Automatons! They have lots of uses, for example - serving. As easy as it seems many empires of old had it's own customs and traditions, so making a proper servant was not an easy task it might seem.
Automatons solved that problem in its entirety, how, you might ask? Well... the method itself was somewhat cruel if the owner of said automatons wanted them to learn faster.
To make an automaton you would need a soul, a body and a pure mana crystal capable of holding a soul - a soul crystal, while the first two could be found anywhere, since a soul is what every living being has, and a body could be anything you want it to be, even a box would do, the third was... a problem... for most.
Said magical crystals are not simple crystals Kerren gets paid with, those would be able to fit a soul, but that would be rats soul at best. To make a proper soul crystal you would need to compress several kilograms of the purest crystals, purity of which would determine capabilities of your automaton.
To make one, you would normally take at least 10 kilograms of 100% pure A crystal, then, with a special method, lets take the easiest and hardest of those - pure power compression, or Magne's method for... short, i guess.
Magne's method, why is called like that? Because it's inventor and a sole wide-known user was named Magne, he was a proud gnome whole automatons were at the peak of it's time. To be honest - they are at the peak of all times, since not a single descendant or a successor of his could not replicate even 40% of the quality of his work.
How does it work? Simple! You take all of the crystals u've prepared and you just squish them together really hard while maintaining a temperature of... it would be 5409 degrees Celsius! That's literally all there is to it, no tricks, no formations or any form of preparation needed, simple, right?
Well, as simple as it is - people hardly used this method due to the fact that achieving and maintaining such temperature was hard, so hard that even Archmages of old wouldn't dare to do so without ample preparations, even then, chances of them succeeding were far from good.
Also, a little about the other important part of an automaton, why is it that they were popular? Because making a simple automaton wasn't a problem! You can make a body from wood with a hollow part somewhere in it that would be able to fit a soul crystal, then, if it already has a soul - it will gain life.
Insanely simple, even a child of a mage is capable of making one, in fact, it was popular to make automatons and boast! Whose automaton was better was always above the others! Well, making a complex automaton is a completely different story, for example the facility we're in, what kind of automatons does it have?
Warriors, maids, engineers, scientists and manual workers. If the latter does not require anything special but a hard body, all else require a suitable body and a great soul, meaning that it also needs a great soul crystal! If, for example, we try to calculate how much automatons this place has... I would say around 3 thousand, up to 3.5, any more would damage the Dragon Heart.
How would i know? Well, because i do! The Dragon Heart above the facility isn't working to it's fullest, i'd say around 70%, which is optimal, it will last forever while giving a lot of mana to the things that are connected to it. Truly a magnificent piece of work!
As for the quality of automatons here? That's a problem that Kerren will have to face soon, because those automatons... are likely the work of Magne himself! Not only he had his own method for soul crystals, bodies that he made were better than those of flesh! Magnificent yet scary, if only he could live longer...
...
-* God f*kking damn it, i'm doomed, there's literally 0 chances of me succeeding, why didn't i think of it sooner!? -- Kerren cursed at himself -- Automatons! Of course! Why wouldn't a place with a Dragon Heart have them!? It's literally a given that they will be here! -- he regretted every decision in his life that led him to this point.
-* Well, okay, since i'm already dead i'll have to think of a way to at least have fun. Running away is impossible now, even if i find a way to leave this place - i'll probably be killed on the other side... -- he was trying to think of a plan! What a great man! First make a mistake, then try to fix it!
-* I have a few speed potions, some strength potions and a random escape one... well, using the latter now is a mistake, strength ones are useless since there's no way i'll be able to beat any of the automatons... speed? Not very useful, but at least usable. -- He's actually correct this time! He's learning!
-* Okay, now, a facility... where will it store any goods? Artefacts, perhaps? Or even weapons?... -- he was making a thinking face now -- The safest place... Directly under the Dragon Heart! -- wrong... oh my god, he's still stupid!
