Rio chose not to reveal his identity because he didn't want to deactivate his shadowrobe just yet.
He might still have a chance to withstand the attack if he has the shadow robe on, but without it, he will be totally on the mercy of this unknown SS-ranker.
'Let's just hope I can solve this without a battle...'
If it were an S-ranker, Rio wouldn't have hesitated this much; he would have fought the other party head-on, but things are not in his favor right now, so he has to use other tricks to get his work done.
*Step* *Step*
The small golem invited Rio inside the chamber, so he stepped on the wooden floor and walked behind the golem without hesitation.
"This place is different from the outside... Unlike the outside, it's made out of wood, and it's fragile."
At Rio's words, the small golem nodded its head in agreement.
"Yes! I made it myself! I had to scourge through all ten floors of the building to look for pieces of wood to make this small cabin... This is my home, actually..."
Rio glanced at the small body of the golem and had serious doubts in his mind.
'This likely isn't the real body, as it's too weak...'
The small golem is crudely made, and the materials used to make it were just iron and some ordinary metals that were being used to create vulnerable parts of the traps on the above floors.
Rio can easily corrode this small golem as it's not made out of adamantine and mithril.
Although the small golem was giving off a few traces of the aura of an SS-ranker, it doesn't seem strong.
"I waited and waited for a very long time; I waited for a living one to come and help me figure out what's wrong with my father!"
"Now that you are here! Everything will be okay! Hehe..."
The small golem hopped on the ground like a small, cute rabbit; its giggles seemed like those of a child, pure and without any hidden intentions.
Rio glanced around everywhere and noticed that there were various crudely made pieces of furniture placed inside.
'This whole place doesn't match the theme of the factory outside... Everything outside is advanced and shows signs of amazing technology...'
'And here... these things seem like they have been made by someone who clearly didn't know how to create furniture and stuff...'
One thing is for sure though: Rio is definitely on the first floor of the hidden building.
He can tell that because he saw a signboard hanging somewhere in the factory that had 'Floor 1' written on it.
'The strangest thing is that all the texts written in this place are written in 'Ezkina'...'
The dragon king said that this hidden building appeared around the time when Mana first descended in this world, and if that's true, then at that time the language 'EzKina' shouldn't have existed at all.
King Allen was the one who gathered the people to create this unified language, but around the time this building came to be, King Allen wasn't even born yet.
'So, how come this language is being used to depict the floor numbers... very strange indeed...'
While mulling over these doubts in his mind, Rio followed the small golem and arrived at the innermost area of the chamber.
The innermost area was much bigger than the outside, and there was a massive magic circle laid out on the floor. The most shocking thing was that someone had carved this magic circle out of blood!
Rio could sense immense life force and vital energy from that dried-up magic circle.
'This is!? A forbidden magic!?'
Only when you use forbidden magic do you need to use blood to create the magic circle; otherwise, you can just use condensed mana and the powder made from the magic stones to create a magic circle.
Most forbidden magics are extremely twisted and evil spells that cause immense suffering, not only to the victim but also to the user of the spell.
Rio glanced around and noticed a human skeleton sitting in a lotus pose near the wall.
There were ashes scattered around it as if the person's whole body had been burned to ashes and only the skeleton was left of them.
Finally, there was another big golem, which looked similar to the two golems who were guarding the stairs of floor 5 and floor 6.
Only this golem's body parts were broken and had massive cracks on them; even its energy core was missing from its chest.
'Phew, good thing it doesn't have an energy core; without an energy core it won't move...' Ignoring Rio, who was standing in one spot due to the sheer shock, the small golem jumped towards the skeleton and then waved its small hands at Rio before saying.
"This! This is my father! I don't know what happened, but when I opened my eyes, he had turned into this statue-like state... Can you help him perhaps... I don't know how living beings work... Is he in some kind of 'Evolution' state?"
Rio was completely lost for words after hearing the question of the small golem.
He was originally thinking that there would be a boss fight soon, but he never expected to see this weird scenario.
"Uh... little Golem, can you tell me what you saw when you first woke up?"
The small golem placed a hand on its cheek as if it were thinking hard; it seemed very cute while doing that action.
"Hmm, when I opened my eyes, I felt a lot of memories rushing inside my mind; they were foreign memories... I just couldn't comprehend them... They were too vast and jumbled up..." "But I did understand one thing: that this being was the one who created me... He's my father..."
Rio suddenly pointed to the magic circle on the ground and asked,
"Were you sitting in the middle of this magic circle when you woke up?"
The small golem nodded its head without hesitation.
Then Rio asked another question.
"Did your father's body turn into this state when you woke up..."
The small golem nodded its head once again.
After hearing the story of this small golem and looking at the clues in the surroundings, Rio more or less already figured out what had happened here.
'This skeleton likely belongs to an SS-ranker who came to this hidden building to explore this place, but then for some reason either he didn't go out or he got completely stuck in this
place...'
'He was then either suffering from boredom or was either corrupted by miasma...'
Rio could sense the traces of miasma from the skeleton, so that might be the right answer.
'Then this unknown SS-ranker, who had already gone partially insane, started to experiment on the golems that were wandering inside this building...'
When affected by miasma, a person can do any kind of random maniac-like thing without a
solid reason for it.
'Maybe the reason why there were only two remaining golems left to guard the stairs is because this SS-ranker caught them all and ran so many experiments that most of them got
destroyed...'
For weaker individuals like Rio and the others, these golems might be too powerful and unbreakable, but for SS-rankers, they are just mere toys that can be shattered with a mere
flick of a finger.
Rio glanced at the small golem, and a thought came to his mind.
'Maybe the reason why the SS-ranker did so was because he wanted to create a sentient
golem, a golem that will have its own thinking process and a life of its own...'
'That SS-ranker wanted to create genuine 'life' with their own hands...' Looking at the magic circle, Rio noticed the strange pattern of thousand moons and stars on
the outer circle, and the final piece of the puzzle fell into place.
'No wonder this magic circle felt familiar... This is the forbidden magic circle called 'Soul
"Transplant'...'
Although manipulating the 'Soul' is a very difficult thing, if it's your own soul, then it becomes easier.
The SS-ranker used his own blood and vitality to create this magic circle; that's likely the reason why Rio can sense such immense aura and vitality just from the dried blood of this
magic circle.
Using the forbidden magic, the SS-ranker tried to put his own soul and consciousness inside
this small golem.
Although the small golem's body is weak, Rio can sense that there's a very powerful energy
core inside its body.
'Ah, I see, so that's how it is...'
A look of realization appeared in Rio's eyes that was hidden under the helmet of the shadow
robe.
'No wonder the factory outside seems to have run out of energy; no wonder there isn't any energy core inside this broken golem...'
The SS-ranker likely used the whole fuel energy of the factory outside and also the cores of many golems to create a single extremely powerful core that had immense energy in it.
It has so much energy that if detonated, it can cause a literal 'Supernova' that will blast the whole solar system to pieces.
'In other words, this little golem, which looks harmless and cute, is carrying a literal miniature 'Sun' inside its body... No wonder I felt the aura of a Peak SS ranker from this little
guy...'
The SS-ranker likely tried to implant his own memories along with his own soul into the body
of the small golem, but it failed, and his memories weren't transplanted; only his soul barely made it to the body of the small golem.
'In other words, this unknown SS-ranker was successfully able to create the very first 'Sentient' golem in this world...'
...
Author's Notes.
Yo! It's your beloved author here!
Question of the day.
Would you dare to pat the small golem despite knowing that it can blast you off along with
the whole solar system?
(Tell me your thoughts in the comments)
By the way, don't forget to use those power stones!!