Episode 23
023. There Is No Bad Stat
“Invest all 50 remaining stat points into Luck.”
[Investing all 50 remaining stat points into Luck.]
[Luck: 22 → 72]
The moment the stat investment completed, there was no visible change.
But golden hand could feel it.
That this very moment was the optimal timing to breathe life into the golem’s heart.
Click-
As he equipped the Ancient Heart to the golem, a cascade of system messages poured down.
[Due to the influence of the Luck stat, a miracle occurs during the crafting process!]
[The ‘Soul Forging’ skill is maximized, and ‘Soul Imprint’ manifests with 100% probability!]
[The effect of ‘Sun’s Right Hand’ runs rampant, and ‘Solar Flame’ imbues the golem’s heart!]
[A Grand Success has been achieved!]
[The effect of the ‘Luck’ stat adds to the ‘Grand Success’ probability, triggering a ‘Transcendent Grand Success’!]
[The grade of the crafted golem is elevated by ‘two tiers’!]
[Achievement: First Ego Golem Artisan]
[The system trembles at your unyielding will, extraordinary conception, and the Luck you forged yourself!]
[Effect 1. All stats permanently increase by 10!]
[Effect 2. Fame increases by 250.]
[Effect 3. Acquire golden hand unique skill, ‘Artisan’s Resonance (共鳴)’.]
.
.
.
[A faint ‘Ego’ has imbued the golem.]
‘Luck… it’s a crazy stat.’
golden hand admiration was brief.
He paused at the words ‘Unique skill.’
It was that very skill usable only by himself, possessed by only a tiny minority among top rankers.
[Artisan’s Resonance (共鳴) Lv.1]
[Passive Skill]
Description: You form a mental connection with ‘Ego’-possessed entities you have crafted, allowing you to share communication transcending language.
Effects:
[Emotion Share]: You can faintly sense the emotions of Ego golems.
[Will Transmission]: You can transmit complex commands or subtle nuances through thought alone.
[Potential Bloom Acceleration]: The higher your Resonance with an Ego golem, the faster the golem’s ‘Companion Growth’ rate accelerates.
Vrrrrrrrrr-!
The moment he confirmed the details, the golem’s entire body began to vibrate intensely.
Then, blue magic bursting from its core spread throughout its body.
The 3-meter-tall steel giant slowly lowered its head to look at its creator, golden hand, then knelt on one knee before him.
“Ma…ster. Com…mand, com…mand…?”
But it received no reply.
golden hand was calming his trembling heart while checking the information of his first golem.
[Steel Giant Cradling the Solar Heart]
Grade: Ancient (Lv.1)
Creator: golden hand
Status: Bound
Attack Power: 500-700
Defense: 1,500
Effects:
[Crafting Assistant]: Assists in work; increases crafting speed by 100%.
[Expanded Inventory]: Five times the base inventory capacity.
[Auto-Loot System]: Automatically collects dropped items in the vicinity.
[Flame of Solar Fire]: When using Flamethrower attack, 20% chance to add Holy attribute damage.
[Steel Will]: Automatically enters defense mode when the master is in danger.
[Ego – Companion Growth]: Grows alongside the creator, blooming new abilities.
Description: The first masterpiece and alter ego created by Blacksmith golden hand, pouring all his soul and Luck into it.
Transcending a mere mechanical golem, it is a steel giant imbued with Ego.
“An…cient… grade?”
golden hand doubted his own eyes.
He had expected Unique, or Legendary at best, but the result was Ancient grade.
Everything was the result of his all-in gamble on the Luck stat.
[A new schematic has been completed.]
[You can bestow a name upon the golem.]
[Would you like to bestow a new name?]
golden hand grinned and declared.
It was a name befitting a comrade who would share arduous labor and countless life-or-death battles from now on.
“You are Worker… yes, Iron-Worker.”
The golem seemed to tilt its head slightly for a moment.
Then, it responded to its creator with a low, resonant voice.
“Wor…ker! Wor-ker!”
The emotion of Iron-Worker, who had received a name, seemed to reach golden hand as well.
It must be because golden hand possessed the ‘Artisan’s Resonance’ skill.
That must be it.
“MK-19, is it? It’s… severely destroyed.”
The Magical Engineer shared the system’s message without even turning his head.
It was the record of the final battle.
[Urgent Rescue Request Denied]
[Master’s Command Priority Execution]
.
.
.
[Allied Forces Wiped Out]
[Survivors: 0]
[MK-19 ‘Iron Fortress’ Destroyed]
[Cause: Failure to Secure Tactical Flexibility]
The Magical Engineer spoke self-deprecatingly while looking at the system messages.
