Lord Of Puppets

[Current location: Bearmight Manor]

"…"

"Well…. This is annoying." – said Oranox Bearmight as he read the documents.

(The dungeon is changing and it is producing bit more monsters as we wanted…. But the rate of its growth isn't fast enough.)

(Months has passed already.)

(But the changes that the dungeon has been experiencing are….. Way weaker and slower compare to the average dungeon.)

(Hell, I've even looked through the past records regarding dungeon breaks and stuff, confirming that the growth speed of that dungeon is way too slow.)

(At this rate it may take year, two… Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if it took 5 years.)

(Well, even when the dungeons do enter break state, they don't instantly change from D rank danger all the way to B.)

(But even so, the growth speed of that dungeon really isn't looking great right now... And that does pose annoying problem for us right now.)

"…"

"And these bastards. What are they doing?"

"These people that were captured, they were from the noble faction, weren't they?"

"Yes." – replied human advisor named Victor.

"Or more exactly, they don't know who is paying them."

"They were just paid to assassinate the people around the forest."

"And why they were trying to use expendable bastards like these….. Well, I can think of few ideas.)

"There is a chance that the noble faction wants to make you 'unreliable' in people eyes, so that they could pull something else and try to take over the rights of the dungeon."

"By the looks of things, we have a spy in our faction…. And we need to find the bastard."

*Sigh*

"And this will definitely not last time."

"The incident, I mean."

"Duke Waranai isn't some idiot we can look down on."

"Yea, I totally agree with you on that." – said duke Oranox.

"Honestly, noble faction were just some random barking dogs that could do nothing, but ever since that bastard Waranai took over, things instantly changed."

"He knows how to manipulate both corrupted nobles and common folk."

"He appears to be just some common corrupted noble or some humble noble, but in reality that bastard is rotten."

"He want power."

"Honestly, the main reason why the war started in the first place was his doing."

"But nobody had realized it until it was too late."

When it came down to the kingdom of Marok and kingdom of Garmfon, their relationship wasn't the best.

If anything, they did went to the wars with each other over the smallest things.

However, now that the kingdom of Marok has been fully exterminated, a era of peace should envelop the entire kingdom of Garmfon….. And yet, this did not happened.

Currently the kingdom of Garmfon is divided by two factions.

The royal faction and the noble faction.

In the recent years, the kingdom of Garmfon has been growing stronger and stronger when it came down to both military and adventures.

And this caused a emergence of the noble faction.

Noble factions goal believes that kingdom of Garmfon has grown enough to not only destroy their long time rivals, the Marok kingdom, but possible even expand and conquer other nations.

But on the other end, the royal faction wanted to focus peace and control.

However, because of the tension between two nations was already high, it didn't took long for the noble factions to manipulate events here and there, causing a war to break out between the two factions.

The noble factions wanted to show that the kingdom of Garmfon is "strong" and that the noble faction can do things that the royal faction can't.

But they screwed up.

The royal faction knew how to fight and lead their soldiers, resulting in the noble faction not gaining chance to "show off" as they planned in order to gather public support.

Even so, in one way they did showed to the people of the Garmfon kingdom that their kingdom is strong and that it can defeat its enemies.

In a sense, both factions are still keeping each other in check.

However, there was now new emergency.

New dungeon.

A dungeon with potential of becoming a national type dungeon.

If the kingdom were to be in possession of such dungeon, their kingdom budged would signific increase.

However, there is a problem.

The dungeon is producing iron and weapons.

Something that is essential to make sure that the soldiers are well equipped.

And for the noble faction that wanted to continue waging wars? They wanted to secure this dungeon to not only strengthen their faction and weaken the royal faction, but also have ability to strengthen their own armies.

"Honestly, I've been considering destroying that dungeon in order to prevent that bastards from doing anything….. But the moment I realized how much our kingdom would get from that place IF we control it growth and made it into nation dungeon…. I couldn't gave up on this dungeon."

"But now we have different problem."

"The one being these bastards trying to steal all the credits."

"Right now all the credits and benefits will go to whoever owns the dungeon AND have it reach the final stage we want, making it into officinal nation dungeon."

"Fucking parasites that are only waiting to claim all the benefits and just say that they did all the work."

"Well, you can't just go around killing every single one them, since you would be just playing right into their hands." – said Victor.

"I know, I know….. Fuck…." – said annoyed bear beastman as he took out a large bottle of wine and then just straight out drinking out of it.

