Chapter 10: Solidifying

Titan, a physical construct with powerful magic in its foundation. It is a magical automaton. It is made using mystical materials, such as the Magic-Repellent Steel from the Master Materialist of the Universe. Its main feature is its resistance to the elements. S~eaʀᴄh the Nôvelƒire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality."Michel Darius"

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Golems are artificial self-moving objects created by Mages. The Titan was the most powerful of these golems. The defining characteristic of these Titans was their resistance to elemental attacks. In other words, only those golems that possessed resistance to elemental damage could be called Titans.

Because of the great strength of Mages, resistance to elemental damage made the Titans considered very powerful.

However, being able to resist elemental damage did not mean that the Titan was the best weapon of a Mage. This ability only allowed a Titan to be immune to spells that were directed at its body. For example, using a fireball on the ceiling above a Titan, causing it to be crushed by the weight of the ceiling, or casting an Acid Pool spell and making the Titan fall into the Acid Pool.

Both spells were very effective against the Titans. Not to mention that all Titans had very low Spirit. They could only follow simple commands, which was their greatest weakness when facing intelligent life forms.

Moreover, Titans were not completely immune to elemental damage, as using a specific elemental spell would cause a specific effect for a certain type of Titan. By properly understanding their weaknesses, it was quite simple to fight against a Titan (Note: Basically, they are not completely immune to all elements; they are immune to some and not to others).

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Thus, golems were mechanical living organisms that possessed powerful strength and were created with magic. The most significant difference between them and other golems was their strength, making them seem full of vitality. Golems receive their magical life from an elemental soul, which is usually of the Earth element.

The process of creating a golem involved taking a soul and binding it to an artificial body. Then it would combine with this specially prepared receptacle and obey the will of its creator.

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Golems did not have their own minds, and they would not do other things unless their creator specifically gave them the command. They would follow simple and precise commands and could not accept complicated strategies or tactics. The creator could only manage a golem within a radius of 60 meters, and they had to be able to see or hear the golem.

If no new command was given, the golem would generally strive to carry out the last command given to them. Of course, they would fight if someone attacked them.

If the creator was not near the golem, they could previously give the golem a simple command to guide its movement, or they could make the golem follow the commands of another person. However, as the creator of the golem, they could always command the golem to not listen to the other person anymore, revoking another person's control rights at any time.

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Somehow, once he started reading the book, Leon became instantly captivated by the content, hardly pulling away from it, and thus finished reading it in one sitting.

Golems were truly remarkable!

Setting aside the advanced steel golems, even the lowest level clay golem could challenge an Advanced Apprentice Mage. In other words, only a group that had good coordination and was all at an advanced level of a combat profession would have the possibility of defeating a clay golem.

As guards for Mages, Titans and other golems were much more reliable than human guards, as they were absolutely loyal. On the downside, the cost of a Titan, or any other golem, left Leon speechless.

Take the lowest level clay golem as an example: a clay golem, without any additional magical equipment, weighed 600 pounds (272.15 kg), stood 8 feet (2.43 m) tall when upright, and was entirely made of soft clay. This type of clay golem would take no damage from sharp weapons, but some heavy weapons could inflict physical damage on them.

The base cost for this type of clay golem was 21,000 gold coins. As for the stone golem, which was one level higher than the clay golem, its base cost was 55,000 gold coins. And the iron golem, which was an even higher level, was a shocking 80,000 gold coins.

This was the base cost before considering the effects of supply and demand in the market. If it were during a time of war, these golems, which were extremely suitable for use on the battlefield, would have their prices doubled, and people would still be able to afford them.

While a small lord could purchase three to five clay golems and deploy them in his own army, he could gain a significant advantage when fighting against other neighboring lords.

Therefore, if he could become a golem creator, money would no longer be a problem for Leon!

Unfortunately, not only did it require a great amount of unique materials to create a golem, but it also demanded extraordinary and marvelous craftsmanship experience and the ability to create soul receptacles. If Leon's innate elemental affinity had been the Darkness element, perhaps he could extract souls from some human creatures.

Then he could easily create soul receptacles, which could provide basic intelligence to the golem. However, his elemental affinity was the Fire element, which eliminated any possibility of creating a golem anytime soon.

What Leon could do now was ask the Chip to temporarily store all the content of this "Golem Creation Manual," so that he could conduct more research in the future. After considering all these things, he began to explore the new functions of the Chip.

