Hmm...there were the three technique manuals that I got from a fellow adventurer a long time ago. Maybe it's time to study them. I reached over and grabbed the three manuals - Dislocation Technique, Thousand Poison Art, and Earth Meld Escape Technique. I flipped through each of the manuals and found that the Earth Meld Escape Technique was the easiest to learn. So, I began studying the technique. Earth Meld Escape Technique requires the user to be 'One with Earth'. Naturally, I am far from that. In addition, the quintessence of the technique is to join or meld with the earth in order to escape. So, I began meditating...focusing my mind and opening my acupoints. I began to absorb, ever so slightly, the Earth Essence from the ground. Weeks went by...months...years...finally, I was able to open my very own magic core. Unlike the magic cores of monsters, my magic core could house many magic acupoints. However, I needed lots of resources in order to unlock each acupoint. The first one is always the easiest as it only required the absorption of essence. In my case, I had unlocked the Celestial Earth Acupoint from the years of constantly absorbing Earth Essence.

Now that I had formed my own magic core and unlocked the Earth-Attribute acupoint, I can begin the second phase of training. Similarly to the first phase, the second phase also requires a lot of meditation. However, instead of meditating to open acupoints and absorb Earth Essence, this time I needed to focus on becoming one with the ground. Essentially, I needed to form solid connections with the earth beneath me...I needed to fuse with the earth. I don't know how long this will take but I have all the time I need. And so, years went by until finally...I became one with the earth. The earth was a part of me...and I was a part of the earth. We are all parts of a whole. When I awoke from my meditation, I found myself a few hundred meters below the ground, my body completely assimilated into the earth. I could freely move as if I had phase through the ground. So this was Earth Meld Escape Technique? It is worthy of its high rank.

Now that I had learned the Earth Meld Escape Technique, I moved on to the next manual - Dislocation Technique. Dislocation Technique is a martial arts skill that allows the user to accurately dislocate his or her enemies' bones and joints. It required a strong background in human anatomy...especially bone and joint structures. There are 206 bones and 340 joints in the average human body. However, for rare cases involving people with high potential, they have been known to have 360 joints. In my case, I am one of the rare cases and thus I have 206 bones and 360 joints in my body. The technique manual was essentially a textbook detailing the different bones and joints in the human body as well as how each dislocation would affect the body. This type of martial arts skill does not only require extensive amounts of memorizing and comprehending, it also required massive amounts of practice. Thus, I began practicing the moves on myself. Some may wonder why I would practice such a painful martial arts on myself and not use one of the many soldiers I had resurrected. Well, one...they aren't human and two...practicing dislocation techniques on myself can serve as a form of body tempering...especially focusing on the bones and joints areas. Thus I began to practice. Years went by as my proficiency increments. Finally, after a decade or so, I mastered the technique.

Now, with two down and one left, I decided to take a break and do something else. I looked at the rest of the materials that lay before me and picked up the large boulder of Living Stone. Hmmm, what can I do with this? Should I make a mask out of it? No...it seemed...wasteful. As I glanced at the other items, I saw the Living Golem core. Aha! I can make myself a golem! But a simple golem would be useless in combat and could at most be served as an one-use shield, especially against the powerful monsters I will soon be facing. What should I do to make it stronger? Ah, I got it! With my plan in mind, I began to work. I took out my skinning knife and approached the two meter high boulder of Living Stone. I raised my knife towards the Living Stone and began to carve. About an hour later, the Living Stone became a stone skeleton. After learning the Dislocation technique, my understanding of the human skeleton had reached a profound stage. With my mastery, it was easy for me to carve a complete skeleton. However, for a stone skeleton, at best it could be considered as a mannequin of sorts. It can't display the flexibility that a human makes due to the lack of joints. To make up for this weakness, I cut up a number of Arachne silk - known for its elasticity and flexible strength - and attached them to the stone bones. Thus, the Arachne silk could be served as alternative joints for the golem.

Since stone is relatively weak, I decided to boost the stone skeleton's defense by plating it with Orichalcum and Iridium. Orichalcum is a legendary rare metal that has been known to contain unlimited power. In the ancient times, this metal was used as a power source. In other words Orichalcum will provide the golem strength, power, durability, and energy. Iridium is known as a very hard and resistant metal. It is known to resist high temperatures as well as corrosion. With Iridium, the golem will be able to have high defense, endurance, and resistance. With that in mind, I took the five kilograms of Iridium and the five kilograms of Orichalcum from the pile of materials. With Flames of Wrath, I loosened the bonds of the metal, making it easier to mold. Then, I enveloped the metals on the stone skeleton in three thin and even layers first with Orichalcum and then with Iridium.

Next, I take the Living Golem core, the Cloud Giant heart, the five Ent twigs, and the bottle containing a Lightning Wisp from the pile of materials. Now the Living Golem core, by itself, can reanimate a vessel but there will be nothing but mindless instinct for the golem. That is not what I wanted. I want a golem with instinct and a mind of its own. Thus, that is where the Cloud Giant heart comes in. Any heart would do but since I only have a Cloud Giant heart, well...it's the one I can use. And so, I started to crystallize the heart, while preserving its properties. To crystallize a heart, it will take years of waiting and the usage of a sticky resin made from plants. This process is known as nature polymerization. First, I take the five Ent twigs and crushed them into fine powder. Then, I mixed some of the Cloud Giant heart's blood with the powder along with some of my blood filled with Maker's Essence. I mixed the mixture until it became a sticky resin-like paste. Then, I covered the resin onto the heart, making sure that the paste was evenly spread across the heart. Next, using constant and continuous high temperature and pressure, I hardened the resin into amber. This process took five years to complete. Finally, with a crystallized heart, I compressed it until it became the size of a small ball. Taking the amber ball, I began fusing it with the Living Golem core. By fusing the two objects together, I was able to create a solidified artificial soul. A soul is generally a condensed form of emotions and instinct. The Living Golem core makes the instinct and the crystallized heart makes the emotions. Then, I inscribed a Mark of Deathsworn on it. This will make whoever holds the artificial soul have undying loyalty towards me. Then, I placed the core on top of the skeleton's sternum - in the middle of the manubrium region. I chanted incantations of binding and fusion as I pressed the core into the sternum. Once the core fused completely with the skeleton, two golden glows flickered in the skeleton's eye sockets. With three short flickers and one final burst, the skeleton sat up. It looked around, confused. Currently, the animated skeleton is only a mindless golem with nothing but utmost loyalty to me. What's next is to give it some free will and thinking ability.

