[Few days later.]

[Current location: Maw city – Lords’ mansion.]

"You are fucking with me right now... Aren’t you?" – asked the lord.

"You are telling me.... You are FUCKING telling me, that most of the villages that were targeted by the golems... They were destroyed!?" – asked extremely pissed off yet terrified lord Vincent.

"..."

"I’m sorry... But there was nothing we could had done." – replied the human knight with his head down, trying to avoid the gaze of his lord.

"WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN THERE WAS NOTHING YOU COULD HAD DONE?!" – shouted the noble as he threw his goblet at the knight, which hit the man right in his head.

"HOW MANY CASULTIES WE ARE TALKING ABOUT?! WHAT ABOUT THE VILLAGES THAT WERE RAIDED!? ARE THEY STILL STANDING?!"

"ASWER ME!"

"..."

"The.... The villages that were attacked, no matter if the villagers evacuated or not, all of them were destroyed." – replied the human knight.

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?! WHAT IS THE KNIGHT CAPTAIN DOING?!" – shouted the lord who couldn’t hide his fear as his expression was giving him away.

"...He.... He is currently monitoring the enemy movements.... And there was also the change regarding the golems movements that I was sent here to inform you about." – said the human knight as he bled a little from his forehead after being hit.

"Oh god.... What is it now?" – asked the lord.

"Are they now aiming for the city!?"

"No.... If anything, it seems the golems are on the full retreat? All of them are heading back to the forest." – replied the human knight.

"..."

"What?" – asked the confused lord.

"The golems.... They... They are just leaving." – replied the knight.

"One by one, groups of golems started suddenly going back to the forest."

"It is not like all at once are leaving, it seems they are being called over group by group or something like that."

"But still, it does look like they are on a full-on retreat."

"..."

"What does the knight captain says about this?" – asked the worried lord.

"He.... He believed that there are multiple scenarios that needs to be taken into consideration." – replied the knight.

"These scenarios would happened depending on after all villages near the forest were either evacuated or destroyed."

"The first would be the golems expanding their search further."

"Which would in turn give us a perfect opportunity to hunt down all of these monsters while keeping our own casualties to the minimum, since the enemy would be extremely thinned out at the time."

"The second scenario is the golems are aiming to attack much larger settlements, like cities or towns."

"Or the third scenario.... The golems were done with their hunt and had returned home."

"Those are the 3 scenarios that the captain came up with."

"..."

"What do you mean ’done with their hunt’?" – asked the worried lord.

"...We... We still don’t know the reason why the golems are attacking." – replied the knight.

"The adventurers and knights came up with two theories."

"The first theory is hunting the danger."

"They are hunting anything nearby as they had registered anything around their territory as hostile."

"Or... They are brining anything they can to the dungeon."

"There is good chance that the dungeon master is sending the golems to hunt down ’food’ for itself."

"Normally this shouldn’t be possible.... But considering the current evidence... That is the only logical explanation."

"..."

"If.... Okay. Slow down." – said the lord.

"If what you are saying is correct.... Then doesn’t that mean that the dungeon had secured enough ’food’?" – asked the terrified lord as he started putting pieces together.

"..."

"It.... The captain believes that theory to be correct." – replied the knight.

"..."

(FUCK!) – thought the nobleman.

(What the fuck do I do?!)

(We managed to keep our own casualties to the minimum, but we couldn’t save even half of the villages!)

(And "food"?!)

(This isn’t good.... This isn’t good one bit!)

(If the dungeon was really about "eating".... Oh shit....) – the lord quickly realized what will happened now.

The dungeon will grow upon "feasting".

And as it would grow, the number of monsters it would produce would also increase further.

A massive scale monster stampede.

This was the future the both the territory lord and the knight captain foresaw.

(Fuck! This isn’t good!) – thought the nobleman.

(The best idea here would be to raid the forest.)

(But we don’t know how many new monsters had been born nor we have full idea regarding the enemy strength.)

(There is also the dungeon master... Fucking intelligent monster.)

(And the high-level intelligent monster no less.)

(I’ve heard the stories about high intelligent level goblins or pigmen... Some of them may not had been strong, but even so... They could command their armies with deadly precision.)

(What if the forest is now filled with traps?)

(The golems already managed to deceive the adventurers.)

(There is good chance that the assault.... No wait.)

(Shouldn’t Crow Watchers realize that something was off?)

(I mean, they apparently fought the golems and made them suffer some losses.... Did the dungeon master just endured their assault to deceive everybody?)

(Dammit! If that is the case, then things are way more fucked!)

"..."

"Em.... What should we do?" – asked the knight.

"The captain is-"

"We wait." – said the lord.

"I’m not taking any form of risk with THAT thing."

"Once the additional support comes here, from both the adventurers and Crow Watchers, we are determining that dungeon."

"You hear me?"

"I’m not fucking around."

"That dungeon needs to GO!"

"..."

"But at the same time, we cannot let our guard down."

"Keep up the patrols."

"Make sure that the golems are not doing anything weird this time without us noticing?"

"Do you understand?"

"I don’t want ANOTHER DISASTER LIKE THIS TO HAPPENED!"

"Send up patrols and riders on standby! Also sent additional messengers to each territory neighboring us."

"!"

"You want us to warn them directly about the danger?" – asked the knight.

"Yeah.... If these golems would go on another ’hunt’.... Then there is good chance they may leave my territory."

"I know it may hurt my name a little.... But people lives are above my own name."

"Now get to it!"

As the lord gave his order, the knight ran out of the room in hurry.

The knight quickly left the mansion and began traversing the streets of the maw city, aiming to reach the riders as soon as possible in order to relay the order to them.

