After Guardian had enough rest and relaxation he visited the boy to check up on him. Guardian also wanted to check on his sack of goods. He entered the room where he left his merchandise and inspected the boy. The boy looked exhausted, his eyes were dry and red.

“You could not sleep?” Guardian wondered if this was because Ithayiga was not at his home. He knew that some people struggled to sleep outside their usual environment.

“How could I? You told me to guard your belongings. And I did, not a single thing was taken away.” He said it proudly, but his voice sounded dry.

“Oh… I should have been clearer. You were allowed to nod off. As long as you slept next to the bag, it would have been fine.”

“I would not be able to sleep anyway. All these shouts of agony and pain. What is this place?” he was still haunted by what he heard during the night.

“Yeah… about that. My judgement was slightly clouded last night. I was unaware of where I actually was and what I was doing.” Guardian did not want to talk about that so he changed the topic. ”You must be hungry. Let me get you something, you did a good job at keeping my things save.”

“Thank you, Master, but I am full already.”

“Did women here feed you? That is nice of them.”

The boy nodded his head and added “But they were so weird about it.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, even before the morning… In the middle of the night, one of them sneaked into my room. I assumed she was there to steal your stuff!”

“Was she!? How did she look like?”

“No, she actually was not a thief. All she wanted was to talk. She was one of my kind, her fur was yellow with black stripes.”

“What did she want to talk about?”

“She mostly was asking questions about you. I could not answer any of them as I barely know you. But she did not believe me. She did not leave me alone and kept asking and asking me various questions. Then she got all weird.”

“Like, how?”

“She was asking if I want to do some very odd things with her.”

“Did you?”

“No! They were gross! She sounded crazy.”

“I see. It was probably Brita. Did she have a big chest?”

“Yea, she did. She even asked me if I want to suck on them!” Itayiga’s face showed disgust. ”Behhh! I am not a baby why would I do that? She was so odd.”

“Yeah, be careful around her. She definitely sounds crazy.”

“Also, when the women brought food they fed it to me. I was not allowed to touch the spoon. They spoon fed me. And these other women were asking about you too. Can we leave already? This place scares me.”

“Yeah we better do. There is a lot I need to do today.”

They sneaked away through the back door, trying their best not to be seen. They headed towards the slums.

With the rest of his money, Guardian arranged himself one of the better accommodations in the slums. It was an actual building, but it was in a sorry state of disrepair. It was practically crumbling down. However, it was cheap and not too far from a harbour. It would not be safe to keep any valuables in there, and he did not intend to do that. He took all of his stuff with him if he had to leave.

After sorting himself a sleeping place Guardian went to the market to peddle the rest of his goods. To his surprise, the women from the day ago, the ones who asked for soap samples, came to purchase more of the herbal soap. He did not expect them to come to him so soon. He was able to do a good business that day; he had way more buyers than the last time.

A few days passed like that, completely uneventful. He had sent Ithayiga to ask the library bookkeeper if he had found any information in the archives about magical monsters. Ithayiga came back telling him that the bookkeeper did have something.

Guardian went to see for himself. He had high hopes for it, all but to be disappointed. The bookkeeper did not manage to uncover anything in old archives, what he had were a few descriptions of local monsters who terrorised the surrounding villages. Guardian could have gotten similar info from the tavern rumours and monster hunters, but having some official evidence was good too.

There were some apparitions haunting the old battlefields. The Guardian did not want to even go close to those tainted lands. He would feel sick and drained there. Those kinds of places tended to passively drain life energy.

Also, there was a numerous list of sea creatures terrorising the ships. He has also ruled this option out, he did not have a ship and he did not like saltwater. Diving in a lake or swampy march was completely fine, even preferable. But sea water, he disliked it. He hasn’t even been on an open see before, nor did he wish for such a thing.

Finally, there were reports of missing people in the nearby swampy forest around the freshwater lake. Those reports came in regularly in the intervals of six months or so. There was a good number of people who would go missing in short amount of time. Any investigating parties venturing deeper wound not come back, so what sort of monster was responsible for it remained unclear.

He decided to investigate this swamp business. It sounded very risky, but he needed a mana core. Also, he was familiar with the swamp terrain. He won’t be going alone either; he will borrow the golem named Rocky. The massive construct should be able to march past the swampy terrain without too much trouble. Hopefully, it won’t sink too much in the mud.

Guardian sent his errand boy to inform Cynthia about his plans. He told her to meet him in the same tavern they have met before. While he waited for Ithayiga to come back he slammed a good discount on the rest of his wares, hoping to get rid of it by today.

It did not take long for the boy to come back telling him that Cynthia was already waiting in the tavern. Once there, he decided to refrain from drinking because he feared to make some bad decisions like last time.

“Hello, Cynthia. I assume you know why I have invited you here.”

“You have found a monster to get the core from?”

“I hope so. We will need to track it down first.”

“What sort of monster is it? Where could its lair be?”

“That is the problem. I do not know. We will be going blindly.”

“I hope you know what you are doing.”

“More or less. I just need an extra protection from your golem. Just in case.”

“Rocky is very good at protecting. He will not disappoint you.”

“Well, it is arranged then. We will go on an expedition. Our destination is the swampy forest.”

“You could have told this earlier. I am not a big fan of muddy swamps.”

“Are you coming too?”

“He might be special but Rocky is unable to go alone. Like any golem, I need to direct him.”

“Oh, I forgot about that. This might be riskier than I thought. Rock golem is one thing but a human like you… too squishy”

“I will be fine. I took a bandit camp, remember?”

“Yes, you did… So when do you think you will be ready?”

