I leave them to it, head back to the bridge, and get to work on finishing it. It takes several hours for me to complete the top section of the bridge, but I am not quite finished yet. However, before I move on to the last few things, I go and talk to the beastmen.
Something has me curious and that is the fact that none of the beastmen reacted to my new form. Or my crown for that matter, but when I ask, they say that Myria briefed them about it. Since they knew ahead of time, they weren't surprised and that's why they didn't react.
I am a little disappointed that I didn't get to surprise them, but also glad I didn't have to deal with drama. Once they gather up their things, I lead them across the bridge and to the port. There, I introduce them to the elves and make sure everyone gets along.
The elves have restored a number of buildings, so the beastmen already have places to stay. I tell Stillwater to get everyone ready to move the next day and then return to the bridge. I have two last things that I need to do, put up the railings and reinforce the stone.
The railings only take me a few minutes, but reinforcing the stone takes a lot longer. As I am reinforcing it, I add patterning to the surface to improve traction. It also makes it look better in my opinion, although it does also look more normal.
While I am at it, I also add some decorative touches to the railings as well. Once all that is done, the only thing left to do is to enchant the entire bridge. The two main enchantments that I add are strength and self-repair, but there is still capacity left.
Since weather would be the main concern, I add protections against wind and water. Even with that there is some capacity left, so I spend a few minutes thinking what else to add. I come up with an idea, but to do it I have to go back and modify the railings.
The modification is adding poles every fifteen feet or so and enchanting them with light. Making it so they only light up when it is dark takes me a minute to figure out. After that there is only a tiny bit of capacity left, so I decide to ignore it and call it done.
As soon as I am done with the enchantments I fly up and circle around the bridge. Even if I am saying so myself, the bridge looks really good and really sturdy. Honestly, I am surprised that it turned out so well despite my lack of knowledge.
I was totally expecting something to go wrong, or for it to collapse entirely. In fact, everything went so well that it makes me a little suspicious. However, I am not going to look a gift horse in the mouth and take the win.
After admiring the bridge for a few minutes, I turn and fly back to the port. I let Stillwater know that the bridge is complete and we will be leaving as planned. I was planning to go back to the castle next, but I get roped into helping with something else.
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To make it easier to travel, the elves have been working on some wagons. However, they don't have any beasts of burden to pull them, so Stillwater asks for my help. At first, I think of enchanting the wagons to move on their own, but there isn't enough capacity.
Since that is the case, my second thought is using summoning magic to summon a beast to pull the wagon. The problem is that I am only a little familiar with summoning magic. The next thought that occurs to me is to make golems to pull the wagons.
That idea would definitely work, but it would take quite a bit of time to make the golems. Time that I don't really have, although the time dilation in the castle would help. I suppose if I made the golems simple enough, it wouldn't take all that long.
It's not like they need to be super complex to be able to pull some wagons. I still have alloy left over from building the bridge, enough to make the frames. If I use the stone for the rest of the body, then it won't be too hard to make.
"Stillwater, how many wagons are you making?"
Stillwater says "Ten. That is all we have the proper materials for."
"How heavy will they be? How strong does the beast pulling it need to be?"
Stillwater says "If we were using a normal animal, it would take four to six to pull them."
"Alright. I will make two golems for each wagon. That should be more than enough to pull them even when fully loaded."
Stillwater says "That's twenty golems! How long is that going to take?!"
"Not long, I will make them in the castle. They should be ready for us to leave tomorrow."
Stillwater looks like he doesn't believe me, but he is too polite to say anything. I just smile at him and then head for the castle, I have a lot of work to do. I am going to keep it as simple as I can and make horse golems out of the alloy and stone.
They will be more than strong enough for the job and they also won't need to rest. I already have it planned out in my mind, so I head straight to my workshop. As I pass through the main room, I notice that there is no one around.
I have no idea where they might have run off to, but I am sure that they are fine. Once I get into my workshop I go straight to work on building the prototype. If everything works properly, then I will build more afterwards.
In all honesty, it shouldn't even be called a golem, more like a magic construct. The reason is that it will only be programmed for a few simple commands. I don't even plan to put a core into it, just some normal enchantments.
However, for something like this it is better to keep it simple, making it complicated would backfire. Unfortunately, while the prototype works, I made it too small to be usable. I accidentally made it the size of a small horse instead of a draft horse.
It would still be strong enough to pull a wagon, but it would just look silly. So, I put it aside and try again, this time I make sure to make it the proper size. Just for the sake of looks I make it pure black by changing the color of the stone.
*DING*
Congratulations! You have acquired the Magic skill Artificer!
Artificer
Level 1
Int +5
A skill for crafting Golems and other magical items.
'Finally! I thought I wasn't ever going to get a skill for golems! Although I was expecting a craft skill, this works too!'
Once I am sure I have everything right, I shapeshift into the earth elemental form. This allows me to work with the alloy and the stone easier while also allowing me to make improvements. Then, using Divided Mind, I start to work on making two golems at once.