Days passed by quickly in a blur, and soon it had already been a full twelve days since I went back to the lake. Wounded and malnourished, the human had also rested here during that time.

The human’s arm had gotten infected and started to swell a deep angry red, but after a some time and treatment, it had calmed down. It treated it by cutting open its shoulder a few times to let pus drain out, then bandaged it with a poultice made of the grasses that were found in the lake and several other plants around the area.

Of course, I had been the one to walk into the lake to gather it, as the human’s ability to swim was severely impaired.

After a full twelve days, it seemed the human had regained most of the function in its left shoulder, and was able to carry out normal tasks and other exercises except for heavy labour.

During that time, I had also began to learn a great deal of the native language. The human would draw images in the sand with a stick, and then repeat the word that it represented. Since I only needed to hear words a few times to memorize it, the progress that I made was astonishingly fast.

There were some mistakes in my understanding, but all of them were quickly fixed and the data overwritten when the human corrected me.

And, after all that time, we were then prepared to leave the forest and head over to its habitation area. The human had stocked up on food and water, while I had maxed out on my energy reserves. According to it, the journey would take a little under seven days normally.

However, the human wanted to avoid people like the one who had attacked it, of which I learned there were several others. So it decided to take a longer, more roundabout path that was safer, but took more time.

Because of that, the journey was predicted to take about three days longer than it normally would’ve. At the speed the human was traveling right now, I estimated that I would be able to travel for about fifteen days at the same speed that the human was at right now.

Assuming there were no urgent situations, I would need about two-thirds of my energy to complete the trip.

So far, we had traveled for five days and we had encountered no obstacles as of yet. Since the human traveled very cautiously, the amount that we spent actually covering land amounted to less than ten hours a day. During the night, the human would hide in the trees, and then would spend four or so hours during the day to sleep and rest.

I had initially believed that it would take two-thirds of my energy to travel for ten days since I had thought we would be traveling without any rest. However, if it took ten days at this pace with constant breaks, then I would up less than half of what was previously approximated.

The human’s food supplies were also being managed carefully.

“ȝՐԹ, do you want sure not to eat?”

Of course, I had other tasks to complete, such as completing the file on what I had simply titled ‘Foreign Language #01’.

I could understand the basic meaning of the sentences the human said now, but not to the point where we could communicate flawlessly.

For example, I knew that the sentence it had said pertained to the consumption of food, but I don’t know exactly what it meant.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

From the context, I believed it had asked a question, and from the way it had food in its palm, I believe that the human had asked if I would eat. To which I replied,

“This one, does not require sustenance in the form of organic material.”

To me, it sounded like a normal sentence, but to the human, most of it probably sounded like a jumble of incoherent words that it didn’t understand, so I shook my head to make my meaning clear.

I did not need food.

I did not need water.

I did not need many things that humans did.

We had many a conversation while trekking through the forest, both to alleviate the human’s boredom and to help finish compiling my database. It was a mutually beneficial action for both parties.

Right now, it was almost the night of the fifth day, so we were a little over halfway through the journey. At least, according to the human. As the ‘day’ turned dark, we made a stop.

The human, or ‘ՇԹʅעɿՌ’ as it claimed was its name, once again clambered up a tree for the night.

And, once again, I stayed down below on the ground. The human had insisted on me following it for safety purposes, but once I had snapped several branches in my attempts, it gave up.

If there was something in this forest that could damage this body of mine, then breaking down a tree would not be any problem at all to such an entity.

Of course, there was always the element of being hidden if you were in a tree, which could be an important factor sometimes.

However, this only applied to living, organic creatures, which did not include myself. I could simply lay in a bush in the dark with my systems offline.

No heat would be emitted from my body, nor would there be unconscious movements. In this dark forest, especially at night, there would be no possible way for me to be detected as I would be an inanimate object.

In this way, both mine and the human’s safety were taken care of when night fell, during which the human claimed monsters and predators would prowl.

I was a bit disappointed. If not for the fact that I should conserve energy, then I would have taken the chance to build up my database. Any information that I could accrue would be important in determining the environmental habitat here.

There were many other things which I also had to complete, but I could not undertake any of them at this moment.

So, I powered off all unnecessary systems, and entered what the human referred to as ‘sleep.’

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The golem was actually quite intelligent, almost terrifyingly so. The golem, which he thought had been left behind at the lake, had actually once again reappeared.

Calvin was scared out of his mind when he saw it covered in blood and cutting open a corpse. And then it tried to hand him a cup of fucking blood, as if it wanted him to drink it.

That thing...was definitely not human.

It didn’t even need to eat or drink, as Calvin had not seen it do so once, and had been rejected when he had tentatively offered some of his own.

It was likely powered by mana, as all other golems were. At least, that’s what he heard from the traders and travelers that had passed through his village.

However...what was he going to do with it?

Perched in a tree for over six hours, Calvin had a lot of time to let his thoughts drift and wander.

How would his parents react to the golem?

Would it be safe to bring it back in the first place?

Despite its strange behaviors and appearance, Calvin decided to treat it as a human on account of its intelligence.

He had to admit, it was quite alarming how quickly it learned.

In the timeframe of slightly less than half a month, it had already learned a sizeable portion of the common tongue.

Compared to before, when it had asked a question that Calvin could not understand at all, the improvements it showed was shocking.

When it had first asked a question, he was shocked that it could speak at all in the first place.

When it had formed its first recognizable sentence, he was once again shocked.

It seems that communication...would no longer be a problem in the near future.

However, there were many other issues to consider when bringing a metal golem back.

Would it be able to work?

When would it break, if ever?

Would the village elders confiscate it from him?

Would someone try to steal it?

Calvin dismissed the last one, as it was improbable that someone would be able to carry the whole thing.

But what if someone wanted the metal and took off parts of it?

Questions, uncertainties, problems, concerns, issues, difficulties, queries….

There were so many things to think about, too many things to wonder about.

So, in a dark forest, a brown-haired village youth let his mind wander.