After the slow chanting of a magical incantation, Leon, who had stretched out his right arm, suddenly ignited a bright magical flame in his hand, covering his entire palm and part of his arm.

As he watched the flame calmly burning in his hand, the mechanical voice of the Chip resonated in his mind.

"Beep!"

"A complete Spirit energy model has been detected."

"Does the host wish to solidify it? Warning: solidification will reduce Spirit by 2 and Professional Experience by 50!"

The same message had appeared once before when he was inspecting the exterior of the Tower. However, since he was in a dangerous place at that time, Leon did not dare to test it and therefore chose to ignore it. But today, he decided to check what this Solidification was all about!

"Confirm!"

"Beep!"

"Solidification task starting now…"

"Expected completion time: 12 hours, 27 minutes, and 13 seconds…"

Leon's mind trembled as the Chip began the 'solidification task.' He clearly felt part of his Spirit vanish. After a self-inspection, he discovered that his Professional Experience had dropped from 614/1000 to 564/1000.

His 614 Professional Experience was the result of the last six years of Leon's efforts, including constant meditation, countless failures while practicing spellcasting, countless hours under the dim candlelight, copying those difficult-to-understand magic books, and those dangerous yet inevitable magical experiments...

Frankly speaking, in the past, Leon had indeed been quite useless. He had become an Apprentice Mage six years ago but had accumulated only half the Professional Experience needed to become an Intermediate Apprentice, and he only mastered one spell – Burning Hands.

As for the second magical spell he was currently learning – Fire Arrow – he had just begun gathering preliminary knowledge for it, and he was still far from successfully casting that spell.

After analyzing these data, he realized that among all the Apprentices of the Tower, the innate attribute of his body was considered of low grade... No wonder he hadn't become an Intermediate Apprentice in these six years.

But that was the Leon of the past!

Now, with the support of the Chip, he had started a new beginning and would soon be able to overcome all the difficulties before him.

The task of solidifying the Spirit model for Burning Hands occupied most of Leon's mental capacity, which made him feel mentally exhausted. In that situation, it was no longer suitable for him to continue with any magical practice or reading that consumed his Spirit. Therefore, Leon simply lay down on the bed and began to meditate.

After starting his meditation, Leon gradually calmed down. His breathing became longer and more regular, and all his spiritual consciousness was completely indulged in extending from his body.

The once-silent room became emptier and quieter, as if everything around him suddenly faded away. The sensation of his body became indistinct, and he felt as if he were sinking into a gigantic piece of cotton candy. It felt as if his entire body were being pulled.

Finally, his spiritual consciousness crossed the boundary of his body and entered a bizarre world.

This was a world full of lights.

Mystical particles, of various colors, danced in the air, completely filling every inch of the space he could feel.

Perhaps the intrusion of his spiritual consciousness alerted these light particles, which seemed to dance irregularly and unconsciously. Suddenly, this strange world shifted and became slightly different.

Leon's spiritual consciousness began to swim aimlessly in this world full of bright light particles. Wherever he went, it seemed that each different point had its own independent consciousness, as each acted in different ways.

Those illuminating particles that glimmered faintly in red showed an obvious welcoming behavior towards Leon, as if they would jump into his soul when they got close enough, giving him strands of warm sensations. On the other hand, those light particles of cooler tones, such as blue, gray, black, and white... clearly moved away from him.

As for the neutral colors, like purple, green, and yellow, these particles neither retreated from him nor showed any passionate behavior, but when Leon's spiritual consciousness touched them, they would still slowly merge with him. The entire process was calm and harmonious, and nothing unusual could be found.

The bright orb representing Leon's spiritual consciousness wandered slowly in this infinite ocean of lights, passively accepting the fusion of these light particles. Out of curiosity, he tried to control his orb and moved towards some white particles. Apparently, his arrival alarmed the white light particles, as those that were swimming relaxedly and carefree immediately fled the area.

Finally, Leon could no longer hold back. Under a strong conscious urge, a spiritual tentacle suddenly extended from his transparent soul orb and poked through a slightly larger white particle.

The white particle exploded, transforming into a flow of Spirit and flowing into Leon's soul. Compared to the warm sensation he obtained from merging with the red particles, what this white particle brought to Leon was dark and silent.

The feeling was akin to when someone woke up at midnight and suddenly drank a glass of cold water. It caused his body to shiver. Besides the sensation of shivering, Leon's spiritual consciousness felt a shock and corrosive pain. It seemed that although it brought some advantages to his Spirit, merging with the white particles also caused him harm.

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