Chương 19: Bone Golems

Alex was shocked as the cauldron bubbled vigorously and he felt his aura and soul threads stirring wildly, burning with intense energy as they melded with the floating spectral core for a brief but powerful moment. He was draining his energies at an alarming rate. He consumed his Bone Pills one after another to keep up with the immense cost. Eventually, he pushed well beyond the original time limit.

He managed to keep the transformed core, but only after sacrificing a large wyvern core by placing it inside the cauldron to provide enough magical power for permanent sustainability. He had also given himself several complex orders, such as "Finely tune the Soul Threads into a Binding Contract-like Runic Formation." This allowed his own Soul Threads to transform into glowing golden runes that wrapped tightly around the core.

"It works…! So this is how I can permanently keep the transformation? It has lost a rank though. It went from B to C+ Rank, but it still seems stronger than it was originally while keeping all of the additional abilities." Temporary transformation was still stronger and granted the core more power to work with, but only for a couple of minutes. In the end, the permanent binding process proved to be the best choice for long-term use.

"Once I can increase the Skill Tier, it will boost what it can do. For now, let's continue with the experiments." Alex was a man who loved experimenting and discovering every little detail about the things he worked on. After successfully completing the permanent binding of the core, he considered several new possibilities. One idea was to make these cores his own, turning them into permanent storages of Nether for his skeletal body.

This would greatly boost his inner reserves, but he was not sure if the ghosts inside would be happy about that. The second idea, of course, was to create his own golems. For a moment he considered using the stones themselves, but he believed that would be too much work. He decided to leave the stones for armor, weapons, and reinforcements by turning them into clay to meld with his bones. Then, he dropped a huge pile of bones onto the ground and began using Bone Crafting.

He first shaped a sturdy golem by turning the bones into Bone Clay, creating a tall figure with a slender and athletic humanoid build. Strong muscles forged from bone clay and flesh tissue infused with Nether ensured it would not rot away. Finally, he infused the core inside, connecting it through Soul Threads and carefully shaping the Runes into place.

"Activate, Bone Golem Number Zero." With that command, the golem suddenly started moving. Its large skull-like head glowed, and its empty eye sockets turned a bright blue as it began moving erratically, looking around in confusion.

"Obey me. Sit down."

"..." The golem looked at him and then sat down obediently.

"Jump."

"..." The golem looked at him for a moment and then jumped once.

"I see, it works. There is some delay though. I guess its processing speed is not as fast as mine. That could be bad. I have to improve that. But how… ah, of course, more cores." Alex forged three more cores out of broken ones. He knew that merging multiple souls within a single vessel would not work yet at his current level of necromancy.

Then, using these three empty cores that he had repaired with his Alchemical Nether and Concoct Potion, he allowed the soul contained within the first core to spread out through the three additional cores. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

"Walk forward, walk backward, jump, swing your arm, punch the wall." The golem performed every command flawlessly. There was almost no delay now, and it seemed way smarter for some reason. It appeared that each core served as a container for parts of its mind and thoughts.

"It works…" Alex quickly pushed himself further to test his limits. He repeated the process with three more cores, modifying them, permanently transforming them, and placing them into three other vessels. He used the remaining broken cores to add additional cores for these new bodies. He shaped another humanoid golem. The other two were different. The third was shaped like a lightweight wyvern using its own bones. It was designed to fly.

The fourth was crafted to resemble a spider, built to move across all types of terrain with ease. After setting them up, he discovered that making any more golems would exhaust his soul and bring an aching pain he had never felt before. He decided to stop at four for now. Nonetheless, the result was impressive.

"I did it. Four Bone Golems, my precious children." Ding! [You have successfully bound multiple Golem Cores containing a soul inside to your own Necromancy Authority and created four Bone Golems under your command.] [Congratulations, you have successfully crafted [Improved Spectral Nether Bone Golems (C+ Rank)]. A new kind of creation has been made. Bonus experience earned.] [Profession: Shamanistic Alchemist (F) has reached Level 7. Stat points allocated. +2 free points.] [Class: Soulweaver Necromancer (F+) has reached Level 13. Stat points allocated. +1 free points.] [Race: Undead Skeleton (F) has reached Level 14. Stat points allocated. +1 free points.] [You learned the Skill: [Soul Puppeteer – Tier 1]!] [You obtained the Title: [Golem Maker]!] [Your Skill: [Bone Crafting – Tier 1] has reached 100% Mastery and is ready to Rank Up.] [Rank Up Requirements for the Skill: [Bone Crafting – Tier 1] [Five F Rank or above Monster Cores]: [5/5] [Create twenty Bone Constructs of any kind]: [20/20] [The full Skeleton of an E Rank monster or above]: [1/1] [All conditions have been met. Do you wish to Rank Up your Skill?] [Yes] [No] Alex looked at the new skills, the new title, and his Bone Crafting Skill with gleaming violet eyes. He instantly pressed [Yes]. The moment he did, the skill within his soul overflowed with power and evolved, spreading its runes throughout the interior of his soul. The required materials disappeared from his possession as the skill absorbed them and grew stronger. Ding! [The Skill: [Bone Crafting – Tier 1] has Ranked Up to Tier 2!] [Bone Crafting – Tier 2] You have learned the art of shaping, modifying, and weaponizing bone. You can harvest bones from slain enemies, refine them, combine them with your own skeletal structure, and enchant them using mana, runes, and soul threads. At Tier 2, the skill improves on all abilities within it and allows for the ability to infuse souls into bones. Current Abilities: Harvest and purify bones from corpses and store them inside your skeleton. Limit: 50, 000 KG. Fuse harvested bones into existing skeletal structures or create external armor, weapons, and tools. Created Bone Weapons, Armor, and Tools imbued with enough Magic Power and other materials will gain Item Status. Slightly more complex bone modification (reinforcement, sharpening, lightweight enchantments). Increase efficiency by 200% when working with your own body due to Self-Binding and Soul Thread Weaving synergy. Growth speed of this skill is significantly accelerated when using high-quality monster bones or when modifying your own vessel." Perfect." Alex's cold, emotionless voice echoed from his pale white bone jaws. The newly evolved skill seemed like the same ability as before, only better, and that was exactly what Alex wanted. He could now store up to 50, 000 kilograms of bones, or anything wrapped by them. He had already used some of the bones to create a giant Bone Treasure Chest full of anything that was not a bone, which he could summon or store at will. Besides the other enhancements, what fascinated him most was that properly created Bone Items would now gain an Item Status. They would receive new effects and be properly recognized by the System. This was significant." My wings…" he said." Let's improve them and permanently attach them to my main frame now." Lost in his countless ideas and projects, Alex spent the next half hour carefully modifying his wings and permanently attaching them to his main skeletal frame. The added weight did not bother him anymore thanks to the support provided by the Fleshbound Horror known as Meat. Using his Alchemical Nether, he also enhanced the wings and preserved their evolved form. He transformed them into black wings twice their original size, half their original weight, and capable of blazing with nether flames whenever activated. [Congratulations, you have successfully crafted [Spectral Bone Wyvern Wings (C+ Rank)]. A new kind of creation has been made. Bonus experience earned.] [You have permanently fused the [Spectral Bone Wyvern Wings (C+ Rank)] into your Main Skeletal Frame.] [Profession: Shamanistic Alchemist (F) has reached Level 8. Stat points allocated. +1 free points.]"Isn't that leveling way too fast?" Alex wondered as he spread his new wings." Hm, well, this is good. I haven't learned the Flight Skill yet. But it should appear once I do some more test flying. This new form wastes less energy as well. Now…"