Mutagen

Day ▋▋▋ - ▋▋:25 AM - Treasury, Spire Tree Castle, Fallen Kingdom of Black Duendes, Spirit Dimension

Mark held the rough papers containing the records about the golem as he started at the humanoid contraption.

According to the records, this golem was made way before this Kingdom was established. They found it within the ruins where the Spire Tree Castle currently stood. That was right, the ancestors of the Black Duendes built this Kingdom upon the ruins of an ancient civilization within the Spirit Dimension.

Unfortunately, the ruins were too destroyed to the point of recognition, only leaving a few things for the current people to see. Among those relics was this golem that the Black Duendes tried to restore for hundreds of years.

They did their best and managed to fix the golem. Researching and tinkering, the Black Duendes recreated its whole body.

The sad thing, however, they lacked the most crucial thing. A core to make the golem move. And to the dismay of the researchers, there was no known method to create it. At least, not in their knowledge.

And then, the reign of Luserio came. As the new King reigned as the most powerful compared to his predecessors, he deemed the golem worthless. And such, the research on it stopped, and the researchers that were deprived of their passion left the Kingdom.

All of these happened more than two hundred years ago. It was such a long time.

Fortunately, everything was preserved well in this treasury, and even the golem and its records were kept in good condition. Although it could be seen how Luserio saw this thing as worthless as the valuable documents about it were left in the open near it and not stored somewhere safer.

The stack of old papers on Mark's hands was quite thick that it could be bound into a textbook already. There was no way that he would be able to read everything in one go. And thus, he focused on the four-meter tall contraption.

"Mei'er, do you have any space inside your ring?"

Mark asked, measuring the size of the golem with his eyes.

"Umm... Let me see." Mei replied as she closed her eyes and activated her [Spatial Ring]. "About a quarter left. It's filled with the things we picked from the street."

Mark smiled wryly at that. The storage space in their rings that was as spacious as an extra-large hotel suite room was filled with items they picked up in this Kingdom. Most of it was the armors and weapons of the soldiers that littered the street after they turned to dust. Not all of it was magical weapons, as it was also rare within the large number they managed to get. It was just that the items were made of strange materials that Mark found interesting. In fact, there should be more of these items. However, they left the armor of those dead bodies that did not turn to dust after they died.

"I'll free up mine then. Store the things I take out in yours."

Mark said as he started emptying his ring.

"Master, you're going to take this big thing back?"

Amihan asked as she flew towards the face of the golem, poking where the eyes should be located. She could not understand it, after all. Like how Luserio disregarded this thing, once one was powerful enough, this thing would be useless.

And Mark, who easily defeated Luserio, was far more powerful. Even the base might have no need for this as it was doing fine with several layers of defenses. In fact, Amihan thinks that it was currently overprotected.

"Why not?"

Mark asked Amihan.

"It's missing a core, though."

Amihan replied, circling at the golem.

But then, Mark smiled.

"We have three, though?"

"Huh?"

Amihan turned to Mark, confused.

It was when the three girls took out something from the bag that Iola was carrying. Each of them showed a different colored stone ball on their hands.

"AH!" Amihan finally remembered. "The gifts from Bathala!"

It was the gift that the three girls received from the God of Creation of Philippine Mythology. The hearts of living dolls. This might have a different name in Bathala's words, but living dolls were, without a doubt, golems.

And now, they one in front of them that was missing its own.

"Master! Let's try it! Let's try it!"

Amihan danced around, exited. She completely forgot about the t gifts that the three received.

"Let's try it later. Or else, I might have done that already." Mark rolled his eyes while he waved the stack of documents he had. "I haven't read all of this yet. It's better to understand everything they knew before trying it out."

That was right. Mark knew almost nothing about this thing. Just because they found one did not mean that they should immediately jump in to try something idiotic.

What if the core could not be retrieved anymore? Or what if this thing could not be customized at all?

Even Mark would feel bad if his little girls received something they did not like.

In any case, this golem they found as the base, Mark would be able to study it and create his own golems in the near future.

"Okay..." Amihan grumbled. She might not find the significance of having a golem, but in the least, she wanted to see if it could really move. "By the way, are you three always carrying those?"

Of course, Amihan would ask that. Such precious items were being carried everywhere, and not even inside Mark's or Mei's [Spatial Rings].

"Because we want to?"

Iola replied.

"Don't bother asking them." Mark interjected. "I asked them the same before, but they always kept it inside Iola's bag. They don't even want to keep it inside our rings unless necessary."

Amihan could only scratch her head. The little girls were really the same as their adoptive parents, strange people that were hard to understand.

