His first primary combat Golem had to be a pure instrument of war.

Master Mercer had made his requirements abundantly clear during his lectures to both him and Victor: to obtain the third and most crucial Core Witchcraft needed for advancement, they had to independently design and construct a Level 3 Golem.

A war machine with destructive power on par with an Official Wizard.

To be more precise, its destructive power was benchmarked against the damage caused by the Elemental Witchcraft of a First-level Wizard from a Witchcraft School, cast at a standard Magic Power output.

In other words, a single strike had to be capable of obliterating a two-story stone castle with a footprint of six hundred square meters.

In terms of the Insight Glasses data Allen was more familiar with, this meant that the moment the Golem attacked, the peak instantaneous Magic Power fluctuation from its core energy output had to be consistently above 1000.

And that was just the hard metric for pure destructive power.

After all, in the Wizarding World, it wasn’t uncommon to see level-four and level-five functional Golems of immense strategic value. They might specialize in defense, spatial infiltration, or resource production, and their direct firepower could even be inferior to a standard Level 3 Combat Golem.

Master Mercer’s test was clearly designed to see if they, as Alchemy Apprentices specializing in Golems, had mastered the most fundamental and core ability: firepower projection.

In the early stages of their development, Wizards of the alchemy school had a pitifully weak grasp of offensive Witchcraft. Their combat ability was extremely dependent on external items; the destructive power of their Alchemy Tools and Mechanical Bodies was, to a large extent, equivalent to their own.

But the advantage was also obvious: as long as their technical skills were solid and they had ample resources, they could create superweapons with destructive power rivaling an Official Wizard, even as Advanced Apprentices.

After all, for an Alchemy Wizard to cast high-powered Witchcraft on their own, they would have to wait until they became a Second-level Wizard.

This was precisely Allen’s biggest weakness at the moment.

Ah Fu, the Golem Allen had built, was only a Level 1 Servant Golem.

As for the "Spider Slayer," which had caused such a stir at the Nova Cup, it had only barely reached the threshold of a Level 2 Golem by relying on its unique tactical module.

He needed a massive leap in both knowledge and skill to accomplish this arduous task.

With his current knowledge and technical expertise, the most reliable plan was to design a main battle Golem equipped with the "Judgment" Weapon Platform.

A humanoid form was the first choice.

He wasn’t just choosing a humanoid form because it could adapt to most complex terrains.

The deeper reason was that a silent Steel Giant, by its very nature, would inflict the most direct and primal psychological intimidation upon any flesh-and-blood foe.

Of course, the most important reason was:

’It just looks so cool! Looks are a form of combat power, and that’s a philosophy I have to stick with!’

He planned to upgrade "Judgment" into two built-in beam weapon modules. One would be mounted in the chest as the main cannon, pursuing ultimate range and destructive power.

The other would be installed in the palms, serving as a standard attack method and a supplement for close combat.

The battlefield perception module would use a design similar to the Insight Glasses. With the Demon Eye providing intelligence support, this part wouldn’t need a major overhaul.

He would use high-quality Magic Metal to forge its load-bearing frame and heavy armor. He would sacrifice flight capabilities, pouring all resources into ground suppression, making it proficient in both melee and ranged combat.

"DSeek, record the preliminary design for a new project."

[Project Codename: PX-0.]

"Design Philosophy: Absolute ground suppression."

Allen’s consciousness sank into his Sea of Spirit as a massive humanoid silhouette slowly took shape in DSeek’s virtual space.

Thick armor, broad shoulders, and a powerful limb structure.

Then, he integrated the "Judgment" firing platform.

In its chest was a large, circular emitter that would serve as its main cannon, ensuring a range of over three kilometers.

A miniaturized beam emitter was embedded in each palm. They could fire alternately or simultaneously, creating a dense web of firepower.

The design instantly reminded him of a popular character from an anime in his past life.

A corner of Allen’s mouth twitched. "Let’s call it... the Pacifist."

’Using absolute violence to create peace. Regardless of how it might be used later, the ideology behind it had to be progressive, at least.’

As the preliminary design solidified in his mind, a crucial problem presented itself.

The Control Core.

Allen immediately ruled out the option of using the soul of a "volunteer."

It wasn’t out of any saintly compassion; he had simply evaluated it from the perspective of "efficiency."

Finding a "volunteer" soul that met the requirements was too dependent on luck and far too troublesome.

What he needed was a ready-made component that possessed powerful combat instincts and, preferably, a natural talent for beam-type attacks.

"DSeek, search the academy’s Monster Atlas. Target: a humanoid intelligent creature with powerful predatory instincts, high-level physical combat capability, and a ranged beam attack."

[Searching... Three targets have been filtered:]

[1. Petrifying Medusa (Humanoid): Powerful ranged petrification beam, but low melee capability.]

[2. Ice Giant (Elemental): Strong combat ability, possesses an ice beam attack.]

[3. Volcanic Fierce Ape (Humanoid): Naturally able to fire a high-heat focused beam from its mouth. Its combat instincts are primal and efficient. Contains an internal transformative crystal that can be used as a material and has high compatibility with humanoid Mechanical Bodies.]

’The ice beam’s lethality is too low.’

’This is it, the Volcanic Fierce Ape!’

’One ape, two materials. What a fantastic deal.’

With that, the key tasks ahead became clear.

First, continue to study Golem design and manufacturing techniques in-depth to complete the detailed schematics and material selection for "PX-0."

Second, research and upgrade the Judgment Weapon Platform to create the two beam weapon modules.

Third, hunt down a Volcanic Fierce Ape to create and calibrate the Control Core.

None of these tasks could be completed quickly. Moreover, he couldn’t neglect his own training while building it; at the very least, he had to maintain his current Rune-engraving speed. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

Allen sorted through his thoughts, made a rough estimate of the funding shortfall, and his expression immediately soured.

Building this "Pacifist" would cost at least twenty thousand Low-Level Magic Stones to start. His current income barely covered his daily expenses and training, and even activating the "Personalized Academic Path Customization" service wouldn’t be enough to fill that hole.

’Looks like I’ll have to dip into that fifty-thousand-Magic-Stone, interest-free loan.’

Allen walked out of the workshop, and the heavy, blast-proof door slowly closed behind him.

He glanced back at the steel cube, his heart burning with passion.

’From now on, this place will be my other dorm room.’

’The workshop’s office area has a break room. I’ll go buy some daily necessities in a bit. Looks like I’ll be living here, grinding away from now on.’

"Oh, right. First, I should go prepay the workshop’s Magic Power supply quota."

Allen couldn’t help but grumble.

"Damn it! Why do I still have to pay electricity bills even after getting reincarnated?!"