"…."

(Nothing.) – thought Thauma as it was using its scout golems to look around near the edge of the forest.

(There is no army, no camps.)

(Just nothing.)

(….This isn't normal.)

(Even if they are wounded.)

(Even if they are scared.)

(Even if they have hard time gathering soldiers.)

(They would still realize the danger that my dungeon poses.)

(Especially duo the fact that the dungeon has devoured a large number of offerings.)

(According to the adventurer guild guideline and from the information I've had obtained from other books as well as prisoners…. They are aware….)

(So why? Why are they not doing anything?)

(The pieces are of information are correct…. But the lack of the enemy activity is now throwing those pieces in disarray.)

(Before it made sense.)

(They were preparing their attack by recruiting adventurers.)

(And their plan almost succeeded, if it wasn't for my bomb golems turning things around.)

(My forces are currently worn out and cannot recover like humans, but I'm producing brand new monsters to replace the damaged ones….)

(And the enemy should know that!)

(And yet they are doing nothing?!)

"…"

(Did they just given up?)

(Possible…. )

(I've interrogated the prisoners for the information and I know what the state their kingdom is in currently….)

(Money.)

(Adventurers move around for money.)

(And this kingdom had recently its own war AND a war against their neighbors whom originally owned this territory.)

(War cost money.)

(Aftermath of a war cost money.)

(Soldiers needs money.)

(And workers who repair the kingdom afterwords needs money.)

(This what Ariava told me.)

(Money is power.)

(But it is something you need to even survive.)

(By any chance, the enemy has run out of money to take any necessary actions?)

"…"

(No…. It maybe it, but also not it.)

(I have no way of confirming it.)

(In the last battle, I could not secure any new prisoners because of how chaotic the battle had ended turning into.)

"…"

(Money or fear…. Those are the only two things I'm suspecting to be the reasons why the kingdom isn't trying to stop me right now from recovering.)

(But is it option that there is a third or maybe fourth option going on? A one that I'm not aware of?)

(The lack of information is truly bothersome.)

"…"

(Well, I should give up on finding out what is going on.)

(Since I don't have any means of securing the information right now and trying to expand my information gathering rage is out of question.)

(I don't know why they are not using this perfect opportunity, but I'm not wasting this chance myself.)

(Right now I can focus on expanding and powering up the dungeon as much possible.)

<<And like that, I've just returned back to my experiments.>>

<<I don't know why they are not doing anything at all and giving me more time… But I'm not just going to waste the opportunity they had given me.>>

<<And thanks to the said opportunity, I had finally enough time to archive one of my goals.>>

<<The elemental affinity application.>>

<<Applying mana affinity wasn't…. Well, it took quiet some time.>>

<<Even with my arcane magic and earth magic affinity, it was bit hard to make even a simple sword that had either weak attribute.>>

<<However, after repeating the process several more times, creating different weapons that has elemental attributes, I've managed to finally create two new skills.>>

<<[Basic Attribute Bestowal: Earth] and [Basic Attribute Bestowal: Arcane].>>

<<Obtain both of those skills took a lot of time and effort, but it was worth it.>>

<<Now that this thing is out of the way, the item skills.>>

<<Like with attribute bestowal, creating skills for the items was quiet trickly.>>

<<It is like… Well, it is weird.>>

<<It is sometimes FEELS like I'm hitting a string with a hammer at full power.>>

<<Or sometimes I'm trying to lift a piece of fragile iron with a sharp blade that can destroy it either iron or the sword itself.>>

<<Creating skill for an item is…. Weird, unknown and complex.>>

<<Giving shape, adjusting the shape, empowering the shape, trying to manifest the shape while trying to make sure that the said shape won't change or collapse altogether.>>

<<Not only the process itself can be problematic, but there is limit of what can you do with an object.>>

<<The objects has limits of what I can manifest within them and how strong the said skill can be.>>

<<Learning how to bestow a skill for a object was much harder for me than it was with a element…. But in the end, I was able to do it as well.>>

[Iron Sword]

[Item Skills]

-[Attack – Level 1]

(There…. Finaly finished.) – thought Thauma as it was inspecting the sword.

