Lord Of Puppets-Chapter 180 – Discovery of the… Art?

[5 hours later.]

"Anything?" – asked the guild master as she walked up to the knight.

"No ma’am... Nothing." – replied the knight.

"We had been keeping watch all this time, but there was not even a slightest form of movement."

"..."

"Don’t let up." – said the guild master.

"The enemy knew we came here before we even entered the forest."

"They probably have some means of detection or observation."

"The moment we let our guard down; there is a good chance that they would launch their attack..."

"So there is a chance of a night raid happening." – said the knight with worried expression.

"..."

"I will inform everybody and arrange night watch."

"Thank you." – replied the guild master before then walking through the camp and arrival at a massive tent.

"I’m coming in." – said the guild master as she arrived at the massive tent, where several workers were checking out the golem parts.

"..."

"Hey." – said the guild master as she approached the man standing near the massive table.

"..."

"What is it?" – asked Arthur Wirmur who was seen working on the massive golem core.

"Progress." – replied the guild master.

"..."

"..."

"Hey." – said the guild master as she was not receiving any replies.

"..."

*Sigh*

"There is.... Stuff." – said the man after he sighed.

"But there is one thing I can say after I and these craftsmen inspected these golem parts."

"They are definitely crafted, just like the reports stated."

"I honestly don’t know if the dungeon could had even produced these... Especially THAT!" – said the man as he showed open in half golem core which was sitting on top of the table.

"Detailed craftsman work!"

"This isn’t something like a newbie golem crafter could easily make!"

"This work... I did not went into the details yet.... But I’ve never seen or encounter a golem core like this."

"This one was secured from these earth golems."

"A smaller one."

"According to the reports, these earth golems showed some form of abnormal endurance and strength, as if they were not made out of earth."

"I’ve even tested it out by having the adventurers fighting some of the made-up earth golems, which I’ve created."

"And they said that my golems were weaker. Even though they were also made out of the earth."

"There are ways of strengthen the golem’s performance, via making special parts or putting on them enchantments."

"But there is NOTHING here like this."

"These earth golems were not made out of any form of special dirt or rocks." – said the man as he pointed at the small bowl, which contained bits of the earth golem’s body.

"This is regular earth."

"Nothing more."

"Nothing less."

"If that is the case, it means that whatever was making the golems stronger must had been the core."

"So, I’ve opened the thing up.... But there is nothing."

"There should be a magical device which a specific function of empowering the golem."

"I’ve though these things here were the empowerees.... But they are not."

"They are just producing mana."

"They are mana generators of some kind."

"But then it doesn’t make even more sense!"

"True, by increasing the mana flow within the golem, you can make them more powerful and faster."

"But if their bodies won’t be able to handle it, the golem’s body would just destroy itself as a result."

"Especially earth golems made out of ordinary earth."

"It would somewhat make sense if there was something beside the core OR if there was the empowerment device."

"But nothing!"

"If it wasn’t it, then the any other explanation would had been magic."

"A puppet created and controlled with magic."

"You can keep its shape in place and even repair it."

"But this golem wasn’t magic based golem."

"It was constructed golem."

"So what the fuck is going on!" – said the man as she guild master suddenly turned around.

"Maybe they can give you some hint." – said the guild master as the party member C of the Silver Talons party, who walked into the tent.

"Did something happened?"

"Yes." – replied the party member C.

"This is something leader told me to report to you as soon as possible."

"It is regarding the golems."

"Specifically, the golems made out of earth."

"..."

"Okay... This is extremely weird timing?" – said the guild master as she and the researcher looked both very confused and alarmed, which caught off guard the party member C.

"...Em.... Is something wrong?" – asked the party member C who sounded bit confused.

"No, no... Just... What do you have?" – asked the guild master.

"..."

"The earth golems posses’ ability to restore their bodies." – said the party member C, which instantly put both researcher and the guild master on the high alert.

"Restore!? Wait, you mean they have ability to heal themselves?!" – asked Arthur Wirmur as he grabbed the party member C.

"Yes... I’ve been keeping watch on the golems, specifically those who had fought in battle... And I saw it." – said the party member C.

"These golems were taking out the chunks of earth and then just healing themselves with it."

"The process was by no means fast.... It took them quiet long time to complete it.... But it had happened."

"The earth golems recovered their damaged bodies into the state they had before the battle."

"..."

"Question.... Is-"

"The answer is no." – said Arthur before the woman could even ask her question.

