"Crack... crack... crank..."
Rocky continued to produce grinding sounds from his mouth.
"Haah… Still can't talk, huh?" Lylah sighed, looking at Rocky with a weary expression.
Surrounded by piles of books and bizarre objects—from tentacled plants to glowing liquids—Lylah lay sprawled among the clutter.
Meanwhile, Rocky could only help tidy up the mess. For now, he served as both assistant and housekeeper, aiding Lylah with her ongoing dilemma.
In addition to his duties, Rocky had become the subject of countless experiments.
For some reason, Lylah was determined to make Rocky capable of speech. She had tried concocting potions and even elixirs to give him a voice, though sadly, all her efforts had only resulted in strange effects, with no real progress.
Earlier…
Master Sage had been shocked by the golem standing before him—his student's creation already had a name. Imprinted on the ground was a single word: Rocky.
This stirred a sense of unease in Master Sage. The golem seemed to possess independent thought, something beyond mere artificial life.
Lylah cautiously approached Rocky, now calm, and began examining the surface of his body in detail.
She saw nothing unusual—no external anomalies. At first glance, the golem appeared entirely ordinary.
After some time passed, Lylah hesitantly asked,
"Um… Master, what should I do now?"
A loud "Plak! Dak!" rang out as both Master Sage and Rocky simultaneously slapped their foreheads at her question.
Understanding how much his student still had to learn, Sage sighed deeply and said,
"Haah… Master thought you'd know that already."
Rocky nodded in agreement, his gesture accompanied by the grating sound of stone rubbing against stone.
Master Sage then glanced around the room, his eyes settling on the alchemic magic circle drawn by Lylah.
"Alright, let's start from the beginning. What materials did you use? What kind of circle did you draw? What incantation did you speak?"
"Umm… not much," Lylah replied, listing off various potions and materials. She admitted to using leftover components of questionable quality—ingredients that were abundant, though rarely used.
She had originally wanted to create a unique golem—something different—but somehow, everything had simply turned into a plain stone golem.
To draw the magic circle, Lylah had used an alchemical diagram from Master Sage's collection—used for mixing and combining ingredients.
She explained that she had enlarged it to allow for more ingredients and had modified parts of it to adapt to golem creation.
The incantation had come from an old, dust-covered book tucked away under the alchemy shelf in the library.
Master Sage fell into thought.
"Hmm… this is strange," he murmured.
Curious, Lylah leaned in.
"What is? Didn't it work? Why do you think it's strange?"
Master Sage stepped toward Rocky, who rested against the wall, and observed him closely.
His gaze narrowed at something embedded in the golem's chest—a marble-sized orb radiating its own mana.
"Lylah, show me the spellbook you used earlier!" he commanded.
Lylah quickly retrieved the book from beneath her robe and handed it over. Its cover was tattered beyond recognition, and many of the characters inside were indecipherable.
Master Sage flipped through it briefly, then looked back at Rocky with heightened vigilance.
After a pause, he closed the book and tucked it back into his robe.
"Ahem! Alright, I've found the issue. Well… even though this isn't exactly my specialty," he muttered.
"You… mentioned using mana stones earlier, right?"
"Um, that's right!" Lylah answered.
"What kind of stones did you use?" he asked again.
Lylah pulled out several black stones with glowing, wave-like patterns gently swirling across their surfaces.
"Here, Master! Why? What's wrong?"
Without warning, Master Sage knocked her lightly on the head in frustration.
"Reckless! The mana in these stones is already depleted! Why did you even use them?!" he barked.
Seeing her eyes welling up with tears, he couldn't help but sigh.
"Enough… Just bring out your high-quality mana stones or mana crystals! Your golem probably just lacks sufficient mana!"
Mana crystals—these were the highest quality form of mana stones, their appearance flawless, like perfectly formed chunks of translucent crystal.
At his words, Lylah's eyes sparkled with hope, her tears vanishing as if they were never there.
"Really, Master? Rocky just needs more mana?"
Even Rocky responded to the revelation, shifting his arms and making grinding sounds of interest.
"Maybe… Hurry now, prepare everything! Let's see what happens next," ordered Master Sage.
Without wasting a second, Lylah laid out a pile of mana stones and crystals.
Master Sage then extended his palm toward Rocky.
"Lylah… Pay attention and learn. You'll be the one to channel mana into him next. This is your responsibility."
Lylah gave a firm nod. Moments later, a magic circle appeared, drawing mana from Master Sage.
Fine lines of light emanated from both Master Sage's body and the mana stones on the ground, flowing into the circle.
As the mana passed through, it dispersed evenly, infusing Rocky's body.
Rocky—his vision usually nothing but darkness—began to see threads of light entering his core. His mind cleared, and his heavy form felt lighter and more at ease.
Meanwhile, Lylah attempted to mimic her master's actions. Before long, she succeeded—mana began flowing from her as well.
Master Sage, observing from the side, nodded in satisfaction at how quickly his student had picked up the new spell.
A tremendous stream of mana surged into Rocky's stone body. Despite the magnitude, there were no signs of overloading—no fractures, no explosion like an overinflated balloon.
"Ma… Master, are you sure he only needed mana? I feel like he can absorb way more than we expected!" Lylah asked anxiously.
Master Sage observed closely. The high-grade mana crystals Lylah had prepared were nearly depleted, yet the golem continued to absorb without pause.
Master Sage, who was also curious, walked behind Lylah and created a magical circle that caused the cloak to release a tremendous amount of mana. "Let's see how much mana this golem can hold, Lylah." .... Master will help you as well.
"hehehe thank you master!" replied Lylah, both of them now focused on pouring mana into Rocky's stone body.
Meanwhile, Rocky's senses are now sharpened and he can feel every object around him, and after a while, not only mana but also stones or empty mana crystals begin to roll together with his body.
Stones and mana crystals from Lylah's and Master Sage's robes also came out and rolled together to form a humanoid body.
"Doom!" an intense thud from Rocky's body spread out, and once again the dust smoke flew, but this time it was not so much that it blocked the view.
Lylah and Master Sage shielded themselves from the blast wave with the wind magic shield Master Sage had created.
And when they examined Rocky, they found a stony humanoid body slowly rising.
Now Rocky, who was originally in the form of a boulder arranged in an original way, has turned into a male mannequin made of stone arranged in such a way.