Ball of Nothing

Zero was busy. Then again, when wasn't he busy? The doctor sighed. Now he understood why the Gods were always looking for an excuse to attend parties. Nobody enjoyed working and Zero wished he could delegate his task over to someone else like Baal. The omnipotent creator of all was also a slave to the never-ending cycle of work. Zero wondered if Solo ever got tired of working. How nice would it be if his entire existence could be like Duu?

Zero indulged the thought for a moment but quickly erased it from his mind. The doctor shuddered thinking about doing nothing for eternity. He did it once and Zero didn't want to go back to those days of doing absolutely nothing. He'd very much be entertained and occupied with work. Having something to do was always better than having nothing to do. Boredom was Zero's worst nightmare after all. If he had to choose a divine entity to relate to better, it would probably be Zesti who is all over the place doing things at her own pace.

After kidnapping Cleo for a while, Zero entered Heaven. The dryad had her long-term visitor work permit pass so not informing anybody about their sudden arrival didn't cause too big of an issue. Ouroboros wasn't expecting to see any visitors but that was about it. Zero went to check on the pasture he had near Garden Eden. With Cleo's professional judgement of the soil's quality, they decided to pay a visit to Arabesque.

Zero's surprise visit didn't trigger the security alarms in Arabesque but Merlin didn't let his student go without meeting him in person first. The doctor introduced Cleo to his magic teacher and they shared a cup of tea while Zero asked his mindscape assistants to put together a list of plants that would grow well in the pasture. Wii volunteered for the task of window shopping online and Mii left it all to her sister.

Merlin listened to Zero's proposal and didn't think there was anything wrong with wanting to grow his medicinal herbs in the pasture they co-shared. However, Merlin expressed his concern over the lack of capable hands to oversee their growth.

Zero was ready for this. With a rough sketch, the design for his garden golem and medical assistants were ready. Merlin looked through both designs and studied the runes in detail while Cleo waited patiently. It wasn't Zero's first time making a golem and this time, Merlin was impressed by how much Zero's understanding of runes has improved. At Zero's current level, it would be sufficient for Zero to be considered a legendary runemaster.

"What are the materials used to build the golem's main body? Rune power has to run on something. If it's in the pastures here, you can siphon mana to keep it powered but if it is elsewhere, you'd better reconsider. Also, you have to find time to maintain the golems every few decades to keep them in good condition."

Zero came prepared. In fact, he wanted his teacher's second opinion after scouting through several suitable building materials and their cost. Normal golems could be built using rocks or mud but for something to last long enough, Zero wanted to model after Robo Mike and use mana metals.

There was one problem with using elemental imbued mana metals. Zero didn't have enough time or a fusing chamber to create enough mana metals for thirty golems. Hence, his second alternative was to use mana imbued rocks or crystals. Nobody has ever tried such a strange material for alchemy and Zero needed an expert's opinion on using the alternative material.

Merlin called Lovina over to study Zero's idea and discuss further on how it would be possible to stabilise a golem made from living rocks and crystals imbued with mana. For starters, rocks and crystals possess a life of their own, unlike metal that usually developed a consciousness later on if they became tools and weapons. The reason why metals were used to make special golems was due to the ability to retain parts of their master's soul after creation. On the other hand, rocks and crystals already possess a life of their own making it exceedingly hard to bend them to their creator's will on a higher level. rock golems and crystal golems were usually created as a summons for short-term uses during a battle, meant to be destroyed after their purpose had been fulfilled. Also, elemental golems usually only possess one type of element per core. For Zero to want to incorporate more than one mana core in each golem was unthinkable even to the greatest alchemist alive.

Still, Zero didn't propose this without a solution and Merlin was proud of his student. Zero came up with a way to link the different cores to work together within a golem using runes. The rune formations and spells were exceedingly complicated. Even with about a hundred parallel minds, Merlin was still having difficulties understanding it. There were a total of twenty thousand different spells woven in the rune writings that created the golem's core functioning system. Another fifty thousand spells in the rune writings were used to create the golem's intelligence that Merlin had never seen before.

Lovina felt helpless in front of such a high-levelled rune writing. She was an alchemist and not a very advanced one in Arabesque. The witch gave her master a helpless look. While she might be Merlin's first disciple in alchemy, Zero was Merlin's best magic student who had long surpassed her in terms of knowledge and capability. There was nothing she could do to help Zero when she was staring at an unknown type of magic.

Cleo noticed something wrong when Merlin fell silent and radiated an aura of interest concentration. Sweat dripped from his brow and that look made Zero nervous. Was it bad? Did he do something wrong? Why did Merlin look as if it was very complicated?

In the mindscape, Wii and Mii looked at Merlin with pity. For the wizard to understand this with a glance would be impossible. Wii and Mii worked hard to put this together under Zero's direction. The process wasn't easy and if it wasn't for the time flow difference in Zero's trial dimension, they would never have gotten this formula right.

"Zero, have you tested this one something?" Merlin gave up and asked. If Zero had already tested this one something else, the formula was going to work for sure. There was no need for the wizard to lose brain cells over something like that. Other than Zero, there really wasn't anyone else capable of creating such a thing.

