Black Onyx - Phoenix Resurrection

I held a tool I could best describe as a small wood carving knife. The metal blade was short and thin, with a sharp point that formed a microscopic Qi blade.

My face was a stone wall of concentration as I moved my hand fractions of a millimeter at a time, cutting perfectly into the flat face of a beast's core. While hard and resistant to scratches, the cores had the unfortunate characteristic of being brittle and breaking where they shouldn’t. It was like trying to cut grooves into a piece of diamond. With the lack of modern drilling and precision machinery, everything was made by hand, which often meant a single mistake could doom the piece.

As such, a Spirit Qi blade was required, as only that would allow us to cut without applying too much pressure.

It had been a week since I began learning the art of Runecrafting, and my job was to get familiar with the process itself, not yet make my own designs.

In the process of learning, I broke a myriad of lowly cores as my concentration slipped for a moment, or I mistakenly carved the wrong Rune. But, eventually, Elder Li deemed me competent enough to try for real. I was given a template of a core I would have to carve. It was for an extremely simple golem that barely had the strength of a Golden Core.

The stones, the materials for its body were finished and waited in a pile for the energy to empower them. I used all of them, slightly constrained by their shape and size, making it difficult to create a proper humanoid shape, yet despite these setbacks, I managed to make a creation I was satisfied with. It was my first attempt anyway.

A drop of sweat rolled down my forehead, threatening to fall on my work, possibly ruining it. My forehead momentarily heated up and the sweat evaporated. I was not bothered by the heat, I was sweating from nervousness. The work was mind-numbing but at the same time required complete concentration. Long hours ran by as I carved the tiny Runes.

Magnifying glyphs helped keep me on track as I did my delicate work. And as the task was finally complete, another layer had to be done. I took a moment of respite to gather my wits and then began painting the connections with paint of blood and gold.

The grooves the thickness of a human hair were filled with magical ink and left to dry before I could continue my work on the other side. And even as that was done, the work wasn’t finished. The core had to be baked in the oven, the temperature rising slowly, over many hours, until it glowed white from heat, when the gold finally melted and merged with the crystal.

That was also a delicate process. Heat the crystal too quickly and it might crack, heat it too slow and unevenly, and the Runes might deform, ruining it all.

Luckily, Elder Li took care of that, as he had the experience and knowledge to do it right, while I just watched, making sure to remember every detail.

“It is done!” Elder Li declared and killed the flame in the special oven forge. We just had to wait for it to slowly cool and it would be ready. The core of my own little golem. After countless days, it was finally complete!

Well, the forge was cooling down very slowly, as did the core inside. I actually went to sleep as it was already late, and as I awoke in the morning, it was finished!

“Here.” Elder Li casually tossed the core and I jumped to catch it, afraid it might break. “Haha, don’t worry, the last burn hardened the crystal and the Runes bound it together. You couldn’t break it even if you tried.”

I was tempted to test his words but refrained in the end. I could probably chip it if I gave it my all. Totally not worth it.

“Oh, it’s finally done?” Shao Li came to the workshop while rubbing his sleepy eyes. “That took a while.” He yawned.

“It would do you good to learn it too.” Elder Li said toward him, his words carrying an undertone of annoyance. “Look, your younger Brother did it in less than two weeks, yet you are delaying it for years.”

“Well…” Shao Lin began, clearly wanting to avoid the topic.

[So…] I cut into their conversation. [Do I just toss this now, or…?]

“Ah, first you have to awaken it. Send your Qi inside, you should feel it immediately.” Elder Li suggested.

I did as I was told and sent a strand of my energy inside the golem core. I felt something shift and the Qi inside came to life. I felt a pull from it and instinctively placed it on the pile of prepared rocks.

The core was immediately covered with the smaller stones and the rest formed around it, orienting exactly as I decided them to.

“Haha, you call that a golem?” Shao Lin suddenly laughed. “Were you trying to make a monkey? It’s so ugly!”

I frowned slightly at his comments. It was true that my first try wasn’t the best. The construct came up to my chest, with an unusual body. It had short stubby legs and long arms, only one of which even had small nubs for fingers, while the other looked more like a large club with the one piece of rock that it used to prop itself up.

I had to make it like that, otherwise, the balance would be off, especially with the large round head it carried, with two holes for eyes and a curved line for a crude smile. I personally thought it was pretty cute.

“What can this thing even do? It’s so tiny!” Shao Lin smirked while poking the golem in the back.

[Tiny, you say, huh?] His words made me think a bit, but then I turned to Elder Li. [Master, how do I control this thing? Can it accept verbal commands?]

“Well… sure. It’s a simple automaton with limited understanding, but it should be able to do simple tasks. Try talking to it.”

