Lord Of Puppets-Chapter 191 – Peace talk?

"..."

(Peace.) – thought the guild master as she arrived at the meeting spot where the golem was awaiting her arrival, sitting on the chair right next to the table, which had a second chair, just for the guild master.

"..."

(I don’t see anything wrong.... Nor there was any form of signal yet.)

(Does that mean the dungeon master is really alone?)

(Still, even if it alone, how do I know that this thing there is dangerous or not? It maybe some sort of super elite golem that can transform or some shit.)

(I can’t let my guard down.) – thought the guild master as she started walking up towards the table.

"Let me introduce myself." – said Amelia Smith.

"My name is Amelia Smith."

"I’m the guild master of the Giriaw city guild."

"..."

On the table, a stack of paper sheet stood alongside a pencil.

The golem grabbed the pencil and one of the papers, before then starting to write down something on them as the guild master watched.

{"I’m Thauma. Dungeon master of the golem dungeon."}

"!"

(It can write!) – thought the guild master as the creature as it shown the woman what it has written.

(And it responded to what I just said!?)

(It means it can talk!)

(Well, write, per say. It doesn’t look like it can talk.... But it can use writing to communicate.)

"..."

"You are.... Not the dungeon master... Are you?" – asked Amelia Smith.

{"No. My main body is bound in the dungeon."}

(Figures.) – thought the guild master as she then took the seat.

(Still, if it can control directly golem from the depths of the dungeon... That confirms the fact that the dungeon master does possess long range control ability.)

(According to that guy, there are multiple ways of sharing vision with the golem.)

(For example a familiar type spell, which shares vision.)

(Or build in specific mechanical slash magical part into the golem.)

(That thing.... He can probably see me through this golem here.)

(Dammit! It was worth coming here!)

"..."

(Wait...)

"Did you said Thauma? Is that your name?"

{"Indeed. That is my name."}

"..."

"Then... Dungeon master Thauma, I have question for you."

"You said you want peace, right?"

{"This is indeed correct."}

"Why? Why do you want peace?"

"..."

{"I want to live."}

{"Honestly speaking, I don’t really care about killing you and almost all the time I’ve was staying in my forest and dungeon."}

{"But for some reason you always come to my home, invade me, attack me and never leave me alone."}

{"Why are you attacking me?"}

(Aggressors, huh? He sees us as the ones that started it all off?) – thought the guild master.

"..."

(Wait... Is he.... Oh shit. He ain’t wrong on this one!)

[The one that attacked first – Us]

[The one that attacked before first – Elves]

"..."

"Excuse me.... But I have question."

"There were three group of adventurers that have went missing."

"By any chance... Did they invaded your territory and attacked your servants?"

{"Yes. They came here and attacked me."}

{"I defended myself."}

{"And killed them."}

{"This is the truth."} 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

"!?"

(He just bluntly admitted to it?!) – thought surprised guild master.

(But he did said that he protected himself....)

(Still.... He is a monster.)

"I’m asking again."

"You said you want peace. But what exactly do you want?"

"You said you want to protect your territory."

"But is that it?"

{"In short. Yes."}

{"I want to have this forest completely sealed off and just in case, I want part of the territory around the forest. Not much, but enough to defend myself."}

{"All I care about is my own survival."}

{"I don’t really care about you people, but if you show hostility, I will fight back."}

{"And I will kill."}

{"However, if there is an option of talking things out and having a peaceful outcome."}

{"You don’t want to have your people killed while I don’t want my golems being destroyed."}

{"I said before. I want my forest and the territory around the forest to be left alone."}

{"If you do that, I won’t ever step foot outside of the forest."}

"..."

(Peace, huh?) – thought the guild master.

(Not buying it.)

(Even if the dungeon don’t devour anything, they can still apparently grow when the dungeon monsters manifest fully, obtaining physical form.)

(If we were to leave that guy alone, his dungeon would expand and grow.)

"..."

"Let’s see..."

"If you promise to not expand, grow the dungeon and produce the monsters, then I may consider your proposal."

"..."

{"And how can I be sure that you will keep your word? What if the moment I do trust you, you will attack me?"}

{"You had already attacked me several times completely unprovoked."}

(Tch. He ain’t wrong.... He understands the logic...) – thought the guild master who was now wary of her next words.

(Still....)

(Did that thing talked before with other people?)

(It doesn’t necessary look like it is the first time it has exchanged words with other sentient beings.)

"..."

"Look here."

"You are monster."

"People see you as one."

"As long as you expand your dungeon."

"As long as you produce more monsters."

"They will fear you."

"And now let me ask a question."

"Is there any way I.... No."

"Anybody from outside can trust YOUR words?"

"Hm? How can we tell that you won’t just unleashes your monsters at the moment notice?"

"..."

{"Then what do you propose? If both sides can’t trust each other?"}

(How the hell am I supposed to know! You were the one that invited me!) – thought annoyed guild master.

"..."

"Maybe other way around."

"In exchange for leaving your territory alone, what could you offer in return?"

"For example.... Are you willing to sell some of your golems?"

(That bastard was extremely passionate about that idea.) – thought the guild master.

(He wants to get his hands on the golems in their perfect state in order to obtain as much information as possible.)

{"Rejected."}

{"Would you hand over all of your weapons and have me understand how it works?"}

"!"

(Well, that plan instantly went to hell.... He saw right through it?)

"Then what else would you have to offer?"

"..."

The golem raised up its two hands in the air, while the remaining two reached towards the small paunch located on the golem’s rear.

The golem pulled out something and put it on the table, before then pushing the object towards the woman.

"?"

