Supreme Magus

Solus blushed at the thought of how many times she had let amazement and magical theory-crafting distract her from a fight. It had happened even back when she had faced the King of Kolga alone.

"It's an interesting plan. The staff would provide Solus with enough world energy to let her keep her human body and to make up for her faulty core thanks to her tower half converting the world energy into her own mana." Salaark said.

"Yet unless Mogar got turned upside down while I wasn't paying attention, world energy is comprised of six elements and you only have three Balor eyes."

"I know." Lith nodded. "That's why my project involves cutting three white mana crystals the size of an apple and enchanting them so as to amplify one of the elements that I lack to make up for the missing Balor eyes."

Lith had gotten a blue, a red, and a black eye from Trouble's corpse. He projected the hologram of three magical gemstones respectively orange, yellow, and silver..

"Brilliant! The eyes of a Balor naturally draw the world energy, creating an imbalance that the altered white crystals can exploit to further enhance their elemental output!" Salaark gave Lith an applause and ruffled his hair.

"Yet this raises a question. You've been here for half a month and I know about the Eye of Kolga you keep hidden in the basement. Why didn't you craft this Sage Staff already?"

"Well, because before we had this conversation, it was just a theory. I had no idea if my plan would work and I couldn't afford to waste the only Yggdrasill staff and the three Balor's eyes I have." Lith replied.

"Why didn't you ask me earlier, then? Like back when I taught you Menadion's Forgemastery technique?" She asked.

"It's not like I'm in a rush." Lith sighed. "I'm barely past the deep violet and I have no experience using the technique you showed me nor those that I obtained from the Council during Urgamakka's test.

"First, I need to use my Abyssal Gaze to at least reach the halfway violet core. Second, I must get used to that power. Only then can I attempt to craft the Sage Staff. And that is if Solus doesn't prefer waiting until I reach the bright violet so that I can give her a top-grade weapon."

"Aren't you forgetting about something? Or better, someone?" Salaark pointed at herself. "Failure or success doesn't matter when you have a lovely, genius, gorgeous Grandma who can bring everything back to its unaltered state. Creation Magic, remember?"

"Really?" Lith and Solus said in amazement.

He remembered the Guardian's offer about recycling his materials, but he had assumed it was limited to their initial deal. Back at his arrival, Salaark had only granted him the privilege of restoring metals for him to practice and to get used to working on rare elements like the Davross.

"Of course. I already do the same for Tyris and your Grandpa. Not even a Guardian would have so much Davross to craft a Royal Fortress armor every time there was a magical breakthrough." Salaark shrugged.

"Just craft to your heart content. The moment your abilities improve, all you need to do is to come here and I'll dismantle any of your creations back into their original materials."

"Thank you!" Both Lith and Solus hugged the Guardian, wishing to run straight to their Forge before remembering about Tista. "But that will have to wait. Until Tista is back on her feet, I can't afford to divert too much power from her bedside."

"A wise choice. Is there anything else you need my help for?" Salaark asked.

"Actually yes." Lith nodded.

"My bloodline ability to conjure Demons is powerful, but it requires too much energy on my side. Since the Demons' power depends on my own, their usefulness in battle is limited to when I can use Invigoration or I'm near to a mana geyser."

"Kid, without such limits, you would be literally a living one-man army." Salaark said with a scoff.

"My point exactly. That's why I have racked my brain to find a way to solve the issue and I think I got it. Golems!" Lith said.

"Golems?" Salaark curled her upper lip in disgust.

Artificial constructs had so many limitations compared to Awakened that she employed them solely during times of need as peacekeeping forces.

"Yes." Lith conjured more holograms to keep the real ingredients preserved inside his pocket dimension while showing the Guardian everything she needed to follow his logic.

"At first, I thought about raising undead. The link between our life forces might allow them to channel my energy signature and help me conjure the Demons. The problem is that creatures with free will are not trustworthy nor are they going to mindlessly follow me forever."

"Indeed." The Guardian nodded. "Not to mention that they would be utterly useless during daytime."

"Then, I thought about creating an artificial body and having one of my Demons possessing it. Yet I had to discard the idea as well because the souls that follow me can move on at any time.

"On top of that, I can't afford the time for the latest arrival to get accustomed to the body and to my abilities. That's why after learning about the altered white crystal and about their Spirit version in particular, I understood what I needed to do."

The hologram now showed the corpses of Trouble the Balor, of the lion-like Vagrash, the Earth Roots ingredients, and two emerald green crystals the size of their respective hearts.

"My plan is to use the Earth Root to make the mana conductivity of the corpses on par with Davross, also giving me complete freedom in placing the runes and the crystals. After that, I graft the Spirit Crystal in their body so that they share my same energy signature.

"If everything works as intended, I can use the power core of the golems to fuel my Demons without it affecting my strength. They would act as both my lieutenants and as the energy source for the Demons that I can recharge with Abyssal Gaze whenever I get a moment of respite from the battle." Lith said.

"I'm even planning on giving Trouble three altered crystals to replace his eyes and see if the Balor's body can use them the same way as the originals without the risk of it becoming sentient."

"Let me get this straight. You want to create some hybrid between golems and lesser undead. Correct?" Salaark asked.

"Correct."

"Well, too bad. This is a clear no." She shook her head.

"Why?" Lith asked.

"Because both are too dumb to be useful. Lesser undead you can move with your mind, but that would mean losing focus in the heat of the battle. Against a powerful opponent, a single moment of distraction is fatal.

"As for golems, they have no brain. Sure, you can teach them a few patterns, but there are too many variables.

"Allies, enemies, hostages, not falling for traps, are all things that need specific instructions and that any opponent with half a brain can use to render your creation useless. Why do you think golems are mostly used as house defense?" She replied.

"That's exactly why I didn't even start studying golems." Lith knew those things as well, but he had hoped for a different answer.