CH580 Golem... Puppet... Robot!
***
Sugud tinkered away in the workspace provided by the trial.
His face was solemn —the very picture of absolute concentration— as he worked on the project he had devised after digesting the knowledge contained within the trial’s library.
The forge had beco Sugud’s constant companion during the trial.
At tis, he hamred steadily upon the anvil. At other monts, he perford more delicate adjustnts at the workbench.
Yet regardless of the task, he never strayed far from the forge.
Its heat ward the tal in his hands...
And the ambition and passion burning within his heart.
From the look of things, Sugud was constructing a diminutive golem.
Unlike most golems —which typically stood more than three tres tall, towering above the average human— Sugud’s creation stood at a modest 180 centitres, roughly the sa height as himself.
However, what Sugud’s ’golem’ lacked in height, it made up for in detail.
Its body possessed far clearer definition and structure, appearing far more human-like than the bulky constructs typically used by Pangean alchemists.
Another aspect that made this golem different from conventional alchemical constructs was its thod of construction.
Instead of relying upon magical or elental thods and ans, it was built entirely through physical engineering.
Nurous gears and intricate chanical components had been woven carefully throughout its fra.
This design had erged from a discussion between Sugud and Young Master Alex, combined with a sudden flash of inspiration drawn from the work of the giant blacksmith Sugud had observed at the beginning of the trial.
According to the scrolls he had studied within the trial space, the Sorcerers of Verdantis possessed a branch of blacksmithing similar to Pangea’s golem-making.
It was known as Puppet-making.
These puppets were essentially golems crafted entirely from tal and other physical materials.
Rather than being animated by alchemical cores, they were controlled through mana threads— thin, string-like strands of mana connecting the user to the puppet.
Alternatively, they also could be controlled through telepathic
Both were ans under a branch of the mystical arts the sorcerers referred to as Puppetry.
The construct now standing before Sugud represented a fusion of several ideas.
His own chanical concepts— what Young Master Alex had called chanics; Alex’s ideas regarding the construct’s movent chanisms; the aesthetic inspiration of the giant man’s golem— or rather, puppet. And finally, the Puppetry control thods described in the books he had studied.
At last, Sugud inserted the final component.
He installed the control chanism or core into the construct’s head.
Then he carefully placed the head upon the rest of the body.
"Finally, it is complete. My first robot." Sugud smiled.
The word had also been coined by Young Master Alex.
According to the young master, if they wished to differentiate their constructs from existing creations such as golems, a new and unique na was required.
Drawing inspiration from golems —which were essentially unpaid magical servants used by alchemists and mages alike— Young Master Alex had chosen a word from an ancient, dead language that carried a similar aning.
Robot.
And the art of making such creations would be called...
Robotics.
Sugud looked at the craft standing before him.
Its appearance was rough, yes. Crude in many places. But beyond its outward form, it represented sothing far more important.
A breakthrough on Sugud’s alternative path towards the creation of Magic Armour.
From his many discussions with Young Master Alex, Sugud had co to sense that the young master possessed an extraordinary vision for these robots.
Alex had once spoken of a future where robots would beco ubiquitous, used across almost every field imaginable.
Furthermore, unlike Magic Armour design —a field dominated by rigid traditions and a powerful oligarchy of design guilds— robotics represented a path that anyone could walk.
All that was required was the necessary knowledge, and the passion to pursue it.
In essence, it could beco a haven for those rejected by the Magic Armour design field.
Perhaps even a domain where these failed designers could soday claim their revenge against the establishnt that had scorned them— despite the passion and effort they had invested into it.
In Sugud’s eyes, this strange creation —golem, puppet, robot... whatever one chose to call it— was not rely a craft construct (a machine).
It was the possibility of a dream.
Not only his own dream, nor of Alex’s vision. But the dream of countless others scattered across the plane of Pangea.
"The mont of truth..." Sugud muttered quietly as he stepped back.
He raised the dull-looking orb in his hand and spoke toward it.
"Voice command, initiate."
The orb lit up with a soft, soothing glow.
"Activate."
Suddenly, a faint glint flashed within the robot’s eyes.
It slowly rose from its foetal position, breaking free from the clamps and rope bindings that had held it in place.
The construct straightened its body and stood upright before Sugud.
The glowing orb in Sugud’s hand was a command orb, designed to control the robot remotely.
Or simply put...
A ’remote’, according to one of Young Master Alex’s earlier design suggestions.
