Lord Of Puppets-Chapter 176 – Golem specialist.
[Few days later – Maw city]
"Again, nothing?" – asked the guild master.
"No ma’am. Nothing." – replied the knight.
"..."
*Sigh*
"Em.... Sorry if I’m asking this." – said the lord of the territory.
"But it has been like what? Weeks? Month?"
"I know that we still consider the forest as something ’dangers’ and everything... But shouldn’t we open up the main road near the forest?"
"We have already confirmed that the golems inside of it won’t attack no matter what."
"They will stay hidden and just ignore everything."
"As for the main road, we need it."
"..."
"I know what you mean.... A lot of adventurers have already left." – said the annoyed guild master.
"I’ve had them do some quest in the meantime, of exterminating all the monsters in the area... But I’m running out of those.... But again, we don’t know when the golems would do anything....And there is also a good chance that the investigation done by the 3 previous parties that were possible killed by the golems could had caused some sort of reaction...."
"Honestly.... I’m considering just opening the main road... But I don’t know if it is safe yet either."
"What if we were to open it up and in the next moment they attack?"
"I’ve had the B-rank party Silver Talons, keep the watch over the forest."
"....So far it is peaceful.... But for how long?" 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞
"I’m freaking paranoid.... But for all the good reasons."
"And so are you."
"...Then what about that the ’golem specialist that you had requested?" – asked the lord.
"Well, request would definitely travel for freaking weeks, since our ’golem factories’ are located in our main territory and stuff." – replied the guild master.
"Even if you travel on horse, it would take weeks."
"In short, the time the message needs to arrive to the specific people. Request reach specific point."
"Then they send somebody."
"But even with the best horse it would take a long time to get here."
"In short, the whole process can be between 1 to 3 months."
"So what? Are you telling me to completely close off the main road for a total 3 months!? If not possible more?"
"Hey. Your decision." – said the guild master.
"I may have some emergency authority here and stuff, but this also involves you, the lord in charge of this territory."
"..."
*Sigh*
"I really fucking hate you." – said the lord who looked completely defeated.... But did not dared to raise any form of argue as he knew the guild master was in the completely right.
"..."
"Still, I’m not really worried about business."
"That main road is less important compare all other roads that are connected to this territory."
"However, what I’m worried about is the ’dread’."
"This territory is known as ’cursed territory’."
"A ’territory where the war is always present’."
"I maybe the bastard that has been assigned to manage this territory, but after finding out the cursed story of this place... I was pretty much instantly regretting it."
"And now, here you are, showing me even more documents that proves to me that this freaking territory is straight up cursed."
"And these bloody things were supposed to give us some advantage!"
"Look! I’m sorry! But I didn’t bloody knew we would only find bad news inside of this thing!" – said the woman.
"Ah fuck it!" – said the nobleman.
"What I mean to say is that this ’cursed territory’ is doing a toll on the people’s minds."
"Stress, fear and all sort of things."
"People are straight up scared."
"We can survive without that specific road."
"But if the problem isn’t dealt with, the fear and panic will continue to spread.... And you know probably how ’those’ kind of people could start doing stupid shit."
"So yea.... The fucking situation is turning for the worse with each passing freaking day."
"And I would like VERY FUCKING MUCH some good news for once!"
*Knock* *Knock*
"..."
"Oh god..." – said terrified lord as the guild master slowly approached the door and then opened it.
"..."
"Please tell me you have something good.... This time." – said the guild master as she confronted a knight outside of the room.
"Em.... I don’t know if they are good or bad news..." – said the knight.
"But we received the reply from the golem manufacture department."
"The requested golem specialist is on its way to the Mevon territory."
"From what I was told, at the time this message arrives
"!"
"Oh! Fuck me!" – said the guild master.
"Hey! Did you heard that!?"
"I guess we have finally have some good news!"
[Month later.]
"My name is Arthur Wirmur." – said the young human man with childlike face as he introduced himself.
"..."
"I’m 25. I know people are keep telling me I look young like hell, but I’m 25 years old." – said the man as he noticed the lord and the guild master staring at him.
"S-sorry. We were just... Surprised." – said the guild master as she backed away.
(But damn! He is really young looking! I’ve though he was at least 12 or 14 years old!) – thought the beast-human woman.
"..."
"I know that I’ve just gotten here and everything, but if possible, I would like to get to the work from get go." – said Arthur Wirmur.
