Sinhyeok was sprawled across the chest of the enormous giant.
“I’m done looking.”
He slid down and crashed to the floor.
Thud.
Having arrived on the ground with remarkable smoothness, Sinhyeok spotted Aurumstone.
Looking down at him, Aurumstone said,
“You all right? Your eyes look like they spun three times.”
“I am absolutely not all right. Feels like a whole day’s passed.”
Aurumstone nodded.
“Accurate.”
“But is nobody looking for me?”
“Nope.”
At those words, Sinhyeok had a hunch.
“Did the battalion commander tell people not to let me out?”
Aurumstone answered coolly,
“She did. Said she was glad when she heard you’d gone to make a golem. Said it worked out well.”
“Ssseup.”
He could guess why.
She was probably making a fuss because his face had been exposed again.
“Well, anyway, let’s go eat something. I’m hungry.”
Aurumstone immediately held out a lunchbox and cup noodles.
“I prepared them in advance.”
“Wow. Awesome.”
Receiving such treatment for the first time in his life, Sinhyeok was dumbfounded.
“So? How is it? Did you figure anything out?”
Sinhyeok slurped up the warm ramen noodles and said,
“This was made in imitation of a dwarf.”
At that simple piece of information, Aurumstone’s expectations were cut down sharply.
“I know that much too.”
“On the outside, yes, but.”
Sinhyeok set down the cup noodles, tapped the giant, and said,
“The veins, tendons, muscles, organs, and such inside also seem to have been modeled after a dwarf. And they’re arranged wrong.”
“Ah.”
Aurumstone looked at the golem with empty eyes.
“What have I been doing all this time?”
“But no matter how I look at it, there’s one thing I can’t figure out.”
“Mm?”
Sinhyeok finished even the broth of the cup noodles and stood.
“Come with me.”
Taking Aurumstone with him, he trudged up along the giant’s leg.
“That’s where the heart should be. But there’s no heart. They didn’t make one at all.”
Fortunately, the surrounding muscles and arteries had been realized and arranged, so he could guess the location.
Aurumstone wore a troubled expression.
“I should have kept… at least one record.”
Sinhyeok plopped down and stared blankly around him.
“If only there were someone we could ask.”
“Sigh, if only we could ask even the dead ancestors.”
Flash.
Someone sprang vividly into Sinhyeok’s mind.
“Master! I’m going to bring someone here! Please rearrange this for me!”
“What?! Hey!”
He would take care of the rest.
Sinhyeok immediately bolted out and went searching for someone.
“Damn it, he’d better not have gone out on an operation!”
Sinhyeok hurried out of the workshop.
* * *
“It’s quiet, huh?”
He sensed danger in the calm atmosphere of the unit.
“Ssseup! Hong Ichan!”
At his shouted roar, a strong cry of “Loyalty!” came from somewhere.
“Loyalty! Sergeant Hong Ichan!”
Following the sound, he approached and found Hong Ichan looking around in surprise.
“What the hell? Why are you calling me like that?”
“You, you… didn’t go out on an operation?”
“Yeah, Baek Arin too. They told us to sit this one out.”
Sinhyeok grinned and grabbed Hong Ichan.
“Perfect.”
“Why, why?”
“Follow me right now!”
“Hrk!?”
Sinhyeok seized Ichan and dragged him off.
Ichan was flustered by the sudden kidnapping.
“Hyung, where. Where are we going!”
“The workshop!”
Dragged into Aurumstone’s world, Ichan looked around with a fascinated expression.
“It looks weird.”
“That’s not what matters. Ichan, it’s time for you to show off your specialty.”
Dragged in front of the golem like that, Ichan was threatened by two beings, one large and one small.
“Summon the ancestors at once.”
“Ask them right now.”
Ichan asked with an absurd expression,
“What?”
“You heard us. I’m asking you to find some dwarf ancestors and ask them.”
At this ridiculous demand, Hong Ichan quietly stared at Sinhyeok.
“Why? What for?”
At Sinhyeok’s shameless answer, Ichan raised both hands and said,
“I don’t have Soul-Lost Water. And even if I just randomly find someone and ask, they won’t obediently tell me.”
Sinhyeok had something to rely on, so he pressured Ichan.