[Hmm, alright.] I came to the golem and touched its forehead. [From now on, your name will be Tiny.]

Tiny shifted his head slightly, acknowledging my words. I think. I wasn’t sure.

But to confirm it worked, I took a few steps back and gestured at him. [Tiny come here.]

The stones creaked and rumbled as Tiny moved and took a few steps forward, using his large right hand as a crutch. His walk was awkward and kind of slow, but it seemed to work.

[Tiny, follow me.] I ordered and began walking around the workshop.

Tiny once again began to move, and although he was slow and awkward at first, as he gained speed his movements became much smoother and he was easily keeping up.

“You seriously named it Tiny?” Shao Lin asked with a raised brow.

[It suits him, doesn’t it?] I beamed, proud of my creation.

“Eh…” Shao Lin scratched the back of his head.

[How much memory does this thing have?] I asked the Elder. [Is it going to forget the name I gave it?]

“No, that shouldn’t be the case. The core came from a Golden Core creature, and its Soul was bound to it. All memories and personality were wiped, so I became a blank slate. Now it's easy to change it permanently.”

[It has a Soul?!] I asked incredulously. No wonder I constantly felt a pull that urged me to eat it. So this thing was a blank Golden Core Soul! Fascinating!

“That’s right. It can even learn to do things, even if slowly, so with a bit of work, you can get quite a helper. Or a guard. Either works. Though I guess you would have to spend some time on upgrading its body if you wish for it to do any complicated tasks.”

So basically I had a golem with simple artificial intelligence at my command. That was awesome! I could teach it things, and over time, make it better!

[Alright! Come, Tiny, let’s go see what you can do!] I hollered at my new buddy and ran out of the room. Tiny slowly went lumbering along, each of its steps heavy and loud.

I led it to the arena to test how strong it was. I turned around and faced my opponent.

[Alright, Tiny! Attack me!]

After waiting a few moments the little guy still didn’t move. I slowly stroked my chin. [Let me guess, it will never attack the creator?]

“Good guess. And yes, that is in fact so.” Elder Li said, smiling. “There are ways to get around that rule if you give it more specific orders, but it's generally not worth it.”

[Hmm… Then in that case… Tiny! Beat his ass!] I shouted, pointing at Shao Lin.

“Ah?”

The golem immediately responded and ran towards him, its stubby fingers of the left hand balled into a fist. Just before reaching the target though, Shao Lin scoffed and jumped back, pulling out his bow at the same time.

“Alright! You started it! Let’s see what this thing is made of!” He pulled back the string, and a golden arrow materialized on it, containing suspiciously large amounts of energy.

He released.

The arrow hit Tiny square in the chest, and exploded. I was showered by stones and dust as large chunks rained down all around me.

[TINY!]

I ran to my little buddy, what was left of him anyway, and fell to my knees. He was dead. The head was partially blasted off, he was missing all of his limbs, and the torso had a horrible hole carved into it where the arrow hit.

“Oh, wow… It’s even weaker than I thought.”

[You, monster! Die!]

I grabbed a stone and chucked it at Shao Lin.

“Hey, it’s not my fault it-” The stone found its target and smashed right into his forehead, knocking him back.

“Oy! What’s wrong with you?!” Shao Lin shouted, rubbing his forehead.

[You killed him! He’s barely been alive for 10 minutes! How could you be so cruel?!]

“I didn’t do shit! It’s your fault it’s so weak, and besides, look! It’s already repairing itself.”

I felt Tiny tremble, and the stones that made his body were pulled back towards it, fixing the damage at amazing speed.

Even the stone I threw at Shao Lin was recalled and became Tiny’s thumb once more.

[Oh, hey… He’s back.]

It didn’t take even a minute for the stone body to completely reform itself. It was great! Though, in a fight, that would be way too slow.

I expressed my thoughts out loud, and Elder Li was there to give guidance. “It’s because it doesn’t have large energy stores. Repairing itself faster requires more energy expenditure, and such a small golem is not worth it.”

It made sense. Dragging stones closer slowly instead of reforming itself in mere seconds was more efficient.

[Still, you didn’t have to be so mean. Why the heck did you have to use one of your strongest attacks?!]

Shao Lin, who the question was aimed at, just shrugged. Emotions ran high, and we needed something to distract us. That’s where Elder Li stepped in.

“Maybe you three should go out and get some fresh air. You’ve been down here long enough, go test it out against real beasts while you still can. I heard the Beast Tide is receding. Another month or two and it will be entirely gone.”

“Yes, Elder!”

[Don’t mind if I do! It’s been a while since I have seen the sky. Come Tiny, let’s go play outside!]