The Golem's First Steps
Activating the Mana Core at the Gate had gone smoothly this morning. But the moment I thought it would start rolling again, Dad's sharpened eyes looked terrifying....
“You said yesterday that it failed, right?”
“Yeah! I put the Mana Stone inside first, so I opened it to return it and found out.”
“Hmmm....”
“....”
I decided to brazen it out. I know nothing!
“Ian. Dad is sad.”
“Suddenly?”
“The only daughter Dad loves is lying to him.”
“I... never? There's no way I'd do that.”
“Haa....”
What? Was something weird? Had I been caught?
Did my genius acting skills not work?
《Clack-clack-clack-》
“Ian. Fingers.”
Why? How?
《Dul-dul-dul-》
“Ian. Legs are shaking too.”
Dad's pressure was getting stronger and stronger.
I really don't know!
“Tell me what happened.”
“I woke up and suddenly it started~”
《Ziiiii-》
Ugh.... Dad's eyes were so intense.
It felt like lasers were firing.
No, it was the sound of the 3D printer activating?
But how did he notice? How much does he know?
“Dad has a way to know everything.”
“Ugh....”
“I'll have to tell Mom.”
“No! Don't!”
“Then just tell me already.”
Was it ending here.... If I messed up, I'd have to run away.
Yeah! With my skills, even outside the house I could earn money!
Let's just tell the truth!
“It was... because the mana concentration in the air was low, so it wouldn't start. I really just dipped my toe in with the official guy at the Gate and started it, then came right back out!”
“What!!”
Huh? Too honest?
I should have made up some other excuse...
“Aaaah!!! Ian!!”
A-ah-ah-ah- Why can't I hear anything?
I really have to go to the ENT on the way back... I think I can hear a hiss, so maybe hearing loss....
“Mom and Dad, what did they say?”
“Beautiful and kind?”
“No! They said not to do dangerous things!”
“Um....”
So that's the problem.... Danger, danger, danger.
“But.... the Mana Core desperately called out to me and saved me....”
With a Mana Core, I could make even cute Golems.... and robots too.
“I should have found another way! If I went in and ran into a monster, what then!”
“So I went in holding hands with the official guy!”
“What?! You held hands?! With who?!”
Why did my anger suddenly jump to another man holding hands?
“Dad~ I really didn't do anything dangerous~ I won't tell Mom.”
“I will! This time I'll get in real trouble and never do that again.”
I was holding back my goosebumps and acting spoiled, but he wasn't letting me off. This was not ordinary.
“No choice.”
Then I can't just die alone.
“You'll get in trouble when you get home.”
Watching Dad subtly pick up the phone, I had no choice but to say something meaningful.
“Tell Mom the truth.”
“What?”
“Dad went in because it was an expensive Mana Stone experiment, and Ian messed it up. He had to go in after giving me such a hint. I had no choice.”
“???”
Dad's eyes filled with countless hooks.
I wonder if Dad heard it.
From the internet, if you can't do it fairly, then try stirring things up and fabricating, they say?
Was I eaten? Dad's hand holding the phone seemed to loosen.
《Clunk》
“Aaaah! When did I ever do that!”
“In my heart?”
“Absolutely no such thing!”
“Dad's heart spoke to me through his eyes.”
“Absolutely! Absolutely not!”
“Huu.... I'll tell Mom first.”
Dad's phone screen looked cracked. Poor guy.
This time I picked up the phone.
Suicide was certain.
When dying, we must die together to have no loose ends.
If I kept one side alive, I'd sharpen my knife for revenge.
『To my beloved mom』
《Turrurr- turrurr-》
I showed Dad the call log while he was frozen.
“Gyaah! This isn't it!”
“Sob....”
“Dad never once thought of that!”
“Now I have to tell Mom and pack my things. Where can I even live....”
Me? Did I have no talent for acting? How come I couldn't shed even one tear?
Anyway, this was the important part. This was the branching point.
This time I had to make Dad my ally.
“Uh... where are you going to go?!”
“If I go home, I'll get scolded by Mom and Dad and turn out weird....”
“Please! Don't do that!”
