Part 1

Underneath the land of Nezkaria there were several underground places that had existed during the ancient time.

Some of the places used to be cities of a kingdom long forgotten, some were tombs for the dead, and some were storages used during several ancient wars. However, most of them were now buried away due to the passing of time.

Yet there was still a race of people who frequently used those underground areas, as they found more comfort living there than the surface.

Not only do they use it for accommodation they also wish to uncover their buried history that they had strived to regain over the years.

“Hey! Who left no. 166 outside?” A short and fat man barged into the worker’s cafeteria as he complained with a voice so loud that everyone inside had to turn to look at him.

“Golem problem?” A muscular man came to the fat man’s side as he glanced at the golem with the number 166 on its chest.

Looking at the golem that had an absent-mind, the muscular man could not help but comment on the scene, “This golem sure is strange, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him before?”

“Oh, it’s you, Kasem.”Seeing a familiar face the fat man couldn’t help but complain to his friend. “Don’t even ask, I heard that it’s a golem that got lost by team 7.”

Hearing of the information Kasem frowned as he looked at the golem. “This got lost from the south? Guess management has got some issue as well huh, Amir?”

“Argh! It doesn’t even make sense how this golem ended up in the western region.” Amir grumbled in frustration. “Upper management even decided to put this defect in our team…”

“Oi, watch your mouth. You know those golem meisters hates anyone who insults a golem.” Kasem glared at his friend.

“Pfsh. I know golems are sacred but those guys take it to another level of worship.” Cautiously looking around he felt relieved that there wasn’t any one of them nearby.

“Anyways any ideas to who was supposed to be partnered with this guy?”

Kasim pondered for a bit but before he could give an answer a gentle voice called out to them.

“His partner is me.” An alluring voice came from the beautiful lady behind them.

Staring at the design of the black uniform she wore, the two men quickly gave their bows towards her.

“L-lady Oracle I did not know that you were his partner,” Amir spoke out nervously towards the tall lady before him.

“It should have been notified to your boss? Shouldn’t the second-in-command know of this?”

Amir flinched as he heard her. Inwardly he could not help but curse his superior.

Cursed that boss of mine! All he’s good at is reading ancient scripts and dumps all his work to me. At least he should’ve told me of this important matter, now I made a bad impression to the Oracle.

“Ah! It seems that I was too busy to get the notice… Apologies my lady.” Amir gave a sincere bow to the Oracle.

“It’s fine it was a good thing you found Ali anyways.” The Oracle replied as she slowly moved towards the ditzy golem.

“A-Ali?” Amir looked towards his friend Kasem who seemed to have also no idea what was going on.

“The golem, he seems to have said he was called Ali.” The lady smiled.

“No. 166 had a name? Did golem even have names?” Amir silently asked his friend, who was also puzzled by the information.

“Don’t ask me, I thought all golems were labeled by numbers?” Kasem replied quietly back.

Curses is this another information that my boss forgot to tell me? How much more embarrassment does he want me to experience? Another round of curses shot out from Amir’s mind towards his superior.

Looking at the lady who was patting the ditzy golem with affection, Amir could not help but want to kill himself for having called the Golem defective earlier.

If she had heard what I said before I’m sure I would’ve been exiled at daylight! A scary thought came to Amir.

“Ah, could you do me a favor?” The Oracle turned towards Amir.

“O-Of course! Anything for you lady Oracle! I dare say that I would even pop my head out to see the sun if you command me so!” Amir desperately tried to recover his image.

“Oh my, nothing that extreme.” Giving out a pleasant laugh the lady smiled at the two men.

Witnessing such a rare and beautiful sight, the two rough men felt their body’s melting from the scene. It was akin to having been punished by standing outside in the daylight, but instead of feeling pain it was instead replaced with the feeling of pleasure.

Gulp, the two men could not help but feel even more nervous.

“Well I hope you two don’t mind but can you show Ali around our work area? I want him to explore his new home for today, he hadn’t had the chance previously.” The lady pushed the clueless golem towards the two men.

“Well I have work to do, so if you’ll excuse me.”

“Ah! Yes, it’s fine Lady Oracle! Good luck with your work! And don’t worry about little Ali he will be safe with us!” Amir replied respectively towards the woman who was walking leisurely towards the exit.

The two men gave their bows towards her until she had left the room. After knowing she was no longer there Amir and Kasem looked at each other.

“Wow.” With one word they understood what the other was thinking as they smiled at each other, thinking of how lucky they were to be alive.

