CLANK. The Corpse Demon trotted off, retreating to its original post with its sword and shield slung across its back.

Fortunately, he had dispatched over a dozen elite Bell-shaped Helmets to guard the perimeter of the Rusted Copper Forest in advance. Even with all the chaotic commotion, the Demon Race Exiles wouldn’t be disturbed.

Samael plopped down onto a snapped Rusted Copper Tree trunk and surveyed his surroundings.

In a clearing carved out of the Rusted Copper Forest, a chaotic mess of Nether Copper Components and mechanical structures lay scattered. They were spliced together in bizarre ways, forming grotesquely shaped half-finished constructs. The clearing resembled a makeshift Nether Copper Machinery workshop, though its master was clearly not very adept at the craft.

Not a single large-scale construct was a success.

He originally intended to build several Nether Copper constructs to serve as his subordinates—after all, the structural integrity of pure Nether Copper was bound to be vastly superior to flesh and organic matter. However, once he actually got his hands dirty, he realized that Nether Copper constructs struggled to operate in complex terrains. Even walking was an immense challenge.

Samael retrieved a small, copper-helmeted spider from within his chest plate and set it down on the dirt by his feet. Cast from a blend of Nether Copper and Witch Gold, this was the same construct he had previously used to infiltrate the Caster’s Hall.

The little spider wiggled its limbs and barely managed two steps before one of its legs plunged deep into the soft soil. Samael manipulated it, trying to yank the limb free, but he applied too much force and caused the entire contraption to flip over on its back.

It was only suited for hard, even surfaces. The smooth stone floors and corridors of the Holy Hall, vertical walls, suits of Nether Bronze Armor, or the floorboards of a carriage, for example. Its limb claws had been specially treated; the tiny anchor pins at their tips could magnetically adhere to Nether Copper materials, pierce through wall surfaces, or snag onto textiles.

But it was completely useless on loose dirt.

When a construct was merely the size of a fist, the momentum wheel gyroscope could easily stabilize it and flip it back upright. But once a construct grew to the height of a man, everything became exponentially more difficult.

Nether Copper was simply too heavy. The massive inertia forced large-scale constructs into exceptionally clumsy behavioral patterns. With sluggish movements and abysmal balance, even walking was a struggle.

Center of gravity, structural integrity, motion sequences. Gyroscopes, power wheels, Nether Copper Limbs. Every core element and component demanded an exhaustive number of parameter adjustments. It required endless trial and error, relentless planning, designing the limb motion patterns from scratch, and manually fine-tuning every single detail by hand.

He wondered if there was an easier way. He sifted through the relevant entries in his helmet’s UI tech tree for an explanation.

[Construct Modular Programming (Requirements: Artificial Life Sciences Lv.5, Automation Lv.5)]

"Where in the world am I supposed to find the God of Automation and the God of Artificial Life Sciences..." Samael nearly cursed out loud. The sheer frustration of tinkering for so long without a shred of progress was enough to grind down even the icy patience of the Undead. He was practically annoyed back to life.

Without modular programming technology, building constructs was tantamount to hardwiring everything from scratch using raw circuitry.

Under these circumstances, creating a complete and functional large-scale Nether Copper construct could take months, or even a year, of sleepless research. And if it encountered different terrain, he would have to start from scratch all over again, readjusting the parameters and motion patterns...

It demanded vast amounts of time and energy, as well as a change in materials. Perhaps he should use the highly efficient, lower-volume Witch Gold. Or maybe... bone? A lighter, porous bone?

He wondered if there were any relevant entries under Materials Science.

[Spirit Bone. Materials Science Lv.6, Chemical Engineering Lv.3]