Chapter 20: Why Can’t Golems Use Weapons?

“Sister Teresa, do you mean—”

“Yes, that’s exactly what I mean. Under no circumstances… should you disobey his orders. I won’t allow you to do that. If you do, I’ll take him away from here right now, and you can solve your tribe’s problems by yourselves.”

“If he can rescue my kin, I’ll do anything. But I don’t understand why you place so much importance on this?”

Faced with Narujia’s question, Teresa just shrugged, not directly answering her question.

During this period, Teresa had been closely monitoring Yang Hao, who seemed to be in some kind of fervent state.

She was very worried that Yang Hao might develop some psychological issues, but fortunately, he only seemed intent on revenge.

An eye for an eye, blood for blood, this was a natural course of action, so Sister Teresa had nothing to say against it.

However, through observation, Teresa suddenly realized that even in this situation, Yang Hao only had physical contact with her. He was a bit closer to her but wouldn’t physically touch the Ling tribe members at all. She suddenly understood something.

When speaking to anyone else, he kept a distance of three to five meters. He probably only trusted her.

Even though he said he wanted to help the Ling tribe, in reality, he had no intention of trusting them.

It wasn’t his fault. 

Teresa thought that anyone who had gone through what he had would no longer trust anyone.

But precisely because of this, Teresa felt she had to protect this fragile, budding trust that could affect his major life decisions in the future.

As long as the Ling tribe members performed well and did not disobey Yang Hao’s orders during this operation, then perhaps… Yang Hao could gradually regain his trust in people. Eventually, he might be able to live a normal life, and not have to build his house far away and avoid even greeting his neighbors, even if he settled in an Elven village.

So, after thinking for a while, Teresa simply told Narujia, “This is our little secret,” and then pushed the bewildered chieftain away.

She still had to help with some small divine spells for those making the golems. She believed Yang Hao could handle it, so she left it at that.

***

After finding Narujia, Yang Hao immediately began discussing his idea with her.

Yang Hao’s idea was simple. He wanted the Ling tribe members to give up the precise control that allowed them to manipulate every tiny movement of the golem’s fingers and instead control the golems more collectively to perform simple yet effective actions.

Upon hearing this, Narujia was initially stunned and a trace of displeasure flashed across her face. After all, this precise control was a proud tradition of the Ling tribe.

The Ling tribe would compete with each other through precise control of the golems, with the strongest becoming the chieftain. This man wanted to change their tradition. Anyone would be upset by that.

But when she thought of her tribespeople suffering in Kagard, Yang Hao’s previous ingenious ideas that had helped the village withstand the bandit attacks, and Sister Teresa’s advice.

Narujia swallowed her displeasure and humbly approached him. However, noticing his instinctive step back.

She stopped and asked, “So, what should we do?”

Yang Hao simply nodded, “Let’s start with some experiments.”

They then conducted experiments for an entire day. The other Ling tribe members worked tirelessly to create golems according to his standardized framework. The number of golems increased from one to ten. The combat power, originally only possessed by the chieftain, rose to eleven.

If this golem army encountered a Roman Empire battalion without mage support in the wild, without siege equipment and unable to find operators, they could hold their ground and crush the entire battalion, even pursuing them in victory.

However, the problem was that mages did exist in the Roman Empire, and not only mages but also the priests of the diocese posed a significant threat to the golems.

Therefore, they needed to produce more golems. But as the number of golems increased, the question of whether they could control so many golems became a significant issue.

Thus, Yang Hao and Narujia conducted an experiment. They created three test groups: Narujia herself, an ordinary Ling tribe adult female, and a Ling tribe girl. They then compared precise control and rough control through two tests.

Narujia herself could perfectly control two golems with precise control. With rough control, she could easily manage all the golems to perform slightly flexible actions.

However, this placed a significant mental burden on her. If it was entirely rough control, according to her, she could manage thirty golems without much trouble.

An ordinary Ling tribe adult female could only precisely control one golem, which already caused significant mental strain.

But with rough control for walking and basic attacks, she could control five golems without any issues.

The Ling tribe children couldn’t precisely control golems, but with rough control, they could manage two golems under mental strain, although they couldn’t issue complex commands.

The mental strain on the Ling tribe members when controlling golems seemed to be determined by the fineness of the precise actions. After some thought, Yang Hao made a simple and understandable analogy to Teresa.

“It’s like having a group of workers precisely manufacture screws according to a blueprint versus making screws randomly. The more precise it is, the more energy it takes. Conversely, the more random it is, the more energy they have left to do other things. If the Ling tribe members use rough control for the golems, all of them can handle this task. But if they plan to control the golems to dance, then probably only the chieftain can do it.”

“So, what do you plan to do?”

