Well, I'm flattered… I guess. Hearing him "praise" us gives me mixed feelings.

Anyway, back to baby-making.

I want to create an army of golems, but first, I need to wipe my memories from their minds without giving them crippling brain damage. The problem is that I have little idea how to do that, so I have to do this through trial-and-error.

My first alteration from the standard golem is to reduce their mana organ to something very small so that they can't threaten us if they go berserk.

Arreira's notes are quite in-depth regarding the physiology of the brain, but the problem is relating this knowledge with what I can see through [Infuse]. At least I know where the brain is in the golem's soul, so I can alter it without messing with the other basic functions of their bodies.

I have a wide selection of dolls to choose from, with many potential body types and sizes, and because I want to build an army, there are plenty of suits of armor with their limbs chained together like Jarn's, but I don't think I'll use them for this first test since the bigger bodies cost a lot more mana, and the first batch will definitely not be usable.

If I'm going to do this the right way, I have to separate the golems into different categories with multiple golems per category due to the randomness of the alterations. This means that I have to separate them by body type, brain part altered, and even "type" of alteration done (when I find out how to do a more targeted alteration instead of just something random). This strategy will likely require a total number of golems in the hundreds, if not the thousands, so I have to be as efficient as possible with the use of my mana. Otherwise, I won't be able to finish this experiment within a reasonable amount of time.

I put all my points into mana skills to reduce the strain on me, then I cast [Infuse]. I'll begin by targeting the major areas of the brain that Arreira identified, then I'll apply random alterations to them just to see what happens.

I can also drink Roxanne's Moonlight Moss special MP potion for super-fast recharge without it being ridiculously expensive. Though we can afford high-quality potions, it's never a good idea to just squander our money, especially when I have the goal of investing our money in social projects.

Unfortunately, Roxanne's potions give me the "Paralysis" "Status Effect," which is decidedly unpleasant, yet it's still much less of a strain than using [Redirect Mana]. However, I'm not going to spend the first part of my afternoon just laying around paralyzed, so I'll use Alissa to set up the security measures for each of the new golems, but first, I'll give the original golems their orders.

"Ted, Suzy, Jarn, it'll be your job to assess their mental capabilities. I want you to gauge their physical capabilities, rate of learning, understanding of complex orders, capabilities to remember my memories, and capabilities to formulate new memories. This will be the 'general test.'

"The 'cognitive test,' will be based on Arreira's notes on brain functions, so I want you three to read them, even if you don't understand them. My memories of artificial intelligence were helpful in understanding the more technical parts, so I believe they can also help the three of you."

The golems remain silent for an awkwardly long moment, then Ted suddenly speaks for them, "We fear that we might not be able to create effective tests for the functions you've listed."

I nod in understanding. I just want to throw the boring, technical stuff at them, but I can at least help them get started. "Then let's discuss the tests and give you ideas about how they can be implemented in practice."

I'm also delegating the task of taking notes and organizing them to the golems because fuck that. I've done enough data organization for scientific papers to understand how soul-crushing that can be.

 

The insides of one's soul are made of "structures," which visually look like complex 3D shapes with a seemingly endless level of detail. The "brain" part of a soul is especially detailed in comparison to the other parts, but that's all that I can identify with my limited knowledge of soul organs.

Curiously, I can't find any similarities between the brain's "soul structure" and how a real-life brain is supposed to look or even how neural networks are organized. There is some logic to the soul's brain's structure, as I can identify very similar structures between the girl's soul's brains, but I find no correlation between any of their soul organs and physical organs. We only found out where each organ is in the soul because we were observing how damage to the body is reflected in the soul.

Well, what I see isn't exactly 100% the "truth" since my mind isn't able to fully absorb all the information about the structure of a soul, so I'm probably missing details that could change my understanding of a soul's organs. Besides, it's not like I know what to alter the golems' brains into, so I'm just going to have to do things blindly anyway.

And the first few golems show how hard this will be. They just straight up die a few seconds after creation.

