The Runic Alchemist

"How in the hell did you even make it this big?" she asked, watching him unroll the enormous scroll for what felt like a solid minute.

"By sewing it together, how else?"

"It's too big a runic circle. No one in this world can power something like this."

"Exactly," Damian nodded. "That's why we're going to use the mana from our surroundings."

"Is that why you insisted on coming here?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. "You don't know how much mana this thing will attract or consume, do you?"

"I've calculated it based on my other large creations. If my math is right, we should stand very far away once it starts."

Vidalia nodded without further argument. She helped Damian secure the large parchment to the snowy ground with wooden spikes to prevent the wind from blowing it away. Damian itched to stop and copy the spell into his book, but instead, he focused on memorizing it. It wasn't that complicated, but it could reveal wood-based magic if studied further.

Once they finished securing the parchment, Damian began explaining the process. He had also requested a large amount of iron from her, which she provided. Since they couldn't spare iron ingots, he had to make do with damaged or unusable iron armor and swords. For a test, it was good enough.

"Once I activate the spell," Damian explained, "the runic drawing will start pulling mana from the surroundings. After it activates, I'm going to create my blocking spell on a large scale. I'll need a continuous supply of mana from you for that. It shouldn't take long—the mana gathering will take the most time. Got it?"

"Just keep feeding you mana?"

"Yes. I'll tell you when to stop. Ready to start?"

"Okay, let's do this."

Damian braced himself and activated the spell he had spent hours drawing for the golem creation. The pull of mana was almost visible to the naked eye. The air thickened, the mana forming so quickly around the dirt-yellow runic circle that even from a distance, they could feel the pull as if their bodies were being dragged toward it.

Once the mana absorption was complete, the spell began its creation process. Before the runic spell could fully activate, Damian formed the largest invisible barrier he had ever made, using 85% of his mana in just a second. He stabilized it with a steady flow of mana from Vidalia.

The pile of iron scraps was the only thing inside the invisible barrier along with the runic circle for golem creation. Vidalia kept everything hovering above the ground, ensuring not a speck of dirt touched the materials.

As Damian had theorized, with no other material available, the runic spell pulled the iron scraps into the circle and began to form a humanoid body. The spell refined the iron, removing impurities, and only used half of the available material before the parchment burned out from mana overload, turning to ash.

But standing amidst the ash was a figure—a perfect human-shaped form made of pure iron with no face.

They had successfully made a f*cking golem.

The spell had consumed more mana than expected, possibly resulting in a higher-quality golem than usual. Damian released the invisible barrier, and Vidalia stopped supplying mana. Even though she was a third-ranker, she looked visibly exhausted. Enlarging spells to such a scale was no trivial task.

Slowly, both Damian and Vidalia approached the shiny humanoid figure with no face.

"Holy mother Astraea! F*cking wood and branches! You actually did it! You revived the ancient arts!" Vidalia exclaimed, her voice filled with excitement. "I can't believe this!"

'Whoa,' Damian thought, surprised by the sudden shift in her personality. 'What the hell just happened to her?'

He could feel her excitement though—it matched his own. The spell had already attached a mana string for him, but Damian added seven more mana threads to the golem's body: two on its hands, one on its head, one on its back, and one on each thigh and foot. It was overkill—no one could handle four threads at once, let alone seven—but Damian liked to be thorough.

With a satisfied smile, he cracked his knuckles, interlacing his fingers and stretching his arms in the back as if preparing for the jump stretching his bicep muscles the iron golem mimicked his movements to the point. The iron figure mirrored his actions perfectly in real time, with zero delay.

Vidalia's eyes widened as the golem moved with a grace and precision that even most humans couldn't achieve. Damian ran the golem through a series of punches and kicks, each strike causing the air to hum as it sliced through the cold atmosphere.

Jealous or perhaps unnerved by the golem's power, Vidalia immediately demanded control.

Damian has guessed it was the former, Damian handed over the authority with a pout. He sensed her forming five mana threads, all connected to the golem's back. However, her threads weren't stable. While she managed to control two or three with precision, the other threads wobbled and moved erratically.

She tried to make the golem walk, but the grace and fluidity it had displayed under Damian's control were gone. Her attempts at performing fighting forms were slow and lacked precision, with jerky, uncontrolled movements with delayed action.

"Attach a thread of mana to each hand, leg, and the back," Damian advised from the side.

She shot him a glare but followed his suggestion. Her control improved by about 15%, but it was still nowhere near Damian's level. It wasn't her fault—just guiding the mana threads likely consumed 60% of her mental focus, and without the ability to sense mana in her surroundings like Damian, the rest of her attention wasn't enough to master the golem's movements.

"Come on, give it back to me," Damian said, grinning smugly. "You know that's the best option. And if you're 20% nicer to me from now on, I'll make you a runic inscription so you can summon your own golem."