Mud's Mission
by ushnor
The story begins with an elderly hermit mage living on the outskirts of a labyrinth town. Invoking spellwork that is trivial for a mage of his caliber, he creates a simple mud automaton to aid him in household chores. However, in the middle of his efforts, something goes wrong; his ancient heart finally fails. Now, half complete and with limited understanding of the world, an artificial being of mud stirs. Despite its limitations, it has a mission to fulfill. The last instructions of a dying creator. "Defend my home, and my possessions." To the mechanical mind of Mud, only absolute perfection is acceptable when fulfilling the orders of The Master. Mud will make sure nothing in the universe will ever threaten The Master's home!
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This fiction contains RPG elements such as skills and levels. The protagonist has an inhuman mind and acts on instincts and preferences that are completely different from those of a normal human, and may at times fly in the face of common sense.
The general tone is lighthearted, but there are some scenes with disturbing content such as mind control and references to torture.
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The first AGI-related fiction on the top page of RoyalRoad
Reviewed at: 63 Mud Makes Amends
What happens when somebody with no common sense is given a goal to "protect this chair"? Right, they conquer the universe.
What happens when somebody is told to "make paperclips"? Right, they conquer the universe.
Any open-ended goal ends in total conquest of anything within their reach.
If it surprises you, I recommend to look at the topic called Instrumental Convergence. Mud's Mission gives a rough example of how a similar scenario could play out. The story is currently in its starting phase, but it already shows the differences between how people think and how a machine could think.
Even though it's just my guess, Mud's Mission has an amazing agenda - to show what an unaligned artificial intelligence could do. If you don't know about this theme, you will get a fun example of why unaligned AI is bad. If you've read about this theme, you will be laughing like crazy from references.
Up to Chapter 54, all the errors that I've noticed were fixed. You'll see close to no grammatical errors in this book.
Overall, I recommend this book to everyone, it is interesting.

Very enjoyable Golem Litrpg
Reviewed at: 50 Mysterious Metal Mass
Lil Golem trying his best to follow his Masters last Orders. To keep the hearth clean and kill pests.
Slight Chance he will have to bring the entire World under his Control to fulfill his task to the best of his capabilities.
Golem things, you know.
:D

muddy review
Reviewed at: 99 Mud's Monuments to Miscellanea
The story starts strong and is well written, but as the story advances further and further it's getting less interesting in my opinion. 100 chapters in and it has gotten to a point that I'm bored with the story.

Liked Super Minion? You'll like this too!
Reviewed at: 65 Magnificent Melody
Apart from the fun premise, it's also quite well written and even funny at times. The magic system is thought out and interesting (and internally consistent), the characters are not too deep but contribute to the fun of the story in their own way.
Definitely recommend.

Wow
Reviewed at: 51 Mechanical Multitarget Practice
So i read 50 chapters and i believe i can now review this story.
It's a story that may not be for everyone. There's maybe for some a bit of disturbing actions and theme (torture-mind control ect)
But if you are ok with a bit of torture and inhumane treatment, then this story is for you.
Characters
The protagonist is inhuman, you don't feel he's human, his way of thinking is just alien. He is driven, intelligent, ignorant at first but oh god is he efficient. This one goal and he will do it. He does have his limits as a golem but well read it and you'll see.
The inhuman writing is on par with super minion.
The story is okish, there's better plots, but really we are here for the characters and the world. And the story do git the characters and that's all that really matters.
The world is actually my favorite thing about this story, there's a deep lore being built, and i highly appreciated.
There's a few grammar mistakes, but the syntaxes is good and the speed of release is well fast, too fast.
I hope the author will keeo sane and not burnout.

Wonderful golem MC that doesn't just feel like a human
Reviewed at: 51 Mechanical Multitarget Practice
The main character is a golem with a way of thinking that feels alien. He isn't just a human in a golem body or a golem that thinks and acts like a human which is definitely one of the better aspects of the story.
- The story so far has been following the MC as he tries to power level which has been interesting to watch.
- The leveling system is fun with skill points that can be spent on a large library of skills rather than just getting something predetermined at each level.
- There hasn't been any weird sex scenes or anything which is a plus.
- The grammar has been great with only minor problems like spacing.
I look forward to reading more.

Interesting premise, hampered by creative decisions
Reviewed at: 84 Mayhem at the Mouth
It's an OK alternative version of Everybody Loves Large Chests, and that's fine.
The early chapters are better and more focused than later ones. The introduction of the summoned demon does not do the story any favors though. Now instead of a naive golum trying to make its way in the world, there's this being under contract to help it. How convenient. (And also exactly what ELLC did)
The MC shouldn't be a monster. Well, it IS a monster, but it shouldn't be evil. It _should_ be doing its best to follow incomplete instructions in an AI-taken-to-extremes way.
Instead, lately we have the MC repeatedly considering eliminating one of its human companions because she "thinks illogically". What. This makes no sense, as it goes against two of its primary directives, those being "Don't kill humans" and "Protect my stuff". The MC was already working on getting around "Don't kill humans" which made a little sense at the time, because killing humans would give it experience points, which would make it stronger, which would allow it to follow orders better. But killing a human because they were annoying or illogical.... is illogical. And annoying. It doesn't fit the existing premise. And discarding a resource, such as a subordinate human, just directly goes against its directive to protecting the Master's stuff. Why weaken the team? That won't help it achieve its goals.
Limitations are interesting. Brandon Sanderson has many lectures about this exact thing. And the initial limitations made for an interesting premise for this story. Unfortunately, the author seems determined to get rid of the interesting limitations as soon as possible.
It's still an OK story for now though.
Grammar mistakes are abundant, and despite them being pointed out in the comments by multiple people, the author has explicitly stated (on Discord) that they don't bother with all the comments here. The author is not active with the audience on RR.

Highly Entertaining
Reviewed at: 55 Mud's Mentoring
Have you read "Everybody Loves Large Chests"? Well, there's no need for you to read this review, because it's very similar.
The style's playful, quite easy and enjoyable to read. There is no unnecessary flowery language or long descriptions. Short and sweet. The combat's decent too.
The story, as of yet, hasn't revealed itself. It is currently a slice of life with some power ups and a few tidbits here and there.
The grammar's close to perfect. There are negligible errors here and there and even a pedant won't be bothered.
The characters are well executed archetypes. The demon girl is suitably demonic and the MC is suitably artifical.
This is a very good story. It'll deserve a 5 star once the characters have come into their own and the story has begun.

Rudimentary, but interesting.
Reviewed at: 62 Monster in My Mind
Very well written story and while the premise is rather simple it doesn't detract from the entertaining and interesting possibilities.

His name is mud, mud golem.
Reviewed at: 101 Moving to Mud
Fun story about the limitations or lack thereof when dealing with AI. Where I could argue itself in a circle a or the entire 100 chapters it moves along nicely with some nice splashes of humor and fantasy story building every chapter.