200-year-old Memory stone of an unknown conversation.

"You know why I can't let you out."

"And I keep telling you that it wasn't my fault. She was the only one to have such a bad reaction. I mean, She's the concept of silence, that shouldn't have happened."

"What, the two-thirds of the continent dying or all of the life in the ocean-going quote unquote silent."

Both voices went quiet.

The second voice sounded sad as it asked. "how is Chase?"

"Ever since he got back and found out the Naga race is extinct he hasn't left his dungeons. Some life came back to the ocean, but the cities are still empty, and Chase doesn't want to see them anymore."

"What happened to Melo?"

"She doesn't use that name anymore. It's goddess of protection now. She doesn't speak to anybody either. Not since she found out what her worshipers did when she was gone. She won't even let them use her real name anymore."

"Please. You can't just leave me here."

"Chase never wanted the world to end. He just wanted people to grow and become stronger. You tried to put too much order in this world, and we both know if you get out you'll try it again."

-From the perspective of a group of adventurers led by Nola Smith-

"Nola this can't be the right place. That might look like the right tree, but it doesn't have the hole in it. Just look." Ren walked up to the tree and put her hand against it. "See the whole should be right sshhhhhhhh." Ren's hand sunk into the tree when she pulled it back out. It was covered in a black tar-like substance. "What the...it's...it's tar. Somebody tried to repair the tree here and painted it too?"

Nola walked up to Ren and examined the tree. "It matches up perfectly. I can't even see where the paint ends in the real tree begins." Nola felt around slowly outlining the painted tar. "Somebody went through a lot of effort to hide this place."

Cade, the later of the adventuring party spoke up. "They did manage to kidnap a princess and a warlord. Either one of those things is worth all this effort. But with both, I would expect them to burn down the nearby town to hide their tracks."

Nola look to Amy. "Amy, you can smell the tar?"

Amy had a timid voice "The paint must've been covering it. I can smell it now, and I can even smell a little bit of metal. That's it. No other sense. Other than the forest around us."

Han the berserker suddenly spoke. "Steel or iron?"

"Steel and tungsten? At least I think it's tungsten. Nola Isn't that the metal they use in the weapons of warlords?"

"Yes, but we ran out of that a long time ago. It must be from the other two warlords we saw in the background. Can you track it?"

"No, the smell is only coming from the tar everything else is too old for me to track."

Nola turned back to the rest of the road and the five adventurers. "It took us three days to find this place and none of you have any ideas on how to track them down?"

Han went straight to the point. "Without a scent, Amy can't track. Without tracks, Kevin can't track them. Which means you are going to have to pay extra."

Cade decided to explain. "Han may be our berserker, but he picked up a spell book a long time ago called 'lost keys'. A Kid figured out the spell. the story is that his dad kept leaving behind keys, his lunchbox, articles of clothing...basically stuff he needed for work. The kid could never find him until he one day accidentally made that spell. The spell tracks the original creator of the object. I'm guessing whoever kidnapped a warlord and the Princess, also patched the hole in the tree. We should be able to use the tar as a way to track them down."

Han stuck his arm into the tree and twisted his hand as if he was trying to pry something out the sound of splintering wood. Something did pop out. Han held up his hand for the rest of the group to see. "No, I got something better right here. They didn't even bother to pull out the bullet." He held his tar covered hand up for the rest to see."

"Han, your an idiot." Nola shook her head as she finished speaking.

"What, we just follow the bullet back to the guy who shot it."

Cade explained. "Han, even I know they didn't make it, they just used it."

Han sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. With his tar covered hand. Cade opened his mouth as if to say something but then stopped and shook his head.

Nola ignored Han who is trying to get his hand out of his hair when she said. "Please tell me one of you guys know that spell."

The other three adventures looked off in different directions When Cade answered. "Sorry, it's the whole reason why we have Han in our group. We all specialize in some form of tracking, but nobody has his particular spell, and he is a good berserker."

Nola let out a sigh and turned to Han. He now had both hands stuck in his hair, and was now on the ground. "We Are all doomed."

-20 minutes later-

"You didn't have to shave my head."

Cade let out a sigh. "We didn't have the alcohol, and we don't have the time. Now Han, please focus on the tar."

Han looked down at his hands, which still had pieces of tar stuck to them. The pieces of tar slowly began to glow, and Han said. "Got them. It was made about 50 kilometers...that way?" Han pointed to the left to the city. Far left of the iron town. "Um, boss. I don't remember any towns being out that way."

Cade let out a confused voice. "That's because there aren't any Han. The only thing out That way is Drake Lake."

Nola turned to face Cade."Drake Lake. Drake Lake with level 120 armored Drakes in the water. that Drake Lake?"

Cade looked thoughtful as he answered. "Yes. I've seen it several times. There's a crashed artifact there, but nobody's been able to get near. At least not safely at least."

