WorldCrafter - Building My Underground Kingdom-Chapter 227: Creating Golem

Chapter 227: Creating Golem

“Hahaha! You’re insane, city lord T’zarek! Kill the Ashking? That immortal old bastard? Impossible!” Taleth barked out a laugh, shaking his head in disbelief.

But Ben didn’t take offense. He just smirked.

“You want to destroy those who hurt you and your mother? Fine. Let’s say you succeed. Then what?

Get captured, tortured to death, and made into a public warning? Make other Velmora suffer in retaliation for your actions?”

Taleth went silent. His hands clenched.

“I can tell you’re serious,” Ben continued. “But you’re not stupid. You know the consequences. As long as the Ashking rules, the Velmora will never be free.”

Taleth looked away. He knew Ben was right. The truth was a noose around his neck, he’d known his own limits from the start. But he still kept pushing forward, chasing a hopeless dream because there was nothing else.

Ben chuckled coldly. He grabbed Taleth by the throat and yanked him off the ground. Taleth gagged, his feet scrambling against the wall. Then, from Ben’s back, a black appendage slithered forth, razor-tipped and pulsing with dark aether.

It stabbed toward Taleth’s open mouth.

Ben wanted to test a new method of control. Until now, enslaving someone required Elvira’s help, putting a slave mark. But this time, he’d try something different.

Using dark aether as a medium, he molded a piece of himself into a parasitic creature, connected directly to the Hive Mind.

This parasite would bond to the host, allowing Ben to monitor and influence them 24/7. Unlike before, he wouldn’t need to bring them back to Elvira. He could put this parasite anytime he want.

But there was a catch.

The parasite couldn’t generate dark aether on its own. It would drain over time. And when it ran dry? It would explode, killing the host instantly.

A system that guaranteed loyalty… or death.

Taleth coughed violently, dropping to one knee. He could feel something slithering through him, wrapping around his heart, burrowing near his brainstem like icy tendrils clawing through his nerves.

“W-What… what are you doing to me!?” he gasped, eyes wide with panic.

Ben didn’t answer aloud. Instead, his voice echoed directly into Taleth’s mind.

“As long as you stay loyal, you have nothing to fear.”

Taleth’s gaze shot up. The city lord’s mouth hadn’t moved at all. His stomach churned.

Ben’s tone was calm, almost casual now. “Go to the city mansion. You’ll be granted, use your usual routes. I’ll give you a new artifact to mask your appearance, better than the last.

Then, write down everything. All your current assets, hidden allies, and plans. I want everything we can leverage when you reach Gravenhold.”

He paused, then added, “You’re not just going there. I want eyes in every city connected to the Ashking. Gravenhold. Embervale. Even the capital.”

Taleth wiped the blood from his mouth and gave a silent nod. He didn’t dare speak. Not with that thing inside him.

Right now, he just needed to breathe, to get away from Ben before his body rejected itself out of fear.

Ben watched him leave, a low chuckle escaping his lips. “Well,” he muttered, “I’ve got a new piece.”

His eyes narrowed toward the horizon.

Now that trade and espionage were in motion, it was time to shift focus.

The city’s damaged sectors still lay in ruin. The golems needed to be deployed in full force to rebuild the roads, walls, and the arcane pylons.

Massive chunks of material and metal were already stacked in storage, but coordination had to be perfect. And more importantly, the food. If the people were to work, to hope, to follow, their bellies needed to stay full.

Ben turned, looking toward the festival square where citizens were still busy filling their bellies. They laughed and smiled, eyes brimming with something rare in Krahal-Zir, hope. But Ben knew that feeling wouldn’t last forever. Not once the free meals stopped.

To win their trust, he planned to offer food like this every day for a week. The stockpiled supplies were more than enough to cover it. Starting tomorrow, he would begin mixing in biomass reserves, enough to stretch out the emergency rations without risking shortages. But after this trial week, things would change. If they wanted to eat, they’d have to work for it.

“So much to handle…” Ben muttered, arms crossed as he watched. “I need to prepare enough small jobs for everyone… then get more materials from Slark. Hmm, I should contact Draeven to bring over the reserve stockpile.”