What Dragon Heart!? It's literally a treasure itself! Why would you store everything that you have in one place!? It's a facility! A facility!!! What is it's purpose! He was supposed to find out that first!
But nooo, let's make a stupid assumption that will lead you straight to your doom! What a joke! Oh well, it's not like i can do anything this time, that would be cheating! But still, there are some treasures below it, not many but... Wow, would you look at that! There's an exit-stone there! If he's lucky he will be able to escape this place!
-* Well, to hell with it then -- Kerren took out a potion and drank it whole, he repeated it several times -- Buffs - ready, mindset - ready, regrets - many, let's go! -- he ran towards the entrance of the facility, at least five times faster than when he ran to the hole in the barrier!
What entrance? Wasn't he already in? Not really, it was a giant cave... no, wait, not a cave, it's a hollow mountain! The barrier earlier just made another dimension and overlapped it with the place itself, so on the outside it was a forest, but if you got in - it's a hollow mountain with a beautiful Dragon Heart on the ceiling!
Then why is one of the chapters is called "We're going underground"? Why ask me? It's like i made those! Maybe whoever is writing this story thought that the facility was buried by time? Or maybe it is, and it's me who's wrong? Eh... I dont know, just forget about it!
While running towards the entrance Kerren looked around, the cave he was in looked beautiful, but the road that was filled with metal-plating wasn't, it felt crude and hostile, there were a lot of crystals chunks here and there, they're a byproduct from such a high amount of mana being released over time, there was also a big mountain of those, it looks like someone or something is just throwing them away like that!
Soon he got inside. On the inside the facility looked strange. Metal platings were now everywhere, on the walls, on the ceiling, even the doors were made out of them! Why? Hah, i dont know, maybe it's just a part of the design?
-* First thing to do - find where the attack squad went! I dont really want to follow them, it would be safer, but i wont have a chance to strike it big! Well, they might also kill me for being here... I'm all alone once again... -- after saying the latter part his face seemed... sad?
-* Anyway, all of the doors are open, looks like they tried to scout the place first, the one in front of me leads to a corridor and there's something there, looks like blood, so they probably went there... Or a scout died there?... -- he looked around trying to find any details that would help him.
-* Two doors on the left, one is damaged, second one is charred, looks like automatons were there so i should probably go there, since, well, they WERE there -- ending his thought he went closer to the said doors, the chose the one on the left first.
Opening it, Kerren saw a body of an automaton, it was badly damaged and resembled a woman, it looks like it was a maid who was doing something here. Around the body he saw pieces of metal and some crystals, a big pile was on the left, small one was on the right, and some were just lying everywhere.
-* Hm? A worker?.. Some crystals... Nothing of use if those aren't of good quality, but if they were i doubt they would just leave them, wouldn't hurt to check though -- he went closer to the smaller pile, i think that he think that the maid was sorting them, i think so too to be honest.
Kerren then let out a small cloud of mana out of his finger, it was a method to check the quality of a mana crystal, if it absorbs mana around it - it's purity is higher than 75% percent, if purity is lower it would absorb mana still, but what defines the purity is the speed! Faster is, of course, better!
-* What? Those are pure! There's at least a kilogram of them here! Nice! -- he placed all of them in his inventory -- it's sad that i dont have any time to check their quality precisely, but it's higher than 75% since they absorbed mana quite fast, if i get out of here i'll be rich! -- he started thinking about money again, but suddenly stopped and calmed himself down.
-* Automaton... Damn, i wish i had one! This one even looks beautiful! Well... what's left of her... -- he had a look of pity in his eyes. Was he weak to women? Nope, he was weak to beauty! -- It's sad that i cant take her soul crystal, if it's too strong i'll just get absorbed by it since i dont have any protective gear on me... -- his look of pity grew even stronger. -- Well, to the next room!
