the Voice seemed to shrug.

The Voice sighed loudly in Evin's head, before replying.

Evin didn't understand what the Voice was so confused about.

Things didn't really sit well with Evin, but there wasn't much he could do about it, so he continued. When he exited the room, he was met with a long corridor that had had a door at the right-hand side and also at the end. The latter seemed to be locked, so Evin could only go through the first.

When he approached it, he heard eerie sounds of metal screeching, so he definitely knew that there was an enemy behind it.

He opened the door with a bang, and saw a hunched metallic figure with glaring red eyes turn towards him. The golem was made in the shape of a rat, and its behavior reminded Evin a lot of the mana-beasts he slew the other day. The only problem was that this one was a made of metal, making it impossible for Evin to kill it instantly.

the Voice reminded and concentrated its attacks on the golem.

Its warnings weren't really necessary, as Evin was trying his best to dodge the metal creature's attacks. Compared to the previous golem, this one's movements were much quicker and more unpredictable. It wasn't at the level of actual rats, as its body was still made of metal, but it was definitely successful in invoking the same… feel as a live rat.

The way it struggled even with an invisible hammer constantly attacking its neck was definitely not a pleasant experience to see. The more the Voice attacked, the louder its claws scratched at the floor and the more it tried to reach Evin.

Seeing it so desperately trying to stick its metal fangs into his body, naturally, Evin focused his best to evade it. Even if Evin had his cheek healed when he was at the Infirmary, he still felt chilling pain when he thought about the rat that made a mess of his face. He definitely didn't want this one to do the same.

But thankfully, the Voice was diligent in shoving the rat away when it got too close, making the process much easier for Evin. But it was true that the hammer wasn't doing much damage. Compared the more delicate design last time, this one was much bulkier. Even if the Voice lodged the hammer in one of the gaps in its joints and tried to pry open the thing, it was still standing strong.

The Voice then created a body of water and had it enter the rat's body through the small gaps. the Voice said and began freezing the water.

Evin observed as the giant metal rat finally stopped moving, leading to various cracking sounds came from inside it. The water freezing made its body expand a bit, before the Voice completely engulfed it with ice. Finally, the red glow in its eyes died out.

Then, the clicking sound came, and a tile in the wall revealed a few pieces of paper inside it.

[Finally, the Morton Golem, Type 1 is finished! After countless hours of research and experiments, finally, I was able to create a golem piloted by an animal! Who knew how simple the solution to all the problems of having a living being control something inorganic was?

I've experimented on countless animals famous for their intelligence, trying my best to create a body that practically mimicked the original for them, even succeeding to create some artificial organs through the use of Evolutionary Essence, but all of them ended up as glaring failures.

The answer was, simply, to use the brain functioning brain of a mana-beast. It's truly embarrassing that I haven't thought of it sooner. Of course the accursed mana that defies every bit of scientific logic would be the solution to this problem as well… The Northerners calling mana an 'all-purpose force of nature' does have some truth to it, after all. Maybe I should also relent to accepting its apparent omnipotence.

Now I have to solve the problem of it being impossible to control, so the previous experiments should help out tremendously. The countless hours I've spent on research wasn't in vain.]

Next to these notes was a key and a set of instructions that described Morton's process of creating the golem… which seemed to be missing some pages at the end of it.

the Voice sounded excited.

Evin felt worried.

With a heavy mood, Evin continued his exploration of the Labs. Contrary to his expectations, the Laboratories weren't that complicated of an area. Evin definitely expected a more maze-like structure, but things were relatively straightforward.

He explored ten more rooms in the next hour and a half, and met three Type 1-s, four Type 2-s, eight Type 3-s, and one Type 4; with each new type of the golem being an improved version of the previous one, for example, the Type 2-s solving the impossibility to control the golems that was apparent in the previous version.

But Morton's notes for the Type 3 contained a highly concerning detail in it, which greatly shook Evin's trust in king Roland.

[I don't know how the king found out about my newest experiment, but he came to me offering funding for my project. In its stead, I would have to try to create a more commercialized version of the golems I'm making.]