Before W started his goblin stalking, much earlier in Sanctuary Ed was not done experimenting with golems. He was in fact still thinking about his next move inside of the prison.
'I got a blob to move' That was great progress though it sounded so lackluster. The blob was not any blob, it was a new species. The blood clot as he named it was a remarkable milestone.
Ed wanted to take things to the next step now. He would take his exploits from the age of slime straight into the age of humanoid underlings! He wanted to make an unnamed humanoid species.
The first consideration Ed had to make was the material. He couldn't condense the blood into a human shape now, could he? He thought of better materials for this project.
He could use metal, wood, or even dirt. He could also stick to using blood and flesh by making a chimera. He could take the limbs of say orcs and boars or even just swap the limbs of orcs and test if that counted as a proper body.
'Let's try for a golem first' After finding out that whatever he made wouldn't be able to see or touch things Ed became extremely reluctant to make anything that could kill itself easily. They wouldn't survive a battle and be nothing more than a waste of resources. Though experiments didn't always have to bear fruits Ed would rather they do.
Golems made of non-fleshy materials on the other hand could cause havoc in battle even while senseless. All Ed had to do was make their bodies giant and deadly. He had to make it so that as long as the golems were catapulted into the middle of a battlefield they would be able to trample others.
The only real problem with this plan was that the golems could very well turn around in their blind rampage and injure their own allies. It would be funny if they even accidentally killed one another.
'All of those are problems for future Ed however' Current Ed didn't have the capabilities to remove these weaknesses.
As Ed was not going to be making a chimera, he spared the rest of the orcs and left the prison. He headed towards his garden again.
'Come to think of it, I didn't get to use the alchemy materials' Golems were supposed to be an alchemical process but as Ed was able to conjure life into things with spirit insertion the alchemy process was completely removed.
That wasn't a bad thing. In fact, Ed welcomed this change. Going through the path of alchemy was more akin to creating a computer. Ed would have to somehow teach the golems to make decisions and feed them back their surroundings.
Ed didn't think about this much longer, doing so was pointless. He instead entered the garden and started drawing more tree growing arrays. He wanted wood, it was his first material of choice.
The reason was simply that if the materials needed to be living, wood still satisfied the condition. Ed also planned on making an earthen golem but there was no need to rush. Earth manipulation was his specialty so he could do it at any moment.
The trees began to grow quickly under the might of the arrays and Ed quickly chopped them down. The wood for some reason however quickly withered after it lost connection to the array.
'Hmmm… The fruits didn't have this problem' Ed muttered inwardly before decisively giving up. He could come up with a few reasons as to why the logs would wither but it wouldn't be worth seeking to solve these problems Wooden golems could be easily burned after all.
In contrast... not only was earth everywhere, it definitely would not be burning anytime soon.
'Now let's see…' Ed turned towards a crappy building before quickly raising the ground. A block of the earth was formed.
This block was then slowly carved out until it took a humanoid yet tall and sturdy form. The house which used to be on top of this lot obviously crumbled.
Ed briefly admired his craftsmanship or would it be magicmanship...? Ed didn't know but he didn't pay it much mind. It was time to insert a consciousness. Ed did not prepare consciousness for a golem this large. That left him with only one choice, Lofty!
Ed came forward and inserted the consciousness before stepping back to wait for a reaction. He was positive there would be one.
'Lofty's consciousness should be sufficiently large' It would thin out into a humanoid shape since it was made using skeleton wisps and the earth was still a natural material even if not living.
Ed was optimistic.
***
Eon could be said to be a master of the space element. Finding another like him was nearly impossible. This made Eon feel all the more pity.
'In the end, I've got only one disciple to carry on the torch' As to why any of this mattered, it was of course due to the fact that space element experts were usually well learned on the topic of dungeons.
It was normal for a space magician to venture out and travel the entire continent in search of strange spatial phenomena. More often than not these phenomena would be found in dungeons.
'It's a pity' Eon had three disciples and two learned in this same manner. The risks of this method were great. The up-and-coming rookie Adventurer William died and the talented girl Shia actually never left his side. The only one left was his only potential successor, Moriel, who was still out in the world looking for space abnormalities. At least that was Eon's hope.
That thought finally caused Eon to frown slightly. What if this only successor ventured into this dungeon looking for knowledge? When he thought about it this way Eon really wanted to chuckle. He was selfish until the very end.
As for why these pilgrimages were relevant, it was because it helped space magicians learn things like stabilizing and warping space.
Eon backed off, the small black dot that was the portal to the next room then suddenly began to shift and warp oddly.
"The portal has been enlarged" Eon said as he watched the black void expand as if to consume its surroundings. It only stopped once the entire company was able to walk right in.
"Perfect. Let's proceed everybody!" Balin had been staying next to Eon said and then turned to shout at his company.
""""Understood!"""" All of the soldiers shouted solemnly. Eon's appearance had placed them all on edge. His threatening actions were not received positively, even now he would receive unpleasant stares.
"Cough Co- Cough" Eon however could not be looking any less threatening. He started to cough up blood as was now common.
"Squad captains, take the lead" Balin said before heading towards the back of the group to supervise things. As the company started to enter the portal in rows of 20, Balin and Eon were eventually left on their own.
The two walked slowly next to each other in silence.
"What are you planning on doing?" That was until Balin broke the quietness with a question.
"I'll be heading straight to the next boss" He answered without a second thought.
"We can't do that" Balin flat out rejected the notion. Although neither spoke about following the other, this was because it didn't need to be mentioned. Balin and his company had to follow Eon or he would kill the king.
"You don't have a choice" Eon even reminded Balin of this causing him to secretly gnash his teeth.
Balin then placed a firm hand on Eon's shoulder. He looked him dead in the eye and then spoke.
"I can kill you right here" Balin was not bluffing.
"Don't fool yourelf" Eon replied before shoving his hand off his shoulder.
Eon's current sickly state meant that even though he still possessed peak strength, he couldn't actually make use of it. Balin who was in the bottom middle range of the A-class definitely stood a chance but he wouldn't get off easy.
Balin didn't pester Eon any longer. They both went through the portal and after what felt like a couple of seconds found themselves being welcomed by sunlight.
"What happened here?" But there was also another sight in front of them. It was that of lava and some lightly injured knights.
"The skeleton left us a trap" Ray immediately stepped forward and answered. The trap was pretty fatal too. Luckily, after Eon modified the portal entrance triggering it required bad luck.
The pressure plate was placed right in front of the black dot, not in front of a void-like gate. Ed had obviously failed to anticipate the chance of something like that happening.
"What should we do then?" Another squad captain, Vice, asked as he looked at the noon sun.
"Let's set up camp. Have some scouts explore the area not written on the maps." Balin replied while Eon listened with a frown. Vice and Ray were about to take action but...
"There is no need to set up camp" Eon ordered. Balin didn't take more than a second to process these words and offer some of his own.
"Oh yes there is" The main reason why Balin asked to set up camp was to come to a compromise with the overbearing wizard. Eon noticed this intention and though finding it useless, he decided not to oppose the idea.
Eon was selfish. He worried about his first disciple entering the dungeon fearing that it would end his legacy. This was all while not trusting in him alone and venturing into the said dungeon with the intention to live longer. For that, the boss was key.. Balin would not interrupt his plans.