“Where are you taking me?”
Shinhyeok, being dragged along, asked Aurumstone, who was excited and thrilled.
“My workshop!”
“I know that. But was this place always this big?”
The dwarf’s workshop Shinhyeok knew consisted only of a tiny room barely a few pyeong wide and a bizarrely spacious warehouse.
“This is that place. We’ve simply stepped outside the house.”
Strangely enough, when the door opened, a vast world appeared.
“It’s huge. Kind of like Earth, too.”
Even as he was dragged along, he looked around Aurumstone’s world.
There were traces of ruins everywhere, but the fact that it was filled with steel high-rise buildings made it similar to Earth.
“Well? Not bad, is it?”
“It’s nice. Has a bit of an SF vibe, too. But why can’t I see any people?”
He could guess why the scenery around him was devoid of people, but he was curious.
“They’re dead. Every last one of them.”
At that brutal truth, Shinhyeok couldn’t say anything in particular.
“Well, a few survived, but I don’t know where they went.”
Aurumstone stopped for a moment and looked around his now-silent planet.
“Now I’m the last.”
The dwarf’s feelings as he looked at his ruined homeland were heavy and complicated.
“How did it end up like this?”
“Well, it wasn’t because we fought among ourselves. It was because of that damned demon bastard.”
He spoke lightly, but deep anguish and rage were lodged in his eyes.
“Well! That’s not what’s important! Hurry up and follow me!”
He grabbed Shinhyeok’s sleeve again and ran.
“Ah, come on! And don’t you have something to ride?! How far are we going!”
“It’s close!”
After passing all sorts of buildings and roads, the place he arrived at resembled a temple.
“I guess there’s a god people believe in here too? It looks really gothic and old.”
“Hmph! As if. What Aurumstone believes in is only iron! Alchemy! Only that, nothing else!”
With an excited expression, he went clattering up.
“I said hurry up and come!”
Shinhyeok hurried after the impatient dwarf.
After climbing the stairs for quite a while, a splendid building made of iron and various other metals and alloys came clearly into view.
“Wow. Is this some kind of dwarf strongman show? This is insane.”
Looking closely at the walls, he saw that even the tiniest parts were carved.
The more he looked around, the more it seemed like the pinnacle of splendid art.
“Haha. This is our pride. Sannr.”
He pointed to the letters engraved like a sign on the building.
‘ᛊᚨᚾᚾᚱ (Sannr).’
Seeing the engraved letters at the entrance, Shinhyeok thought of the enchanter’s book.
‘I’ve seen it. Among the pages recorded in the appendix.’
“Isn’t that Sannr? The meaning.”
“It means truth.”
Aurumstone spoke as he looked up at the building proudly.
“It is the spirit of Aurumstone. The desire to uncover and create truth through alchemy.”
He was proud of all of it.
“Let’s go. The real thing is inside!”
Aurumstone dashed off.
“That old man! Let’s walk slowly! Let me look around!”
“There’s nothing to see there!”
Shinhyeok hurriedly chased after the vigorous dwarf.
Once inside, there were all kinds of fascinating works of art.
“Oh. They’re all pretty.”
“They are works of our ancestors made through synthesis. Though they have no circuits, magic engineering, or enchantments, they contain many mysterious authorities and functions.”
He looked at them with eyes filled with regret.
Shinhyeok looked around for a while and also read the nameplates written inside the glass cases.
“Is this a name? I don’t know how to read it.”
Aurumstone glanced at it and replied bluntly.
“Something like that.”
“Come on, tell me. How do you read this?”
When he stared at it intently, Kind Insight kindly told him in his stead.
[The pronunciation of the corresponding characters is as follows.]
[Fehusil. It means a metal that emits light on its own.]
“Fehusil. Master, is this something like a name? I see it a lot.”
Every glass case he looked at contained that name in considerable numbers.
“Phew, what kind of person was this, to have so many works?”
Aurumstone replied bluntly.
“A bunch of brilliant geniuses.”
