Now that most of the heard stuff was out of the way regarding the actual physical aspects of the golem Arthur could create the artificial blood and slowly drip it into the blood vessels. Thankfully Brexius included the recipe for that with the diagram. The recipe called for a few common plants, but Arthur had to order them through the guild because they were not native to the region. The Red Spotted Mushrooms and the Minotaur Bone Marrow were quite common in the south of the Yolan Empire though, so it only ended up costing Arthur a few silvers and that was mostly just the transportation fees.
To actually create the artificial blood the recipe required the mushrooms to be grinded up in the mortar and pestle until it was a fine paste, then it would be mixed in with water. You would do the same with the bone marrow until it was a fine powder and it would be added to its own separate container of water. Both liquids would then need to be distilled separately with the retort first and then the Alembic. The resulting liquid was the artificial blood that would be used. The blood would allow the mana stored to be conducted within it to be sent out when it was needed to power itself.
Arthur easily had enough to use for two or even three whole golems. One interesting thing that Arthur noted was that Brexius left his own notes on the artificial blood, he referred to it as annoying and inconsistent to make. ‘That must have something to do with the equipment used at the time. I would expect that things would be far more accurate and consistent nowadays with all the improvements over the past eight hundred years.’
Arthur took the artificial blood and with the use of his hydromancy he slowly poured it into the exposed blood vessel. Once it was nearing full Arthur slowly stopped and using the previous spells connected both ends of the vessels and closed up the remaining mussel. Now all that was left was painting the necessary patterns with the magic ink and applying the enchantments.
Arthur fetched one of the bottles of the magic ink from his bag and used his hydromancy to collect a blob of it. He then made the blob make contact with the exposed mussel and begin gliding around across as it created the patterns of lines which came from the journal, they reminded Arthur of a network of veins. Once that was done along with the blob Arthur he collected another and began to write down the more complex symbols across the exposed mussel that were most likely runes, but Brexius never specified what they were in his journal.
Soon the rat flesh golem was ready for enchanting and all Arthur needed to do to prepare was pour a bit of the ink in the circle and nearby runes he carved into the slab. It was a quick and easy process compared to everything else he had been doing thus far. But the enchanting would require his whole mana reserves, so he decided to stop and take a break until they were full.
Nearly an hour passed when Arthurs mana reserves were full and it was getting close to dinner time. But Arthur pressed on anyways and created a small hole at the top of the slab for the mana stone to sit, this would be very important for someone of his skill and low mana reserves as this would allow him enough mana to finish the enchanting.
Arthur began the enchantments by pouring some of the mana from the mana stone into the circle to trap as much of the mana as possible. Then he poured a significant portion of the remaining mana from the stone into the circle to remain for the time being. Arthur then began to cast the enchantments upon the golem itself. He followed the instructions and chanted the full spell for a whole minute while he controlled the mana and collected it to be used. It was still technically a tier one spell due to its simplicity, but the amount of mana it required made it nearly impossible for anyone of his level to cast it.
It took Arthur more than a full minute to cast it but when he finished the ink painted onto the exposed mussel began to glow slightly and the mana followed the instructions of the spell, this still required significant input from Arthur to control where it went and make it more effective. Soon the enchantments finalized and the mana in the circle dissipated as it found its place.
Slowly the mana creating the circle dissipated and all that was left was the depleted ink and the little flesh golem unmoving. Arthur picked up the mana stone and connected the golem to it by controlling its mana. The first sign of movement was small with just a toe twitching, but then it slowly moved on from that to fingers moving and soon it was trying to get up. It found standing on its feet hard so it elected to be on all fours instead as it looked up at Arthur with its lifeless eyes.
Arthur was ecstatic at his success so much that he nearly shouted out in pure joy at his creation moving. He felt himself getting closer to his goal of creating a functional flesh golem based on the blueprints given to him by Georgius.
‘This is wonderful, my first attempt has succeeded in creating a functional flesh golem. While it does look hideous and is quite slow it is a sign of progress, and nothing can change that.’
Arthur immediately began to experiment with what the rat flesh golem could do. He had it move around on the table as fast as it could, he had it try and lift progressively heavier and heavier things, he even had it try and bring him something from the other side of the room with only providing its name. These experiments gave Arthur all the important information he needed regarding the physical and mental abilities of the flesh golem. For starters it was quite slow and could at most move at a fast walk for a rat, it was quite a bit stronger than a normal rat though with it lifting a book off from its side, and it wasn't really all that smart. It would usually just bring to him whatever was closest until it eventually found the correct thing, and when it was congratulated it would just stare blankly at him with its cold eyes.
Arthur of course wrote everything down as he conducted his experiments, he had plans to do them more every day in hopes of seeing improvement in its mental capabilities and if possible its physical capabilities as well.
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‘For now I have done everything I can, now I need to have something to eat as it is getting quite close to dinner time and I have no intentions to go hungry today.’ Arthur went outside again and began to thoroughly wash his hands in a flesh bucket of water. Only after five minutes of washing was Arthur happy with the result to eat something.
He quickly made up a simple soup from some meat and vegetables he had in his bag, he also sprinkled in a few herbs that tasted nice but had either a limited or non-existent alchemical effect for taste.
