The adventurer Adam, the young man who was searching for his little brother in total desperation, has met his fate at the hands of the monster that had killed his brother.
It was a barely won battle.... But the golem survived, with its body now being destroyed and missing both of its forearms.
The dungeon does not possess any ability to recover, which could heal up the dungeon master.
This means that the dungeon master was left completely "armless".
Or that would be the case if it didn't have a skill called [Self Repair – Level 1]
Self-repair is a recovery type of skill, which allows the construct to put its body right back together, like putting back a hand at the missing spot.
However, this ability recovery process is very slow, and it also uses up a bit of mana, even when reattaching even a small bit of the body.
To make matters worse, the puppet was missing both arms, so the recovery took an extremely long time.
The puppet was able to recover one of its arms after a lot of struggle…. But even so, the arm was still pretty much in a 'wrecked' state. It had holes everywhere and was noticeably moving more slowly compared to its original state.
Just using the skill wasn't enough to repair the damage that the golem had sustained, and it needed proper basic repairs.... Which the golem had yet to learn, which meant that the golem would stay with this destroyed arm for some time.
But!
The golem at least recovered one of its arms.
So that means it was….. Relived….. Right?
…
No….
It wasn't relived at all.
It was completely terrified.
It knew that the being it just fought was far stronger than any other beings it fought ever since it was born.
It didn't even understand why the hell the man had fallen on the ground and wouldn't move.
The man had managed to destroy the puppet body, overpower it, and drive it into the corner.
It was about to kill the puppet.
It was about to win, and the puppet could not do anything but just stare..... But instead, the golem just watched as the man fell down.
It didn't understand at all what had happened during the fight.
When the dungeon master fought the murder rabbit, and it had managed to completely surprise it with its quick and powerful charge, the dungeon master was shocked and curious while also panicking, but this?
It was only fear.
Pure fear.
The puppet was completely consumed by fear during and after the fight.
It knew it was about to die.
"Fear"
"Panic"
"Dread"
It didn't seem to understand at all why the man had collapsed.
There was no relief at all when the golem finished off the man.
Only confusion and fear.
However…. This fear wasn't the end.
The man had terrified the puppet in more than one way.
Specifically, it made the puppet terrified of the future.
(Stronger? What if an even stronger one come?)
(Can't defeat….. Can't see.)
(Deadly! Danger!)
The puppet monster realized that it may end up dealing with foes as strong as the swordman, if not stronger ones, in the future.
It realized that JUST upgrading the puppet action patterns would not do.
And that the puppet lord itself was weak compare to the swordman.
It understood one thing.
"Lucky"
It got lucky.
That's it.
Nothing more. Nothing less.
It didn't won because it was smarter, faster, stronger, or anything.
It was pure luck, a coincidence, an accident.
And it was right. If the man took evenan short rest, he would have enough power to kill the puppet, but obviously the puppet didn't know that.
However, what it understood was that if the man hadn't suddenly fallen and stopped moving, the puppet would have died.
And that terrified the puppet. It was the first time I had ever been pushed that far, and how it came close to experiencing death itself.
It could feel its breath touching the golem.....The death it had barely avoided.
…
The golem was traumatized.....
But that fear was also the factor that forced the puppet to keep moving forward.
It understood.
It understood that it needed to change.
Not only the puppet monsters, but the dungeon master itself.
It needed an "upgrade".
But how?
It didn't possess an ability to evolve…. But it could possess a "Class".
However, was there even an class that fit the dungeon master?
Not only that, but to even acquire a class, you need to create a "class root".
The "Class Root" is usually referenced to the "condition to acquire class".
For example, a class may need the user to acquire specific skills.
Simply put: You cannot become a swordman if you have never wielded a sword in your life, nor have you even trained or manifested your own efforts into the [Swordsmanship] skill.
As for the dungeon master? It knew next to nothing.
It had learned any skills at all and was fully and only focusing on developing its puppets.
Can it learn enough skills to obtain a class? And how long would that process take? Would it had enough time to become "stronger"?
It didn't know.
It was panicking and asking itself questions about what it could do?
"Magic?"
"Bow?"
"Skills?"
"Sword?"
"Coding?"
The puppet tried thinking in desperation about ways to overcome the situation….. But it couldn't come up with a good situation.
The options it had were "not enough".
…
And the only real option would be to develop the dungeon.
Develop the dungeon, research more monsters, and improve coding.
This was the only option.
It tried to think about ANYTHING that it could that would have an effect right now.... But unfortunately for it, this was the only path it could take.
And so it did it.
The golem put its sole focus on developing the dungeon and the art of core engraving coding.
