I continue simulating golems for what seems like hours. My opponent, the golem with the core, quickly went from barely being able to stand up, to a battle machine nearly as strong as the one it was modeled after. After a while, though, I ran out of ways to improve it. It's now stuck at the same level, unable to quite compare to the huge golems in the real world.

'I still need to study active golems more...'

Now that I've improved the core to the best of my abilities, I open my eyes, fully expecting everyone to have left without me. Yet, to my surprise, not one person has even finished meditating.

'Shouldn't they have finished quite a while ago?'

I decide to further study the huge golem's destroyed core while I wait for everyone to finish. After just a couple minutes, Green Horn opens his eyes, and then Ruth. It takes about half an hour before everyone is standing up, ready for the next room.

I tap Mama on her foot in order to get her attention, "Hey, why did everyone take so long to recover this time?"

She looks at me with a clearly confused gaze, furrowing her brows, "They took as long as they usually do."

"Are... are you sure? I could have sworn that it's been longer..." Mama nods her head, and I sink into thought.

'Whenever I lose track of time, it always seems to pass super fast, not super slow.'

I know I'm probably over thinking this, but it just feels so... weird. I'm positive that I spent longer immersed in my conciseness than that.

'Well, I guess it's not that important right now. I can look into it further later.'

Before Trista can even say anything, everyone starts heading to the next room as a group, so I decide to set my suspicions aside for now and follow them.

Usually, everybody just continues through to the next room without stopping, but that doesn't happen this time. Instead, they stop barely a step away from the entrance.

Ruth points into the room, "What are we going to do about them?"

I make my way to the front, where I see what she's pointing at. Inside the room, aside from over a dozen smaller and medium golems, there are two of those huge golems.

The short old man slaps his chest, "Hah, I could take both of them by myself!"

Trista shakes her head, "You will fight that one, Lei will fight the other. Everyone else will take care of the other golems. Any objections?"

The short old man snorts, but doesn't say anything. Nobody else says anything either, giving their silent consent.

"Good. Everyone, keep the golems as far away from Iron Keep and Lei as possible."

With that, Trista walks confidently into the next room, followed by the other cultivators.

'So the old man's name is Iron Keep, huh.'

I can hardly contain my excitement as I make my way through the doorway. Studying all of those symbols, practicing my control over the golems, it's all about to pay off! I mean, it's not like Mama would get me in trouble if some random golem decides to attack tight-fit clothes lady, right?

As everyone starts splitting up, I go with Mucky towards a group of one medium and three smaller golems. The creepy couple and Iron Keep each start fighting one of the huge golems, undisturbed by the surrounding golems, which are being preoccupied by the other cultivators. In particular, Green Horn and tight-fit clothes lady seem to have teamed up, and are currently fighting five golems; one medium and four small.

Unlike other golems I've seen, which wield things such as swords, axes and spears, the medium golem those two are fighting is gripping a single small round shield, which doesn't even reach halfway to its elbow. Well, small relatively speaking; it would actually be pretty big for a human.

While fighting the golems in front of me, I creep my soul towards the shield-wielding golem near tight-fit clothes lady, laughing to myself the whole way. I first take over a single arm, moving on to the rest of the golem as I get more comfortable.

'Haha, that simulation really did help, I can control it much better now! Well then, let's try those legs...'

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

I decide to take over both legs simultaneously, so that the golem doesn't wind up tripping.

'Success!'

Now that I have full control over the golem, I stand behind the four smaller ones as they distract tight-fit clothes lady and Green Horn. Suddenly, they both attack a single golem simultaneously, destroying its core and sending it flying towards me. I reflexively reach out to stop the golem, dropping my shield and catching it with both hands.

'You know, this gives me an idea...'

I grab the inactive golem by its ankle, wielding it with my right hand, and pick my shield back up with my left. With my armaments in hand, I make my way towards Green Horn and tight-fit clothes lady. As I near them, Green Horn notices me and looks up, blinking his eyes a couple times.

"Hey, have you ever seen them do that?" he points at me.

Tight-fit clothes lady follows his finger, resting her eyes on me as well.

"Nope, I've never seen that. Does it really matter though?"

Green Horn shrugs and slashes at another golem with his sword, destroying its core. He then starts walking toward me, while tight-fit clothes lady continues fighting the two remaining small ones.

'Well, I've never fought with a shield before, not to mention a... golem? What would you call this, like a corpse weapon or something?'

