-----

Veronica and Ervas were sitting in the middle of the Squirrel-kin tribe while glancing at the ground… ​​

"Why are you two glancing at the ground?" asked Shade from within Veronica's soul.

"We are trying to concentrate," said Ervas.

"Why?" asked Gaia atop Ervas's head.

"We are about to do something," said Veronica.

Veronica sat down with her main body in the ground, while Ervas sat down within her legs, feeding her with his Mana through the No-Attribute Spell 'Mana Transfer'.

"I think this…"

Veronica commanded dozens of Dead Spirits that did anything she asked them to do.

"Alright, put yourselves in the ground, and… well, can you move it?" she asked.

"Yes!"

"We shall become our queen's tool!"

"Let's do it, let's do it!"

"Gihihihihihihi!"

The Dead Spirits dived into the ground itself… as Veronica kept infusing Mana into them through Ervas's large pool.

"You're… putting Dead Spirits in the ground?" asked Ismene, a few meters away. Although she could not see the Dead Spirits, the Squirrel-kin with Spiritualist Jobs were describing to her what was going on.

"Yes…" said Ervas and Veronica at the same time.

"Why?" asked everyone present.

Bump!

Suddenly, the ground bulged by a bit.

"Oh? Did the earth just bulged, or is my eye failing now?" asked Anna besides Ismene.

"Now, raise!" said Veronica.

"Raise… please," said Ervas.

Flash!

The ground bulged, even more, moving like a mass of living earth, the people glancing at this spectacle became bewildered.

"What is that?!" asked Jason.

"The earth is alive?" asked Anna.

"A golem?" asked Ismene.

"Gubo?" asked Aqua.

The living earth moved as if it was alive, dangling around aimlessly.

"Guooonn!" it said.

"Good work!"

Veronica then extended her soul as a long and phantasmal claw, petting the earth golem.

"It took a few tries, but it seems that we finally did it," said Ervas.

Since yesterday when the two explained to the rest of the tribe and the party about the dead spirits and their fascination with Veronica and subsequently with Ervas, the two had been constantly commanding the dead spirits to move around in strange ways while trying to tell them to 'possess' the ground itself.

It seems that the plan they had was to create a kind of golem that was created by the possession of many dead spirits at the same time over a material, any kind of non-living material seemed to fit in this category.

This was something that has not been seen even amongst true Death Mages that had existed in Kritias. This is because such an idea never came to them, to begin with, many of them could not fascinate dead spirits to the point that they would do anything to please them.

Ervas and Veronica came out with the idea when they remembered a certain Japanese Light Novel about a Death Mage.

Although in Kritias, Death Attribute Magic was not as incredibly rare as in that fictional work and had a few differences that made it not as easy to replicate.

To begin with, what they were doing was not even Death Magic in a way, as Veronica did not possess Death Attribute Magic nor a bond with the Death Attribute Spirit, Hades.

They were simply recreating what could be called a Death Attribute Magic spell… but without it, only by commanding Dead Spirits through a large amount of Mana in Ervas and Veronica's charm to the death.

It took longer than they expected, as they had seen the main character of that fictional story create golems as if it were as easy as breathing, they thought that it could perhaps be as easy… but it really wasn't.

It was more convenient for Veronica to just create clones than golems through Undead Spirits. But they still wanted to try it.

The earth golem moved around and then stopped, glancing at Veronica and Ervas, waiting for an order.

"It seems to be a success… but it took longer than we thought," said Ervas.

"Yes… but if we can improve upon this technique, it should be possible for us to do even greater things one day," said Veronica, getting pumped up.

Not only she had her clones now, but if they developed this ability, even more, giant golems of all shapes and sizes could be generated… or even undead like she used to do as Anastacia.

Even without Death Attribute Magic, if she were capable of controlling Dead Spirits, the sediment for the creation of any undead, she could just command them to possess corpses, weapons, bones, and other things.

But there did not seem to be any skill that represented the ability to 'command dead spirits' for now, so they just had to constantly do it until they saw some improvements.

"Now that we have created one, could it be possible to make it easier now?" wondered Ervas.

"Perhaps… Alright, you can act as a guard, for now, thanks for your cooperation" said Veronica, commanding the golem to standby outside the tribe while protecting its entrance alongside her clones and Ervas's plants.

"Guoon!" said the golem, slowly moving to where it was commanded to go.

The tribe glanced at the large creature, humanoid in shape and made completely out of dirt and rocks, it was around four meters tall and it had large, log-like arms and legs, capable of crushing the skull of a Rank 3 monster with ease.

"This is… you can create golems now?!" shouted Ismene.

"They actually did it… Veronica is really someone incredible… oh, and Ervas as well, of course, ahem" said Anna.

"Ervas, can you make us a pet golem, peko?" asked Pekorina, alongside Amelia and Acathea.

"I want one that looks like a dog!" said Amelia, swinging her squirrel tail.