"Golems can’t just repair their bodies like that."

"It is like cutting off somebodies’ else arms and using it to replace your own."

"If you just attach it, the army won’t work."

"You would need to attach nerves and shit...."

"Did the golems did it by themselves!? Was there anybody helping them!?"

"...No." – replied the member of the Silver Talons.

"I’ve watched the whole process happened."

"..."

"!"

"What about the other golems?! Did they shown any form of similar activity?!" – asked the worried.... Yet somewhat excited man.

"N-no.... I’ve been keeping the watch on them too, but there was nothing like that." – said the party member, which somewhat calmed the man down.

"..."

"Okay... Let’s just get a nutshell version for now." – said the guild master.

"You."

"The golems don’t have any form of healing ability, right?"

"Yes... They shouldn’t have logically speaking, if they were not magic based made." – replied Arthur.

"Not only that, there is a clear lack of the [Golem Empowerment Module]."

"Which should be the reason behind the golems’ abnormal strength and durability.... And on top of that, a recovery type ability?"

"This does not make ANY sense!"

"The only explanation would be if the golems had skills!"

"So shouldn’t it work?" – asked the dwarf worker who was inspecting the crossbow arm of the puppet soldier.

"No! It wouldn’t!" – replied Arthur.

"If you were to put item skill on them, it would only work on one part of the golem body. It would work, but only for it."

"You can add a blade with a skill attached to it and then fuse that blade into the golem body."

"The blade would work perfectly AND the blade would retain its skill."

"But the golem? It’s entire being would not obtain the skill. Only the blade would have it."

"And there is also a question regarding the strain."

"Item skills put special form of burden on the object’s body."

"Which also somewhat disturbs mana flow if the golem build isn’t made correctly."

"Even if you somehow put the skill on the entire golem’s body, it wouldn’t still make sense in this situation."

"They are literally just grabbing random dirt and fusing it into their body in order to heal."

"If the whole body had skill attached to every single part of its body, then wouldn’t it had lost the engraved skills after destruction."

"Meaning, that the whole healing thing would had never worked in the first place."

(Golems possessing skills!?) – thought the scared yet extremely excited man who could not hide his smile, forcing him to cover his entire mouth with his hand.

(If that is true... Then does that mean this dungeon has obtained a discovery we could had never image to be had been real!?)

(But this can’t be real in first place!)

(Golems are objects! Objects can only posses "item skills"! A man-made skills!)

(True, there are objects that possess a natural born item skills, a "Born Type Item Skills".)

(But this is clearly different!)

(Not only that.... This core.) – thought the man as he stared at the golem core on the table.

(The crafting style is nothing like ours as well.... But at the same time, it is way beyond unknown.)

(As for the regular golems’ bodies? They are not something you just scrap together and fuse it all up.)

(Nah.)

(It is a work of somebody who has years of both blacksmithing and golem crafting.)

(I’ve read the reports and found out that the dungeon is truly producing the monsters.)

(But can dungeon truly produce something like that?)

(Dungeons can produce monsters, sometimes extremely powerful ones who may or may not even posses powerful skills on themselves.)

(But can dungeon can really archive THIS level of craftsmanship?!)

"..."

(Or what if the dungeon is producing the golems, but something is modifying them? Changing them?)

(What if the one producing them isn’t truly the dungeon, but maybe the one controlling them?)

(The dungeon master?)

"!"

(No wait!)

(It does make sense!)

(There are WAYS of controlling the golems from afar.)

(There are skills and everything, but they can only work if you establish LINK.)

(But just possessing skills is nowhere near enough to make a link.)

(You need to know the basics of how to control the golems and control their actions.) 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

(This also includes coding.)

(You need all of this in order to even learn how to make a link!)

(And if the dungeon master is the being that is controlling all of the golems’ actions... Then that means it could be very well be their creator!)

"..."

(The only way to confirm any of those theories would be to meet the dungeon master face to face.)

(But dungeons are usually hostile towards the outside world.... But then again.)

(That dungeon is "thinking".)

(It strategies and aims to avoid the conflict where there is no need to.)

(So does that mean that dungeon master is different?)

(Does it mean we can "talk" with it?)

(If that is the case, then is it possible for us to establish a relationship?)

"..."

"..."

(There is no use arguing about this.)

(WE NEED TO SECURE THE DUNGEON!)

(AND MAKE IT OURS!)

(WE NEED TO OBTAIN THAT PLACE SECRETS AT ANY COST!)