Chapter 9

Once Nagt had calmed down, I started the same process for Glrt. I failed many times. At first, Glrt didn't have a problem speaking, but it couldn't seem to relax. I almost broke its neck several times. After the fourth attempt, Glrt seemed to lose interest in talking, which forced me to try again. Maybe Nagt was highly disciplined for what he was. Or maybe Glrt had even weaker intent than Nagt did. I wasn't sure if intent could be trained into something, a test I'd need to conduct on creatures apart from these two. I wasn't satisfied being worshipped by such flippant creatures.

Despite know it was impossible, the weakness of their intent gave me the impression they could simply abandon the pieces of will-core I claimed. I knew it to be impossible, but intent was a reflection of the current state of the will-core. Having so little cohesion was worrying.

After twenty attempts, Glrt's rune was finally finished. It was less stoic about the drawing of blood, but lost all signs of resistance once the rune started glowing. It also screamed less, still enamored with the memory of the rune. Nagt had been amazed at the rune, but hadn't tried to remember it. Glrt not only attempted to remember it, but tried to brand it on its memory.

I turned my attention back to Nagt. Some things weren't adding up. "My Creator called me a will golem when he first created me, despite not being able to recognize my will. You noticed my will, but called it aura. Explain this to me." Now I didn't need to worry about lies or obfuscations. I could also delve directly into its will and will-core, learning all of its memories. Asking was really just a formality so it understood what was happening and draw relevant memories to the surface.

"Master, Nagt doesn't know much magic. Former master wizard called glow-pulse mana-smell aura." Its words were insignificant. Looking at the memories of this wizard…I was stunned. The wizard had so much mana leaking from its will that it caused it to radiate light. Then again…this creature's ability to sense the world was fundamentally different from mine. I sensed everything using will. This creature didn't use will as a form of sensation at all. It didn't actually sense my will using its will, but rather smell.

Now that I looked, there was a tiny circuit built into its nose, flawed and weak but present. It was similar to my Creator's will-circuit, being refined by usage. As I performed a detailed examination, I realized that there were circuits all over the creature. Tens of thousands of them, built into each muscle, some built into skin, and every other part of it. Crude and weak, not even causing enough mana to flow out of the flawed circuits. It showed potential, though. If this creature consumed enough mana-rich nutrients, it could develop into an astonishingly dangerous creature. It also explained the constant alterations to the runes for the corpses. They were bleeding the tiny circuits as they fell apart. The circuits were so small and faint that noticing them took effort, but their destruction would still alter the properties of their former homes.

As Nagt didn't accumulate mana, it would take a very long time for any of those circuits to grow to maturity. There was a much easier way to have mana flow through the circuits, causing them and Nagt as a creature to mature. I built a mana-core formation circuit within the skull of Nagt. I also worked in a few others I saw as necessary, mainly a basic link circuit to allow me to order it from beyond my will's influence and an extra mana accumulation circuit to accelerate the maturation process. The mana-core would eventually crush the brain as it grew, but I'd cement its will into a will-core so there wouldn't be any problem. I would need to significantly increase the solidity of its intent, but I was planning on doing that anyway. It would have to fully mature before it even became a problem as the rest of the body would suck the mana out of the core before it could form.

Watching the maturation process happen before me was fascinating. It was also very taxing. I hadn't paid such close attention to so many simultaneous things at once before. It was a wonderfully concentrated form of learning, however. The natural circuits informed me of all this creature was supposed to be capable of. I also learned so many runes in so short a time that it was difficult to understand. Even more surprising was that I learned basic principles of greater runes. They weren't massive structures, as I had thought. They were wider, larger, and more complex, but it was more of a self-contained circuit than anything else. Runes branching off of the ends of runes. Composite runes.

Runes had different structures, meaning they had a different number of empty faces after their construction. Now that I knew each face was the basis for a possible composite point, the possibilities for learning were exponentially higher than they had been. I wasn't even sure how many layers a composite rune could have, but even filling the first composite tier of a will rune would keep me occupied for longer than I'd lived so far. Within a circuit the will rune had twenty faces. In its natural state, however, the will rune had a full hundred faces. The possibilities were almost endless!

Nagt was screaming again, but I didn't have the attention of processing power to care. Watching the evolution of the circuits was such a wonderful experience that I didn't even know how to describe it. It also showed me how inferior my creation was to this creature's. None of my runes had room to evolve. My circuits were too fragile to allow for the massive flows of mana without rupturing. Another strength it showed was the potential of use-based circuit construction. The use, being the base component, could allow the circuit to grow. If I wanted to make my circuits grow, I'd need to build them larger after destroying the original circuit. Of course, growth circuits would require me to know their end state before starting. Given what I had available to me, I was perfect. That sounded like a weak excuse, though, and that irritated me.

The major weakness of this creature was its will and brain. No circuits ever grew there. That was fine. I could use that space better than I'd trust the natural disposition of this creature. The intent was as weak as ever, despite advancing to be so much more dangerous that even its wizard master would cower in fear. While I could tell the rough level of power of the wizard from Nagt's memories, I doubted it had any composite runes. It had at least five circles on its will circuit, but that wasn't equivalent to the second composite level Nagt had reached despite its most advanced circuit being of the third circle.

Finally, the creature stopped maturing. It was now three times as large as it had been. Five times as thick. "Mr. Golem made Nagt an ogre! Do me! Do me!" Glrt was clinging to my bone construct, pure adoration and need filling its will. "Glogug said it impossible! Make Glrt an ogre too, Mr. Golem! Glogug said Glrt couldn't be ogre too. Mr. Golem can do it to Glrt, right? Do me too!"

Nagt still had room to grow, I could already see the beginnings of a fourth level to its runes. The mana was woefully inadequate, however. My circuits were perfect, but they were limited. Maybe I'd be able to do better. Maybe I could make a growth-type circuit. I needed more testing to do that, though. I didn't even know the second level composite runes for any runes I knew, apart from Nagt's.

I wanted to make sure I was making as powerful a worshipper as I could, though. I made sure to analyse every inch of Nagt, seeing how the mana had flowed through the natural progression and thinking of ways to make it better.

Nagt was horribly balanced. Some runes had only reached the first composite stage while his most advanced ones had not only advanced to the second composite stage, but had also grown the third circle. As I analyzed Nagt I realized it was made for a very specific purpose. It could hit things really hard and get hit really hard without being wounded. It's most advanced runes were reinforcement-related, followed closely by strengthening. It was a perfect blunt tool.

In a straight up contest, it could easily paint the back-drop with the remains of any of my constructs I sent against it. Even my circuits couldn't damage this creature if it wasn't my worshipper. As weak as its intent still was, the density of will that coated it was ridiculous. Trying to pierce through it to cause internal damage would be impossible and the skin was so tough I'd never be able to pierce it from the outside.