Aegwynn's Return

Orendo's construct creature experiment took a total of sixteen days.

Once it was finished, he was so exhausted that he only wanted to lie on the floor and rest, unable to move a single finger.

And in fact, he really did collapse directly onto the laboratory floor and fall asleep.

During those sixteen days, it wasn't as though he hadn't rested, but every time he woke up, he immediately threw himself back into his work with complete focus.

Although he had the Eye of Truth assisting him, he still had to expend mental energy, mana, and physical strength. Without those things, the Eye of Truth could not function either.

At last, sixteen days later, this construct creature, whose materials alone had nearly drained all of his wealth, was finally more or less completed according to the blueprints that had been revised over a dozen times.

Orendo had no idea how long he had slept. Only after his brain's automatic shutdown, brought on by sheer exhaustion, ended did he wake from the cold floor.

"Eye of Truth. How long did I sleep?"

[Report: Host was dormant for a total of 23 gnomish mechanical hours]

About a full day and night.

His brain, which had felt as muddled as if it were filled with paste, finally became clear again after sufficient rest.

Orendo got to his feet, stretched, then shook out his entire body and performed a set of lightning five-whip strikes, doing his best to loosen up.

After finishing the set, he felt fully limbered up. Other than being hungry, he felt no discomfort.

Only then did Orendo walk over to his creation. Looking at it, he softly said, "Activate."

In an instant, the complex and profound magic array beneath the construct creature, almost like an Eight Trigrams Formation, lit up. Vast arcane energy flowed through the array and poured into the construct's body one stream after another. At last, its pair of mechanical eyes made from cat's-eye gemstones lit up.

Activation was successful.

"Can you understand commands?" Orendo looked into its gemstone eyes. "Flash your eyes three times in a row if you can understand."

Due to cost and blueprint design constraints, Orendo and the Eye of Truth had not given it a vocal function resembling vocal cords. This was the prototype; there would be further improvements later, so it did not need to be perfect.

The glowing cat's-eye gemstones flashed three times.

"Raise both hands."

Its skeleton was made of precious mithril—light, hard, and highly conductive to magic. The "muscles" fitted over its skeleton were made of high-performance hardened steel, with a formula Orendo and the Eye of Truth had improved. It was far superior to what was sold outside.

The construct obediently raised both hands.

"Lift your right foot."

The construct lifted its right foot.

"Put down your right foot. Lift your left foot."

The construct completed the command once more.

"Squat down. Make fists with both hands."

"Stand up. Turn around."

Under his commands, the construct performed a series of actions, including turning, squatting, jumping, rolling, kneeling, and more.

After completing the series of tests, Orendo let out a sigh of relief—his investment of nearly two hundred thousand Dalaran gold coins had not gone to waste. The first stage of the construct he had envisioned had passed.

Not bad.

That was what he thought.

"Not bad."

A voice suddenly echoed his thoughts. Orendo immediately turned his head and saw his mentor, nearly the same height as himself, standing behind him.

Aegwynn had returned.

Orendo issued a new command to the construct. "Enter power-saving mode. Stand by in place."

It immediately went completely still, all its joints relaxing. Only its cat's-eye gemstone eyes continued to emit a faint glow.

"Mentor, you're back. Did you finish what you had to do?" Orendo greeted her happily.

Although this mentor of his was somewhat cold and sometimes had a bad temper, she was actually quite easy to get along with once he understood her temperament.

More importantly, in Orendo's personal beauty-rating system, where a perfect score was one hundred, she scored an impressive ninety-eight.

Even more importantly, Orendo felt that, at present, she was an even more important backer to him than the Eye of Truth!

With her around, forget some trivial Dalaran political schemes or upheavals—even if Sargeras himself came, there would be nothing to fear.

Well... at this point, Sargeras only dared to hide quietly deep within her soul. He did not dare move at all, terrified of being discovered.

"Mm." Aegwynn nodded lightly. She looked over Orendo, who had become somewhat disheveled after such a long experiment, then stepped past him to examine his creation.

"You did quite well. At your age, I wouldn't have been able to reproduce the design in the blueprints perfectly either." After inspecting it, she offered her initial assessment. "And it seems you did make some improvements. Several parts are more refined than in your blueprints. You must have gained new inspiration during construction and improved them accordingly."

"However..."

She withdrew her gaze from the construct and looked at Orendo. "You used many precious materials, and many details were carefully considered. But it is so weak that it cannot withstand a single blow. Even a water elemental could easily knock it down. Clearly, you do not intend to use it for combat. At least, not for now."

As expected of Aegwynn.

Her assessment hit the nail on the head. Orendo had never intended to make this construct fight anyway. He hated all that fighting and killing.

The only ones who thought about fighting and killing all day were those Evocation brutes. Only those arcane barbarians spent every day thinking about leveling up, killing monsters, and fighting.

Orendo, who planned to pursue an omniscient, omnipotent, all-rounder path, saw himself as a scientist and scholar, with lord as a side occupation.

So the first construct he had made, while he was currently in such a safe situation, was not a combat-type robot.

"I intend to continuously improve its intelligence and its ability to perform delicate operations in all areas," Orendo said. "I want it to become my assistant in experiments and in exploring the path toward a mage's truth."

He saw himself as "the fantasy version of Iron Man in Azeroth," so in Orendo's vision, the Eye of Truth bound to his soul and this construct, which did not excel in combat, would become his future "JARVIS" during research.

The Eye of Truth, which could not affect anything outside his body, combined with his first construct, which could understand his intentions, would make future experiments far more efficient.

"If that's your goal, then it should be quite good. But you need to consider its intelligence," Aegwynn said with a nod.

"Mentor, do you have any suggestions?" Orendo immediately pressed his advantage and asked.

She was the strongest mage in Azeroth's history. In the past, Azshara, empowered by the Well of Eternity, had been able to rival her. But now that Azshara had become the queen of the Naga, she absolutely could not surpass the current Aegwynn.

At this point in time, whether in combat power or knowledge, Aegwynn was essentially number one in Azeroth.

Other than the arcane Titan Norgannon.

"Two methods." Aegwynn did not disappoint Orendo. "Capture a soul, preferably one belonging to an archmage. Grind away its will until it becomes your servant, then put it inside."

"Or, little by little, let it slowly evolve on its own until it develops a will of its own. The first method is the fastest, but it may carry many hidden risks, and suitable souls are difficult to find. The second is very slow and may also fail, but it is the safest."

Orendo shrugged. "I choose the latter."

Aegwynn did not seem surprised. She turned to glance at the construct, which was about the same size as herself. "You should give her a name, or a designation."

"I decided on her name long ago." Orendo smiled at his mentor. "Nani. That is her name."

At the mention of that name, Aegwynn's expression changed.

Because Nani was the childhood nickname her parents had used for her! She had not heard that name in several centuries.