Chess Mage of Faerûn

Chapter 107 TINY! TINY!

At a command, the two behemoths clashed, devoid of any skill or tactics, their only weapon being the most primal clash of strength.

The fight between the two stone golems had a style completely different from that of ordinary warriors. The hurricanes created by the swinging of their giant arms, the thunderous roars when their stone fists struck, and the flying stone chips made it feel as if one was in the ancient wilderness, witnessing the clash of giants in the wilderness.

The battle didn't last long. Tyrantir, who had only come to assess the small amount of combat strength, was also waiting to watch the casting process of the throwing skill. What if he accidentally damaged it?
Putting aside everything else, the cost of repairing golems, which are large-scale mage figurines that are practically built with gold coins, is enough to empty the savings of an average mage. Even archmages wouldn't want to burn their money for fun all the time.

Although it was a short time, Xiao Xiao's ability to withstand the stone golem without being at a disadvantage had already impressed the two of them.

Zhang was overjoyed. With such a trump card, ordinary enemies really couldn't expect to gain any advantage from him.

Tyrantil was somewhat surprised, even envious.

Although he had imagined beforehand that the small creature's combat power could rival that of the stone golem, the fact that it was actually confirmed still made even the archmage somewhat uneasy.

How much did he spend on this stone golem?

The cost alone is 5,000 gold coins, plus the time and effort I put into it. If I were to sell it, it would be worth at least 9,000 gold coins.

Imagine how I spent all my own money and effort to create a golem, while the other person did absolutely nothing, just sat in their room reading and leveling up, and this kind of good fortune came knocking on their door.

The tuition fees were definitely too low, definitely.

However, the opponent's little one is not without its flaws. It lacks a complete intelligent soul as its core of thought. No matter how it tries to compensate for this, it remains a weakness. If its master is there to give instructions, it will be fine. Otherwise, it is too easy for the enemy to seize its weaknesses and flaws.

Tyrandeur, having ended the war against the golems, gave Zhang Yuan an order:
"Now we can test that throwing skill. Have Xiaoxiao grab the rock next to it and throw it at the group of targets on the other side."

After nodding in response, Zhang Yuan prepared to let Xiao Xiao act according to the plan. Xiao Xiao was just a tool, or rather, a tool golem, so naturally she wouldn't do anything disobedient.

However, as she left her opponent, another stone golem, Xiao Xiao scratched her head, turned around and glanced at it, seemingly wondering why such an exciting battle had come to an abrupt end.

This is where things get interesting. It has a small doubt, but the two mages are even more puzzled than it.

Seeing the scene before him, Zhang Yuan finally realized that the small nod he had made earlier was not his imagination, but that his little stone had indeed developed a certain degree of self-awareness.

As for Tyrantir, he also slightly opened his mouth, his eyes wide open. He was just thinking that the other party's stone golem's lack of self-awareness was a weakness, and you made up for it on the spot.
Now the master and apprentice didn't care about skills anymore and rushed to Xiaoxiao's side. Zhang Yuan even ordered Xiaoxiao to stand still and not move, which made the already confused Xiaoxiao even more confused.

"Hehe, let me see." A lewd smile, mixed with glee, spread across his large figurine, his eyebrows and eyes crinkling into a wide grin. "Strange, strange. It clearly didn't have a soul before, so where did this self-awareness come from?"

Unlike someone who only knows how to laugh foolishly, Tyrantir tried to communicate with Little through language, gestures, and other methods. The results showed that Little did indeed have self-awareness and a certain degree of independent judgment.

This level of intelligence is actually not much different from that of a regular golem, except that it still has a gap in logical thinking ability and lacks the ability to communicate verbally.

Just as the archmage circled around Little a few times, a flesh golem came over and handed him a gem.

Tyrantir picked up the pure black gem, like ink jade, and aimed it at Little. Immediately, a hazy, dim halo enveloped Little in front of him. The archmage's right hand, holding the gem, moved up, down, left, and right like a radar, scanning Little's entire body with light.

“No soul response; indeed, there is no soul as the core of thought within this tiny body.” Tyrantir put away the gem.

"Is it really soulless? But I always feel that it has its own consciousness and thoughts?" Zhang Yuan found it hard to believe. Just now, he had climbed onto Xiao Xiao and touched its smooth and cute stone head. Then Xiao Xiao curiously wanted to touch its owner's head as well, which scared the unscrupulous owner so much that his face turned white and he quickly stopped his figurine's reckless behavior.

Just kidding. That tiny hand, when clenched into a fist, is as big as a pot, and when opened, it's like a small square table. Not to mention its immense strength. If you get hit by this thing, you'll never have a headache again.

“I just used the Soul Sensing Crystal, and it said there was nothing there. As for its self-awareness,” Tyrantir paused for a moment, “I misunderstood. Consciousness and the existence of a soul are not absolutely related.”

Seeing the blank expression on his foolish apprentice's face, the archmage sighed: "If I'm not mistaken, what exists inside this stone golem of yours is a projection of thought, not a soul. If you find this hard to understand, you must know about projection magic, simulation magic, and liches, right?"

How could I not know? Projection and Imitation are both high-level arcane spells in the illusion school. The former can create a clone that can be controlled by the caster and can move and even cast spells freely, but the caster cannot move and the illusion cannot make physical attacks. The latter eliminates these drawbacks, and the clone and the original can operate simultaneously.

The lich is the infamous undead king, a terrifying monster that ranks among the top even in Faerûn. Its soul resides in the casket, and what remains in the bodies of those who are out in the world is merely a projection of its consciousness.

This is high-tech! Zhang Yuan really didn't expect that his chess piece could use such advanced technology. But when he thought about it carefully, many summoned creatures and those outer-dimensional beings such as divine servants and demons also came to the prime material plane in this way. Could this be the truth behind why his chess piece had to come to the Faerûn continent through summoning spells?
"But why didn't Xiaoxiao have self-awareness before? Also, since we can use mind projection, why use the soul as the core of thought? Wouldn't it be better to just control it directly with the projection?" Zhang Yuan raised another question.

"You're using consciousness projection to control them all? Where are you going to find so many spellcasters to activate the golems for you? If you're relying on those extraterrestrial beings to control them, why not just use a soul-binding contract? Why go through all this trouble?"

The Grand Master immediately rejected the idea: "Not everyone can project their thoughts into the outside world, and items that can stably support such a consciousness are no cheaper than traditional soul-binding gems."

"As for why your previous stone golem didn't have self-awareness, I think it's because that green crystal couldn't hold too many souls or consciousnesses, which led to its low intelligence."

That seems to make sense, Zhang Yuan thought. If a chess piece is upgraded to three stars, wouldn't it be even more intelligent, perhaps even having the same intelligence as a normal person?

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(End of this chapter)