As soon as he's close enough, I swing my golem at him. He merely dodges backwards, avoiding my attack while simultaneously slashing at it, removing my golem's entire torso.

'Man, now I just have legs!'

Green Horn's smug face instantly irritates me, so I change my plan. I'll beat up both him and tight-fit clothes lady! I look down at the small smug man and lift my shield. I then charge at him, ready to block anything he might dish out.

He tries once more to dodge backward, but I'm faster than him, so he winds up having to change his tactic. He almost instantly goes from rushing backwards, to leaping towards me. I follow his movements with my shield and, as soon as his sword is about to make contact, I bash out as hard as I can. As he slides backwards, clearly shaken by my blow, I throw my golem legs at him, which surprisingly strike him on the head.

'Haha, idiot!'

I proceed to turn my attention towards tight-fit clothes lady. She has already destroyed one of the small golems, and is currently doing a number on the second. She doesn't seem to notice me, though, as I silently walk towards her.

As soon as I get within striking distance, I raise my empty hand as quietly as possible, ready to bash her with it. But before even get the chance to swing, she spins around, sending her whip straight at my arm. I recoil, but she still succeeds in wrapping her whip around my right wrist.

"Did you think you could sneak up on me when you're that noisy? Do you think I'm an idiot? Green Horn!"

I detect Green horn standing up behind me, after which he proceeds to head this direction at a quick pace. In order to free myself, I decide to attack the whip with the sharp edge of my shield, and to my surprise, the whip actually splits in two. But instead of uncoiling and falling off, the piece of whip grips tighter, causing creaking noises to ring out as it starts crushing my wrist. I look back at tight-fit clothes lady's whip, and see it growing back at a rate noticeable to the naked eye.

'How is that fair?!' I ask myself as I cut my hand of at the wrist, causing the piece of whip to fall off, and wait for it to reattach itself.

Turns out these golems aren't exactly like the ones in my simulation. To regrow anything, it seems I'm going to need to let the core access it. I mean, I might be able to repair it with just my soul at some point, but I'm not quite there yet.

And so I cut off my control from the right wrist area, which proceeds to straighten itself out while pulling the severed hand back. In the mean time I'm forced to dodge Green Horn's attacks, while also paying attention to tight-fit clothes lady who is now behind him, whose whip is almost fully repaired by now.

Almost as soon as her whip is whole again, I hear her shout 'now', after which Green Horn jumps at me with an overhead swing. I hold my shield up to block his attack, just in time to see tight-fit clothes lady swing her whip at my legs. Gritting my imaginary golem teeth, I crouch and prepare for Green Horn's strike, while reaching my right arm down to intercept the whip.

With considerable effort, I block Green Horn's attack, pushing him back in the process. But tight-fit clothes lady's whip curves right past my hand like a snake, wrapping around my left leg at the knee. As soon as her whip sticks, I feel her jerk it back, and while she can't seem to exert enough strength to topple me, I can sense my leg buckling under the pressure.

I reach down to grab the whip, but am interrupted by another attack from Green Horn. I barely react in time, slamming the edge of my shield into his weapon, averting its trajectory from my core to my neck. That may not seem any better, but apparently these golems only have one vital spot, while some spots, including the neck and head, seem to have practically no use at all.

The first idea that pops into my head is to slash at his arm with the edge my shield, but I reconsider, since I don't really want to cut it off or anything. Instead I use my shield to bash him once more, sending him tumbling backward, but this time without his sword.

'Man! I really like this shield!'

With Green Horn out of the way, I proceed to grab tight-fit clothes lady's whip and give it a tug. But unlike when she was pulling on it, when I try, it detaches itself not far from where I'm gripping. I ignore the whip segment that's constricting around my knee, and hobble towards tight-fit clothes lady.

"Hey Green Horn, do something! This golem is strange!"

I continue towards tight-fit clothes lady, trying to look as menacing as possible, when suddenly I hear Green Horn start talking.

"Do you know why I'm called Green Horn?"

'Well, I have a few guesses.'

"This is why."

He pulls something that looks like an animal horn out of his clothes, though unlike what you would expect from an animal horn, its color and texture are closer to that of wood. He then starts lifting the horn to his mouth, curling his lips into a mocking smile.

'Stop gloating to a golem, little smug man. Get on with it.'

It seems this fight is finally starting to get interesting!