High Artificer, Ch 11: Golem Assembly

Rolen’s Perspective

The number of materials on the table was mind boggling. 

Even as Rolen stared at them for the twelfth time, he had no idea where to begin.

After giving him his instructions, Professor Hastern had wandered off to the other side of the hall and taken Altey with him, so now Rolen was alone at the work table, trying to figure it out.

“Build an ice golem...” he muttered. “Whoever had a job like this to get a subclass?”

Despite his complaint, which was mostly just to make himself feel better, his heart was pounding with excitement. He knew how important this moment was.

If he could achieve something here, he might be able to change his future. He wouldn’t be limited by the accomplishments of his past or a simple subclass.

If he could become like his teacher...with that sort of power, he could change his home world, or even other worlds. He could redeem his parents’ lives, punish those who had forced contracts on them, and make things better.

That all started here. The determination to succeed beat in time with his heart.

He could read a couple of the runes on the materials, the simplest ones, but there were hundreds more that made no sense to him. 

Then runes began to move, wavering as they reacted with the mana in the air. Spikes of dull pain flared in his head and eyes. He winced, but he didn’t stop looking at the runes.

He knew it was a bad idea to force yourself to read runes that were beyond your level, but at the same time, it was also a way to improve. You just had to accept the pain and try to not to hurt yourself too much.

He didn’t know how to make a golem, but the professor hadn’t left him without a guide. There was already an example waiting.

A small golem made of ice marched up and down the table. It held a spear in one hand and a shield in the other. The butt of the weapon tapped the table in time with its steps as it moved between the materials.

Now and then, it stopped to examine a particular crystal or piece of metal. Whenever it did, its plates separated outward like gears opening, showing the interior and a web of rune connections, which highlighted the flow of mana from plate to plate. 

From the complexity of those connections, he could tell that putting a golem together wasn’t just about slapping plates into a structure. The runes had to be oriented and powered in a particular sequence to build the operating enchantment and link it to the core.

Then the golem’s plates would close up again and it continued its march around the table until it found somewhere else to pause, where it sprang open again and showed him the interior from a different angle.

The professor wasn’t telling him directly how to build a golem, but he had left a completed one for him to study. 

Since Rolen had no other option, he started sketching on a sheet of paper, trying to figure out the rune sequences and how to match them up to what he could see from the materials on the table. There was a whole stack of paper on one side of the table, right next to a stylus, like a suggestion. 

He began by marking down which parts were in front of him, organizing them by type, number, and then their potential uses.

“Plates, frame, core, elemental crystals, minor crystals, different plates, different plates again...I don’t know what that is but it looks important....”

He jotted it down as an “Important Triangle Piece” and kept going.

“That’s a stronger ice elemental crystal. That’s a joint I think. Those might be eyes, that...is maybe the base of a spear?” 

That one got recorded as a Small Ice Golem Spear. 

“And that’s actually two different types of plating,” he decided, “a light set for the interior and heavier for the exterior. That’s the core obviously, but how does it connect to the plating and the operating enchantment?”

He continued muttering to himself, occasionally chewing on the stylus as he tuned out the world around him. The only thing in his mind was the table full of parts.

He didn’t notice the professor chuckling over on the side or Altey’s sigh as she looked at her brother and then him. 

By the time Rolen finished his list, he was already reaching for another sheet of paper, this one for runes, as he began organizing the runes he knew and the new ones from the golem, as he tried to figure out the steps to put them together.

The sheet after that was a physical diagram of the golem, which he began to sketch out as he looked at all the parts on the table. Then he paused and tore up another sheet of paper that he numbered. With those, he put labels on each of the parts. 

Then he went back to sketching out the design of the golem, this time using the numbers to represent the parts on the table, to make sure he didn’t forget one. A list of numbers soon collected on the side of his sheet for the ones he couldn’t figure out how to use yet.

There was a notification that flared in his mind as he worked, followed by another, but as soon as he turned to look at them, the professor spoke up.

“Ignore those subclasses for now,” Professor Hastern said. “You can’t take them until you unlock your main class anyway. We’ll take care of both when you finish the golem. I’ll tell you when.”

Rolen nodded and shoved the notification out of his mind as he went back to work.

***

Sam’s Perspective.

He watched with interest as Rolen picked up part of a stabilizing ward for the golem and marked it down as a piece of exterior plate. 

He had to stop himself from laughing. At this rate, it would be lucky if the design resembled a golem at all. 

“Hey, be nice to him!” Altey punched him on the shoulder as she frowned. She could see him grinning. “He’s trying his best.”

“I know,” Sam agreed as his grin got wider. “That’s why it’s funny.”

Then he laughed and ruffled Altey’s hair.

