Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Seth had let loose all the golems he still had in his inventory, which were arguably not that many.

He had to leave most of his abominable golems behind because they all needed individual inventory slots. At least, the 25 he currently possessed were the strongest he currently had. Seth really lamented not having something like a housing skill, that some high-ranking tamer classes possessed.

After freeing the surroundings of their wildlife, he was getting close to the next level up.

"Finally." Seth exclaimed when the recorder finally found a sign of a bird colony.

He had been getting nervous.

In the two hours, while the golems had been depopulating the closer vicinity of the swamp, they had only come across 5 other birds. 2 of which managed to escape. If there was no bird colony, Seth would have had to worry about the status of his ration, as it might have taken weeks to find so many birds.

"Come here everyone, we found our target. " he called his troops to assemble-

The golems gathered beside the blacksmith, bringing their prey along. The blacksmith did not immediately set off. After several dungeons and many fights, the Golems were in a sorry state. Especially the 5 golem knights that had fought from the start.

Although the golems could regenerate, and their armor would do so too, if it was part of the golem, giving them separate armor hat a much better effect in general. It just came with the need for maintenance.

Before the great battle, Seth wanted to make sure the Golems and their equipment were at their peak. Seeing the armor of two of them assured him of his decision. Even epic items would see some wear and tear against high-level opponents, but these two had fought against the bird and it seemed like the bird had an armor-penetrating attribute.

The weapons were in a much better condition, as the golems had been switching weapons depending on the opponent. No matter how damaged something looked, with the even further improved <Soul Smithy> Seth was able to touch up everything in slightly more than an hour.

"Okay, we are ready. Puff, can you bring me there?"

Seth put all the golems in his inventory and mounted Puffles. The nesting grounds were quite far away. It was only after the golem recorders started scouting the dungeon, that Seth realized how expansive it really was.

The sheer size was a good explanation for why it had not broken out yet. Without monsters welling out from the rift, Seth could understand how the chimeras did not find this one.

It was good that its size wasn't a problem for them. What took the golems two hours to reach, the swift Puffles would cross in less than half an hour.

"Hmm, this isn't good, keep your nets ready, Puff. We might have to change the order of things." Seth mentioned a few minutes after they set off.

When he wanted to check the picture of the recorder golems again, the situation had changed. Before, the place was filled with bronze-colored birds, but now there were only empty nests. Rewinding the recording, he found that the birds had suddenly all taken off, barely 30 minutes ago.

Something had alarmed the whole flock.

"I think I see what you mean. Look ahead" Puffles commented.

Seth looked up and saw a cloud in the distance. Using <Clairvoyance> he was able to recognize the thick flock of birds in the sky. Like a cloud of gold and bronze-colored blades, they came in their direction.

This could not be a coincidence. With a quick thought, the blacksmith realized how they had most likely alarmed the flock. The two birds that got away. At least one of them must have warned the colony that invaders had come to hunt them. Or they came for revenge.

He realized how vicious this dungeon was. It wasn't just a terribly hostile and disgusting environment, the dungeon forced the player to offend such a hateful breed of bird. Any ordinary adventurer party would be boned.

The moment they let one of the birds escape, they would have to face the whole flock at once. The question changed from "Can I hunt 300 birds before I starve?" to "Can I survive a unified attack of all birds in the dungeon?"

At Seth's sign, Puffles landed and let him get off before returning to the clouds. The bird had not shown an indication, that they had noticed the blacksmith or the nightmare centipede yet.

Lastly, he used <Earth Magic> to raise earth walls as shields and footholds for the golems.

Soon the swarm was close enough to notice them.

~They are close enough, Puff. It's your turn!~

~Watch me. I will show you what a great plan looks like!~

On the ground, Seth started his own preparations. It wouldn't take long for the birds to arrive, but he also didn't have to do much. After bringing out the combat golems, Seth also hid some of the loudspeaker golems.

The moment the Ivicer stopped speaking a thick ray of light suddenly penetrated the dense flock of birds. The quest counter immediately rose to 34/300 and a wave of experience arrived. A notification could be heard.

<Ding! You have leveled up! You are now lv.69!>

"Nice!" he couldn't help but call out, as he got ready for his part.

With the ray of light, the Ivicer emerged from the clouds. The attack had gathered the aggro of the flock and it was now charging at the nightmare centipede above.

Like in an old monster movie, the Ivicer spat out a funnel-shaped net that glistened golden in the sun. Although the bird in the front realized what was going on, the flock was too dense. Only a few birds were able to evade the net.

Caught in the net and having their movement hindered, the flock started falling. Despite Puffles layering another two nets on top of the first one, some more birds managed to escape after they managed to cut up some of the threads with their wings.

Ignoring the few that escaped, the majority of the flock crashed into the swamp below, right in front of where Seth and the golems were waiting.

As the Bronze Birds struggled on the ground and water, the speaker golems started blaring the distorted lyre sound and a demonic voice entered the scene.

"..tired of your excuses, can't deal with living anymore? I'll give you reasons to stop now, while you are writhing on the floor!"

Seth started singing one of Oz's songs. The idea of making them sleep was out the window the moment it was clear that they left the nests. Instead, they chose this song. it's effects changed depending on the situation and intention of the musician. It ranged from drunkenness and euphoria to stupor and depression. The demon alcohol could do a lot to a person.

For the bird it was the latter, their aggression waned and they became almost lethargic inside the net. It was to the point that Seth himself was creeped out by how well this worked against these beasts. Were they just susceptible to mind attacks?

~You shouldn't belittle yourself like that, you also improved. On top of that, it's me playing my music.~ the lyre praised the bard and itself.

The demotivated birds didn't even put up any resistance as the golems started butchering them. What confused Seth was, that there was no boss among them. No dungeon boss, no elite, no Alpha Bird. All of them ranged between lv. 65 to 71.

While he was singing, he handed one of the golems the Spear of bitter Mercy. Seeing how the birds were dunked in water and partly made of metal, the Stormelementals lightning attack would help quicken the process.

Soon the silhouette of a lightning bird appeared on the field of slaughter.

"What is this?" the elemental was confused, seeing all the birds on the ground, waiting for their execution.

~Don't ask, just start helping take care of this mess.~ Puffles scolded it, as Seth didn't have the time. He had to sing.

It didn't take long for lightning to strike the birds. Seth almost felt pity for the birds, but it couldn't be helped.

Seth's experience and the quest counter quickly shot up. When the quest counter reached 300, they were not done yet, but a chest and a return portal appeared beside the blacksmith.

However, the slaughter went on, until finally

<Ding! You have leveled up! You are now lv.70!>