Goliath had needed several minutes to digest the initial shock, but after some consolations he began to improve again. It did not really matter, if a thousand or ten thousand years had passed, after reaching a certain limit, it all felt the same. There were even positive sides to it.

Apparently the relationship between Magus Derilion and Goliath had not been very good, even though the small Golem respected his creator dearly; in fact, almost like a father. He had lost everything he knew, but he had gained his own life back, so to speak.

Sure, he was 'bound' to Teo, but as there was no real contract, this bond was rather liberal. It was more, like an unspoken rule of golemhood, to serve whoever activated them — at least if they could not find their creator. But why would he care now, when he was the only Golem left on the Continent?

Since Goliath was a rather small —and thus, energy efficient — Golem, he was almost self sustaining and what little Mana he needed, he could receive from many other humans, if he so desired to change masters. He had only needed Teo, to provide the initial energy for his activation.

However, the both of them had continued to talk for a few hours and agreed on the point, that they should partner up for the time being.

Teo had shown a lot of kindness so far, when talking to the Golem — a rare treat, for a 'mere construct' — and Goliath needed someone to show him around in the new world, possibly even hide him.

They had no proof yet, but it was pretty obvious, that an ancient Golem was worth a lot and would quickly end up as research material for someone, if he did not maintain a low profile. Especially, if he liked to boast about being made up of 90% Mithril and 10% Adamantium; his bare material worth was enough to drive men crazy!

Teo on the other hand, was quite interested in the ancient knowledge and techniques, Goliath was sure to harness. He did not understand much about the runes on him, but studying them, was guaranteed to be beneficial.

"We still have a problem though, how am I supposed to hide you from my family? You can't stay in my room all the time." Teo voiced his doubts about their plan, that were still bothering him.

"Easy," answered Goliath and transformed back into the small cube, he had started as, gently floating towards Teo's hand; it was as light as a feather.

"Well, that solves one problem. You should only talk, when I call you though, you're not exactly quiet." Teo was happy, that he could carry his new companion around with little effort. He could not keep talking to his pockets though, but two pairs of ears were better than one.

'I have a solution for that too,' echoed a familiar voice in Teo's head, making him flustered. 'Can he even read my mind now?!' thought Teo, not sure, if he really wanted that.

'Don't worry, I can't read your mind. You need to actively send me a message, it's just a simple trick for silent communication.' Goliath explained with unusual patience, accurately guessing his thoughts and visibly relieving Teo of his worries.

'You just need to grab a thick thread of Mana, imbue it with your thoughts and send it over to me. The Mana will take on the natural frequency of your thoughts when you concentrate on it and the recipient's brain will inverse the process automatically.'

Teo looked a bit confused for a second. From class he already knew, what a brain was and he was pretty sure, that Goliath had no such thing. Because he did not know, how the rest of the Golem functioned either, he quickly put it to the back of his mind though.

With all the practice Teo had gotten, using Mana Manipulation in the last year, he quickly got used to the new trick and succeeded without much trouble after a few tries. He would be able to communicate with Goliath now, whenever he wanted!

The only thing he was asking himself was, why didn't everybody else do the same? The technique was very simple and both the energy and concentration required —even for longer dialogues— was negligible... why had he never heard of this before then?

Unwilling to be taken by surprise again, Teo decided to just ask in advance, "Do you have any other abilities, you would like to share with me, Goliath?"

"I do come with all the advantages of the Royal Golem 1000 series, so naturally I have some more, but nothing special. I guess, the dimensional storage compartment —where I keep my spare parts, while in my miniature form— could be quite useful, as I can't sense any spatial Artifacts on your body. It's very small though, with only 10 cubic meters."

'10 cubic meters? Small?' thought Teo speechless. He knew, that spatial Artifacts were extremely rare, hard to create and very precious. Even an Artifact with only one cubic meter of storage space could buy a small villa! 10 cubic meters was huge!