What part of the brain did I alter?

I realize that even though I know where the soul's brain is, I don't know where its sub-parts are, so I summon a few goblins and prod their brains while observing their souls and update my soul map accordingly.

I learn that what I was altering was the brain stem, and Arreira's notes tell me that it controls the heartbeat. How he found that out, I don't know, but I guess he could've just experimented on goblins like I am, though the ones he used wouldn't be summons.

The golems are based on earth elementals, so they shouldn't have a heartbeat, which makes me believe that the stem must've been controlling some other function that's essential for the life of elementals. Since the elementals are heavily dependent on mana, perhaps there's an unconscious function in the brainstem that controls mana just like it does for the heartbeat, and my "alteration" fucked it up completely.

I alter other parts of the brain for the following golems, and now nearly all of them survive, though the problem is that most of them enter a vegetative state. The golems that survive and don't become vegetative are rare, but they do show some interesting behaviors.

There's a golem that can't speak; one who seems catatonic but not vegetative; one that gets regular seizures; one who understands speech but can only babble; a very frightening one that believes everyone is dead so it doesn't answer to my orders; a less frightening one that doesn't recognize anyone's faces, so it also doesn't answer to my orders; one whose left and right sides of the body operate independently and don't work together; and one who speaks in very weird, dreamy ways and also seems to hallucinate frequently.

Interesting phenomenons, but I'm not sure if we're getting anywhere. Maybe I should just keep going until I can identify what, exactly, made the non-vegetables become the way they are.

One of the golems becomes violent, even against us, their masters, so I begin talking with the original golems so that they may prepare a safe room where I can cast [Infuse] on big, powerful golems without exposing myself to danger if they went berserk.

I eventually start to get tired of creating so many golems, so I let the original trio begin running the tests. There are two amnesiac golems that show promise for the memory-wiped baby golem army, so I can at least say that we've taken steps towards that goal.

Since there's still quite a lot of time in the afternoon left, I decide to go to the temple to finally study the undead.

 

The temple in Escanso is just like every other temple in the empire, with only their personal quarters allowed to be different, but unfortunately, Teresina receives us in the library inside the temple, so I don't get the opportunity to marvel at elven architecture.

Ciel wants to come, so it's her, myself, and, of course, Alissa who go there.

"'Nai' Teresina, it's a pleasure to see you again," I smoothly greet her with a wide smile.

And she takes a second longer than usual to hum back with a nod in response, "Hm… likewise, Your Highness Wolf." Which I hope is because she was dazzled by my joviality.

"I've already gone through the Seekers, so I assume there's no issue with my request?" I gently inquire.

She shakes her head softly, making her long ears bounce cutely. "There isn't. The Seekers of Truth are always terse with their reports, but we trust their judgment."

I smile cheerfully and breathe, "Excellent."

But her gaze turns stern. "Though, I must ask if you remember my condition that we must always cast [Detect Evil] on you every time before you're allowed to peruse our books?"

I nod and kindly answer, "Perfectly. You may cast it freely because I assure you, I'll be the last person in the Realm to turn Wicked."

Without a hint of a reaction, she promptly replies, "I'll take your offer to cast it, but I won't take your word on the latter."

I simply smile back and nod again. It's not lost on me that there are a few armed Templars spread throughout the library, with Alissa detecting even more hidden behind the rows of books. It's wise of Teresina to keep her guard up just in case I were to suddenly get unmasked as a Wicked.

I do wonder if it's possible to get a false positive with [Detect Evil], but Ciel becomes so offended by even the mere suggestion of it that I think it's best to leave that unanswered, for now.

Teresina herself comes to cast the spell, and she extends her hand as she chants, which I gladly take with my claws. My hand is larger than usual, making her small hand look even more frail surrounded by my mean claws.

Just to be cheeky, I apply a subtle spirit touch to my hand, and I revel in the long breath she takes in response, though her stern expression remains unchanged.

Teresina looks so hot with her hair tied back that I imagine that she'd look like a prime elven beauty if it were styled sensually.

