"That was intense, wasn't it?"

  "Y-yeah. I never thought there would be five people like that..."

  After completing the quest called "Mr. Egg's Ambition," which involved collecting golem lower body parts, it wasn't over just because we had obtained the desired item.

  Golems are divided into five parts: the head, torso, arms, legs, and core. Combining these parts completes the golem.

  Well, to be precise, it can still function without arms, though its performance drops. As for the shape of the golem, you can create beast-type, Asura-type, or even ship-type golems, so there's no fixed form.

  The orthodox golem consists of five parts, and it's been two weeks since we first met Mr. Egg. During that time, we've been living a pretty hectic life to collect all these parts.

  "I never thought the day would come when mochi would become a source of comfort.""Nel, which one was the toughest for you? For me, it was the third person...""For me, it was the fourth. Who would have thought that the first Mr. Egg would still be the most normal one?"

  In the morning, we'd go around collecting mochi to increase our proficiency and gather materials for rice toner. After we accidentally found a way to increase the number of keys, Nel and I started clearing two dungeons at once to speed up our progress.

  Before the golem retrieval quest, I was already tired of the mochi runs and had lost motivation. But after meeting the even more intense characters following Mr. Egg, as Amina and Nel said, mochi had become a source of comfort.

  Mr. Egg, in charge of the legs. If it weren't for his drunkenness and ck of hygiene, he might have been considered retively normal compared to the others.

  "The second person totally fooled us with their appearance.""Yeah, they looked chubby and kind, but..."

  Dr. Pom, in charge of the torso. He's usually found around pastry shops. Not the kind of cake shops from my previous life, but more like cafes selling sweets.

  He wanders around these pces, searching for sweets.

  "Who would have thought he'd go berserk if he ran out of sweets?""Yeah, and then he accused us kids of stealing his sweets, even though he ate them all himself.""...Honestly, it was scary.""Me too, I think I might see his eyes in my dreams."

  This guy is the opposite of Mr. Egg. Normally, he wanders around with sweets in hand, appearing gentle and well-liked in the neighborhood. He's got a double chin and a belly so big you could bounce on it—unhealthy in a different way from Mr. Egg, but just as bad.

  However, if he goes without sweets for a certain amount of time, he transforms. The quest flow is simple: find Dr. Pom and observe.

  In this world, sweets are much more expensive compared to my memories from my previous life.

  So, he makes a living by creating and selling golems to buy sweets, but his spending on sweets often exceeds his income from selling golems.

  In other words, he self-destructs over time.

  And when he can't get his sweets, he periodically goes berserk.

  "But isn't it unfair that he makes better golems when he's berserk?""Totally."

  At that point, he starts rampaging, his nguage skills deteriorate, and he becomes emotional. The trick is to lure him with a rge amount of sweets and get him to hand over the golem.

  Yeah, compared to Mr. Egg, at least there's no combat. How does he move that huge body so gracefully?

  If you can somehow subdue Dr. Pom without injuring him, even while he's berserk, he'll listen to you. Offer him sweets as a reward, and you can get the golem torso part.

  The quest name, "Pom the Sweet Addict," is no exaggeration given his obsession with sweets.

  "Hey, hold that side down for me!""Got it!""Ah, Nel, grab that hammer for me.""This one?""Yeah."

  While Teresa looks on in disbelief, we gather the golem parts in a corner of the yard. First, we pce the spider-like legs, the multi-legged parts, and on top of that, the slightly plump torso modeled after Dr. Pom.

  Multi-legged types have high mobility and turning ability. The heavy torso reduces mobility but increases power.

  I tap with the hammer to adjust any misalignments, and then...

  "Amina, your turn.""Okay!"

  Amina's alchemy skill is a passive one that increases the success rate of alchemy-reted tasks and enhances the effects of crafted items. It can also trigger the unique skills of golems.

  "Alright, let's connect the legs and torso!"

  Something clicks into pce. The legs and torso are now connected, and I confirm they're securely fixed.

  "Next, the right arm.""Okay!"

  We move on to attaching the next part. Compared to the bulky legs and heavy torso, the arm Nel brought is slender.

  I adjust its position and slot it in.

  It might look unbanced, but considering what we want to do, the arms should prioritize technique over power.

  The quest that provided the arm is called "Chase the Smoke." Yeah, after alcohol and sweets, smoke is the next thing most people would think of.

  This guy is the only one of the five golem engineers without a fixed location. He's always wandering around with a cigarette in his mouth, searching for ideas and tobacco. He'd be the poster child for someone who'd be hated in Japan's anti-smoking climate.

  The fourth person Nel found was Professor Carbine. While searching for the fifth person, Nel coincidentally caught the scent of tobacco and followed it to find him.

  He's so enveloped in smoke that you'd think his entire body is covered in it, and his b is so smoky it feels like it's shrouded in thick fog. For Nel, a beast person with a keen sense of smell, he's like a living nightmare. Like the other alchemists, he's an eccentric with his own quirks.

  Mr. Egg requires alcohol, Dr. Pom requires sweets. So, you'd think this guy just needs tobacco, but it's not that simple.

  He's searching for leaves with new scents, and in the game, this was hinted at as part of the quest. To get a golem part from Professor Carbine, you need to exchange it for a new type of tobacco, making it arguably the most difficult part of the golem retrieval quest.

  If you give him tobacco he's already smoked, he'll just take it and disappear, forcing you to search for him again. Even if you meet the exchange conditions, finding the arm in his smoky b is a hassle.

  The silver lining is that as long as he's smoking, he's at least competent.

