Chapter 81 – The Performance of Golem No. One

Punk had keenly identified the first flaw in the flesh golem’s movements from Golem One’s actions—a lack of stealth!

Its massive size came with immense weight, compounded by its inherent lack of agility. Every move this hulking creature made produced significant noise, such as its recent running, which created vibrations and sound effects almost indistinguishable from drumming!

Punk was certain that even if an invisibility spell were cast on it, Golem One’s position could easily be deduced from its enormous footprints.

While Punk was still contemplating how to minimize this drawback, Golem One, cutting through the air with forceful gusts, had already reached the Empty House District. Since Punk had ordered Golem One to move quickly, the giant had leaped straight down the hillside, each landing kicking up half-meter-high clouds of dust and leaving deep “craters” in its wake.

This method of descending the slope naturally generated tremendous noise, likely alerting the group of rats to Golem One’s arrival.

Seated in the White Tower and directing Golem One, Punk took a light sip of tea. Given that the “enemies” Golem One faced in this test were exceedingly weak—their combat capability virtually nonexistent—Punk couldn’t assess the golem’s fighting prowess. However, testing its search and mobility abilities was still feasible.

Golem One halted at the foot of the hill upon receiving Punk’s command.

The earth had fallen asleep. Aside from the gentle whispers of the breeze, the desolate and dilapidated houses stood in utter silence. On this dark and windy night, the surroundings of the decaying linden wood buildings were steeped in nothing but stillness.

In the pitch-black night devoid of any lights, the phrase “so dark you can’t see your hand in front of your face” was perfectly embodied, as if the gloom had barricaded all light. The heavy darkness resembled thick ink smeared across the sky, with not even a glimmer of starlight.

A night mist rolled in, bringing a slight chill characteristic of the tender season nights. Overcast clouds veiled the three moons, and under the hazy moonlight, the colorful starry sky remained unseen. The sky wasn’t pure black but rather a deep blue emerging from the boundless darkness. As the cold wind whistled through cracks in the walls, it produced a continuous, eerie howl, adding a shiver-inducing terror to the night.

Upon Punk’s command for Golem One to search for the fugitives.

Golem One’s red eyes, shrouded by the night, gleamed with a bloodthirsty light. It strode purposefully to the nearest dilapidated old house and, without slowing its pace, used its robust body—constructed from beguiler demon flesh—to effortlessly smash a large hole through the wooden wall, weakened by Abyssal energy. As shattered wood fragments scattered across the ground, Golem One boldly entered the pitch-dark interior.

Golem One’s eyes were harvested from a demon, granting it decent night vision even in dark environments.

However, while Golem One understood Punk’s command to “find” the fugitives, it lacked the intelligence for sophisticated search methods. It simply barged into one house after another, coldly “scanning” the empty rooms before promptly moving on to the next building!”He didn’t even search through the rooms inside…”

Punk gently pressed his temples with his fingers – he shouldn’t have held any hope for the search capabilities of something like a golem.

Due to its inherent intellectual limitations, Golem One was completely incapable of performing sophisticated actions like “thinking of solutions.” It appeared that without detailed instructions, this clumsy brute’s operational capacity was even inferior to cold-blooded animals. According to Punk’s estimation, its intelligence was only slightly better than that of arthropods.

The golem remained completely unaware of how inefficient it was to “scan” building after building so aimlessly. It couldn’t even conceive of basic actions like searching through wardrobes or wooden chests. In its understanding, “searching” merely meant visual observation.

Puck shook his head helplessly. It seemed this dull brute couldn’t comprehend the full meaning of the “search” command – it had only grasped the “observation” component of the instruction. As for the “seeking” aspect of this “profound” semantic meaning… that was simply too difficult for Golem One’s fragmented soul to understand!

Silently marking another big cross against the golem’s search and identification capabilities, Punk expressionlessly canceled the “search” command.

It appeared Golem One’s role would be limited to that of an inflexible “remote-controlled” meat shield. If they ever encountered a real crisis, this hulking figure would definitely be unreliable!

The golem’s inefficient searching had consumed considerable time. Unnoticed, dawn was approaching, and Punk no longer intended to continue playing this hopeless game of hide-and-seek with those rats.

Instantly casting the simplest Formal-Level Divination Spell, Punk immediately obtained information about the escapees’ hiding place.

“What ignorant fools, still hiding inside buildings. Did they really think Golem One couldn’t find them?”

A faint smile curled at the corner of Punk’s lips. With precise “Divination Spell Location,” Golem One ceased its futile searching behavior and directly smashed through several houses, moving in a straight line toward the dilapidated building where the escapees were hiding!

By now, faint glimmers of Dawn’s radiance had begun to appear at the horizon’s edge, and the dark night curtain had started to fade somewhat. But for these few escaping slaves, they probably wouldn’t live to see the final sunrise… Tomorrow, Lotalan would deliver a new batch of slaves anyway. Punk couldn’t even be bothered to recapture these ones – let them all die here!

Only when Golem Number One reached the dilapidated house’s entrance, its massive body completely blocking the winter wind that had been making the wooden walls creak, did these exhausted escapees realize their hiding had become meaningless.

Driven by survival instinct, three slaves desperately scrambled out through a tilted window, collapsing onto the black-red ground of the courtyard before trying to crawl a few more steps on hands and feet… but… they would never have another chance to continue moving.

Through the golem’s visual connection, Punk watched the three skeletal-looking slaves scrambling and crawling in their attempt to escape beyond the fence. However, tormented by hunger and fear, their fleeing speed couldn’t even inspire the desire to give chase.

“Attack!”

Punk coldly issued the attack command!

Let Golem One’s sharp claws send them on their final journey!Golem One indeed meticulously followed Punk’s command and launched an attack, but contrary to Punk’s expectations, Golem One neither extended its blood-red claws nor took a step forward, nor did it show any muscle-tensing movements!

It actually remained in place, wide-opening its large mouth full of sharp teeth, while the spell model solidified in its throat began operating at extreme speed!

“Official-level Solidified Spell – Acid Spray”!

“To hell with this…!”

Punk was utterly stunned. His command to attack meant having the golem charge and tear the enemy apart, not foolishly casting a spell like it had water in its head. Using a precious Official-level attack spell—which could only be activated five times a day—against a few ordinary people was no different from wasting an ultimate move on minor soldiers!

Golem One’s intelligence was truly exasperating!

“It seems necessary to add a few more fixed procedures. Even if it makes behavioral patterns easier for enemies to detect, it’s still better than this brainless, chaotic attacking!”

In Punk’s eyes, streams of brilliant blue mana radiance swirled freely. This test of Golem One had exposed many flaws, but fortunately, Punk was not without methods for improvement!

(End of Chapter)