However, as the man walked through the city.... He suddenly stopped... And instead of heading towards the barracks, the man headed straight towards the

Nobody even noticed the man disappearing.... He was just gone and nobody even paid attention to it.

"Hm.... I see.... I see." – said the man in somewhat decent common clothing.

"Yes....Yes....Yes..." – said the knight who just left the mansion, as he was now in the back alley... But something was wrong.

The man gaze was unfocused and his speech was somewhat extremely soft.... As if the man was in some form of state of daze.

"Hm.... This isn’t good." – said the man in normal looking cloths... Who was none other than the man in the suit that the Crow Watchers met before and had taken over their duty.

(I was told to observe the situation.... But things seem to gotten annoying.) – thought the unknown man.

(Good thing I’ve dealt with this soldier before he came to the mansion, so he would come to me after the meeting.... But still, this is problematic.)

*Sigh*

(It was supposed to get easy... But I guess I’m not finding myself in some sort of random bullshit.)

(Who knew the golems would launch an invasion like this?)

(Not only that, but THAT kind of damage?)

(Damn!)

(I mean, those are our villages and shit, so I’m not really thrilled about them being destroyed... But still. That POWER!)

(We really need to enslave that dungeon master at all cost.... But then again, we can’t have him make any bigger mess.)

"..."

(But then again, I can’t just kill him or the lord.) – thought the unknown man as he stared at the dazed man who stared at the empty space.

(It would just make a bigger mess... And it would expose my presence here.)

(Which is something I can’t afford.)

"..."

(Yeb. I can’t do anything.) – thought the man as he approached the dazed man and placed his finger on the man’s forehead.

"Look into my eyes." – said the unknown man as his eyes turned bright red.

"Go back to the street and forget what you did here."

"Forget me and focus on your task." – said the unknown man as he removed his finger and ended the eye contact with the knight, who then began walking slowly, exiting the back alley and returning back to the main street.

"..."

"?"

"Huh?" – the man regained his mind and focus, as he now found himself in the middle of the street.

(What was I.... Did I zoned out?) – thought the knight who just walked away and as planned, began heading towards the barracks.

"..."

(Welp, shit.) – thought the unknown man as he was quickly and silently traversing the city.

(I mean, I know what my job is and stuff... But this ain’t good... Like at all.)

(If I try to slow them down in any big way, I would just exposed myself.... And brainwashing the lord is out of the question either, since everybody is pretty much stressed out.)

(Heck. He ain’t like one of those greedy nobles either. He is scaredy cat, but he is also decent leader.)

(The same goes for the knight captain.... He ain’t that strong, but he is definitely a leader figure too... People would realize if he would start acting like not himself.) – thought the unknown man he bought a backpack from the nearby stand and then several vegetables, which he then used to fill up his backpack.

Upon finishing his shopping, the man headed straight towards one of the main gates.

"Hm? Wowowowowow! Stop right there buddy." – said the guard as he stepped in the unknown man’s way.

"You look like... Merchant..." – said the guard as he inspecting the man before him.

"Yes, I’m... Is something wrong?" – asked the unknown man.

"Didn’t you heard the rumors or something?" – asked the guard.

"The entire territory is being apparently getting attacked by golems... And you want to go out now during the night? Alone?" – asked the guard who was genuinely worried about the unknown man.

"Sorry.... But money is money." – replied the unknown man.

"And without it, there won’t be any food on the table.... So yeah.... It isn’t really a choice in this matter." – said the unknown man as he just walked past the worried guard.

"!"

"Hey! HEY! It ain’t worth it! Just stay for the night here!" – said the panicking guard.

"Sorry! But can’t do!" – replied the unknown man as he then left the city grounds and began traversing down the road as the sun was slowly setting.

The man traveled some distance away from the city, slowly moving out of sight.... But as the sun finally set down and the night finally came, the man suddenly disappeared into the thin air.

(Welp, I maybe can’t do anything anymore, but that doesn’t mean I should just do nothing.) – thought the unknown man as he was rapidly traversing a great distance, quickly increasing the distance between himself and the city.... Before then finally stopping after confirming he was far enough from any possible gazes.

The man took out from his pocket a ring, which he instantly then put and began channeling mana into it, causing the purplish gem to start emitting light, which then began gathering nearby.

As the light gathered in single space nearby, the space itself began tearing apart.

The man put his hand into the torn space, before then pulling out something.

A gem surrounded by a mechanical components attached to it.

"..."

"..."

(No response... Dammit. It means she is still out of reach.) – thought the annoyed man as he put the mechanical magical object into the open space, before then taking out something else from it.

A bird like object, which resembles a black crow.... However, up close, anybody could clearly tell that it wasn’t a real bird, but something that just resembles a bird.

The man tinkered with the bird object a bit, managing to open up its back and revealing small mechanism inside which contained a gem like sphere with also small space underneath it.

(Honestly, I’ve heard she is going to take part in this.... And knowing her, she will come here as soon as possible.) – thought the man as he written down something on a small piece of paper, before then putting it into the empty space below the orb and then placing his hand on top of the magic device, activating it by filling it up with his own mana.

After finishing up charging the bird object, the man closed up the device, before moments later throwing the bird high into the sky, which was then followed up with the bird starting to fly all on its own.

(But honestly speaking? She needs to really hurry the fuck up here.) – thought the unknown man as he observed the black bird object flying away.

(And I mean seriously.)

(Things could straight up snowball from here on.) 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

(Which would either result in the dungeon getting destroyed.... Or the dungeon making way too big of a mess to clean up, even after we had taken control of it.) – thought the unknown man as he turned around and started heading back towards the city.

(I hope all of that trouble will be worth damn something in the end.) – thought the man as the black bird object flew through the skies.