Lucas watched Arthur fight against the birds. He had occasionally stopped to refill an amulet around his neck to keep his camouflage active. He stopped regularly to make sure that the golem didn’t see moving through the trees.

‘The golem is doing well so far and is making good progress towards their location. I’m glad that Aria’s chips worked. I wonder how he will approach the fight. It is an important moment for him and us. No one is watching over him for all he knows. As soon as he went beyond the outpost patrol area he could have stomped his way there, but he is moving just as we showed him and is following the expectation to the letter. It is a shame he is still a bit underpowered to face those shriekers. I wonder how he will change once he is met with his first failure. Whatever happens, I’ll be there to watch it.’

Lucas continued following Arthur and sped ahead of him once they neared the river before moving into position. Arthur moved into the spot (he had in the last chapter) and waited for the bird to finish their hunt. Like a rock, he stayed impossibly still and avoided too much mana usage. Lucas was only able to see him hiding in his spot due to a [Detect Metal] spell he had used through the forest and the few parts of Arthur’s body sticking out from his spot.

‘At least he is waiting for the birds to catch them off guard. It is good he has learned something from the previous encounters we have set up for him. Now maybe he will put on a good showing at least before he fails. Though if he was smarter he would’ve realized that there are too many to fight at once and should’ve planned a retreat or maybe he will follow the birds some more and trap their nest.’

Lucas didn’t have to wait much longer until Arthur attacked.

‘At least I know now that there are still some things that Arthur has to learn.’

Lucas focused on and watched the battle continue silently. Arthur sent off his initial shot and cast [Ice Field].

‘Good he knows that [Vine Trap] is not a useful spell to use here even though it is his stronger area of effect spell currently.’

The purple-streaked shrieking birds took to the air and moved into positions to attack. Lucas made sure to refill his amulet with his mana while he continued to observe. Arthur was too focused on the battle he was engaged in, and it wouldn’t have helped because he hadn’t learned to observe the small changes in the mana around the amulet that it was creating.

‘The sword is holding him back currently even though he doesn’t know it yet. He needs to be constantly casting spells if he wants a chance to win. Air superiority is no joke and [Air Jump] won’t help him. I wonder what spells he will ask for specifically. Most of the beginner and early intermediate spells are available to him if he asks. Will he focus on improving his personal power or will he learn spells to support his ‘hunting team’. That reminds me that I need to go over and plan the comprehensive dragon hunt plan. Some of it will change as the golem learns the spells, but he will still fill the role of a magic swordsman regardless of what spells he learns.’

Arthur leaped into the air with [Air Jump] and attacked with his sword.

‘Finally, some action with the sword. He should’ve used the sword just then. Huh. He should’ve used [Blur] and increased his reach with [Astral Blade] at the same time to hit almost all of them at once. Well, it looks like this fight is almost over.’

Arthur continued to fight until he got hit with the lightning bolts. His body fell over with a thud and stopped moving. The birds circled around him and shrieked back and forth at each other.

‘It’s a shame he didn’t make it. I wonder how he will do in his first battle against the undead. Whatever. The cleanup crew will need to bring him back.’

Lucas took out a communication crystal from his bag and spoke into it. “Arthur’s battle is over. I’m going to need a crew out here to haul him back. The shrieker’s got him good. They pounded him with lightning after he killed two and injured others. I’ll direct you to the spot later once I give my battle report to Zoe”

“Acknowledged. Make your way back and we will follow you to his destination when you are done.”

Lucas returned the crystal to his back and ran back towards the outpost this time using more speed and less silence.

-

Lucas walked through the outpost and found Zoe in the large building now designated as the restaurant/ cafeteria for the newer residents. She was finishing up her lunch when Lucas approached her.

“How was your day?” asked Lucas.

“It was a lot of data analysis and planning. Things are moving quicker and quicker by the day in the south so we may need to cut some corners and train Arthur in less and less simulated combat scenarios pretty soon. I heard a little bit about what happened, and I have some stuff in place for when Arthur returns depending on how he reacts to this failure, but I want to hear it from you. I’ll write the report for the others so just tell me now.”