The standard Puppetry thods used by Verdantis sorcerers were not currently accessible to Sugud.
So rather than attempting to replicate their techniques directly, Sugud devised an interdiary solution.
Within the trial space’s storage were several materials —no doubt rare and valuable— that possessed the ability to establish telepathic connections with other objects.
Sugud had used these rare materials to construct his ’remote’.
With the remote in hand, instead of connecting to the robot himself, Sugud linked the robot to the remote.
Through this thod, he could issue pre-coded commands to the construct.
These pre-recorded instructions also acted as limiters, reducing the chances of catastrophic mishaps should the robot fail to behave as expected.
"So far, so good," Sugud muttered.
"Raise right leg."
The robot raised its right leg.
"Raise left leg."
Tumble—!
Crash—!
Sugud pald his face.
Following his instructions to the letter, the robot raised its left leg— without lowering the right one first.
The construct promptly lost its balance and collapsed onto the ground.
What followed was a painfully tedious mont for Sugud.
He had to micro-manage every minute movent of the robot while guiding it back to its feet.
Left arm.
Right arm.
Rotate torso.
Shift weight.
Stand.
For a brief mont, Sugud seriously considered walking into a corner and screaming into the wall.
But in the next mont, he forced himself to look at the bright side.
At the very least, it proved that the robot was completely obedient to its controller.
’It’s a good start,’ Sugud told himself with a faint smile.
"Shut down," Sugud ordered.
The robot instantly lost power and dropped straight to the ground.
Sugud jumped slightly in surprise.
He quickly inspected the construct and heaved a sigh of relief when he confird it had not been seriously damaged by the fall.
Aside from the telepathy-sympathetic materials, Sugud had used only low-grade tals for the robot’s construction.
After all, it was an untested concept.
The blacksmith in him simply would not allow such valuable materials to be risked on an experint.
Furthermore, even if he had chosen higher-grade materials, most of them possessed unique mystical properties— properties that would introduce new variables during construction.
Variables that could create unintended complications within such a novel construct.
Sugud folded his arms as he evaluated his work.
"At best, this is a Grade 0 robot," he muttered thoughtfully. "Roughly as strong as an ordinary human."
"I doubt it could even contend with an Acolyte, a trainee or a squire (Class 0)."
He paused before nodding to himself.
"Still... this is as far as I can push the concept for now."
"I will simply have to refine the thod in the future."
With that done, Sugud carried the inactive robot to the submission point.
A beam of light descended upon the construct, bathing it from head to toe as if scanning and evaluating every detail of its structure.
Before Sugud could even react, the trial space suddenly began to collapse.
The surroundings shattered like glass.
In the next instant, Sugud found himself back before the stele.
"It is a sha I no longer have access to the repository," Sugud said with a small shake of his head. "I would have loved to get my hands on a few more scrolls."
"You can."
A voice suddenly sounded beside him.
Sugud turned and saw the mysterious old man standing nearby.
He quickly stood up and bowed respectfully.
"Thank you for the privilege," Sugud said sincerely.
"You have only your Fate and Fortune to thank," the old man replied dismissively.
Then he continued what he had been about to say earlier.
"You have successfully completed the trial, and that success has earned you points. Look into the stele and use those points to acquire whatever catches your interest."
The old man stroked his long beard thoughtfully.
"Since you are a craftsman, I would advise that you favour knowledge over equipnt. Equipnt can be acquired elsewhere... but the knowledge stored here is one of a kind."
"Understood." Sugud nodded.
He turned back toward the stele.
Almost imdiately, information began flowing directly into his mind.
The more he read...
The wider his eyes beca.
Excitent quickly lit up his expression as he began spending his points without hesitation.
Just as the old man had advised, Sugud focused solely on knowledge.
The sa knowledge he had regretted losing access to the mont the trial ended.
In truth, even without the old man’s suggestion, Sugud would have made the sa choice.
Most of the equipnt listed in the stele were sorcery-based artefacts, tools designed for sorcerers.
Without learning Verdantis sorcery thods, Sugud would not be able to use them properly.
The knowledge entries were technically the sa —they also belonged to the sorcery system— but knowledge could at least be adapted with enough understanding and creativity.
He did not necessarily have to learn an entirely new cultivation system to make use of them.
Sugud was still happily reviewing the scrolls he had acquired when his body suddenly shivered.
He turned toward the source of the disturbance.
There, he saw that one of the party mbers seated before the Armant Stele had just awakened from their trial.
***
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