" I know, there have been three recorded attempts. Nobody can go over the water without them going into a frenzy and tearing apart whatever boats we send over. Whenever we try using magic the Drakes detected and instantly come after the mages responsible. If this is where the tar came from that means somebody's found access to the artifact and is gathering weapons and material from inside of it."

Ren suddenly spoke up." Aren't we on the border of the Mountain bears? "

Nola answered." Yes, that's why I hired you. None of the combatants can cross the borderlines until the Blood Moon. Since I'm not a direct or indirect participant of the war, I'm able to go around as freely as I want. it also means I have to pay you out of my own pocket, so don't worry, we'll be fine."

"Oh no that's not what I meant. I was just wondering if they could've taken them."

"No, the king has access to the prisoner logs and so does all five of the mountain tribes. They can see what prisoners we have, and we can see what prisoners They have. It was the very first thing we checked, but they weren't involved in the kidnapping, which means there's some third-party we haven't seen yet."

Han interrupted." Almost out of mana. Maybe enough for another 20 seconds."

Cade let out an exasperated sigh and said. "Han stop using your mana."

"Oh, right."

Nola looked at Han and asked." How much mana do you have?"

"40 right now 65 when I'm full."

Cade let out a sigh. "Yeah, I know, lowest you've ever heard of. Our second lowest Ram has 450. We think it's based off on his intelligence."

Nola shook her head and said. "We've gotta get going. At least find out if they're still there."

Cade spoke to everyone in the group." It's going to take us eight hours to get there. We will stop 5 Kilometers out that way everyone can rest after that, will head out in the morning to see the lake. Any questions? Nobody in the group spoke. "All right let's get going."

The group turned and started heading off to Drake Lake.

Kate had a fake smile as he spoke." I heard the healer you guys are fighting over is a giant, is that true?

She had answered this question many times ever since she had left the King's employ. Nola spoke in a frustrated voice. "No of course not, They're all still asleep. At least the ones we still have."

"Well, that's a relief. I really did not want to fight a bunch of pissed off Giants, because that would be bad... very bad... because we would probably all die."

Nola spoke in a cold voice ."If Giants were waking up in mass, we'd all be dead."

Cade raised his hands in a surrendering jester. "Just wanted to make sure we were dealing with fellow elves or monsters."

Nola was quiet for the rest of the trip.

Elves were naturally afraid of Giants. Not due to hatred or the unknown but due to the warlords. The first ever warlord was found 50 years after the crash of the artifacts. At first, it was thought to be a statue of a great warrior, oversized and a terrifying. There were no curves, only sharp angles as if to pronounce that it was made for war. A noble purchased the statue thinking that it would be a great centerpiece for his collection. However, on the way to his house, the caravan carrying the armor was attacked by a group of bandits That had 20 mages, and 30 mixed combat classes. They were well armed and had experience from years of previous attacks. The caravan only had 10 knights and no hope of surviving. Except they did, a man named James an experienced rider class who had been transporting goods since he was a child, He jumped into the back of the carriage to hide, but when his hands came in contact with the suit of armor he instantly knew how to ride it, he was the first warlord. The armor had no runes No magic of any kind, and yet, It easily tore the bandits apart.

In the description of the Armor, it was called standard infantry XO armor. Standard, not advanced, not above average, but standard. Meaning every infantry unit had this armor, armor that could destroy our strongest class with ease. That is why we are terrified.

because we couldn't even hurt a standard set of armor.

- Nine hours later-

Nola, Han, Ren, Amy, and Cade were setting up the campsite while Kevin was scouting the area.

Cade was looking up at the sky. "That makes 4 of those bats so far."

Nola looked up as well. "Has anyone figured out what they are yet?"

"No, they're always too far away. I've been using my communication amulet to talk with the town, but the bats haven't done anything yet. So they've been labeled as non-hostile until proven otherwise."

"I don't like how we have so little information about this area."

Ren was setting up the tents when she spoke in a distracted voice. "Irontown is only 150 years old, and they mainly focus on exporting metals. There hasn't been a reason to explore the nearby forest."

Cade still looking at the sky spoke next."I studied the history of this area and the maps we had. But the farthest anybody's explored is only to Drake Lake and then it just stops. After Drake Lake, everything gets too strong, and you start coming across the occasional Dragon, and you know how angry they get when you wander into their territory or break one of their treaties."

Kevin climbed down one of the Sequoia trees near the campsite, most of the trees were between the size of 100 hundred and 150 meters tall. The branches interwove to make a canopy overhead which could be traveled if you had the skill.

Kevin spoke for the first time during the whole trip. "We are in trouble. There are A few hundred golems up there, and I don't recognize some of the golem types."

The group went quiet as Cade spoke."How many?"

