Planning the defense of a location that wasn’t connected to a town core was difficult. Theo went through the various approaches and determined his plan before even considering constructing a golem. The golems would play a small part in the defense of the fortress, but shaping the surrounding terrain into something more easily defensible would have a higher impact. That meant it was wise to start working with his Earth Sorcerer’s Core first, but the metal Tresk had brought was too tempting not to work with.

“Where did you even find this stuff?” Theo asked, looking down at a bar of the material. Even without asking, he could tell it was some alloy of Drogramathi Iron and something else.

“Oh, you know I have my sources,” Tresk said, trying to act as mysterious as possible. But she was actually quite bad at keeping secrets. “Dad made it for me.”

Theo shook his head, feeling the weight of the bar in his hand. Tresk had a lot of it, which meant they could make a lot of golems, or one really big one. The metal itself was like the other Drogramathi Iron alloys, and it didn’t take long to figure out what the second metal was. The alchemist was under the impression that Drogramathi Iron wouldn’t play well with Mythril, but the strands of bright silver that ran through the bar gave it away even without him inspecting it.

It wasn’t as though combining the two metals was impossible, he just didn’t think anyone in town had the skill. Theo summoned the system description of the item.

[Unobtinium]

[Metal Ingot]

Legendary

Quality: Perfect

An alloy of mythril and drogramathi iron. The skill required to produce this ingot is other-worldly. The name? Not so much.

“I feel bad for Azrug,” Theo said, shaking his head.

“And why is that?” Tresk asked, knowing full well what he was about to say.

“That is easily the stupidest name I’ve ever seen. Unobtinium? Like, did you mean ‘unobtainium?” Who comes up with a name like that?”

“What?” Tresk asked, inspecting the item. “Ah, crap! Ya messed up, Azrug! I clearly said ‘Unobtainium.’”

“Too late now,” Theo said. “Anyway, wanna see how far we can push my golem-making?”

“Yeah, let’s ignore my huge mistake and move on and never talk about it again. Please and thank you.”

If Theo was honest with himself, he would admit that he wasn’t the best golem maker in the world. He wasn’t even kind of good and had basically faked his way through almost everything to get to where he was. He understood the general concept, but when it came to the art of creating golems, he was an amateur. Each Golem he had constructed so far was made from the very simple concept of a containment core, monster core, power source, and a construction medium. When they came to metal golems, they also required something with the fire element to keep them running for a long time. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be able to reform themselves after damage.

“What’s the highest level Monster Core you can find?” Theo asked, tapping his chin. “And how much of this stuff do you have?”

Tresk dumped the contents of her inventory on the ground. The pile of ingots was high, numbering somewhere in the hundreds. He was completely unsure where she had gotten her hands on so much material, but he wouldn’t question it. She looked at him with glittering eyes, rubbing her hands together.

“Okay, when you ask me how high, is that a challenge?”

“Yes, that actually is. I want to see how far I can push my willpower with golem construction. So, go wild.”

Throwing her head back, Tresk cackled. Twin daggers appeared in her hands and then she was gone. Zephyr, who had been watching from the battlements above, poked his head over and regarded the alchemist with a lazy expression.

“Is that normal?”

“Very,” Theo said. “With any luck, she’ll come back with a Level 1000 Monster Core.”

“No idea what that is,” Zephyr said, assuming his reclined position yet again.

While Theo waited for Tresk to return with a ridiculously high-level monster core, he slotted his Earth Sorcerer’s Core in his chest and assessed the surrounding environment. A lot of the tundra was ice, but underneath that ice was a thick layer of rock that he could use to create his castles. He walked out through the main gate and surveyed for only a minute before injecting his willpower into the landscape. Town-sized chunks of rock rose into the air and were unceremoniously thrown far into the distance. Zephyr made a shriek of surprise from the battlements above and, from that point on, watched as the alchemist did his work.

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Theo created concentric rings of trenches and leveled all the nearby hills and mountains until, for miles around, it was flat ground. That would give Zephyr the line of sight he needed to destroy any attacking force at the bottom of each chasm. The alchemist placed wicked spikes that shot up from the ground and intended to dispatch anybody who was hapless enough to fall within. The one thing he couldn’t account for was the skies above. Any flying enemy would easily get over, just as Alex was currently demonstrating. But he could only prepare for conventional war and would have to rely on the powerful mage to take care of anything else.

“Wow, I would have paid good money to have you back in the day,” Zephyr said, finally removing himself from his perch and coming down to inspect the overwrought defenses. “You could have had any of the major cities defended in an afternoon.”

“I heard you guys had it rough back in the day,” Theo said, adjusting the bridges he had created to go over the pits. He didn’t just want to leave an entire section of rock there. Collapsible bridges had become a favorite defensive strategy.

