Unlike the tower in the gorge, much remained in this wizard’s tower.
Things like wood had rotted away long ago, but objects made of iron and stone still retained their old forms.
The shelves in the laboratory, iron chairs, stone furnaces.
Looking at them, I felt I could understand how the wizard’s tower had been used in the past.
“No matter how I look at it, it’s just a wizard’s tower. It’s supposed to be a tower for cultivating the ‘Wizard’s Flower,’ but I don’t see any farming tools.”
Even if they used magic, they would still need farming implements like pitchforks or sickles to farm.
The handles would have rotted away, but the rest should have remained, yet I couldn’t see anything like that.
All I could see were experimental tools like iron staffs and tweezers.
[It seems the wizards of this tower were of the crafting type.]
It wasn’t an answer I understood right away, but it didn’t take long for me to grasp what he meant.
The upper floor of the tower that Hanna had mentioned.
When we climbed to the top floor, just as she had said, things that looked like dolls were lined up there.
Dozens of porcelain dolls the size of elementary school children.
Of course, they weren’t dolls.
“They’re cute like dolls, but rather than dolls, these are…”
[Golems. Porcelain-type golems made by heating clay and then applying magical processing. They aren’t as easy to make as ice golems or stone golems, and they aren’t as sturdy either, but they looked nice, so many people used them.]
Unlike the golems I had seen before, these golems were short and small.
Their bodies, with no eyes, nose, or mouth drawn on them, were slender like Pinocchio.
They looked so unthreatening that Hanna had called them dolls.
Depending on how you looked at them, they were almost cute.
[Even at that size, they can exert about as much strength as an adult man on Earth. They were perfect for use as servants.]
“So they’re basically assistant robots?”
There were combat golems, and there were ice spirits who managed the underground city under the direction of a spirit, so it wasn’t strange for golems like these to exist.
As I examined the porcelain golems lined up against the wall, Hanna asked,
“Can these dolls move too?”
Hanna had shown no interest in the ice golems that managed the underground city.
But these golems were different.
Magreta, too, had her ears pricked up behind me.
[Soph?]
[If we revive the tower, they’ll move. In any case, if you want to cultivate the ‘Wizard’s Flower,’ you’ll have to borrow those golems’ hands.]
“He says they can move.”
“That’s great.”
Hanna was truly delighted. Magreta seemed pleased as well.
They were all golems anyway, so I didn’t understand why they liked them so much.
In any case, I had been wondering how we would cultivate the ‘Wizard’s Flower,’ and this lifted some of my worries.
After confirming the golems, I went down to the basement.
In the basement, there was a spatial transfer altar and a console for managing the tower.
Perhaps because it was the same kind of wizard’s tower, its structure was similar to the tower in the gorge.
I placed my hand on the console.
A hologram unfolded above it.
Ancient magical characters continued to pass across the holographic screen.
Characters I now felt I could understand little by little.
Just as it looked from the outside, the tower was fine.
[The wizards of this tower locked it up and returned to the central tower. No one entered the tower after that.]
None of the wizards who had fought the monsters in front of the tower had entered this tower.
Just as I had heard when I possessed the squad members, the wizards had all thrown away their lives with a tower capable of spatial transfer behind them.
[A long time has passed, but there’s nothing wrong with the tower’s functions. It has absorbed energy for ages, so there’s no issue with energy either.]
Wooooong.
With a small sound, the ceiling lit up.
The tower had been revived.
[Spatial transfer works fine as well. The coordinates aren’t connected, but I can add those.]
That was a relief.
The tower was fine, and spatial transfer was possible. Now there was only one last thing to check.
“We need to see if cultivation is possible. Please get the golems moving again.”
At my words, Soph clicked his tongue.
[…So there was this problem.]
It would be troublesome if there was a problem.
If the situation was bad, I could bring people here and have them farm, but it would be better not to do that.
This tower was too far from the base and too dangerous.
Using this tower as a new base wasn’t a very good idea either.
I asked Soph,
“The golems won’t move?”
[There’s nothing wrong with the golems themselves.]
Fortunately, that wasn’t it.
[I forgot that golems need a manager. Just as the spirit manages the ice golems, the golems here need a manager too. Golems don’t contain a human mind like I do, so they can only do simple tasks. A manager is absolutely necessary.]
But the other problem Soph mentioned wasn’t simple either.
In the end, it meant someone had to remain here.
And it had to be someone trustworthy who could handle golems.
At that moment, small footsteps came from above, along with the squad members’ voices.
Tap. Tap. Tatap.
“Wow! They’re moving!”
“They’re really cute!”
They were the excited voices of Magreta and Hanna.
It seemed the golems had come down to the first floor.
“We can worry later. For now, let’s see the golems farming.”
There was no guarantee that seeing the golems would provide a solution, but we decided to look at them first.
When I went upstairs with my staff, the golems had already gone outside and were tilling the soil.
As expected, golems were golems.
