I’m editing and uploading this half asleep, so if there are any mistakes, let me know~.
Chapter 7: Call and Response -Part 1-
Golem—a soldier conjured from the earth. A powerful yet silent servant with absolute loyalty towards its creator.
Furthermore, they exhibit dominance in vs. wizard battles, so they’ve even been implemented in armies at the national level.
To put things bluntly, this was the sole reason why among all 12 attributes, the scum-level Earth Attribute had made it into the ranks of “The Four Classic Attributes of Wizardry” and barely held onto one corner. If the Earth Attribute lost the ability to create golems, no one would bat an eye when the attribute gets dragged off its throne.
Only this spell, among all the other Earth spells, displayed deviance towards the fundamental of spells with the Earth attribute. As such, it was considered unnaturally overpowered.
This was a spell from the ruins of the old world.
In Introduction to Wizardry I, the author Luvel Zairein had this to say about golems:
‘They are valuable.’
For this man’s view of the Earth Attribute to change as so, it must be extremely worthy.
Wait, somehow I still feel like he’s dissing the entire Earth Attribute like this……
In fact, the volume dedicated to the Earth attribute, Introduction to Wizardry IV, had over half of its content dedicated to explaining the spell [Create Golem].
The Earth Attribute was treated like trash by Zairein. If I had to describe Volume IV’s thickness, it would be super thin… I know I’ve already expressed this sorrow, but if the volume lacked this chapter on [Create Golem], Introduction to Wizardry IV would be so light that it would seem commonplace among the light novels in Comiket[1].
“Alright, let’s make a golem!”
I made that snap decision in spite of the calamity that befell every single time I used wizardry.
Of course, there was no way I wasn’t going to get tempted at the value a golem could produce.
But, there was something more than that.
A silent servant who follows the commands of the sorcerer.
Ain’t that like a pet dog?
I want one…
I was starved for any interaction with anyone else, so I was already reaching my limit.
This wasn’t because I was particularly fond of socializing or anything.
Rather, as a bookworm, I could remain cooped up inside with my favorite book and be unfazed not seeing anyone for several days.
But, that was because I was in a familiar world, a place I knew well.
I didn’t know my left from my right here. There was no warning before all of this happened.
Common sense and my previous knowledge couldn’t be applied here.
Moreover, there wasn’t anyone I could talk to, the very thing I wanted.
It was all of a sudden “Boy Meets Skeleton Corpse” and the invisible evil that followed in the shadows.
The loneliness exceeded my imagination.
This wasn’t like when you spend your first night alone after moving out of your parents’ home.
——————
With the introductory book in hand, I moved some distance away from Zairen’s hidden house.
I stopped when I reached a small opening past the trees.
Here, I wouldn’t have to worry about damaging the house if another [Create Pebble] calamity were to befall.
“Hn, let’s get started!”
I rolled up my sleeves and pumped myself up.
This may come as a surprise for you readers, but I was not wearing those lame pajamas right now.
One of the results from searching the house was several clothes still in decent condition by my standards.
Some of them were damaged, but they were still wearable. There were even some that I didn’t know how to wear, once again pounding home the message that this was another world.
Anyway, today I was wearing an outfit that resembled a dress shirt and pants from my original world.
And on top of that, I was also wearing one of those wizard-looking robes. You know, the one that opens in the front. At a glance, it gave off the impression of an Inverness cape, but it definitely did give a different feeling compared to the clothes in my original world.
Well, it would be a little dubious to say that I even had any fashion sense in my original world……
I didn’t even know the difference between a robe and a gown.
Could this outfit be considered fashionable in my original world?
At any rate, I think I resemble what a wizard would like in this world.
Of course, it is all thanks to the gracious blessing the affluent Zairen had bestowed upon me that I could wear this high-class robe. Maybe I may even look like one of those Imperial Grand Wizard.
Then again, the bastard Zairein’s limbs appear to be longer than mine, so the cut had some excess……
With this wizard fashion, I ran my eyes across the pages of the introductory book.
“……Let’s see~ First, I need to create an earth doll that will act as the base for the golem, right?”
Base: in other words, the golem’s body—the main body.
If this was a military-grade golem, it would require a special type of stone armor to be fitted on top of the base, but for a pacifist like me, that was irrelevant.
I took a huge breath.
Concentrate……
Image the shape of the base for the golem.
Although, I didn’t know what the basic form a golem should be in this world. But, you know, I want one that looks like a buff knight. Yeah, that would be cool.
I am a boy after all. If I had to make one, I want a cool-looking one.
Imagine an armored knight.
……By the way, my grades for art and crafts in elementary school were terrible.
“[Form Base].”
The area on the ground I was concentrating on silently rippled.
And from there, fine particles of dirt rose and gathered in the air, gradually forming a humanoid shape.
Slowly, slowly. Forming according to my image.
No absurd torrent of mana formed like when I tested [Create Pebble] on top of the spell circle.
I can do this……! I can……succeed……!
……By the way, readers, are you aware of something called a “wooden mannequin?”
