Carion's side

Raft Gregor kept on moving into the woods, but the roots and branches all moved away to let the former noble pass without troubles. They did not do so for me, but I was not busted because of that, so it is a fair deal. Walking in the forest is too simple for a Forest Elf like me anyway.

But, what shall I do? Should I try to catch the old man? Garami told us that the former baron only had the Tempter, Soldier, and Head Researcher classes when she appraised him, so it should be possible. Or rather, how did his way to the position of baron with only those classes? Guess the rumors about him faking his achievements must be true.

I still kept on following him, as fighting in the middle of the trees would spell bad for me if he started to call on his goons. I need some space to deploy my golems after all. And starting a forest fire with Magma Magic while being inside the woods is not that smart of a move either.

The walk took a minute or so until we reached another clearing. In the middle of the clearing stood a large, cauldron, along with a large devil stature just beside it. On the statue's chest was something attached to it... a beating heart made of metal? Is that the mechanical heart that Garami and Mira are after? It is smaller than I expected...

While I was watching from the shadows of the trees, Gregor moved to an office desk placed away from the cauldron and activated some box-like Magitech with a glass plate on the front. Light suddenly flashed on the glass plate, and the image of someone appeared on it. 

[Now, what did your men do this time?] - Mysterious man

"It seems like they tried to escape an attack on the base, but they failed to jump on the first transportation. I gave an order to the Husks about finishing them off, so the second transportation will probably contain their corpse. I had Subject #2 clean things up." - Gregor

Is that thing one of those communication Magitechs that has started to be spread on the market? I have never been more glad about being an elf with exceptional hearing than now. While keeping a safe distance from the former baron, I kept on listing to his conversation with the man on the screen.

[Always so ruthless to your subordinates as usual. Too bad you couldn't complete that Draugr of yours.] - Mysterious man

"And I couldn't get my hands on the corpse of the Disaster, but thanks to the aether-remains in the water we stole from the Dungeon, I could recreate the monsters from there, including its Dungeon Boss." - Gregor

[That's good enough to be called a third-place prize. What happened to the creature?] - Mysterious man

"The adventurers had started to move outside the Forest again, so I send it there to buy time for my escape." - Gregor

[Just remember to take the data for the Dungeon Boss with you. It's quite the pain that the plan of mass-producing disposable soldiers won't come true now, but having Dungeon Bosses as our bodyguards will be a fine replacement.] - Mysterious man

"Better than the old hunk of junk we used to guard this creepy place. Speaking of which, what shall I do with the piece of the Heart that's connected to the Dungeon Core?" - Gregor

[Leave it. It's fixed with a teleportation formula that will bring it back to my lab when the idiots try to remove it from the Core. Now, get out of there before anything else happens.] - Mysterious man

Along with the Magitech turning itself off, Raft Gregor started to walk out of the forest. Like I would let you! Stone Bullet!

The shrapnel of rocks flew towards the old man, who dodged it in the nick of time. Or is it that he noticed the magic being shot, making him due to the surprise, thereby escaping the spell that way? 

"Wha-?! Who are you?" said Gregor, while cold sweating from the fear. It was the latter.

I spun my staff while throwing golem creation magic circles from the tip of it. While the golems were being made from the dirt, I gave my name in the best Lily-style possible:

"My name is Carion Verde! A Golem Maker from the region of Velantas, and the one who will live their life without lifting a finger through golems! Former noble of Velantas, Raft Gregor. Repent for your treachery against the state and its inhabitants and surrender quietly!" - Carion

Nailed it! While I was basking in the awesomeness of my introduction, I saw Gregor looking at me with a weird face. So rude. Here I am for once making some efforts and that is all I get? Sure, I got to drag time long enough for the golems to be finished, but this guy's reaction is rubbing me the wrong way.

