Lord Of Puppets-Chapter 187 – The foe with mind.

[Several hours later after the attack.]

[Current time: Morning]

[Location: Outside the camp – behind.]

"What do you mean we are not going to counter attack?!" – shouted dwarven adventurer Randolf as he and several other high-ranking adventures, party leaders, knights and guild master were holding a meeting.

"Guild master, this isn’t matter we can ignore." – said the blond-haired adventurer.

"The golems attacked our camp!"

"Several people have died and a lot of were left injured!" – said the blond-haired adventurer as all the gathered people also started speaking their look at things.

"DO YOU THINK I DON’T HAVE FREAKING IDEA?!" – shouted the guild master, instantly silencing everybody gathered.

"If anything, I’m the one who realize that the situation is far more dangerous than all of you imagine!"

"..."

"That attack.... What it reminds you all of?"

"?"

"What sort of question is that?" – asked human knight.

"Hm... I don’t know." – said the guild master.

"Maybe the bloody thing that the monsters straight up copied our tactic?"

"?"

"What do you mean?" – asked nervous Randolf.

"Hit and run." – said the guild master as the moment she spoke those words, about half of the people gathered just froze up in place.

"They are mimicking our fighting pattern."

"They did the EXACT same thing we did!"

"..."

"Shit..." – said Randolf.

"This confirms that the dungeon master was watching us, doesn’t it?" – asked the blond-haired leader.

"Not sensing us, but actually watching our movement."

"How else would they replicate our action otherwise?"

"Yeah.... And there is another thing." – said the guild master.

"According to the leader of the Silver Talons who waited inside of the forest... He indeed confirmed that almost all of the golems left the dungeon and headed our way."

"Not only that, according to that guy... He saw few golems we did not encountered before."

"There was only few of them.... But he is suspecting that the monsters he saw were the manifested boss monsters."

"Oh, fuck, me... So there.... Wait, that doesn’t make sense." – said giant knight.

"If there were really boss monsters there AND the massive army, then why didn’t they pushed forward?"

"If the boss monsters were really present, then.... Okay. I’m straight up confused."

"Does anybody have anything?"

"..."

"Honestly, the whole hit and run tactic shouldn’t.... No wait... Maybe it is other way around?" – said the blond-haired adventurer.

"?"

"What do you mean?" – asked Randolf.

"If they really had massive army AND boss monsters.... Shit.... Oh, fuck me properly...." – said blond-haired adventurer as he grabbed his face.

"..."

"They were baiting us to go after them."

"If we did gave chase, then...."

"....They were aiming for us to leave our base." – said the guild master with her eyes wide open.

(So does that mean the whole mimicking wasn’t just for a show?! They were throwing a bait for us to fallow?!) – thought guild master.

(If we didn’t knew about the army of golems coming here before hand... Then there was a good chance we may had taken a bait.... And then the number of the casualties would be beyond terrifying.)

"..."

"That proves it." – said the guild master.

"The dungeon master posses’ dangerous level of the intelligence if he can make that kind of move."

"But... At the same time, he doesn’t want his forces to be destroyed."

"Maybe he ordered retreated in order after seeing how badly we were beating his troops."

"Honestly, IF we stayed and fought... We may had ability to take down all the golems, including possible the bosses."

"However, the losses we would suffer would be beyond catastrophically."

"Not only that, but according to the notes left by that elven guild master, the golems were collecting corpse of the fallen."

"The only explanation for this would be that they were feeding the dungeon."

"Dungeon master can throw away his monsters, as long as he feeds dungeon and allow it to give birth to more monsters."

"However at the same time, he needs to have some monsters left to gather and drag these corpse back to the dungeon."

"Dungeon master isn’t confided in its victory."

"He is playing it smart." – said the guild master as the atmosphere amongst the gathered instantly changed.

Fear.

Confusion.

Worry.

Panic.

The adventurers were now not only fully aware of the dungeon master possessing somewhat dangerous level of the intelligence, but also aware that the opponent knew what they were doing.

They still lacked a lot of information about their foes, especially about the dungeon boss monster that had manifested... As well as the main danger behind it all.

The dungeon master.

"..."

"..."

"Em.... May I?" – asked the adult female human with black hair and long as well as thick pony tail.

[Joanna – B-rank adventurer – Party leader of Gecko party.]

"This maybe a speculation.... But.... No. Hear me out on this one."

"..."

"Go on." – said the guild master.

"...This.... What if it is a warning?" – said Joanna.

"?"

"Warning?" – asked the guild master.

"Y-yeah...." – replied Joanna.

"Considering all that we know about the golems and the dungeon master, doesn’t all it actions it has taken strikes you... As odd?"

"It may be bit of a stretch, but what if the dungeon master is telling us to: Get out and I won’t kill you."

"HA! You are mad! That bastard is a monster!" – said giant heavily armored as he then began laughing at the woman statement.