“My command was ‘Hold the position.’ And this guy executed that command perfectly. Even when the retreating allied mage corps sent a rescue request… this stupid lump of metal ignored it, saying holding the position was the priority command. Perfectly obedient. That’s why it was nothing more than a perfectly stupid calculator.”
“It just followed the order… didn’t it?”
“Yes, it followed. That’s the problem. This guy didn’t ‘understand’ my order; it just ‘obeyed’ it.”
The Magical Engineer lightly kicked the shattered core with his foot and continued.
“If… if there had been an Ego golem, it would have been different. That guy would have known the true meaning of my order. That the real goal of ‘holding the position’ was ‘the survival of our allies.’ So it would have shouted at me.”
The Magical Engineer spoke in a low, mechanical tone, mimicking the golem’s voice.
“‘Master! Temporarily abandon position defense! Securing the survival of allied mages holds higher tactical value!’ Damn it, if it had been an Ego golem, it wouldn’t have been simple calculation but ‘judgment.’ It would have achieved the best outcome, even if it meant disobeying my command!”
“…A weapon that thinks for itself.”
“A weapon? If Ego golems existed, they wouldn’t just be weapons… No, never mind.”
The Magical Engineer bit his lip, cutting his words short.
Blood seeped faintly from his bitten lip, but as if unable to hold back his regret, he added one final sentence.
“That single schematic I saw back then in Lepione… still haunts my vision. That scrap of paper could have changed humanity’s fate… I shouldn’t have let it slip away….”
Excerpt from a conversation with a Magical Engineer during the Age of Ruin –
As golden hands gazed at the completed Iron-Worker, a memory from the past suddenly flashed by.
‘With this… might it be a bit different?’
He still couldn’t be certain.
Because this wasn’t an Ego golem made from the schematic that Magical Engineer had seen.
This was essentially golden hand original Ego golem.
Moreover, it was a companion growth-type Ego golem that grew alongside its master, golden hand.
In other words, how much Iron-Worker would grow was an unknown.
Furthermore, golden hand had never seen an Ego golem in Lepyon.
He had only heard about them.
So, which would become the superior golem was still unknowable.
However, Ravi, a resident of Lepyon and someone likely knowledgeable about Ego golems.
Her reaction was distinctly different.
Clearly a different reaction from Clark, who was simply astounded by golden hand skill.
“Clark? Clark! Did I hear wrong just now? Tha-that golem definitely spoke, right? Didn’t it?”
Ravi couldn’t take her eyes off the golem golden hand made as she asked Clark.
But there was no answer from Clark.
Clark, too, seemed busy just staring open-mouthed, admiring golden-handed golem.
“Clark! Is that thing what I think it is?!”
“Uh… Huh? Ah, yes! Tha-that’s… right? Probably… maybe…?”
Clark seemed out of his mind.
First, an outsider suddenly visits, clears the Gear-Wheel Dungeon, and now this—creating a golem.
Just creating a 3-meter-tall golem would have been surprising enough.
Because the one before their eyes was an outsider.
Not a formally trained disciple raised on special Magical Engineering education since childhood, but just an outsider.
Yet, this outsider before them didn’t seem content with merely creating a golem.
A golem imbued with Ego, no less.
It seemed like a faint Ego for now, but the very fact it was imbued was crucial.
Even intuitively grasping that fact, she couldn’t bring herself to believe it.
“Branch Head R-Ravi… is such a thing possible? What on earth is this outsider…?”
Ravi herself was a genius counted among the elite in the Magical Engineering Academy.
But even Ravi couldn’t easily answer Clark’s question.
Because the scene unfolding before her eyes far exceeded her common sense.
‘Ego-related technology is surely treated as top-tier military secrets in each kingdom… That outsider couldn’t possibly know about it, so what on earth is going on?’
It wasn’t that Ravi didn’t know about Ego-related technology.
Even if the kingdoms managed it as a secret, she possessed the position and ability to access it sufficiently.
But an outsider being able to create it was an entirely different matter.
“Clark, start packing my bags.”
“Huh? Suddenly… why?”
“Now that a next-generation ace, no… a super ace has appeared, can we just stand here and watch? We must report to the higher-ups immediately. This isn’t something I can decide alone.”
Ravi seemed intent on reporting information about the outsider who could create Ego golems to the higher-ups.
And in person at that.
“golden hands, imagine if some other kingdom snatches him away. Ugh, just the thought is terrifying.”
“But is it possible, since he’s an outsider?”
“What can we do? We have to try. Besides… with the appearance of a legitimate successor after so long, we should also see the reaction of the old geezers, shouldn’t we?”
Outsiders are free.
The same applied to golden hands.
He might be in the Kingdom of Aerok now, but who knew where he’d go as time passed?
So, they had to make the first move.
