Chapter 0040: Lending and Borrowing

The Swamp Crocodile King was dead.

It had fallen to two seemingly unremarkable little figures.

Grimm directed his Earthen Golem to swiftly dissect the Crocodile King, harvesting several vital biological materials and a pigeon-egg-sized earth-elemental crystal core. Then, before the other swamp crocodiles could converge, he made his escape.

As Grimm’s silhouette disappeared at the end of the narrow path, not half a mile from the recent battlefield, behind a ghost tree, Scarlet Mary gazed mournfully at the distant, enraged roars of the swamp crocodiles. At her feet lay the twisted remains of fourteen carrion crows.

She had witnessed the entire battle unfold, and could not help but feel a wave of emotion.

The Swamp Crocodile King?

That was a fearsome magical beast she would never have dared provoke! Though it was only a high-level apprentice in rank, just as she was, the reality of combat prowess could not be so easily measured. With her extraordinary agility, even if the Crocodile King had wings, it could never even graze her clothes. But its despair-inducing, heavily armored scales were not something her “feeble” attacks could ever pierce.

In truth, the Crocodile King could never catch her, and she could never harm it.

Mary was keenly aware of her own limitations. Lacking reliable defenses, she might dominate many other apprentices for now, but as their strength increased, her advantage would diminish.

And now, this unremarkable junior apprentice—her own “underling”—had revealed such hidden means, managing to wear down and slay the Swamp Crocodile King with that bizarre clay golem.

This... this left her feeling at a loss.

Staring at the shattered crow corpses at her feet, her gaze grew distant and sorrowful.

He was her own handpicked “follower”. When had he become the main force in battle, while she was reduced to little more than a servant, clearing away sentries on the periphery? For no discernible reason, a surge of anger flared in Mary’s heart, tinging her emerald eyes with a streak of crimson.

She was the leader, and he was but a subordinate—that order must never change! It seemed it was time to teach this self-willed “minion” a lesson. Though he’d always treated her well, that could never be reason enough for him to act above his station. Yes, she would deal with him when they returned!

Suppressing her restless, stifled cry, Mary leapt forward, transforming into a petite vampire bat that flapped into the night and vanished.

When Scarlet Mary, brimming with fury, knocked at the door, she was greeted instead by Grimm’s beaming smile.

He pulled her into the room and, with a flourish, presented his offering.

“Mary, look—what’s this? Don’t you love the blood of the strong? See if you can use this?”

Thick, pungent, metallic-smelling blood filled a clay jar, which Grimm held out with both hands, his face shining with anticipation, hoping for praise.

“What... what is this?” Mary stammered.

Somehow, all the anger that had filled her moments ago vanished in an instant, even her speech faltering.

“Don’t ask, just try it and see if you like it! I got a lot this time. If you do, I’ll purify it in the lab, get rid of the stench, and the taste will be even better!”

Scarlet Mary’s lovely face tensed as she scolded him unreasonably.

“Is this how you give a gift? Not even a proper container, just a rough clay jar! At the very least, it should be in a sparkling crystal goblet! And how did you extract this blood? Don’t you know the sweetest blood is from the heart? Still, since you’re so sincere, I’ll forgive your rudeness this time. Next time, make sure it’s presented properly before offering it to me!”

“Yes, yes, of course... Mary! There’s just so much, and to get it all done at once will take a lot of time—I might not have enough knowledge points...”

Mary’s emerald eyes narrowed dangerously, a glint of threat within.

“What, are you asking for a loan?”

“No, no... just borrowing for a while. Once I sell my listings, I’ll pay you back.” Grimm laughed awkwardly. The earth-elemental crystal core he’d just obtained was clearly superior to the last one, allowing for a larger and more elaborate array. How to best use it had become a new challenge.

The departure date was drawing near, and time was running out. He still had several urgent matters awaiting him.

The newly harvested earth-elemental crystal core was one.

He already had an unusual idea for it. Since both were earth-elemental crystal cores, why not link the golems’ energies together? Separate, they acted independently; together, they could share energy—wouldn’t that be better?