“Don’t worry, he’s doing well enough. I’m only laughing because he reminds me of what it was like to start enchanting a long time ago. I did much worse. Did dad ever tell you how many things I blew up at first?”

“Really?” Altey asked with surprise as she looked at him. “I thought you were always good at it.”

“I fumbled through,” he said with a grin. “With lots of mistakes. Fortunately, most of them blew up on the enemy instead.”

Altey looked at him and then at Rolen. She still seemed worried. 

“Are you going to make him into a copy of you?” she asked “What if he wants to be something else?”

“Oh, are you defending him?” Sam teased. “Don’t worry, this is just to set a foundation. He can do what he wants, but if he follows my advice, he will be better off. I’ll help him get something that works well for him. It will definitely better than what the academy could offer. 

“What he does with it after that is up to him. Everyone follows their own path. Even I can’t guarantee the exact subclass he’ll get, but it will work out. He can refine it during future evolutions.”

He glanced at Rolen and shook his head at some of what the boy was doing. Then turned back to his sister.

“How is your class signup going? Did you get everything you wanted?”

“Two combat classes, three crafting classes, and one survival class.” Altey nodded. “Like you said to. All three crafting ones are with you. It was good we signed up early...those filled up almost immediately after your duel.”

“Not bad,” Sam said with a smile. “At least this place will be busy.”

“The combat classes are Basic Combat Integration,” she added, “which is about using spells and weapons in efficient ways, and Combat Fundamentals I, which is a tiered type of combat training in the academy’s training arena. I don’t know what it will be about exactly, but they said it was required.”

Her words were confident, as they should be. She had been training for years, even sneaking around to try and help against invasions. 

“That one is about fighting monsters at steadily more challenging levels,” Sam explained. The faculty medallion had given him most of the important details. 

“It’s the main way students at the academy gain experience, since they don’t go out to hunt independently. It’s a core class.”

“How does it work?” Altey asked with a frown. Her eyes were focused on the distance and her hands were looped around the wand and dagger at her belt. 

She looked strong and confident as her eyes flashed with the glow of lunar ice. Her combat abilities were impressive for never having had a class before. She had better physical abilities than most Warriors at her level.

“The academy has enchantments that create realistic monsters from resources they purchase,” Sam said, “primarily beast cores, but sometimes other materials as well. They also gather experience from higher level monsters and pour it into the enchantment.

“A single Fourth or Fifth Evolution core can provide energy for thousands of low level simulations. It’s efficient, although expensive. Now and then, the professors go on hunting trips sponsored by the academy to collect resources, but mostly they are purchased through standard trade channels.

“Fourth Evolution and higher cores are very rare. They tend to use Second Evolution or Third Evolution ones mostly.”

“So the monsters we’re fighting will be real?” Altey asked, looking curious.

“Real enough, anyway,” Sam corrected. “They’re created by the enchantments and from the bits of emotion and fragmented aura left in the beast cores. They’re basically weaker copies of the original that have toned down to match your level, but they act wildly, often more so than regular beasts. It should be decent training, similar in some ways to fighting Outsiders who come through a Flaw at home, although not quite as powerful. The academy has a long history of successfully producing skilled combatants with the method.”

“Do other places use this type of training?” Altey asked curiously. “It seems like it would be easier than hunting, or at least faster. ”

“It is faster,” Sam agreed. “Finding things to fight is the slowest part of leveling usually. You’ll basically have an unending source of enemies here, but the cost is why the academy’s training tops out around Level 200, sometimes 230. They can’t afford to produce more monsters past that level, even with their resources.

“There are some factions in the galaxy that train their heirs with a similar type of enchantment and pour a great deal of money into it, but that is limited to a select few.”

“Like those royal families who sent their kids here?” Altey guessed, raising an eyebrow. She looked displeased.

She was clearly not a fan, which made Sam laugh since she was effectively a princess herself at home. 

He knew it was because of the airs they put on and how they had been acting as if they were better than the rest of the students. She was too down to earth to care about that sort of thing, so she automatically disliked them for doing it.

“Even they can’t afford to go much beyond Level 300,” he said. “After that, people have to find their own things to hunt. Otherwise, you’re employing multiple groups of Level 300+ adventurers to hunt just for you. It happens, but it’s rare.

“That’s why those families like to send their children here, among other reasons. They get free training up to a reasonable level. Their families can save the expense and then use their resources to push them higher.

“However, you don’t get completely free access to the combat arena,” he clarified. “It’s included as part of your core classes, but with a set pace that is the same for everyone. If you want to go faster than that, you need approval and to spend student credits on it. You can earn credits with various accomplishments in your courses, as well as some competitions.

“It’s a way for the star students to accelerate their progress, while everyone else has to at least maintain the standard rate of progress each year. Falling behind in the combat class is the easiest way to get expelled from the academy.