“It’s simple. Just have them use rough control, but their magic consumption is still an issue.”

Magic consumption had always been a headache for mages. This precious magic was like gold coins, difficult to save but easy to spend.

Even Priscilla wouldn’t dare to cast teleportation magic twice in a short period. Because that would mean completely depleting her magic and being unable to act for the next day or two.

So, how does it work for the Ling tribe?

Yang Hao and Teresa sat on a bench eating juicy roasted meat, taking a break. Before Yang Hao could carefully cool a piece and feed it to Teresa, who was waiting with her mouth open, the Ling tribe chieftain approached them.

“If it’s about magic reserves, you need not worry,” the Ling tribe chieftain said, pointing to the antlers on her head. “We Ling tribe members are mentally connected through our antlers. We can communicate over long distances through them, and naturally, we can also transfer magic power to one another. Each of us can transmit our recovered magic to those in need. But conversely, if our overall magic is depleted, we will all become helpless.”

The chieftain’s sincerity took Yang Hao and Teresa by surprise.

Then, Teresa took a bite of the roasted meat in Yang Hao’s hand and, after chewing it carefully, suddenly realized something:

“In that case, Narujia, you should be able to contact your people in Kagard, right?”

“Our ability comes from our antlers. If they are damaged…”

“I understand.”

Teresa remembered hearing that in the diocese of the Roman Empire, there was a peculiar luxury item called beast horns.

These beast horns from the Monster Forest were unique sources of magic, ground into powder to make various medicinal ingredients and even spices. Now she understood where these horns came from.

They were from the demon folk of the Monster Forest.

Teresa shook her head and sighed, wiping her mouth with a large leaf and also wiping the grease from Yang Hao’s mouth.

Yang Hao, after thinking for a while, said, “In other words, we must breach Kagard’s defenses before your magic is exhausted, and after rescuing your people, create enough chaos before the army arrives. It would be best if the army is forced to stay in Kagard Town. Alright, I’ll think of something.”

He pondered for a while, thinking that if everything went smoothly, he could gather 78 golems by the night of February 28th for the decisive battle. Considering the Ling tribe members would also need to recover their magic for the fight, they could muster a maximum of 80 golems.

With 80 golems, given that the total number could not be increased further and they couldn’t be precisely controlled, what could be done to enhance their combat effectiveness?

What could be done?

Suddenly, an image flashed through Yang Hao’s mind of Narujia controlling a golem to dig up stones from the ground and throw them.

‘Golems… they are worthy golems… golems that are easily damaged by magic or divine spells. If we think of golems as people… The golems we’re currently making are like infants going to the battlefield without any armor, relying solely on brute strength and fists to fight the enemy. Think carefully, Yang Hao, think carefully. Would soldiers really go into battle without any armor or weapons, fighting the enemy with bare hands? In other words…’

Yang Hao suddenly lifted his head and looked at the golems in the distance, slowly moving under the control of the Ling tribe members.

They were large in size but vaguely humanoid.

They had four limbs, and to facilitate control by the Ling tribe, all the golems had hands and fingers.

And controlling them to grasp objects wasn’t considered precise control. Controlling each finger’s movement was precise control.

If the golems were like ignorant barbarians who couldn’t operate bows or crossbows and only knew how to lumber forward and attack, what would suit them best?

That would be heavy armor and clubs.

A mage’s magic could physically destroy an entire golem, but a priest’s divine spells had limitations. Only a very few divine spells could cause physical damage. As long as the other spells didn’t touch the golem’s surface, they wouldn’t damage the golem’s core.

In other words.

“Chieftain, immediately have your people control the golems to knock down some trees to use as clubs, and try to cut some suitable wood into planks to attach to the golems’ surfaces.”

Yang Hao excitedly stood up, causing the nun beside him to roll her eyes.

“If possible, you can even use clay and stone slabs. Attach them to the golems’ surfaces like lamellar armor, just leave gaps at the joints. You can even use wood and stone to create shoulder shields on their shoulders, this way…”

Yang Hao rattled off his ideas, leaving the Ling tribe chieftain visibly confused.

She broke into a cold sweat. 

“Equipping golems with weapons? Isn’t that a bit too much? Golems are already weapons themselves. Would it really be effective to equip them with additional weapons, armor, and using cover to protect these giants? And what is lamellar armor? Shoulder shields? What are those?”

The bewildered chieftain asked, and after a moment of confusion, Yang Hao picked up a stick and started drawing simple diagrams in the dirt to explain.

Seeing this, Teresa could only shake her head helplessly. When this man got to work, he completely ignored everyone else.

With that in mind, she decided it was better to go boil some hot water. So, Teresa quietly left.

By the time Yang Hao realized he was parched, he noticed Teresa standing behind him, holding hot water in a turtle shell.