Not Quite Alive

Now that I had figured out everything except party members, it was time to find a solution for that problem. My first thought was to just find someone I could trust, but after my success with alchemy and almost making life, I decided to see if alchemy had more to offer.

By imbuing a small straw effigy with motus, spiritus, and humanus I managed to create a small that stood around 83cm tall. The golem would have enough free will to be useful, but stay easy to control. The golem on its own wouldn't do anything as it didn't have a brain, to fix that I made the animation core.

Put simply it was a set of instructions and base code that the golem would follow, the first core was a simple gather program, it simply picked stuff off the floor and put it into a container.

Unfortualletly this golem couldn't follow spoken instructions but I managed to fix it by using a bell instead. Now I had my own little janitor, but I needed something that could help in the dungeon, not a disposal bot.

By experimenting a little with the animation core, I came up with a few different versions, I could get them to guard me, move items from one container to another, and even sort items. The little straw golem wouldn't be enough for the dungeon though, it was too weak.

It seems that golemancy wasn't limited to just straw, I could use wood which was a slight improvement over straw, clay also worked and it resulted in a much tankier but slower golem.

Using wax I made a golem that had improvements over clay, stone, and iron also worked although they were too slow for the dungeon but they were very strong. The last and frankly most terrifying golem was the flesh golem, it was really gross to look at as it was covered in eyes, and mouths but it was by far the best golem so far.

Its strength and durability were on the lower end, but it was fast and had the ability to heal its own wounds at staggering rates, this golem also had a little more intelligence than the rest which was good.

I made 3 of the little flesh golems, and I found them cute in a gross way, I decided to make the golems a little fancier while I was at it. I gave the first golem, some armor, and a little hat so that he could tank some monsters for us I also named him Tank. (the little hat increases health, while the armor increases defense.)

The second golem I named Ranger, I gave some glasses to fix the golems natural shortsightedness, and a little ballista which was originally meant for Pallums but it worked on him. (glasses increase the sight range, and the little ballista allows for ranged attacks.)

The last golem I named Melee, I gave him a small fez and a golem mace because he was going to be our front-liner along with me. (small fez increases regen rate, and the golem mace increases melee damage.)

I decided to head over the Twilight Manor, to show off my little golem friends. I did put some simple cloaks over them so that people wouldn't attack them.

POV change

Stella made it to the mano without any issues and looked around for Loki with a grin on her face, she found Loki in the cafeteria with a few other members eating lunch.

"Loki I got some party members!"Stella said with a grin.

"You did? You sure look happy about it, I assume it's your Pallum friends here? What familia are they in?"Loki asked

"Pallum? No these little guys are my golems!"Stella then rung the little bell and the 3 flesh golems, pulled the cloaks down reading for battle.

Loki and the other familia members stared at the small 'golems' the small creatures were covered in oddly discolored flesh and had a few too many eyes and mouths. A few members readied their weapons thinking monsters got into orario.

"What are those, they look… gross."Loki stated with visible disgust

"Whaat, they are rather cute if you ask me. They are also flesh golems I made, it took a little tinkering but they are dungeon ready!"Stella said

"Why do they have hats?"Tione asked

"What flesh is it made of?"Riviera asked not sounding like she wanted an answer

"I thought that the hats looked good on them, plus they have minor enchantments to help in combat."Stella answered

Stella was rather upset that nobody shared her level of enthusiasm for creating pseudo-life.

"What can they do, and why do they look like monsters?"Ais asked

"They look like that because most of the flesh came from varying sources, the eyes and mouths I think it's a byproduct of the many different types of flesh. For what they can do? Well, they aren't all that smart but they can take simple orders, and learn to a very basic extent. They are the equivalent of toddlers for intelligence." Stella explained

"Can they get a falna?"Finn asked

"Nope, they don't have a soul nor are they alive, so gaining falna should be impossible."Stella responded

"Whew! Well Stella you found some party members, I think finding actual members would have been an easier solution than doing this… but you did find some members, so you are free to explore the dungeon again." Loki responded she did not want to give falna to those things.

"Thanks Goddess Loki!" Stella said

Stella made her way back to the lab to prepare for tomorrow's dungeon dive, hopefully, she would find something that would give her inspiration.

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Word Count: 958

Its dungeon time! Now we have a little look into how the taint and warp are affecting Stella's mind, I will likely give a skill related to the warp so if anyone got a name for that it would be great! Suggestions and power stones are always welcomed!