“If I run away, I'll be sleeping under bridges and some gangbanger will grab me.... ugh....”
“Pfft! Our baby doesn't think of anything bad!”
We had crossed it.
“So let's not tell Mom?”
“Eh?”
“It's only a problem if Mom doesn't know. Right?”
“....”
Now it was time for gentle persuasion.
It was fortunate that Mom hadn't answered the phone late. She was probably out shopping or exercising.
I timed it perfectly!
“If I analyze the Mana Core, I'll want to make more of them, but only I can make that one, right?”
“But... still.... isn't it dangerous?”
“I won't go to dangerous places, and I'll hire guards.”
“Still, seeing people dying in the news sometimes is scary....”
There were no dangerous monsters yet, but I had no idea what kind of humans died like that.
Anyway, that wasn't important.
“In the first place, we won't go to dangerous places!”
“Eh?”
“Golems. We'll send them as robots.”
“What does that mean?”
“Once I equip the Mana Core into a robot, I'll know, but I think we can hunt monsters with it?”
“???”
Golems were basically farm tools for wars in the previous life, hauling things around, but their main job wasn't that.
And if the infinite power cores were alive, like some internet joke, there was no more efficient weapon than this! Even with repair abilities!
The output was unknown though....
So this wasn't the time to argue!
“Dad! Trust me! Trust the Golem! Trust the robot! We're not in danger! We just hide in the back and tap the finger once, right?”
Frustrating! Why didn't Dad trust the Golem!
“Tap?”
“We have justification!”
“Just... justification?”
“This is for research! It's an experiment!”
To break Mom's wall, Dad had to muster his strength!
“Is it really safe?”
“In the first place we'll be monitoring the monsters on screen?”
“But what if the robot breaks?”
“There are ways.”
“Uhm....”
While Dad and I were arguing, the phone that had stopped ringing earlier started again.
《Ring-ring~》
“Basic ring tone?”
“Why?”
“No... I just thought our daughter's taste was elegant.”
Did she have to change the ring tone? As long as the phone worked for calls and texts, it was fine.
Occasionally to check time?
I quietly pressed the call button and switched to speaker mode.
-Our daughter? I called earlier but Mom was exercising and couldn't pick up?
-Hello?
“....”
“....”
I handed the final say to Dad. He'd answer well on his own?
“Y-Yes? It's me.”
-How did Ian call by phone?
“I dropped the phone and it broke.”
-What's up?
“I was wondering what was for dinner~”
-We're making curry today! Come home early~
“Okay. Thanks. I'll see you when I get home~”
“....”
“....”
So Dad and I had an implicit agreement and were in the same boat.
If we got caught, we'd really die together.
...
...
For a while we discussed what to say at home.
We spent time warning each other against mistakes.
“If we get caught, we're in big trouble.”
“Of course. I have no intention of dying early either.”
“Maybe dying is better....”
“We've already climbed onto the tiger's back. Let's leave tomorrow's worries to future us.”
“Got it.”
We decided to slightly irresponsibly dodge our worries.
Honestly, I didn't have the guts.
“Then let's check the output first!”
“Can that really move a robot?”
“It's designed to move at least a 1m robot, right?”
“It sounds like there might be variables.”
As expected, this talk worked perfectly with Dad.
He immediately caught the situation I was worried about.
“Yes. I said the mana concentration in the air was low, right?”
“Hmm.... Does that mean the Mana Core absorbs mana from the air and runs?”
“Correct! Well done!”
Exactly, it uses energy from the circulating process.
Mana doesn't disappear, only its level changes.
“Then at the Gate the output would be different?”
“Yes! So we need to check data from both sides. Let's start the external experiment first!”
“Let's find a suitable guy.”
“Let's go together!”
The first Golem we made was a spherical model taken out of the warehouse.
It was an early model used for experiments with wires instead of batteries.
“Are you really going to use this? The joint motors are spherical too?”
“Now it's not just a robot. Magic will be added. It can reinforce joints and durability!”
What I made was a Golem after all.
I was curious what effect the reinforcement and driving magic circles originally used for Golem joints on the motors would have!
Let's start working!
...
