While it is technically possible to craft a fully functional golem and immediately give it specific goals, any experienced Golemancer will warn you of the danger of such naivety. If an enchanter's first words to an awakened golem are "kill my enemies" and a mosquito were then to land on their nose, they may soon find themselves with a face caved in by a stony fist. Competently constructed golems are capable of abstract reasoning, but they do not have common sense. Golems think only of following their orders in the most fast and efficient way possible. As such, it is advised that all aspiring golemancers make an effort to fully memorize the Three Laws of Golemancy, and apply them immediately to all newly awakened golem. As an additional precaution, some especially meticulous enchanters will postpone the engraving of the runes for articulation until all basic orders have been spoken. This extra step prevents possible erratic and unpredictable interpretations of incomplete order sets.

-Excerpt from Beginners Golemancy, volume 3

Waiting patiently for The Master to continue his sentence, Mud decided it would be fine to split his focus and examine his room more fully. There were many strange things that it did not recognize. The entire room seemed to be constructed of brown plant fibers, much stronger than what The Master had covered himself with. Wouldn't it be smarter to use this stronger fiber as coverings, to defend against attacks? Mud would suggest that later. The surface Mud was resting on was smooth and cold. Near the roof of the room, there seemed to be a transparent rectangle that allowed light to filter in from the outside. Mud wondered what that rectangle was for.

In a flash of inspiration, Mud had an idea; perhaps Mud's first original thought since creation. Mud already knew the language of The Master, and aren't the meaning of words themselves packed with useful information? If Mud could find a word whose description matched that rectangle, then it could check the definition of that word to learn even more about it. Brilliant!

Mud focused his mind and began searching through the words it knew. After a moment, however, it made an unfortunate realization. Rather than actually knowing every possible word, it seemed that there was some 'other' that was teaching it words the moment it heard them from The Master. When listening it was functionally identical, but for his purposes it was a problem. What was Mud supposed to do, get someone to say every possible word to it? That was much too inefficient! There could be hundreds of words! No, Mud would need to force the issue.

Mud reached out for the 'other' that had fed it meaning as The Master spoke. I need this knowledge, Mud thought. Give me access to the words! After a long moment of pressing his will, a voice range in Muds consciousness.

[Spend skill point to learn Unique Skill 'Dictionary'?]

Luckily, Mud was able to understand these words by instinct as it could The Master, so it wasn't trapped in a cycle of being unable to spot aid that was right in front of it. Mud felt a sense of satisfaction at pulling one over on the obstinate 'other' that fed it meaning, and accepted.

Then, with great expectations, nothing happened. Mud's sense of smug satisfaction quickly turned to annoyance. Was some additional step required to make this 'skill' work? What is a skill, anyway?

Success! It seemed that Mud merely needed to wonder what something was, and this 'skill' would let it access its word bank.

What is a transparent material in a rectangular shape on a wall?

What are woven plant fibers covering The Master?

This continued for some time.

Judging by the changes in light levels coming from the 'window' of the room (apparently caused by a 'Sun'), Mud estimated that it has been 3 days since The Master stopped talking and fell to the floor. Mud was starting to think he wasn't going to finish his sentence. That being the case, it was only proper for Mud to begin his tasks. There was a slight problem, however; Mud couldn't move. Mud instinctively knew that it should be able to control its limbs, but when it sent the correct orders nothing happened. Mud thought back to that thing it had discovered when it asked about the mysterious voice.

Status.

Name: Mud Golem

Level 1 Mud Golem

Class: none

HP

5/5

SP

0/0

MP

100/100

Spells:

Skills(1): Mathematics 1, Dictionary (U)

Status Effects: Incomplete (Articulation Runes)

When Mud had first accessed his status, there was a glaring mistake. Apparently the Akashic Record thought Mud's name was 'none'. With a force of will Mud was able to correct that error, however, and the status now showed the correct name. Surely the Record would be embarrassed about making such a blunder. Almost as disturbing as that mistake was the status effect.

It was unthinkable that The Master would make a mistake like that bumbling Record. If Mud was incomplete, the only reasonable explanation was that The Master had thoughtfully left the task of learning to move to Mud. For a golem, there is no greater joy than fulfilling the will of its creator, so a tedious and confusing task like this was a great reward. But how could Mud go about solving this problem? The only tools at its disposal was its senses and its new friend Akashic. With no obvious solution in sight, Mud turned its attention towards the only aspect of the 'status' that it hadn't fully explored yet.

Show available skill.

Skill Name

Requirement

Manipulate Form ®

Amorphous body structure

Housework

Common

Psionics

10+ maximum mana and a disciplined mind

Earth Magic

10+ maximum mana and Earth affinity (granted from constitution)

Fire Magic

10+ maximum mana and Fire affinity (granted from constitution)

Water Magic

10+ maximum mana and Water affinity (granted from constitution)

...

...

The list was extensive, offering access to the gestalt knowledge of countless endeavors. Mud diligently read all of them, and quickly realized that the list had a rough sort of order to it. The closer a skill was the top, the more useful it seemed to Mud. Perhaps the Records somehow sensed Mud’s desires and arranged things this way for it’s benefit. How thoughtful!

Mud was strongly tempted to take the Housework skill the moment it was read, but managed to stop itself. That would have to come later. First it needed to be able to move so that it could fulfill The Masters mission. With that in mind, Mud considered its options. Using Dictionary, it examined the skills which seemed relevant.

Since Mud could not move, doubling its speed would still be zero. This skill was a fail.

This skill would only be useful if there were always enemies nearby to use as targets. It might be possible to mentally decide everything in the world was its enemy, but it might damage The Master's home if it attacked the walls to move. Another fail.

These descriptions are too vague. Would Mud be able to control its own body with Earth Magic, or push itself around with constructs? And even if it could, how long could it keep it up before running out of 'mana'? These were possible, but too dangerous if they didn't work how it hoped. Ultimately, it seemed there was only one choice.

Three rough looking teenagers walked side by side on an over-grown path leading out of the city of Geltheas.

The muscular youth with a greasy black pony-tail spit to the side and spoke.

"What makes you so sure the old man is dead, anyway?"

The middle youth with a stylish coat and thin goatee turned to his friend with a sly grin.

"That old codger comes to my grandpa's shop the same time every week to pick up his groceries. Yesterday he missed his pick-up for the first time in a decade. Plus, that guy has looked like he had one foot in the grave for months. It doesn't take a scholar to put the pieces together here, eh?"

The muscular youth spit to the side of the trail.

"I dunno Bark. What if he's just laid up wit' a cold? 'e could wipe us all out with a wave of 'is hand if 'e caught us lootin' 'is place."

"If he's still there, we can just say we were coming to check up on him out of the kindness of our hearts. At worst he'll just throw us out, ain't that right Cob?"

The only thing covering the third youth was a pair of black shorts, a scabbard, and a leather shoulder pad. His exposed, heavily scarred torso and pink mohawk gave him a slightly unhinged appearance. Cob merely looked towards his friend and giggled.