Lord Of Puppets-Chapter 155 – OH COMMON!

<<So far? There was some peace....>>

<<Research was progressing smoothly and I have been seeing some proper discoveries and changes that pushed my project forward.>>

<<Obviously there are still some problems, like creation of the artificial mana crystals.>>

<<To make them I need to use up my own mana.>>

<<But I’ve managed to deal with this problem!>>

<<Battery Mana!>>

<<I’ve made these things based on the mana organs.>>

<<Function? Simple. Production and gathering mana.>>

<<I can attach it to my body to symphony some of the mana stored inside and my ’worker’ body has been already adjust to handle these batteries.>>

<<Anyway, regarding the elemental mana metal.... The research was going great.>>

<<It did took me sometime, but I’ve made a proper mana metal that possess earth elemental affinity.>>

<<This was the first step. A starting point a sense.>>

<<I would need to create different materials with alchemy and different form of experiments.>>

<<Honestly, I pretty much given up on my personal training and only focused on researching and crafting, while also trying to get better understanding on the whole concept of creating special mana infused object with alchemy.>>

<<However, I have experience in multiple areas.>>

<<Golem core research.>>

<<Artificial mana organ.>>

<<Mana pathway research I did to enchant my golems movement.>>

<<Magic and mana research I’ve conducted to understand better the flow and power of mana.>>

<<Enchantment forging research – Ability to enchant equipment when crafting it.>>

<<And my own personal research, combining Golemancy with elemental magic.>>

<<With these researches and the knowledge I’ve had obtained from them, I was able to speed up my research progress significantly.>>

<<And this in turn allowed me to create this.>>

<<I will call it "Elemental Mana And Magic Converter".>>

<<This device has a simple function.>>

<<A basic mana goes in and elemental mana goes out.>>

<<With this I could start making different form tools and materials.... And most importantly, one piece of the puzzle I need to create the special golem core.>>

<<But unfortunately for me.... I’ve seen elves.>>

<<A lot of time has passed already...And elves are coming back.... Shit.>>

<<I still haven’t finished the research to the point where I can use it in actual combat!>>

<<These elves came closer to the forest and even entered it.... Before then leaving it.>>

<<Were they checking if the forest is once again infested with golems?>>

<<Welp.... Crap.>>

<<Things are about to get chaotic once again, aren’t they?>>

<<....And as I’ve thought that, something weird... Happened.>>

<<In the middle of the night somebody entered the forest... And it wasn’t an elf.>>

<<It was a wolf beastman.>>

<<Beastman? The hell is going on? Is he adventurer? But the elves already checked the forest... This didn’t made much sense to me.>>

<<However, he didn’t really sticked around for long... If anything, after checking up around the forest, he left it and headed straight towards the elven kingdom?>>

<<....This felt.... "Off"?>>

<<I don’t know how to exactly describe it, but the way he moved.... Is Garmfon kingdom by any chance planning on helping out elves?>>

<<....No.... That beastman was trying to stay hidden.... The adventurers destroyed my scout golems by targeting them.... So maybe he was hiding from my gaze?>>

<<....Honestly.... At first, I’ve had thought I was paranoid.... But as I’ve continued my research, no new camp was set up and instead I’ve been seeing more and more scouts moving around.>>

<<Sometimes they were nowhere near the forest so I could barely tell who or how many people were in the distance, but sometimes they went near the forest.>>

<<This was.... Definitely odd?>>

<<If my understanding is correct and if the information that the prisoners provided me with, the adventurers should already try and attempt their second attack... Yet nothing?>>

<<I mean, I was able to move my research even further forward, obtaining new clues and making breakthroughs... But again, this is beyond odd.>>

<<And as I’ve wondered what the hell is going on... This happened.>>

(Again... They are coming here.) – thought Thauma as it saw a group of 5 beastmen entering the forest.

(This isn’t normal.)

(Once again they came here.... And once again they are not even attempting to go anywhere NEAR the dungeon entrance... Are they just avoiding the dungeon? But if they are not here for the dungeon, then why are they here?) – thought Thauma as it observed a group of beastmen traverses the forest before then stopping in place and starting to unpack some things from their backpacks.

(Wait, are these bastards setting up a camp? They are taking out their supplies!)

(Are they.... No. They are not attempting to make a base before attacking the dungeon.... Are they?) – thought Thauma as it saw beastmen preparing something.... But it wasn’t supplies.

Thauma couldn’t get a proper glimpse at what the beastmen were doing, since it didn’t wanted its scout golem to be exposed.... But it saw one of the things that the beastmen were taking out.

Weapons.

Specifically bows.

"!"

(Wait, they are not setting up a base! They are preparing for something?!) – thought alarmed puppet, before then noticing somewhere else with its other scout golems.

"?"

"!"

(Crap.) – thought Thauma as it saw multiple elven soldiers ridding on the horse towards the forest.

"Sir.... I don’t mean to offend you. But are we sure about this?" – asked worried elven soldier.

"Garmfon kingdom has started seeming wary of our movements."