It is a doll made with joints that mimic those of a human’s and can form various poses. It is mostly used by artists to model what kind of poses the subjects of their drawing should take.
In short, it had the bare minimum qualities that made it a doll since it just needed to form poses. It really was just a detail-less doll with flexible joints.
Though, recently with the advent of well-made moveable figurines and 3D models, there are many artists who don’t use these wooden mannequins. To those people, this was already a relic of the past.
It reeked of simplicity, but I don’t hate it.
Well, anyways, it’s that kind of doll.
……Now, back to the story.
Towering in front of me at two meters tall was….not a knight, but a wooden mannequin.
I tried really hard though…..
I used all of my crafting ability……
I feel it….the ceiling of my abilities……
Oh, I can’t do that here. I can’t relax since it’ll cut off the power supply.
It would crumble and return back into fine grains of dirt in the blink of an eye, just like the boulder I created with [Create Pebble].
I moved on to the next step.
Focus my mind……
“[Reduce Weight].”
This was a spell that removed the weight from nearby objects created with Earth spells.
It was originally a support spell designed so that the physically-weak wizards could utilize a larger quantity of earth, heavier than what they should be able to use.
The golem’s base had a lot of weight to it, so if left alone, it would probably be too heavy to move by itself. Therefore, this spell was used in advance to reduce the weight to a degree.
But, it seemed that you cannot reduce the weight infinitely, and the limit differed per person. …What a strict world…
Well, whatever. This golem was created from condensed dirt, so it shouldn’t be that heavy in the first place. There was a possibility that this spell wasn’t even required here, but I was faithfully following the procedure as written down in the textbook.
I’m a serious guy, after all.
“……Alright. I’ve finished the preliminary prep for the base for now.”
While ensuring I don’t lose my concentration, I double checked Introduction to Wizardry IV in my hand.
So far, so good.
Rather, it’s been suspiciously going well given my previous track record.
All that’s left is to input a short and simple command. Once that’s in effect, the golem should animate.
There were several examples provided by the introductory book.
I randomly chose one from the bunch.
“—[Command: Advance…10 steps…forward.].”
The wooden mannequin….er, I mean my Golem No.1 began to creak into action.
The earthen colored golem raised its right foot—
And took one step.
“Oh OOH! Amazing!!”
I don’t know why but I was moved by this.
Its powerful footsteps continued forward, one step after another.
What a promising stride! This guy’s definitely powerful!
“Alright, alright! Go! Go!!”
I was going all-out in cheering Golem No.1.
And my Golem No.1 was accomplishing his task beautifully.
Right as he hit his 10-step mark, he slowed down to a halt.
In the next moment, Golem No.1 turned into fine grains of dirt.
—And crumbled away.
“U, uwaaaaa! Golem Number Onnneeeee!!!”
……Well, that was expected.
It wasn’t that I had failed or anything like that. The spell’s execution was a success.
This was just the “fundamental” of Earth spells.
As long as the wizard’s power wasn’t cut off, the creation shall crumble once it has fulfilled its purpose.
The command [Advance 10 steps forward] given to the golem during creation had just been completed. Therefore, the mana I had allocated to Golem No.1 had been depleted.
Golem No.1’s existence was worth only those 10 steps.
That’s right. Earth spells were that kind of thing.
Feeling the weight of loneliness, I stared at the pile of dirt that used to be Golem No.1.
I wonder why. Even though this land was supposed to be warm, the wind felt so cold……
——————
“I guess the key really does lie in the command……”
After fulfilling the command, Golem No.1 crumbled as per the fundamental of Earth spells.
This was the expected result as stated by the textbook, so the experiment was a success.
However, this wasn’t a golem that demonstrated “deviance from the fundamental of the Earth Attribute” as described and explained by Luvel Zairein in the book.
“Deviance“
This meant that unlike the rest of the objects created by Earth spells that crumbled when the supply of mana was cut, golems wouldn’t.
Real golems not created by amateurs would not crumble.
But, besides this fact, no further explanation was written in Volume IV.
I searched through the study again to find if there was anything that could serve as a reference, but I only uncovered one book with a title related to golems.
Golems really weren’t part of Zairen’s main research, huh…
I pulled this book from the shelf and looked at it.
It was very thick.
The cover reads as so:
Study of Golems’ Detection Epigraph and Its Application to Spell Circles —By: Tetheo Madith
Hmmm…
I feel like the contents of this will be slightly different than what I was looking for.
Furthermore, it already looks super complicated just by the title.
Rather, the title itself was already exceeding my translation ability. What the heck is a “Detection Epigraph”?
I tried flipping through the book.
Yup, my translation ability had completely turned into that of a gorilla’s, and I can’t read a lick of this. This is painful……
No, I can’t let this affect me. The bastard Zairen’s study was just completely useless to me.
I have no other choice but to do this all myself.
After all, I wasn’t someone who would easily break.
[1] The raws say “the International Exhibition Center in Ariake,” but I’m sure everyone else outside of Japan wouldn’t know that the MC is talking about Comiket which is held here. It’s the same as when people know about E3 but not through its location in the Lost Angeles Convention Center.
Towards the Sky 
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