"Gargoyle! Take care of this guy!" - Gregor

Gargoyle? I turned around after hearing that and saw the massive statue by the cauldron moving. This cannot be good. I used the Great Wall spell to make a wall of earth between me and the stone monster, just in time to block the attack. A moment later, and the earth wall started to melt into a goopy, tar-like substance.

I got the shivers again, so I moved back from the wall, only to see it melting into Draugrs. Their skeleton was different from the ones I have seen before, with these being made of the dirt that made the wall.

"Ha! See that! This Gargoyle is capable of mass-producing my masterpiece, the Draugrs! Thanks to just one-sixth of the Disaster of Life implanted into it, it can create any type of monsters that will-["Sandstorm Blast" - Carion]-that will..., that will..." - Gregor

"What? The Draugrs were made through small black pebbles that struck the wall, so an attack like Sandstorm which targets the whole body should reach it, right? Or did you think your 'masterpiece' was flawless? We have taken out too many of these guys already for it to be a challenge at this point." - Carion

And from the look of it, the Gargoyle needs to use that cauldron to make any non-Draugr monsters, and it needs some time to do so. If it could do so without any of that, then it would have spawned those Glavras types already instead of corpses-less Draugrs.

"Grrrr. Gargoyle! Forget the Draugrs! Just get rid of this elf already!" - Gregor

With his command, the gargoyle started to charge at me. I had half the golems form a wall around me, while the other half-

"Get that guy! And 'Burning Ground'!" - Carion

"Wha-?! Gargoyle! Protect me!" - Gregor

As predicted, Gregor canceled the attack order against me when he was confronted by three golems plus my Magma magic. The Gargoyle moved over to Gregor, and with an Earth magic spell, it made a fissure deep enough to stop the fire. I used an Earth Lance spell to create a makeshift bridge for the golems and the fire, so the Gargoyle had no other choice than to take those attacks with its body.

I have won! Or, maybe not. The damaged parts from the golems' fists and the fire tore on the Gargoyle's body, but the moment it was hurt, it had already regenerated. The heart was making a louder beating sound as the Gargoyle regenerated, so that must be the culprit. Can it not just stay dead? What a pain... Gargoyles are a type of statues, are they not? Then, what if I... mhm. The easiest way is the best way. Good thing it was me who went up against this one.

---

Lily's side

"Oh man, oh man, oh man!" - Lily

"Relax already. Garami's not the type to get killed just from being teleported to somewhere." - Mira

"I know! But what about Carion?" - Lily

"He will live inside our hearts for all eternity..." - Mira

No, he can't! He's still not paid back that last lunch ticket! I can't accept the food from someone dead. It's too unhygienic!

Thanks to those cloth-monsters suddenly attacking the cult-members, we're still on our way to the east gate. After explaining what had happened to the guards that came to investigate the 

Garami wanted Blitz to warn us about something, so we're on our way to meet Bermuda who should be by the gate right now. He'll know what to do! Certainly!

---

"Bermuda? He's gone back home to sleep." - Guard

"No waaaay!" - Lily

"Saw that one coming. That's why I said we should go to the Guild instead. Anyway, can you contact the Guild or the marquises house-." - Mira

*DING* *DING* *DING* *DING* *DING*

Ain't that the alarm bell? The guard that heard it looked out from the gate, and there... what the freaking heck's that?! A giant turtle?! With several snakeheads?! And tons of those smaller ones from earlier.

"Man all stations! Man all stations!! A presumable B-rank monster is closing in on the city!"

The sirens kept on shouting out warnings throughout the town. But one question was on my mind:

"It's big an all, but how do they know it's a B-rank?" - Lily

"They got aether readers attached to the wall, so they read the aether levels of incoming monsters to see what ranking they have. And that's not important now! That big guy can crush a big part of the city if we don't stop it!" - Mira

Oh yeah! What if the restaurants get crushed! Now that I can finally eat there!

"Fine, fine. Make some space. I'll take care of it." - ???

Out from the crowd came a hollow-cheeked figure wearing full-body armor that looked like it would make him collapse any moment...hey!!

