A homunculus really was an easy-to-make living thing. Calling them convenient was almost an understatement. It only needed three ingredients; fermented ambrosia, a mana core, and a catalyst.

Fermented ambrosia sounded cooler than what it actually was. In truth, it was just a hodgepodge of ingredients strewn together in order to act as the basis for the body. The term ‘fermented ambrosia’, was just an informal nickname for the substance. It had another formal name, but the author didn’t bother writing it down.

Since it really could substitute and create a living body, it might really be something amazing, but according to this book, Fermented ambrosia was a relatively cheap ingredient, so…

The next ingredient on the list was the mana core. Mana, as expected, existed, and mana cores were the cumulation of this world’s mana. A mana core was just a generalization, and in truth, there were a lot of varieties/alternatives which could all be effectively used in the creation of a homunculus. Mana stones could be mined underneath the ground, while something called a monster core could be dug up from the corpse of a monster.

Since the last one sounded a tad bit gruesome, I pushed it to the back of my mind for the time being.

In summary, a mana core was simply a bundle of mana. It was essentially the energy source for a homunculus, something like how the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell… although that’s kind of a weird comparison.

Although this should have been something difficult to understand, it was all conveniently written down in the footnotes.

Even though she put so much effort into explaining such a complicated topic, she was too lazy to even give out the formal name for that ambrosia stuff…

I silently cursed at the author of this book without reservation.

Well, back to the topic at hand, if I had one concern, it would be the fact that I don’t really know how they sustain a homunculus once the mana core runs out of mana. What was the shelf life for my species? Was I rechargeable? Do homunculi just drop dead and die the very moment they run out of mana? I hope not, abruptly dying like that doesn’t sound very pleasant, after all.

Speaking of which, I wonder what type of mana core Mereli used to create me? Since she did say something about finding my core indented on one of the walls of this cavern, maybe it was the mana stone type?

The last ingredient is the catalyst. A catalyst was a hard thing to explain. In essence, it was a piece of a living creature. The catalyst was used at the start of the creation process in order to jump start the whole procedure, and give the final product the essence of life. The effects of the catalyst aren’t really well explained.

A bad catalyst had minimal influence on the end result, while a good catalyst could result in the possibility of the homunculus inheriting a few traits and attributes from the original species. There wasn’t really a definitive answer, only vague hypothesis. Well, generally speaking, better quality catalysts were always preferred.

The only real limiting factor was the fact that the catalyst had to originate from an intelligent creature. The difference between a strand of hair from a person and a tuft of fur from a wild boar was quite immense apparently, although the author never really explained why.

Did she think it was common sense? Well, my common sense isn’t like everyone else’s common sense, so even if it was, I wouldn’t know.

As for me, Mereli apparently used her father’s horn as the catalyst. I don’t really know whether his genes were good genes or not, but Mereli’s father shouldn’t be too bad in terms of pedigree. I mean, the guy owned a castle, so he was pretty successful in his own right. Maybe he was a king or an aristocrat? Someone like that is bound to be packed full of good genetics.

But wait… if I think about it for a bit… technically speaking, a part of Mereli’s father’s DNA is inside me, so does that mean Mereli and I are related? Aren’t we actually siblings? Since I was created less than an hour ago, was Mereli my older sister? No, if I think about it even further, the fact that Mereli was the one who created me… doesn’t that make her my mother?

Looking at this impish little girl who was currently reaching her hand inside the bag for another stale loaf of bread, I couldn’t help but shudder.

No matter the circumstances, I refuse to accept this girl as my mom. If we have to be related, then I’d very much like it to be as siblings. And even if we are siblings, I’m obviously the older brother. Physical age isn’t important, but rather, mental age is. I’m definitely older than her, without a doubt I’m older, definitely, probably…

I hastily shook my head, and turned my attention back towards the book.

The last section of the Homunculi entry detailed the actual process. You could call it the meat of the whole thing, but truth be told, there wasn’t much to tell in the first place. The process itself was relatively simple, and reading through it now, it really did seem as if anybody with enough magic power could pull it off.

The whole process compromised of only three steps.

During the first step, one needed to inscribe a certain specified magic circle on the ground. A copy of the circle was crudely drawn on the page, but… even though it was called a circle, the illustration in front of me did not appear at all like a circle. It had the vague outlines of a person, and somewhat resembled a police chalk outline that one would find at the scene of a crime.

Well, according to the book, changes to the circle affected the actual end result, so even though the image in front of me appeared sloppily drawn, and looked no better than what a five-year-old could do, it was probably on purpose… probably.

The second step involved placing all the respective ingredients within the circle. The mana core needed to be placed along the chest area of the outline, while the ambrosia needed to be placed near the abdomen. The last ingredient, which was the catalyst, was to be placed on the head.