Lost in thought, Ben made his way back to the city hall. Once there, he resumed his work, organizing plans to keep things running smoothly until next month. Logistics. Labor assignments. Security shifts. Propaganda. Every detail mattered.

Then, when the day’s plans were locked in place, he descended into the basement.

“All right,” he said under his breath, cracking his knuckles. “Now for the most important part… time to build the golems.”

Ben had already connected a hidden tunnel between the old mansion he rebuilt and the city lord’s mansion. It was a narrow passage carved cleanly through the bedrock, reinforced with grimslate braces and soundproofed with layered stone slabs.

After a short walk, he arrived at the forge.

Before, with the system’s support, creating golems was simple, just toss materials into the inventory, select a blueprint, and let the interface do the rest.

But that era was over. Now, everything had to be crafted by hand. Tedious, maybe. But far more satisfying.

Ben rolled up his sleeves, stepping toward the prepared workshop space.

Rows of tools gleamed beside a furnace already humming with heat. A crate full of grimslate ore, waited beside an ingot mold. He’d smelted most of it days ago, forging it into slabs reinforced with compressed mana circuits. It was the perfect foundation.

He started with the skeleton, taller than even nephirid, almost brutish in stature. A humanoid frame, but one designed for durability and strength. It stood just over five meters, the height alone enough to intimidate most who’d look up at it.

The spine came first. Ben selected a grimslate rod. It wasn’t just for structure, it was for stability.

Each bone was carved from reinforced alloy, socketed together with swivel joints, allowing a range of motion without compromising strength.

Every piece locked in with a satisfying click, forming a solid, flexible backbone capable of withstanding violent impacts and adapting to uneven terrain.

He worked outward from the spine. Ribs made from curved grimslate slats wrapped around the core, forming a protective cage. The shoulders were mounted next, thick blocks of forged grimslate, designed to absorb strain from repeated heavy movement.

Into those sockets, Ben inserted massive upper arms, each one built like a siege ram, layered with interlocking plates and embedded tension coils to amplify their strike force.

The legs were heavier. Slightly bowed at the thighs for a lower center of gravity, the joints were reinforced with hydraulic-style ligament made from Elvira prototype, allowing sudden bursts of acceleration if needed.

But the most important part was the chest.

Ben crouched, then etched out a deep, circular cavity on it, just above where a human heart would sit. Around it, he carefully engraved runes and channel lines using a silver-tipped chisel, the pathway that would guide energy from the inserted core through the rest of the body.

Thin mana-conducting threads were soldered into the frame, each one anchored to the rune pattern with molten bonding resin. Despite having as much understanding as Elvira, he still understand enough to make all of this.

The cavity itself was lined with obsidian and spell-hardened metal, acting as a shockproof cradle to ensure the core stayed safe.

Ben stood with his arms crossed, inspecting the frame.

“Not bad,” he muttered. “Just need to make a few more of these, then bring them to Elvira.”

While he worked, he made sure each golem could be easily disassembled, with modular parts that could be swapped or upgraded. That way, he could repurpose them for combat or labor at any time.

‘Hmm… I should add a few slots into the back too. For weapon mounts, extra tools… maybe even a self-destruct function in case they’re compromised.’

His lips curled into a smile as he kept tinkering. This wasn’t just a golem, it felt more like building a robot. A fully adaptable humanoid machine he could tweak, improve, and upgrade however he liked.

When the fifth one stood upright beside the others, Ben chuckled to himself.

“If I paint them blue and yellow, give ’em that iconic face and a beam weapon or two… hahah…”

Then, with a grin tugging at the corner of his mouth, Ben picked up a chisel and began carving into the shoulder plates, one golem at a time, from left to right.

Clink. Clink. Clink.

“Rx-1… Rx-2… Rx-3…” His strokes were careful but swift, each letter etched with purpose into the grimslate surface.

By the time he finished the last one, Rx-5, he stepped back, admiring the row of towering figures.

“Alright…” he exhaled, hands on his hips, satisfaction clear in his voice. “You’re my prototypes now. The Rx Golem series.”