He needed a proof of concept first; he opened his bag, and he had also collected several bugs. The goblin knew he needed to start small first. So he summoned a table and pulled out a wriggling beetle from his bag. “Sorry, little fella,” said Amand as he summoned a needle and pushed it through its head, bringing its wriggling to an end. He summoned a sharp iron dagger but was a little unsure of how to start, so he brought the blade down but as soon as he tried to open the carapace, he shattered.

  The goblin frowned; clearly he was going to need a better choice of tools, so he went to the books again. He perused the titles looking for one in particular; he smiled as he found it and pulled it from the shelf, Medical Measures to Avoid Malpractice. There were others with more mundane titles but he always chose the oddly named ones since they had the most unique perspectives. The goblin was already flipping through it as he returned to his workshop; he summoned a lectern to put the book upon, and he eventually landed on the tools section.

  Apparently the proper tool for dissection was something known as a scalpel; it seemed highly ineffective as a weapon but was very effective for precision cuts. He reached out and tried to manifest the tool-based design; the first iteration came out extremely flat, much like the picture. He dismissed it and tried again for better results. He grabbed another bug and mercifully ended its struggles before continuing. This time when trying to cut open the bug, the whole body moved, making the process uneven and ruining the specimen again. This was going to be a process of trial and error. First he secured the creature and then moved to disassembling; he probably went through twenty or more bugs before he perfected his methods.

  Once he felt confident, he then began to create a beetle of his own. This one formed from iron; he pictured every little bit of the creature's body structure and created it. He came across his next problem: the artificial creature’s body was completely stiff. So he needed to articulate the joints; the new model now had its limbs hanging weakly downwards. The goblin had previously learned if he willed something he created to move, then it would move, like when he created those fish. So he moved into trying to get the beetle move

  He imagined it moving and the metal construct slowly dragged itself across the tabletop, not using its crafted limbs at all. Armand rolled his eyes and tried again, trying to imagine the beetle using its legs to move. This time it did better but was still comically flipping around. He needed another reference as he pulled another beetle out of his bag, no needle this time; this one he needed alive as he set it on the table. He watched it scurry away; he deftly grabbed it before it got off the tabletop. Using his control, he tried to mimic the movement of the beetle and he got pretty close. After watching a couple of times, he is happy to say he got pretty effective in mimicking the movements.

  He decided to test the limits of his powers; the goblin tried to imagine the construct moving all the way around the table. He watched it aptly follow his orders but as soon as he became distracted by the especially strong wiggling of the beetle still clenched between his fingertips. When that happened, the beetle on the tabletop stopped its movement. The goblin grimaced; he would have to try that again. He imagined it moving in a figure eight pattern but as soon as he stopped paying attention to it, the construct stopped.

  So the construct needed to be constantly controlled. He had a theory about the difference between creation and controller dungeons: creation dungeons could make things but not give them autonomy, while controller dungeons could. Now that he could see the souls of creatures within this dungeon, he needed to test if he could control them. He had theorized that after his core absorbed the fragments of the other dungeon core, it had gained some of the abilities of a controller dungeon. The goblin looked to the wiggling beetle in his hand. “I’m going to be known as a mass murderer amongst the bug community.” The goblin couldn't help but laugh uncomfortably as he looked closely at the little bug in his hand.

  He really focused in on it and saw the little sparkling light within, the little guy’s soul. He tried to manipulate it; looking at it, he willed the soul to come to him, and after a moment's resistance, it did. The little speck of light floated before his eyes. The beetle in his hand stopped moving; he could sense life within it but like his construct, there was no one controlling the stings. Then he willed the speck of light into his metal puppet; at first nothing, but eventually the metal limbs began to move as life came to construct. However, it soon stopped moving. He frowned. Why could the beetle keep moving but his little construct could not?

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  Well, one was living, and the other was metal, so he needed to see the difference. Looking back at the soulless beetle body, it was still alive; perhaps he could test something else. He went out of the room and to the dungeon core; he looked within and located one of the specks of light and soon found one that had been wiped clear. The goblin pulled the clean speck of light out of the core and into his hand. He then transferred it into the soulless beetle's body. Nothing changed visibly, but he could tell something was different.

