Seeking the Golem Heart

"Old Saldean?" Shawn noticed something and called out softly.

Old Saldean hurriedly wiped away his tears, forcing a smile: "Come, come, Shawn, let me teach you..."

The day passed just like that.

The Harvest Golems were much simpler than Shawn had imagined.

In truth, if one were to calculate it seriously, the technological level of this world was far behind that of Earth, roughly equivalent to the dawn of the Second Industrial Revolution. It only seemed magical because of the existence of arcane energy; crude machinery could accomplish things that the most complex machines on Earth could not.

Aside from its outer limbs and torso, a Harvest Golem consisted of nothing more than a "Golem Heart," which was the most vital part of the construct.

All the energy, programming, and intelligence of a Harvest Golem relied entirely on the Golem Heart. If it lost its Golem Heart, it simply could not function.

The Golem Hearts had been passed down from Old Saldean's father; they could not be replicated or regenerated. If one truly broke, even Old Saldean had no way to fix it. Repairs were only needed—and possible—when the torso or limbs of a Harvest Golem suffered issues, such as structural damage, broken mechanisms, or rust.

For Shawn, who had graduated with a degree in science and engineering, it was not complicated at all.

In the span of a single day, Shawn had mastered the methods for repairing Harvest Golems. It was no exaggeration to say that as long as he had a Golem Heart and sufficient materials, Shawn could even build new Harvest Golems.

Only the Golem Heart itself remained beyond his current knowledge; he could neither understand nor manufacture it.

Opening his status interface, a new skill had been added to Shawn's skill list.

"Engineering, Novice."

Novice Engineering allowed for the creation of some common little gadgets, but Shawn didn't pay them much mind.

For him, the greatest gain of the day was learning how to repair and control Harvest Golems. With this, Shawn could consider himself to have a not-insignificant combat capability.

What Shawn hadn't expected was for the Space Garrison to suddenly trigger a quest.

"Side Quest: Golem Heart."

"Objective: Obtain ten Golem Hearts."

"Reward: Small building blueprint [Golem Factory]."

After finishing dinner, Shawn lay on his bed, crossing his legs and resting his head on his arm, closing his eyes in contemplation.

"Ten Golem Hearts, huh?"

Shawn rubbed his chin, eyes shut, calculating silently.

Westfall had at least five or six farms, each with several Harvest Golems. Furthermore, beyond the individual farms, there might be stray Harvest Golems scattered throughout Westfall. Added together, there should be no fewer than 50 units; this was not a small number.

However, these Harvest Golems were the guardians of their respective farms. Without them, the farms might not be as quiet and peaceful as they were now. Therefore, Shawn dared not touch a single one of them, or Old Saldean would be the first to never forgive him.

Perhaps he could only search for wild Harvest Golems?

Westfall was vast, and if Shawn wanted to search it thoroughly, it would likely take at least a few months. He lacked the time, the energy, and the strength to do so.

"Is there really no other way?"

Shawn pondered, and suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck.

"Wait, the quest requirement is for Golem Hearts, not necessarily intact Golem Hearts! Over all these years, it's impossible that not a single Harvest Golem has been scrapped, right? And those scrapped Harvest Golems—perhaps their Golem Hearts could also count toward the quest?"

Thinking of this, Shawn hurriedly rolled off the bed and went to find Old Saldean.

"Old Saldean! Old Saldean!"

Shawn pounded on Old Saldean's door.

After a long while, Old Saldean finally opened the door, looking quite displeased: "Shawn! Why aren't you sleeping in your bed, making all this noise? What do you want?"

Shawn caught a whiff of a pungent scent in the room—the familiar recipe, the familiar smell. Seeing Old Saldean disheveled, hair messy, face flushed, and catching a glimpse of the blurred bed in the depths of the dim room with Thelma Saldean visible upon it, Shawn's face turned red instantly.

Could it be that Old Saldean and his wife were in the middle of "making babies"? And he had interrupted them? This was too embarrassing!

It was no wonder Old Saldean was in a bad mood! Anyone would have a sour expression if they were in his shoes!

However, since he had already disturbed him, Shawn thickened his skin and said sheepishly: "Um, Old Saldean, didn't I learn how to repair Harvest Golems today? But I still don't understand the Golem Heart. Could you give me one to study? It doesn't have to be intact, a broken one will do..."

Shawn's voice grew weaker and weaker, his confidence and courage deflating like a punctured balloon, quickly vanishing into the whistling wind... Wait, where was the wind coming from in the room!

Old Saldean shot Shawn a glare, his mood improving slightly.

So, the boy wanted to study the Golem Heart!

Thinking back to Shawn's performance during the day, Old Saldean felt a surge of excitement.

In just one day, Shawn had learned to repair a Harvest Golem; the kid was simply a genius at engineering! If he were introduced to the engineers in Stormwind City, or the Mason Guild...

At the thought of the Mason Guild, Old Saldean's expression dimmed slightly, and he lost the desire to continue that train of thought. He said offhandedly: "The scrapped Harvest Golems are all piled up in the warehouse to the east. Go find them yourself. But don't get your hopes up; the Golem Heart is something only an engineering expert can understand..."

Before Old Saldean could finish, Shawn had already run off happily, leaving behind only Old Saldean's stunned expression and his unfinished sentence: "In a couple of days, you'll come with me to Goldshire, and I'll introduce you to the engineer there as an apprentice..."

Shawn certainly had no interest in being a dead-end engineering apprentice. His dream was to become a powerful mage, loved by all and admired by everyone.

Arriving at the eastern warehouse, Shawn opened the door and, by the dim starlight, found the discarded Harvest Golems.

The three-meter-tall Harvest Golems were very conspicuous in the warehouse, looking like legendary Gundams.

However...

Why were there only two?

Shawn's eyes went wide.

He never imagined that after all these years, only two Harvest Golems had been scrapped. Thinking it over, it likely had to do with Old Saldean's ability to repair them.

Whenever a Harvest Golem had even a minor issue, Old Saldean would fix it, which greatly extended their service life. It was understandable that only two had been scrapped over so many years.

But this meant Shawn's hopes were dashed.

Resigned, he pried out the two Golem Hearts and tucked them into his Spatial Pouch. Shawn shook his head: "Looks like I'll have to go to other farms to look. I hope the other farms have more scrapped Harvest Golems, otherwise, I'm really in trouble."