The title of the book was as long as it was straightforward.

On the Creation of Perfect Golem: Milestones and Hardships

Month 1: Although my offensive magic was never on the level of my peers, I had mastered almost all of the production aspects of magic, which earned me the title of court magician. I loyally served the emperor for decades, faithfully complying with his every request and only asking for a lab and some free time, yet I was exiled for some trivial experiments on humans— willing beggars, If I may add, to determine the upper limits of the soul.

Still, I didn’t give up, and after finding an isolated place and toiling for years of arduous work, I finally managed to calculate how powerful a ‘perfect soul’ would be in theory.

Of course, actually creating one would take hundreds of thousands of sacrifices and some advanced way to fuse the souls together, but even if I can’t create it, I have at least discovered the way to make a container capable of containing such power. The alchemical process is extremely complicated, the materials astronomically expensive, and the end product volatile, but once I manage to stabilise the solution, making a body capable of being controlled by a perfect soul shouldn't be too far off.

Month 4: In my sixth attempt I managed to finally solidify the alchemical mixture, but it quickly goes back to its unstable liquid form when the mana flow is cut off. More experimenting is needed.

Month 18: After trying to come up with of methods of circumventing the issue for several days and trying them out for a few more, Marven Dallock’s mana field technique has proven to be the most promising by far. If only I could get rid of those pesky bubbles that keep forming inside the sphere...

Month 26: I did it! Oh, what a beautiful gem I’ve created. Although the scars left by the multiple failures will forever be etched on my body and the damages to both my tower and my wallet are more than I could have expected, in the end I succeeded. The core is finished, and properly stabilised to its immutable solid form. Even The System acknowledged my breakthrough and gifted me an achievement! Oh, how many decades had it been since I got one of those? Unfortunately, the additional Dexterity it blessed me with will not prolong my rapidly ending lifespan.

Unfortunately, not having a perfect soul to test this marvellous creation on makes this experiment nothing more than a mere passion project, but such is life. My next task is to properly create the Mana circuits that will connect the core to the body, a delicate process, but one that an experienced alchemist, enchanter and golemancer such as myself has done countless times.

Month 35:

It was certainly more difficult than expected to make the circuits pure enough to be able to withstand the tremendous force of the core, but after making the breakthrough of covering them in molten down mythril-rainbow gem alloy, they are not only more than conductive enough, but also a lot more stable.

As the rest of the body will be made of metal, leaving it to an specialist should be the best option. I wonder if that old geezer Tonnas will come if I send him a letter...

Month 64:

Having the alleged ‘best blacksmith in the continent’ to help me build this certainly made the process come along more smoothly. I do not know where he got the knowledge to build such complex parts nor do I have any hope of understanding their workings, but the results show for themselves. Combined with my optimised enchantments, the mana efficiency is truly out of this world. Unfortunately, the metals he chose are almost as expensive as the materials for the core, and since they were obviously all bought from my pocket, I’ve been left almost penniless despite having been saving up my royal salary for decades.

Well, I have one foot in the grave anyway, and I must finish this project before I die at all costs, so I am not too saddened by this.

Month 71:

It seems my time has come already... It would be untrue to claim I didn’t see it coming. A pity, as the creation was almost done. The pieces are all there, if only I could assemble that remaining arm... well, I suppose I will apply a temporary solition so no mana will not leak out even without the limb, and hope Tonnas will ever decide to come back to check on me and find this book. He should be able to finish it, since all the alchemical parts are already prepared. Tonnas, if you read this, please, please fulfill my lifelong dream for me.

I was positively stumped after reading all that. It was to be expected, seeing how crazy it was to create something this expensive and complex without a use for it, but the golemancer who built this body was completely nuts. A loon, if you will.

'I was extremely lucky to come across this. Alright, once I master the art of walking, I'll start activating the other senses.'

And so, with no one to watch it, the one-armed metal creature paced in circles around the room for hours on end.