Once he was done he took the slab and everything else he used for his experiments including the rat flesh golem into his bag. For the time being it would be safer to keep anyone from stumbling onto his work, best case scenario they would just take it for themselves, but the worse case scenario was that those thieves had some sense of honour and reported him. Both outcomes were not well liked by him.
/- - - - - -\
+ Enchanting Level 0 (New)
+ Golemancy Level 0 (New)
+ Alchemy Level 10
*********
The next morning Arthur awoke at a far more reasonable time in the morning, eight o’clock to be exact. Now with a proper sleep schedule Arthur was able to have a proper breakfast and brew a few miscellaneous potions before Gaelin arrived with his box full of ingredients. Like normal Arthur thanked him and paid him the six copper coins he normally did and sent him on his way. With the only person scheduled to interrupt him for the entire day Arthur fished up in his spare room and cleaned up before he entered his bedroom and blocked off the window. It was time to continue with his experiments.
Arthur placed the rat flesh golem on the ground and it simply sat there unmoving. It had run out of mana during the night and without mana it would not function. So Arthur retrieved the mana stone and channeled the mana inside of it into the golem. With a new supply of mana the golem slowly shifted and eventually regained its motor controls and stood on all four of its legs. Like before Arthur tested its physical and mental abilities with the same simple three exercises but found very little change, and that little change might have just been coincidental given the minimal data. But like the last time Arthur took notes and recorded what he found, perhaps in the future any small changes could grow and become greater.
When he was done with that he collected everything and returned it to his bag before locking his doors and windows and leaving for the Elder Nymph owned by his former teacher Georgius Calvus to show him the end result and hear his opinion. ‘Georgius should be interested in taking a look at it, he does have some experience with enchanting so I see no reason why he wouldn’t be able to give me a hint or two for next time I do this.’ Arthur thought to himself as he walked down the road on his way to speak with his former teacher.
The roads were beginning to become busier than normal as every day passed and the lines at the mages guild became longer as well. Things were slowly going back to normal and the tensions between the mages and the common folk were slowly easing. But not everything was getting better.
As Arthur stood on the road that the Elder Nymph was on he saw a cloud of black smoke in the air. At first he thought it was nothing, just a minor problem such as a small fire in one of the businesses. Accidents happen and they are usually dealt with quickly. But As Arthur got closer to the store the cloud of smoke also got closer at around the same pace, the fear and worry slowly bubbled up giving his stomach an uneasy feeling. Soon Arthur broke out into a run as he saw the building was blackened and partly destroyed in the upper half.
A small crowd of people gathered around the base of the building and a few guards kept them at bay as two lighter dress individuals looked at the damage. Arthur slowed himself to a walk as he got close to the guards and attempted to pass by them. “Whoa, hold on there civilian. This building is currently under investigation, I must ask you to step back so we can conduct our investigation.” One of the guards stepped up to stop Arthur from moving forward.
“I know the man this building belongs to, I was one of his apprentices. I may be able to help.” Arthur said to the guard loudly, he hoped that the two he suspected were investigators would overhear them.
“I am sorry sir, but I cannot allow you to interfere with the investigation regardless of who you know.” The guard said as he stood his ground and kept Arthur from speaking with the investigators. “If you have any information to share with the city guard please go to our headquarters to the west of here and tell the secretary. She will then take you to someone who is authorized to hear it and pass it on.”
“I do not believe that is necessary private. I would like to speak with this young man if you do not mind.” A stone elf that resembled the limestone of the surrounding city blocks stepped up, he was one of the investigators.
“But sir, what about the protocol?” The guard asked the elven investigator.
“Honesty this is a far quicker and more effective method of acquiring important information. You may leave us for now.” The elf said to the guard as he waved Arthur over closer to the heavily damaged building to speak with him.
The guard stood there for a moment unsure of what to do, but as Arthur walked by he snapped out of it and returned to keeping the rest of the crowd from getting a closer look. The elf brought Arthur far enough away from the crowd to prevent anyone from overhearing their conversation. “For the record I will need you to state your name and your relationship with Georgius Calvus before we begin.” The elf said with a small book full of blank sheets of paper in his left hand and an ink pot in his right.
Arthur paused for a moment but understood what the investigator was likely doing. “I am Arthur of Dom Badaher, and I was an apprentice alchemist under Georgius before I finished. I would still occasionally meet up with him and we would talk about everything from alchemy to what events were happening in the city.”
“So your relationship started out as purely business but then became a friendship after you finished your apprenticeship.” The elf used hydromancy to control the ink and write down everything Arthur said. “Did he even mention anything about his personal life, or anyone who might be willing to try and kill him?”
“If he had any enemies that would be willing to do this to him he never mentioned them to me.” Arthur answered the question in full truth. Georgius never mentioned any enemies aside from his advancing age. And aside from that he never even seemed to hate anyone, at most he would pity their short sightedness, but he never hated them.
“And what about his alchemy, did he ever mention working on anything that might be explosive enough to cause this much damage?” The elf asked as he pointed up towards the damaged upper portion of the building. The damage appeared to originate from his workstation after all.