"But there is still a lot of other shit going on."

"Especially that queen of Marok kingdom and the prince."

"We have still yet to find them."

"There are also bandits and what now."

"Honestly, the next thing we need is some sort of out of nowhere and uncontrollable problem that would fuck us all up about now."

"It would be just too fucking perfect."

[Meanwhile: Dungeon]

<<Experiments and failures.>>

<<Creation and destruction.>>

<<Remodeling or completely changing design.>>

<<Test 4 – Failure.>>

<<Test 7 – Failure.>>

<<Test 8 – Success.>>

<<Test 9 – Success.>>

<<Test 10 – Failure. Test 8 and 9 results were not correct. Repeat test 1 through 4. Find the main problem.>>

<<Experiment 1 and 2. Failure.>>

<<Artificial Mana Organ number 23 needs remodeling.>>

<<Remodeling successful.>>

<<New changes to the core – Output weaker but the mana flow is much more stable.>>

<<Beginning creating test body.>>

<<Test body 1 produced.>>

<<Combat test start.>>

<<Combat test end.>>

<<Results: Failure.>>

<<Reason.>>

<<Mana went berserk around joints, resulting in either explosions or shattering that in turn caused me to lose my limbs, head also almost got sent flying.>>

<<Modifying mana passages.>>

<<Modifying mana usage.>>

<<Error encountered.>>

<<Connection between golem core and artificial mana organ needed.>>

<<Additional test conducted.>>

<<Failure. Failure. Success.>>

<<Changing design of the body.>>

<<Preparations over.>>

<<Test body 2 produced.>>

<<Combat test start.>>

<<Combat test end.>>

<<Results: Failure.>>

<<Reason.>>

<<Mana movement and concertation wasn't working properly. Mana flow wasn't able to operate properly at all during combat at random or couldn't be used when tried to quickly cast spells.>>

<<Checking the golem core.>>

<<Checking inner body parts.>>

<<Replacing joints.>>

<<Test body 3 produced.>>

<<Combat test start.>>

<<Combat test end.>>

<<Results.>>

<<Failure.>>

<<Reason.>>

<<Body can operate in basic manner, but I've put too many safety restriction, causing the movements to get way sloppier than any other, this also included hindering the effectiveness and casting time of spells.>>

<<Critical error found within artificial mana organ.>>

<<Change up ration of weaker and stronger mana gems.>>

<<Testing new heart.>>

<<<Success. Success. Success.>>

<<Training golems are working at full power.>>

<<Changing approach for self.>>

<<Testing double mana artificial organ project.>>

<<Failure. Failure. Failure. Success. Failure. Success. Success.>>

<<Safety features check.>>

<<No errors found when used spells.>>

<<Mana flow stable.>>

<<Testing can resume.>>

<<Test body 4 produced.>>

(Limbs: Arms, legs, head: No problem discovered.)

(All joints functional.)

(Golem core. No problem discovered.)

(Artificial mana organ number one operational.)

(Artificial mana organ number two operational.)

(Mana full charged.)

(Mana flow stable.)

(Test body number 4 check up completed.)

A large six armored humanoid golem made out of wood and iron stood right in the middle of the room, inspecting its own body.

(Activating training golems.)

(Spear golem number 1, 2.)

(Blade golem number 1, 2.)

(Hammer golems number 1, 2.)

(Training set.)

(Order.)

(Lethal combat.)

(Begin.)

As soon as Thauma gave command, both of the blade golems instantly started rushing towards Thauma who just waited for the golems for them to swing their blades, which were instantly grabbed by Thauma arms, completely stopping the blades in their place, which forced the creation to use their other blades to attack, but were also grabbed by Thauma extra hands.

(Basic physical power output: Good.) – thought Thauma before then noticing other golems coming, forcing Thauma to knock and threw down the two blade golems at the spear golems, stopping them in their place.

However, hammer golems were still on the move and before long they started attacking Thauma, who this time didn't tried defending itself as it instead focused on dodging the hammer golems attacks.

(Basic movement: Good.)

(Basic speed: Good.)

(Change.)

Thauma suddenly went on the offensive as he dodged one of the hammer golems attacks and then rammed into it, knocking it down, while the second golem tried its luck, only to then get trapped Thauma two arms, fallowed up with the four arms stabbing and punching the hammer golem body, damaging the hammer golem's body with each hit dealt.

