[Month later.]
"Huh…. So, this is the first proper golem you have made?" – asked Ariava.
"YES" – replied puppet using piece of paper.
"I guess you went with the classing humanoid puppet version you are used to…. But this one is much more different, eh?"
"You ditched the whole arms theme and instead went with blade arms?"
"Why is that?"
"Simpler and effective design." – replied Thauma by writing down its reply.
"Movements are simple, but effective."
"The blade is long and doesn't have blunt side."
"Can stab and slash."
"Reinforced bit areas around the chest and legs."
"Huh….. Then what about combat?" – aside Ariava who then spotted two puppets, one long limbed puppet and one claw puppet.
"Oh? So, you were already getting to do a test, eh?"
"…"
(FIGHT!)
Long limbed puppet and blade puppet rushed at each other, before moments later the long limbed pupped swung its arm at the blade puppet.
This resulted in long limbed puppet securing the first hit…. But it didn't stopped the blade puppet.
If anything, it counter attack by slashing the long limbed puppet arm, damaging it, before then getting close enough to the puppet body.
The long limbed puppet tried attacking again, but the blade puppet was faster, landing an slash attack.
The different in power was extremely visible.
Both puppets attacks were landing, but it was extremely obvious that the blade puppets attacks were much more deadlier…. And in the end, the winner was clear.
The blade puppet destroyed the long limbed puppet.
"…"
(FIGHT!)
As soon as the first battle ended, the second battle started instantly.
This time the puppet attacking each other at the same time and there was also visible differences, such as the claw puppet attacks managing to dig into blade puppet body and pull out few small parts of it.
However, it wasn't being completely destroyed. It could still move and it could still attack…. And before long, it also destroyed.
"…"
"Huh…. Nice…. Is this finished product?" – asked Ariava.
"NO" – replied puppet by taking out piece of paper and then starting to write on a different one.
"Experimental version."
"Improvements are still needed. Legs and joints especially."
"There are also…."
"…"
(Monster…) – thought Ariava while puppet continue writing.
(After finally obtaining the core and that new body of his, the growth was now, NO! It is abnormal fast!)
(…. I guess I know what is happening.)
(His potential and talent was completely blocked off…. To put in different perspective.)
(It is like he was attached to a giant boulder that was slowing him down, causing him to only walk meter for only just an hour.)
(However, the boulder that once bound him is now gone…. And not only that, but the speed that normally could not go rampage is being unleashed all at once.)
(Probably this growth will stop soon, it is just temporarily no matter how I look at it.)
(But right now his growth is extremely fast.)
(He only recently came up with this puppet…. And it was able to destroy both of the regular puppets of this dungeon.)
(And this thing is just experimental version?)
(I know he still has a lot of work to do… Honestly, his dungeon has an E rank danger… But it also at the bottom of a E rank…. But now? He is slowly climbing up.)
(It is just matter of time before this dungeon will stop being bottom feeder and may even be seen as E+ rank danger!)
(But who knows? Maybe his growth right now is something much more wilder than I even could predict?)
(Still, one thing is E rank and other is D rank. Not only that, but once it reaches D rank, it may be consider target of extermination by the people…. There is also war…. It is just matter of time before people would come here and stuff.)
(I've told this guy to stay hidden and lot his monsters out…. I guess one of the benefits of having golem dungeon is that he doesn't need to worry about monsters disobeying the commands or having any need to feed them.)
(Still, the "golem dungeon is a crime scene" and stuff according to that guild master I've murdered.)
"…"
"Just an small reminder."
"The test, you do you remember about it, right?"
"!"
"…"
"You forgotten about, eh?" – said Ariava after noticing the puppet reaction.
"Welp, I'm just going to remind you about it."
"This will be your test to see how powerful you are."
"And now you have no excuses."
"You have obtained new and proper body that no longer holds you back."
"So, here is what will happened."
"You will continue your research and finishing making new kinds of golems."
"Once you finish everything, you are going to the war."
"Your aim: Destroy the beast dungeon."
"And this time, I'm not helping you at all."
"I'm not going to teach you anything at all."
"I'm not going to explain anything to you at all."
"You are working alone right now."
"Got it? You are going to survive and win all on your own."
"And don't worry, this will benefit you extremely well if you win this."
"Since you could cannibalize the beast dungeon."
"?"
"Cannibalize them?" – asked puppet by writing down.
"?"
"…"
"Ah. Shit." – said Ariava.
"I didn't fucking explained that part, did I?"
"Wow…. Okay…. Yea…... That one is completely on me."
"…"
"Okay. Let me explain this part."
"It is not uncommon for some desolated dungeons to fight each other or to aim to cannibalize each other."
"Here is what I know…. Dungeons have ability to devour other dungeons, causing the burst in growth for the devourer and not only that but it sometimes causes the dungeon to mutate."
"There was once here a undead dungeon, right? I once personally saw a undead type dungeon and beast type dungeon having a war, which resulted in undead dungeon winning."
"However, here is interesting part."
"The undead dungeon that normally just created skeletons had somehow gained ability to create skeleton beast."
"The beast dungeon wasn't just destroyed, it was cannibalized by undead dungeon."
"Not only the undead dungeon grown, but it had also gained new options it never had before."
"From the informations I have obtained, it seems that for the dungeon to cannibalize another dungeon, the dungeon in question would need to sacrifice the destroyed dungeon core."
"Your core isn't just device or big gem, it is also a heart of the dungeon as well as device that posses countless form of data in such unique form that it can only be used by dungeons themselves."
"Dungeons cores kind of disappear on their own as their physical form gets completely destroyed, but the disappearing process is very slow, meaning that you could easily bring in the destroyed core into your dungeon and devour it."
"And here is also the second benefit."
"When dungeons are destroyed, their domination and authority is getting also destroyed, alongside any dungeon monsters, causing it all to get turned into rough miasma."
"However, this miasma is bit different."
"Experts call it "distorted miasma"."
"Unlike regular miasma that can be used to create dungeons, the distorted miasma isn't able to operate properly, meaning that no new dungeon would be born from that left over miasma AND because of it disable state, they would just collapse and disappear."
"However!"
"This miasma can be gathered and devoured by dungeons nearby."
"Meaning, if your dungeon is close enough, you could devour their "Distorted Miasma"."
"…"
(I see…. So not only I could steal data and power from the dungeon core, but I could also obtain a lot of miasma in one go?) – thought interested dungeon master.
(It DOES sound interesting and beneficial…. Not only that, but other dungeons are just competition.)
(And they may also decide to attack me in order to obtain both my miasma and data.)
"…"
"…"
"Understand. I will make sure to succeed." – replied puppet by writing its answer.
"…"
"Well then…. Show me something interesting."
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<<…. Well… Designing isn't really easy, if I'm being honest.>>
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