"Your milf fetish is out of control," Alissa wryly remarks through [Bind].

"All of my fetishes have gone out of control ever since I've become a weredragon," I reply in kind.

"Fair."

Ciel has no comment.

Then Teresina finishes the spell, and I feel a rather uncomfortable presence enter my body through her hand. It scours every inch of my person with a slow and intense touch, almost as if she were licking my soul, searching for the taste of Wickedness.

The feeling suddenly ends once every bit of me has been touched, and I keep holding Teresina's hand just up to the limit of what's acceptable, then I release it with a gentle smile.

"You're free to enter the reserved section of our library," Teresina softly declares, and the Templars all leave, except for one, who guides us further in.

I wave to Teresina as we leave, and she simply nods slowly.

The Templar takes us to a secluded corner of the library, which is separated by a grate made of a dark brown, glossy metal, darksteel. At its gate, there's a refined-looking wereowl man waiting for us. He has a sharp stare with thin eyebrows and slick, raised brown hair and feathers. His pale complexion makes his thin body look quite frail.

The girls think he's quite handsome, and I know it's because they have a thing for gentle looks, which are the same as mine.

He gives us a half-bow and lowers his head as he introduces himself, "Royal Ryders, I'm Ta'Haa, Head Librarian, Gray Preserver of Knowledge, and fellow Blessed by the Goddess of Knowledge. It's a pleasure to meet your family."

Lina's Trivia: Gray is the wereowl's standard title for anything "important," just like how "High" is for the elves.

"Oh, it's my first time meeting another Blessed," I happily remark.

"Caterina, Teresina's daughter, is Blessed by the Goddess of Piety," Ciel adds.

Oh, I didn't pay attention to Hana's conversation at the time.

"She only mentioned it in passing because it's impolite to brag about it in front of another faithful," she explains through [Bind].

"Anyway, it's also a pleasure to meet with Ta'Haa," I respond, and we all nod respectfully.

He nods diligently and inquires, "I've been informed that you seek knowledge about the powers of the undead?"

"Indeed. We've had one too many encounters with them."

"Very well. Follow me, and I'll show you what we have," he promptly replies, then he pulls out a beautiful, intricate ring from his [Item Box] with a *poof* and puts it on. He spins in place, then touches the gate, and it opens by itself.

We go in and pass by hundreds of nameless tomes, which are only identified by serial numbers and chained to their metallic bookshelves. Small measures to prevent dangerous bouts of curiosity from infecting untrained passersby like us.

Ta'Hee uses another intricate ring to unlock three books and deposits them at a table for us, then he casts [Clean] on their dusted leather covers and follows it up with an unknown spell that feels similar to [Blessing Magic]'s [Reinforce].

After he checks that the spells are working correctly, he diligently reports, "Here are the books 'Calliope's Reports on the Undead,' 'Soren Ekt-Bohn-Axel's Heretical Grimoire of Decay,' and 'The Unholy Consumption of Matter.' These three should provide a good base of knowledge on the undead, but if you need anything more specific or advanced, you can ask me."

The three tomes are quite heavy, so I think they'll last us quite some time.

"These will be fine for now," Ciel replies with a gentle smile.

He nods again and warns us, "I have to remind you that the knowledge in these tomes is not to be spread among the populace. I don't believe the Goddess would ever Bless someone who'd treat these topics without the care that they deserve."

"I understand. These tomes are only for ourselves," I politely acknowledge.

He gives us one last nod, then leaves so that we can have some privacy, but Alissa senses that he doesn't go far.

"Let's begin," I order.

 

Starting with the Reports book, it details how the undead first came to be, which we already know was because of researchers studying the corpse of Ender, an ancient dragon that was nearly immortal, for he could regenerate from any wound.

The book says that they tried to pull back Ender's spirit just like we did when we pulled Gurrier back from Paradise to talk with Alissa. Monsters don't go to Paradise, but it's still possible to pull their souls back from the Cycle of Spirits and talk to them.

