Absolute Beast Dominion

A/N: Bonus chapter for the Supergift—Castle, gifted by 'story_slayer86'

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Chapter 585: Metal-Enhanced Golem

The metal was in the shape of a cube, each edge slightly more than 50 cm. But even that weighed 1 ton.

To Leo, however, it was nothing more than a paperweight. He kept it balanced on a single palm as he curiously observed the block.

Even Aeila didn't understand what Leo was actually holding. It had a very dark metallic texture that could have been anything.

Looks like metal... but of course, no one should be able to lift it if that were the case. Must be some sort of storage artefact that's hollow inside, Aeila concluded.

But Leo was still busy studying the metal block.

[Metal Manipulation] - Low 99%

Leo tried using the skill on the block, and only after a few seconds did it finally begin to vibrate.

"It will do," Leo muttered as he looked toward the 3-meter-tall golem. Since he also had the [Golem Construct] skill, he commanded the golem to sit down on the ground.

"Eh?!" Aeila was startled when the golem's folded feet touched her knees, forcing her to take a step back.

"Aeila, I am going to upgrade your golem. Call one of your friends who can use vines so that, in case the golem's structure starts to collapse, you can keep it intact until I fix it."

She immediately nodded and called over one of the wood-element elves.

Leo looked around and found the perfect place to sit right in front of the golem.

He sat 5 meters away from it, but then realised it would be better to keep the metal cube at the centre between him and the golem. Realising his intentions, Aeila immediately walked over to take the cube and place it in the middle so that Leo didn't need to stand up again.

"Lord, let me do it!" She was so eager to help that she didn't even notice Leo raising his hand to stop her.

Then, when she tried taking the cube from Leo's hand.

"Huh?" She wasn't even able to budge it.

Aeila exerted so much force that one of her feet was lifted up as she arched her back.

"You cannot lift it. Well, not when you are... oh, you also ranked up?" Leo had been so focused on the golem that he hadn't realised Aeila was now Mid 2-star.

Leo shook his head at her futile attempt, stood up, and simply dropped the block at the centre—not bothering to bend down.

Thud!!!

Aeila's eyes widened as cracks spread across the ground beneath the cube.

How can someone lift that?! She looked at Leo's biceps for any sign of strain but found none. It was as if lifting something this heavy was part of his daily routine.

Leo paid her no attention.

"Howl, let's begin," Leo said as he closed his eyes, focusing his attention on the metal cube and the golem.

"Howl... who?" Aeila looked around but saw no one, only growing more confused by what Leo was saying.

The next moment, the metal cube at the centre began to vibrate and change shape. At the same time, the golem started shaking as pebbles slowly crumbled away.

Aeila panicked and immediately pressed her hands against the golem to keep it together until her friend arrived and used vines to hold the crumbling stones in place. But just as Leo had said, the golem quickly stabilised. There was, however, one noticeable difference.

The golem had been completely hollowed out. It looked as though someone had pulled out its skeletal body, leaving only the rocky muscles intact.

That was exactly what Leo was planning. He was about to use that 1-ton block of metal to form a skeletal structure for the golem, making it much sturdier against blunt impacts by filling up the space he had just formed.

Since a 3-meter-tall golem made entirely of metal would require around 4 to 6 tons of it, that wasn't possible right now. So he settled for creating only a skeletal system.

And so, the construction began.

Leo wasn't focusing on any refined structure because his control was still very low—only a rough framework. The most problematic parts were the joints. Even though he was keeping the design simple, with the centre being just a ball and two sticks attached to it as limbs, shaping the curved ends of the sticks so they could rotate smoothly around the ball was an incredibly delicate process. Each one took nearly half an hour.

In total, he made 8 such joints. 2 knees, 2 elbows, 2 shoulders, 1 neck, and 1 large hip joint.

It took so much time that even Lily had to get involved in case the mandatory class time arrived. She had already bid farewell to the feather shop manager and had been looking for Leo to call him for food.

With Howl, Leo, and Lily working together, they finished the work in 4 hours.

Right now, the golem stood 1 meter taller and radiated the strength of a Pseudo 3-star being whenever it was active.

"Wait..." Leo immediately tried creating a random golem to check its rank.

Peak 2-star.

In other words, Aeila's golem had become an entire rank stronger simply because of a metal skeleton.

But the cost to maintain it had also increased. A Pseudo 3-star golem required 2000 units of mana per minute.

Howl:

Intelligence: 380

Mana: 11,400

Recovery: 4190 units/minute

[Titanbreath Lotus Boost: 3000 units/minute]

[Other Plant Boost: 1000 units/minute]

[Personal Natural Regeneration: 190 units/minute]

"Okay... I guess that's more than enough," Leo muttered. He realised just now how much of a boost the larger Ancient Savage must have been receiving if Howl could regenerate this much.

Howl was literally gaining a massive surplus of mana every minute, which was one of the reasons behind his rapid growth.

No wonder the Emperor fought that one Colossus for more than a month, Leo recalled Brant's words.

After that, he simply handed the golem over to the dumbfounded Aeila, who couldn't take her eyes off it.

11:00, 10 March

Leo was currently eating alongside Lily, and they were in a hurry. Leo also wanted to talk to the Gnomes about the golems, but that would have to wait for another time because it was finally time for the Mandatory Class.

Soon enough, all four of the core members reunited.

But Leo and Kaelion's attention was on Miho because she had, by far, experienced considerable growth in strength.

She had advanced from Low 3-star to High 3-star within just 1 month, and after a quick question, it turned out her contracted Bison had reached Peak 3-star, which was just a Mid 3-star last month.

"What did my aunt feed you these days...?" Kaelion muttered.

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