Chapter 80

Day 311 of Banishment: Beautiful Ruins (4)
Day 311 of banishment to the island.

Marylia arrived here with her equipment and golems in tow.

… The reason being, a new golem had been born.

The golems, continuing their iron sand extraction, had once again accumulated a significant amount of magnetite. After returning to the base to smelt the iron, she had created a new golem.

Four new golems were born this time. She named them "Miners." As the name suggests, they are golems tasked with excavating the ruins of that abandoned town!

In addition to the golems, she also increased her equipment.

This time, instead of swords or bows... she made pickaxes.

"Let's dig to our heart's content with these. Ehehe."

Marylia swung the pickaxe experimentally, smiling brightly… With Marylia and her golems at work, they would soon uncover what lay beneath that town.

Marylia had a hypothesis.

It was that "a magic stone of immense power lies dormant on this island."

A "magic stone," to put it simply, is a stone capable of storing vast amounts of mana.

While it has the property of storing mana, its true nature isn't just about accumulation. Rather, the essence of a magic stone lies in its ability to "absorb, gather, and store mana, while releasing any excess it cannot contain."

The veins of magic stones run through the earth like rivers, with mana flowing along these lines. The “ley lines” formed in this way bestow various blessings upon people.

… Thus, there are broadly two types of places with abundant mana.

The first is a place where a large number of magic stones are buried.

The second is a place where a significant amount of mana flows in, as it lies at the end of a magic stone vein.

Marylia believes that the island's mana falls into the former category. In other words, beneath the island, particularly under that altar, a large number of magic stones are likely buried.

And magic stones are incredibly useful... you could say they are like coal. They serve as fuel for using magic.

This is something she cannot afford not to mine. By embedding magic stones into each golem, they would act as a source of mana for the golems themselves. This would drastically reduce the amount of mana Marylia consumes, allowing her to control even more golems. Alternatively, if Marylia were to wear the magic stones herself, it would naturally enhance her own power.

What Marylia is aiming for... is the latter. Strengthening herself.

"Ah. A magic stone!"

After several hours of swinging the pickaxe, Jade respectfully presented a glowing fragment of the stone to Marylia, who examined it.

"It's beautiful..."

Transparent and allowing light to pass through, yet it also emits its own light.

… This is a magic stone.

While it is beautiful as a gemstone, the power it holds within is immense.

A high-quality, large magic stone could be worth as much as an entire castle. Though, such stones are rare.

"For now, it seems this is the only one we've found."

When Marylia confirmed this, Jade nodded once. Well, magic stones are rare treasures. Especially high-quality ones like this, which are both transparent and glowing. If they continue digging along the vein, they might find another fragment by the end of the day...

"... Hmm. This feels good. If we're going to use this, I think we'll need to do a bit more experimenting."

Immediately, she took the magic stone from Jade and tried using it to control Jade. However, since Jade was already a very obedient golem, the sensation of control didn't change much. For a proper experiment, it would be better to use a Mud Golem or a golem made from other materials.

In fact...

"Since we're at it, let's make a small golem."

… It would be more appropriate for an experiment to try controlling something that would normally be impossible to control.

So, while the golems continued their excavation work, Marylia kneaded some nearby soil to create a Mud Golem.

What she made was a tiny Mud Golem. Normally, Marylia wouldn't be able to control something of this size—small enough to fit in both hands.

"This feels so nostalgic~ I think my dolls from when I played with dolls were about this size. Ehehe..."

Marylia chuckled as she reminisced about her past, shaping the small humanoid figure. Since it was just kneading mud, it wasn't too difficult.

"Now then... let's give it a try."

With that, Marylia held the magic stone and activated her magic in front of the tiny, tiny golem.

To move this tiny golem... something so different in size from herself, Marylia focused her will intensely.

"It's... moving! But it's... clumsy. Well, I guess that's to be expected..."

… And with that, Marylia exhaled heavily, ending her control of the tiny, tiny Mud Golem.

The time Marylia spent controlling the Mud Golem was only about a minute or two. But even that short period left her utterly exhausted, showing just how difficult the control was.

Even though she managed to move it, the tiny Mud Golem moved very awkwardly. She made it take a few steps, had it jump once, and when she extended her finger for a handshake, the Mud Golem crumbled back into dirt.

"... If I had about three more magic stones, I could make a necklace out of them... That might allow me to control small golems more stably... Or maybe larger golems would be easier..."

Exhausted, Marylia sat down on the spot, pondering.

… The reason Marylia desires magic stones is to make her control over golems more precise, powerful, and large-scale.

"It would be great if I could strengthen my golem control magic."

Marylia's golem control magic shares some overlap with necromancy... but if there's one line that separates necromancy from golem control, it would be this:

"Whether the target originally had a soul or not."

Necromancy involves controlling things that once had souls. It binds souls, inserts new ones, or replaces them with mana... but all of these involve "controlling something that originally had a soul."

In other words, necromancy cannot control completely inanimate objects. Golem control, on the other hand, is the opposite. It can "only control things that never had a soul” … To be precise, "things that have or had even a slightly different soul” from Marylia's are harder to control.

Marylia's golem control involves pouring her own mana into a completely soulless object, creating a substitute soul, and then controlling it. Since golems never had souls to begin with, there are no residual souls to interfere. This is why Marylia can control her golems perfectly.

… Of course, preparing a "completely soulless object” is actually quite difficult. Iron might have a soul bound to it like a land spirit, and the mud used to make Mud Golems contains countless microorganisms.

As a result, there are very few practitioners of golem control magic. With mediocre magical aptitude, creating a "completely soulless,” blank-slate golem is an incredibly difficult task! There are hardly any people in this world who would bother learning such an inefficient magic! It's much faster to just use necromancy!

… So, what about Marylia?

She's just strong.

Marylia is "too" strong.

Yes! Marylia can only use golem control magic. She was born with a talent specialized solely in golem control, which is why her family dismissed her as "useless and better off getting married off quickly”... but as a result, her golem control is ridiculously powerful!

… In essence, Marylia uses sheer force to overpower the souls of the microorganisms in the mud. Strength is everything. Strength solves everything. That's how it is.

The reason Mud Golems perform poorly is partly due to the low mana in the mud itself, but also because the mud contains countless tiny souls, making it difficult to control. Terracotta Golems are similar, as they are made from soil.

However, with Terracotta Golems, the soil is fired, killing all the microorganisms within. Even if some residual souls remain, there are far fewer than in Mud Golems. This is why Terracotta Golems are less likely to act erratically and more likely to follow Marylia's commands.

On the other hand, Iron Golems are easier to handle because the smelting process removes any existing mana or souls from the iron, making them more responsive to Marylia's will.

The quality of a golem's material isn't determined by its hardness or weight, but by how easily Marylia can control it.

Incidentally, the closer a golem's form is to Marylia's, the easier it is to control. Thus, "golems that aren't human-shaped” or "golems that are significantly different in size” from Marylia are more difficult for her to control.

Conversely, human-shaped golems of human size require little effort to control. This is why Marylia made her Iron Golems human-sized and why she can control over ten of them simultaneously to sustain her life on this deserted island.

… In other words.

"If I were stronger, I could overpower more things..."

… Marylia plans to dig deeper beneath the ruins, obtain magic stones, use them to strengthen herself... and expand her capabilities.

For now, that's all she has.

"Given the presence of magic stones and the lack of other clues... riding a giant golem across the sea seems like the fastest option..."

… With no sign of a ship, this is the only way!

What do you think about this chapter?