The Potential of Golems (2)

After I woke up, Tester had returned with a decent amount of soil.

However, it had gotten stuck in the hole it dug during its work and couldn't get back out, ceasing all movement. It seemed to have run out of mana.

A golem that stopped moving would start up again if you poured magical power into it. According to the knowledge from [Create Golem], they normally operate for about an hour.

"How long was it able to move outside the dungeon?"

"Hmm, about an hour. Monster golems should be able to move for longer outside though."

I wondered if there was any other useful information in the knowledge I'd gained from [Create Golem]. As I tried to recall it, I found one piece: "Embedding a magic stone extends the duration."

However, I had absolutely no knowledge about this crucial "magic stone."

"Rokuko, what's a magic stone?"

"Eh? A magic stone is, you know, umm, it's a stone packed full of mana. You can often get them from monsters… ah, come to think of it, monster golems have magic stones, but the golem Kehma made doesn't have one?"

It doesn't, that's the thing.

In other words, it's like a battery for golems. There's no problem inside the dungeon since it's saturated with mana, but outside there's not as much, so without a magic stone it quickly becomes immobile.

Fortunately, Niku was able to retrieve Tester right away. The hole was only big enough to trap a thirty-centimeter golem, after all. Even a child could manage it. She had to drag it back, but that couldn't be helped. It was a lump of soil about the size of a basketball, so it must have been pretty heavy… I wonder if this dog-eared girl is actually strong.

Once it entered the dungeon's domain, Tester started moving again and tried to go dig another hole, so I stopped it and gave it new orders to return with Niku.

It seemed that orders persisted even when it stopped operating. This information was also a good harvest. As expected of Tester.

"So with that, golems will be collecting soil and stone from now on… but man, I really want a magic stone."

"A magic stone? Why not exchange DP for one?"

"… Crap, that idea never even occurred to me. I didn't realize it until Rokuko pointed it out, am I an idiot…? I'm shocked."

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

I looked at the DP Catalog. Magic stones were listed under the treasure category. Same section as jewelry and such. There were several grades of magic stones too; the cheap ones were 10 DP, the expensive ones tens of thousands of DP, quite the variety. For now, I'd buy a few cheap magic stones and experiment with various things.

"Right, Niku. Can you read and write?"

"… No, I can't. I'm sorry, Goshujin-sama…"

Niku lowered her head apologetically. Yeah, I'm not angry, you know? This is hurting my heart here.

"I see. Then Rokuko, teach Niku how to read and write. If you can get her to learn it properly, you can eat all the melon bread you want. Niku too, if you memorize everything, it's all-you-can-eat hamburgers."

"Eh, all-you-can-eat melon bread?! Got it!"

"I-Is that… really alright?"

Good, good. Light returned to Niku's eyes at the mention of hamburgers. Actually, her eyes seem quite lively right now. Those dead-fish eyes from when I saved her seem to have disappeared somewhere. Yep, it's best for children to be energetic.

But dog-eared girls really do like meat, huh. She'd probably be overjoyed with a beef steak. I should check if I can exchange DP for one. She might let me pet her paws as thanks.

Eventually, I'll need Niku to handle various tasks outside the cave, so she'll have to learn a lot of things.

Actually, now that I think about it, is it okay for her to stay a slave…? No, she might not be able to enter and exit the Master Room if she isn't a slave, so there's no need to change anything right now.

I wonder if slaves in this world have some kind of magical binding. She does have a collar on as far as I can see… well, that can wait for later.

Now then, time to create golems while Niku and Rokuko study their letters.

Normally I'd want to sleep by now, but even someone like me has one thing I prioritize over sleep.

Preparations to sleep soundly.

I am fully prepared to sacrifice sleep time in order to sleep soundly!

Yeah, sleep is the most important thing in the end.

I exchanged some DP for several magic stones and pickaxes for excavation.

I still had 3500 DP left, but if I wasted it, that would disappear in no time.

I tried embedding one 10 DP magic stone into Tester. How long would it be able to operate outside the dungeon now…? I'd have Tester plow a field outside the dungeon territory, so I made a minor modification to change its hands into hoe shapes.