“Those credits are also useful for other things,” he continued. “You can spend them on equipment, crafting resources, specialized lessons that go beyond the standard curriculum, and more. They’re a sign of the academy’s investment in you. So, keep an eye out for opportunities to get them.”

He left it unsaid that he could provide similar things for her. It would be good for her to have goals to pursue on her own.

“Even those royals want to earn academy achievements,” he added. “They’re worth a good bit. They also help students to look more promising at graduation, if they want to be hired by a faction, not that you need to worry about it.”

He paused and looked thoughtfully over at Rolen for a moment.

“You two can come hunting with me after you exhaust the academy’s training,” he said, “but it will be a while. If we go back to Aster Fall, the Fallen Abyss is much more dangerous, but it can take you past Level 400 without trouble. The monsters and invasion forces trapped in there are nearly endless.

“After that, there’s the Void itself. The stars are vast and the beings to fight outnumber all life in the settled galaxy. The number of Fourth and Fifth Evolution opponents surpasses your imagination. You just have to look for them.” 

The stars were born of conflict and in the Deep Wild, the law of survival held firm. It was his natural home, one of his favorite places to be. The resources there were better than in the settled galaxy. They were pushed to higher levels by the intensity of the chaos winds.

It was the domain of the ancients, the unbridled rage of the stars and time immemorial, where passing moments constantly gave way to new explosions of strength. 

His eyes turned to the distance as he looked out across the galaxy into the Deep Wild. He found the star for Aster Fall and then those beyond it. The urge to leap out from here and walk into the distance pulled at him, but he held it back.

He would always feel that drive to go and explore, but he had an avatar out there doing exactly that. It satisfied most of the instinct and was bringing him a slow tide of experience. 

Before long, more levels would start to come in and he would get closer to the Sixth Evolution. He just had to find enemies that were powerful enough.

For now, he would accompany his family.

As he and Altey continued to chat about her start at the academy, he kept an eye on Rolen, who was working on his golem. 

The day passed into evening and then late night as the boy continued to map out his diagrams, studied the example golem, and did his best to assemble one of his own.

Sam could see the skills he was developing as they flared in his aura. 

Rolen’s aura was untamed and new, still barely controlled by his class. It was flooding toward wherever his attention went, like an instinct. That was how people got so many new options early on in life, once they unlocked the ability.

It was why Sam was letting him experiment on his own.

Since he’d just unlocked his class, he was in a special growth stage where his aura was surging with new energy. He needed to stretch those muscles and develop foundational skills. The more he tried out new things, the more they would develop. 

It was a key moment that he needed to seize, but like most young people, he didn’t know how to do it on his own. 

That was why Sam had given him such a complex task.

As he struggled and gave himself one headache after another trying this task that was beyond him, he was swiftly developing an array of core skills that would support him in the future. His tattoo linked him to the World Core, so when he completed his class quest and it recognized his accomplishments, he would be able to crystalize them. 

He'd already gained options for over a dozen subclasses, as well as abilities for Analyze, some runic ones for analysis and pattern recognition, Mnemonic Recall, Scribal Archiving, and more.

As time passed, Altey curled up on one of the big chairs to nap. Sam created some pillows and blankets to make the stone softer and then let her sleep.

She’d had a big couple of days at the academy with a lot of new information.

He continued working on his realm as the night passed.

As dawn was breaking, Altey yawned and rolled out of her blanket. She stretched as she looked over at Rolen. Then she blinked and became more alert as she noticed the state of the table.

“Hey, I think he’s almost done,” she said. 

She edged closer, giving Rolen some space while still trying to see everything.

Sam finished weaving a defensive ward and then he nodded in agreement. 

Most of the materials on Rolen’s table were gone now, added to a bulky and awkward looking golem that occupied the center. 

It wasn’t elegant and it only vaguely resembled the example, but it was roughly humanoid, which was progress.

The core had been placed at the center and the rune plates assembled around it, with about a quarter of their connections properly formed. It was enough to hold the golem together as the mana from the core energized the enchantments.

Sam carefully assessed the progress and he nodded to himself as Rolen added the last few pieces he had left. 

There were several materials sitting on the side of the table that he had discarded, either not knowing where they went or because he was unable to complete the rune connections that were necessary to put them into place.

Finally, Rolen stepped back. His eyes were fixed on the golem, but his hands hesitated as if he didn’t dare to touch it. 

He was shaking from exhaustion, which hadn’t helped him over the last hour as he tried to put together the fine rune connections. Each one took a delicate touch of aura to bring them to life and connect them to the core.

But it was impressive enough that he had managed to do even that. 

Most people couldn’t control their aura without significant training. It was one of the things that limited the number of potential enchanters.

