After thinking about it for a while, Eisen sighed loudly. It was obvious what he was going to do, wasn't it? Of course he would make a Horse Automaton! He just had to!
But now there was a problem… He could create Aulu in such a highly-detailed way only because he had the bones of a wolf to use as reference. Maybe he would be able to copy it with mana copy, but it would be much preferred if there was some kind of way for him to get a horse's corpse to use as reference, and that without having to buy and kill one.
And it was quite hard to just ask someone where he could get a dead horse as well, after all, that would probably just scare people off.
There had to be some way to get a horse's body, right? Maybe he could go out and hunt for a horse-like monster in the forest.
But maybe that wasn't such a good idea. It really seemed like for now, the best option was to simply ask someone if he could make a copy of their horse. Eisen walked over to the stableboy and asked him if he could take a horse there as a reference. But it obviously wouldn't be so easy. After all, who would just let a stranger pour mana into their horse? It would be a quite simple way to injure or kill it basically instantly, so the stableboy didn't want to take that risk.
But he allowed Eisen to walk around and ask people tending to their horse if they were alright with it, so there was at least a little chance left.
So, for the next hour, Eisen tried walking through the stable while trying to find someone that would let Eisen use mana copy on their horse. Most people felt either strongly conflicted or immediately rejected Eisen from the start, but after searching long enough, there was one young man that allowed Eisen to copy his horse.
Eisen thanked him and looked at the horse with light brown fur. It was quite large, as even Eisen was only barely able to look over its back, and it seemed quite healthy, which was really only perfect in Eisen's opinion.
He slowly placed his hand over the horse's back and poured his mana out of his palm, manipulating it so that it envelops the horse completely, and then started to move it inside of the horse's body.
Immediately, the horse reacted to the large amount of mana entering it and started to move around nervously, but the owner managed to make it calm down so that Eisen could continue his work.
He focused on every part of the Horse's body one by one, trying to copy it in as much detail as possible, until…
[Mana Library Expanded – Gigantuon Steed]
Eisen smiled happily and quickly pulled his mana back out of the Horse's body, then once more thanked the young man for his help.
After leaving the stable, Eisen and Bree quickly went to their room in the Inn to see if Jyuuk was still there or if he was out and about, doing something on his own. Once they saw that the room was completely empty, they decided to leave Jyuuk to do his own thing already and then made their way to the place where Eisen might spend the next few days again, the smithy run by the Grandmaster Blacksmith Denmir, "Dwarf's Delight".
They walked through the front door and greeted the employee sitting at the counter while she was looking at Aulu and Caria in slight confusion, then made their way to the back of the shop, where Denmir was currently taking a break from his work.
"Ah! What're ye doin' here, old man? And what's that what ye've brough there with ya? Don't tell me ya became some tamer all of a sudden!" The Dwarf yelled out and walked over to greet Eisen, his stare concentrated on both Caria and Aulu, especially the latter. And once he got closer, as Eisen would have expected from him, Denmir's eyes became wide.
"Wait, that's no livin' bein', is it? Isn't that wolf's fur made of brass? Or does it just look like that? And it's just standin' there like a statue as well…" He said with professional curiousity and squatted down onto the ground to take a closer look at the thing in front of him.
Eisen scratched his beard lightly and chuckled. "It's not a real wolf. It's an automaton, something like a mechanical golem. I gave it leather as skin and added fur out of brass as well."
"Hmm, why'd ye choose brass? Ah, wait a second… I can 'ear gears twisting inside, so that's how ya made it. Makes sense to use brass then, it's good under high pressure. And ye used high-tensile brass as well, as expected of you! What brings ye here then? I doubt ya just wanted to show me this magnificent creation!" Denmir asked and looked at Eisen suspiciously.
"Yes, you're right with all of that. I came here to make another Automaton. This time a horse, though."
Immediately, Denmir's eyes shot open excitedly and he looked around to see if he had anything else to work on for the day. "Is there any way I can help ya?!"
Eisen laughed lowly and thought for a bit. It would definitely be quite a lot of help to have someone of Denmir's skill level assist in the creation of the automaton, and it would most likely cut the time he needed down immensely as well.
