sbdcsierra Chapter 268 – Cooperation.
Chapter 268 – Cooperation.
A week went by after the people of the Mevon territory has been "relocated" from their territory... And things were still not going great.
The emperor made his intentions clean.
"The dungeon isn’t our enemy. It is our ally for now."
Some people say that the emperor turned the dungeon into his weapon.
Or says that the dungeon was tamed.
But.... The fact remains that the history remains.
"And things are not really looking great." – said Porai as she was traveling via carriage.
(On one hand, the victims and their families feel betrayed by the empire, since not only they were not avenged, but they were also kicked out of their houses.) – thought Porai while looking out of the window of her transport.
(Then there are also adventurers.)
(Many adventurers died to the golem dungeon.... Ended up leaving somewhat bad impression.)
(Adventurers maybe nothing more than mercenaries... But they are still people.)
(The one that gets to call the shots above everybody else is none other nation they are in.)
(However, in some situations, the adventurer guild can take over the command, if the circumstances call for it.)
(But the emperor DIRECTLY gave the command himself, so they can’t do shit.... But still.)
(Many adventurers, including also the adventurer’s guild as well are probably still seeing as dangerous monster... And there is also a good fact that maybe some of these surviving adventurers’ friends were killed by Thauma.)
(So yeah.... Things are not looking great for Thauma.)
(It was like what? Over 4 months now since the contract was signed... The real one.)
"..."
"But fuck me.... Things are really not looking great."
[2 week ago.]
"You want to fucking go to the golem dungeon?!" – shouted Korwan through the communication device.
"What the hell do you mean by that?!"
"Explain. Now!"
"..."
(Well, his reaction makes sense, considering what happened in the past.) – thought Porai.
"..."
"Ariava approached me and offered me a deal." – replied Porai.
"!?"
"What?! She approached you?!" – asked alarmed Korwan.
"..."
"Can I explain?" – asked Porai.
"Yeah! Do! What did she do!?" – asked worried Korwan.
"...She offered me a deal." – said Porai.
"She wants me to spent time with the dungeon master of the golem dungeon, Thauma."
"Simply put, she wants me to research stuff with it."
"Details." – said Korwan.
"I was getting at it, jeez." – replied Porai.
"Simply put, she wants me to somewhat teach that dungeon master how to produce golems."
"As you probably already know, the dungeon itself is producing monsters that are made by Thauma himself."
"Meaning, if he gets better at making golems, we will end up obviously obtaining new stronger golems."
(Honestly, revealing THAT part was stupid.) – thought Porai.
(But hey, the bound contract made sure that they will need to keep THAT part secret no matter what.)
"..."
"...Is that it?" – asked Korwan who was keeping up his guard, being somewhat skeptical about the whole talk.
"Well, pretty much it will be researcher in several areas." – replied Porai.
"Not only just golem crafting."
"There is also another thing that I couldn’t ignore no matter what."
"The research."
"Thauma is a special being."
"A sentient golem."
"I’ve talked about this and I could possible try to somewhat experiment on Thauma AND maybe I could obtain some interesting research from Thauma himself."
"He is golem himself, so maybe his understanding of golems in some areas are more unique."
"Honestly speaking, the deal is very beneficial."
"If that guy can produce better golems, then the empire will get stronger."
"AND we could possible obtain some data which we could use for our own personal use."
"..."
"I’m honestly against it." – replied Korwan.
"Oh? And here I thought you would be more than interested in it?" – asked Porai.
"I know what you mean, believe me." – replied Korwan.
"However, I still don’t trust either Ariava or that creature named Thauma."
"I get that we are bound by the bound contract now, but still.... Honestly, we still have no idea even what the relationship between the two is to this point."
"The only stuff that we know of about that dungeon master is what you told us when you were held as prisoner within the dungeon."
"About the dungeon master not wanting the war at any cost and that it was only fighting in desperation."
"But how do we know that it was its words and not Ariava’s?"
"And I told you before, that this isn’t some golem controlled by Ariava." – replied Porai.
"Even when Ariava wasn’t around, that guy was thinking and making his own decision."
"And I don’t doubt your words." – said Korwan.
"But again, how does that have to do anything with ITS words?"
"..."
*Sigh*
"So it won’t be easy convincing you?" – asked Porai.
"..."
"No." – replied Korwan.
"You have permission from my side."
"I will also try talking with emperor about this and make some sort of permission permit for you to use."
"It would be also good if you would hide your identity while going in and out of there too."
"!?"