Golems the size of elementary school children were tilling the ground with their bare hands.
Some golems walked with their fingers thrust into the earth, while others followed behind them, spraying water from their hands.
A small magic circle had appeared in front of the hands of the golems spraying water.
[The golems can even use magic. It seems they’re drawing energy from the tower. They’re small, but they work better than I expected.]
They were probably moving according to Soph’s instructions, but to the eye, they moved like people.
One golem came up to me and held out its empty hand.
I understood as soon as I saw it. It was asking for seeds.
I always carried the seeds of the ‘Wizard’s Flower’ with me.
I handed over the pouch containing the seeds.
The golem that received the seeds began following after the golems tilling the soil and planting them.
“Wow, they’re really like people.”
“Seriously. The ice golems in the underground city were like robots…”
The squad members watching from behind marveled at the golems.
I agreed with them.
Perhaps because they were a different type, their movements differed from the other golems.
[They’re probably clever because Soph is giving them instructions, but even so, their movements are really smooth.]
At my praise, Soph let out a groan.
[…This is truly strange.]
[What?]
[They weren’t golems that moved this much like people…]
That was a strange thing to say.
[Couldn’t the wizards of this tower have modified them?]
[Even when the golems were abandoned, thousands of years had already passed since they were made. There’s no way golems like that would change so suddenly.]
My hypothesis was immediately denied.
[What’s even stranger is that I only ordered the golems to cultivate the ‘Wizard’s Flower.’ I never told them to till the soil, nor did I tell them to sprinkle water. A golem asking for seeds on its own makes even less sense!]
An excited Soph shouted loudly.
The sound was so loud that it made my head ring.
[Are you saying the golems moved on their own?]
[Exactly. This is impossible!]
Soph raised his voice, but I, on the contrary, felt relieved.
If the golems could take care of things on their own, there was no need to assign a separate manager.
[This isn’t something you should think of so lightly! As a wizard, I cannot accept this. We must dismantle those golems immediately!]
Hearing my thoughts, Soph raised his voice once more.
Certainly, as an archmage, this might be something Soph could not accept.
But it didn’t matter to me.
I felt I knew the reason as well.
Soph didn’t want to believe it, but both Soph and I knew.
We had seen something similar just moments ago.
It was something that had happened to the squad members and to the monsters as well.
The incidents of being possessed by the wizards’ souls.
I felt as if I had seen the souls rising into the sky a moment ago, and it didn’t seem like those souls had possessed the golems, but it didn’t matter.
If it worked out well, that was enough.
[A wizard must not think that way. You must always be logical…]
After hearing my decision, Soph poured out nagging words, but I ignored him.
To me, who had seen even stranger things during the war, something of this level was nothing special.
[If only that is all right, can we leave just the golems here?]
[…It will be fine. Since I’ve become the tower’s administrator, if a problem arises, I’ll be contacted.]
The tower had been safe for ten thousand years.
If there were no people here, monsters would likely not come to this tower in the future either.
If a monster showed up by bad luck, the tower and golems would not be safe, but that was better than people dying.
So I decided to leave only the golems in this tower.
I would drop by from time to time, but in the end, this tower would become an automated farm where golems raised crops.
While I was making that decision, the female squad members watched the working golems with regretful expressions.
To feel sorry for golems working.
It seemed the golems were far cuter than I thought.
Hanna even asked me,
“They look like they’re having a hard time. We can’t take even one with us, can we?”
I shook my head.
“The golems probably can’t move once they leave the tower.”
Even if they could leave the tower, I couldn’t take them with us.
They weren’t normal golems. I didn’t know what a golem that met other people might do.
After confirming one last time that the golems were working, we went down to the basement.
A short while later, a portal formed in front of the altar.
It was a portal to Ice Star, the underground city.
I couldn’t send the squad members, who had suffered for ten days, to the terraforming base.
I planned to let them rest in the underground city.
“What about you, Hyeon?”
Magreta asked before leaving.
“You all go ahead. I’ll stop by the terraforming ruins before I go. I need to bring a new squad member.”
Among my squad members, among my subordinates, there was someone who had not seen the underground ruins.
I intended to show them this time.
At my words, Magreta narrowed her eyes and sighed.
“It is something necessary. Come back quickly.”
The squad members entered the portal.
After they had all disappeared, I closed the existing portal and opened a new one.
This time, it was a portal leading to the terraforming base.
Once the portal was formed, I stepped onto the altar.
Opening my senses, I swept the area around the tower.
I could feel the golems working. The golems were working diligently even when no one was watching.
I moved into the portal.
White light covered the world.
**
When the last human left the tower, the working golems turned their heads toward it.
They all rose from their places.
The golems shook off the fingers they had been digging the ground with and withdrew the magic circles they had been sprinkling water from.
They placed their hands on their chests.
Like wizards offering a greeting.
Like they had done when parting with the archmage.
The golems greeted their long-awaited comrade for a long time.
Expansion (1)