"Get fucking real." – said the giant with serious expressing.

"No! I freaking mean it!" – said Joanna.

"This guy methods are weird!"

"Before we even discovered it, it had countless opportunism to attack merchants or people passing near the forest."

"Yet it chose to hide no matter what."

"And now, instead of trying to do large scale battle, it is trying to avoid it no matter what?"

"..."

"True... Its actions are odd.... However, at the same time, they maybe strategic." – said golem expert: Arthur, who was sitting on top of the box.

"The dungeon master is probably aware of the fact that it will be at the disadvantage IF it were to attack the camp."

"And at the same time, it maybe at the advantage if we come to it."

"Honestly, there is no telling if our previous attacks were successful because the actions, we had taken... Or was it because the dungeon mast did not took any?"

"If we were to use the same tacit as we did before, there is good chance that the golems would just ignore the adventurers and head directly for our camp, while most of our forces were outside."

"But wouldn’t that left the dungeon ungrounded? Once the dungeon master is dead, it is victory for us." – said Randolf.

"No.... The dungeon is probably keep producing monsters... We will have countless golems waiting inside." – said guild master.

"And there is also the dungeon master himself."

"We already know he is a dangerous foe.... A one that we cannot challenge without B-rank adventurers."

"Not only that, think about what happened yesterday."

"If they really were trying to bait us... Then who is to say that once we would go inside of the dungeon while their main force is going after the camp, they wouldn’t just turn around and trap us inside?"

"No.... Fucking no!"

"As long as that army of monsters in on the loose, any attempt at attacking the dungeon could be very well a suicide."

"..."

"What did you said before?" – asked the guild master as she turned towards Joanna.

"About warning?"

"Yeah...." – said Joanna.

"This what it looks like to me.... But why?"

"That is the question."

"Is the dungeon master just doesn’t want to fight a battle where it would suffer heavy loses?"

"..."

"Or maybe he is not hostile at all." – said Arthur.

"?!"

"Not hostile!? Now THIS is bullshit!" – said giant heavily armored adventurer.

"Then how do you explain some of its actions?" - asked Arthur as he stood up to the giant.

"It is only aiming to protect its territory."

"It will not attack unless you attack first."

"And it is now even giving us warnings."

"IF! Those WERE warnings, you imbecile!" – said the giant.

"What if it they were truly just a bait?!" – said the giant adventurer as the tension between two men began rising at the alarming rate. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

"ENOUGH! BOTH OF YOU!" – shouted the guild master, stepping in before something would erupt between two men.

"No matter how the fuck we look at this, situation is beyond weird!"

"For now, NOBODY takes any form of action, without getting approval from me!"

"Nobody is allowed to enter the forest, without speaking with me first!"

"As of right now, only Silver Talons will have official permit to enter the forest in order to gather information."

"We talk more, we come up with soldi theories and shit, while also trying to understand our enemy better."

"Until we got a better picture, we are doing nothing."

"You got that?!"

"THEN DISMISSED!" – shouted the guild master as she ended the meeting, causing the everybody gathered to head back towards the camp, with somewhat... Complexed set of emotions regarding the current matter.

"..."

(Okay.... The fuck is going on?) – thought guild master as she stayed behind, wanting some piece and quiet for a moment for herself.

(First some stupid shit. Then we started working.)

(AND NOW WE ARE FACING SOME REAL FUCKING PROBLEM!)

(We played it safe and we had our people be at the top condition when the attack happened, which allowed us to somewhat counter the enemy attack... But still... Army of monsters?)

(We can take them on.)

(But the loses would be unactable.)

"..."

(Should we try to hire more adventurers? Maybe we should request empire to send more soldiers here?)

(....Or maybe... We should try and get a A-rank adventurer.... No. This one is out of the question.)

(Considering what that bastard Arthur did, working for Arthur, the golem guy working for the duke guy.... For crying out loud, that freaking empire has way too many Arthurs... That big guy is also named freaking Arthur!)

(I get that it is a common name, but.... No! I’m getting side tracked!)

(Considering what the golem guy said, we cannot let some untrusted outside get their hands on the dungeon.)

(That duke himself.... I did somewhat manage to restrict his authority using logic... But if I let somebody go inside of the dungeon and destroy it? Oh boy.... THEN I will probably fuck it up!)

(Neighboring kingdoms could hire the A-rank adventurer and then just have them sent here to pretend to take the job.)

(We can deal with C-rank adventures or even B-rank with the people we have.)

(But an A-rank?! No!) – thought the guild master as she sat down on the box.

(Honestly, we could had won.)

(We could had won with the people we have here, WHILE keeping the casualties to the bare minimum.)

(It would had been an easy victory for us!)

"But now?"

"We are fucking playing a game with this fucker...."

"Just fucking great."

(And I honestly doubt that it will be the freaking end of the story....Nah.)

(If my guts are correct, that bastard is planning something right now.... And it is for the best to find out what.)