“Oh, it wasn’t all bad,” Zephyr said with a shrug. “As long as you weren’t involved in the politics of it, it was pretty fun. We had decent control of the monster waves, and we got to use some interesting tactics.”

“Like what?” Theo asked, cocking his head to the side.

“We always conducted the fights in phases. Typically, we knew where the monster waves were going to come from, and Elrin eventually figured out how to tell which monsters were going to be in that wave. We would employ hit-and-run tactics at first. We had a whole team of people dragging cannons around the countryside and firing on the forces as they moved. The orcs were the easiest because they had the longest walk.” Zephyr paused as though to remember a fond memory. “I got to work with Princess Dilya, who was one hell of a mage. She taught me a lot about spellcraft, so I owe her a lot.”

“How big were your forces?”

“Depends,” Zephyr said. “The Assault of Perisart was pretty tame. I can’t remember, but we had to whittle down something like thirty-thousand orcs. They had a week-long walk from the Strait of Calet, and we hammered them every step of the way. I’m talking about cavalry charges, explosives planted in the ground, cannons wheeled on carts, and light skirmishes in open fields. The Warriors numbered about five-thousand then, but we had irregulars reinforcing us from the cults, and some random guilds out of Hallben.”

“Casualties?”

Zephyr laughed at that, patting Theo on the shoulder. “A few hundred, if you can believe it. Our commanders took no chances, and by the time we backed up to the Forest of Perisart, we had a series of walls to hide behind. I can still smell the gunpowder from the mounted cannons… You ever see a Chimeric Aberration take a shot to the face?”

“Can’t say that I have.”

“Now that is a thing of glory, my friend.” Zephyr let out a wistful sigh. “Anyway, group magic was pretty important. Princess Dilya led a cadre of mages that summoned powerful spells from the sky. We watched hundreds of those orcs perish in single casting. Now here I am. All alone with my silly fireballs. Fire isn’t even my specialty!”

“You could have fooled me,” Theo said. “You actually cracked my barrier. I can’t imagine much getting through your defenses, but I like being cautious.”

“Hell yeah, dude. Well, look at that. Your little goblin friend is back, and she looks extremely pleased,” Zephyr said, pointing into the distance. “Think she found what she was looking for?”

“Yep. She found a Level 500 Monster Core in a negative dungeon,” Theo said, setting his jaw. “I’m not sure if I can handle that.”

“You said to bring the biggest one I could find!” Tresk shouted, pumping her fist in the air. “And I got the big daddy of all Monster Cores!”

Truth was, such a high-level monster core might be dangerous, and the alchemist wasn’t sure if he could work with it. His willpower would help him construct it, but after that, how would it be controlled? He fell into his thoughts, working through every scenario until something popped into his mind. A lodestone carrying a wisp of his power was good, but what if he were to imbue that lodestone directly into the monster? He could flood it with all his willpower and hope for the best. Eventually, he shook his head and accepted the absurdly high-level monster core from Tresk.

“Let me get to work. My instincts tell me I’m going to need almost all of the ingots you brought me,” he said.

“All of them?” Tresk asked. “I mean, is it going to make a gigantic golem?”

“Yes, it is.”

Theo had the materials in his inventory to create the golem. He just hoped the containment core could handle the monster core and got to work. It accepted everything with ease, thanks to his infusion of high willpower. Even the monster core slotted into the containment core without any problems, resting in there as though it had belonged to him for a long time. When everything was in order, he stood back, looking around to ensure there was enough space so he didn’t set the castle on fire.

The moment Theo added the Fire Construct to the arrangement, the golem burst into flames. With impossible heat, the metal all melted together, surrounding the containment core with frightening speed. The creature drew itself up, taking on the form of a bipedal humanoid glowing with a red-white light. That human shape didn’t remain for long, though. It began twisting as molten metal formed into an altogether unfamiliar shape.

“This process is taking longer than normal,” Theo said, shielding his eyes from the light. “I added something special, so… Yeah, let’s take cover.”

Tresk didn’t need to be told twice. She dashed off far into the distance before Theo had even finished his sentence. Zephyr needed a little more encouragement, so the alchemist grabbed him by the arm and ran. Only when they were behind the main wall of the castle did he stop listening and feeling for aberrant magical energies. A few minutes later, a pulse shot out from the courtyard, rumbling the walls hard enough to shake mortar loose from between the stones.

“That was a good boom, right?” Zephyr asked, throwing his head back in laughter. “Oh, man. This reminds me of the good old days.”

“I’m glad you’re having fun, but the highest Monster Core I’ve ever used was Level 30,” Theo said. “That made a Greater Golem, so I can only imagine what this creates.”

The sound of groaning metal issued from within the courtyard. Theo cocked his head to one side, trying to figure out what was going on by sound alone. He eventually got too curious, and stuck his head around the corner.

“Well, that’s more impressive than expected,” Theo said. “I suppose I should’ve expected the unexpected.”