So when I arrived on this world I was expecting, you know, adventures abound, battle monster etc. Not to be sat behind a pile of metal trying not to sneeze as a cat. I had been sat here for hours infusing this metal with my mana when somebody had shown up and grabbed a bunch of track. That included about half of what I had infused and it took all of my willpower not to start attacking that man.

That setback meant that they had gone home for the day by the time I had enough metal to begin making my body. I removed my core in the middle of the metal and used some of it to push the body away. Weirdly the cat seemed to still be alive, just in some kind of comatose state. I then moulded the metal into a ball around me.

Again I started with the torso which was about a 40 cm long and just as wide. Two thick arms, 15cm in diameter and 40cm long, came out of the shoulders, made of solid iron all the way down to the five human-like fingers on each hand. My legs would be 40cm long too for symmetry sake but were both 20cm thick, it would be nice to have proper fingers and toes again. I created a head that was just a solid lump of metal and just for fun spun some of the metal into wires that came out of my head. It looked more like steel wool than actual hair but it was something. I once more created a little face on the flattened front of my head. My core was embedded in the top of the little chamber but covered by 5cm of steel at the top and bottom.

I fashioned a sort of half bucket onto my front and my back that was made out of fairly thin metal so that I could carry things if I wanted to. With that, I looked over my new body. It was rounder than it had been when it was made of dirt and about twice as tall. The metal had been rusted and I had kept the rust to the outside of my body so that the inside wouldn't rust and I wouldn't be shiny. The result was sort of like have a tan I thought, I sort of looked like tik-tok that had been hitting the gym.

It wasn't long before I got the notification and claimed my body.

New body claimed Body Type: Cast iron Body stats:   Body Rank: D Strength: 12 A small and crudely built body made of the poor metal, it is strong and tough but heavy. It has been built with containers for transportation. It's materials make it especially resistant to piercing and slashing damage. Mana saturation has dramatically reduced weight whilst maintaining strength (6x reduction in weight). Toughness: 15 Dexterity: 3 Health: 150/150

I let out a whistle in my head, this body was much stronger than my others had been, I was much stronger now than I was and I felt like a tank. The heaviness did make me rather slow though which was a little awkward. I took several steps and the sound of metal on a rock filled the cave. I weighed a LOT like over half a tonne a lot, though it didn't seem that it affected me very much, which made me think that the strength attribute didn't go up linearly, I wonder if the same goes for dexterity? I am definitely less than a third as slow as I was as a cat despite my dexterity being a 3 when it was an 8 then. That was something to look into in the future.

I tried to pick up as much of the tracks as I could and I could lift well over a tonne if my guess was right. I didn't really know how much iron really weighed or if gravity was even the same here but that was something for the future. I made my way out of the mine and back into the forest. Then I was struck with a thought. What now? I don't know what this world is like, I don't read the language but assuming that the wizard had been speaking the local language I could at least speak it which was something, I don't know where I am except for a small village and I don't even know if I'll be killed on sight.

One of those I could solve fairly easily but it would involve putting my life in danger and I wasn't quite ready to do that just yet. I didn't need to worry about food or water. I might need to worry about rusting too much but I can always manipulate rust off of my body so I had time to work with. First things first though, I was going to head back to the village and find somewhere nearby to hide so I could figure out what I was going to do.

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So I began to plod down the road, taking steady steps and looking into the treeline as I did. Taking time to look around me was nice, I could see small critters that would run away from the sound of me walking along. The vibrant flowers were everywhere and I began noticing that they were sort of different from what I was used to. There was a cluster of bluebells that were bright red by the side of the road. A sunflower curled up into itself when I got too close and there were plain looking daisies that gave off the faint smell of honey when I went over for a closer look.

The sun was setting and I watched as it descended behind the land, setting the sky ablaze with a beautiful fire that slowly transformed into the black of night. I had not looked at the sky at night before and it felt off. There were more stars than I had ever seen in the sky but I did not recognise any of them, the moon was noticeably larger than the one on earth had been and it was blue. Not blue as in blue soil but blue as in covered in water, great oceans covered its surface and I couldn't help but wonder what creatures live there. Finally, the answer as to whether there was other life in the universe had been answered.

It was a shame I would never be able to share that information with those back on earth. I had to wonder if others like me were here too. Were all golems secret earthlings that had been summoned and enslaved? That was terrifying if it were true but I didn't think that was the case. The description of my core on my status seemed to suggest that having a sapient soul wasn't common, or at least it did to me. So maybe most other golems were filled with the souls of animals, maybe even plants since they apparently had souls too, would a golem that had once been a tree be any use? Could it even move or think?

I had been walking for a little over an hour and was pretty sure at this point and was pretty sure I was near the village now so I walked off the road and into the woods. My feet sank deeply into the fresh dirt as I walked and I slowed down so that I could do my best to fill my footsteps with dirt as I walked. That meant it took me quite a while to walk far enough into the forest that I was happy enough I was hidden but it was at least worth it to not scream something was weird to everyone that walked by.

I ended up sitting on a log that gave a loud creak as I thought about what I would do. I needed to learn how things worked and maybe the language around here but I could hardly just walk into town for fear of causing an uproar and if the way that miner had carried the track from earlier was anything to go by they were going to be unnaturally strong and I doubted I would last long if they attacked me.

Maybe I didn't have to walk in as a metal man though, maybe I could be something smaller. It would be a waste of all the mana I had put into this body and I would probably have to go through the process of filling it with my mana again if I wanted to come back to it but maybe I could make myself a small body and I hide out in the village somewhere and try to learn what I could. The miners hadn't spoken much and it seemed to just be general pleasantries that they extended to one another.

It didn't take me very long to figure something out. I wrapped my core in about a half centimetre of metal and extended several spindly legs from it. The result was a sort of spider-shape that could have fit into the palm of a human hand. It earned me another screen.

Body modified

Body scanned

New characteristics detected

New body claimed Body Type: Cast iron Body stats:   Body Rank: F Strength: 3 A small crudely made body made for scouting and stealth, it is fragile but makes of for that in manoeuvrability and speed. Toughness: 4 Dexterity: 7 Health: 40/40

I didn't have a choice in claiming this one as I guess I already had and just altered it. I fit back into my old body and the same process occurred but in reverse. I then dug down and buried myself underneath the log I had been sitting on. There was a round indentation in the bark now and I was pretty sure I would be able to find it again. I then re-separated from my large body and scuttled off towards the village. I was surprisingly fast, almost as fast as I was as a cat but much and nearly as strong but much lighter. I could jump about 10 feet into the air with my tiny weight and I was sure I'd be able to get around just fine.