Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Everyone's eyes went wide when Seth summoned the mighty machine.

"Wait a moment, I will show you what it does," Seth said with an amused smirk and stepped to the Golem Forge.

On the display, he chose a blueprint he had prepared beforehand. This was not a finished golem, but the basic frame for his Golem Knights. This was another great function of the Golem Forge, The blueprint used did not have to be a completed golem, Seth could even use it to just build specific parts.

In this case, it was the full-frame without a core. He had prepared this after testing around with the golem forge. The reason was simple, the Golem Forge could not handle his crafted items, but if he could just use it for the parts it could make and finish the rest by hand. This way he could save a lot of time, without losing the advantages.

"Missing Parts, Blueprint cannot be made." the mechanical voice stated.

Of course, he first had to feed the beast with raw materials, before it started. A rare material he had in abundance after being gone for so long, was <Crimson Steel>. The <High-Quality Steel> that had been processed with the blooddrinker ballad and left to soak in monster blood until it reached its limits.

Steel and monster blood were easy to come by and Seth had prepared a lot before he went for the evaluation. Now was the time to harvest it for the golem guard of the trade route. Besides the steel, he also added some <Mithril> for the inlays of the magic formations.

Doing more conductive inlays instead of just engraving the formations was originally a hard and time-consuming work. Seth wanted to see if the golem forge could take this burden off his shoulders.

He also added some other materials from the storage, such as crystals for the eyes and some <Artificial Adamantium> for the core armor. After adding everything to the storage of the machine, he once again chose the blueprint and the golem forge went to work.

The towers moved and adjusted to the expected size of the golem. Metal ingots appeared in the space between them and the myriad of mechanical limbs went to work, forging the materials in shape. It turned the ingots of <Olympian Silver> into wire and milled the grooves for the formations with incredible precision.

Just like Seth, everyone stared in awe as this golem printer went to work, creating the basic frame of a humanoid golem, all enchantments and formations included, at a speed visible to the eye.

"Oh my god, what is this beauty!" they heard someone exclaim a few minutes in. it was Hoen, the magic blacksmith who had stumbled into the workshop when he noticed the small crowd.

The dwarf was staring at the miracle of technology. The thick beard made his face hard to read, but it seemed like he was about to cry, he felt so touched. It was then Seth realized that the golem forge was like an elaborate version of what Hoen was able to do.

Of course, the golem forge was a lot more complex than a minting press that was able to copy enchantments, but it was like the comparison of a calculator and a computer. In the end, this extremely complex apparatus was built upon the same principle as the little minting press. Seth didn't disturb the dwarf's state of immersion. He seemed almost hypnotized by the rhythmic movements of the machine.

It didn't even take the golem forge 15 minutes to create the basic frame, a task Seth would spend hours on, even with the perks of his <Soul Smithy>. After it was finished, the frame was set down in from of the golem forge and everything fell silent.

The frame stood there like like a metal mannequin, lifeless. Mina and the other looked a little unsure, as they didn't know that it was supposed to be like that.

"Kukuku..." Seth could help but laugh, rubbing his hand in anticipation.

"Tower Master...?" Hoen asked a little worried.

Seth's thoughts were focused on the golem. This was the first one that really counted, and his friends were watching. He had to give them a little show. He pondered for a moment what soul to use. His decision was a little vain when he decided to use one of the magician souls from the lizardman dungeon.

Of course, there were legitimate reasons, but he really didn't want for the rag-tag armor golem to be his first known caster golem. If he made his "first" caster golem in such a prominent fashion with witnesses, nobody would doubt it was his first, right?

Ignoring the others, the blacksmith went ahead and brought a set of armor from storage, that Wedan had finished in his absence. He chose it because it had a good balance between effects useful for a mage and for a warrior.

The people around watched in silence as their Tower Master summoned his anvil and swung at something that seemed like empty air. They couldn't see the work Seth did, but they waited with bated breath.

After refining and reinforcing the magician's soul into a big soul, he began creating a core from <Olympian Silver>, infusing the greatest part of the soul into the material. The rest was split off to be infused into the rest of the golem's body. Laying out the frame and the armor parts be started to forge parts of the soul and infuse them into the body, important interface formations, and the parts of the armor.

Mina and the others watched the blacksmith working for half an hour when the frame clad in armor finally stepped out of the bubble of water, with a blue glow in its crystalline eyes.

<Magic Warrior Golem lv. 55

Trait: Unlimited Stamina

Race: Bloodiron Golem

Age:0

Affiliation: Minas Mar

Durability: 1000/1000

Mana: 3500

Strength:250

Dexterity:350

Agility: 375

Intelligence: 350

Willpower: 250

Endurance: 400

Personality: 20

Defense:

Physical: 15500

Magical: 12000

Poison Immunity

Mental Immunity

Status Anomaly Resistance: 65%

Magic Resistance 55%

Damage Reflection: 15%

45% Earth Affinity

20% Water Affinity

35% Additional Magic Damage

…

Active Skill: Earth Magic (Adept) lv.1

Active Skill: Water Magic (Apprentice) lv. 5

Active Skill: Staff Mastery (Adept) lv.3

Passive Skill: Magic Damage UP lv.3

Passive Skill: Improved Mana lv.5

Passive Skill: Cast Reduction lv. 2

...>

Like the other Golem Knights, its status was far above that of most players of similar level in epic armor. The real difference between the Golems and a player had always been their skills, which had to be trained.

Depending on their class, players could gain several times the boost through their skill. Skills such as <Magic Damage UP> or <Staff Mastery> could tremendously improve the power of skills and equipment. In this case, since he had used the harvested soul of a caster lizardman, it already came with a bunch of respectable skills, fit for a mage.

Equipped with an Arcane Wand the golem gave off an imposing aura. Had they not just seen Seth assemble the golem, the tam of adventurer and Hoen would have had a hard time seeing a difference in bearing to a high-level adventurer.

This was the greatest advantage of harvested souls. After refining the soul, the consciousness that would grow would subconsciously adapt to the battle experiences of its previous life. This improved the growth of a golem and especially their skills and awareness in battles.

"B-Boss, are you really planning to man the whole trade route with golems such as that?" Hoen asked carefully.

"Of course, why do you ask?" Seth answered proudly.

The dwarf deliberated for a while before answering.

"Don't you think it's a little extravagant to equip all the golems with epic armor?" the dwarf brought up-

"Don't listen to him! This is way too cool! Anything less than this should not even be made!" Fin already crawling all over the golem's armor. Her eyes gleamed in a way he had never seen before.

Despite the fairy brute's objections, Seth thought about what Hoen said. Currently, the only ones able to make epic armors in Delta were probably him, Hoen, Wedan, and Cerberus. And the dwarves were taking a not negligible amount of time to make an armor.

On top of that, they were already bogged down in orders. It all meant, that the supply of epic armor was simply unable to keep up with the pace at which he could pump out golems. He also realized, that dressing a frame made of rare material in an epic armor was kind of a waste. The blacksmith did so to cover for its weaknesses, but was it necessary for what they were supposed to do?

There was also the fact, that it was a waste to use his good souls for golems that would only fight occasionally.

"You are right, I guess," he said contemplatively.

"See?" Fin called out triumphantly.

"I was talking to Hoen." he shot down the fairy dryly. He heard Fin gasp in played shock.

It would be better to dress the golems in rare armors, but it didn't make sense to have the dwarves make those. The only possibility was to supply them from the outside then. A smile appeared on his face when he remembered something Mary had talked about.

"Since epic armor is a bit too much, we will supply rare ones from outside. I already have an idea, where I could get a discount."