To do that, I need a spark of life - the Lightning Wisp. The Lightning Wisp is basically a condensed form of Lightning Essence. Think about it, a condensed form of pure Lightning Essence was able to produce a wisp - a spirit with free thinking. With this wisp, I can grant my golem the ability to think and make decisions. Not to mention, there were many connections and relations between bio-electricity and consciousness. Of course, I'm not a master in this field, but I know enough to conclude that in order to give something 'consciousness', I would need some sort of electrical power source. Thus, I took the Lightning Wisp from the bottle and pressed it onto the skeleton's forehead. After a series of incantations of fusing and binding, the Lightning Wisp was successfully integrated into the skeleton. At first, nothing occurred. But suddenly, lightning coursed through the skeleton's body and stunned my hand. I backed away from the golem and waited for its consciousness to activate.

*Hong!* The skeleton shuddered as the lightning continued to course through its body. After a few seconds, something changed within the skeleton's glowing eyes. It seemed...brighter...energetic. The golem looked at me with curiosity and loyalty, a fine display of consciousness. I nodded towards it and told it that I am his creator. The golem bowed in gratitude for the chance at life. Of course, I am not done with it yet. After all, I have only finished creating the inner portion of the golem. What's next is the outer portion. Initially, I had thought before that just this skeleton was enough...but as I brought it to life, I thought...maybe...I should attempt to create a flesh golem similar to the legendary Frankenstein monster. Thus, the next step is to create the golem's flesh...and I have with me a plethora of flesh. I began digging through the tons of monster meat, looking for suitable parts for my golem.

After finding all the necessary body parts and the accessory body parts, I began attaching them onto the golem. I used special Arachne silk thread to sew and bind the parts together as well as attach them to the skeleton. As for the accessory parts, I attached the wings of a young Earth Drake and gave it armor-like plating from the appendages of various Mithril Scorpions. I even attached an Unicorn horn on the golem and its eyes came from a Phantom Nightcrawler. Once completed, I took the remaining flesh and compressed them...until a ball of flesh about the size of my fist appeared before me. At this point, I continued to squeeze and compress the ball of flesh. However, this time, I started chanting incantations of buffs and enhancements in order to boost the properties of the flesh ball while turning it into a flesh pellet. In addition, I dropped a few drops of my blood filled with Maker's Essence in order to nullify any negative effects the consumption of this flesh pellet could cause. Lastly, I ended the process with a small burst of the Flames of Wrath. This flesh pellet, when consumed, will grant significant boosts in stats. It can directly send an A-rank to S-rank. That's how potent this pellet was. I will feed this pellet to Kabuto in hopes of him breaking past his current rank and reach to about the same rank as Kalia.

Now that the golem was completed, I linked my mind to the golem and told it that its name, from now on, is Stein. Stein only nodded in silence. With a smile of satisfaction, I appraised the creature. The results were as expected:

Name: Stein

Race: Abomination/Flesh Golem

Affinities: Earth/Lightning/Plant/Nature

Abilities: Summon Lightning Wisps, Tunneling, Absorb Nature

Stein was an A-rank supporter with three starting abilities. I'm sure that as it grows stronger, it will gain more abilities. I was surprised that it gained the Lightning Affinity from the Lightning Wisp, but I guess that can be dismissed as a blessing. I sent Stein into my storage bag and moved on to the next preparation step.

Now that that was over, I decided to finish studying the last manual - Thousand Poison Art. As I flipped through the pages, I realized that the way to learn this art was simple. All I needed to do was to inject my body with many toxins...so much that my body develops resistances and an ability to produce my own poisons and antidotes. The book told me that I should start small...maybe with a weak spider bite and move up to something as strong as an Azure Kraken. However, I've already developed a strong resistance to poison. In addition, I do not have the required materials to learn this art step by step. So, I decided to speed things up. Taking 100 jars of Poison Essence, I pour them out into a large crater. Then, I submerged in the middle of the pool and began to cultivate. At first, the poisonous essence permeated into me with such painful intensity that I could not stand it even with my high resistance. However, as I gritted through, I was able to slowly adjust and get used to the pain. As the toxins broke down my body, my incredible regeneration quickly recovers what was destroyed. I sat in the essence pool for a good five years before my body was completely tempered by the poisonous essence pool.

Next step is to temper my internal organs. I opened my mouth and began to consume the poisonous essence. At first, my body began to convulse because of the pain, but as time went on, I was able to withstand the destruction the Poison Essence was bringing to my internal organs. After I binge drank all of the Poison Essence, I began to meditate. Many years went by before I was able to fully absorb the Poison Essence. With the completion of the Thousand Poison Art, I can now freely produce my own poisons as well as my own antidotes. The only downside, as I found out later on, was that my arms had turned a dark purple as if bruised and my face had hints of green below the eyes and at the corners of my mouth. Nevertheless, everything else was the same. I can hide the green with a mask and the purple with long sleeves or gloves.