For the final test of the Iris: Winterbelle, Lucas needed to find out its limit. To do that, it needed to be destroyed. And for this test, Lucas had to venture out to the dessert where nobody was around since even a bunker might not be able handle what he was about to do, nor did he have the money to repair a facility.

  “Do you do this on purpose?” Macey complained as she was sweating bullets despite using magic to cool herself up and one of his golems holding an umbrella over her.

  Macey resorted to opening her military uniform and taking off the upper half to let it hang around her waist, leaving her in a sports bra that showed of her toned physique.

  “Okay...” Lucas hurriedly looked away from Macey. “This time, the goal is to actually do some damage.”

  Once Iris: Winterbelle materialized, the hot desert began to cooldown as the nearby sand began to freeze.

  “Terrain doesn’t affect the field magic,” Lucas took note as he called out Percival next. “Now, tear each other apart,” Lucas ordered and both golems immediately took action.

  Spikes of ice shot out from the ground where Percival once stood. If the knight wasn’t quick to dash away, Lucas wondered how much damage it would have taken since Percival’s defenses was actually higher than the goliath thanks to the materials used on them.

  “How is it so fast?” Macey asked as they watched Percival avoid every attack the Winterbelle golem used on it. “At that speed, even a Duke-ranked mage would have a hard time keeping some distance.”

  “It’s a secret,” Lucas smiled.

  Iris: Winterbelle fired all its hands, attempting to capture Percival, but they all grasped air as Percival gracefully avoided all of them as it began its charge. Winterbelle couldn’t reel in its chain fast enough and received a thrust to the chest from Percival’s lance.

  As a testament to its durability, the attack only left a small slash on Winterbelle’s chest plate. Once its hands locked back into place, the thrusters activated, boosting the speed of its swing and slammed two arms into Percival’s side.

  The knight was sent tumbling across the frozen desert, but it managed to plant its lance into the ground to regain its balance. But Winterbelle used that as an opportunity to fire a hand and grabbed Percival by the head to pull the golem in.

  Several buzz saws struck Percival as the golem was pulled in. Percival had a more balanced spec than Winterbelle. Better in every stat, even defense. But Percival was somehow losing in performance.

  “It’s not using its abilities,” Macey pointed out. “Why?”

  Noticing it as well, Lucas began scratching his head in confusion. This wasn’t the first time he had Percival fight another one of his golems, and the knight always easily tore them apart without issue. But he recalled the golem didn’t use its abilities as a monster lord during those tests as well.

  “Is it because it doesn’t recognize Iris: Winterbelle as an enemy?” Lucas figured. “Percival, use your abilities,” Lucas ordered.

  Currently, Percival was struggling to not get pulled in, but the moment it heard the command, the situation changed. Percival stopped struggling and began charging. A purple energy shrouded the golem’s great sword like a raging flame before it spun, severing the chain connecting Winterbelle’s hand to its arm.

  The same energy then covered Percival’s lance before it threw it with so much force that the frozen ground shattered the moment the lance flew over it. The lance shot right through Iris: Winterbelle, taking out a big chunk of the golem’s body.

  But the frozen goliath wouldn’t go down that easily. Winterbelle fired its three remaining hands while shooting multiple buzz saws at Percival.

  To speed things up, Lucas decided to test another feature he recently created.

  “Percival!” Lucas suddenly yelled, startling Macey who was beside him. “Core break!”

  “Core break!”

  Macey turned to Lucas in confusion after he suddenly shouted. But her confusion didn’t last long as a howl shook the dessert. Turning back to the fight, she saw a sight that could only fit in a nightmare.

  Percival’s knightly appearance changed to resemble more of an ethereal wraith. Its polished armor turned into a mass of pitch-black smoke that violently flared like flames. The howl came from its helm that opened up, forming a maw of razor-sharp teeth.

  Percival unleashed another howl as it charged. Despite its change in appearance, Percival still moved with the grace of a master swordsman. But Macey could see the increase in aggression in the golem’s movements.