Behind them glares could be seen from the other workers who had just witnessed the rare scene that was present in the lunch room. All they could do was enviously look far away as they ate their food whilst peeking at the Oracle whenever they can.

From the crowd you could see that some were too mesmerized trying to look at her that they had bits of pieces of their meal stuck on their face as they were too distracted to have properly eaten.

And at the center of it all was Ali who was busy daydreaming as he stared blankly at the delicious food around him.

Part 2

“That was the first time I saw the Oracle.” Kasem was still awestruck at to what he had seen at the lunch room. “Are all Oracle’s that beautiful?”

“Not sure! But I’m sure our lady has got to be the most stunning out of all of them.” Amir confidently responds back at his friend.

The two of them were currently guiding the Oracle’s golem partner, who had his hands locked with Amir’s making it look as if he was guiding a lost child.

At first, Amir had thought it would be an easy job to just show the golem around the place, but who would’ve known that this golem would be so dumb that he could not even follow simple orders.

“No. 166 sure is lucky to have her as his partner…” Kasem stared enviously at the clueless golem.

“You’re quite right, but this golem sure is a handful. He’s so carefree that I’m not sure how he would be able to help her with her work.” Pondering over the possible task that all golems were currently doing Amir was truly confused as to how this golem could ever be useful.

“I’m sure Lady Oracle will be able to find him a job, who knows maybe no. 166 would be tasked to just be a sort of pet for the Oracle?” Kasem nudged his elbow to the golem who had stopped the two on their track as he had randomly paused to pick up a rock on the ground.

Looking at the golem observing a small rock with fascination and then placing it back down after losing all interest, Amir could not help but agree to his friend’s words.

“Well I guess he is quite cute for a golem, I guess he could help by giving the place some positivity.” Grabbing the Golem’s hands Amir continued on the walk as the Golem followed him once again.

“It’s been a tough year right? Not much progress could be seen from our excavation this year.” Kasem despondently replied.

“Worse of it is that the upper management is putting pressure on us for our lack of result.” Amir grumpily replied. “It’s not our fault that it’s becoming difficult each year.”

“Well, they do want to get some clues on the underground kingdom.”

Amir glared towards his friend, “You think I don’t know? Everyone in the team wishes to be able to see our origins. Unlike those Nezkarians, we are proud of our roots.”

“Ugh, thinking about those people gave me another headache.” Amir scratched his head trying to forget about the various problems he had heard.

“I heard the devourer had been sighted near the north?” Kasem remembered a rumor that had been circulating from his friends.

“That worm? Yeah, I heard that as well, but who knows. It’s pretty difficult to actually get close to it.”

Kasem nodded at his friend’s words. “The worm’s been surviving since the ancient time, some things never change.”

“Speaking of change, have you heard about what had been sighted at the center of the Nezkarian desert?”

Quite surprised by the topic Kasem began to think if there were any important news relating to Amir’s word, but to no avail, he wasn’t able to remember anything on the topic.

“I don’t think there should be anything noteworthy about that desolate place?” Kasem replied.

Amir smirked at his friend, “Though I wouldn’t call it important, it is interesting. The desolate place had been having a sudden burst of rain. In fact, it’s been raining quite often this year.”

“That is indeed strange but it’s not really exciting news is it?” Amir looked at his friend as if waiting for more.

Sensing the expectation from his friend’s expression Amir shook his head as he told him, “Well small information like this might be a trigger to a bigger picture, its best to listen to as many as possible.”

“Remember it as a tip for succeeding like me.” Amir laughed as he gave his friend a nudge.

Kasem stared at his friend and could not help but pour rain on him, “I’m not really fond of overworking myself.”

The heartfelt laughter died out instantly as Amir remembered the harsh reality of his life.

As they continued on their guide, they had finally reached the room of what was once an ancient library.

The massive room had previously looked deformed as the earth around it began to cave in trying to bury it all away, but after the discovery of the room, the team had given the task to the golem meisters to help rebuild it.

Seeing the hardworking golems doing their work Amir felt a sense of respect for them but when he looked towards the ditzy golem that was still holding his hand he could not help but feel strange.

“Hey isn’t that boss?” Kasem called out as he pointed towards the man who was surrounding himself with all kinds of ancient scripts.

Quickly shifting his view to the familiar man all sorts of emotion came to Amir and all of it could be summed up by one. Anger.

“That piece of shit!” He shouted as he burst forward towards his superior.