"150 maybe 200 some of them were carrying projectile weapons. About 15 of them were spider golems. The rest were around the same size but carrying two weapons each."

Cade spoke to the group, " OK the Artifact is active. If there's 200 out here, there's going to be more inside, and it might be growing down. Nola do you want us to go in or leave to get more reinforcement? Maybe we can get the adventures guilt involved, But that means that everybody will know. The princess was kidnapped and is probably being held here."

Nola shook her head. "It's not a true dungeon so all the mobs should still be at level 0 which means we don't have to worry about mutated golems or magic of any kind. If we are lucky, we only have to worry about the two warlords with no magical protection. Which is why I went with your group, you specialize in taking down unenchanted warlords correct?"

A voice suddenly came out of the darkness. "You've taken out other warlords that means you know of where a warship is, perfect I'll finally be able to find a blueprint for the AI cores."

Nola whipped her head around trying to find where the voice was coming from when it spoke again. "Hello Nola, I'm Cray, but we've met before. You know when you MURDERED ME."

Cray shouted." CIRCLE UP. Nola who is this guy?"

Nola got into the center of the circle formed by the adventures." I don't recognize the voice, and I've never killed anyone."

The voice spoke again. "Oh, that's not true, it's only been three days how could you forget, you ordered James to shoot me."

Nola was trying to remain calm as she spoke. "That wasn't me and I made a deal with a God. He had control over my body I don't even remember what happened."

"I don't see Carol with you, so you're not here to return my people and I won't return yours. So I guess we are still enemies then. Which means I get to test my new Mech on you. don't die."

Cade still looking off into the woods spoke."Nola what's a Mech and who is this guy."

"I don't know, but there were four people in the group, one was remnant, but he was killed. Smashed to pieces maybe he came back."

"One of those things that take on the shape of dead elves?"

"Yes, but the town burned the body so it shouldn't have come back."

Cade chuckled." Well it did, and it's pissed, and apparently, it has something called a Mech. Any idea what that is?"

Before Nola could answer, they could hear us stomping coming from the forest the steps were fast and getting louder with each second as if it was running towards. Cade shouted, "Ren wall now." Ren quickly raised her arms pulling up two slabs of the earth which quickly hardened into rock. The wedge was facing towards the oncoming noise, and a fist-sized hole was put in between the two slabs of stone. Kevin looked through the hole. "IT'S NOT SLOWING DOWN."

Ren made a hole in the center of the group underneath Nola's feet. Nola let out a squeak as she fell in and the rest of the group jumped in after her. When everybody was inside the hole Ren formed a dome over it, the next thing they heard was the shattering of the stone wall.

This is bad, I was hoping it was another group of elves, some third party not involved with the war. Now it's narrowed down to either a group of Remnants or Giants maybe both. I've never heard remnants speak Elven before, but then again I've never heard of a giant being out of its bed. I opened my mouth to speak but shut it quickly realizing that the thing above us was still stomping around.

Ren produced a small mage light lighting up the hole in the ground and Cade gestured for Ren to begin digging down. Before she could start a steel-clad fist came through the dome above us and grabbed hold of Kevin's hood before he could even let out a sound he was yanked back up through the hole. A helmet could be seen through it staring back at me.

I knew every single warlord armor ever made, and this one terrified me. I had never seen it before, the helmet was all sharp angles it was not made from steel or iron upgraded by enchantments it was made with enchantments, no Elvin Smith made that armor it was made by the Giants. And It had our runes made into it.

I spoke in a quiet voice "this is not an Elven warlord this is a giant warlord."

Somehow without its helmet moving at all, I knew that it smiled."Now I definitely can't let you get away."

Han let out a yell. "HE STOLE ALL THE MEAT." Hahn jumped, crashing through the stone dome like it was made out of paper. Fragments rained down as Han flew towards the warlord bringing down his twin axes. The Warlord raised his left arm as his right was still holding Kevin by his hood. One of the axes got stuck between the gauntlet and the forearm while the other glanced off the armor. Han was still yelling as he raised the axe again slamming it uselessly into the forearm of the warlord.

Cade turned to his group. "And that is why everybody carries a necessary food item for Han. Now, Nola stay with Ren, Amy you're on Lookout." Amy and Ren nodded. "I'm going to see if I can get Kevin loose while the warlords distracted." Cade clapped and rubbed his hands together. "Okay here comes the fun part." Cade spread his hands apart as mist flowed out of his fingertips. The mist slowly gathered into the ground forming it into..." Are those spider golems?" Nola asked.

Five spider drones formed from the dirt and crawled out waving their legs to get the debris. Cade pointed at the warlord and said. "RIP OUT THE POWER." Spider drones turned to face the warlord and charged. Suddenly the warlord spoke in a voice Nola had not heard before."Was that summoning?" The first voice we heard spoke." Andrew, we can interrogate them later, focus on fighting."