Adventurers probably won't be coming for a while either, so it should be safe to work outside.

And so, this time I decided to create a human-sized golem.

It should be fine to follow the [Create Golem] blueprint at least once…

…

… …

Ah, I'm a bit short on soil.

Might as well hollow it out to make it lighter. It'll save on materials.

I also embedded the cheapest 10 DP magic stone.

After doing all that, I ended up with a golem that moved quite briskly.

Its movements were smoother than Tester's. I wonder if that's the effect of hollowing it out?

Rokuko, who had been teaching Niku letters, looked over with a surprised expression, but I paid it no mind and had it hold a pickaxe to expand the cave. All I had to say was "Go dig through the cave with this." How simple.

Ah, I want to make an all-stone golem using excavated rock too.

I should have collected the stone the bandits had dug up as items instead of converting it to DP.

 

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After embedding the 10 DP magic stone, Tester was still nonchalantly plowing the field even after a full day.

Looked like it could keep going. I wonder how long it'll last.

As for the clay golem with the pickaxe, it had dug five meters into the cave. A five-meter passage that a full-grown adult could walk through.

Yep, this isn't just a decent worker, it's an excellent one. Its joints were starting to break down, so I repaired them with stone and sent it back to digging. This way we'd build up our stock of stone and soil. And expand the cave while we're at it.

Well, let's go ahead and make a stone golem too.

Powered suit type.

"Hey, Kehma. What… is this?"

"It's a golem armor."

"Why is Niku inside the golem?"

"Well, because I had her wear it. Niku, try moving around a bit."

"Y-yes!"

This time, I had Niku wear a frame-type golem and ordered the golem to assist Niku's movements.

When Niku walked, her movements showed no sense of heaviness. It didn't seem able to keep up with quick movements, but at least it didn't look like the contents would get shaken around and instantly killed. That was a relief.

"It's a little hard to walk, but there are no problems."

"Alright, try punching this wall."

"Wait, what's that? What's with that stone slab?"

"It's a wall though?"

More precisely, since I made it the same way as the golem using leftover stone, you could call it a wall golem. I ordered it not to move… or rather, I didn't give it any orders at all, so it's really just a wall. Because of its extremely simple structure, I was able to save quite a bit of magical power. I could probably make variations like a rocky wall texture or a brick-style wall too.

"Here… I go… Tei!"

CRASH! The stone wall shattered magnificently. Rokuko looked extremely surprised.

Niku, who threw the punch, was also staring wide-eyed in shock.

Since her striking areas were firmly covered in stone, she probably didn't hurt her hands, but was she okay? That's the most important thing here. After all, if it's safe, I'm going to use it too.

"Good, excellent offensive power. I wonder if she could even fight with this? Niku, is there anything wrong with your hands or feet? If you're injured at all, make sure to tell me properly, okay?"

"I-I'm fine."

"Good, good. Since it can move outside with an embedded magic stone, it should be good for simple labor too. With a little more modification, I could either hide it completely under clothes, or go the opposite direction and make it look like full-body armor… then going down to the human village shouldn't be a problem, maybe?"

I was thinking of using the recent knight order as design reference. As I pondered this, Rokuko tilted her head and spoke up.

"Hm? Kehma, you're going to the human village?"

"Yeah. There's only so much I can do just staying cooped up here… Now that the knight order has cleaned up the bandits, I should be able to get to the human village in relative safety. I need to gather information, so I have to go at least once… Ah, are there any restrictions on Dungeon Masters going out?"

"No, nothing like that, it's fine… It's just, I always thought Kehma had no intention of leaving the master room."

Ah, well, yeah. I hadn't left the master room even once since coming to this world.

"That's because, you know, the bandits were there… There's no way I could go out, right? I'd die."

"Ah… right. It couldn't be helped."

We reminisced about the time when the bandits were here. Man, the bandits really were tough enemies.

… Though somehow, I feel like I didn't really do anything about them myself.

Well, they've already turned into DP now. That's good enough, yep.