Chapter 17: Are You An Undead
The economic crisis in Alkhemia was far worse than Ambrose had imagined. Even the lesser lords were already making contingency plans to prepare for the city's eventual collapse.
But whether Alkhemia would fall was none of Ambrose's concern—at least, not for now. He was fully absorbed in his experiments on the creation of spirit golems.
Under Master Morgan's guidance, Ambrose had found a path forward. By optimizing his Mimetic Soul, he was able to create artificial souls at a cost of roughly two hundred gold each.
Two hundred gold was extravagant by any measure. A human slave's soul wasn't even worth a single gold coin on the market. Yet compared to Master Morgan's original ritual, which cost fifty thousand gold to perform, Ambrose's version was practically free.
And there was still room to reduce the cost further.
The first stage of the process was now complete. The problem of the soul was resolved, but the design of the body presented a new set of challenges.
Living mercury was the ideal vessel for a soul, yet it lacked many essential organs.
Who knew what those madmen in Alkhemia had originally intended when they created it? Apart from its remarkable resistance to magic, living mercury was malformed and lacking in many ways.
Without any organs, it was fragile to the point of absurdity, nothing but a blob with the instinct to devour metal. Implanting a soul into such a vessel would be a waste of both time and materials. Ambrose would have to give the living mercury organs.