Chapter 146

The problem with Raven was that she did her best not to feel strong emotions for logical reasons, and she isolated herself from others for that.

Unfortunately, she didn't show that kind of affection.

Dio then remembered that he was still standing with his back to her door, and she could probably sense him.

Then Dio ran as fast as he could and jumped out of an open window. He fell freely until his body froze in the air and gently touched the ground.

Dio is at the back of the Tower, where his laboratory is.

"Άνοιξε!"

"Open!"

Dio spoke the magic words while he was alone on the lawn in the middle of it.

On the ground, a double trapdoor opened and revealed a simple stone staircase.

Dio began to descend the stairs.

It wasn't too difficult for him to dig an underground space for himself.

Dio just needed a bit of magic and some summoned skeleton workers to clean everything up.

After that, he started building his defenses.

The upper door can recognize both voice and pressure. Dio had to be in the right place for it to work.

The place isn't fancy at all.

The walls were dirt, and the ceiling was lit by hexagonal luminous crystals, each thirty centimeters in diameter.

A common item for mystical races.

Dio went down five meters underground and faced another door—a gray door made with his ectoplasmic manipulation.

The ceiling collapsed on everything when another approached because it only opens when it detects Dio's unique energy.

According to Raven, Dio was exaggerating.

This temporary place didn't need such protection since there was nothing of great value here and just some materials.

She was right, and this was more of a learning space than the laboratory of a powerful sorcerer.

Still, Dio couldn't help it, and he was a bit paranoid about protecting his things as much as he was about protecting those dear to him.

The main room after the door was large, with rough stone walls.

Dio didn't need to worry about the space in the underground, so this room was about the size of the Tower's common room.

The walls are the most used, aside from the empty area in the center.

The ones on the east side are filled with various books, most of which came from Zatanna's personal library.

Dio copied those that could be copied and placed them here. Unfortunately, the recent explosion burned almost half of them.

On the west shelves, there were plants, roots, liquids, soil samples, and organic material from various animals—everything a magician needed to perform their tasks.

Luckily, they were not damaged.

On the south wall, there are minerals, silver, gold, and various other types of jewels that he got in the underworld.

They were not only his source of income but could also be used as materials depending on the ritual.

There is a long wooden table in the center, four meters long and one in width.

There were common laboratory devices such as balloons, test tubes, burettes, beakers, and pipettes on the table—all easily purchased online.

There were also three Bunsen burners—small silver cylindrical rods pointed upwards that, when lit, released a blue flame—very common in laboratories.

"So, how's my current failure?"

Dio said quietly while walking to the table and picking up a small test tube attached to a platform that keeps it upright.

This resulted from his latest attempt, a black slime that didn't stop wriggling in the tube.

"Why the hell is it so difficult to create a golem? It's not like I'm trying to build a homunculus!"

Dio sighed with regret and put the tube back in its place.

In short, alchemical magic essentially involves separating raw materials and transforming them into what the alchemist desires.

It was an art that blended science with magic.

A master alchemist could create healing elixirs and poisons, transmute one material into another, build magical artifacts, grant eternal life, or even create life.

So this was something that had interested him, but leaving where he was to pursue all these things had proven to be hard.

Dio started with the basics and transformed a simple piece of metal into something more refined.

Then he tried to create potions but had to give up for a while.

The materials were not easy to find, and he didn't have much material to practice with as much as he wanted.

After mastering the basics, he wanted to try something intermediate—the creation of a golem, an anthropomorphic being created entirely from inanimate matter such as clay, stone, minerals, wood, ice, and water.

Dio's should be constructed in darkness and intended for defense or espionage.

Only after a few attempts did Dio realize his foolish mistake.

It was possible for even a novice to construct a golem out of inanimate objects.

However, he was trying to use pure darkness to construct a golem that could not be touched or sensed while turning his intermediate-level golem into a difficult one.

Dio could give up and build a mechanical golem using the rare metals he already had, but he was a stubborn idiot, so he had been trying the same thing for months.

"I promised not to try again before moving. Another explosion, and I could be evicted, but I can't wait."

The movement of his failure in the tube proved he was close.

Dio gave in to his temptation and cleared a section of the table while placing a stone container on it.

Then he sprinted through the laboratory while collecting all the materials and placing them around the stone container.

Dio also grabbed a black-covered book and laid it open on the table.

After confirming that he had remembered everything, he placed the materials in the container with the correct measurements.

Alchemy is much like cooking, but more precise.

A gram was more material, and everything lost its meaning. Fortunately, he always got the correct weight with just his enhanced eyes.

After all the materials were in the container, he crushed them with a small piece of wood and turned everything into a black powder.

Dio took this powder to a beaker, which he placed under the Bunsen burner and then ignited.

It didn't take long for the powder to emit a smoky odor in the room.

Dio didn't set up a ventilation system because this place was only meant to be temporary.

So, whenever he tried to "cook" something, he had to hold his breath.

It's a good thing for him—he was improving the time he could go without breathing because of it.

Dio poured his blood into a test tube, and as everything was about to burn, the blood of a demigod began to mix with the powder and turn into a black slime.

Two hours later, the slime remained the same.

However, Dio saw with his own eyes that it was ready.

Dio then conjured a gray orb the size of an egg filled with small symbols engraved on it.

This was the core of the golem made of solidified ectoplasm with his divine energy and mana.

The core was the heart of the golem, and the only weak point of golems was that they were made from non-solid elements.

A creative part of his plan was that since the heart was made of pure ectoplasm, it could only be hurt by the same kind of spiritual energy.

This means that it can't be hurt by any physical attack.

Dio extinguished the flame and tossed the orb into the beaker.

The slime attacked the orb and tried to swallow it completely. The core glowed black around the symbols as it moved.

Dio picked up the beaker with bare hands while taking a few steps away from the table and turned it on the ground.

The slime fell.

"Let's do this!"

Dio said while trying to cheer himself up, as this was the part he failed last time, and everything exploded.

He raised both arms above his head and began to chant the ancient spell in a long-dead language.

A black energy in the form of mist descended to the ground from his hands and completely enveloped the slime.

The mist began to grow while surpassing his size and reaching almost two meters in height.

Everything seemed to be happening perfectly, but he didn't let this joy distract his focus, and after, the mist became visibly more solid.

"Success!"

Dio shouted and stopped the spell.

The black mist in front of him took on a humanoid shape made of smoke, with two arms and legs.

Its face has no mouth or nose, only a vertically open red eye.

Dio could feel the core of the golem moving through its body without stopping, and he knew it was under his control.

The link it had with him meant it could understand simple commands even without consciousness.

"Now, let's test my creation, and I already know the perfect test dummy."

Dio couldn't help but laugh while imagining Wally's face of fear.

...

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