“How about making a Golem with a Magic Stone?”

“With a Magic Stone?”

Rael was bewildered.

She didn’t understand what Amelin was saying. She wondered if Amelin was making a magic item like a necklace.

But that wasn’t it.

What Amelin was talking about was a Golem that could move constantly, not one that had to be summoned whenever needed.

“We’ll use a Magic Stone as its power source.”

“That sounds difficult.”

“It won’t be easy. But think about it. If we do this, we’ll have a Golem that can move anytime.”

Rael was tempted.

Summoning Golems was good, but it wasn’t efficient.

To extend their duration, she had to use a lot of mana and chant spells for a long time. However, if she created a Golem, it could immediately join a battle whenever one occurred.

She wouldn’t need to use mana either, because the Magic Stone would be its power source. The important thing was how long it would move.

Amelin said that while it would decrease quickly in a fight, it would last for more than two years.

At that, Rael decided to learn the magic of making a Golem first. Although the cost of employing a reliable companion for two years was a bit high, she considered it worthwhile.

At least, unlike a Mercenary, a Golem would obey any command for the Protagonist. It would even charge into enemy lines alone if told to. Most importantly, a Golem could not betray her.

She took a deep breath.

After inhaling as much as possible, she slowly drew up mana. She had to pull out what was in her stomach as if it were a thread.

It was difficult.

She had to have excellent skill in handling mana. It had been less than half a year since Rael became capable of this. It was that difficult.

But this was just the beginning.

In this state, she had to twist the finely drawn thread like a pen and carve a Mana Circuit.

The Old Man said that symbols and patterns held profound meanings. He talked a lot, but she didn’t really listen.

The important thing was that she just had to trace it exactly as it was.

It was like drawing a picture.

Mana was a tool.

Using it, she carved the Mana Circuit exactly as the Old Man had instructed.

He attempted it dozens of times in a single day, and failed miserably every single time.

It was manageable at first.

But as his concentration slowly waned, he made a mistake.

It couldn’t be helped.

Just maintaining the thin thread of mana he pulled out consumed a significant amount of concentration. Each time, he took a short break and started over, repeating the process. This pushed back the point where his concentration would drop.

Through repeated actions, he was gradually gaining proficiency.

However, he still had a long way to go.

The intermediate core he had to create this time was difficult. Compared to this, the basic core was child’s play. The number of Mana Circuits he had to engrave was, without exaggeration, nearly ten times greater.

He had to engrave all of them.

Even a single mistake in the middle meant failure.

He would have to start over from the beginning.

Rael did not try to engrave the Mana Circuit all at once.

He focused on minimizing mistakes as much as possible.

The work of engraving the Mana Circuit with his index finger onto a slightly heavy stone continued.

It took him ten days just to engrave each section at least a hundred times without error. Before he knew it, a month had passed since he boarded the Carriage.

He was struck anew by how incredibly difficult it was.

To properly use Magic, he had to complete the circuit engraving process within a few minutes.

If his skill in handling mana improved, the difficulty would decrease significantly, but to the current Protagonist, it seemed utterly impossible.

In contrast, creating a Golem only required engraving the Mana Circuit onto a Magic Stone once, regardless of time. This was much easier.

If he had been told to learn how to summon a Golem, he couldn’t even guess how many years it would take.

Rael took a deep breath.

Now it was time for the real thing.

He held the Magic Stone and placed his index finger on it. His touch became extremely careful. He had no choice. Until now, it didn’t matter if he failed.

But now he was engraving the Mana Circuit onto the Magic Stone. The moment he made even one mistake, it was over.

The Magic Stone would become useless.

A damaged Magic Stone lost its value. In the worst case, he might not get any value for it at all. It would mean losing Gold Coins.

The work of carving the Mana Circuit was only done when I could concentrate well. I didn’t do it when I was on the Carriage. An irreversible incident could happen due to the rattling.

It was only about two hours a day, but even that was enough to make my head throb. Every time I fell asleep at night, I was grateful that I had gotten through it safely.

It was a week later when Rael had finished carving all the Mana Circuits into the Magic Stone. My hands were trembling. All that was left was to create the ice that would form its body.

After forming the shape of water, I slowly froze it. It wasn’t at a proper level, so I couldn’t create a block of ice at once. As I repeated this process, I broke out in a sweat.

By the time I had finished creating the arms and legs, starting from the torso, half a day had already passed.

The sun was rising. While others slept, the Protagonist had stayed up all night.

I lowered my gaze.

An ice Golem lay on the ground.

It resembled a Troll.

Its height was more than twice that of an average person, and its body was massive. I regretted not being able to make it larger. A mid-grade core was the limit for moving this size.

It could move through empathy. I slowly made it stand up. The Golem braced its arms on the ground and rose to its feet.

My head throbbed slightly. Just controlling the Golem consumed Mental Power. Just in case, I infused mana into the Necklace.

I dropped the Necklace without realizing it. My head ached terribly.

‘I can only use one Golem.’

If I pushed myself, I thought I could also summon the Golem from the Necklace. However, my head would probably ache so much that I wouldn’t be able to use Magic properly for several days.

More training was still needed.

Even one ice Golem was more than enough.

The power of the Golem I had just seen through the Necklace was immense.

The first time I used it, it single-handedly turned ten Orcs into pulp. This was the kind of Golem I was taking with me. I felt good.

I gave a command.

The Golem knelt on one knee and held out its palm.

I climbed onto it. As the Golem stood up, my vantage point became higher. I didn’t even need to walk myself.