《Ziiiing- chik! chik!》
In the research lab where I was supposed to open books and discuss elegantly, flames were rising like a fountain.
Sparks from grinding and cutting metal were flying everywhere.
Was this truly the birthplace of academia? Maybe it would be better to call it a factory somewhere.
“Professor? Is this okay?”
“Cut exactly along the lines you drew.”
“If it's wrong?”
“Pack your things and go home?”
“Hek....”
Poor grad student was dragged away again today.
“Dad.”
“Why? Are you taking too long? Should we just look for a professional?”
“What if we buy a good 3D printer?”
“I heard that was really expensive.”
Dad seemed uncomfortable being in the lab like this too.
He was using the students who came to study like factory workers.
Since the quality wasn't to his liking, I tried it myself and it caused a riot.
Not only Dad, but the grad students here also voluntarily offered to do it themselves.
“Should we make something that will earn money later?”
“Have you thought of anything?”
“Yeah. I have a few ideas.”
“Okay. Let's hear about it later.”
With the primitive mana usage here, we could make things unimaginable.
For example, a communicator.
Using mana resonance for communication would allow really long range.
And we could make something like a mana measurer.
We could roughly estimate Awakened power levels or numerically gauge Gate stability?
While I was pondering these things, the work seemed to have finished.
“Professor, it's done!”
“Oh! You all worked hard. Let's try the next experiment.”
“Yes!”
The next experiment didn't exist.
These people had made a hole.
In other words, they filled the mana movement channel with steel powder and leftover Mana Stone powder.
《Solsolsol》
This required controlling mana, so I did it myself.
“Heeee....”
“Goddess of Engineering....”
“The results of my hard work.”
Being pretty really had advantages.
People voluntarily helped and followers appeared.
“But we're just sprinkling the powder lightly?”
“Is it magnetic? It's strangely sticking only to the holes we dug.”
Other people couldn't sense the movement of mana, but I knew we were fixing and settling the powder with mana.
This tiny blood vessel was an important one supplying mana throughout the body from the central Mana Core.
“Done~”
“It finished quickly?”
“Yes. It's small, so the channel is narrow, right?”
The relationship between Mana Core and circuit was very clear.
Both grew and widened to produce greater power, a simple system.
But for a small Golem, the joints couldn't hold, so we couldn't draw overly strong circuits, and naturally no large Mana Core was needed.
As an aside, if we made it with mana-conducting metal like Mana Metal, it would change, but gold would probably be cheaper?
“Then I'll attach it.”
“I can't wait?”
Receiving the gazes of the people who worked together, I carefully put the Mana Core into the Golem's center and closed the lid.
“....”
“....”
“....”
What? Why so quiet?
Everyone, including me, the Golem was silently silent.
Strange? With the amount of mana charged in the Mana Core, it should at least move.
“Why?”
“Was something wrong?”
“Just a second....”
Even if the circuit was drawn wrong.... just digging a hole, it shouldn't be completely stopped like this.
Above all.
‘Golem! Get up!’
No reaction to the command I sent with mana.
‘Haa.... Is it that when equipped in a robot it's completely different from a Golem? I'm going crazy! So frustrated with no one to ask!’
I hadn't expected immediate success. What I was doing was an unprecedented task.
Unheard of in the previous life of turning a robot into a Golem.
It was just a little disappointing.
“Chet....”
“Don't be too disappointed. Nothing works immediately.”
“What was wrong?”
There didn't seem to be any errors like this, so I racked my brain.
‘Is there really nothing easy?’
《Ding- diiiii- uuuun-》
“Huh?”
“What sound is that?”
An unknown sound started from Golem 1.
Like a computer booting up.
“Ah! Because the OS is old, booting takes forever!”
“Eh? What does that mean?”
“You can think of it as a computer that moves the robot.”
“Eh?”
Wait? Is there a separate device to assist movement? What variable is this?
《Diiii-》
“Hmm? But it shouldn't take this long.”
“Can you figure out why?”
“Let's connect once to the computer.”
“Right away! Hurry!”
Something! It felt like a super amazing thing would happen!
As expected! This genius couldn't be wrong!