“Okay, now that only I can use magic around here, it’s time I set some magical defenses.”

  I went up to my branches and created a new acorn, one that had Earth Magic and Water Magic as its two skills. I made sure it had a militaristic mindset and viewed me as its general, and gave it a very territorial personality. Once I felt that it would work as planned, I gave it the nutrients to grow, then popped it into a custom-made puppet. The puppet I made for it was stationary. It still had the look of legs and its arms were fully functioning, but the legs would serve a different purpose.

  I had once created a throne for my puppets, but it’s been quite a while since it’s seen any use. I vamped it up a bit, adding a few more intricate designs and leaves, adding some height to the back to make it seem more regal. When I was done, I placed the future golem’s body on the throne and prepared to add the final touch: roots.

  From the bottom of the puppet’s feet, I grew extremely long roots, bringing them all the way down to the mana water chamber. This chamber would act as the battery for my puppet to use its magic with. Since it doesn’t have any mana of its own, it’ll have to use mine, and it will have access to more than enough to take out any possible threats to myself and to Honey.

  I was about to implant the acorn into the puppet’s chest when I reconsidered what skills I wanted the golem to have.

  “Earth Magic should be just fine, but there’s not really a good source of water to use. Sure, there’s some in the ground to pull, but maybe a different skill would be better. I’ll just store this one for later.”

  I placed the acorn in a bowl I made special for it and went about creating a new one, this time giving the acorn Fire Magic and Air Magic. I was tempted to stick with Earth Magic, but the air aspect would allow for stronger flames and therefore a better defender.

  I placed the new core into the golem and took a metaphorical step back. After only a few seconds, I could feel the acorn ‘take root’ and begin to move around. Well. It moved its arms and head, at least.

  “About time you woke up!” I called out in my best drill sergeant impression.

  Upon hearing my booming voice, the golem quickly snapped to attention, giving me as good a salute as it could. It sat at attention, right hand raised to its right eye, palm out.

  “Sir, yes, sir! Sorry for making you wait, sir! What are my orders, sir!”

  “At ease! Your orders are as follows! Attack any and all hostile entities! Protect the tree! Protect the bees! Any questions?”

  “Sir! How will I protect when I cannot move, sir!”

  “I have gifted you with two magics that will synergize perfectly! You are to practice using these magics for a minimum of 2 hours a day!”

  The golem stopped and thought for just a moment before following up with the obvious.

  “Sir! I possess no mana. I am unable to perform my duties, sir! Please forgive me, sir!”

  I smiled inside. I could really get used to being called sir. As a matter of fact, I think I like it more than being called ‘Boss’ by the others. I’ll have them switch over the next time I see them.

  “Reach down, through your feet. Do you feel the root?” The golem actually bent over, trying to use his hands before I corrected him. “Not with your body, but with your mind. You should feel a pool of mana below.”

  The golem sat back up and closed his eyes. After a few seconds, I could feel a wave of excitement rush through its mind.

  “Incredible. There’s so much power down there! Sir, how is this possible!”

  “That’s my mana. The liquid form of it, at least. I want you to use that mana to protect not only me, but Honey and her hive, as well. There’s plenty of it, so I want you to use some every day to practice your magics. When the time comes to use it in actual battle, you should be able to rival even arch-mages!”

  I didn’t think he would be able to get THAT powerful, but it should be a good motivator. And, through the mental link I held between us, it appears to have worked.

  “I won’t let you down, sir!”

  Before we could continue our conversation, a ball of fire exploded in what would have been my face if I still had one.

  “Alright, then. I’ll leave you to it.”

  I moved on to my next task, which was to make three more golems to protect the other areas in the clearing.

  I started by creating two more acorn cores for my golems. I gave them both variations of the elemental magics, giving the same personality parameters as the first two. When I was done, I added the first one to the mix and grew some unorthodox golemic bodies for them to inhabit. Since my magical golems had to maintain a stationary position, I realized they didn’t need to maintain a humanoid form.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  The first form I went with was a very basic… tree form. It feels a bit cheap, since I could just let the acorn grow on its own, but I don’t have the patience for that. I might allow for that one of these days, but not right now.

  I grew the trunk, a couple of small – compared to mine at least – branches, and grew the necessary root down to my mana water pool. I was about to implant the core when I looked around my clearing and suddenly felt a bit silly. This would be the only other tree in my clearing besides me, and it looked very out of place.

  I uprooted the whole thing and tossed it towards the road using my longer vines. I heard a loud crash and got a notification that I killed a group of orcs. I felt bad, but it was a nice little bonus. It also gave me an idea for stuff further down the line. But for now, I need to focus on my acorn cores.

  I got a ping from Honey, asking if I was okay, and what the noise was, and I let her know I was hitting a sort of creative wall.

  “Tree God making magic trees? Workers tell me Tree God removed a small Tree God. Was an invasive Tree God? But was much smaller than Tree God?”