He quickly got out of the room and got inside the door on his left. All he saw was a charred room with nothing he could identify, everything was burned to ash. He left the room and went to the the right side on the main room.
-* Okay, two doors, both are clean, chances are - they're the same as the ones i was just in... The question is - did they ever open them? It could possibly be the same, if they entered the charred room first, someone got scared and burned it, then they understood that those room had automatons inside, hence the damaged door - they knew something was inside -- Oh, wow! I didn't think he will be correct this time! His logic is great!
-* But what about those, then? They're clear! -- he then lifted his right arm and looked on it -- 23 minutes left, i have 4 more sets... Fine, what's the worst that can happen? -- he then chose the door on the right and carefully opened it.
And... Nothing was inside! It was a completely empty room! Not even a speck of dust was inside! Did Kerren notice that? Nope, but i did! If he did - would he get scared? I would, it's REALLY strange for a room to be that empty...
-* Eh? Okay, what's in the last one? -- not even coming inside he closed the door and came to the next one -- Okay sweetie, now show me something good -- why would he even say that?.. Anyway, he opened a door with those words -- Oooookaaaaaayyy.... It's filled to the brim with... whatever that is?... -- Whatever? Those are automaton body parts! How are you so...!? Ah, whatever!
-* It's not like i can use those or... What the hell is even that? An arm? -- saying that he lifted an arm made of metal from the ground -- Wait... Is that the trashbin or something? Recycling point? Looks like it! -- oh wow, i'm amased once more... -- That explains it! This place is for whatever isn't made from meat, the empty room is exactly for that, that's why it's empty, because there's nothing but automatons inside! Well, it could also be that i'm wrong or something -- he's not -- but that would explain everything, then the charred room also had crystals inside? -- ending his thought he left for the charred room.
Upon entering it, he looked on the ground, trying to see if there were any piles there, so he could get the scraps, but it was pointless, spending another minute or so doing it he left the room dissapointed.
-* Hm... I would like to sort out automaton parts, but there's nothing of value on the surface and i dont really have that much time, at best i have around 2 hours and 20 minutes more until i run out of buffs... -- his greed tried to fight logic, the latter won flawlessly!
-* Whatever, now i need to go to the next part of the place, if this is trashbin, that means that i didn't come in from the entrance, it was a backdoor for personnel... Hm... then that means that the corridor leads to the main building or to the main hall or a corridor of the facility... I have high chances of encountering attack squad there... -- his thoughts quickly worked with each other in his mind.
Kerren quickly got inside the corridor that led somewhere. He tried to walk carefully, looking at his steps, maybe there were traps? Well, perhaps, but he managed not to stop on any. As he got closer to the pile of blood he noticed a strange thing - it wasn't purely blood! There was some other thing mixed with it.
-* Hm? -- he let out a cloud of mana -- Not mana-absorbant, not automatons liquid... Then what the hell is that? Some potion? Why is?... -- it suddenly clicked for him -- Oooh, maybe they just splashed someone's wound with it, that's why it's on the floor! -- he looked happy that he thought of a possible explanation.
-* Well, it's not of any use to me other than knowing that someone bled here, the reason is unknown... -- he then looked at the ceiling -- Nope... Or is it that well-hidden? -- What is hell hidden? What is he thinking about? What?
Oooh! Right! A trap! He's thinking about a trap! Hahaha! Dont worry, since i'm here i'll explain it to you, i'm sure you didn't understand it either!
-* Whatever, if even those people didn't notice it, what chances do i have? -- ending his thought he continued walking towards the exit. Wait, or is it the entrance? How do you even define what's an exit and what's not?
Soon, he managed to get to the door safely, it is unknown if there were any traps, or is it that an accident happened, but he made it! Now, he was standing in front of the door, thinking of wether or not he should open it, and if he should - what to do if there's any danger? Or maybe his fellow "comrades" are on the opposite side? He started thinking even harder, thinking about other stuff from time to time, like the Lady, but mainly focusing on what's next.