“Just summon them. I’ll handle the threats—no, the persuasion.”
“I told you, I don’t have Soul-Lost Water!”
At those words, Sinhyeok smoothly took a potion out of his inventory.
“…Why do you have that?”
“Because I’ve been making Observers all along. There’s plenty of these materials in Lady Elysia’s storage.”
Ichan looked at him in confusion.
“There are a lot of World Tree fragments…?”
“Yeah.”
“That can’t be something you have a lot of, can it? They don’t even hand those out easily. How can there be a lot ‘stored’ away?”
“There just are. You’ll get hurt if you know, so shh.”
At the intensifying glare, Ichan gave up and held out his hand.
“First give me the Soul-Lost Water, and you’d better really do a good job persuading them.”
“Sure.”
As he said that, Sinhyeok drank Soul-Lost Water too.
Seeing that, Ichan had an ominous thought.
“Hyung, don’t do that.”
“Do what?”
“Don’t tell me you’re going to beat up the spirits like the day before yesterday?”
“Hey, do I look like an animal? Why would I use my fists when I have a mouth?”
A moment later, Ichan prepared and performed the ritual, and the expected scene unfolded.
The dwarf spirits were undergoing a beautiful process of persuasion beneath Sinhyeok’s hand, which interfered with even their souls.
“So do you know or not? Hurry up and answer!”
‘I-I don’t know! Who makes golems!’
“You too, disqualified.”
‘Kraaaagh!’
“All right, summon the next ancestor.”
Ichan closed his eyes at the terrifying sight.
“O Father Tree… please do not forgive that wicked devil.”
“Next!”
“I got it!”
After wrecking countless ancestors like that, Sinhyeok finally found one benefactor.
An elderly dwarf spirit had come to find Sinhyeok.
‘I heard the news. You say you will complete the golem?’
At the spirit who had come on his own, Sinhyeok asked with his heart full of excitement,
“Do you know something?”
‘I know quite a bit. I am the one who made that Colossus.’
At those words, his eyes flew open.
‘A pleasure to meet you, mysterious human. I am called Pehusil.’
At the familiar name, Sinhyeok looked for Aurumstone.
He saw him diligently rearranging the golem with synthesis.
“You swindler! That thing from earlier wasn’t yours, was it!”
Aurumstone flinched.
“It is! To be precise, it belongs to the ancestors of my family!”
“What the hell! It was a surname?!”
The spirit watched with a smile.
‘Even so, half of that work does belong to that child.’
At those words, Sinhyeok held back from saying more.
‘That golem is the legacy of our family. A trace left by foolish ones.’
He reached out toward the golem and continued speaking.
‘From the beginning, it was not something we could create with our own power. That is why all records were erased.’
Sinhyeok asked the spirit, who was looking at the golem with lonely eyes,
“Why is it impossible to make?”
‘Because the power source of that Colossus is the foundation of a world.’
“A core.”
‘It is also called that. One must take a core made by compressing an entire world, gather and compress fragments of consciousness to place an ego inside it, then implant concepts into it with runic language.’
“Hmm? You can’t use just any core?”
‘We thought the same. But it does not work. You must use a core whose form and consciousness match.’
If that was true, it meant they would have to offer up this world to complete that giant.
“Ah, so it was something that should never have been made?”
The spirit nodded.
‘We realized it too late. Why the purpose of that Colossus was as a final weapon.’
At those words, Sinhyeok held his tongue.
‘However, it seems it may be needed. Has this place not already perished?’
The spirit looked out over the world with a lonely smile.
‘Everything was swept away beneath Paimon’s legions. All that remains is a small number of our kin.’
“Paimon.”
A familiar name had popped out.
‘I ask this of you. Will you make it?’
“Of course I can, but I feel like others could too.”
‘No, only you can. Are you not an Alchemist?’
“You can see that?”
‘I have been watching all along. The only one who can see the essence of something merely by looking into it is an Alchemist.’
“Come on. Just because of that?”
‘Another reason is fate. Seeing that you know Paimon’s name, I somehow thought it must be so.’
“Pardon?”
‘Do you not know? That man is an Alchemist. He fears beings like himself. That is why he erased every seed.’
“Haah, that lunatic’s been shitting all over the place.”
‘You have suffered much.’