"Actually, yes. You see, what I'm planning is to create a brass skeleton and fill it with different gears and tubes, as well as lubricant tanks. But creating all of these parts in themselves is quite a lot of work. It would be an amazing help if you could take the task of creating the skeleton while I'm working on the gears. Don't worry, I have something you can use as reference." Eisen explained, and Denmir listened eagerly before bursting out into laughter.
"Alright, I'll help ya however I can! We don't 'ave much high-tensile brass left, so I'll get everyone here that doesn't have to work on something else make as many ingots as they can! Now, show me that reference!" Denmir exclaimed with excitement deep in his voice, and Eisen couldn't help but smile himself as well.
He poured out some of his mana and activated his mana copy skill to create the copy of only the horse's bones.
"Oh-hoh! Ye're quite skillful with mana as well, huh? Anyway, this ain't a normal horse, now is it? This is somethin' called a Giganto-somethin'-or-another." Denmir muttered out, and Eisen nodded with a chuckle.
"Yes, it's called a Gigantuon Steed. Either way, that doesn't change too much, right? It just means that the parts have to be a bit bigger than if we created an automaton based on a regular horse."
"Haha, true that! Let's get started, then!" Denmir exclaimed happily and Eisen nodded, grabbing his Blacksmithing outfit out of Bree's backpack before going to change in another room.
After that, he grabbed his tools as well and began to get to work on all the gears that he needed with some brass that Denmir handed him before he yelled at the other smiths to start working on making more of the high-tensile brass that they needed.
But before he worked, though, he of course also activated his crafting space.
---
This work of mass-producing the base metal parts of the Horse automaton with the help of Denmir not only took up the rest of the day on which they started, but also most of the next day. Now it was afternoon of the second day of the creation process of the Automaton, and it was about time to start assembling the whole thing.
"Thanks for your help until now, Denmir. I really owe you one." Eisen said with a smile, and Denmir shook his head with a grin. "Don't'cha worry about it, ye're fine! I'm just excited ta see the finished product! And as long as ye finish here, that definitely won't be a problem!" The dwarf laughed loudly while eagerly waiting for the next step of what Eisen would do. And to his surprise, he didn't start assembling the body, but instead took out different glass flasks and tubes, as well as a few crystals and some green gems.
After sitting down at a worktable by the wall, Eisen set all of these things up and was immediately surrounded by most of the smiths that worked in the smithy that day, since every single one of them was incredibly interested in what Eisen was making.
With a sigh, Eisen turned his crafting space into the one for alchemy and began to smile, then placed the rank 4 mana crystal that he bought, so that this core would at least be on par with the one that he made for Aulu, into the mythril mortar and began to grind it down until it was a fine powder, then did the same with the mind and soul crystals before mixing them into the mana crystal powder.
After he poured the water he needed into it and carefully stirred everything, Eisen poured the mixture into the flask that he then connected to the distillation system, slowly boiling said water away again.
This left a crystal structure on the bottom of the beacon that Eisen quickly removed with transmutation and then formed into a sphere, before disassembling the distillation system since he didn't need it anymore, saving the leftover water in a small glass bottle.
Next, Eisen grabbed the Golem Core and some of the beast crystals that he managed to buy, albeit at quite a high price, and then began to create the same kind of runic symbols on its surface as when he created Aulu's Golem core.
After that was done, Eisen grabbed three enchantment marbles, changed his crafting space to enchanting as well, and then enchanted the golem-core base with the three enchantments that were needed to finish it.
And just like before, Eisen managed to break through both alchemy and enchanting, giving him bonus stats again!
Just like the last time, with Aulu's core, Eisen created the copy of the horse's heart that he made, and placed it over the golem core, using transmutation to form it into a heart.
But that wasn't all that Eisen made with transmutation and enchanting. While switching around between the alchemy and enchanting crafting spaces, Eisen created three different sensory organs for the horse. Eyes, nose and ears, all properly enchanted. On top of that, Eisen also created a mana crystal brain for the automaton so that it would be able to process and remember information just like Aulu.
And now that all of the base parts of the Automaton were there, it was time for Eisen to assemble it.