"Galleth! You can't! You still haven't recovered from the poison¹From the Eruption Scorpion. yet!" - Lily

I can't let my best friend go out to face something like that²The Glavras Hydraortress. in that condition. It goes against the friendship we built on what we both love!³Food.

"No. My goal in arriving in this town was from the beginning to help it in its peril. Therefore, I need to fulfill my duty to the bitter end! No matter the cost!" - Galleth

"Oooh." - Audience

This... this is bad. If I don't do something, then my best friend's gonna go into a war he won't come back from! Something, I've gotta do something to stop-!

"Besides, this is a great opportunity." - Galleth

Huh?

"With so many turtle-type monsters out there, we can make turtle soup for the whole town. *Slurp*" - Galleth

"?! I didn't think of that! Galleth, let this humble chimera assist you!" -  Lily

"That's the spirit! Now, my friend, to glory and honor!" - Galleth

"To glory and turtle!" - Lily

.........

"You know, without all the gluttony mixed in, that could be a nice scene." - Mira

"True, true." - Audience

---

Mira's side

Why do I have to fight an army of turtles when we need to figure out where Garami and Carion's gotten teleported too? 

Oh well, I'll stick with these guys for now. The Grandmaster's bound to come here now that a B-rank monster's on the loose, and I can gather up the remains from these two hungry-crazed beasts kills. Easy profit. 

"Sir Galleth! Thirty turtles incoming at high speed, right in front of us!" - Lily

Thirty? Ain't that a little too much? And what's that with... fast! Those turtles are fast! They're spinning on their shells to move faster! Why can they do that?!

"Leave it to me. Multi-thrust!" - Galleth

And the turtles exploded into smithereens... what?! No way that's possible. I must be tired. It's been a long day.

"And here's some more! Earth Lance!" - Galleth

...Ignore the gore-festival. Ignore the fact that the turtles are getting pierced by spears made of rock as if their shells are made of leaves. It's just something my tired brain's making up...

"Galleth! We can't make any dishes of them like this!" - Lily

"Ah! I forgot about that in the hurry. Then, let's take care of that big one instead." - Galleth

"Roger♡!" - Lily

Relax Mira. This is just something that can't be happening. Which pair of idiots would go storming towards a B-rank monster?

"[The Emperor of Spears, Romulus]!" - Galleth

...Okay. I can't keep this up. WHAT'S WRONG WITH THOSE TWO?! 

That skin and bones knight just crushed the giant hydra-like turtle in one blow from a spear that suddenly appears from the ground?! And why's it a big tree?! We're in the Deadlands, for goddamn sake!

"Hey, Mira. How much do you think we'll get out of this one?" - Lily

"Hmm, let's see... give me 20% of tonight's profits, then I'll take care of finding the best chef to cook them  for you two." - Mira

"Yahoo! Turtle soup!" - Lily

"Lily! Your friend is the best!" - Galleth

What? Did anyone think that a little unnaturalness was going to stop me from earning more sols? With these two, I'll be swimming in money before the morning! Garami 'n Carion's tough. They'll be fine on their own.

---

Garami's side, in Husk Forest's Dungeon Core area.

... Yeah, can't do this. I'm doomed.

The end of the electric grid-like network was the Dungeon Core. I was expecting something like a Console, like in the Water-Knot, but to think I would stumble over the freaking Core itself. 

The Core to this Dungeon was an ochre-yellow core, on top of a wooden pillar in the middle of a clearing similar to the one where I fought the Draugr knight. But the strangest thing was that a heart was attached to it. Needless to say, it was another Disaster of Life part. Probably used to fuel the Dungeon. 

Things would be so easy if I could just waltz in there and break it, but faith's never such a gentle mistress. One of the main reasons why I hate it. 

Cause in the same clearing sat a knight in a faded, golden armor, emanating a sense of dread that almost makes me faint from the pressure. And right after I promised myself never to take on tank-types ever again! What shall I do?!