With the automated collection system in place, I decided to leave the egg gathering to the Golems. Next on our list was sugar—an indispensable ingredient for any sweet treat.
"Um, is that it?" I asked, spotting our target in the distance.
Allen, who was standing beside me, gave me a cheerful nod. "Yes! That is a Sugarman."
It was the spitting image of a snowman. A round, white head sat atop a similarly round, white body. It didn't have limbs, but it seemed to move by hopping around.
"Sugarmen drop clumps of Sugar. However, only a mere pittance," Shara chimed in immediately with an analytical explanation.
According to her, just like with the Egg Trents, we couldn't expect much from their Drop Items. Apparently, you only got a clump of sugar about the size of a tiny piece of rock candy. It was a pathetic amount. Even though sugar was relatively expensive, you certainly couldn't make a living off of that.
However, it seemed quite a few people hunted Sugarmen. Rather than for profit, it seemed people sought them out for a quick snack.
"What do you mean by a snack?" I asked.
"This is what I mean!"
Before I could say anything else, Allen lunged toward the Sugarman. The rest of the Petit Golems scrambled to keep up with him.
"Hey, that’s not fair, Allen!"
"No getting a head start."
"Me too, me too!"
It didn't feel like they were heading into a battle at all.
Meanwhile, noticing Allen and the others, the Sugarman entered a combat stance. It crouched down slightly, then opened its artificial-looking mouth wide and spat something out.
Was it a blinding attack? A fine spray of white sand-like particles filled the air. Allen and the others were right in the middle of it. I felt a pang of worry, but it turned out to be entirely unnecessary. The sounds coming from the Petit Golems weren't screams, but cheers.
"So sweeeet!"
That white sand was, quite literally, sugar.
『Hey, no fair! Me too, me too!』
Realizing what was happening, Shiroru hurriedly charged forward. However, she was a step too late. Just before she reached them, the Sugar Breath cut off.
『Nuaaa! Come on! Give me more sugar!』
Shiroru cheered it on, but the Sugarman was simply huffing and puffing. It seemed it couldn't release its breath in rapid succession.
"And so, children of farmers often use them as a source of snacks," Allen said as he turned around.
His face was coated entirely in white. He wasn't the only one—all of the Petit Golems looked the same. They were a sticky mess, but they all wore beaming smiles. On the other hand, Shiroru, who hadn't managed to get any, looked devastated.
『Nuooo! In that case!』
Suddenly, Shiroru pounced on Allen. Caught off guard, Allen lost his balance and flopped onto the ground.
"Wait! S-Stop it!"
『Oh! It's sweet! It's sweet!』
Wow... Shiroru’s tail was a blur as she licked Allen’s face clean. She got her sugar, but now he was covered in spit. Seeing that, Milly and the others immediately began scrubbing their own faces. They were desperate to avoid a similar fate.
"We could probably secure quite a bit of sugar even from a single breath," I noted.
I estimated that Allen and the others had only intercepted about ten or twenty percent of the total spray. The rest of the sugar had been scattered across the Dungeon floor and vanished before I knew it. If we could secure all of it, we'd collect a decent amount.
"This is definitely a job for Tort's Golems!" Halfa said.
"It looks like we'll be able to collect a lot!" Spira added.
"Ahaha, you're right."
They both had a point. Since making sweets required a lot of sugar, I wanted to stockpile as much as possible. However, the interval between the Sugarman's breaths seemed quite long. Waiting around for it to recharge would be a waste of time. It was better to automate the process.
"Hmm, what kind of Golem should I make?"
I could use the same structure as the anti-Egg Trent Golem, but the Sugar Breath spread over a wide area. If I used a simple wall, the collection efficiency would be poor.
"Maybe I'll make it a Box-type."
Sugarmen were relatively small. Well, they were about as tall as I was, but at that size, I could easily make a Golem capable of containing them.
Using Create Golem, I fashioned a box roughly two meters in height, width, and depth, and gave it a sturdy base. The top of the box could be opened and closed. I also gave this Golem a pair of long, functional hands.
"Now, catch the Sugarman!"
"—!"
At my command, the Box Golem extended its long, wiggly hands. It snatched up the Sugarman, who was still sluggish from the fatigue of its last breath, opened its lid, and tucked the monster inside.
"Will it be okay just putting it in a box?" Halfa asked.
"It'll be fine, Halfa. I've placed a Decoy Golem inside."
Since the box itself was a Golem, the Sugarman would technically view it as an enemy, but it might not realize it was inside a living creature. That was why I had placed a decoy inside—well, technically it was just another part of the Box Golem itself assigned to a Decoy Role. Once the Sugarman recovered, it would likely fire its breath at that decoy, and we could simply collect the results from the bottom of the box.
With this, it looked like we had secured our sugar supply too.