Their chitchat finished, they decided to call it a day —or night, to be more exact— and went to bed. At least Teo did, Goliath was silently lying on the night stand in his miniature form, not giving off a sign of life anymore, not even his usual glow.

...

Teo awoke quite early today, just in time, to witness the rising sun, flooding his room with light through the large window. Lying there, comfortably in his soft bed, Teo wondered. Had it all been just a dream? He had been very exhausted yesterday, maybe he had just been hallucinating as a side-effect from the sudden lack of Mana?!

He looked over to the night stand, where a certain rocky-metallic cube was lying silently, just like his uncle had left it there yesterday. Hesitating, he began to grab a Mana Thread from the air and imprint it with his mind. If it was not a dream, then he should receive an answer, right?

Less then a second after sending over a quiet "Hello" he could already hear the familiar voice of the Golem, humming in his head,

'Good morning to you too. Why are you looking at me like that? Had a bad dream?'

'No, I'm good. We should hurry up and get ready for breakfast now."

Teo was shocked and relieved at the same time. He had not been dreaming! He had actually managed to acquire an ancient, powerful and knowledgeable Golem, personally forged by a legendary Magician; not to forget, a companion and partner, for the time being.

Teo hurriedly put on a long bathrobe, went to wash himself properly and brush his teeth, before finally changing into fresh and clean clothes. He did not have many chances to change yesterday; first he slept on top of the bedsheets, fully dressed and soaked in his own sweat, then he quickly stripped and slept in his underwear, after talking to Goliath for a few hours, simply too tired, to bother changing into his pajamas.

Coming out of the bathroom, he felt refreshed and invigorated, almost reborn, apparently his body had recovered and his internal Mana regenerated sufficiently.

Back in his room, he looked through one of his drawers until he found his old, soft-leather coin purse, decorated with the family logo, and carefully put Goliath inside, before hanging it around his neck. It may not be the most luxurious type of transport one could get, but it was very inconspicuous.

Teo put on his grey felt-slippers and rushed through the long corridor, where his room was located, and into the dining hall. Breakfast was not obligatory or bound to a specific time of day, but most family members still chose to come at the same time, shortly after sunrise.

So, when Teo entered the square hall — spanning at least 10 times 15 meters, with numerous brass candleholders and old oil paintings covering its walls, only leaving some empty space around the tall colored windows — a few familiar figures were already seated around the long oak table.

The only unusual sight though, was his grandfather, Troy, sitting close to the twins, wrestling with a loaf of rye bread and a sausage. His grandfather was a busy man, often out at sea, to oversee the operation of the more important business trips, and when he got home, he would spend all day loitering around at the harbor or talking to merchants and politicians.

"Grandfather!" Teo cried out and run up to the man, giving him a close hug. He had not seen him for almost a month now, as he had been on a business trip to Kaskada in order to negotiate a new trade agreement.

Originally he had evaluated his grandfather as a cold and distanced man, but the more time he spent with him, the more he noticed, how wrong he had been about him. He may not always show his emotions openly and was even quite annoying sometimes, when he put his nose into anything and everything, but Teo could feel, that he only acted in his best interest and tried to protect him. With time, both of them had significantly opened up to each other.

"Teo! Have you gotten taller again? Wait till you see what I brought you this time," Troy said with a wide smile and pulled something large from the sea sack that he still carried with him.

"This is an Abacus. It can be used for calculations, I thought you might like it."

With Goliath by his side, Teo had literally no motive, to ever calculate anything by himself again, but the tool was quite decorative and he appreciated the thought a lot.

Teo continued to talk to his grandfather for a few more minutes, ordered an omelette from the cook and then sat down beside his cousins Karl and Karolina. The twins had dark brown hair and green eyes, unlike most members in the family, heavily taking after their mother.

Contrary to their mother, Greta, they were rather approachable though. Teo liked to play with them around the house sometimes, but he did not have much time left to talk now, he needed to get ready for school.