  He felt a connection, one that could not be described. The goblin went back to the workshop and sent the resouled bug onto the table. “Move,” he commanded the creature. It did exactly that, moving, well, trying to. It flailed its limbs. So the goblin willed it to walk like it did before and afterwards it could move around like it once did. Then after that he commanded it to walk in a pattern around the table and it did so. Now for the ultimate test, he turned his attention back to the metal beetle of his own design. The little soul was still inside it but it could not move. He picked it up and it wiggled a little. Maybe it needed something more, so he supplied it with a little mana. Then it began to move more vigorously; he placed it upon the table and it squirreled itself away.

  “Come back,” the goblin spoke but the metal beetle ignored him. He tried to catch it but perhaps he was too effective in his design, as the metal beetle scurried away faster than he could catch it. It made several laps around the room before slowing to a crawl; he walked up and picked up the slow-motion beetle. So his constructs could be powered by mana, much like a spell. He looked back to the living puppet on the table and it was continuing its laps as he had hoped.

  It seemed that souls that had been wiped of their will were far more controllable than those with their original lives intact. "Follow me," he sent his instruction to the insect, and it clumsily fell from the table and started heading on his way. As he walked into the hallway, the little beetle followed along; they continued into the kitchen, where he prepared himself some food, he hadn’t realized that so much time had passed till he felt how weary he was. The little beetle studiously followed him.

  He sat at the table and summoned some more food: bread and soup. The beetle was mindlessly walking against his foot. It was rather single-minded. “That is enough; stop.” The beetle stopped and ceased all movement; the goblin could sense that the little guy was running out of energy. He placed the beetle on the table and placed some crumbs from his bread before it. It just sat there. “Eat,” he commanded. The beetle just sat there; he didn’t really know how beetles ate and wasn’t in the mode to experiment. The goblin reached out and touched the creature and pulled the soul from it; he then pulled the beetle soul from his construct. Replacing it with the clean soul, constructs did not need to eat.

  He sent the beetle’s soul back to its body; at first it jolted. It violently twitched like it was going to run off but stopped upon smelling the bits of bread. It then went to crunching on the bits. The goblin joined in by eating his own food; the two ate in peace. Once done, the beetle was lulled into a sleep, or at least what the goblin perceived as sleep. He put it in a little box; he told himself that it was because he wanted to see the effects of soul restoration on the body but in truth he was just feeling connected to the little guy.

  The goblin stretched his limbs; his muscles ached for a different reason—they didn’t get their usual physical expenditure, but he was too tired for a sparring session. He, however, was also still brimming with mana so he went to spend it before bed. The goblin headed towards the workshop; he looked up and summoned a couple of hooks and started creating a structure. With his current mana, he could only summon a couple segments before feeling that familiar drain.

  He left the parts hanging in the room and headed into the main room before remembering that he had a bag full of bugs still. Taking a pit stop in the cave, he emptied the bugs into a patch of grass before making his way to bed. He curled up within and slept; no one came to visit him that night and he woke up feeling refreshed.

  Now filled up on mana, he decided to play with his little construct, adding mana into it. He then willed it to follow him and it did so he quickly went to the bathroom and then to the kitchen. He peaked in on his little beetle buddy, the little guy seemed quite happy and content so the goblin added in a few more crumbs. His next goal was his own breakfast; meat and mushroom skewers were one of his favorites. The goblin sat down and dug in; the construct sat there staring at him the whole time. “Go do something elsewhere.” Amand waved him off. The mechanical beetle just sat there.

  Perhaps the size and quality of the soul have limited the capabilities of the beetle. He would have to test methods of soul enhancement then. He tried out some other basic commands while eating his breakfast. Any command had to first be shown through a mental link; then the construct would remember how to do it. Then there was a limit to the complexity of the commands; stuff that required judgment was out of the question but simple movement commands worked. Additionally, the creation would take the shortest path.

  He was quite immersed in all these discoveries but something instinctual caused him to snap out of his thought process. The goblin booked his way into the hall and looked down it in the direction of the entrance; he felt it. There were some visitors in his dungeon…