In Ender's case, they couldn't pull his spirit back, which was odd since it hadn't been too long since he had died.

It's believed that Ender died to the level 100 [Light Magic] spell [Divine Descent], which is believed to have summoned the God of Creation to the Realm, allowing them to annihilate Ender, so it's understandable that there'd be nothing left, but the mages were researching immortality and were nothing if not stubborn, so they kept trying to pull Ender's soul back. And they eventually succeeded.

Okay, one second. What the fuck? [Divine Descent]?! Jesus fucking Christ on a bike playing with a kite. Can I summon the God of the Sun and then ask him who the fuck brought me here?

"Can you summon the Goddess of Knowledge and then fuck her?" Hana suddenly barges into my thoughts.

"I'm going to stop you right there," Ciel grumbles sternly as she comes in and pulls Hana out.

"No, no. We really need that question answered," Alissa cheekily joins in, but she immediately follows Ciel out without resisting.

Anyway… first, they started to feel the effects of Ender's corruption, so they devised protections against it using [Light Magic], then they intensified the "pull" until they "succeeded," and the mages that were pulling had their spirits stolen, literally.

Technically, they died instantly, but their physical bodies were unharmed, though they entered a seizure-like state where they twitched out of control until they starved.

Now that's freaky.

But the mages continued on and devised a protection that temporarily casts the [Trap Soul] spell with enough power to resist the pull, but then, no matter how hard they tried, nothing happened.

In a fit of madness, they started to reduce the strength of the [Trap Soul] spell, allowing the "pull" to gradually begin to affect their souls while still keeping it tied to their bodies, and they discovered the Inbetween, the place between Cycles where time and space don't exist.

They were all crammed into a single, infinitesimally small point, yet at the same time, they felt like they were in the empty void. For some, they spent an eternity there, but for others, they were there for only a few moments, yet in reality, it lasted for only a split second before they were pulled back.

Diamond dragon scales, now that's interesting!

For some reason, Ender's soul led there, and that made them extremely curious. After a lot of "exploration," they found the remnants of a spell that felt extremely similar to [Trap Soul], though it was like it was "frozen" in time, "mid-dissipation," and it was only when they observed it that the spell continued to dissipate.

One of the mages went mad and found a way to create a portal to the Inbetween, but they realized that it wasn't the same "Inbetween" that Ender's soul lead to, so then the mage cast [Trap Soul] on a part of themselves and threw it inside the Inbetween, thus creating the first undead. Because their souls are held somewhere that time and space don't exist, their Threads of Fate never age or break, effectively granting them immortality.

Wait, they found a way to leave the Cycle. Could the mage that created [Otherwordly Summoning] be one of the researchers of immortality?!

Lina believes that those researchers all died after the Heresy of the Tower of Decay, so maybe the creator wasn't killed by the spell, but instead, he just became Wicked and got purged.

Continuing, a "lesser undead" is someone who only has their spirit's brain in the Inbetween, while a "full undead" has their whole spirit in the Inbetween.

The lesser undead is weaker because they die if their physical brain is destroyed, while a full undead needs their whole body to be annihilated for them to die, but the lesser undead can hide among the humanoids, while a full undead can't due to the otherworldly corruption that comes from their spirits.

A lesser undead can keep the corruption at bay by using magic, but for a full undead to hide the corruption, they would need to use a ridiculous amount of mana, making it instantly obvious that some powerful spell was acting upon their person.

After a full undead's spirit spends long enough in the Inbetween, they become fully disconnected from the Cycle, but they can still use mana, just now, they're unconstrained by certain rules that we are.

It's like they become "alien vampires." They're incapable of producing their own mana, but they have the frightening ability to absorb ours, and they also have an incredible magical power that they can use to tug at the strings that make up our reality and then unravel them at will.

Since everything comes from mana, they can even manipulate or absorb rocks with ease, but matter is a low-efficiency fuel for them. What they most like to "eat" is either raw mana or living beings.