"That.... Is bit unexpected?" – replied confused Porai... Who somewhat didn’t trusted Korwan right now.
"Trust me. I know how this sounds, but we need more power." – said Korwan.
"Some of the stuff that Ariava has been reporting to us were... Alarming to say the least."
"We honestly almost had a fucking war happening out of nowhere where we would least expect it."
"And the contracts that binds her straight up proves her reports... Which is problematic to say the least."
"Honestly speaking, the war won’t be happening anytime soon.... But again... There may be some conflicts or war happening who knows when?"
"Things are somewhat chaotic right now that makes calculation somewhat hard to predict."
"I don’t trust them, but the contract is bounding them as well as us."
"And right now? We need military power."
"So even though increasing up their power may seem risky, it is our only move right now."
"..."
"And this is something I want to hire you to do as well."
"Try to get some information out of Thauma."
"I want to fully understand what is the relationship between the two and what Ariava is truly planning."
"I will pay you well for this as well."
[Back to the present.]
(Well... Would he really believe me if I were to say that Thauma is Ariava’s adopted child and she is only doing this to help him out?) – thought Porai.
(Yeah.... I don’t think he will believe me.)
"..."
(But is he suspecting me? THAT is the problem.)
(I honestly can’t tell yet.)
(...Nah. I think the fact that he is far too scared right now is problem.)
(Ariava is bound by the contract now, meaning she NEEDS to work with them.)
(However, the fact that they don’t know her "end game" is terrifying both that guy and the emperor.) – thought Porai as her carriage were slowly approaching the road block set up by the soldiers.
"!"
"Hold it there!" – said the soldier as he stood right in front of the carriage.
"This area is off limit." – said the soldier as the carriage door opened up.
"I have a permit here." – said Porai who was hiding her identity with hood.
"..."
"!"
(Empiric seal?!) – thought the soldier as he checked the permit, before then handing it over to the second soldier who had the same reaction as the first one.
"What is going on here?" – asked the knight who approached the group that was causing commotion.
"Sir." – said the soldier as he handed over a permit to the knight.
"..."
"I’ve been informed about the visit." – said the knight after checking the permit.
"Let them through!" – said the knight as moments later the lone carriage entered the Mevon territory.
The lone carriage traversed the "empty" territory, not spotting anybody besides occasional random group of soldiers.
Beside that ? Silence.
The entire territory was silence.
Porai’s carriage even went through one of the destroyed villages that were on massacred by Thauma’s forces.
(Yeesh... The entire place is straight up dead silent.) – thought Porai as the carriage left the destroyed village and once again traversed the road where no lives were seen.
(The entire territory only has some soldiers wondering around... But that is it.)
(No civilians what soever.)
(Emperor really made sure that nobody was left behind... Not only that, he even set up road blocks to prevent anybody from entering the Mevon territory illegally.)
(....Still... I don’t see any large number of golems here yet... Makes sense.)
(For Thauma to control the entire territory on his own, he would need extremely large number of these bastards.)
(Not only that, he would need some more to "defend" himself.) – thought Porai as she continued her journey through the territory.... Before arriving at the golem infested forest, where she instantly spotted a large number of golems outside of it.
"Okay. Stop here." – said Porai as she opened up the carriage.
"From now on I’m going in alone. Return back."
"Wait at the designed place."
"Understood." – replied the carriage driver as he turned around the carriage and rode away, leaving behind Porai who walked alone towards the golem infested forest.
However, even when she gotten closer to the golems, there was no reaction whatsoever.
The woman just walked right into the forest, being completely unbothered by the large number of golems.
(It’s been sometime since I last came here.) – thought Porai as she walked through the forest... Which was noticeable different when she was coming closer to the center.
The golems were working.
They were cutting down trees, processing them and digging the ground.
The "weapon" golems were doing the work, even thought it wasn’t their main function, and alongside them, there were several other golems who by the looks of things were specially made for that kind of forms of labor.
(He is really at it, eh?) – thought Porai as she was observing the changes while going deeper, noticing larger and larger construction work as she headed deeper... Before then finally arriving at the center of the forest, where all the trees in the area were cut down and, in its place, a mini fortress set up was finally finished.
A small wall, armed with ballista golems and several other golem elite monster who were keeping watch.
*Whistle*
"Bastard finished it, eh?" – said Porai as the main gate of the miniature fortress wall opened up.
(Huh...The forest changed a lot.... But I wonder about the inside?)
(I wonder how much changed.)
(...)
(And especially, him.)
(How much that bastard changed after obtaining his "peace".)