"Cray, he just summoned a bunch of spider drones, yellow spider drones."

The warlords' armor was starting to give out to Hans axe, and he was still yelling. "aaaaaawwwww cough cough aaaaaaaaaaa."

"CRAY I could use a hand."

"have you tried using your right one?" The warlord let our grunt as it lifted Kevin and threw him at Cade. Cade tried to catch Kevin, but he was going too fast and slammed into Cade knocking them both to the ground. As they tried to get untangle the warlord slammed his foot down breaking one of the spider drones as the other four kept trying to climb up its legs and Han continued to slam his axes into the warlords heavily damaged forearm. Warlord swung his fist into Han's stomach knocking him back a few steps as two of the spider drones latched onto the warlord's legs and started climbing up to its torso.

Han had finally stopped yelling and was kneeling on the ground trying to catch his breath. Amy Suddenly let out a shout as she pointed. "Forest cat level 12 three seconds."

Cade and Kevin finally got untangled and stood up. "Kevin, take down the cat, Ren start hurling rocks." Cade that out a sigh. "I need more spiders."

Kevin ran into the woods as mist started pouring out of Cade hands. Ren began to making spears out of stone and hurling them at the warlord's joints. The spiders had crawled to the back of the warlord and had started cutting away at the armored plates there.

Nola watched as the warlord got into a three-point stance as if the stone spikes weren't doing anything. Suddenly Nola heard a noise a noise she'd only heard from iron town. "That sounds like...CADE IT'S ABOUT TO CHARGE." Nola dived to the side, grabbing Amy and pulling her out of the way.

Cade watched as his drones were torn apart from blue flames streaming out of the warlords back. "That's not good Ren." Cade was interrupted as the warlord charged forward smashing through the newly summoned drones turning them back into the dirt from whence they came. Cade jumped to the left as Ren was knocked to the side.

Han finally caught his breath and stood up when the warlord noticed him. The warlord shoved its hand to the ground, changing its forward charge to an arc coming back around to face Han. Han looked up at the oncoming warlord and grinned. "Cleave." Han roared as he shoved both his axes together forming them into a double-bladed axe. The warlord lifted its undamaged arm to block the oncoming below, and Han swung with all his might.

Nola watched as the blade cleanly went through the arm of the warlord and continued on going through the chest separating it from its torso. The warlord's chest fell to the ground while its legs continued on for a few more meters before collapsing to the ground. Nola stared. "How did he cut through the armor it wasn't working before?" Cade smiling and out of breath answered. "Cleaving blow gains more damage the more times you hit the target, and Han hit that warlord a lot. Did I mention he's a really good berserker? Han good job." Han was lying face down in the dirt and lifted one of his arms. "woohoo." Han dropped his arm back down to the dirt and fell unconscious.

Nola walked over to Ren to check on her injuries. Ren was still on the ground when she said. "I'm fine, my robes took most of the damage."

Nola looked at the brown almost plain looking robes and's asked. "Mana robe?"

"Yeah, that hit took out two-thirds of the armor. I'm going to have to refill it with mana before we get going." Ren sat up and pulled off the robe showing that she was wearing normal travel close underneath. She folded up the robe and placed it in her lap.

Amy was looking around when she spoke. "Cade, I can't find Kevin. I lost is scent."

Cade sat upright. "He's not in party chat either, but he's not dead, I didn't get an alert for that." Cade then looked at Amy. "What about the cat, or the golems in the trees earlier?"

"The golems are gone and the forest cat is dead. I think the golems took him when he was on his way back."

Cade got up and walked over to the warlord." This doesn't make any sense why would they send a warlord out." He flipped over the torso and looked inside, but there wasn't any blood cade reached inside and pulled out the upper torso showing that it was actually a smaller humanoid golem inside. The golem had a small square head with a single eye and its arms and legs were almost twig-like. Cade put his fingers against the warlord's helmet Nola watched as the runes slowly lit up and put out a small force field around the helmet cade that out a sigh." I've seen these things before they are called combat avatars. They can't use magic which is probably why we didn't have to worry about them using force fields. But why was it sent out here unarmed and why does it have runes?"

Nola spoke. "The people we're after had multiple warlords and at least one rider in the shape of the person."

Cade looked around the carrier clearing. "We're not sleeping tonight this area is not safe, and they're down one warlord. Amy, keep watch. Ren, wake up Han. Nola, you and I are going to pack up camp."

Nola look around. "We're not going to try and get reinforcements?"

Cade smiled. "Already sent a message to the guild informing them." Cade pulled out a necklace with an oval plate on it. "Besides that, Today's been pretty good. I got a full set of warlord armor, and Kevin got kidnapped." Cade let out a chuckle. "He's never going to live this down. Now let's go get our people back."