I started working on the core. The design was pretty much the same, with a very slight difference in size. Because this new golem had to heavier rely on magic, I wanted his storage of energy and its production to be slightly stronger. The most work was in the infusion itself, so the material parts could basically stay the same.

I quickly made everything, but because I wanted to work later with Leone, I couldn't start making the infusion, because It would take longer than, according to my calculations, I had. This led me to focus on creating the parts for the armor.

I had the materials prepared, just needed to mix them to make the alloy, then use 'Runification' on it, so it would be even better. The process took me a couple of hours, enough for Leonel to return, which indicated that it was already an early evening.

Since I was busy, he just picked up the work where he had left it. I only noticed him properly sometime later, when I was done with the core.

- Everybody is back? - I asked him.

He shrugged his shoulders in response.

- I haven't seen anybody - he added.

- Did you eat something, before coming here?

- A sandwich.

His words made me sigh, but it was hard to tell him to eat properly, where I, myself, wasn't. It's been a moment since I had a proper breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

- I might not be the one to talk about this, but you are still growing, so you should eat and sleep well, son. I know that the things around here are exciting for you, and you want to do so much, but you should remember that nobody is chasing you. You have the time - I told him.

He briefly stopped smashing the piece of iron with the hammer to have a look at me, then he nodded.

I couldn't really tell if it was one of those moments when your kid just says or signals 'yes' but what they really mean is, 'just leave me alone'. I was a little bit afraid it was the letter, so I decided to proceed further rather carefully to not create a distance between us.

- I'm gonna make the alloy now. It might take me some time, but with this, we should start working on the armor tomorrow. So polish your skills, because we need to make sure to do a good job. This thing needs to last for long - I said, changing the subject.

- Ok - he said to me shortly.

A clear indication that it wasn't really 'ok'. My intuition was telling me to approach things carefully. Give him some time. There was also the fact that I didn't really have a good idea of what to do.

Because of that, we, for the next few hours, worked in silence. The effect was a big lump of metal, that I would normally just cast into the fragments of armor, and fix the imperfections with the hammer, but because of Leonel I needed to do it fully by hand, so the large piece wasn't good. That's why I reheated it a little bit, then made smaller bars.

By the time I was done Tihana, and Carmelita was there, waiting for Leonel.

- Mom send us to make sure you will return home for the night - they both said at once to him.

historical

Surprisingly, despite me feeling like he was somewhat angry with me, Leonel didn't seem to want to leave.

- Don't worry. I'll prepare everything, so we can finish it... Maybe not finish, but do some work tomorrow. - I assured him.

He smiled at me, then nodded, which made me feel that things weren't as bad as I originally thought between us.

I watched them leave for a moment, then focused solely on the work. Since I would break the promises if I were to start making the parts for armor, I decided to focus on the skeleton instead. Maybe it was assembled already, and the core was waiting in the center of the ribcage, but it still needed infusions. So that was something I did throughout the night, but before I started, I went to the volcano, to pick up the crystals from Fin. His storage was practically full, so that was a good decision by me.

Then I shadow walked back, and without further delay focused on the long process of inducing magic with the skeleton of the automation-in-the-making.

I made sure it would be as sturdy as possible, which took me the whole night, but I was quite happy with how the infusion went. Everything seemed to work perfectly.

To my surprise, Leonel showed himself soon after.

- You didn't go hunting? - I asked him.

- No. I wanted to work with you - he told me.

I had to fight with the smile, which desperately wanted to cover my lips, and I lost. I waved at him, to get closer, and we started the work.

I heated up two bars, then gave him one, and we shared one anvil, striking the alloy to create the properly shaped scales, which would later be assembled into a composite armor of the automaton. Since the already had good practice with the regular iron, I only had to give him a few suggestions during the work to make him do an acceptable job.

Maybe we weren't talking much, except for me giving him directions, but it was still quality time. Not to mention, that between me and him, the elements started piling up very fast.

Before once again his sisters came to pick him up, we finished all the scales, so during the night I only had to work on the rest of the parts. I switched to utilizing 'Telekinesis', to keep the tempo up, so all the parts would be ready by the next day.

Sadly the rest of the work was purely reserved for me, since it was all enchanting and 'Runegraving'. Something Leonel couldn't really help me with.