Constructed Creature

[Detection: The host strongly desires to reproduce with Solarian.]

[Conclusion: It is not recommended that the host reproduce with Solarian at this time. Female Number One would immediately notice.]

[Suggestion: Once the host comes into contact with rules of the sixth circle or above in this world, the host should be able to derive a spell that blocks Female Number One's chastity detection. At that time, the host may freely reproduce with other females without Female Number One noticing.]

[...]

Staring at the Eye of Truth's remarks on his retina, Orendo was speechless!

Damn it, I just looked at my mentor a little longer!

"I'm not that kind of person," he told the Eye of Truth. "I was merely appreciating her beauty."

[Detection: The host's heartbeat has accelerated slightly, and his thoughts are scattered.]

[Conclusion: The host is lying.]

Orendo: "..."

Fine. Whether it believed him or not, Orendo did not believe himself anyway.

He rose in front of his mentor, whose face had long since turned faintly pink beneath his gaze, and held out his hand to her. "This healing herb is growing well. It has begun flowering even without sunlight. That proves our arcane energy conversion array is highly effective, and this method of indoor cultivation can continue. Next, we need to consider how to reduce the cost of operating the array."

"Mm." Solarian nodded softly. Her star-filled eyes did not dare meet Orendo's directly as she said, "I think we should make a few adjustments..."

Orendo directly took her hand and led her upstairs before she could finish. "We can discuss that in the laboratory later. Mentor, let's go to the fifth floor first."

Solarian froze.

There was no laboratory on the fifth floor. There was only an observatory... and her bedroom.

That afternoon.

Orendo, carrying a fragrant scent all over him, left his mentor's mage tower and returned to his own.

In truth, his mage tower could not yet be called a mage tower. It did not even resemble a tower, but rather a common human-style small castle.

Rather than a mage tower, it looked more like a fortress.

In Dalaran, the Kirin Tor stipulated that any official mage could obtain at least one personal arcane laboratory, with the authorities providing a property.

To own a mage tower in Dalaran, one had to become a high-ranking mage. As for the standard for a high-ranking mage, according to Dalaran and Quel'Thalas, one had to pass the circle examination of either Quel'Thalas or Dalaran and reach at least the level of a fifth-circle spellcaster before raising one's own mage tower.

The so-called circle examination was proof of a mage's strength and knowledge. Both Dalaran and Quel'Thalas had their own standards, and each recognized the other's.

Orendo had yet to encounter the circle examination. Thus, he was an official mage, but his rank remained unclear, and he had not officially obtained his own mage tower. The fact that Dalaran was willing to give him such a large castle as a laboratory was already a concession made because of his unprecedented label as a "super genius."

Inside the castle, in the arcane apparatus laboratory.

Orendo stood before a pile of metal ingots, gemstones, and inert magical materials. Spread out before them was a somewhat aged piece of parchment covered in countless lines, magic array data, and spell models.

He had unearthed this golem blueprint from a pile of magic scrolls while studying in the Karazhan Library. Its creator was unknown. Perhaps it had belonged to a former Guardian or spearhead of the Tirisfal Council, or perhaps to some unknown mage.

Even Aegwynn did not know who had created it. When Orendo showed it to her, she merely recalled that she had found it while gathering treasures left behind by previous Guardians on one occasion long ago. It was a blueprint for an arcane mechanical golem.

Orendo had been greatly interested in the later curator of Karazhan from the original plot, the Burning Legion's Fel Reaver, the Mogu's anima machines, and the Old God faction's Anubisath.

He kept the blueprint and studied it whenever he had time. With the Eye of Truth's help, he combined materials from the libraries of Karazhan and Dalaran to derive and refine this fortuitously acquired magical construct blueprint, hoping to create magical mechanical constructs of his own.

He had possessed this blueprint for three months already, devoting one or two hours to it every day. The Eye of Truth had also derived it more than a hundred times.

Today, Orendo intended to make an attempt. He would turn the blueprint, which had been refined as much as possible, into a physical object and bring this constructed creature into the real world.

Standing before the blueprint and the required materials, Orendo had the Eye of Truth derive the blueprint once more. After confirming that it could achieve the basic functions he wanted—

"Let's begin."

He gave the Eye of Truth the command in his mind.

[Detection: The construct's completion potential exceeds 75%.]

[Conclusion: Construction may proceed.]

[Suggestion: Further upgrades should be made after the construct is completed.]

[Construction begins...]

First came the skeleton.

The skeleton in the original blueprint was merely ordinary hardened steel, reinforced with several array models to increase its hardness and toughness.

After several months of research, Orendo and the Eye of Truth decided to spend lavishly on a better-performing, more mana-conductive arcane metal. They chose one of the finest arcane metals: mithril!

It was an extremely precious silver-white metal, far sturdier than steel yet much lighter. Every mage in the world would fight tooth and nail for it. It was as malleable as bronze and could be polished like glass. Dwarves could forge it into metal stronger than steel yet lighter than a feather.

Purchasing this mithril had nearly cost Orendo a hundred thousand Dalaran gold coins, and even that had not been enough. In the end, Aegwynn generously covered the remainder—having lived for centuries and traveled all over the world, even across worlds, the Guardian was not lacking in such things.

Under the wondrous power of magic, the silver-white mithril melted according to Orendo's will into terrifyingly hot liquid mithril, which was then placed into molds to cool.

Once it cooled and took shape, the constructed creature's skeleton would be complete.

With the most important skeleton finished, the next step was preparing the arcane metal wires to be embedded within it as the energy conduits and control system. Since the skeleton's raw material was already precious mithril, only arcane metal of the same grade or better performance could drive it.

After repeated derivations, Orendo and the Eye of Truth chose thorium, which offered both good value and sufficient performance. Thorium was a silver-blue metal with a certain sheen.

Its defining trait was its weight. It was extremely heavy—at the same volume, it was even two or three times heavier than gold.

The thorium Orendo had prepared had long since been drawn into wires of various predetermined specifications. Its total weight was only one-tenth that of the mithril he was using, yet its price was nearly half that of the larger quantity of mithril.

The second step in constructing the creature was to lay these arcane metal wires into the prearranged grooves of the metal skeleton that had already cooled and formed.

This work was more difficult because no mistakes could be made. If there was even the slightest error, the magical reaction produced when the mithril and thorium touched would ruin the construct's precision.

If that happened, he would have to start over. The material loss would not be great, since it only needed to be remelted.

But it would consume a great deal of time.

While embedding these arcane metal wires, which functioned much like meridians within a living body, he also had to place gemstones and arcane metal smelted into small blocks at the joints and other crucial locations of the constructed creature's skeleton.

This was the most arduous task. Since no errors were allowed, it could only be done slowly. The Eye of Truth estimated that embedding this constructed creature's "meridians" and "joints" would take three days.

True arcane experiments, especially experiments involving intelligence and complex constructs, generally took a very, very long time.