Raddan looked away from the child and closed his eyes. He began humming a tune from his childhood. A rhythmic, solemn tune of which he could never quite remember the origins of... like almost everything else from his childhood.
Still, the tune had always worked to help him set up his mind palace. A memory technique that he attributed most of his genius to. It was an imaginary library of memories within his mind, where he could walk and explore information he had stored in the past as if by magic.
A trick only a select few humans could properly master.
"Geology books, where are they?" he whispered to himself, slowly immersing himself in the imaginary library.
The space he created was a grand cathedral of gold and silver, with statues of himself at the entrance.
Through the golden gates, the library rose as high as a skyscraper from floor to ceiling, lined with shelves that filled this entire height.
Each shelf contained what he could remember about a certain topic. Not a word-for-word copy of what he had read, but the insights and understandings he had acquired and stored on the subject... and he stored everything.
"Still as grand as I remember it," he whispered, as his detached consciousness ventured past a colossal shelf.
He walked through a section containing Renaissance poems he had enjoyed studying as a young university student. "Ah, I'd nearly forgotten about these," he whispered, staring up in admiration.
In the craziness of his current situation, this library was the closest thing he had to a home. But that was to be kept hushed, for Raddan would sooner have someone killed before admitting a genius like him was actually homesick.
"Where am I now? What country, what realm, what world?" he whispered, quoting a line from an epic poem written by John Milton, Paradise Lost.
He sighed before moving on. He didn't have time to admire and reminisce, maintaining focus for a memory palace this large was a difficult task even for him.
'I need to go deeper,' he thought, willing himself to venture deeper within the library.
The shelves sped past him at supersonic speeds, like trains with book passengers.
He willed them to move past him even faster, until he noticed a section containing information from his high school days.
"Stop," he whispered. And the shelves halted. His view floated up towards the books on the higher parts of the shelves.
"Geography," he whispered, and a book floated off the shelf, opening right in front of him.
"Ah, yes, I remember now."
He opened his eyes.
The baby golems were still crying as the memories of basic high school geography came back to him.
He looked at the grey golem that had started all this crying.
"Grey exterior, white spots indicating a composition containing silica, additional black and brown minerals I can't identify," he whispered, analysing the rock baby quickly.
"A composite rock containing multiple minerals. This is granite."
[Scientific evaluation of new mineral has been completed.]
[15% progress has been achieved towards next evolution.]
"I already know I'm correct, I don't need a half-baked robotic voice like you to tell me that," he smirked.
He focused back on the grey baby golem. "As for a name. Since you like crying so much, I dub thee... Crybaby."
[A fragmented entity has been evaluated and named!]
[Processing…]
[Entity 'Crybaby' has been added to mineral commune!]
The baby golem stopped crying and looked up at him. "Cry bebe?"
Raddan stared back at it, displeased. "Was that all you wanted? A name?" he asked.
"Cry bebe!" The baby golem shouted, a little more confident now.
"Baby, pronounce it properly," he shouted. He understood that babies were dumb, but he didn't have the patience or the know-how to deal with them.
He turned to all the others. "So what? The rest of you won't stop until I name you too?"
They began crying louder at all his shouting... and there he had his answer.
He sighed, and moved on to the next golem baby.
He tilted his head, beginning his analysis. "Black with a waxy appearance. Tinged with reddish hues, and somewhat sharp build."
"Likely, flint."
[Scientific evaluation of new mineral has been completed.]
[15% progress has been achieved towards next evolution.]
"Ah yes, is there a greater mind than I?"
"As for your name, since your most basic use for humanity is fire, I dub thee... Prometheus."
[A fragmented entity has been evaluated and named!]
[Processing…]
[Entity 'Prometheus' has been added to mineral commune!]
He repeated the process for the remaining two. Successfully identifying them as magnetite and quartz, and naming the golems Maxwel and Crystal.
"There are you happy now?" he sighed.
The baby golems were jumping up and down in a circle, chanting their names.
'Though I have to say, this is quite the variety of mineral rocks.... perhaps the earlier explosion scattered rocks from different layers on to the surface,' he surmised.
He turned to the only golem not dancing... OB1 was just staring, still munching on a shard of obsidian as if it were the first meal it had eaten in days.
"Well, I suppose you lot still haven't eaten. Perhaps I should..."
Just then, there was a loud chime, louder than a normal notification at least.
[100% progress towards the next evolution has been achieved!]
'Right, I wasn't paying attention to the percentages. I guess your shouting isn't always completely useless.'
[Processing...]
[3 evolution composites have been rewarded!]
[Opening Evolution Pathways...]
The world suddenly went black, and Raddan as if he were floating in space.
'What's going on?'
[Based on the system principle: Scientific Evaluation, the main host has been given full control over evolution path.]
'What? Speak less vaguely robot woman.'
[Please create and edit the first evolution blueprint.]