Many attempts like before ended up in failure... But the desperation pushed the puppet further, forcing it to try and learn, develop, and improve, which had a noticeable effect as the golem research and training were showing some improvements.
The puppet movements were getting better with each test..... But there was something off.
(Why..... No attack?)
Golem realized something was wrong.
By now, it should have been attacked by something.
Not necessarily the "human", but more specifically the rabbits.
There should be a new attack by now.... No. A new attack should have came long ago.... And yet there was nothing.
The dungeon master was confused.
"Why was nothing happening?"
The golem didn't know, but it was all thanks to the swordman.
The rabbits that had made the area outside the dungeon their "home" were killed by the swordman, and then the rabbit corpses were devoured by the wild monsters.
However, with the rabbits gone in the area, there was no benefit for the monsters to "take" the horned rabbit home, meaning that the dungeon had somewhat obtained a temporary peace, but for how long?
The golem didn't let its guard down. It knew that the next attack could be as deadly as the last one, if not much deadlier.
True, it did obtain DP thanks to the swordman's death, but there is no way that the monster it could create would stand even the slightest of chance against a foe as strong as that "human".
However, that fear and desperation that driven the golem forward was something it needed.
The determination and desperation pushed the golem forward..... Until it finally reached "it".
The mannequin was moving.
It was walking, it was swinging, it was doing all sorts of stuff.
It wasn't the original coding that the puppets were given upon their first creation; it was instead a brand-new coding that the dungeon masters had learned and implemented themselves.
A coding it had created from scratch all on its own.
Truth to be told, it should have taken anybody way longer to even do an extremely basic command set, but the dungeon master did it thanks to its "curious" nature and its "desperation".
And this, in turn, caused a fruit to be ripped.
[You have obtained the skill: [Golem Crafting – Level 1].]
The skill had been finally obtained and the dungeon master understood how the coding works.
It finally saw it.
It was faint, but it was noticed by the golem.
The light called "Hope".
The golem understood upon seeing this light, that there was a chance!
A chance that it could survive! That it could live!
True, it was obviously nowhere near enough in its current state, and it also needed to learn how to properly repair its body..... But it still saw it.
And so, the golem continues working, aiming for its "hope".
…
But unfortunately for it.
It didn't realized it screwed up extremely big time.
The reason?
He killed the young adventure party that had caused the swordman to look for them.
But now?
This swordman was dead…. And it is easy to imagine what will happen next.
[Current location: Adventure guild – Guild master office.]
"For fuck sake!" – shouted guild master while smashing the table with his fist.
"Are you fucking kidding me right now?! He is missing?! You are not shitting me right now?!"
"…N-no." – replied the young man with the scar.
"He said he will go back to the town, but according to the guards, he never came back, we even made double sure if they didn't missed him and he wasn't in the town, but no. He never returned in the first place."
"We even looked around a bit, especially around the undead dungeon, but there was nothing." – said the brown-haired young man.
"Even the guys that went and destroyed the undead dungeon said that Adam was never there."
"…"
"Let me get this straight." – said the guild leader while holding his head.
"One of our most promising adventures, that could possibly become a high-ranking adventure, was searching for his brother like a madman and completely abandoning reason in order to find his brother."
"And you two idiots LET HIM GO HOME ALONE WHEN HE WASN'T IN THE RIGHT STATE OF MIND?!"
"HOW FUCKING STUPID ARE YOU?!" – shouted the guild leader while the two adventurers tried avoiding eye contact out of guilt.
"LOOK AT ME YOU IDIOTS AND ANSWER ME! WHY THE HELL YOU TRUSTED HIS WORDS AND LET HIM GO ALONE?!"
"You fucking…..*Sigh*"
"I just fucking can't." – said the annoyed guild master as he sat down.
"…"
(Honestly, I can understand somewhat Adam actions…. He was an orphan that had to raise his brother all on his own while being both homeless and poor.) - thought the guild master with a worried expression.
(However, he had THAT kind of potential!)
(He was able to show it off, earning enough money for himself and his brother while also gaining reputation everywhere! He was still young and was still developing, but the speed of his development was astonishing! He easily climbed up ranks quiet quickly as well, and that was only when his talent started to slowly showing up!)
(Hell! I even helped them out financially as well when I found about his talent!)
(He was still not there; he was obviously still a low-ranked adventurer, but the promise he showed was more than enough to invest in.)
(And it wasn't just him! His brother had also shown the same kind of dormant talent like him!)
(They were good people!)
(…. And I fully understand why Adam went mad when Arthur went missing, considering how much they suffered…. But now?! He also went missing?!)
(According to those two, he hasn't taken an proper rest at all….)
"I will post the search request on the guild board…. If you find anything, report it immediately."
(Damn you Adam.)
(You'd better be safe.)