(….Mana…. I can sense it clearly within the blade.)

(Now then.) – Thauma approached a two wooden dummy and picked an identical looking iron sword, before then striking two wooden dummies at the same time with same amount of strength.

The process repeated few more times, before then Thauma stopped.

"…"

(Did it worked?) – thought confused Thauma as it was inspecting the damage on two dummies.

"…"

(The damage…. It is only very slightly noticeable?)

(It is not noticeable at the glance, but if you look really closely, you can see that the damage done with enchanted iron sword is slightly better? Like by a very little bit though.)

(Is it because the [Attack] skill is the weakest skill that can be bestowed upon the object?)

(Then again, this skill is just level 1 and from the experience I can tell, that sometimes you cannot tell if the skill does really anything if it's level is far too low.)

(Maybe I should make instead alternative versions of the skill like [Sharpness] or [Bluntness]?)

([Attack] increase the power of all basic forms of damage that the object can do. Be it slashing or smashing somebody with it.)

(But the other two skills instead focuses on one specific aspect.)

(Then again, these two skills performance depends on the weapons themselves as well, just like for the people.)

(Even if you have a high level [Fire Magic] but don't know shit about fire magic, you will be easily beat by the expert with low level [Fire Magic].)

(These skills performances depends on their vessels.)

"…"

(And still no enemies…. This is getting even weirder.)

(By now I would at least expect the number of the enemy scouts to increase or something, but there is nothing.)

(Just what is going on?)

(Why there was not even a single change even after days went by?)

[Meanwhile: Maw city.]

"Hey! What is going on here?!"

"You told us that you want us to deal with these golems, but now we are hiding like cowards?!"

"Fuck it! You weren't there! These bastards didn't tell us shit about these monsters!"

A commotion was happening right in the middle of the city square as adventurers were causing a commotion while soldiers were trying to somewhat calm the situation.

"KNOCK IT OFF ALREADY!" – shouted the tall wolf beastman as he gotten between two groups.

"YOU ALL WILL BE PAID FOR DOING YOUR JOB! BUT RIGHT NOW, WE ARE GOING TO WAIT IN ORDER TO INCREASE OUR FORCES!"

"If you have problem with this, you can just go home and don't gain paid, got it?!"

"…"

"Tch. Fucking waste of time. Shouldn't have came here in the first place." – said annoyed adventurer as people dispersed.

"…"

(Dammit…. This isn't good.) – thought the temporarily general of the Garmfon army as he started heading back the ex-lord's mansion.

"…"

"Is it that bad?" – asked the duke as the general entered the mansion.

"Ah… You were waiting." – said Adam with a tired expression.

"Yea…. It is extremely bad."

"We can no longer control these adventurers."

"I don't know why or how, but the information about the general's death has spread not only around here…. But throughout the whole kingdom…. If the information is correct."

"So far, the information has been found out spreading not only in capital city, but also in few more settlements."

"The main suspect is…. The rebellion forces led by the destroyed Royal faction."

"And there is good chance that we have few traitors amongst our ranks that are with them."

"….So yea…. We are fucked…."

"As for the dungeon…. Honestly, I don't know."

"With how much chaos is going on, I don't think we will be able to attack it anytime soon…. If anything, we may….?"

"Why are you... Okay. What is going on?" – said the beastman as he noticed the nobleman's expression.

"…"

"While you were gone, we had a visitor making an appearance in the city."

"The elves from the Mowiorano kingdom."

"….Shit." – said the beastman as his entire mind was instantly filled with panic and fear.

"W-why -W-what did they wanted?!" – asked the beastman as his voice was shaking.

"…"

"I don't know…. They came here saying that they wanted to make sure that 'everything is alright'…. But I don't know about this." – replied the nobleman.

"I've asked if they wanted to wait a bit in order to wait for you…. But they instead just instantly left for the capital city."

"The elves have finally showed the interested in the golem dungeon…. Or worse."

"They are no longer trusting us at all."

"…"

"Oh fuck me…." – said the beastman.

"First, we had a fucking a problem with a dungeon popping up…. And now we could have a fucking war with elves blowing up at any moment?"

"This is just fucking perfect."

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