15 The Secre

Goliath had needed several minutes to digest the initial shock, but he began to improve again after some consolations. It did not matter if a thousand or ten thousand years had passed; after reaching a certain limit, it all felt the same. There were even positive sides to it.

The relationship between Magus Derilion and Goliath had not been perfect either, even though the small Golem respected his creator dearly; in fact, almost like a father. He had lost everything he knew, but for the first time, his life truly lay in his own hands.

Sure, he was 'bound' to Teo, but as there was no real contract, this bond was rather liberal. It was more like an unspoken rule of golemhood to serve whoever activated them — at least if they could not find their creator. But why would he care now, when he was the only Golem left on the Continent?

Since Goliath was a rather small —and thus, energy-efficient — Golem, he was almost self-sustaining and what little Mana he needed, he could receive from many other humans if he so desired to change masters. He had only needed Teo to provide the initial energy for his activation.

However, both of them had continued to talk for a few hours and agreed on partnering up for the time being.

Teo had shown a lot of kindness so far when talking to the Golem — a rare treat, for a 'mere construct' — and Goliath needed someone to show him around in the new world, possibly even hide him.

They had no proof yet, but it was pretty apparent that an ancient Golem was widely desired and would quickly end up as research material for someone unless he maintained a low profile. Especially so, if he liked to boast about being made up of 90% Mithril and 10% Adamantium. His bare material worth was enough to drive men crazy!

Teo, on the other hand, was quite interested in the ancient knowledge and techniques, which Goliath was sure to harness. He did not understand much about the runes on him yet, but studying them was guaranteed to be beneficial.

"We still have a problem though, how am I supposed to hide you from my family? You can't stay in my room all the time." Teo voiced his doubts about their plan that still bothered him.

"Easy," answered Goliath and transformed back into the small cube he had started as, gently floating towards Teo's hand; it was as light as a feather.

"Well, that solves one problem. But you should only talk when I call you; you're not exactly quiet." Teo was happy that he could carry his new companion around with little effort. He could not openly talk to his pockets, but two pairs of ears were better than one.

'Don't worry; I can't read your mind. You need to send me a message actively; it's just a simple trick for silent communication.' Goliath explained with unusual patience, accurately guessing his thoughts and visibly relieving Teo of his worries.

'You need to grab a thick thread of Mana, imbue it with your thoughts, and send it over to me. The Mana will take on the natural frequency of your thoughts when you concentrate on it, and the recipient's brain will inverse the process automatically.'

Teo looked a bit confused for a second. From class, he already knew what a brain was — and he was pretty sure that Goliath had no such thing. However, because he did not know how the rest of the Golem functioned either, he quickly put the thought to rest.

With all the practice Teo had gotten using Mana Manipulation in the last year, he quickly got used to the new trick and succeeded without much trouble after a few tries. He would be able to communicate with Goliath now whenever he wanted!

The only lingering question was: Why didn't everybody do the same? The technique was effortless, and both the energy and concentration required —even for extended dialogues— was negligible. Why had he never heard of this before then?

Unwilling to be retaken by surprise, Teo decided to ask in advance, "Do you have any other abilities you would like to share with me, Goliath?"

"I do come with all the advantages of the Royal Golem 1000 series, so naturally, I have some more, but nothing special. I guess, the dimensional storage compartment —where I keep my spare parts while in my miniature form— could be quite useful, as I can't sense any spatial Artifacts on your body. It's tiny though, only around ten cubic meters."

'Ten cubic meters? Tiny?' thought Teo speechlessly. He knew that spatial Artifacts were scarce, hard to create, and very precious. Even an Artifact with only one cubic meter of storage space could buy a small villa! Ten cubic meters was enormous!

Their chitchat finished, they decided to call it a day —or night, to be more exact— and went to bed. At least Teo did, Goliath was silently lying on the nightstand in his miniature form, not giving off a sign of life anymore, not even his usual glow.

...

Teo awoke quite early today, just in time to witness the rising sun, flooding his room with light through the large window. Lying there, comfortably in his soft bed, Teo wondered. Had it all been just a dream? He had been very exhausted yesterday; maybe he had just been hallucinating as a side-effect from the sudden lack of Mana?!

He looked over to the nightstand, where a particular rocky-metallic cube was lying silently, just like his uncle had left it there yesterday. Hesitatingly, he began to grab a Mana Thread from the air and imprinted it with his mind. If it wasn't a dream, then he should receive an answer, right?

Less then a second after sending over a quiet "Hello" he could already hear the familiar voice of the Golem, humming in his head,

'Good morning to you too. Why are you looking at me like that? Had a bad dream?'

'No, I'm good. We should hurry up and get ready for breakfast now.'

Teo was shocked and relieved at the same time. He had not been dreaming!

Teo hurriedly put on a long bathrobe, went to wash himself, and brushed his teeth, before finally changing into fresh and clean clothes. He did not have many chances to change yesterday; first, he slept on top of the bedsheets, fully dressed, and soaked in his sweat. Afterwards, he had quickly stripped and slept in his underwear

Coming out of the bathroom, he felt refreshed and invigorated, almost reborn. His body had recovered, and his internal Mana regenerated sufficiently.

Back in his room, Teo looked through one of his drawers until he found his old, soft-leather coin purse with an elaborate stitching of the family emblem on it. He carefully put Goliath inside before hanging it around his neck. It may not be the most extravagant mode of transport one could get, but in exchange, it was quite inconspicuous.

Teo put on his grey felt-slippers, rushed through the long corridor next to his room and into the dining hall. Breakfast was not obligatory nor bound to a specific time of day, but most family members still chose to visit at the same time shortly after sunrise.

So, when Teo entered the large hall — spanning at least ten times fifteen meters, with numerous brass candleholders and old oil paintings covering its walls, only leaving some space around the tall, colored windows — a few familiar figures were already seated around the long oak table.

The only unusual sight here was his grandfather, Troy, who was sitting close to the twins, wrestling with a loaf of rye bread and a sausage. His grandfather was a busy man, often out at sea, overlooking the operation of the more important business trips. When he got home, he would spend all day loitering around the harbor or talking to merchants and politicians.

"Grandfather!" Teo cried out and ran up to the man, giving him a close hug. He had not seen him for almost a month now, as he had been on a business trip to Kaskada in the south in order to negotiate a new trade route.

Initially, he had evaluated his grandfather as a cold and distanced man, but the more time he spent with him, the more he noticed how wrong he had been about him. He did not show his emotions openly and was even quite annoying sometimes, especially when he put his sharp nose into anything and everything. Still, Teo could feel that he only acted in his best interest and tried to protect him. With time, both of them had significantly opened up to each other.

"Teo! Have you gotten taller again? Wait till you see what I have brought you this time," Troy said with a wide smile and pulled something large from the sea sack that he still carried with him.

"This is an Abacus. You can use it for calculations; I thought you might like it."

With Goliath by his side, Teo had no motive to ever calculate anything by himself again, but the tool was wholly decorative, and he appreciated the thought a lot.

Teo continued to talk to his grandfather for a few more minutes, ordered an omelet from the cook, and then sat down beside his cousins Karl and Karolina. The twins had dark brown hair and green eyes, unlike most members of the family, heavily taking after their mother.Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click www.webnovel.com for visiting.