2000 Harmony of Dissonance (Part 2)

Unlike common enchanted objects, Golems needed to move around, follow orders, and choose the best spells to use according to the instructions they received.

Fueling even a limited artificial intelligence required a massive amount of energy that no number of crystals could provide during a fight. Golems would lose power as they fought and needed a long time to recharge unless provided with an energy source like an array.

The fourth set of runes prolonged their autonomy in battle and reduced the time they needed to refill their mana reserves.

The fifth and the sixth set would respectively absorb part of the kinetic and magical energy that would hit the Golems during a fight, turning them into a protective energy field.

The seventh and eight set had similar properties but different functions. The former would carry Lith's and Solus' telepathic orders in a form that the Golems could understand while the latter replaced the nervous system.

Even though the Spirit Crystal worked as a brain, it still needed a way to operate the body it was given. Having Lith's strategical cunning and experience was pointless if the Adamant lacked the physical abilities to put them into practice.

The eight set of runes' purpose was to ensure that the Adamant body and the power core would answer the Spirit Crystal's commands with the speed of thought. If done correctly, the Golems would have an unparallel magical and physical prowess.

Not even a violet cored Awakened would be able to match the efficiency of a creature with no need to weave spells and the durability of purified Adamant. The only weak points of regular Golems were their short autonomy and the fact that they blindly followed orders.

No matter how complex their power core of how detailed an order was, a construct's lack of creativity made it predictable while its inability to adapt to the opponent limited their fighting prowess once the surprise effect was lost.

Turning the Spirit Crystal into a memory crystal resolved these issues. By granting the golems part of Lith's mind, the crystal would make their attack patterns unpredictable.

The ninth set would cloak both the power core and the rune formations, making it impossible for any regular Forgemaster to study them. Any good mage knew that they had to protect their secrets before selling their pieces.

In a Golem's case, things were even worse. If during a battle they ran out of power, nothing would stop an enemy from snatching and studying them in the safety of their lab.

Sure, the Golems couldn't be stored inside a dimensional item nor would they lose their imprint, but it would still be a huge loss for Lith.

It was the reason the tenth and last set of runes not only worked as a tracking spell but also constantly provided the tower with the dimensional coordinates of the Golems in real time.

'I wish I could go for some kind of self-destruct mechanism.' Lith pondered. 'Too bad that it would also cost me the Earth Root and all the materials. At least this way I always have a chance to retrieve the Golems and even if they get stolen, they can still recharge over time.'

Once Lith was done weaving the final rune, the entire surface of the Golems was covered in glowing violet glyphs that yet had to merge with the metal structure just a few millimiters below them.

Before finishing the procedure and making it irreversible, Solus used the tower's mana sense along with the Eyes of Menadion to study the interaction between the runes and the mana circulatory system.

She and Lith had found the perfect theoretical position for the ten sets, but there was no telling if they had failed to take something into account. Keeping so many strings active at the same time without letting them seep into the Adamant was a mammoth task, but Lith endured in silence.

Solus took her time, letting the Eyes complete their analysis and then comparing it with her own readings.

'Dammit, we didn't consider the mana pressure exerted by the crystals. Even with the Earth Root channelling their power, they still create small distortion fields for the nearby runes that compromise-'

'Save the lecture for later!' Lith cut her short. 'Is it salvageable?'

'Yes, but we-'

'Just do it!' He took a deep breath to replenish his dwindling energy with Demon Grasp.

Solus rearranged the closest runes to the crystals before moving on to the others. Her nimble fingers rearranged ten runes at a time, only taking a brief pause between movements to check the harmony of the energy flow hadn't actually gotten worse.

By the time she was done, Lith had used Demon Grasp one more time.

'Done! Sorry for the wait.' Solus said.

Lith replied with a wheeze as he could finally let go of the two massive energy formations. The complex rune patterns shone with the radiance of a small star for a short while before fading under the surface of the metal.

'The next time, less conversation and more action.' A snap of his fingers moved the two of them to the Workshop where the rest of the group was practicing on two replicas of the Golems.

Lith felt tired, but thanks to his bond with the tower he was quickly regaining his strength. The others, instead, fared much worse. Aside from Faluel, they were covered in sweat and either cursing whomever had spawned Adamant or panting to catch their breath.

"What's wrong?" Lith asked.

"I think you miscalculated." The Hydra offered him a glowing energy sphere to study. "You should have given them a power core section suitable not only to their mana core, but also to their skill."

"That's exactly what I did." Solus replied. "I assigned to each one of you only what you were supposed to be capable of handling. I even left them some wiggle room."

"Then either you overestimate people or they exaggerated their talent when exchanging Forgemastering points with you." Faluel shrugged.

Lith checked the partial core, discovering that the Hydra had followed his instructions to the letter and even improved the final result. The runes forming the energy sphere were densely packed and the empty spaces left for the others to fill didn't destabilize it one bit.

"I exaggerated nothing." Quylla said amid pants. "Solus assigned me a partial core that I can craft. What she didn't take into account is that I never worked with something of this complexity.

"Keeping so much energy stable for a while drains a lot of my energy, especially after it gets amplified by the Adamant."

"I may have exaggerated a bit. Maybe-" A retch cut Protector short right before he threw up out of fatigue.

"I don't know what my problem is, I only know that this is too much for me." Friya dropped her Fury to the ground before raising her hands in surrender. "Once the amplification process starts, it takes my all to not make the partial core pop."

"Same." Phloria leaned her back against the wall. "Not everyone here has the Hands of Menadion."

"Guys, you don't have to let the amplification begin." Solus reviewed her notes in Soluspedia and confronted them with those in the Library.

"Why not?" Tista said, her voice reduced to a whisper.