“Arthur was smart in the beginning before engaging in the fight but took on unnecessary risks and did not plan out his attack fully. By now I expect he will have realized he was meant to fail or will realize it soon. During the fight, he was smart with his spell use but did not try and use them in unique ways and stayed within his understanding of the spells abilities during the fight. So far from our hunts and this experience he also hasn’t tried experimenting with combinations of spells or modifying spells as far as I am aware. He also had a hard time effectively combining both swordplay and spells. This is likely because previous enemies did not require much need for both styles of fighting. Lightning from the shrieking birds injured his internals heavily and he will be in repair mode for some time. He is currently trying to repair it near the river. What do you think?”

“He has only been learning the spells and their forms without understanding the theory behind them. That is currently limiting him the most. Improving on the sword and spell cohesion would be nice, but I will have to ask the others about how best to have him improve it. I guess we could have him do some more spars with two on one encounters, but the exact setup of powers will need to be discussed. How was the amulet I made?”

“It worked perfectly. I’m glad that you could return to making artifact pieces. Arthur will definitely want one or two once he hears of them. I’m glad he has been eager to participate. His memory implanted personality has taken some time to get used to but I’m glad it is working out well now.”

“I’m a bit disappointed that I never got to work on it. Apparently, your people needed some extra time to repair the fractured core with it and had stressed the importance of ‘getting it right’ when it came to the core. How did they get one in the first place? I thought they crumbled once touched by ‘the hand of mortals’?”

“I am not privy to all of the information about the dungeon core. I was only informed about its existence about a year ago, but there were rumors about it further back than then. From what I can guess and have been told. There is probably an ancient artifact that is held by the Gnome King or Gnomish Mages Guild Association. I’m more interested in how they were able to store it and when exactly they obtained it, but the exact information will likely never be shared beyond a few high-ranking officials.”

“Ethan probably knows what they used to retrieve it. Probably had to so that he could work on the golem designs and make the modifications.”

“Yeah. He should be returning soon. And has to so Arthur can learn the light and dark magic. Well, I won’t keep you in the cafeteria any longer. I’ll catch you later once I’m back.”

“Bye.”

“Bye.”

------

Lucas gathered up several workers and had them follow him through the forest. Aria also joined the group because she had some free time, and they would need some magical assistance while traveling back because of the beasts within the forest. She continued to cast deterrence spells occasionally as she walked with them and watched for possible mana beasts that would require her to use stronger spells.

The group occasionally stopped as they moved through the forest so that the non-magic users could take a break. The others were able to naturally use their mana as a power source to reduce their exhaustion to a point.

“How was the fight? I wish I could have watched it. Why did you have to be the one to go?”

“You already know the answer to that one and you would’ve gotten bored. The fight itself was only a few minutes and you would’ve been following Arthur for miles.”

“But I wanted to see him use that cool plant magic. Mine is just colorful or invisible at times so people's appreciation for it is mixed.”

“That is because you can knock someone out or cause a fight to break out with a single spell and it is very difficult to resist mind and illusion magic unless you know what you’re doing. That and you being around your also powerful sister doesn’t always help.”

“Whatever. I’ll take that as a compliment then. How much further is it?”

“The river is just up ahead and then we will need to follow it for a bit because I was a bit off with the directions.”

The group continued their march through the forest until they hit the river. It was currently low tide, so they had an easy time following the river. In only a few more minutes they reached the site of the battle.

“So where is he at?” asked Aria. “This is definitely the place of the battle, but where did he end up.?”

“I… I don’t know. He should still be laying over there.” He pointed at a section of trees with lightning marks and a large depression in the dirt. Closer to the river lay the bodies of two of the shrieking birds.

“He’s obviously not here anymore so let's find him. He can’t have gone too far. Let’s go. Lucas. I’m not taking the blame for this, so you better make this right.”