Bloody Chariot and Gungnir exchanged a glance.

"There are incidents like this before. However, not at this level. Two people won those puppets in the Olympian region and one of them had an attack.

Similar humanoid puppets came here and they attacked him.

However, that humanoid puppet that he won immediately activated itself before destroying the puppets that came out of nowhere. Nobody knows who exactly sent those puppets even now.

There are indeed some speculations, some that even related to the hub. However, even at that time, the artisans identified that there is a significance difference in the craftsmanship of Hub's puppets and those humanoid puppets.

"

Bloody Chariot openly revealed the information.

Gungnir frowned and said.

"Then it couldn't be a coincidence. One of the kids from the Thor academy also won a puppet like that in one of the pocket dimensions.

"

"And who is that kid?

"

"He is one of the few that came here and he is among the ones who died.

" Gungnir replied in a heavy tone.

There is a few seconds of silence in the room. Because everyone could guess each other's minds. The only reason the puppets previously was because they were destroyed. But now, they left after the person who acquired this puppet from the pocket dimension, died.

Gungnir thought for a moment and then remembered something.

"Make sure that no one touches that things there. We need to check it out ourselves. We cannot let anyone tamper with anything, even as an accident.

"

Bloody Chariot agreed.

After ten minutes, both if them are back at the inn. They focuses on the ashes of the kids that died and fished out a few things that weren't completely destroyed from the explosion. And among them, there is one thing that wasn't effected by the attack at all.

The ring.

The Gungnir took that ring, it started glowing a bit, before it became dim again.

Gungnir felt a prick in his mind right before it went dim. He didn't understand what happened, but it felt like the ring tried to make a connection with him, however it didn't. It almost seemed like it…. rejected him.

It rejected the one and the only man who has ever received the approval of Odin. It rejected him.

This made him confused and at the same time curious.

What is the actual requirement to acquire this ring?

How can one get his acknowledgement? Nobody knows as of now. However, they do know and have access to the people who have acquired these puppets in these revived pocket dimensions.

After they went back to the Zeus academy, Gungnir proposed his idea.

"We don't exactly know the information regarding these weird puppets. They are powerful and they don't have anyone controlling them from within the vicinity, except for the man who acted as a bait…

"

Gungnir paused here and then thought of the elder that went after that person in the grey robes hasn't come back yet. But it was only a fleeting thought and he continued.

"We have a few avenues to investigate this incident. First one is the Hub. However, the tensions between the academies and the hubs are at an all time high. The students are dying day by day and the crime rate of student-on-student has increased quite a bit as well.

So, it would be nigh impossible to do this.

Maybe, if we try this from the Sanatan realm or the Xia realm, then we might have some breakthrough.

The second avenue is researching the puppets themselves. We need to understand that language that was engraved on these puppets and also study the style of their making.

The alloy metals, the inscription styles, the formation concepts, all of this can help us get to them.

"

He paused and Bloody Chariot continued.

"The third avenue is obviously the one and the only grey hooded guy. Isn't he? If your elder manages to catch him, we might really have a quick breakthrough.

All three avenues are troublesome.

The first one is the moderate and most sure approach, because we can be sure that the Hub does know about them.

Then the second is the most unsure method. We don't know how many years it will take for us to actually understand these things.

The third one is something I don't know what to think of. If it works, then it works. As long as we capture him, we can directly perform soul search.

But the fact that he wasn't captured yet and came back along with your Elder is something that is concerning me.

"

While they are discussing this, somewhere deep inside the forest outside the Olympian city.

Four people that wore grey robes surrounded one person. That one in the middle is the elder that came along with Gungnir. Also the same one that followed the man in the grey robe.

The four people are obviously the managers of the hub's various branches.

Icarus, Ivar, Daksh and Lan.

All four of them gathered here for Sam's well executed plan.

The Elder is panting heavily in the middle of all four. The surroundings were destroyed and the elder didn't even have a single spot on his body that wasn't bruised.

He felt like he was dying and in fact, he was doing exactly that.

Even though is high up in the energy levels compared to the four, when four of them combined their powers, they managed to subdue him. Of course, there is one more thing that actually played a key role.

Ivar's arm glowed and the glove that he wore started showing archaic runic marks all over it.

He threw a perfect jab at the face of the elder. The energy condensed in that glove penetrated through the elder's head. The runes disappeared at the same time as the life left the body of the elder.

The fight was completed and the elder is dead.

The four them ran in four different directions leaving the crime scene.

At the same time, Sam who finished repairing the core and recovering himself, went to check something in the hub's data.

The information regarding the inactive links of the hub but the active links of the puppets. In other words, the people that now joined the faith of Agmon.

He is actually surprised by the amount of people who did so. Alton really went above and beyond to poach a load of members to convert them to this new faith. He is preying on the fact that many of these people are abandoned by the academies, student unions and even some of their friends and peers.

Because these people are weak as of now and they were plundered so that their coins can be used by the strong.

This sudden discrimination that they were subjected to, all because they were in the middle of a crisis that none of them are really responsible for… this made them feel helpless and all the gods that they worshipped until them with their utmost heart are not there to save them.

And Alton took this chance to spread the faith of agmon.

A god that not only removes all their problems just for accepting their faith and going through a brainwashing process of believing and even denouncing the other gods.

Sam had a sense of dejavu.

This is how the cults operated back on earth.

However, he still didn't expose their existence. In fact, he even helped them out by suppressing the spread of information.

This extra layer, might just add to the chaos and Sam would welcome it. After all, Sam's goal was neither to conquer the academy realm nor to rival it. His goal is to destabilize and destroy it, in turn hurting the gods that are supporting this place.

As long as he does that, it doesn't matter if he is using a borrowed knife.

Of course, the stab wouldn't feel as satisfying, but it is a stab nonetheless. A stab that could make even the gods bleed.

As Sam was smiling to himself, he got an alert from hub's system.

Someone is requesting Joker's audience.

He was surprised to see the people that came there.

Gungnir and Bloody Chariot. The two legendary elders are at his doorstep. It seems like they took the first approach.

Sam controlled Joker's projection and appeared in front of them both.

"Hello, I would like to say it is nice to meet you. But it is really not. So, why are you here?

"

"We need some information on those puppet strikers. Why are their tricks very similar to yours?

"

Gungnir asked directly.

"May I know, why do I need to give you that information?

"

"Our students were attacked…

"

"No, no, what you are saying is, why you need this information. I am asking why do I need to give that information.

There is a vast difference between those two cases. So, please answer my question. But before that, think of your behavior and treatment towards hub in the past few days.

Think carefully and answer me.

"