“I suppose so. If they’re revered to this extent.”
“It’s me.”
Shinhyeok let it pass lightly.
“Yes. Not funny at all. Please try a little harder.”
Aurumstone sighed and said,
“I said it’s me, you damn brat.”
Shinhyeok turned around and found the dwarf looking slightly upset.
“I told you it’s me. Why don’t you believe me?”
“Seriously?”
Aurumstone ground his teeth and said it again.
“It’s me.”
“………?”
Shinhyeok lowered his posture to meet Aurumstone’s eye level and looked at him.
“You were that amazing?”
In the end, anger flared up.
“It’s me, you brat! Me! Me, me, me!”
“Ugh. Who said anything? You’re hurting my ears.”
Shinhyeok grumbled and stood up.
Aurumstone glanced at the abundant works of Fehusil, then quickly pushed Shinhyeok onward.
“Never mind that, what’s important is over there! Hurry and follow me!”
He followed behind him.
When they reached the innermost area, Aurumstone pressed a button.
Then the door slid open.
“Oh, an elevator?”
“Something similar.”
Once they got on, it descended smoothly.
But it was open on all sides.
“Is this safe?”
“Probably? I haven’t maintained it, so I’m not sure.”
Shinhyeok stiffened and grew tense.
They slowly descended underground for a long time.
“So what did you say was here?”
As he looked around, an increasingly vast cavern appeared.
Right in front of them lay a dwarf the size of a gigantic building.
“Wow.”
The pressure from its overwhelming size was considerable.
He stretched out his hand to gauge its scale.
“This is insane. How big is this thing?”
“Who knows. I don’t know what to compare it to.”
“At that size, you could compare it to the tallest skyscraper in the world.”
Tap.
They arrived on the ground.
Aurumstone got off and pointed at the thing.
“That is what I wanted to show you.”
Shinhyeok looked over the overwhelming statue—no, the synthesized product made of iron.
“Incredible. Did you even express every wrinkle and every palm line? Wow.”
The immense detail, and the metals used differently for each part, were incredibly fascinating and impressive.
“This is insane.”
Aurumstone told the admiring Shinhyeok something that would make him even more amazed.
“That thing moves.”
Shinhyeok’s eyes flashed.
He immediately looked at Aurumstone and asked again if he was serious.
“It moves?! For real?!”
The moment he imagined it, he felt dizzy.
Excited, Shinhyeok urged Aurumstone on.
“Hurry and show me! Please?!”
Aurumstone smiled brightly and said to Shinhyeok,
“From now on, you’re the one who has to do it.”
The swelling emotion and awe subsided.
Shinhyeok’s gaze cooled considerably.
“What is that supposed to…… I knew it. No wonder it was unusually tempting.”
Shinhyeok trudged back and climbed onto the strange iron plate again.
“How does this go up?”
“Hey! Hey! Wait! At least listen to the explanation before you leave!”
“What’s there to listen to! I just got baited!”
“No, you didn’t! That’s a golem! That’s a golem!”
Shinhyeok’s gaze turned to Aurumstone as the dwarf hopped up and down shouting “golem.”
With an excited face, he shouted,
“Let’s complete it together. Let’s complete Aurumstone’s treasure, the Giant God-Soldier.”
At his rather sincere expression, Shinhyeok found it hard to refuse outright.
“But let me ask you one thing. You can’t copy the Observer with a golem, right?”
Aurumstone flinched.
“I knew it.”
He grinned and said,
“If you make this one well, and then make the next one well, wouldn’t it be possible?”
“Ah, yes. I don’t know what a golem does, but I’m sure that’ll go just great. Isn’t it just some ridiculously huge doll or robot?”
“Ha! Do not define a golem so simply!”
Shinhyeok got down from the iron plate and looked around the enormous metal giant.
“So that’s incomplete?”
“Yes. If it were complete, it would possess an ego and move on its own.”
“Oh. That’s incredible.”
