Herad paid no attention whatsoever to the Spell Tournament.
A contest of spells between casters came down to whose mana was stronger and whose spellcasting was more practiced.
With everyone churning out fireballs and blasting each other, the outcome held no suspense!
Herad had been an Intermediate Mage for some time.
He had practiced Fireball, the spell mages used most often, at least a hundred thousand times.
An ordinary mage needed a little over two seconds to conjure a fireball.
He needed only one second.
Frostbolt was much the same; his casting speed completely outclassed the competition.
He could even fire two or three Arcane Missiles simultaneously.
With a little more effort, he would have no trouble unleashing Arcane Barrage.
Even among Intermediate Mages, that was an excellent standard.
The Spell Tournament was still half a month away. When the time came, he would simply go through the motions and collect his prize.
Although the Spell Tournament posed no pressure, he would not stop training diligently.
Still, field-testing the arcane golem was important too.
He took out his Runed Bag, which had twelve cubic meters of storage space, and stowed the massive arcane golem inside.
Then he went outside the Moon Temple and blew the Enchanted Flute to summon his hawkstrider.
The special sound produced by the Enchanted Flute could reach a hawkstrider several kilometers away.
Soon, a white shape burst from the forest and rushed toward him, flapping its vestigial wings.
The white hawkstrider's two legs were thick and powerful, yet highly agile, allowing it to change direction at will.
As it darted through the forest, enemies had no way to lock onto such an elusive target.
Even the exceptionally nimble Forest Trolls could not catch a hawkstrider in the woods.
The only disappointment was that, despite all the years High Elves had spent breeding hawkstriders, they still could not make them evolve into magical beasts.
Aside from tremendous strength and exceptional agility, they had no other notable abilities.
They could therefore serve only as mounts for travel.
Azeroth had knights who rode fierce beasts and even Drakes.
But knights who rode hawkstriders had never really appeared.
Riding them into battle would serve only to make the enemy laugh themselves to death!
High Elves had never expected hawkstriders to become battle mounts.
In fact, Dragonhawks alone were enough for the High Elves.
Of course, that did not change the fact that hawkstriders were excellent ground mounts.
They could not charge headlong into enemy formations on the battlefield.
But they could swiftly carry their riders to the area where they needed to fight.
The white hawkstrider carried Herad swiftly through the forest, soon reaching a clearing deep within it.
The scenery in this woodland clearing was quite lovely.
There were several small hills, along with a small, shallow lake.
Herad dumped the arcane golem out of his storage space, crushing a patch of flowers and grass beneath it.
Detecting the change in its surroundings, the enormous construct ended its brief dormant state.
Herad ordered it to charge toward a nearby hill, and it immediately rushed over with heavy strides.
The arcane golem's stone body was immensely heavy.
Each step left a deep depression in the ground.
Yet its seemingly cumbersome body was surprisingly fast when it ran!
Herad was not surprised in the slightest.
The arcane golems in the game could chase players into a frantic scramble.
An arcane golem in the real world would only be stronger.
Herad applauded in satisfaction at the running speed it displayed.
Realizing that its master was praising it, the reasonably intelligent arcane golem immediately ran even harder.
Its ability to take encouragement from its master's praise, however, did not mean it had developed self-awareness and become a true artificial intelligence.
That came from the emotion module Herad had installed.
The emotion module did nothing to improve its combat capabilities.
But as a former game programmer, Herad enjoyed tinkering with strange little things like this.
And paired with a language module, the emotion module could have an effect on intelligent enemies.
If a furious-looking stone man came charging at you, spewing curses, how could you not want to hit it?
After all, rocks, metal, flowers, and trees in this world could all develop genuine life.
An arcane golem displaying obvious emotions might well have awakened self-awareness.
An enemy like that was worth going out of your way to kill!
Just as Herad was feeling proud of his design, a large tree on the hill suddenly moved.
The tree swung a huge hand formed from branches and struck the rampaging arcane golem squarely.
The blow sent the arcane golem flying backward, after which it rolled all the way down the hill.
Although granite was lighter than steel, the arcane golem's nearly five-meter frame probably weighed a little over ten tons.
Sending that much weight flying required at least several dozen tons of force.
If that blow landed on flesh and blood, it would very likely crush its target to pulp.
The great tree that had knocked the arcane golem away was a wondrous Nature Elemental creature, born from the union of an ancient tree and a Nature Elemental.
After examining it carefully, Herad identified it as a World Tree.
World Trees had lived in harmony with elves since ancient times.
After the world-shattering catastrophe, most of these highly intelligent World Trees had guarded the Night Elves on the other side of the sea.
But a few World Trees existed among the High Elves as well.
The High Elves revered magic, but they also did a good job of protecting the environment and caring for nature.
After thousands of years, it was hardly surprising that World Trees had emerged.
However, the High Elves rarely communicated with the World Trees, so their relationship was merely ordinary.
Seeing the arcane golem rampage around, the World Tree naturally had no reason to show Herad any consideration.
Sending the arcane golem flying with a massive slap was perfectly normal.
The arcane golem was completely unharmed by the slap.
It nimbly climbed to its feet, ready to go after its attacker.
Herad quickly canceled its previous order and had it run laps on level ground instead.
The World Tree on the hill merely watched silently from above, making no further hostile moves.
World Trees were peace-loving Nature Elemental creatures.
Only wanton tree-felling or damage to the ecological balance would provoke the World Tree's relentless attacks.
It was precisely because Herad understood the World Tree's temperament that he dared to remain in the clearing.
The arcane golem's running speed left Herad very satisfied.
The water-crossing test that followed went well too.
It did not matter that it could not float; it could simply walk across the riverbed.
Aside from its inability to fly, the arcane golem performed very well in every respect.
Its melee attacks were powerful too.
A single punch could shatter a stone block the size of a diesel drum.
Cannon fodder with formidable combat power.
That was how Herad defined the arcane golem.
There was no denying that the arcane golem hit hard.
But all it could do was throw simple punches and kicks.
No matter how powerful an attack was, it still had to hit the enemy.
While strengthening the Arcane Core, Herad had programmed a simple set of fighting moves.
Though simple, those moves were more than enough to deal with ordinary enemies.
Against a true Warrior, however, landing a hit would not be so easy!
Warriors possessed superb martial skills, and dodging the arcane golem's wild punches was hardly difficult for them.
High attack power and defense alone made it, at best, a somewhat troublesome opponent.
If someone truly wanted to take the arcane golem down, they could certainly do it!
That was the main reason arcane golems were called powerful cannon fodder.
The World Tree on the hill was actually much the same type.
What did its immense size and powerful attacks matter?
Its sluggish movement remained a glaring limitation.
If Herad wanted to deal with it, he needed only some Alchemical Fire Oil to set it ablaze.
Of course, Herad would never do something that harmed another without benefiting himself.
Befriending the World Tree was clearly a better choice than killing it.
Before you continue