(Increase power output.)

Thauma attacks suddenly got much stronger as each of its attacks was just now tearing apart the golem before then completely wrecking it, destroying the first golem.

"!"

But that didn't stopped the other golems as all 5 remaining golems started attacking Thauma, forcing it to either dodge, block or counter attack their attacks.

(No errors. No problems occurred.)

(Speed up.)

Thauma suddenly rushed in and punched one of the blade golems in the chest with 3 arms, dealing massive damage to the puppet and sending it flying, before then grabbing the incoming four spears with each hand and then using his two remaining free hands to snap the spears.

After disarming one of the spear golems, Thauma used the halves of the spears with the blades on them as a weapon against robbed golem, but before Thauma could even start destroying the golem, a second hammer golem and spear golem attacked Thauma from behind, landing their attacks.

"…"

(Basic defense: Good.)

But Thauma wasn't bothered one bit by their attacks nor it stopped Thauma from counter attacking by throwing the spear blades at two golems, stabbing their bodies with them, before then rushing at the spear golem and then straight up ripping off its arms.

The hammer golem tried attacking Thauma, only for the dungeon master to dodge the attack and then push the golem to the side, fallowed up with Thauma quickly getting behind the golem and just using all of its arms to grab its body and head, ripping off the golem's head.

After ripping off the hammer golem head, Thauma used it to block the blade golem attack, stopping the blade in the place, before then using its multiple arms to start beating a living hell out it, not letting blade golem even have a chance to attack with its blade.

After stacking up enough damage, Thauma went for the finisher.

It grabbed the blade golem arm and ripped it off, before then using its own blade and shoving it into its chest, destroying the blade golem.

The other blade golem that was still operational tried attacking Thauma alongside the disarmed spear golems and in response to that Thauma grabbed the headless hammer golem and just used it as the shield, blocking the blade golem attacks, before then kicking the hammer golem and making it fall on top of blade golem.

As for the other two remaining golems? Thauma did not showed any mercy as it instantly ripped apart already disarmed golems, before then going to two fallen golems, finishing off the hammer golem by destroying its core and then starting to rip apart the last remaining blade golem in animalistic like way, disassembling the creation.

"…"

(Test completed.)

(All enemies eliminated.)

(Results.)

(Physical basic abilities: Acceptable.)

(Damage sustained: Acceptable.)

(Errors in body functions: Non.)

(Mana flow: Stable.)

(Noticeable problems: Non.)

(Test body number 4 test successful.)

(This new body is nothing alike to version 3.)

(All physical abilities are good.)

(Not only that, I was able to use perfectly all 6 arms in combat unlike before.)

(There is also this.)

(Artificial mana organ.)

(It is working properly.)

(Both of them are.)

(I've finally managed to make the best one I could had possibly made with the materials I've had on hand.)

(Magic is working perfectly as well.) – thought Thauma as it put its hand on the ground and activated simple earth magic, causing a spike to sprout from the ground.

(Even when I'm casting spells or using simple element manipulation, there is no problem what so ever with the mana flow.)

(Not only that, but my movements became nothing alike!)

(They became far smother compare to before.)

(This is only one of the benefits.)

(After researching and making countless armors and weapons, I was able to use able to upgrade different parts of my body.)

(The strength, the sharpness, the speed, the toughest and so on.)

(Failures after failures.)

(Experiments after experiments.)

(I've spent months researching weapons, artificial mana organ and also trained myself in magic as well as my craft.)

(My research, my failures, my experiments, all have bore the fruit in a form of this body.)

(….)

(But this isn't enough data.)

(No.)

(This is just experiment, one of many.)

(And this body is far from being perfect.)

(I'm not foolish to see and think that this body here is something "godly". No.)

(What I've did was just a step.)

(The first step was obtaining proper golem core.)

(The second step was obtaining properly working artificial mana organ.)

(It did took a lot of time to even take one single step, but each step allows me to now reach new heights.)

(And right now? I will use these steps and my experiments to create a new step.)

(A step that will make me even stronger.)

(And this body, this experiment isn't finished.)

(This body is just experiment and to make sure that it is finished, I need more data.)

(In order to see all my skills, all my magic and all my body improvements, I need much harder challenge.)

(I need something that will force me to use everything I have in order to get a full grasp of my new abilities.)

(I need a challenge.)

(Activating training golems.)