The chip had already completed preliminary calculations on this idea; with some further research into energy synchronization and soul coordination, he could put it into practice.

The second pressing issue was finding a suitable defensive spell.

His two fire-element spells—one for close combat with some defensive utility, the other a purely ranged attack—left him with a glaring vulnerability in personal defense. Without improvement, he would always be little more than an easily crushed insect before higher-level apprentices.

Entik, the Worm, was near-unkillable thanks to his body-splitting ability, impervious to enemy attacks. The Madwoman’s constitution and raw power made her unstoppable and unconcerned for her own safety. The abilities of Hawk-Eye Klusa remained unknown. Scarlet Mary’s exceptional agility and vampiric regeneration made her similarly tough.

Every senior apprentice Grimm had researched already possessed a complete and systematic magical path, with both offense and defense well-developed, resulting in wildly differing combat strengths. Yet, against any of them, Grimm had no confidence he could survive.

This was his current shortcoming.

Lacking knowledge and resources, Grimm was at the very bottom even among junior apprentices. He hadn’t truly chosen his path, and thus had no spell system built around a wizard’s discipline.

He had once aspired to become a rules-based wizard, with a few arcane tricks, but before he could dedicate himself to that path, the damned compulsory mission had disrupted his plans.

Had things gone as planned, he’d have invested most of his resources into foundational fire magic theory, boosting his spiritual power to catch up with the main cohort and become a mid-level apprentice. By his estimate, that would have taken at least three months to show results.

Now, however, a bloody nightmare of a mandatory mission loomed. Without proper preparation, he’d have no chance to regret before dying in that dreadful underground lair. So he had to adjust his resource allocation, staking everything on summoning golems.

The immediate consequence: Grimm was nearly bankrupt!

He didn’t have enough knowledge points for the alchemy lab, nor enough to study defensive spells, and even less gold to buy suitable trinkets...

Some things could be postponed, but without enough knowledge points to refine the new crystal core, it was truly a matter of life or death for Grimm. He had no choice but to swallow his pride and try his luck with Mary.

Mary’s prismatic eyes fixed on Grimm for a long moment before she finally nodded in silent agreement.

Securing this “investment” from Mary, Grimm rushed to the alchemy lab and, in a fit of extravagance, booked seven full hours.

The crystal core left by the Swamp Crocodile King was the size of a pigeon’s egg. According to the chip’s design, beyond the basic control arrays, it could now reserve space for more energy nodes. The previous golem’s core had only four nodes; this one would have nine.

More energy nodes meant a more complex magical array and countless architectural modifications. From the moment he acquired the core, the chip had been busy with calculations and tests.

Only after Grimm had prepared all the magical materials did the chip finally finish the design.

“Ding. The latest golem summoning crystal core structure is complete. Transmit data?”

“Transmit!”

With the data streaming in, Grimm, eyes closed, saw the custom-made three-dimensional array.

Counting carefully, there were as many as fifteen magical arrays, large and small, to be etched onto the pigeon-egg-sized core and intricately linked to form a vast, flawless array. Only the chip could facilitate such work so efficiently—Grimm himself could not even comprehend most of the runic structures.

After a few futile attempts, he abandoned the self-tormenting struggle and focused instead on the practicalities of etching.

The chip was a supremely capable assistant. With its help, Grimm could sidestep his lack of knowledge and skill, breaking the overall project into countless simple, direct tasks. Through these small steps, even a novice like him could complete complex runic structures that only master alchemists could handle.

At this point, Grimm no longer worried about his own competence, but whether his spiritual power could endure such a colossal and meticulous task.

But there was little room left for retreat.

He had to build his golem force as quickly as possible, optimize his offensive tactics, then carve out time to master a defensive spell to ensure his survival in the coming ordeal.

Drawing a deep breath, Grimm once more stood before the alchemy table, banishing all distractions and pouring his full concentration into crafting the new summoning crystal core.