"Can I have one that looks like a bear? Oh, preferably if it likes to be mounted!" said Acathea.

"Mounted? You don't like my clones, Acathea?" asked Veronica a bit saddened.

"Ah, it's just that… Veronica's clones are just… Veronica at the end, a golem would be its own thing, wouldn't it?" said Acathea.

"I guess…" muttered Veronica.

The trio of cheerful girls was glancing at the golem with wondrous looks in their eyes. A creature such as a golem seemed to release a mystical feeling about itself. Like an ancient protector of the earth and nature.

"Sure, we could do smaller ones…" said Ervas, giving more mana to Veronica.

"Maybe if they are not as big as this one… I will try to make the design more compact, if possible" said Veronica.

Veronica then selected amongst the hundreds of dead spirits a few others, who happily obeyed her every whim.

"My queen, what are your orderssss?"

"Gigigigygyaooo!"

"Gryeee! Gryeee!"

"Gaoo! Gaooo!"

"Fumooo!"

There was a lot of monster dead spirits, especially because this was a Devil Forest where monsters roamed the most, there were also many dungeons all around, which produced even more monsters.

Perhaps through a day, more than one thousand monsters died in the totality of the Devil Forest, and all of them were constantly flying towards Veronica and Ervas the moment they died.

Perhaps due to Veronica and Ervas's charm and mana, even those that died without grudges or something similar would prefer to follow their presence than to let themselves be absorbed by the cycle of transmigration.

The fascination they produced to them when they were together was too impactful, too big for the Dead Spirits to resist, fervently, and fascinatedly following their every command.

There was something deep and unfathomable about both of their souls that fascinated the dead like anything else in this forest.

The endless and spectral void within Ervas's soul, and the shadow and embracing abyssal darkness of Veronica's soul were too alluring for them.

And whenever both Veronica and Ervas were together, the intensity of their charm would combine and merge, becoming even greater and embracing. It was as if as long as they were together, they were something even greater than what the Dead Spirits could imagine.

"Raise, raise, raise," said Veronica and Ervas, as more bulges appeared within the ground and formed into golems, this time it seemed to have become a bit easier to do.

Bump! Bump! Bump!

The three earth and rock golems began to shape themselves to Veronica's imagination, one was in the shape of a boar, the other in the shape of a wolf, and the third in the shape of a bear.

"Guoon…!"

"Gaoo…"

"Guon?"

"Oh? This was a bit easier now!" said Veronica.

"It seems that spending the whole night figuring it out gave us results. By constantly remembering what we learned through 'Memory Retention' we can do things more accurately and faster" said Ervas.

"That's true! Alright, you three! The boar one is for Pekorina, the rabbit girl there, the wolf is for Amelia, the little Squirrel girl, and the bear, you're for Acathea, the half bear and squirrel girl" said Veronica, sending her golems to her new owners.

The golems happily obliged, going towards their new owners and hearing their every command.

The girls began to mount over Golems, which they seemed to enjoy more than the transportation system that Veronica created made by giant metallic spiders which were her clones.

However, they quickly realized that they were rather slower than Veronica's clones…

Veronica and Ervas kept creating golems, and promptly after, Veronica managed to create golems using her own body materials as well, creating liquid metal golems or metallic golems.

They were essentially similar to her clones but different at the same time.

There were many possibilities of what she could do with them, to the point of even merging her clones with dead spirits and convert them into both a golem and a clone.

Without realizing it, Veronica and Ervas were already creating Undead through these golems.

(Veronica and Ervas)

[You acquired the [Death Attribute Charm; Level 1], [Golem Transmutation; Level 1], [Soul Binding; Level 1], and [Dominate Created Undead; Level 1] Skills!]

The night fell and Veronica and Ervas finally acquired a whopping amount of four skills through their endeavors.

"Golem Transmutation… the Skill… really exist!" they said at the same time as if they had suddenly gone back to one person for a split second.

It seems that thanks to Veronica, Ervas successfully became a Death Attribute Charmer by slowly using his mana with her, and making all the dead spirits believe that they were almost the same entity.

Veronica began to think if it could be possible for her to learn the Vegetation Charm Skill as well or other of Ervas's unique skills if she were to practice the same things like him while being very close and 'connected' through their souls as they were doing.

"This was exhausting… but we did it," said Ervas.

"Yeah, I never expected that you could just steal my charm as well!" chuckled Veronica.

"Sorry… did you want it to be something unique of you?" asked Ervas.

"Not at all! The stronger you are, the happier I am as well" said Veronica while kissing Ervas's forehead with her phantasmal crimson lips.

"I think the same… though it is funny how I acquired these skills but not Shield, Armor or Unarmed Fighting Techniques yet…" muttered Ervas.

"Never give up! We'll resume training tomorrow in the morning, I am not going to rest until you learn them all" said Veronica, carrying Ervas around towards their tent, where Anna, Ismene, Jason, Aqua, and the rest awaited them.

-----