JR 6.1

Hey Guys!

Puppet POV~~~~~~

We made good time through the forest with Cadum as our guide. He knew all the game trails that moved in the direction that we needed to head in. Natsuko was using him as a mount now, which he took to surprisingly well. I figured as he was a boss class monster he would take offense to basically being ridden by two children. Also, I had several dozen of my spider drones now, they were more useful than my basic drones while only costing a bit more mana-wise. 

Even with Cadum, it took us a few days to reach the gathering of monsters. The mana in the area felt weird as we approached as if it was tainted by something. The noise was on another level even a few kilometers out. Roars, howls, and all manner of vocal sound sounded out from in front of the convoy. We had to move carefully as there were several patrols, but Cadum was able to get us past the first few, not sure if the monster’s survival instincts were still working or it was a scent thing, but nothing approached within a few hundred meters of him. 

I called for a stop as I felt we were close enough for me and my drones to get a better look. I nodded to Azra, then she began to channel her mana, a moment later a mound of dirt and stone surrounded the group, into an artificial cave. 

“Alright, I’ll send out the spiders first then follow them to get a closer look.”

“There are all manner of creatures over there so I would watch my back if I were you,” Cadum said as he laid down. 

“I got it.”

I released my spiders then followed after they had gotten a few hundred meters out. They would be a good safety net for me. I jumped into the trees as I made my way towards the horde, glad that I didn’t have to breathe and that I basically didn’t have an odor on my body. I quickly made my way over while I made sure to stay absolutely quiet. 

I reached the edge of a clearing and stabilized myself on a tree branch near the top. I was only a few months old by mortal standards, but I had never even conceived of such a large number before I saw the horde in front of me. Monsters of all kinds ate, fought, slept, mated, and did other activities down in the clearing. 

I ordered my drones to observe as much of the horde as possible as I needed to send it to Father later tonight if possible. I was in the middle of checking out an area that seemed to contain actual tents when a group of monkey-like monsters landed in the tree below me. I panicked at first as I thought they found me, but they just rested against the tree in the branches below me. 

I waited for nearly two hours before they finally moved away. If they had all taken a nap I might have made a break for it, but they seemed to take naps in shifts, but considering the number of monsters killing other monsters in just the two hours I sat there it made sense to watch out for something that wanted to turn you into a snack. 

I made my way to the tents or as close as I could get to them. I was worried that they might have trapped the area, so I just let one of my hand-sized spiders which I made a few of, go in for me. A rat-like monster somehow noticed the spider as it took a dive at it, the spider dodged in time, and the rat tumbled into the threshold of the camp. Then there was a bolt of green energy, and the rat turned into a pile of ash. 

A man stepped out of a nearby tent, he seemed to be grumbling as he did so. I saw him start to chant and I took the chance to rush the spider forward in the spot that the rat was killed at. The smoke from the body concealed the tiny spider, and it made into the camp before the spell was complete. A rune appeared where the dead rat was. The man cracked his neck then went back into his tent. 

I had the spider head for the nicest tent as I figured that was where the boss would be. It crawled up the walls up to the roof. Once there it tore a small hole through, I held my breath, worried there might be another trap, but nothing happened. It crawled its way inside as I looked around through its eyes. 

There were three people in the tent. An old man, a woman, and another man that seemed to be in his late twenties. I would have thought the old man to be the leader, but he was sitting to the side with the younger man behind the massive desk in the tent. The woman seemed to be more of a slave than a collaborator as she had a slave tattoo and was barely dressed. 

“Old Kuul, any news from the west? I’m tired of waiting,” the young man said as he swirled a glass of wine. 

“They still want more time to make the horde larger. It seems a Lord class monster is in the mountains which is giving them trouble,” the old man said with a shrug, “What we should be… concerned about is that structure that formed overnight a few days ago. Every monster we’ve sent has failed to return, and we even lost the Lord class monster hell wolf that we sent.”

“The tower does bother me, I feel like its a bad omen. I’m torn on whether we should send the horde there first. Better to cover our back then get stabbed by an unknown assailant,” the young man voiced. 

“I agree, maybe it's just an illusion to buy the Valley time, but it's better safe than sorry. Besides, even if they buy time, they most likely won’t flee as they have no idea we’re behind it.”

“M-ma-aster,” the slave tried to speak before the young man slapped her across the face.

“This is no place for a slave to speak! I’m only enjoying the view before we use you so don’t think you’re going to escape your fate,” the young man said with a twisted grin on his face. 