  Percival slashed the rocket hands heading towards it to pieces, while the buzz saws harmlessly phased through its ethereal body. With another howl, Percival transformed into a cloud of smoke as it charged Winterbelle.

  Once it was close enough, Percival reformed and sliced off all four of Winterbelle’s arms before driving its lance down the other golem’s head.

  Macey knew that both golems that just fought in front of her had the power to kill her helplessly, and she just witnessed one of those golems tear the other one apart with ease. The same golem that she believed her father would be pleased to receive.

  “What the hell was that? It literally turned into a monster!” Macey questioned Lucas.

  He just turned to her with a pained smirk before falling to the ground.

  Core break.

  Lucas discovered the ability, or more like discovered the opportunity to add the ability. While performing some weekly maintenance on his golems, Lucas wondered if he could tap into the primal nature of the monsters through their core being used in the golems.

  To achieve this, Lucas used a high-quality rune called Primal fury that costed five hundred thousand credits for the reusable enchanting stone for the standard golems and three hundred thousand for the embeddable one for Percival. It had the ability to access a chosen trait from the monster which the core being used belonged to. Normally, it is used to enhance artifacts by giving them traits of monsters, but Lucas used it to gain the natural ferocity of a monster lord.

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  Unfortunately, that process only worked on Percival. But that didn’t stop Lucas from giving his personal golems a boost. However, this new addition to his golems required him to be conscious of even the monster cores he would use in every golem.

  But the biggest drawback of this new feature was that it drained his stamina upon activation. At most, Lucas could keep Core break active for five minutes before feeling the strain. Going beyond that would quickly leave Lucas withered on the ground.

  “You’re too reliant on your golems,” Perci mentioned as he floated over Lucas who was laying on his bed.

  “I’m a crafter. What else am I going to rely on?” Lucas responded.

  “Your aura,” Perci answered. “You’ve already completed one circle. You must train to use it.”

  Lucas sighed. “How long does it take to complete one circle?”

  “A month,” Perci replied.

  “It took me several months to complete mine,” Lucas stated. “I know I lack talent for it Perci. I won’t stop training, but I can’t focus on something that barely improves.”

  “You are mistaken human,” Perci hovered over Lucas’s face. “Soul circles do not determine the combat power of a user, but the way they use them. Additionally, your aura circle is in a perfected state due to your diligence and hard work.”

  Lucas got up. “You really thing I have the talent for it?”

  “Your diligence is all that is needed.”

  Macey stood before the head of the Winterbelle family and her father. Surrounding them were his wives and children, along with the elder council of the Winterbelle family.

  “I have brought the golem, father,” Macey offered the cube to her father.

  In order for the golem to obey, they needed to be the one to activate the runes. The head butler received the cube from Macey and carried it to her father along with the manual on how the golem worked.

  As her father received the cube, Macey examined his expression. She didn’t know if the task being completed in two months pleased him or created some doubts.

  He stood up from his throne and examined the cube in his hands. All it needed was a small amount of mana to activate the runes and form the golem, but her father decided to make a show out of it and released a large quantity of mana in his hands to activate the cube before tossing into the middle of room.

  The golem began to form in the middle of the throne room, materializing its gigantic form. It towered over everyone in the throne room and the floor cracked as the golem took a step to adjust itself.

  The family head suddenly unleashed a powerful blast of magic that shattered upon impact on the golem, scattering shards of ice everywhere. The golem didn’t even flinch from the attack and simply stood there waiting for an order.

  “Splendid,” the family head spoke as he walked towards the golem, stepping over the freezing floor. “Truly a beast worthy to resemble our family’s might!”

  Macey watched as everyone began clapping. She even spotted Merida rolling her eyes at the overly dramatic show.

  “Daughter, you have done well,” the family head praised her. “I will grant you a wish.”

  All her life, Macey wanted to hear those words from her father. From the man that never gave her the time of day.

  But now that she did.

  It meant nothing.

  “I wish to return to the South eastern sector.”

  Macey’s words were met with silence. Nobody spoke and waited for the family head to react first. The fact that he did nothing but stare further added to the tension.