“I am ready when you are ready. The passing time is not kind to my grandfather so I do not want to waste it.”

“Honestly, I do not know what to expect from this trip. I cannot prepare for it as I do not know what we will find. So let’s head out now. We will gain nothing from waiting.”

“Agreed.”

The two left the inn and walked slowly towards their destination. Ithayiga was set home, this was too dangerous for him. He will use this chance to visit his family and boast about his new life. He knew he was not allowed to do that, but if Guardian will not find out it will be fine.

The swampy forest was quite a distance away so the Guardian spent not just the entire day travelling but the night as well. Cynthia did not have to walk as she was carried by her golem the entire time. She was used to it, she even was able to sleep on its shoulders throughout the night.

In the early morning, they have reached the village bordering the forest. This was a good place to take a break before venturing further.

He spoke with the people living in the village, hoping to get some information. The only thing they knew where was the location of ‘no go’ zones everyone avoided. The people have strongly advised him of staying clear from going deeper into the swamp.

The villagers’ warnings were ignored of course. Guardian packed his robe the sack and tied it to his back. Only his loincloth and two copper plated chains were left untouched. Guardian and Cynthia braced themselves as they went deeper into the forest swamp.

He was taking the lead in the front while Rocky followed his steps. The golem was very heavy and they did not want it to get stuck. In some places the murky water reached above his knees, it was very murky. Humans and especially furry beastmen would feel extremely uncomfortable here. For him, this reminded home as he grew up in swampy marshes.

Cynthia was sitting atop the shoulders of her constructs, directing their route ahead.

“What if this is for nothing and we will find no monster?”

“I am sure there will be monsters in a place like this, it is a swamp. I am not sure if it will be a monster we are looking for, however.”

He needed it to be a magical monster, with a nicely sized core. Also, he did not know if they will be able to defeat it. It was quite risky.

After they got to a more solid part of the forest it started to feel as if they were being watched.

“Did you hear that? In those bushes?” Something rustled not too far from them for the tenth time already.

“Yeah. This is very odd. I cannot smell whatever it is.”

“There is no point to keep checking is there? Should we just keep going deeper?”

“If I checked again it would just run away before I got it. It must be just some small critter of the swamp. We need something bigger for our purposes.”

They continued walking aimlessly. Hoping to find some tracks or any indication what happened to the missing people. The noise around them got louder, there were more creatures tagging along just behind them. They could not see the creatures as they kept hiding. This meant trouble.

A small creature jumped from the tree right before them.

It was very small, it was sized like a human toddler, just a lot rounder. Its body was covered in green plants and vines. It's eyes very glowing lightly in a green colour. Its head was covered in some sort of a mask made of bark, only its mouth was exposed. It would be very hard to tell if this was a plant or a monster. That is if it did not move and were not flashing its dagger-like teeth. Its upper limbs were lanky and long, they almost looked like overgrown branches infested with vines. Each hand had three long clawed fingers. It was clutching a wooden spear in its left arm.

“Click cluck click.” It clicked its tongue at them angrily.

More of the plant like critters emerged from all over the place. There were nearly thirty of them. Strange pods were thrown at the Guardian and Rocky. Guardian did his best to avoid them, but there were just too many.

Upon breaking, the pods would release a small puff of smoke or a splash him in a thick liquid. All of which he assumed was some sort of poison. He was lucky to be resistant to the most of the stuff, he grew in a swamp after all. To the golem, it did absolutely nothing. Cynthia was lucky to be high enough to avoid most of it, only a bit of pollen tainted fog gotten to her. They were very lucky this was not very effective on them.

Cynthia coughed. “It is like a sleeping dust. Do not get covered in the fog!” She shouted just before chugging a weird potion. She came prepared, she was an adventurer after all.

Guardian did not think to bring any sort of protective potions with him, it was a missed opportunity. He felt fine for the most part, just slightly dizzy. Someone of his size needed to get quite a big dose directly, not to mention his natural resistance.

“Watch yourself!” He shouted.

The swamp critters switched from ranged to melee. They split roughly in half and were trying to surround them. The little ones jumped on the golem first. They stabbed at it and bit its body with their teeth. Big mistake on their part as they just injured themselves. Their teeth shattered unable to pierce rock the golem was made of. Then the golem swiped at them with its massive arm, scattering the critters away.

Guardian had also managed to weather the attack. They were too small and too weak to do serious damage. At the worst, he got only bruised. He kicked at the critters and clawed at their wooden masks. He slashed towards one of the masks splitting it in two. Behind the bark mask was definitely a monster, it leaked red blood.

Cynthia was shouting out commands for the golem. It was stomping the creatures to death but there were so many of them. Guardian was doing his best too, keeping them from overwhelming him.

Even more swamp creatures joined the fight. More and more emerged from the swampy growth, noise drawing them towards the location of the battle.

The critters wised up and were leaving the golem alone for the most part. They could not damage it so they were just avoiding it now. The golem was very powerful but very slow too, it was an easy task for the swamplings to avoid it if they wished so.

However, having to shoulder all of the swamp critters was not the biggest problem for the Guardian. The creatures were smarter when they looked. They managed to launch a coordinated attack not on the golem but on its master, Cynthia. She looked small, small and weak enough for them to take her down first. This was a common tactics animals would employ.

While swamplings were distracting the golem and its master, one of the critters positioned itself on a tree. The pack lured the golem towards a particular that tree, the one with a critter on its branch. When the construct got just close enough, swampling jumped off from the tree branch aiming at the girl. Cynthia has been knocked off Rocky’s shoulders.

“Ahh… help!” she shouted in despair. It would take only a moment for the creatures to rip her into pieces.