“One day, I’m going to twist that bastard’s neck off. Son of a bitch.”
‘I beg it of you. And the production method is inside the giant’s left eyeball.’
“Didn’t you say there were no records?”
The spirit smiled.
‘One must… keep the possibility of a last resort in mind.’
“Huh.”
He immediately stood and shouted to Aurumstone, who was in the middle of rearranging things.
“Inside the left eyeball! He says the production method is there!”
“What?!”
Startled, Aurumstone moved quickly.
When he reached toward the left eyeball, he found a gap and shoved his face in.
“It’s here! In a place like this…!”
‘I leave it in your hands.’
Aurumstone pulled out a thick book containing the production method, laughed, and raised his hand high.
“This is…!”
Delighted, he took out the book and excitedly read it.
Soon, his expression darkened.
“Damn it….”
Sinhyeok quietly watched him.
Aurumstone looked at Sinhyeok and asked,
“This is a monster that can only be made by offering up everything.”
Aurumstone wore a lonely expression.
“Yes. What will you do?”
Sinhyeok sat beside him and asked.
“I don’t know. Now that I’ve seen what it really is, I understand why it was buried and disappeared. It wasn’t that they couldn’t make it. They chose not to.”
Aurumstone handed the production method to Sinhyeok.
“When I am ready, when I have prepared my heart soon, I will call you. I ask for your help then.”
Sinhyeok nodded.
“You’ve worked hard.”
“…….”
When he received the book, the system responded.
[Alchemist’s Authority: Transmutation is being specialized.]
[Sub-skill Golem Transmutation has been created.]
The contents of the production method flowed into him.
[Golem]
====================================
A golem created based on a core and synthesized materials, possessing an ego and capable of autonomous action. This golem can share and absorb some of the player’s skills and the functions of materials for use. In addition, it can grow gradually by absorbing cores.
===================================
Aurumstone finally slid down from the golem.
“Let’s go. If I stay here any longer, my mood will be completely ruined.”
Sinhyeok stuck close beside him and said,
“Would you like some chicken and beer for the first time in a while?”
“Yeah… sounds good. Let’s eat all night.”
Ichan trotted up beside them.
“Me too.”
“You’re out.”
“Ah. Why!”
The three came outside and chatted away.
To comfort the heart of one dwarf, they put together an ordinary, happy daily life.
At the lodging, Sinhyeok ordered chicken and beer and muttered,
“But… that was all for nothing.”
“What do you mean, for nothing? You brat, did you even look at that production method?”
Aurumstone, sitting on the sofa and fiddling with the remote control, scolded him.
“Huh?”
“I think the core can be replaced with magic stones. It says it can function temporarily. Of course, the golem’s size and functions would need to be adjusted appropriately.”
“Ah?”
At those words, he immediately rummaged through the production method.
“Oh, you’re right.”
And there he understood why they said only Sinhyeok could make it.
“This thing requires melting, extraction, synthesis, strengthening, and enchanting, all of them?”
“Yeah, that’s what it says. No one but you can make it. Unless all the fellows in the workshop join in to do it. But that would be absolutely impossible.”
Since some potions were also used, everyone’s cooperation was absolutely necessary.
“Then wouldn’t it be pretty much the same as what we’re making now?”
Aurumstone nodded.
“More or less. Its performance will be a bit better, though.”
“Mm~ Well, I’m sure there’ll be a use for it.”
* * *
“There are a disgustingly large number of them.”
Brigadier General Lee Gangyeol was looking around with weary eyes alongside the command sergeant major.
The two had come all the way down to Wando and dealt with dozens of gates.
“Even if I want to track down the cause, we don’t have the capacity.”
“We’ve been driven into a corner.”
Lee Gangyeol looked at the “Observer” Sinhyeok had made with a regretful expression.
“It’s so useful. If only he’d put in tracking and stealth functions so it could take over a little of our work.”
At his wistful words, the command sergeant major casually said,
“Why don’t you ask him? Wouldn’t it work?”
“Mm?”
“Just ask him. No, seriously, you poke him once and he keeps making things like Dora*mon, so why are you holding back? Just throw it at him. Put something on the line too. Then he’ll work himself to death again.”
Lee Gangyeol was tempted by those words.
“Shall I give it a try?”