"...I understand." – replied the guild master as then she and the territory lord began explaining in the details the current situation, alongside providing all the documents they had obtained as well as the reports that were made by both the guards.
The man asked countless questions, mostly regarding the pattern of actions that the golems has taken as well as their design.
"Okay.... So, in the nutshell." – said the Arthur Wirmur as he held a notebook.
"The sketches of the design that the golems had, apparently are noticeable different if not completely different to the sketches that were drawn in the original reported that was handled by the guild master Wamr Wiowio."
"The golem don’t see any problem with taking lives.... But at the same time, they had not taken any form of attempts of ’aggression’, is that correct?" – asked the young man as he was writing down the notes.
"Correct." – replied the guild master as the young man continued writing.
"..."
"..."
"Hm...." – the young man stared at his notebook with conflicted expression.
"Is... Is something wrong?" – asked the lord.
"Yeah...." – replied the man as he put his hand on the table, before moments later a magical circle opened up, whom which a small rock figure appeared.
"As you guessed, the golems don’t have any will on their own. They are puppets." – said the man as he moved around his hand, causing the figure made out of small rocks to move around.
"They cannot move without reason."
"You either need to control them." – said the man as he put his finger on the doll.
"Or give them instructions." – said the man as the doll started moving all on its own, without man moving his hand.
"Now the question what are facing here would be ’why’."
"Why are the golems not invading the city? Why are they not attacking?"
"Are they being directly controlled by somebody? Or are they given orders." – said the man as he snaped his finger and caused the rock figure to collapse and then start disappearing into nothingness.
"By nature, you know how dungeons are."
"Yeah. They produce monsters and expand their territory." – said the guild master
"The entire forest is empty."
"The only creatures.... Or more exactly ’tools’ that are inside of it are golems."
"..."
"Still.... 3 parties went missing."
"They will kill."
"And they will grow in numbers if we don’t do anything."
"So with that being said..."
"What do you think we should do?"
"..."
"According to your information, the raid party of just C-rank and D-rank was enough to easily take down the army of the golems, as long as the adventurers were not caught in an ambush." – said Arthur.
"However, that information may not hold true anymore."
"Dungeons do grow stronger as the times goes by.... But there maybe no need to heavily rely on B-rank adventurers.... But obviously we would need to increase the number of adventurers... Maybe double.... No. Possible even triple."
"There is also the thing regarding these things." – said the man as he gazed at the two sketches of the golems, one new and one old.
"Is their appearance different? Or are their entire design different?"
"That is the main that worries me."
(Dungeons produces monsters via evolution.) – thought Arthur.
(Goblin. Goblin warrior. Goblin champion. Hobgoblin.)
(Evolution.)
(But golems don’t possess ability to evolve.)
(Undead, even though corpses, you can still evolve them.)
(But golems are straight up tools.)
"..."
(The only way to even evolve something like this would be to "forge" them....)
(But can dungeon do that?)
(But according to these reports here, when the inspection of the first and second floor was done, there were no golem corpses left behind... Hinting that they were turned into the dungeon drops.... However, these drops were in possession of the missing raid party, meaning that we cannot really confirm it....)
(So, were these golems really monsters born from the dungeon?)
"..."
(Or did something inside of the dungeon created them?)
"..."
*Sigh*
"Yeb... This is really problematic." – said Arthur.
"I don’t know what to do."
"!"
"W-what do you mean you don’t know what to do?!" – asked worried lord.
"Is it as it sounds." – said Arthur.
"All of your assumptions were spot on and I can confirm it."
"The golems don’t have will of their own and somebody controls them."
"And that somebody apparently only cares about protecting their territory."
"However at the same time, as more golems are born, the forest may at one point not be enough to hold them all... And they may start expanding their territory."
"..."
"I suggest we attack the forest."
"!"
"Wait! No! Give me the answer now!" – said Amelia Smith as she stood up.
"From what you told me; we still know shit! So how-"
"And how would I know?" – asked Arthur.
"I’ve never seen these golems nor you given me any of their remains."
"How in the bloody hell would I know how they work or what their weak points are?"
"Did you thought that ’BOOM’, I’m here! And now I have answer to every single question you have!"
"..."
"Do you realize how stupid that sounds?"
"Even if you were to bring here the head of the golem production department, they wouldn’t know shit."
"This is the plain reality."
"So unfortunately, if you wish to obtain any form of information regarding the situation."
"You need to attack and bring me the golem remains."
"There is no other way around it."