The woman cowered away from the man then curled into a ball next to the tent wall. While I felt sorry for her, there was little we could do to help, and I was sure that another would just take her place shortly after so I just shook my head. The man grinned in sick pleasure at the sight of the woman before he turned back to the old man. 

“You grabbed a good one this time. It’s too bad we can’t taste them.”

“It is a pity, but you learn to live with it. The high one likes his virgins,” Kuul said with a sad smile. 

“Speaking of the high one, is it really necessary for us not to use regular mages? I mean, so many things would be easier for us in the long run…” 

“I’m not sure of the exact details, but I believe it has something to do with a war in Celestia.”

“Celestia, I hope I gather enough power to ascend there one day.”

“Just another reason why we are fighting this war, the B**ch Lelune needs to be brought down a few pegs.” 

The young man was about to say something in reply when an orb on a nearby table pulsed with a green light. The pulsing accelerated until a wave of energy spread from the orb, nothing seemed to be affected until I noticed that everything in the room started to glow with trace amounts of unholy mana. The wave reached the drone, then it seemed like the mana circuits I used started to go haywire. I frowned but decided to be safer than sorry as I decided to arm the self-destruct. A moment later my vision from the drone cut off, and I saw a relatively good-sized explosion from the center tent. 

The two men rushed out coughing from the smoke, then glared at the surroundings. I was worried that they might have a larger version of the orb so I beat a hasty retreat as I had gained some useful information. If those necromancers really sent the horde to the tower, that would save Father quite a bit of time. I sent the order for all my drones to return to the camp and I worked my way back. I had to avoid quite a few monsters as the Necromancers had raised the alarm in the horde. I wasn’t too worried about the others but felt it better to get back quickly just to be safe. 

An hour later I finally made it back. There were quite a few more of the monkey monsters than the group that took a nap under me earlier. The trees had been crowded with them making my trip much more difficult than it had been on the way in. I tapped my foot in the password we had decided on last time we had erected the artificial cave and Azra let me in. 

I looked around when everyone gathered around me, “Well, as Cadum said there are several thousand. The good news is that the necromancers might be heading for the tower in the village, as they want to remove the potential threat to their rear,” I paused for a moment as the sound of heavy footfalls vibrated through the walls. When they passed, I continued, “I have the information Father wanted, so we need to head back as quickly as possible. When we get further from the horde, I will send it to him via the crystal.”

“Is there nothing more we can do while we’re here?” Azra asked me.

“Not without causing the horde to crush us with overwhelming numbers,” I replied with a shrug. 

“I just wish we could leave a nasty surprise,” she said.

I considered the options open to us but couldn’t think of anything that would do any real damage and let us be able to escape without any trouble. I knew that risk might be necessary, but the lives of the group were more important. I sat with my back against the wall when a smell drifted over to me. In the corner of the artificial cave was a pile of… something. I recognized the smell like sulfur. The scent seemed to trigger a memory the I had inherited from Father, I smiled and got to work.

I reached into the bag that contained food for the times that Azra needed to eat. I was actually thankful that we had a previous mortal with us at this moment. Then I grabbed the salt, quickly made a tube and poured it and some water into the pot. I capped it then channeled some mana into generating some electricity through a piece of copper inserted through the bottom. Once the voltage got high enough the dissolved salt separated into a gaseous element I believe was called chlorine. 

I moved over to the pile of sulfur and was about to grab some when Natsuko nearly shouted, “What the hell?!” 

I looked up and asked, “What?”

“That’s… that’s Cadum’s… shit,” she said with a few pauses. 

I looked back to the pile, “figures, a fire breathing monster wolf would crap out some of the highest grade sulfur,” I said with a shrug and grabbed some. 

“Nasty! Make sure you stay away from me… far away,” she said with a shudder as she looked at my hand. 

I channeled my mana into removing the… less desirable parts then added the sulfur to my little science experiment. I created another set of tubes, then fed the chlorine into the sulfur which slowly turned golden yellow as it condensed into a liquid. I spent a few hours working through all the steps that I seemed to recall more of as I worked on it. 

A few hours before dawn I was finished. According to my memories, what I made was called mustard gas, but I liked another name that seemed to be in my memories, Lost. I pulled my spiders to me and added a container into each. I made sure to pull their memory cores so that I had all the information for Father. 

The horde had calmed down when they failed to find anything. I figured that most would be pretty tired after the night of activity and I wanted to act during the day when the mist would be hardest to see. I released my spiders, and they spent an hour to get to their locations, I wanted to get the maximum effect but only had so much of the materials. If I wanted to create them from my mana, it would have taken days. I made enough to cover about a kilometer or so, but the horde encompassed nearly 10 km with certain monsters types keeping to themselves.