  “You realize what that means, do you?” the family head finally spoke.

  Macey steeled her resolve and nodded. “A Winterbelle that does not reside in the north will relinquish their name and will be reduced to a branch family.”

  Macey could see some people around her looking at her like she was crazy.

  The family head narrowed his eyes at Macey.

  “He doesn’t have a name?” Lucas asked with a confused look as he looked at the finalization of the payment.

  The paperwork only referred to the Winterbelle family head as “Family head” in every document.

  Althea just shrugged. “Some people like to have a gimmick. He probably just doesn’t like his name. As long as he paid, it’s all good.”

  Lucas nodded. “Good point.”

  “Anyways. I have another meeting to get to, so enjoy your rock collection,” Althea said before leaving his office in a rush.

  Now that he was alone, Lucas examined the monster lord core he received as payment from the WInterbelle family. When Merida mentioned the name of the monster lord when they offered the deal, Lucas looked up the monster lord and found several interesting details.

  First off, the monster lord was killed by several families in the north forming an alliance to subjugate it. The Winterbelle family led the charge, which granted them the right to the core. With the core drained of all its mana, it was nothing more than a pretty rock that they would gladly trade for a powerful golem.

  Second, the monster lord’s appearance resembled a sabretooth version of a werewolf. Its fur was white as snow and its claws and fangs were silver. It stood at the same height as Percival, but with a bulkier build.

  In terms of abilities, Ragnar wielded lightning. All its attacks were infused with lightning, further enhancing its destructive attacks. Additionally, as expected of a monster that wielded lightning, Ragnar was fast.

  If Percival had a good balance of everything, Ragnar was entirely focused on dealing as much damage as possible.

  “Now... how am I going to turn you into a golem.”

  Unlike Percival, Lucas didn’t have a script for Ragnar’s body and abilities. Recreating everything from scratch would nearly be impossible. Lucas would have a better chance of becoming a mage than replicating Ragnar’s abilities.

  “There’s a way,” Perci appeared. “You can take it from Ragnar yourself.”

  Lucas raised an eyebrow at Perci. “What do you mean?”

  “Have you forgotten about the contract?”

  “I can make a contract with any of them?”

  “They must accept the contract. But there is a way to force it.”

  Perci shot towards Lucas’s chest, attaching himself like he does with golems. “What the hell?!” Lucas exclaimed in shock.

  But the shock quickly turned to confusion when he realized he was no longer in his office and is in a familiar chamber.

  “Back so soon?” the voice of Percival echoed through the chamber. “It’s impressive that you even managed to return here.”

  “Are you telling me that you’ve just been sitting there doing nothing?” Lucas asked as he approached the throne.

  “That would be agonizing,” Percival replied. “This place only materializes upon certain conditions are met.”

  “The other Percival said that there’s a way to obtain the same script like the one you gave from other monster lords. I’m assuming you know how,” Lucas decided to get to the point.

  “Do you have the core?” Percival asked.

  Recalling a past occurrence, Lucas checked his Spatial core and found the monster core within it. Taking out Ragnar’s core, Lucas showed it to Percival. The knight held up a hand, asking for the core and Lucas handed it over without a fuss.

  Percival proceeded to seemingly pull something out of the core. It looked like a string of energy being pulled out, and once out, it formed an incomplete magic circle like the one Percival gave him before.

  “Just like that?” Lucas raised an eyebrow.

  “Just like that,” Percival held up the script.

  “You’re being awfully cooperative,” Lucas said with suspicion.

  “You expect too much from a monster stuck in some made up world inside your head,” Percival commented.

  Lucas shrugged and accepted the script. “By the way. What kind of monster were you? I know that monster lords are supposed to be stronger variants.”

  “I was a death knight,” Percival answered.

  Lucas nodded and began looking around. “Now what?”

  “Goodbye,” Percival said before unleashing a slash with his great sword.

  In the blink of an eye, Lucas was subjected to the familiar scene of him waking up back in his office.

  “Did it work?” Perci asked, floating over his desk.

  “Not in the way you thought, but yeah.”