Broadcasting Live From Inside An Eldritch Horror Game

Chapter 83: Demonic Vessel of Corruption. Part-1.

The journey through the Velmoira Gem Mines was anything but smooth.

For some unknown reason, the various tunnels were swarming with golems of various different types and strengths.

Weaker golems like the mining golems and transportation golems were not much of a problem for Zephyr and Xinran, and the mining robots were mostly in a dysfunctional state due to years of maintenance neglect.

But the real source of trouble were those weird invisible and semi-intelligent ambush golems that could not only adapt to the environment but could also stalk their prey for days before finally attacking at the perfect moment.

According to Xinran, these invisible golems were part of an ’Elite’ hidden force of the royal family and were stored in various secret military bunkers located in various places across the nation.

This was also the reason why Xinran was surprised when that invisible golem ambushed them near the mine entrance.

These golems should have not even been in the capital city in the first place!

As far as Xinran knew, there were no secret military bases located inside the royal capital to prevent military rebellions, and most military bases were only located quite far from each other.

The presence of these Elite Golems near the Capital City pointed towards a chilling possibility.

"A New ’’Demonic Vessel of Corrosion’ has been born in the royal capital."

Standing at a cross-section and hidden behind a boulder, Xinran stared at the hundreds of Elite Golems marching in a perfect formation heading towards an unknown location in the distance and muttered in a concern-filled voice.

Hearing her words, a deep frown appeared on Zephyr’s face.

"What vessel is born, wha-what?"

At Zephyr’s words, Xinran frowned and asked back in a confused tone,

"Were you living under a rock your entire life? How come you don’t even know about a ’Demonic Vessel’? Even kids from a secluded village out in the deep mountains know about this..."

Zephyr only shook his head at those words and just made up a random excuse on the spot.

"Just assume I have suffered severe memory loss and don’t know anything at all!"

"I can’t even write, actually. I can read the books you gave me and can understand that language, but I can’t write it. You can assume I have forgotten it."

Xinran rolled her eyes at Zephyr, clearly not believing his clumsy excuse, but didn’t bother pointing out his lies, as she knew that everyone had their own secrets in life and it was better not to probe into such things carelessly.

"Let’s distance ourselves from that group of Elite Golems first; this isn’t a good place to stay and talk, if the map I have of these mines is still fairly accurate despite years of wear and tear..."

"Those golems will likely walk a full circle and come back to this location eventually, as the tunnel they have walked into only leads to two places.

"It’s either back to this place where they started or towards a far-away entrance of the mine shaft located a few dozen kilometers away."

Without wasting any more time, the duo walked out of their hiding spot, avoided traps carefully, and made their way towards a rather deserted but brightly lit tunnel.

Unlike the other tunnels, this one had magic lamps hanging on the walls, and even the ground beneath was smoother and well built.

"This one was likely used by the managers and other supervising staff members; robots and golems do not care about smooth terrain, good lighting and other miscellaneous facilities, but for humans they are important..."

"This passage should lead us to one of the main entrance nodes of this mine, which we can then further use to find a tunnel that will directly lead us into the city."

"There shouldn’t be any more golems or robots in this tunnel, as this area was off-limits to the robots and golems..."

While leading the way forward with her glowing mana orb, Xinran turned on her chatterbox mode instantly.

"So what were we talking about before... Ah! The Demonic Vessel of Corruption!"

"About that... as I told you before, these elite golems were supposed to be scattered across the nation and weren’t supposed to be even allowed to get close to the royal capital unless given special permission by the royal family."

"These golems were mostly used during major crises or national emergencies."

"They were assets that kept the nation’s foundation stable and worked like an elite team of soldiers that could do extremely risky tasks without worrying about casualties or loss."

Even low-grade golems and robots have a set of fundamental rules and logic engraved in their core, which they can never break or surpass.

So, it was simply impossible for an Elite Golem to just wander around and make its way to the Royal Capital randomly.

Without the permission of the royal family, the core logic and rules etched in their core would not let them approach the capital city on their own even if they somehow managed to escape from their military base storage warehouse.

"Moreover, these golems that we just saw were marching in a proper formation, like they were instructed to do so!"

"This can’t happen on its own either... There are only two possibilities that can explain the current bizarre situation... Either a royal family member issued an order to these golems to gather around in the capital and form a group..."

"Or all these golems have had their cores corrupted by miasma, and an intelligent existence has gained control over them via the help of miasmic corruption..."

Xinran narrowed her eyes and continued speaking.

"The rapidly expanding influence of miasma inside and outside of the capital city, the sudden ambush at the mine door and the group activities of these golems... all these clues point to the same conclusion..."

"Someone is controlling the situation and has laid out many traps to catch those who try to enter the city through the tunnels..."

"And throughout the previous decades... only I have been sneaking into the capital through these mines... in other words, these traps and ambushes are all being laid down to deal with me specifically..."

"Such an intelligent approach and planning... Miasma alone can’t do this much with its semi-conscious existence; this is likely the handiwork of a newly born ’Demonic Vessel’!"

Xinran was feeling guilty for attacking Zephyr and almost breaking the agreement, so she decided to tell Zephyr about the basic demon hierarchy and the structure of miasma’s subordinate organisms.

This way she would be able to make amends for what she did and would also be able to make sure that Zephyr won’t be confused in the future when acting on a mission with her.

"Let’s get started from the basics first..."