With all three ingredients in each of their respective spots, the third and arguably the last step, was simply pouring mana into the circle, and activating it. Apparently, even without instructions, as long as you supplied the necessary amount of mana, the circle would do the rest of the job for you.

Even though it isn’t a circle, calling it a circle seemed a bit inappropriate. Something like magic circuit would probably fit better, although I don’t know how the author of this book will feel if she found out I just casually renamed something like that.

Regardless, the circuit’s primary function was to call forth a soul from the underworld. The term underworld here is a bit vague, so I don’t know whether it’s talking about some other place, or about the literal Hell found in many mythologies. Although considering where I came from, I don’t really think I was in the underworld.

That empty space devoid of anything didn’t seem all that… Underworldly. Calling it an afterlife, maybe, but it definitely wasn’t Hell. If I had to give it a name, then that place might have been purgatory, or at least something similar.

The soul was the hidden fourth ingredient, and arguably the most important.

It was what made a homunculus truly a part of the ‘living’. Without a soul, homunculi would just be a fleshy golem, capable of only simple orders, and incapable of any individual thought. Honestly, considering what homunculi were often used for, I couldn’t help but wonder whether free will and sentience for such a race was advantageous or not.

The resulting homunculus will take on a shape resembling a mixture between the catalyst and the soul. The split is usually around 40-60, with 40 percent of the homunculus’s appearance originating from the catalyst, and the rest from the soul. This ratio can change however, so it wasn’t really all that important.

Take me for example. I’m mostly soul and barely any catalyst. From what I could understand, my current appearance was the result of the residual self-image stored within my soul.

Although I haven’t seen my reflection just yet, the contours of my face felt very familiar. I’m not entirely certain if this was what my face looked like in the past, but I had a strong feeling that it was. Everything from the tips of my toes, to the ends of my ears just felt natural, everything that is, except the hair.

My dull grey hair (which I had verified earlier with Mereli) was the only aspect of my current body that felt outwardly foreign.

Aside from that, there really wasn’t anything else to write home about.

Once the soul manifests in the real world, it will automatically seek an empty vessel to cling to. If it can’t find one in time, then the soul, which can’t naturally exist by itself, will dissipate. It was a sort of death, but this type of death was considerably worse than simple dying. when a person normally dies, at the very least, their soul still remains. When the soul dies, then it simply ceases to exist.

For such an existence, the Ambrosia acts as a substitute body. Once the soul enters the ambrosia, the fleshy substance instantly turns into a real body, taking on a shape that the soul is familiar with. Everything from the skin, down all the way to the internal organs would form, all courtesy of the ambrosia. Along with the mana core, which acts as the life support, and the catalyst, which acts as a guide, a homunculus is born.

Such was the tale of my inception.

Reading through the end of it, I was met with conflicting emotions. Rather than conflicting, it would be more accurate to say I felt lost.

Even if I know how I was created, what could I do with that information? Simply knowing was good in and of itself, but aside from the knowledge, there really wasn’t anything I could do. Regarding the time before my creation, and the time after it, I was stuck.

How should I live out this new fake life of mine? A homunculus’s existence… what worth did it carry?

While I wallowed in my own thoughts, time continually passed. By the time I realized what had happened, the sound of light breathing echoed throughout the entire cavern. Looking down, I could see Mereli, her head poking out from underneath a thick layer of blankets. Her eyes were closed, while her expression looked peaceful.

She was unconscious, sleeping without a care in the world. I silently stared at her for a good while, before a resigned sigh leaked out from my throat.

“I don’t know about the future or all that other complicated stuff, but for now, sleeping sounds good.” I mumbled to myself. “Come to think of it, sleep… this will be my first time sleeping in a while. Although I don’t know whether a homunculus sleeps or not, considering the fact that they’re living creatures too, they should need sleep, right?”

Throughout all the time I spent in that empty void, I was always awake.

Rather than call it awake, it felt more like I was just in a state of consciousness. Every moment, every passing second, I was aware of it all. In the end, my time there all morphed into one continuous blur, but within that blur, I experienced everything.

Sleep… sleep sounded both nostalgic, and foreign at the same time.

I looked around my surroundings. The flickering light of the lamp could barely keep the darkness of the cavern at bay. This place was both gloomy and dreary, just like that empty space. A lot of things reminded me of that empty space, from the darkness, to the feeling of suffocation, but… for some reason, this time around, it wasn’t all bad.

The dim light of the lamp, which was something that didn’t exist within the void, felt just a little bit warm.

With such thoughts swirling through my mind, I fell asleep for the first time in a long time.