As I returned riding on the Golem’s palm, a commotion arose. The Soldiers were in an uproar, thinking an enemy had appeared.

“Lord Rael?”

Sir Ratt was looking up. Other Knights also appeared. A female Knight made the Soldiers turn back. She seemed to have recognized the Protagonist’s appearance.

They all looked dumbfounded. It seemed this was their first time seeing a Golem.

Rael had a hard time explaining to them that the protagonist had made it. They all didn’t believe him. He could only convince them after showing them giving direct orders.

“We’re starting again!”

The female knight at the front shouted.

People got into their carriages.

He looked at the Golem. He had made it, but it was troublesome. It was too big to load onto a cargo carriage. He made it follow on foot.

There were many carriages loaded with heavy luggage. Perhaps because the carriages were moving slowly, the Golem’s pace could keep up with them.

The soldiers’ gazes were intense.

With a giant Golem walking beside them, it was understandable that they were speechless. He wondered what would happen if a battle broke out now, given how things were.

He thought they would faint if they saw how well the Golem fought.

Rael wanted to fight a battle.

It was boring.

He had been living in a carriage for over a month.

Even if it wasn’t a city, they had to stop at a village.

Amelin also seemed annoyed by the many people around. She often looked at him with an openly frustrated expression.

If she hadn’t been training in magic, she might have been dragged into the forest long ago. Still, it was good that her mental power was gradually getting stronger.

By the time half a day passed just walking the Golem, his head throbbed. It was a good symptom. A throbbing head was proof that he was getting stronger.

Even when the sun set and they camped, he couldn’t rest.

He looked at the Golem. Its size had shrunk by half.

It had been exposed to sunlight all day.

Since it was made of ice, it had no choice but to melt. He had to enlarge it again. It was time to use Freeze.

“Ugh…”

After he finished that, he could rest. As he walked, exhausted, he saw a woman behind the temporary tent. It was the female knight.

“Isn’t that Sir Rael? Looks like you can’t sleep.”

She smiled.

Rael’s face turned red. It was the first time he had felt so embarrassed just because a woman smiled, not even touched him.

“I’m on my way back from the Golem.”

“A Golem?”

The female Knight asked many questions about the Golem.

She said she had seen over ten Mages in her life, but not one of them could create a Golem.

Rael shrugged his shoulders and explained how strong the Golem was.

The female Knight listened with a serious expression.

Occasionally, he also mentioned Gnolls. Her gaze even changed when he said it had turned ten Orcs into a bloody mess.

“It would be a great help on the Front Line.”

“The Front Line…”

Rael mumbled. From her words, it seemed she had been on the Front Line. He wondered why she had come down here.

“What kind of place is the Front Line?”

“It’s hell.”

“Hell?”

“Most of the new recruits are ground to dust against the Orcs that pour in daily, and even Knights who complete their service are few and far between.”

“If it’s a place like that, there must be a shortage of people…”

“Are you asking why I came down?”

“Yes.”

“I’m an instructor.”

“An instructor?”

“It’s to take Knights around and help them gain experience. Even Knight-level forces can’t hold out on the very Front Line if they don’t have experience fighting Orcs.”

Rael was afraid.

He remembered the female Knight shouting about ending the war in the North. Her confident demeanor from then was nowhere to be found, replaced by fear on her face.

He couldn’t even imagine a place that would make even an intermediate Knight shudder.

“I apologize to you for that.”

“Apologize?”

“It’s unforgivable to even think of taking a young man like you to a battle zone. But I need your strength. I felt it even more after seeing the Golem this time. Please, would you come with me?”

“You want me to go to a Battlefield where people are dying like insects, where the North has long been devastated, and even the Front Line is collapsing?”

“Of course, there’s a price. To the extent of my power, I will grant your wish.”

She approached as she spoke.

There was the scent of perfume. Rael unconsciously took a step back. He felt that if he smelled her and brought his face close, he would nod without realizing it.

He changed the subject.

“Why did the orcs come down?”

“Why are you curious about that?”

“I heard this kind of thing doesn’t happen.”

“I don’t know either.”

“You don’t know?”

“They were fellows who lived in the Mountain Range. They like war, but not to this extent. This is close to an all-out war. The Kingdom is in crisis. Although the central nobles are sending troops, it’s enough to make you want to scream.”

The female knight made a bitter face.

“Only the warmongers are excited. If they end this war, they’ll become war heroes. There hasn’t been such a large war since the Civil War over a hundred years ago.”

As Rael listened to the story, his face grew darker. He even thought that he should escape right away.

On the other hand, he also thought of Bruno. He wondered if he would also come to get a piece of the action. If he fought the orcs, he might encounter Grak.

Rael exchanged a few more words and then left.

One fortunate thing was that they planned to stop by the village soon. From there, it was only a week’s journey to a large city.

While he felt a little sorry for Amelin, he was also happy at the thought of being able to rest a bit. There hadn’t been a day when his head didn’t ache. Training was important, but rest was also necessary.

It was then.

“Orcs!”

Someone shouted, and he poked his head out towards the coachman’s seat. A fight was breaking out ahead. It seemed to be a battle between a group of orcs and the villagers.

Those at the front prepared to intervene in the battle. It had been a long time since they had fought. Rael couldn’t be left out.

The Golem ran forward. Everyone stopped what they were doing at the thumping sound.

As the Golem, which had run to the battlefield, swung its arm, three orcs flew away. Seeing that, other orcs charged. There were quite a few of them.

The Golem either knocked away or stomped on all the charging orcs. There was no one to oppose it.

The Golem was running wild.