Wizard Earl

Chapter 258 The Three Major Challenges in Crafting Alchemical Puppets!

Having fooled the group of military police and church arbitrators who were conducting the search, Connor, knowing full well the bloodshed outside, naturally didn't want to get involved in the mess, so he planned to lay low for a while.

He had discovered the magic stone mine in Tunguska some time ago, but due to various reasons, he had not been able to mine it. Now he could take this opportunity to devote his time and energy to the work of refining alchemical golems!

The crafting of alchemical golems is a relatively advanced technique in alchemy, requiring alchemists to possess a certain level of alchemical skill. This explains why Margaret was surprised when Connor suggested using alchemical golems to replace manual labor in mining magic stones, as even crafting the simplest alchemical golem is no less difficult than crafting a level 2 enchanted item!

Before deciding to use alchemical golems to mine magic stones, Connor had carefully studied the content about alchemical golems in his study of "Reyes Alchemy". After his careful study, he found that there were three major difficulties he needed to overcome if he wanted to create alchemical golems!

The first hurdle is that the alchemical golem is different from the steam engine in the Rune Factory. It needs a certain level of intelligence because magic stones are an energy source and are not very stable. If you treat them simply and roughly, it will not only affect the quality of the extracted magic stones, but may even cause the magic stone mine to explode. To safely extract magic stones from the magic stone mine, a relatively complicated process is required. However, the current level of machinery in this world is far from meeting the standard for safe magic stone mining. This is why Connor did not intend to use a steam engine to mine magic stones from the beginning.

To imbue alchemical golems with a degree of intelligence, alchemists generally employ two methods. The first is to harvest the souls of living people and then use secret techniques to inhabit the golems with these souls. Simply put, this is like giving a person a metal body. This method seems simple and brutal, but it is extremely cruel. First of all, harvesting the soul of a living person does not guarantee that you can use secret techniques to inhabit the golem with that soul. According to the "Reyes Alchemy," the ratio of human souls to alchemical golems is approximately one to fifty. This means that if Connor wanted to create ten alchemical golems using this method, he would need to kill five hundred people and extract their souls.

Moreover, putting aside the question of whether Connor would be subjected to soul-stealing and skinning by the Storm Church for killing these five hundred people, even assuming that Connor did use this method and successfully created ten alchemical golems, it doesn't mean that Connor can solve the problem once and for all and continue mining magic stone with these ten alchemical golems!

Unlike wizards whose souls awaken spiritual power and greatly increase their strength, the souls of the living are extremely fragile. Even if their souls are successfully placed into alchemical golems using some secret methods, they will gradually dissipate over time until they completely perish. This is something that cannot be stopped by any means. The consequences are not only that their souls will be scattered and they will never be reincarnated. According to Connor's estimate, from the day the souls of the living enter the golems, he would be lucky if he could use these alchemical golems for three months!

For all the reasons mentioned above, Connor did not even consider such a simple and crude method!

The second way to give alchemical golems simple intelligence is through mana runes. Although both are called mana runes, the mana runes used to create enchanted items and those used to create alchemical golems are completely different. The latter is obviously more profound than the former. After all, enchanted items are just objects for wizards to use; they do not need to have intelligence.

In fact, rather than calling the key to giving the alchemical golem intelligence a mana rune, after careful research, Connor personally believes that calling it a chip is not an exaggeration. The mana runes of the alchemical golem are the same as the smart chips of smartphones on Earth. The first challenge facing Connor is how to create this "chip"!

The second hurdle was the energy needed to power the alchemical golems. Just like cars on Earth need refueling, you need to provide energy to power the alchemical golems. Connor had already figured out the source of this energy: the magic stones mined for the alchemical golems. This was the second major obstacle hindering Connor's creation of the alchemical golems.

Using magic stones to power the alchemical golem is technically feasible. The key issue lies in the consumption of magic stones to power it. According to Connor's auxiliary chip, for every 100 raw magic stones mined, the alchemical golem consumes 30 processed magic stones. Connor himself processes the raw magic stones into usable ones, with a loss rate of about 10%. This means that for every 100 magic stones mined, only 60 are processed into magic stones by Connor. After half is given to Margaret as agreed, only 30 actually end up in Connor's possession!

Therefore, Connor absolutely had to solve the problem of magic stone consumption that powered the alchemical golem. He wanted the alchemical golem to be like an old ox, consuming little and doing much!

Besides the issue of the intelligent energy consumption of alchemical golems, the third hurdle Connor faces in crafting alchemical golems is their durability. The purpose of alchemical golems is to mine magic stone ore, which is composed of raw magic stone ore. As an energy body, raw magic stone ore naturally carries radiation, but short-term exposure to this radiation is fine and will not have any effect.

However, prolonged contact like mining is extremely detrimental to both the human body and the alchemical golem. According to the estimates from the auxiliary chip in Connor's brain, if the alchemical golem mines magic stone ore 24 hours a day without interruption, its core components will need to be replaced every two to three months. If the core components are not replaced and mining continues, the risk of the entire alchemical golem being completely scrapped is probably over 70%!

Although the core components for crafting alchemical golems are not expensive, the core components for ten alchemical golems need to be replaced every two to three months. This not only delays the mining of magic stone mines, but also may attract the attention of those with ulterior motives, causing unnecessary trouble!

(End of this chapter)