"If anything, are we even sure that entering it in the first is safe? Our previous scout party went silent before we-"

"Shut the fuck up!" – said annoyed elf with short hair.

"I don’t like this either, but we need information."

"However, at the same time, we need to make sure we all survive this."

"So, we are going to take much... Risker route."

"We are going to use the golem forest as our cover before then entering the Garmfon kingdom."

"?!"

"Wait, golem forest!? But wasn’t that place that annihilated the adventurers!? Nobody fucking told us about this!" – said long haired elf.

"Calm down. We had our men check it out beforehand." – said short haired elf who seems to be the leader of the group.

"The forest is completely empty and there doesn’t seems to be another dungeon break going on."

"Based on the information, it seems that the entire dungeon was robbed of any monster it had.... So that means that the dungeon master must had wiped out the adventurers."

"However, that bastard can’t leave the dungeon. I know few things about dungeons and I know these bastards, the dungeon masters, are straight up unable to leave the dungeon."

(Well, this is according to the bits of information I was given beforehand.) – thought the leader.

"Anyway, moving during night will be way too risky, since they may expect it." – said the elf as leader as he has gotten off his horse alongside the other elves upon arriving at the forest edge.

"We will rai-"

However, right as they stepped a foot inside of the forest, a arrow suddenly struck the long haired elf right in the face... Before moments later the man fell down lifelessly.

"?"

"Eh?"

The elves were caught off guard by the sudden death of their leader... Straight up confusing them.

But before they could even recover, several more arrows came flying, hitting the elves.

"!"

(Ambush!?) – thought one of the panicking elves as he tried instantly getting back on his horse, only for his mount to get shot right in the neck, causing the animal to scream and trash around, which instantly knocked off the elf.

The elf tried getting right back up.... But before he could, a beastman with a sword quickly rushed down at the man and smashed his head against the tree, knocking the man out.

(What is going on here!?) – thought panicking elven leader.

(We made sure that the passage was safe and secured! There shouldn’t be any soldiers in the forest in the first-)

"?!"

(Wait.... Did they knew!? But how!? They would need to know when we-) – before the leader could understand the situation, he was punched right in the guts by the cat beastman, before then getting hit right in the jaw, which knocked out the elf instantly.

"..."

(What is going on?) – thought Thauma as it saw the group of beastmen who were attacking the elven riders.

(Beastmen are attacking elves? But aren’t they allies?)

(Wait! Maybe they are just bandits?!)

"..."

(No.... No! This isn’t it!)

(If they were really bandits, then why they were checking surroundings.... For days as well?)

(No.)

(They are not bandits...Are they.... Are they by any chance soldiers of the Garmfon kingdom?)

(But that doesn’t make sense!)

(These elves are not bandits either! They were checking the forest and area around it much more often than these beastmen!

(Garmfon and Mowiorano kingdoms are allies! Why are their soldiers killing each other?!)

"..."

(Wait.... This happened before.... THIS HAPPENED BEFORE!)

(It was when.... Yea! It was back then!)

(War!)

(When war between kingdoms broke out as well as when the war between factions broke out, they straight up abandoned ’controlling the dungeon’ all together! Since they wanted to focus on their war!)

(If that is the case, then the reason why adventurers ran away and the elves didn’t attempted next attack was because of this? A war?)

(And here is a proof! Soldiers from two different kingdoms are murdering each other!)

(They are not really wearing their kingdoms armors and what not, but I can tell based on observing them for the past days that they are working in ’specific’ way.... Tactics... Somebody is giving them orders!)

"..."

(But why would.... No.)

(I can’t be sure that the war is really going on.)

(Maybe something else is going on?)

(Like with the faction war.)

(Last time it wasn’t battle between two different nations, but instead between factions.)

(Maybe it is something similar this time?)

(I can’t be sure of anything just yet...... Again, annoying lack of information.)

(Still, something is causing the forces from outside from attempting to launch another attack at the dungeon.)

(I don’t know why.... But isn’t this an opportunity?)

(If the war is truly happening between these two kingdoms, then I have a chance to grow!)

(I can peacefully finish up my research!)

(Ha! Finaly! This what I was waiting for! This is!)

"..."

"..."

(Wait... Something doesn’t still feels right here.)

(Why I’m suddenly have a weird feeling that I’m missing something.... )

"..."

"..."

(Wait.)

(Why did the beastmen and elves fought HERE specifically?!)

(Is it just random?)

(But then again, I saw their scouts moving around.... Form both sides!) – thought Thauma as it quickly went to its storage house and began searching around.

(Found it!) – thought Thauma as it took out the map and opened it up.

"..."

(Ah....)

(Shit.)

[Dungeon location: Mevon territory]

[Location of the territory: Garmfon kingdom (now Mowiorano kingdom)]

[Important note: Located right next to the border between two nations]

[Theory: If the war were to break out, the Mevon territory would be straight up stuck between war between two factions]

[Conclusion: Thauma realized it maybe fucked in a way.]