(What is it? A dagger?) – thought the woman as she saw a short blade on the table, which appears to be a dagger in a scabbard.

"..."

"May I check it?" – asked the guild master as the golem made a hand gesture, telling the woman to right ahead.

"..."

The woman hesitantly and slowly reached for the dagger and picked it up, before then unearthing it, revealing a refined blade.

"..."

(It looks... Fairly simple.)

(Nothing extremely fancy attached to it or anything.)

(A well-made looking knight at the first glace.... )

(But....)

"..."

"Excuse me. I want to test it." – said the woman as the golem once again gave the same hand gesture as before, allowing the woman to stand up before then walking towards the nearest tree.

The woman swung the knife at the tree, cutting it.

"!"

"..."

After a short moment of pause, the woman slashed the tree 2 more times, before then thrusting the blade into the tree, stabbing it.

"..."

(What the hell is this?) – thought the guild master as she pulled out the blade from the tree with ease.

(This isn’t just some good blade.... It is very good one!)

(Is enchanted? What materials is it made out of?)

(Mana metal?)

(Or maybe some sort of rare material?)

(Either way.... I barely put enough force in those strikes.... Shit.)

"So is that your proposal? This blade?" – asked the woman after returning back to the table and sitting back on her chair, while putting down the dagger on the table.

{"Production."}

{"In exchange of just leaving me alone, I will produce weapons or armors. If you will have some requests, I will make specific equipment if possible."}

(So, he is a blacksmith?) – thought worried guild master.

(Shit... If that is correct, that means he may had really had been the one who made all of these golems?!)

(No wait, the reports confirmed that it was really dungeon, since there was a presence of the dungeon monsters inside of the dungeon.)

(So is it doing.... Shit.)

(Should I just ask?)

"..."

(No... I will be pushing it too much....)

(But then again... If we make some sort of relationship with that guy, we may obtain some information about how dungeons works?)

"..."

(And his proposition....)

(Rare and powerful weapons for free?)

(Honestly, it does sounds tempting...)

(But there is a clear problem here.)

(Our empire has already a good number of talented blacksmiths.)

(Not only that, but apparently thanks to these golems factories, the number of the blacksmiths within our nation have increase AND it would increase further since the empire is still growing.)

(The empire military power will definitely want to have their soldiers equipped with better weapons, since they are wary of the neighboring kingdoms....)

(Honestly speaking....)

(This proposal of his sucks.)

(Even if these weapons maybe ones of high quality, we have more than enough blacksmiths and talented ones to straight up easily overshadow his deal.)

"..."

"This won’t do."

"The blade is okay, but unfortunately, we don’t need weapons from your dungeon."

"I’m still willing to do the deal regarding the golems and such."

"But if that is still out of the questions, then I want hear what else you have to offer."

(And what else you are hiding from us.)

"..."

"..."

"...."

"...."

"...."

"...."

"..."

(He is.... Quiet silent?) – thought the guild master as the golem did not moved or did anything for quite some time.

(Is it thinking?) – thought the guild master while looking around... But not spotting anything.

(No signals or anything weird going on...)

(That means he ain’t stalling... Is he seriously thinking about what else he could offer?)

"..."

{"What about mana crystals?"}

"..."

(Can’t really say this one isn’t bad offer.) – thought the guild master.

(Mana crystals are not always guarantee in the dungeons, which is at the same time the only place where you can get these.)

(If anything, the mana crystals from the dungeons are quiet high quality materials, since they have their unique property of using and storing mana, unlike artificial ones that can only use mana.)

"How many mana crystals you can produce?"

{"Depends on the request."}

{"Do you want quality over quantity? Or other way around?"}

"What about the mana gems? You can also produce these?"

(When that guy investigated the golem’s remains, he found inside of their cores the presence of the mana gems.)

(If that thing is not only able to provide rough mana gems and mana crystals.)

{"I can."}

{"However, producing this rough materials aren’t really free. So, I can’t produce them nonstop."}

"Okay.... How much of these can you produce?"

{"Depends on the strength of the dungeon."}

(So if we want to get your stuff, we will have to leave you alone... Eh?)

(Either weapons or mana crystals or mana gems.)

(Weapons are already thrown out of the window.)

(Mana gems and mana crystals....)

(Honestly, we need those.)

(Let’s say I would just say NO.)

(We would obtain large quantity of the mana gems and mana crystals from slaughtering all of the golems.)

(And possible a lot of useful stuff, like metal or weapons from golems.)

(But then what?)

(Honestly.... I know that guy said that I HAVE to let dungeon master survive, since he pestered me with duke’s authority.... But right now, his authority is not enough to move either me or anybody else.)

(That dungeon master is beyond dangerous.... And from the start of this meeting, I’ve realized that the danger rank of that fucker is keep increasing.)

(Let’s say that we will get a solid and good line of mana gems and mana crystals coming from this dungeon.... I dunno .... 3 to 5 years?)

(Even if the amount he can provide isn’t necessary ground breaking, we would still have a solid line of supply that we could use.)

(But what if after these 3 to 5 years it decides to go rouge?)

(That is that bastard’s plan probably.)

(He aims to stall for time until his dungeon grows strong enough to be unstoppable.)

(If he was at least willing to sell his golems to us.... Then he would just straight up throwing away his weapon, weakening himself.)

(However, the problem is.... Does he not trust us? Like for real?)

(Or does he plan something?)

(It maybe both really.)

(He is monster.)

(A dungeon master.)

(The owner of the place that does nothing but produces hostile monsters which bring fourth destruction and devastation.)

"..."

"Sorry, but I will have to decline your peace proposal."