The entire remainder of the week was spent working on the gatehouse, which meant I now had a nearly 9 story tower which I decided would have to be enough. By nearly, I meant 8 stories and a half of set heavily reinforced, covered battlements. Anyways, the only thing that was left to build of the gatehouse was the actual gate section in the middle of the two giant towers, so I decided to send out a little expedition of sorts.

Getting the golems sorted was the easiest part of things, as I simply needed to give the order to escort the fox-kin and they would comply. The hard part was convincing the fox-kin on going out to gather wood from the forest. The issue was they didn’t know if going out to the forest was going to be safe for them, or if they could gather the wood fast enough to get back before encountering any scouts.

For the entire duration of the construction, the fox-kin had been able to build from below up, but for the gate itself, they would need scaffolding to reach certain parts of the building that otherwise couldn’t be reached from the interior, hence needing to get the wood for the scaffolding. While it could be possible to build without it, it would be a much longer process and frankly wouldn’t be as safe.

Before our disagreement could go much further however, there was a notification that appeared in my vision.

[An Adventurer Party Has Entered Your Domain.] [Adventurer Party Now Labeled As ‘Team Ironclads’]

A quick swoop around my domain and sure enough there was a group of five boisterous individuals strolling down the dirt road towards me, about to crest the hill.

What sort of maniacs would go out to some middle of nowhere place like this? And in the direction of the tide?? Are none of these people sane???

With a sigh, I tell my fox-kin to take a break and order my golems to stand guard around the entrances down to the barracks and my core.

Time to find out what these lunatics want. What could go wrong?

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***Chirii***

Jogging the last few paces up the backroad trail we’d been following, my eyes widen in surprise at what I see.

“Grudge! Mako! Get up here! I think we found something worth our time!”

The two massive men jog up as well, they too being surprised by the strange sight.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

“Ah, quite interesting indeed,” Father Mako replies, “perhaps its abandoned?”

Grudge stares at the towers in the distance for a few minutes, before commenting “too new, there’s not a hint of moss on even the bases. Definitely still in use, too. See those monoliths? Brick workers at the least.”

The other two members of the Ironclads join us on the hill and give their own two cents on the matter.

Thrasher states “not human, smells… canine… maybe even foxish?” while Mathias giggles in his typical madness.

Grudge shifts a little, sending a small cascade of metallic clinking from his bulky armor, before wordlessly pressing forward.

Mako looks over to me and shrugs as usual before hefting the ropes of his shoulder slung tome and trailing after him.

The rest of us follow along too, me in the back now while Thrasher and Mathias go ahead of me. Being the ranger of our squad grants me some authority on these matters, but Grudge is the party leader, and its too late to say I’ve got a bad feeling in my chest.

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***Grudge***

The others might not realize what this tower truly is, nor it’s importance.

I can sense it. A core resides around here, and I’d be willing to bet it’s nestled into some of that stonework.

As I get closer to the massive brick structures, I notice the telltale signs of core habitation. Namely, golems protecting the passage between the two.

I stop a good fifty paces away once I notice the two golems move their hands to their sheaths. Good sign so far. Any dumber core would have sent them to attack the moment we entered.

As the rest of my team forms up with me, another golem arrives on the scene from a previously unnoticed dirt ramp leading down. The red cloth and wider shoulders tell me it’s a Garrison Commander. Not exactly as dangerous or challenging as, say, a colonel or captain, but a telltale of being in cohorts with civilization around here.

I mentally flip through the laws of the Kitsumari Empire in case there’s something about adventurers interfering with state owned cores but I draw a blank, which is either a good thing or my memory is finally failing me.

“I… am… Tokugawa…” speaks the rather fresh-looking golem, “state… your… business…”

Neither of the golems to the side have removed their hands from their sword yet.

“I am Grudge, Mithril Rank Adventurer of the Newmont Adventuring Bureau. This is my party, the Ironclads. We were sent here to determine the source of an unknown disruption to the soul-stream. The Newmont Mage Society wishes to know what happened to cause such an event.”

“Entrance… Denied…” and I mentally groan as I hear my party draw weapons. “But… passage… granted…” Oh? That’s never happened before.

I cough to clear up the awkward silence, and reply “We thank you for allowing us through, Tokugawa. Ironclads! Move out!”

With that, my party begrudgingly stow their equipment and join me walking through to the other side of the hall.

While I can tell the others are nervous about an ambush, I casually stroll through while trying to get a glimpse into the tunnel down, sadly I can’t see much other than a faint light under one of the doors. Of course, I could easily barge down there myself if I was so inclined to do so, but being polite and professional with cores like this was a much more beneficial endeavor.

As rare as cores are now, it’s even rarer to find one willing to even negotiate releasing lost citizens, let alone actually allow us to pass its apparent territory. Its for the best to entertain its notions of civility, and so, The Ironclads and I keep heading north.