Zero bit his lips. "Yes. However, it took many trial and errors to get it right. This is what I came up with after almost eight hundred attempts. Rocks and crystals are not the most ideal materials for golem creations but I found out that they could be tampered with if given the right conditions. The trick lies in increasing the spirit's intelligence and awareness within the rock or crystal. Once they awaken, it isn't difficult to build a contract to bind them to the creator."

Merlin listened to Zero explain about his many failures and his discovery. He gave the witch a look and Lovina quickly wrote down everything that Zero said. Cleo didn't fully understand what Zero was talking about but she did agree with some things that Zero said. As a dread, she was able to hear voices of everything in her territory. The trees, flowers, grass, soil and rocks have voices. If Zero's theory about the voices were right, material plane spirits can also be born. Not all spirits have to originate from the Natural plane. The discovery was huge and Cleo wondered if anyone else knew that.

The discussion took a few hours to conclude. Fortunately, all the magicians agreed that Zero should stick to high-grade mana crystals to create golems out of. Medical golems should be created using light crystal cores while garden golems should be created from earth crystal cores. The rune writings were ignored and Merlin trusted Zero more than he trusted himself with them.

With the miscellaneous matters in Heaven concluded, Zero left the order placing to his trusty assistants while he explained to Cleo what kind of help he would require once the seeds arrived. They returned for late lunch and Zero apologised for the tardiness. After a very satisfying meal, Zero headed to Trigression Falls alone.

The barrier he did up for Trigression Fall's base previously worked very well. All Zero needed to do now was to create a new portal outside of it to divert some water over to Hua Tuo's farm. Creating the portal and sustaining it wasn't the difficult part. The difficult part was picking a spot that wouldn't be blocked by plants or marine creatures. Zero looked around to the rocks that he meditated on before and had an idea.

Previously, Hua Tuo had him create a small tub. The tub was still there and Zero wondered if he was able to make use of it. As it turned out, the portal wasn't difficult to create. Zero didn't need a huge one for anyone to walk through. Instead, it was hardly noticeable and was only the size of a pebble. The water slowly trickled into the portal and with nowhere to flow out of, it ended up in Zero's infinite inventory, not that he minded.

Now that the first part was down, Zero headed back to Hua Tuo's hut to start working on the second part of his garden expansion plan.

Digging the trench and ploughing the land was easy. Zero used earth magic to create the section of the farm he required. The part that was difficult was containing the water from Trigression Falls so that it wouldn't affect Hua Tuo's original garden. Zero spent the most time creating the mana array around both farms to contain the different water sources. After testing it out, Zero was finally satisfied with it.

The doctor didn't leave it there. He also made plans for further expansion should he require it and recorded down his array's formula so that he could refer to it in future. The records were then tossed to Mii who archived it carefully. Once everything was ready, Zero looked through the orders for seeds he placed using the intergalactic communicator. The batch for the abyss had already arrived. Beelzebub signed the receiving slip and the one for Arabesque was on its way.

"Where's the one for Endow Hill? Zoe received it... why don't I see it in my inventory?"

Zero's question was soon answered when somebody stepped out of the connecting portal from Half Moon village.

"Special delivery for Zero!" the cheerful voice announced and Zero felt himself laughing.

"Truen!"

The wood elf grinned. Truth be told, Zero took a longer time than expected to check on things in Heaven. The archer was slightly concerned but when the package arrived for the second time, he knew that he had to seize this chance to make the delivery so that he could check on the busy brunet.

"How's the garden expansion coming along?" Truen asked casually and handed both spatial bags to Zero who quickly checked the contents to ensure that his orders were delivered correctly. If there was a mistake, Zero needed to quickly report it so that he could get a refund or delivery. If too much time passed, Zero wouldn't be able to do anything and that was something Merlin made sure to emphasize on when he taught Zero how to online shop. Thankfully, everything arrived in good condition and there was no need for Zero to freak out.

The doctor grinned at his friend. "Take a look for yourself! I spent a lot of time on that array so that the other side will not be affected by Trigression Falls' water. The underground water system maintained by my array is almost perfect. I just couldn't find a good dumping reservoir for the excess water but I'm assuming there wouldn't be too much so I diverted it back to the river behind shifu's house."

Truen raised a brow. "Will it be alright to dump the water into a river that other people might drink from?"

Zero made a face. "It shouldn't have any harmful side effects. The only side effect I could think of is if someone or a village of people drank from this water for about a hundred years. They might be a little higher in cultivation but that's about it. No miraculous side effects or harmful ones in my opinion."

Truen nodded. "Fair enough. What's left? I think you've done a lot for today. How about getting a good night's rest and continuing the rest tomorrow?"

Zero stretched and agreed. "Now that my mana crystals are here, I have to ask Tambolt for some materials and tools to borrow. Not to mention, the seeds have arrived. I need all hands on deck to start planting the first trial batch so that I can analyse the results while I'm still here and make any adjustments if there is a need."

The archer smiled and nudged his friend to the portal. "I know. I'll help out tomorrow so don't think too much. Leave tomorrow's work for tomorrow to take care of it. You've done your part today and it's time to rest."

Zero rolled his eyes. "Yes, mom..." he drawled out and Truen pinched one of Zero's cheeks to punish him for his cheekiness.

The rest of the evening was spent in light-hearted banter and Zero's story-telling time.