  “No, it was just me experimenting. It was a smaller tree, but it wasn’t one like me. Hold on. A smaller tree? That’s it! I’ll make them into bushes! Thank you, Honey! If a random tree would look out of place in my little garden, then I’ll create a wall of bushes!”

  I sent a wave of thanks and appreciation to her and went back to work.

  Down below, there was a hole in the ground that was where my failed experiment came from. A quick application of Earth Magic filled it in, and I continued using it to rearrange the flowers in the garden. It currently looked like a sparsely filled field of flowers, but I moved them around to look more organized. My Architect title came into play and gave me a few suggestions, like creating raised garden beds. My Gardening skill shone in telling me the best way to arrange the plants I was moving.

  When I was done, it looked like a professional gardener had completely revamped the place. I was proud of myself, and it looked like Honey’s hive was also pretty happy with the change.

  The rows of garden beds were arranged to lead towards the center of the clearing: me. The clearing wasn’t big enough to hold what I had envisioned, but I made it bigger by moving the trees that were growing around the perimeter.

  The beds were now 20 feet long, and there was about 15 feet between the inner edge of the beds and my trunk. That space will be quickly taken up by the growth of a few dozen ‘bushes’. They were really just branches and leaves I grew to look like bushes, but they served their purpose.

  The first bush I made was on the opposite end of my trunk from the first mage golem. Since it was going to be made without an actual body, I wasn’t sure how it was going to see, but I trusted the process. My Dryad Creation skill was telling me it would work out just fine.

  I grew the branches, added the leaves, then before I placed the core at the base of the bush, I extended one root all the way down to the mana water tank. I took a figurative step back and waited to see the final result.

  After a few minutes of waiting, I got nervous that it didn’t work. It was only when an unnatural gust of wind blew by that I realized it had worked, but the golem had no way of moving, and therefore couldn’t give me any other indication that it was aware. I immediately made the connection to it and offered a sincere apology.

  “No need to apologize, sir! I was made to serve, sir! What are my orders, sir!”

  “Okay, straight to the point. I like it! Alright, your orders are as follows!”

  I gave the bush his orders, and he immediately got to work practicing his craft. It turns out that when he couldn’t find any way of communicating with me, he had naturally found the reserves of mana water and used it to create that gust of wind with Air Magic. I had given him that as well as Earth Magic, but with how much effort I put into creating my garden utopia, I almost wished I hadn’t.

  “One last thing, when you’re done practicing your magics for the day, make sure everything is put back exactly where it was found. I don’t want this area turned into a mess. Am I clear?”

  “Sir, yessir!” the bush barked back.

  With that done, I went on to make the other two golemic bushes, then I would fill in the gaps with regular leaves. It was going to look GREAT!

  When the first mage golem first awoke, he did an initial analysis to check out his body. When he realized that he couldn’t move anything below his waist, he started to panic mildly. How was he supposed to protect his general when he couldn’t move? And more than that, what was with this ground tether coming from his feet?

  The first mage golem stretched his arms and looked around when he suddenly felt an enormous presence enter his mind. But he didn’t panic, because this was the mind of his commander, the general who would lead him to victory and prosperity!

  During their conversation, the first mage couldn’t help but feel pride in the strength of his leader. While he was receiving his orders, he watched the bees he was supposed to protect fly around and gather pollen from the flowers planted around the ground.

  “You will be safe, my little friend. On my honor!” he thought to himself. He still wasn’t sure how he would go about performing his duties, but he would find a way!

  When the general got to the Q&A portion of this debriefing, the first mage asked how he was supposed to protect not only the general, but the precious bees he held dear.

  “Reach down, through your feet. Do you feel the root?”

  The first mage looked around but saw nothing. When he reached down, the general laughed and stopped him.

  “Not with your body, but with your mind. You should feel a pool of mana below.”

  The first mage sat back up, slightly embarrassed. He was making a poor first impression on his general, but he would do as ordered.

  He reached down with his mind and felt the tether again. It felt like it was a part of him, but also not. It was a strange sensation, but he reached through it nonetheless. As he felt his way down, the tether became more like a part of him, like an extension of his leg. Apparently, he should have done that before he alerted the general that he was awake. It was like a third arm.

  And at the bottom of that limb was power incarnate.

  “Incredible. There’s so much mana down there! Sir, how is this possible!”

  The first mage barely heard his general as he was too busy checking out the massive supply of mana below him. When his general was done talking, he blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

  “I won’t let you down, sir!”

  And he promptly connected the power supply to the knowledge his general had gifted to him upon creation. The result was an explosion of fire.

  “Oh, this is going to be good,” he thought to himself.

  He had much practice to do, and a nearly infinite supply of mana to do it.

  He would protect his home. He would protect his general. And he would protect his general’s bees.

  It was go time. It was magic time.

  Discord Here!