"That's fine. That should be enough for me to figure out why it is so special and satisfy my curiosity."

I take the chunk of stone when Almort offers it to me and scan it with my mana. However, I am instantly confused because while it looks like stone, it isn't. In fact, it is not even a real material, it is completely made up of mana.

"Almort, are you sure that this is what the walls are made of? There hasn't been a mistake somewhere?"

Almort says "Of course I am sure! Why? Is something wrong?"

"This isn't stone. It is made of mana. Meaning that it was made by someone. It is actually interesting, the mana is organized into a crystalline structure and then frozen somehow."

Almort says "Really? How is that possible? Does that mean it is left over from before the demons arrived?"

"I don't know. I can't tell anything more from such a small sample. However, it doesn't give off the feeling of extreme age."

Almort says "I will get you access to the wall, but is this really a big deal?"

"It absolutely is. If the wall is made of mana, that means it can be dispelled. What if this is a trap set by the demons? How long ago were the walls built?"

Almort says "I don't know, they were finished maybe two hundred years ago. I have no idea when the construction was started. Would the demons really wait that long for something?"

"Demons can live for a very long time, don't underestimate their patience."

Almort says "Alright. I will take this to the council, but they will probably want to verify what you have told me."

"That's fine. I am in no rush, and it's their problem if they choose not to believe me."

Almort says "I will go speak with them right now. I will let you know as soon as they make a decision."

Almort leaves quickly and I head back into my workshop to resume experimenting. Eventually, I find that none of the theoretical joints work, but I do learn from them. With what I learn I manage to come up with some ideas for my own joint design.

While reading, I noticed that all the comments about maintenance are about things shaking loose. This is probably because none of the designs have any kind of shock absorption. That isn't too surprising considering the technology level, but no one thought of using magic to deal with the problem either.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

I plan to put in some basic springs and also use an enchantment to deal with the problem. Between that and a repair enchant I shouldn't have to worry about maintenance. I should only need to make repairs if the golem gets damaged in combat.

In fact, if I improve the repair enchantment a bit the golem would basically have regeneration. It wouldn't be much, but it would probably save me some materials. Considering that I plan to make a number of golems, it will be worth the effort.

Besides, I came up with the repair enchantment using intent, it isn't a proper spell. Once I sit down and think about it, it only takes me a few minutes to make an improved version. As soon as it is done I use it to replace the old repair enchant on the castle.

Then I go back to working on my design for a golem and experimenting. I am hoping to get all of the experimenting that I can out of the way before I make the first golem. Even though I plan to make some servant golems first, I don't want to have to remake them later.

Once I have done every experiment that I can think of I finalize the design. Then, the first part of the golem that I make is the core so that I can work on programming it. However, I quickly run into a problem and it actually isn't anything to do with the golem.

The problem is that I want to make the first golem a gardener, but I don't know anything about gardening. I certainly don't know anything about the plants of this world or how to care for them. In order for me to be able to program the golem, I have to know the knowledge I want to give to it.

That means that I need to go back to the library and read a bunch of gardening books. That sounds really boring, but it is either that or I have to give up on having a garden. Which means I would need to figure out a magical way to keep the air in the castle fresh.

While I could probably do that, there is a problem, I already told Lin about adding a garden. I don't think that she would be too disappointed, but I don't want to disappoint her at all. Just as I am getting ready to leave, I sense someone enter through the castle gate.

When I head outside I find Zachariah's guy unloading a bunch of crates next to the gate. I wait until he is done and has left before I head to the association library. However, when I ask about gardening books, the librarians direct me to an entire section.

It seems that thanks to the usefulness of magical herbs, gardening is a major subject here. Come to think of it, there were a huge number of plants in the auction. It looks like I need to figure out what I want in the castle and then research more specifically.

Unfortunately, I have no idea what I want to grow in the castle, I know nothing about plants. I don't really need anything specific, but that might not be the case for Lin. There might be some herbs or something that would be useful to her, so I go looking for her.

Lin says "I'm surprised to see you here. I thought you would be down in your workshop experimenting until I came to get you."

"I would have been, but I ran into a problem. I can't program a gardener golem unless I know gardening. There are far too many plants for me to research all of them, so is there anything specific you would like me to grow?"

Lin says "There are some herbs that would be useful, but they require high magic areas to grow."

"Don't worry, I am pretty sure the castle qualifies."

Lin says "That's true. Alright, I will make a list of what would be useful to me, but it's okay if you can't get all of them. Also, if you are planning to plant any trees, you should find some that the wood would be useful to you."

"Good point. I will talk to Zachariah to see what he can get for me. Before that, lunch?"

Lin says "Sure!"

So Lin and I have lunch together and then I head over to see Zachariah.

Zachariah says "Ash, what can I do for you? Was the shipment of metals not enough?"