Chapter 9 Brothers

A step, another step... he stopped, frozen, the pedipalps touching the small pebble with obvious interest, for a few minutes ago he had studied the branch in the same way. The chelicerae twitched, as if their owner was considering whether or not to taste the stone.

It was inedible, though, and the spider moved on cautiously, studying the clearing behind the Mori family's home. I'm sitting here and I can't get excited about my creation, because it's alive!

No, those who haven't built a reasonable magical robot from scratch, with the possibility of a small development, approximately to the level of an intelligent cat (you can raise the level higher), will probably not understand me. In the Master's scrolls, the principles of movement of joints, ligaments, muscles, and energy conduits for magical robots were illustrated and thoroughly explained.

Seeing the precise scale drawings, it didn't take a genius to bring them to life. The sticking point was that I didn't have the tools or the materials, and that's what stopped me at the mansion. Well, and control, yes. On the island, these problems were easily solved.

First, I went to the groves of the Wonder Tree and gathered materials, because for a robot to work well, its material must have a good conductivity of magic in general, and it must also have "wires" or "threads of sorcery" woven into it.

Next, when the material was sufficient, at half past six in the evening of one day, I summoned a couple of small spirits. In exchange for an agreement to feed them with my magic, I instilled the spirits into porcelain bird figures about the size of sparrows.

And now that I had such helpers, I began my work: meticulously carving the details of the future spider out of wood, while at the same time creating the conditions for brewing a tooth-crushing and expensive potion for processing materials. It took us two weeks to make a spider the size of a grown man's palm, because I had to make the parts perfectly symmetrical, and even the razor-sharp claws and beaks of my assistants did not speed things up if the part was complicated.

All in all, it took two weeks. For the control core, into which the contractually bound spirit will be implanted, I chose a crystal with a four-sided base and a height of five centimeters. No, you can use wood, but the crystal holds the charge better, and also, if you persist in the secret writings, is able to charge itself from the world background.

The crystal is in the cephalothorax. And even though I stole it, along with it, or rather the crystal vault, I found a description of the technology of growing crystals, along with a table of the creation of different crystals with different characteristics. I already have a dozen of such crystals growing in my hideout, so I will pay for the theft soon.

Surprisingly, the main problem in creating such crystals, i.e. magically active crystals, is the consistency of the environment and the supply of elements. The elements themselves, or ingredients, are available on the islands in large quantities and for free.

Anyway, in half a day's walk I brought a few kilos of sea sand, a mountain of volcanic glass, and a few kilos of rose quartz. The working chamber was made of stone with the help of a weak earth spirit (the islands have a strong magical background, and the summoning of weak spirits is not noticed by anyone), and two stolen crystals were embedded in the working sphere, from which the energy for the process is supplied.

Unfortunately, I won't be able to watch the process, though I'd like to. But I have already thought of a way to solve this problem, and the Spirit of the Earth will help me — we have already agreed.

While I was doing all this, life on the island went on in the background. I attended classes with other children at the school, learned the basics from Mayuri-san, some of which were hidden from me for some reason, attended a workshop at the farms, which turned out to be very informative. I also practiced with a local sword master.

His style was similar to what my teacher taught me — more flexible, but whip-like, smooth in places, choppy in others. It's a good style, but the master here doesn't work hard, he just does his duty. He and I only sparred once when we met, and then he just tells me what to do and sits in the shade reading a book.

And that's exactly what he does, because sometimes I feel that one of the maids or the Mori family is watching me, but this master doesn't care about anything, it's like he's cut off from the world.

Anyway, I saw his movements in sparring, and I liked them, but I couldn't repeat them, they were all rubbish. I can't understand those movements to the end, so in class I practice what Sugawara-sensei showed me. I even tried it once: I spent three hours with a spear instead of a bokken. That asshole just pretended he didn't notice.

After that, I stopped even saying hello to him, I just train near the place where this guy reads books in the shade. I don't care about him, the main thing is that I feel that the process is going on, and the movements and ligaments, even if slowly, are getting into the general picture of my movements.

What can I say when, after a month of practicing the "Step in the Flower Dance", I began to walk calmly and even jog where before I had to sneak — that is, on the wet rocks of the coast. And the stepping technique itself, ideally, allows you to push off EVERYTHING, even running on water, plus the speed of movement is increased in training.

It's not that I don't socialize with people, but very little, and only on business. During these weeks with my supposed fiancée, I've said at least a dozen words to her. Obviously, this has upset her parents, and I'm not interested, because she behaves like a doll around me, which really pisses me off:

I see by chance on the street, so just a quiet child, but as in the house we meet, so she immediately glassy eyes, face freezes, and all — a doll. Fuck me such happiness, if there is no way out, and I will be nailed, I will immediately run away from the clan. It was interesting to communicate with her mother, because she turned out to be an excellent master, and a teacher no worse, which literally in two weeks allowed me to work confidently with small spirits and feel the spiritual energy in me.

I was surprised by this, by the way, but I took the new powers to heart, and now I try to develop mental magic through memory training and imagination control all the time. I also got along well with people in gardens and greenhouses, but they wouldn't let me near animals, even though it was interesting. In short, my life is booming and I spend my time more than productively, which is eloquently evidenced by a wooden dark brown spider, a copy of a tarantula.

I had a hard time with the hairs, that's for sure: while I thought about feeding a swarm of small grass ghosts to "pull" fine hairs from the same wood, sprouting living magic channels in the hairs, I almost went crazy. I even thought of taking some algae and arranging something like lichen to finally revitalize the "doll," but I did not.

 Nevertheless, I wrote down my thoughts in the laboratory diary that I had started in connection with the practical work. The design of the already functioning chamber of crystal growth, as well as a drawing of the next stage of its development.

By the way, the natives decided on the first option and have been using it for a couple of three hundred years. In general, my spider can now normally see, feel, and sense the world around it, which raises its value to a much higher level than the shikigami I used before.

I should add that I have added whiskers, like beetles, to the "standard" design of the spider, but they are not finished yet — they are in the crystal growth chamber. My idea is to cover the whiskers, woven from the finest plant fibers, with a dusting of crystal for greater magical sensitivity. Anyway, it goes something like this.

"Go to the tree and climb to the lowest branch," I commanded the spider. Test drive — this is so, so important. The spider, or rather the spirit controlling it, did not hesitate to carry out the order, and after a few seconds it froze on the branch, looking at me.

"Come down and continue to explore the area. Do not leave the boundaries of the yard, do not hide from my sight," was the new message, and the spider once again wandered silently through the low grass. I'm damn happy! I'm happy! I HAVE MY OWN ROBOT! A magical one, but that doesn't matter. Do you have a robot? No robot? Then don't talk! It's not a dumb golem that can't learn, unlike a ghost, albeit a small one. Besides, a ghost in a spider can live for centuries, time doesn't matter to them, as long as they are fed and paid for the contract, they will fulfill it.