For Sale. Fallen Lady. Never Used.

Chapter 310: Faye Faye… (2)

we continued chatting about future plans as we made our way to faye’s workshop.

...only to find faye on the verge of being violated by writhing tentacles.

“hyaaaah! junior! save me! help me! it’s out of control—hngh! not there!”

“......”

what... what in the world is this?

i knew the eurelia continent was a fantasy world, but i never expected to encounter a tentacle monster. for a moment, my brain stalled.

however, my body moved reflexively. i drew my staff and aimed it at the tentacles holding faye upside-down by her ankle.

just as i was about to cast a spell—

“wait! fire magic is a no-go, junior. can you use ice or wind magic instead? just cut the parts holding me!”

“...excuse me?”

“if you burn them, there’ll be no sample left!”

“......”

even in this situation, you’re worrying about samples...?

i sighed, marveling at her dedication to alchemy, and cast wind cutter.

swish.

thankfully, the tentacles weren’t particularly durable and were cleanly severed.

naturally, faye, who had been hanging, began to fall, but i dashed forward and caught her.

“ugh-ack!”

...this led to a minor issue where faye, upside-down, ended up face-first against my groin and let out a weird noise.

but in the end, i managed to save her and put some distance between us.

since faye had insisted she needed a sample, i refrained from delivering another strike and observed the creature instead.

“...it’s quieter than i expected.”

the creature was massive, taking up nearly half the workshop, but it didn’t move from its spot. i couldn’t tell if it was unable to or simply unwilling.

though it grabbed anything nearby and hoisted it up, it didn’t destroy anything, merely shaking its catch.

judging by its ability to lift heavy equipment effortlessly, it wasn’t lacking strength.

with her skirt flipped up entirely, revealing white panties, i asked faye,

“what were you trying to make with that thing, senior faye?”

“...it’s weird to talk to me while the wind blows there. fix me properly, and i’ll tell you.”

you sure are demanding.

i adjusted her posture, flipping her upright, though not before her chest smacked my face. annoyed, i kept holding her close as i asked again.

“so? what’s that thing supposed to be, senior faye?”

“ugh... is it because we haven’t seen each other in a while? something feels different about you...”

“i’ll talk about myself later. explain that thing first.”

“ah, right. you were asking what that is?”

faye, her large chest pressing against me, exhaled triumphantly, ignoring the fact that her face was partially buried against mine.

“hehehehe. that’s my chimera... though it’s a failed one.”

“what?”

so it was a chimera.

in that case, i needed to subdue it quickly before it caused more trouble. if it spiraled out of control later, we’d end up responsible.

it didn’t look particularly aggressive, but its sheer size was a concern. i couldn’t risk blowing up the workshop, so instead of a single intermediate spell, i prepared multiple low-level spells simultaneously.

a dozen or so simple magic circles floated in the air.

“now that you mention it, i’ve never seen or heard of a creature like that tentacle monster before.”

looking at the quickly decomposing chimera—though its decomposition was slower than other failed chimeras—i nodded.

“eh...? no, not at all. i just created a specific tissue for a particular function. that thing ended up like that because the differentiation process went haywire.”

ah. so we jumped to the wrong conclusion.

“what was it supposed to be, then?”

“i was trying to make an ideal muscle—firm yet flexible, with individual fibers coiled like springs to produce immense force relative to its size.”

“...and what were you planning to do with such a thing?”

“i was going to use it in a chimera to create a super-strong familiar... but it’s harder than i thought. if i specialized in chimeras, i might have managed, but i’m not at that level.”

“fair point.”

faye’s ultimate goal was to craft a flawless artifact through alchemy. chimera creation and potion brewing were just side pursuits to achieve that.

“so i figured instead of continuing with chimeras, i might compromise and try incorporating it into a golem.”

“...a golem?”

“yeah, a golem. did you know? golems can’t grow beyond a certain size because of structural limitations. the bigger they get, the exponentially greater weight they must bear, which they can’t handle.”

“i’ve heard that. most golems can’t surpass three meters in height, except for a few special ones.”

“exactly. even if you pour in a nation’s worth of money and rare metals, breaking the three-meter limit is nearly impossible. but who says golems have to be made solely of inorganic materials?”

“are you talking about something like a flesh golem? those have obvious weaknesses, though...”

before the evil gods descended and the cultists began their rampage, black magicians in the eurelia continent had wreaked havoc by abandoning ethics in the pursuit of magical power.

flesh golems were a product of that era—giant masses of stitched-together corpses.

they were fragile, weak for their size, and only useful as disposable meat shields to buy time.

...later, these abominations joined the god of tainted unity and became the basis for some extremely annoying boss monsters, so i knew a bit about them.

hearing my response, faye grinned mischievously.

“close. think of it as blending the two concepts.”

“...what now?”

“i’d build the golem’s skeleton from conventional materials and then reinforce it with the muscles i’m working on. naturally, the outer layer would still be metal.”

the muscles would support movement and bear the weight, allowing the golem to maintain a larger size and greater strength.

“the only problem is that if you also consider controlling it, the design ends up resembling a human too much...”

“let’s do it immediately.”

“...what?”

faye blinked, her dark eyes peeking through her disheveled hair.

letting go of her chest, i grabbed her hands and spoke again, this time with a serious tone.

“let’s start right now. and no compromises.”

“b-but it’s not something that can be done with just money! research takes time, and neither you nor i can afford delays!”

“don’t worry. i brought something perfect for the job.”

the transcendent species, whose very existence was a treasure—an unparalleled marvel whose body was valuable even in death.

i pulled out the corpse of a hatchling from fafnir’s lair.

“this should save us some time, right?”

“wh-what... what is that...?”

faye, wide-eyed and stunned, nodded absentmindedly.

i couldn’t help but smile smugly at her reaction.

how could i say no to building a giant robot?