Lord Of Puppets-Chapter 175 – Preparations? Or Defense?

[Few hours later.]

"W-what do you mean you won’t do any form of attack on the dungeon!?" – asked a human middle-aged nobleman.

"I’m sorry lord Vincent, but that will be straight up impossible." – said the visible extremely tired guild master Amelia Smith as she shown the reports written by the guild master Wamr Wiowio.

"?"

"What are these?" – asked the lord as he picked the documents.

"A report regarding the last attack on the dungeon."

"A one that started more than year ago, around the time the war between Garmfon and Mowiorano kingdoms broken out."

"In the nutshell, the raid has failed."

"And there were no additional attempts at doing raid because of the war."

"There was no reports or anything about the dungeon for over more than a year.... And considering the current circumstances.... I believe the dungeon was in the break state for the entire duration of the war.... As well as after the empire has been established."

"?!"

"Wait! That doesn’t make sense!" – said the nobleman.

"I maybe not a warrior or a mage, but I know how monsters acts, thinks and what moves them!"

"I also perfectly know the bloody dungeons works! So, I’m not a clueless idiot in any of those matters!"

"And from what I know, that theory of yours doesn’t make a lick of sense!"

"I would get the whole fact that the dungeon wasn’t discovered because of the war, but after it, we should had spotted it! Because-"

"Because of the rampaging monsters, right?" – said the woman with the tired expression as she finished the nobleman’s sentence.

"True. We would had noticed these golems ages ago after the war."

"But here is the problem."

"We were dealing with the ’rampaging’ monsters."

"And these creatures HERE have actually never went on the rampage."

"They never attacked."

"They never showed themselves."

"...So.... Nobody even knew about their existence, since they never DID anything in the first place."

"They just stayed hidden right underneath our noses."

"While we were going around everywhere, hunting down the remains of elven kingdom who became terrorist or bandits, as well as the wild monsters they had unleashed everhwere."

"This is the truth, nothing more, nothing less."

"But it still doesn’t make sense! Why wouldn’t these golems attack anybody!?" – asked the nobleman.

"Golems are not living creatures. They are living constructs." – replied the guild master.

"They don’t need to eat or sleep."

"And they only fallow the commands of their master."

"The monsters manifested from the dungeon obtain ’needs’ and often abandons their birth place upon being manifested."

"However, these things? They are just tools."

"They can’t be really called even monsters in the first place as well, since they are just puppets on the strings."

"But considering how these golems acted according to the Silver Talons, it would suggest that somebody was truly controlling all of their movements."

"A army that can be controlled without any form of problem.... And a one that does not need to rest or eat."

"They had no need to reveal themselves."

"Then again, we don’t know WHY are they not attacking."

"The dungeons are source of riches and power, but at the same time they are dangerous beings and constructs that can bright fourth devastation."

"Yet this dungeon, does not care about attacking and instead only focuses on defending its territory?"

"I’ve tried bating the dungeon, trying to see if there would be any reaction."

"Scouts that would spy of the forest’s movement as well as a fake carriage that were set up in order to see if the golems would attack them."

"But nothing."

"No matter what we did, no matter how close we did it to the forest edge, there was no reaction whatsoever."

"....Wait.... Are you suggesting that the golem dungeon isn’t aggressive? And instead, it is only territorial?" – asked the nobleman.

"Based on the theories I currently have as well as information... It would seems so." – said the guild master as she bit on her nail.

"And that is the problem."

"This is the first time I’ve encountered or even heard about a that kind of situation."

"I really have no idea what to do." – said the guild master as she cracked her nail with her teethes.

"I-is it bad?" – asked the nobleman.

"Yeah.... It is bad." – replied the guild master.

"Since we don’t know what to do."

"These things maybe neutral and won’t attack anybody as long as long as we don’t enter their territory.... But what if they would try to expand their territory?"

"Maybe they will do that? They won’t? We don’t know!"

"But the fact remains that the possibility remains."

"I mean, we don’t know WHAT they want or aim for.... But the fact remains that there is an army of monsters that is willing to kill anything that enters their territory AND they are being led by somebody or something."

"The only upside of the situation is that these things don’t seems aggressive as long as you don’t attack them or enter the forest."

"Maybe not necessary the forest, but maybe they only aim to protect the dungeon?"

"Meaning we have time to strategies and take any necessary measures."

"But again, we don’t know for how long we should let these things roam freely."

"Not only that, let’s not forget that the dungeon is currently in the ’break’ state."

"As long as it experiencing it, the dungeon will be able to give birth to countless monsters."

"And that is something we also want to avoid."

"..."

(There is also question what we will do after we deal with the dungeon.) – thought the guild master.

(According to these reports, the elves wanted to "tame" the dungeon and turn it into their source of income.)

(Was the dungeon that worth it?)

(Then again, they tried to take over the dungeon before they had....Shit. It is bit confusing.)

"Anyway, right now we don’t have any ability to do anything." – said the guild master.

"We can wait and prepare, but not attack."

"I’ve sent a letter requesting assistance of the golem expert to come here as soon as possible, but it will definitely take a while before they get here."

"For now, we will keep up the scouts and baits going in order to see if there will be some form of reaction."

"Honestly speaking, if possible I would like these golems to leave the forest... There is good chance that the entire forest became their ’nest’."

"A ’nest’ where we will be at the clear disadvantage."

"..."

"So you are saying... That we really have no choice but to just ignore these bastards?!" – asked worried nobleman.

"..."

"Unfortunately, yes." – replied the guild master.

"..."

The two people of power continued their discissions regarding the golems, a shadow from of a shell suddenly came to life, before then detaching a piece of itself towards the door.

"?"

"Is something wrong?" – asked the nobleman as he noticed the guild master looking towards the door.

"N-no.... I think... I’m just bit paranoid and tired after pulling all nightery." – replied the guild master as the unknown shadow jumped from one person to another, be it servant or a knight, before then leaving the mansion all together, without being noticed even once.

The shadows traversed through the streets, before then taking a shape of a person in the back alley.

The "person" walked through the back alley where no eyes reached... Before then arriving at the normal looking building.

The man entered the building.

"?"

"Oh. Welcome back." – said the middle-aged man behind the counter, who was reading the book.

"Good evening." – said the person who turned out to be non-other than the leader of the Silver Talons party.

"The dinner should be ready soon. Do you want it to be brough to your room? Or-"

"We will come. But bit later, since I have some business with my party members." – replied the leader of the Silver Talons.

"Gotcha. Then I won’t be bother you. Just saying that it should be ready in the next hour or so." – said the innkeeper as the party leader already started walking up the stairs.

"I understand." – said the leader before then reaching the second floor of the inn and then heading straight for the room at the end of the corridor.

The man put his hand on the door knob, before then twisting it back and forth 3 times.

"..."

With a moment of delay, somebody form inside opened the door for the leader, who then entered the room as the door behind him was closed and locked.

"Did you set up the device?" – asked the leader.

"Yeb. It is all set up." – said the party member A of the Silver Talon’s party.

"But are we sure about doing this here? In the middle of the city?"

"Well, this or grass plains. There is no much of a choice." – said the party member D.

"Still, at least this inn is quiet good and the wall are thick enough so nobody would be able to eardrop on the conversation."

"..."

"Activate it." – said the party leader.

"Yes sir." – replied party member A as he then reached for the weird black orbed device with mechanical like component ring attached to its base.

The masked man turned on the device, causing the orb’s color to change from black to grayish dark.

"..."

"What is it?" – asked the voice that came out of the orb like object.

"I have something to report." – replied the party leader.

"We had encounter a dungeon that seems.... Unique, per say."

"A golem dungeon."