It took about half an hour to tidy things up. With a bit of effort, Mark forcefully opened a wide black hole to make the golem enter his ring. After storing the golem into his [Spatial Ring], they continued to tour the treasury and see if other things would interest them.

Unfortunately, the contents of the treasury, while having a wide variety, had no value for Mark's group. Weapons made of gold, accessories with beautiful gems, and even the softest cloth that existed in this Kingdom. Well, the last one made Mark interested, but most of the items were just for pure luxury.

Among the accessories, Mark only found five that exuded a magical aura. And, of course, he kept these things immediately. There were also two sets of gaudy magical armor and three weapons.

Sadly, both armors were for heavy infantry. As for the weapons, there was a sword, a bow, and a spear. Mark tried to look for a shield, but there seemed to be none to his disappointment.

Those things aside, the rest of the space available inside Mark's ring was filled with materials. There were horns of magical beasts, metal ingots that seemed to be what the armor of the soldiers was made of, and also some magical stones. The materials were quite in a variety. And it seemed that they were keeping these things in preparation for something.

Unfortunately for Mark, there was no way to carry everything. Their rings were already full, even the bags they were had. And yet, there was still a large pile of unrefined ores and other things inside smaller rooms. Making Chaflar carry all these was not advisable as they still had to travel back. They would need to fly, without a doubt, as this place would definitely be swarmed by the infected because of the earlier commotion.

"It seems that we can't carry everything."

Mei said with quite a pity. Now, they could only wish that they brought Spera with them.

"Gege, are we going back here to get everything else?"

She asked Mark.

"I don't think we need to immediately." Mark shook his head. "Probably, we can after the dimensions fused."

Mei nodded. It was understandable as this place would definitely appear on Earth after the fusion. Due to that, it would be easier to transport these things as Spera would need lesser energy to spend to open portals.

Packing up everything they could, they returned to where everyone was waiting.

Unexpectedly, there was quite a commotion. The slaves were feeling down for some reason.

Mark could not help but shrug. The slaves looked better as the smell of cooked food emanated from the surroundings. It seemed that Edzel and Pear cooked some instant noodles for the slaves to fill their stomachs. But then, why were they feeling down?

"What happened?" Mark asked Pefile, who was leaning on the wall, watching the spectacle. "Did they learn that Earth now is facing ruin?"

Surprisingly, Peflie had a wry smile.

"It's worse than that."

"Hmm???"

Mark tilted his head.

"Remember that time here go slower than the Mortal World, right?"

"A-"

Mark froze a bit.

It was true. Although the time was starting to get in line between dimensions, it just started recently. Before, while a bit unstable, time here in the Spirit Dimension was far slower than Earth.

And that lay the problem for these slaves.

Pefile then started pointing at the slaves. Without a doubt, they were unable to accept reality.

"That wounded old man seemed to be here for about two decades already. Probably more or less. They stopped counting, after all." Pefile Narrated. "He asked us if what happened to the battle in Lamon Bay. But we knew nothing about it. He then said that the Japanese army were attacking when he got lost in the forest. That was when he was captured by Demons and was brought here."

Mark looked at the old man that was covering his eyes while lying down on a soft carpet. He appeared to be in either the early sixties or late fifties.

He then racked up his brain a bit as he took a seat at a nearby sofa with Mei and the girls.

The Invasion of Lamon Bay. It happened from 1941 to 1942. It meant that while it was just two decades that this man had been here, already about seventy-nine years had passed on Earth.

And by the looks of it, the other slaves were in the same circumstances. Of course, they did not come from the old man's time, but they still came from years way in the past.

Knowing that they had been lost in time after being abducted, it was no wonder that these slaves undergone another episode of a mental break. What would happen if they learned that Earth now was nothing but a place filled with infected trying to kill the living?

Mark started to wonder if he really had to let these people go with his group. However, these people were quite hard to let go of.

Why?

Just think how these nine managed to survive a battle against Demons with their emaciated bodies. That was right. Compared to the other slaves, these nine were not the same. Or at least, not anymore.

From what Mark felt from them, they were Evolvers. Mutagen had invaded the Spirit Dimension, after all. But different from Evolvers on Earth, these people were emanating magical energy from their bodies, albeit weak that most people would not notice.

It was not surprising since they Evolved in an environment filled with magical energy. Mark wanted to see if he could keep them and nurture them to become magic users. If that succeeded, not only Mark could save on crystals, but he would have a very versatile group of magic users.

However, it seemed that they had to overcome their unstable minds first. Accept everything, their past, the present, and their possible future.

In any case, Mark could only wait and see. Not everything could be forced.