Anon slept like a baby after releasing his pent-up stress. “Master, we have found something,” a voice inside Anon’s head reported.
Anon’s eyes shot open. “I’m coming,” he said.
It was still the middle of the night. Anon quickly put on his clothes and headed straight to Sephie’s lab in the basement.
When he arrived, he found No. 300 and Sephie engaged in conversation. “What did you find out?” Anon asked.
“Master, the magic bees you gave us to keep an eye on the Forest of Nightmares…they found something.” Sephie stepped aside to reveal a large, semi-circular metallic base with a single handprint on it.
“What is that?” Anon asked.
“Master, when you gave me the magical bees, I thought it was impossible to look at all of them at once, so I made this,” Sephie said.
“The question remains: what is it?”
As Sephie began to explain, a young ogre girl in a white coat and glasses interrupted. “The final settings are done, Madam Seph– Oh, I-It’s Your Majesty! I-I greet Your Grace!” She stumbled over her words and turned red with embarrassment.
“And who might you be, young one?” Anon asked, a small smile on his face.
“Y-Your Grace, I am No. 7069.” She bowed to show her respect. .
“She is my lab secretary, Master. She helps me around the lab and it was her idea to build this machine. We connected the mana source of all the bees into one and then used that source to monitor every single bee at the same time,” Sephie explained.
“Magical stones obtained from monsters are used as both a power and mana source for this machine,” No. 7069 added.
“Show me how it works,” Anon said to Sephie.
“Master, it was her idea entirely. I would like her to explain its workings rather than me, if you allow,” Sephie replied, gesturing toward No. 7069.
“You have my permission,” Anon said.
“I-I am honored, Your Majesty and Madam Sephie,” No. 7069 said as she moved toward the machine.
Click.
She pushed her hand on the handprint.
Zzzzzzzz…
Shuuu…
Suddenly, a blue light shone from the base, and many blue squared monitors formed out of mana and floated above the metallic base. “Woah…this looks rather futuristic,” Anon thought to himself.
All the screens turned on, and scenes from the forest appeared on all 30 monitors. “This is amazing, but how will you know if anything happens in the forest? It’s not like you can look at every screen at the same time,” Anon asked, looking confused.
“Your Majesty, the mana source of this machine is connected to me. That means my mana source is indirectly connected to the bees and so is my intelligence. The bees will monitor everything in that forest, but if they see anything that looks like a zombie, they will send a little signal to the machine that forwards it to me.”
“So if they see a zombie, you will be alerted,” Anon said.
“Yes, Your Majesty,” No. 7069 replied.
“Very intelligent indeed,” Anon praised her.
“But earlier today, when Madam Sephie and I were testing the machine in trial mode, we saw this.” No. 7069 moved her hand over the handprint in a strange way that caused one of the screens to expand to its full size.
On the screen, a female zombie was seen moving around a tree.
“What’s special about that zombie?” Anon asked, watching the screen on a large display.
“The zombie itself is not special, but the tree it’s hovering around is,” Sephie replied.
Upon closer observation, Anon noticed that the zombie was using her fingernails to draw lines on the tree.
“What is she doing?” Anon asked.
“Just watch, and you’ll be surprised,” Sephie replied.
Suddenly, no.7069 started counting. “5…6….7….8….and 9,” she said out loud.
As they looked at the screen, they noticed something impossible – the zombie near the tree vanished.
“What the hell was that?” Anon exclaimed.
“I knew it!” no.7069 jumped up in excitement.
“What did you find out?” Anon asked.
“Your grace, I’ve been monitoring these zombies for the past 5 hours, and I’ve noticed that five of them disappeared near trees when they completed their tasks.”
“What tasks?” Anon asked.
“This one was tasked to get a fruit from the tree, and after completing her task, she disappeared in the same way the other six did. After taking something back from the forest, these zombies make 9 circles around the white oak tree as they draw 9 lines on the tree trunk, and then they disappear.”
Anon was a little shocked. “So, there’s a pattern…this means…”
“Your grace, they are using the trees as gateways to enter the forest and return back, just like us. My hunter brothers and sisters use tunnels as a way of going in and out of the forest, and just like that, the zombies are doing the same thing.”
“Are you saying that every oak tree in that damn forest is a gateway to those zombies?”
“No, your grace, only a few oak trees are enchanted with magic runes. These trees are enchanted with transportation magic runes that are only used by class 3 or higher nobles to travel through long distances faster,” no.7069 explained.
“How many have you seen?” Anon asked.
“I’ve seen exactly 5 of them, your grace.”
Anon thought to himself, “Interesting, someone is really trying to take over my conquered forest, huh…? Let’s see who will win.” He smirked a little.
Anon left the room as he went to Biyuk’s chamber.
“Biyuk, i need your help.”
Biyuk who was busy hammering the anvil suddenly stopped and removed his glasses and gloves as he walked away from the anvil.
“Oi, Ogre boy continue with daggers and don’t you dare forge a sword blade.” He said as he pointed his hammer towards an Ogre sitting in one corner of the room.
“Yes, Yes, i know.” He said freely as he one-handedly picked up a bigg ass hammer from the ground and started beating the hot iron again on the anvil.
“Yes mas
ter, please tell me what type of help you need.”
“I need you to make me some mithiril armours and weapons.”