When Emil eventually finished his food, he left Dorothy’s and stepped back outside. In the time that had passed, he had yet to figure out a way to obtain the dental information he sought. Emil decided to return to his camp and begin his golem experiments. While he was working, he could think more about how to track down the silver one. For now, he didn’t think he needed currently needed anything else while in-town. As such, he began to make his way back to the camp.

When he eventually returned, Emil began to open his bags. He took everything out, and laid it all down on the grass. He could sense that Theo was still nearby, and willed the roach to come over to him. Following his command, it promptly flew over and landed on top of his hand.

“First thing’s first, let’s see what this veil around you is all about,” Emil said as he reinspected his creation. It had remained unchanged, from when he first looked at it in the morning. “Hmm. Definitely looks like a coating of death energy. Seems like your body is at capacity for how much it can take into itself. But since it so strongly wanted to be absorbed, it just clings to you instead.”

Normal magic didn’t work like that. A being either had the means to absorb the power, or it simply dissipated back into the air. So to him, this was an interesting example of how death energy seemed to behave differently.

“I wonder, when it comes to capacity, what are the main factors? Is it simply the size of the physical body, or based on the arcane level? You don’t have a soul, so it can’t be that. But it could be proportional to Mana and your ability to store that. Or perhaps it’s something entirely separate, unique to the properties of death energy. Who knows, maybe it’s a bit of everything.”

Emil set down the roach onto a tree stump. He went over to the golem textbook and began to flip through it. His goal was to try things in steps. First, test to see if he could create a golem with just Mana and the supplies on hand. Golemancy was its own skillset, with its own class and appropriate abilities. But that was only needed for those who wished to attain mastery of that craft. From what he remembered about it in class, his Spell Manipulation skill should be enough to create something at a basic level.

For the second step, Emil then wanted to try making a golem infused with death instead of Mana. If that worked, the next thing to try was more advanced death golems. He wanted to see how far he could take this concept. Finally, once a limit was found, he would see what he could achieve within it. That was the plan anyway, assuming his idea even worked to begin with.

‘Never know until you try, right?’ Emil thought to himself as he prepared everything. Grassy ground wasn’t exactly the ideal workstation, but it wouldn’t impact anything. Once the supplies were ready, he began to read from the textbook.

‘Okay, let’s see here. A golem is created from four fundamental components. A body, fuel source, heart, and something to connect it all together.’ He read from the beginning of the book, refreshing his memory on the essentials.

Autonomous golems required a basic mind as well, but a basic one only needed those base four things. From the Emporium, Emil had purchased everything the supply list had required. Enchanted clay, made to be both a good retainer and conduit for magic. The mana crystal to hold the fuel, which in this case, was pure Mana. Though the text did mention other alternative sources, for those less inclined in the arcane.

A false heart, to act as a source of artificial life. According to the textbook, nobody knew exactly how it actually worked. Only that it was something invented by Ortum, god of the forge and craftsmen. The story goes that he was the one who created the first kind of humans, by giving them hearts made from wood. But these prototypes were limited in what they could do, and lacked the ability to do much on their own.

It was later when the other gods joined him in his work, that today’s humans were made. The knowledge of these experimental people remained, and was handed down to the new mortals from Ortum. He taught them how to create false hearts, and it was passed down as a craft and refined into golemancy. In essence, it’s now considered the most common form of divine magic. Something which does not adhere to the basic laws of the arcane and science, like all other kinds of magic have to.

‘Huh, I just realized something. At some point, someone’s going to have to write a new edition and add death magic to that. Whenever I make Alterum’s kingdom, word about it is going to get out eventually. And along with it, the nature of me and my abilities. When that happens, drawing power from death will likely be something that shocks a lot of scholars. I'm sure it would turn the academic world upside down, and cause a lot of debate.’

He imagined that they’ll probably argue about the difference between the undead he makes, and the creatures found inside dungeons. The zombies and skeletons had always been considered purely magical beings, found only within those areas. They were spawned by the dungeon, and had nothing to do with being made from living things.

If he was being honest with himself, that was something he was also curious about. But for now, Emil shook his head. Letting himself get easily distracted by his train of thought was another bad habit of his. It was something that could be speculated about at any time. For now, he needed to refocus on the task at hand. He continued to read on.

The last of the four basic components was something to connect it all together. It was referred to as such due to how flexible it could be. In his case, he had purchased an artificial set of blood vessels. One that was premade for a miniature humanoid, six inches in height. But there were lots of other options that could work. From enchanted threads, wires made of special metals, and more. But since he wanted to attempt to mix golemancy with Undead Creation, his idea was to use something that went along with biology.

Now that he had all the necessary compliments ready, it was time to start on actually putting the golem together. From the clay, Emil shaped a person around the blood vessels. The vessels were made to be tough, so directly damaging them wasn’t a major concern. But he still needed to be meticulous. He had to do this perfectly, or it could result in a failure.

If any of them remained uncovered, they would leak out the golem’s fuel. And if accidentally pinched one and didn’t notice, it could potentially cause a buildup if it didn’t reopen on its own. That might result in it exploding from the pressure, and destroying that part of the golem from the inside. The former could be addressed easily as soon as he spotted it. So it was the latter that he was currently more concerned about.

When Emil had molded everything up to the chest, he grabbed the false heart. The heart was made with two pairs of holes on each side. Slowly, Emil threaded the necessary vessels through each one. When that was done, he carefully placed the object inside and covered it with clay. Next, he continued to build it up until he reached the head. Here was the last step for its formation. He placed the mana crystal inside, and also connected its corresponding vessels. As soon as it was also inside, he finished shaping the head.

It was crude and as simple as a golem could really get. But now its body was complete. With all of the pieces in place and put together, it was time to prepare the golem for activation. To do this, he would need to do two things. Inscribe the body with runes, and then dip it into an alchemical solution. For the runes, life would go on its back, and mind on the head. Then fire and water would go side by side on its chest. That part was easy enough, with the textbook proving a reference for how they needed to look.

As for the alchemy, he had bought a premade packet of the ingredients. All Emil had to do was put the correct portion of it in water. In this case, twenty grams of it would be enough. Once he measured it out and mixed it into water, he began to count. It needed to be steadily stirred for at least a full minute before the golem’s body could be put in. When the minute passed, Emil dipped it headfirst into the solution. According to the book, the top half needed to be in for three minutes. Then it needed to be taken out, flipped around, and remain in the air for one minute. After that, put the bottom half back into the solution for two minutes.

Once that was complete, the golem needs to be placed into a fire. One large enough to fully cover its body in the flames. While in the fire, another ten grams of the ingredients must be placed onto its chest. Then keep watch, and wait for them to change color. The ingredient mix was normally dark blue, but as soon as became red, he needed to put out the flame with clean water.

After all of that was done, there was just one final step. Take the body, and place it into a hole with the solution and the fire’s ashes. Then cover it with dirt and leave it buried. It didn’t need to be buried deeply, in fact, a shallow hole was preferred. For when the golem comes to life, its first action will be to stand up on its own. Like a bird pecking its way out of the egg, there must be just enough dirt on top to make it work to unbury itself. This will help ensure the golem has enough strength, and act as an indicator for defaults.

For the one he wanted to make, the expected time for it to activate was ten minutes after being fully buried. As Emil finished each of the previous steps and did this, all there was to do now was wait.