'Not getting tired is convenient. My mana is doing just fine too, since my regeneration plus the ambient mana vacuums all over my body more than make up for the amount I consume when walking... alright, let's try to activate the ear enchantments...AACK!'

I sort of anticipated it would happen, but the cacophony of sounds that assaulted and rattled my mind all at once made me fall to the ground, discombobulated.

I tried to at least cover one ear with my only hand, but the sound it made as it hit the exterior threw me for a loop.

So I stayed sparkled on the floor, doing my best to stay as still as possible so as to not make any sound.

It felt like ages passed, but eventually I grew used to it, and realised that the sounds that seemed so strident minutes ago were just the faraway chirps of birds and rustling of leaves, along with the dripping of some water droplets, and some quieter, more in distinct sounds.

'Yeah, when you haven't had a sense for millennia, even the slightenpst stimuli are like extremely potent ones. Wow.'

Too afraid to open up the other senses, I switched my focus on the complex and interweaved enchantments surrounding the orb in the middle of my chest on all sides. After seeing so many enchantments I had gotten a basic grasp on what different patterns and shapes meant more or less, so I knew that it had something to do with defense, it was very potent, and had a lot of redundant paths, meaning it could work even if over 40% of it was destroyed, although not as efficiently.

'It should be safe, it's just some defensive thingy...let's just do it!

As I mentally triggered the complex engravings with my mana, it started greedily siphoning all my mana into itself like a vacuum, sucking me almost dry and making me realise that I needed to improve my Capacity. Immediately, a faint, blue sphere surrounded my fragile core, something I could only detect through my 'soulsense', since it was all happening inside my chest which was covered with layers upon layers of metal.

The sphere kept getting more and more solid, due to the mana density increasing, until it stopped when it was almost opaque.

'Wow, it seems like a shield to protect my core exclusively... maybe the thing is actually quite brittle? At least it's always protected by metal on all sides, but against magical attacks... yeah, this shield was a smart addition.'

It disappeared after under a minute due to me running out of mana though, so I decided to add a good 30 points to Capacity in one go.

So, I opened my Status, only to be stupefied by the changes in my attributes.

Damuel Adams (2181)

Level 10

Class:

Achievements: System Explorer, Soul Pioneer, Soul Spearhead, It’s over 9000!, Soul Master, Slayer of the Powerful, First Dragonslayer, Millenium, Million Mile Journey

Strength

206 [Locked]

Agility

122 [Locked]

Endurance

342 [Locked]

Vitality

0 [Locked]

Intelligence

40 (33 x 1.2)

Capacity

79 (64 x 1.2)

Soul Strength

9999 (6293 x 1.7)

Stat points:

80

Skills:

Inspection (MAX)

Passive [OFF] - Ice Dragon’s Bloodline (MAX)

Olden Knowledge (MAX)

Map (Level 5)

'Damn, I did feel like my punches were quick and strong, but... 200 strength!? That's like 20 times the limit of normal humans! And the Endurance is even crazier! I didn't suffer any damage these past few days, so there's no way I could've guessed it was this high...'

'Of course, it's normal that Vitality is 0. After all, metal doesn't heal by itself. The rest of the attributes are 10 times higher than I expected though. It is a pity that the title bonuses don't apply too...'

'Well, the attributes are still crazy for a hunk I'm metal. Maybe... maybe this clunky body isn't so bad after all. Plus, having actual senses is nice. I should use it for a while until...'

Then I realised.

Until what? Until when?

Until it breaks? Until I get bored of it?

Then what?

I go back to wandering as a soul forever? Spend thousands of years without interacting with anybody else?

This body... it was not just some cool trinket to use for a while and then throw out. It was–most likely–the only chance I'd ever have to go back to being a human. My only remaining tie to the material world.

Thus, my goal was born.

'I'll need to take good care of this body...'

I was going to find a way to turn human again.

No matter the cost.

...Well, first, I had to go find that Tonnas guy to assemble my left arm.