Rolen's background had helped him out. He’d been studying runes for a long time and unconsciously training his aura with visualization exercises.

Of course, that didn’t exactly correlate to success with building a golem.

Sam looked at the result and had to hold back a wince.

Rolen’s creation was about twice the size of the example golem and its shoulders were crooked. 

More than that, its head was attached at a strange angle and partly tilted to one side, and the spear that should have been in its hand had been added to its back as a stabilizing device to keep it standing.

Its legs were uneven since one had an extra joint, a foot was on backwards, and its chest and back plates had been attached with reversed rune polarities, which destabilized the entire central formation around the core. 

The only thing holding it together was that he’d made a second mistake that corrected out the first by reversing the rune polarity of the arms and legs...which created a secondary field that attached to the core and created a stabilizing loop that was never intended to work that way.

That was why the rest of the parts hadn’t joined together correctly. They were trying to balance out competing commands from the enchantment. 

Still, after a moment, Sam shook his head and a smile surfaced.

From the viewpoint of an artificer, the golem was terrible, but as the first attempt from a novice who didn’t even have the correct skills to understand what he was doing yet, it was somewhat impressive.

Mostly that it was standing.

As he walked over to the table, Rolen stood at the side looking nervous. His eyes moved from the golem, to the example, and then to Sam.

“Is it...good enough?” the boy asked. He looked hopeful for a moment, but then he looked down, as if unwilling to hear the truth. 

He knew it was bad, so he hadn’t dared to ask if it was good, just good enough.

“Go ahead,” Sam said quietly. His voice was calm. “Activate it and see if it works. It’s the only way to tell.”

Rolen reached out with a trembling hand and touched the golem. A faint pulse of aura and mana surged out of him and into the core.

The core flared with light, which flooded outward along the connections to the exterior plates, head, arms, and legs.

The golem shuddered, its limbs trembling. Ice mana leaked out in a swirl of condensing mist, which quickly turned into a flurry of snow across the table.

“Tell it to walk across the table,” Sam instructed.

Another pulse of energy came from Rolen and the golem shuddered again. Its legs jerked, one pulling forward and the other backward. Its arms hung akimbo, twisting as they tried to rotate in their sockets and the elbows tried to bend.

Mana flared out of the golem, flooding through the half-completed rune connections. Then a concentration of icy blue light built up around the core, intensifying with every second.

Its limbs shuddered again as one leg tore free from the table and rose into the air. 

An arm swung around. Its wrist snapped off as it rotated in the wrong direction and fell to the table, but the rest of the arm moved forward, rising as it tried to take a step in coordination with the leg.

The core flared brighter and a screech of twisting metal sounded from half a dozen places across the golem as limbs twisted in place. The leg that was moving froze in the air and the one on the table rotated wildly.

The golem spun around like a top, its single leg balancing in the air as it wobbled from side to side. The second arm’s rune connection deformed and it snapped off, flying across the table.

There was a tide of icy blue light that covered the table, steadily increasing as it resonated with a piercing force.

Then the golem exploded.

A massive wave of mana tore across the table as parts turned into shrapnel and went flying in every direction. They rang like flechettes as they rebounded from a shield that covered Sam and Rolen. Altey was protected behind them by another shield that Sam had summoned.

The rest of the work area wasn’t so lucky.

Bits of rune-etched astral ice and metal flew in every direction, striking resounding chimes and thuds off work benches and the floor. Some of them even made it all the way across the hall to strike the pillars on the side.

When it stopped, the only thing left on the table was a pile of twisted scrap and a hundred streaks of black ash left behind as trails that marked the path of the explosion.

Rolen looked at the twisted remains with horror, his face as pale as a sheet.

“We’ll work on it,” Sam said as he patted him on the shoulder. “That wasn’t that bad for your first try.”

He considered the remains of the golem and the development of Rolen’s aura, quickly assessing the level the boy had reached in a dozen necessary skills. 

Then a wave of his hand cleared away the destruction.

A new set of materials appeared on the workbench. They were exactly the same as the first. The small example golem flew back from the side where it had been knocked by the explosion and landed on the table, where it raised its spear in a salute as it returned to its march.

“This might take a few days,” Sam said. “Study where you went wrong and then get some sleep before you try again. You have enough time before classes start.”

With that, he left Rolen standing there as he headed back to his own work. He knew the boy felt a crushing sense of failure, but he didn’t offer him any more help. He needed to see it through on his own.

This was also a type of training.

Sure enough, a few moments later, Rolen tightened his knuckles and let out a deep breath. Then his shoulders straightened and he turned back to the work table. His eyes were hot as he began to study the example again.

He didn’t look as tired as before.

The boy couldn’t see it, but Sam gave him a nod of approval.