As morning arrives, I have the fox-kin all gather in the kitchen for an important announcement, which seems to be enough motivation for them to light the oven and prepare the roasting tray. I drop a hellhound onto the counter and watch in fascination as they process the carcass with impressive efficiency.
As soon as the meat goes into the oven, the group all stand at attention for the announcement, which I reveal to be the 6 available summons and the golemancy.
Tushu seems overjoyed to hear that I’ve acquired golems, but the others seemingly have some reservations. As for the additional fox-kin, they unanimously agreed that it would be better to have additional hands to complete the gatehouse. With no real reason to argue with their judgement, I summon the 6 new foxes into the barracks over the currently empty sleeping spaces.
Just like before, I feel a vomiting sensation which thankfully disappears as I refocus on the kitchen and the returned activity of cooking up some gathered vegetables. A few small roots and seeds get set aside for replanting, while the rest are stored in cupboards and cabinets with the largest being taken out and prepared for cooking. By the time they’ve finished up their prep, the 6 newly summoned fox-kin have woken up and started chatting.
Like the last times, 4 out of the 6 are laborer classed, all being males of varying heights and weight.
The remaining 2 are female, one being a [Canteen Aide], first rank of the culinary path, and the other is a [Hunter], first rank of, well, hunters.
The laborers’ names from tallest to shortest are Yanshi, Cai, Chin, and Zahdan, and all of them seem to have picked up the smell of the roasting meat, as they slowly move to the kitchen. Meanwhile, the cook and hunter, Poji and Juji, share a look before marching their way after the boys.
Arriving at the scene, Poji immediately takes command of the kitchen by hefting a ladle and bonking the four boys on the head, who all turn towards her with guilty and pleading looks in their eyes. Kohaku and Juji seem to be getting along as the only two dedicated combatants, even with the former being inexperienced before being summoned to me. Eventually Poji declares the roast is ready, which I can assume to be a skill as she wasn’t there for making it, and the entire skulk of fox-kin head outside to enjoy their meal of meat and veggies.
Finishing up, Yanshi, Cai, Chang, and Zahdan get pulled aside by Nan and get brought up to date on the construction project and the tide attacks, which seems to excite the four more than the food did.
At last, they all gather outside with their picks and chisels, except for Tushu, Kohaku, Poji and Juji. Casting phantom and empower at the same time makes my brain feel like burning coals in ice, but sure enough I soon have 24 phantoms joining the workforce with the 8 laborers.
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As expected from the substantial increase in laborers, the work goes by far quicker than previously, and soon the sun sets on the newly constructed second and third floors.
The two halves of the gatehouse consisted of brick walls, wooden floors, and many arrow slits along the north side, with about half that number mirrored on the south. I made sure to have the floors be human scale, because I now had two very important tests to do.
First, can golems be created without any available summons, and second, how many golems can each floor hold before cracking?
With these questions in mind, I began the arduous task of sculpting a stone soldier.
To begin, I summon a 2-meter-tall slab of solid rock. I don’t try to specify the type since for now I can’t afford to really be picky about having defenses. Next, I carefully sliced off the corners, repeating until I had a rough cylinder 40 centimeters around. Following that was trimming the front and back down to thin the profile, before removing two large chunks off the top and leaving the future head.
Afterwards, a wedge is removed from the lower half to separate the legs, and this wedge is repeated on the sides to form the rough arms.
The last step was all refining, which took much longer than all the rough work, but it was relaxing in some ways. Carving the face was the hardest, though the armor was a close second, as I needed to carve each piece of the false brigandine in such a way that movement wouldn’t be any more limited that it already would be. The full process took several hours, so the sun was likely to rise by the time I finished the golem spell.
Speaking of spells, I noticed the curious gaze of Tushu from the barracks ramp, dutifully taking notes on that scroll of his. Hmm… I wonder if there’s a teaching ability? I doubt I could teach anything magic the typical way, but if there’s an ability then I might just have to use my next credits for it. If I could teach the scribe how to use golemancy, my production rate of soldiers would be doubled, right?
Tushu finishes writing on his scroll and makes his way over to the stone man that I have yet to animate, beginning to examine the soldier while muttering about impossibilities, before abruptly addressing the air.
“Master Core, if I may speak f-freely?” his courage seems to have wavered at the end, so I don’t let him stew in his worry, replying immediately. “Yes, my dear scribe, of course you may, and do not doubt your right to do so.”
Wow, where does this fancy official talk keep coming from? Right, system shenanigans, probably. Whatever, it makes me look more competent so I’m not going to complain.
Tushu sighs in relief slightly, before he states his mind. “Your technique is good, Master, but surely you are capable of simply summoning a basic form to begin with instead of carving one? A-and if I may, you put far too much effort into the detail for a soldier who will be repeatedly attacked, you can surely see the waste in such effort, yes?”
His criticism is accurate, and I feel rather silly to not have thought about the fact that this soldier was going to be facing the Tide, as well as the basic form comment. I’m a core, I really should start acting like it, and summoning a rough statue should be easier than carving a block of stone like this.