Chapter 4: The KBT-Type
I pulled up my status screen, swiping away the loot notification to look at my skills again.
[Golemancy (Rank: S)]: The magical art of animating inorganic matter. Powered by Animus Resonance, this allows the user to shape, animate, and command constructs that level up and grow based on shared experiences. Mana cost scales with the size and complexity of the construct.
I closed my eyes, centered myself, and tried to feel the skill. It wasn't like reading a technical manual, and it wasn't just blindly wishing for something to appear. It came to me like the familiar muscle memory of snapping a Master Grade model kit together, but this time, the plastic was the earth itself, and the glue was pure magic. I just inherently knew how to call to the stone, how to mold the metal, and how to breathe my intent into a frame so it could move.
"Okay. Let's build a robot," I said, pushing myself up from the base of the tree.
I checked my mana pool. Thanks to my Gemini Soul, my massive tank was already thrumming pleasantly beneath my skin, almost completely refilled. But I still had to be smart. If forging a single sword drained over seven hundred mana, trying to conjure an entire golem out of pure Soul-Steel would probably put me in a coma. Or, you know, straight-up dust me.
I scanned the dark clearing. A few yards away, half-buried in the dirt, sat a roughly four-foot-tall boulder. I walked over and tapped it. Cold, hard, standard-issue rock.
My status explicitly stated that Golemancy was the pinnacle of earth and ore manipulation. If my imagination let me treat magical metal like modeling clay, couldn't I do the same thing to normal stone?
My builder instincts clicked perfectly into place. If I used the rock as the bulk external armor, I could weave a smaller amount of Soul-Steel inside it as an articulated inner frame and magical wiring. It would drastically cut the overall mana cost. It was the ultimate, real-life kitbash.
Well, there was only one way to find out.
I placed both hands flat against the rough surface of the boulder. I closed my eyes, chasing that magical instinct, and pushed my mana outward with a steady, heavy pressure.
The stone beneath my palms grew warm. It didn't crumble or break; it yielded. I pushed my fingers into the solid rock, and it parted like thick putty.
"Oh, that is so cool," I whispered, grinning like an absolute idiot.
With my right hand keeping the stone pliable, I held out my left hand. I focused on a dense sphere of Soul-Steel, dropping my mana as the dark, sapphire-sheened metal materialized. I pushed the sphere directly into the center of the boulder, using pure willpower to fold the stone and metal together.
I didn't want a generic, blocky brawler. If I was going to build a bipedal, shooting-oriented fighter, my inner anime fan demanded I build a classic.
I funneled a tiny spark of my Thunder Surge into the mix, using the volatile lightning to bake the earth and ore together. The localized heat treated the stone, purifying it until the outer armor plating took on a distinct, hardened golden-yellow hue.
I pulled the heavy mass up into a stout, perfectly proportioned mechanical figure. I shaped the head first, carefully molding the sloped helmet and extruding the iconic, single split-ended horn right above the visor housing.
Next came the weapons. I didn't give him standard hands. I shaped the right arm into a heavy, semi-automatic rifle barrel—a perfect Meta-Revolver built for quick, high-precision strikes. For the left arm, I extruded the golden-yellow armor into a multi-barreled rotary Gatling gun, designed for heavy suppression.
Finally, I reinforced the bipedal legs, making sure the feet were wide and perfectly angled to absorb the heavy recoil of dual arm-cannons.
He looked incredible. A flawless, golden-yellow Japanese rhinoceros beetle design. A true KBT-type.
Now, it needed a core.
I reached down and grabbed the loot from the dirt. The muddy brown monster core from the Crag-Boar settled heavily into my hand.
I activated Animus Resonance, pushing my raw, overpowered mana into the monster crystal. It fought me for a second, but then the muddy brown color began to boil away. It refined right in my palm, turning into a clear, transparent crystal with a glittering, pearlescent energy floating inside that refused to accept any more mana. It was perfectly imprinted with my signature.
"Beautiful," I breathed in awe of the glowing stone. Feeling the familiar mana-headache flaring up in the background, I checked my pool. I still had about twenty percent left. I had to see this through.
I reached out and molded the stone on the center of the golem's back, shaping a circular, recessed slot with a sliding hatch. I placed the refined core into the slot. The metal and rock seamlessly shifted, swallowing the core and sealing the hatch securely over it.
I took a step back, letting the connection snap into place, and focused my intent.
Activate.
A deep hum echoed in the clearing. The internal veins of Soul-Steel running beneath the golden armor flared with a sudden, brilliant sapphire light, mixing perfectly with the pulsing energy of the core.
The golem's head slowly tilted up. Two bright green optics ignited beneath the split horn. It took a heavy, clanking step forward, the ground shaking slightly beneath its dense weight, and then turned its head to look directly at me.
A sudden, sharp connection snapped into my mind, like a controller finally syncing to a console. I could feel it. Thanks to the Animus Resonance, its heavy, artillery-loaded limbs felt like a phantom extension of my own body, standing by for a mental impulse to fire.
With a soft chime, the System projected itself into the darkness.
[Construct Created: Earth/Soul-Steel Golem]
[Level]: 1
[Type]: Heavy Assault / Sniper Type
[Status]: Active
The moment the System confirmed it, the final toll of the activation hit me. The headache that had been brewing at the base of my skull flared into a full-blown spike of agony, and my knees instantly turned to jelly. I collapsed backward.
I didn't hit the ground.
The golem moved in a blur of motion. It caught me by the shoulder with the smooth, curved casing of its left Gatling arm, stabilizing me with effortless strength.
"Thanks, buddy," I wheezed, sitting down properly as my dual-core soul desperately went to work, aggressively pulling ambient magic from the air to soothe the drain.
The golem simply tilted its horned helm, its green optics pulsing softly. Through our mental tether, I felt a wave of absolute, unblinking loyalty. It didn't have a voice, but the intent was loud and clear: Standing by.
Once the pounding behind my eyes faded to a dull throb, my curiosity started itching again. I had an artillery bot, but I needed to know if he could handle my volatile magic.
"Alright, step back a bit," I muttered.
The golden construct instantly complied, taking two heavy, thudding steps backward.
I held out my hands and focused on Thunder Surge. A sharp crackle of ozone filled the damp forest air as sapphire-blue lightning danced across my knuckles. I let a thick arc of blue lightning snap from my hand directly into the golem's chest.
I flinched, expecting the armor to shatter or the core to overload, but the construct didn't even stagger. Instead, the sapphire veins of Soul-Steel marbled through its chassis acted like perfect conductive wiring. The lightning absorbed flawlessly into its inner frame.
Through our mental tether, I didn't feel pain. I felt a massive spike of raw, offensive power. The golem buzzed with a volatile, humming energy. It raised its right arm—the Meta-Revolver—and the barrel glowed with a terrifying, highly condensed blue light.
"Whoa," I breathed, quickly cutting the feed before he accidentally blew a hole through the forest. "A built-in battery boost. If I pump enough mana into you, you could probably fire both arms at once like a Medaforce blast."
I looked at the stout, golden-yellow armor, the split rhino-beetle horn, and the heavy arm cannons currently venting thin wisps of steam into the cold night air.
A massive grin slowly spread across my face.