[Incomplete Golem][Legendary][Metal][Artifact]
=======================
An incomplete golem being produced by dwarf craftsmen through the fusion of various alloys and metals. An incomplete Giant God-Soldier that has been under construction for dozens of centuries.
=======================
[Points of Caution]
Incomplete state.
=======================
‘Dozens of centuries…….’
That meant it was a work they had clung to for a very long time.
“A Giant God-Soldier, huh. Master, if this thing is completed, I don’t think it’ll just move around normally.”
“Well, it should be able to face at least one god. That’s the purpose of a golem.”
He mentioned a “god” as if it were nothing.
“According to the secret tradition passed down among us Aurumstone, it is recorded as a combat weapon meant to slaughter gods.”
“How am I supposed to live when that’s so scary? So you want to complete this?”
Aurumstone nodded.
“That’s right. Cool, isn’t it?”
“Okay. Let’s give it a try. But do I not have to make the Observer?”
He replied calmly.
“They said you can make that later?”
“Mm? They did?”
Such generous treatment made him suspicious.
‘Hm, they’re being relaxed about it?’
“Now! What should we start with? Huh? Disassemble it again and start with synthesis?”
Shinhyeok calmed the dwarf, who was about to run wild with excitement, and asked,
“First, I think I need to understand it. Wouldn’t it be better to give me the production method or blueprints, and show me the related materials before we begin?”
Aurumstone calmly replied to those words.
“There aren’t any. There barely were any to begin with, but now they’re completely gone.”
“What?”
“I said there aren’t any.”
Shinhyeok stared at Aurumstone with an incredulous expression.
“Then how have you been doing it until now?”
“That’s why we couldn’t complete it.”
“Ssssss.”
It was even more hopeless than he’d thought.
“There aren’t any?”
“No. When the demons invaded, they burned everything. Even what little remained is gone now.”
“And there was barely anything even before that?”
“That’s right. It was such a vague, pie-in-the-sky story that everyone just looked at it like a relic. No one managed it.”
Shinhyeok bowed his head politely in greeting.
“Master, you have worked hard all this time. I beg you to expel your unworthy disciple and never acknowledge me again.”
“Hey, hey!”
Aurumstone leaped over at once and clung to his leg.
“No! Absolutely not without you!”
“Let go! This wouldn’t work no matter who you brought here!”
The dwarf dangled from him and pleaded.
“You can do it! You’re a great alchemist!”
“I’m not that kind of person—no! Starting now, I’m not!”
After struggling for quite a while, Shinhyeok finally sank down where he was.
“You’re seriously persistent.”
“I’m telling you, let’s try.”
“It’s way too daunting.”
Shinhyeok looked at the incomplete golem and asked,
“Is there really nothing? I truly don’t know the first thing about the difference between a golem and a robot.”
“Hmmm. I do know things like oral traditions?”
“Well…… tell me even that.”
“Golems are great.”
It was truly useless.
“Please go away. You really haven’t been helpful lately.”
Aurumstone became sullen.
Shinhyeok stood and examined the golem.
‘With what I have, all I can do is look at the description.’
He placed his hand on its foot.
[You are gaining insight into the incomplete golem’s left foot.]
[Incomplete Golem’s Left Foot][Legendary][Metal][Artifact]
=======================
The left foot of an incomplete golem being produced by dwarf craftsmen through the fusion of various alloys and metals. It was made in the image of a dwarf.
=======================
[Points of Caution]
Incomplete state.
=======================
“Hmm?”
The wording had changed a little.
“Made in the image of a dwarf…… huh?”
He peered at the giant.
“It really is huge.”
He also tapped the shoe at the end of its foot.
‘This description is different too.’
He had found a method, in a way.
Looking at its absurd size, Shinhyeok let out a sigh on its own.
“Okay!”
To find clues, he would have to examine every part of this enormous golem.
“I’ll do it. I’ll pull it off and leave behind an achievement!”
Behind him, Aurumstone raised both arms and cheered.
“You can do it, you brat!”
And so, that absurd journey began.