  But if you take away his tobacco, he becomes completely listless and does nothing.

  As for the tobacco, thanks to my game knowledge, I know where to find rare types in this area, so that's not a problem. But it was still a pain to find, and I feel bad for making Nel endure the smell. Still, it was thanks to her sense of smell that we found him in the first pce.

  "This should do it. Amina, your turn again.""Leave it to me."

  Once I confirm the bance is correct, I ask Amina to connect the parts.

  Now the legs, torso, and arms are all attached.

  "It kinda looks like an Arachne monster.""Without a face, it's more like a Dulhan."

  Multi-legged with a human upper body and no face. Considering that combination, it does look like what Nel and Amina described.

  "True."

  From my perspective, I'm just using the most efficient method from the game. Since pyers can't interact with each other, we need a lot of items, and there's a lot we can't do.

  If there were high-level pyers with abundant items helping us, I might already have top-tier stats.

  The first pythrough of a game is always the hardest. Starting from scratch and pying it safe means things take a lot more effort.

  As someone who's experienced the penalty of dying in the game, I tend to set my standards higher.

  At the end of the day, it's best to proceed safely and efficiently. The trade-off is that it gets boring.

  "Alright, next up is the core.""Ah, that was the toughest part."

  Since the head is pced at the golem's feet, it looks even more like a fusion of an Arachne and a Dulhan.

  I take out the heart of the golem from a wooden box.

  The golem core. It's like the heart of a human. Without it, the golem is just a lifeless doll, and the golem's output depends on it.

  If you don't care about the body breaking down, you could use a core with higher durability than the body to create an incredibly powerful golem. But if you're going that far, you might as well strengthen the body too.

  So, this is also a Css 4 golem core.

  Amina said it was the toughest part, probably because she found the fifth person the most difficult to deal with.

  The only woman among the five golem alchemists: Madame Plecia.

  The quest name: "The Screaming Witch."

  She's a woman who's a bit past her prime, with a face that looks more suited to brewing suspicious potions in a cauldron than creating golems.

  And why is this quest called "The Screaming Witch"? It sounds like the title of a suspense drama where a murder mystery is about to unfold, but nothing that gruesome happens, not even close.

  So far, we've had someone who loves alcohol, someone who loves sweets, and someone who loves tobacco. So, this woman must have her own obsession, and hers is singing. But she's tone-deaf, like the leader of some bratty anime gang.

  To her, she's singing, but to everyone else, it sounds like death metal gone horribly wrong.

  If Professor Carbine's quest was a game of chance, this one's a rhythm game. You have to py along with her screeching, which is worse than random noise, and make her enjoy her singing. That's the condition for getting the golem core.

  Fortunately, the better you py, the higher your score, so just endure the screeching and py well.

  But for Amina, who takes pride in her singing, having to py along with that screeching over and over was mentally exhausting.

  Nel and I just pyed mindlessly, so we weren't as stressed, and we managed to py through 24 songs until the core was complete.

  Yeah, thinking about it calmly, it was a pretty crazy quest. After the quest, my ears were ringing so badly I had to drink a potion.

  With that in mind, I gently pce a pink sphere, about the size of a bowling ball, into the neck area and set it on the pedestal in the center of the torso.

  "Alright, let's connect it.""OK."

  Once the process is clear, Amina quickly connects the core to the torso.

  "Ah.""Whoa!"

  With that, the previously lifeless golem seems to come alive. It doesn't look any different, and it still feels cold to the touch, but there's a warmth, a sense of life, that you can feel.

  It's a sensation I never experienced in the game.

  "Now we just need to attach the head, and it's complete!""Let's hurry up and put it on!"

  With completion so close, the girls are excited. I pick up the final part, a full-face helmet-like head with a cross-shaped indentation in the center.

  The st head part, the grand finale of the eccentric characters we've met so far. Not a final boss, just another intensely eccentric person.

  After dealing with alcohol, sweets, tobacco, and singing, what's left? Cosmetics.

  "Beauty Maniac."

  That's the name of the quest, and if you're wondering why the golem head has the best performance, the quest name pretty much tells the story.

  In the game, he went by the name "Beautist," and he was obsessed with beauty.

  The analysis team specuted that he might have been exiled from some noble family, but the truth remains unknown.

  All we know is that he's a narcissist.

  He believes his face is the most beautiful, and if you put him in front of a mirror, he'll stand there for two hours without moving. If you choose the wrong dialogue options, he'll endlessly talk about how beautiful his face is, wasting your time.

  Personally, I don't think he's that handsome, and it's not about being popur with women—he just loves his own face. Listening to him drone on about it is beyond tedious.

  As long as you choose the right options and bring the right gifts, it's not a problem.

  To find him, you just need to visit shops that sell cosmetics, but this time, we found him at Nel's shop.

  He came looking for the famous rice toner, but unfortunately, it sells out early in the morning.

  Frustrated at not being able to get it, he started ranting about how beautiful he is and how much he needs the toner, turning into a full-blown Karen and causing trouble for Teresa.

  Just as we were wondering how to get into the noble district, we stumbled upon him, completely catching us off guard.

  In the end, we mediated and resolved the compint. We offered to give him more products in exchange for the golem head, and he readily agreed.

  "Alright, let's do this."

  After all the trouble, we pce the final part, the head, onto the golem.

  "Amina!""Yep!"

  Finally, we ask Amina to connect it.

  "Fusion complete!"

  And with that, our golem is complete. Among the FBO pyers, this golem is known as one of the eccentric series, with low combat ability but high utility in certain areas.

  Its name:

  "Angler."