Lord Of Puppets-Chapter 177 – Forest Attack Preparation.

[Several days later.]

"…"

"So… Are you really going to go with his plan?" – asked the lord.

"…"

"As much as it annoys me…. We have to." – said the guild master.

"If all the theories are correct, we came up with… The one that controls every single movement, order and what not of the golems is the dungeon master themselves."

"Dungeon masters are beings that are born with a specific level of intelligence."

"Sometimes they are… Not very smart, but sometimes they are smart as humans."

"We don't know how it works."

"Maybe by birth or maybe they develop their intelligence as the times goes by."

"Either way, the current situation proves that the guild master possess intelligence level of that of a human…. Meaning that it can 'think' properly."

"And that is the fucking problem here…."

"…"

"Still…. Bring him some 'corpses'?"

"Is he a fucking idiot?"

"Just brining SOME corpse will be straight up war…. And if the dungeon master decides to go all out, we will…."

"Fuck…"

"…"

"In the report, there is something about the golems chasing the adventurers out of the forest upon their first failure."

"They apparently gave up, but how do we know it will be the case this time?"

"…"

"Massive scale battle." – said the lord who instantly understood where the conversation was going.

"And you said it won't work with the Silver Talons, yeah?"

"I've asked them, but they said that the golems are on way too high alert." – replied the guild master.

"They may not be a living beings, but if one of them were to suddenly go 'missing', the golems may think they are being attacked."

"…"

"Then… What about using monsters?" – asked the lord.

"We can have tamed monsters do a suicidal charge! They die and-"

"The golems knew we were coming before we even entered the forest. They have some means of 'seeing' things." – replied the guild master before the lord could finish speaking.

"Idea is good…. But if they spot us… Then what?"

"…"

"Yeah…. You are right…. Shit." – said lord.

"…"

"So, you are saying that you have already spread around the word and you are already gathering up people?" – asked the nervous lord.

"Yeb…. The quest is officially recruiting people…." – replied the guild master.

"Honestly, I didn't knew at first what should we do…. Should we try to do a full out attack?"

"Or should we just try to get these 'corpses' before then playing defensively."

"…"

"I decided to go latter."

"We lack information and we don't know how strong the enemies are."

"There is also a problem regarding enemy leader intelligence…. And the information we may have on the golems maybe possible outdated."

"We don't know what sort of fucking tricks could these bastards have."

"And there is also dungeon."

"We need to keep our loses to the minimum, since we may end up needing to go inside of the dungeon and try to exterminate it."

"We play it stupid."

"Adventurers die alongside the army of golems."

"And then nobody is left to deal with the dungeon."

"We would lose. Just like that."

"If what this guys says is correct, we may able to get a better understanding of our enemies if we get those corpse…."

"…"

"Well…. IF we manage to get their corpse."

"Still…. As much as it annoys me to admit it."

"We need to attack that forest."

After arrival of the golem specialist, both the local lord as well as the guild master were unfortunately left with no choice but to go after the enemies, while still lacking a lot of important details about their foes.

However, if they didn't do it, there was a good chance that the monster outbreak of golems could occur, threating the peace of the entire territory.

And so, the guild master, Amelia Smith, organized a raid party to launch an attack on the forest.

For several days, many adventurers came over to take part in the operation…. And before long, the day of the operation has come.

The adventurers alongside several knights made their way towards the forest, before then arriving at the hill outside the forest where once again they have set up their camp.

"…"

*Sigh*

(Okay… I'm back here…. Again.) – thought guild master Amelia Smith as she stood in the middle of the camp, surrounded by the adventurers and soldiers.

"…"

*Inhale*

"Okay…. Welcome or welcome back, depending of whenever or not you were here last time." – said the guild master to the crowd of gathered adventurers.

"I'm guild master, Amelia Smith, and I will be the one in charge of this operation."

"Many of you may had heard or may not…. Okay! Fuck it! I'm just going from the top! Since some of you are from before while some are new here, so I will just explain everything in nutshell."

"What we are dealing here is the active dungeon."

"But not any dungeon."

"A golem dungeon."

"You heard me! A dungeon that produces golems!"

"Like the one that empire is producing."

"This isn't conspiracy theory or some shit."

"This is reality."

"The golem dungeon has been active and has been under the break state for more than a year, while its existence remained unknown to the public."

"The dungeon was… Passive…. But as more monsters will be born from the dungeon, there is good chance that they will start leaving the forest in order to expand their territory… And there is chance that if you attack even one, all of them will come after you."

"So, we need to take control of the entire forest and deal with the dungeon."

"But here is the problem."

"We don't know what the enemy is capable off."

"We have no proper knowledge or information."

"So, we are diving the operation into two phases."

"The first phase is test."

"Simple put, we will need to learn how strong these golems are from fighting them AND we will also need to gather their remains for this man here, the golem specialist by the name of Arthur Wirmur, to have a look at them and learn more about these golems."

"Depending on the results and findings, we may proceed for the large scale battle sooner or later."

"Either way, this first phase is most important."

"Since we don't want to die like idiots."

"So, here is what we will do."

"According to the Silver Talons who managed to infertile the forest, the golems were not aiming to 'attack us themselves', instead they waiting for us to attack them."

"And that is the problem."

"We don't want massive scale battle, we just want short battle to gather intel AND to obtain some of the remains of the golems."

"So, we will be playing a game of tag."

"We will attack the golems from multiple directions and then retreat, in order to try and split of golem forces."

"We will use long range attacks, mainly using magic in order to annoy the golems and force us to chase us."

"And again."

"The first battle is NOT about winning."

"Information and materials."

"That is it."

"Run away if you have to."

"Don't die no matter what."

"As soon as we got what we want, we will obtain the necessary knowledge to exterminate those fuckers."

And so, the operation started.

The army of the adventurers, ranging from low to mid rank split up into multiple groups, who then entered forest from multiple directions.

…

And what greeted these adventurers…. Was a silence.

A dead silence.

Even though there was an army of monsters inside of this place.

Even though an unknown danger lurked in this place…. The only thing that the adventurers would hear were their footsteps.

"…"

"Nothing here." – said the man with a scar.

"I guess there are really no traps here or anything."

"Well, it was like last time as well." – said the blond-haired party leader who was alongside his party the members of this extermination force.

"They suddenly appeared out of a blue, without anybody noticing."

"Maybe there is some sort of monster carrying around bombs?"

"Hm…. True… It could be annoying." – said the man with the scar.

"I will continue keeping watch, but we need to keep up the peace, or we will fall behind the others."

"I understand." – said the blond-haired leader as the raid group continued their march through the forest.

"…"

"…"

"I don't like this place." – said the youngest member of the party with blond hair as the images of the slaughter, of the explosions and the screams…. The scenes that once took place in this forest have suddenly reemerged in the young man's head as he realizes that the part of the forest he was walking through is the very same part where the Garmfon kingdom and adventurer guild combined forces were once defeated.

"….Me neither." – replied the blond-haired leader as he continued marching without stopping, straight up ignoring the youngest member that just stood in place.

"If you want to take revenge for them, just kill those fuckers here."

"If that will bring you any form of satisfaction."

The 4 groups of adventurers walked through the silent forest, each entering and traversing the monster infested from different directions.

At the current rate, each of the group will arrive at the inner circle of the forest in somewhat same time.

And once they arrive, the war will start against these golems.

They knew it.

Some were scared, while some were excited…. But unfortunately, nobody could really tell how it would go.

Not them…. Nor the "owner" of the forest, who was already aware of the adventurers' existence.