Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Creatures of various shapes and sizes were seated around the table. After many setbacks, like floods, a zombie plague that even affected undead, and an exhaustive war with a bunch of regenerating psychos, Arget Nore had finally managed to consolidate their position in Urth.

After erecting their Land of Death they had used the undead labor force to erect a glorious capital of undeath, Assembled in the room at the top of their citadel, were the various leaders of Arget Nore on Urth.

“If this is how Minas Mar wants to play...Then let us play along.” a hollow voice that was not articulated by physical vocal chords said into the room. After a moment, there were consenting voices, it seemed that some had understood what the speaker meant. Others didn't.

“What do you mean “play along”? They dare to make a deal with us, while strengthening gamma Resistance and have the gall to smear it into our face. We have to teach them a lesson.” a creature in the shape of a pile of black sludge muttered, feeling like it was the only one in the room with a backbone, despite being the only one in the room without any bones at all. The sludge's exclamation triggered a collective sigh.

“Let me elaborate. We will teach them a lesson, by capturing more people to exchange for their golems. This way we will hit them where it hurts the most, their money pouch,” the disembodied voice explained it to the sludge, who coincidentally also lacked a dedicated thinking organ, like a brain.

There were many smaller human settlements apart from the districts, either those that were built by survivors who fled or those people who had split from the districts long before the cataclysm. There was no agreement that hindered Arget Nore from hunting more slaves for trading them against golems, outside of the districts.

The people who had not gotten this before, now also agreed with the previous murmur. It was a good idea, that had much less chance to create diplomatic issues, than anything the sludge was going to present.

“One of my ravens actually found quite a big settlement far into the planes in the east. There were even giants. If the distance wasn't so far, I would have already gone there to collect some good materials,” another, just as hollow but more feminine voice, mentioned.

“Grrr oaaan?” a jumbled groan could suddenly be heard.

“It would take roughly two weeks going by land. One if we take a White Shadow,” the hollow voice answered the zombie's question, unperturbed by his strong accent.

“I take that everyone agrees with this plan then?” the first, more masculine, voice asked in the round. “Then it's decided! Let's start a manhunt. It's been a while,” the voice concluded happily, when everyone, even the sludge, answered affirmatively.

“Guroan?” the Zombies once again interjected.

“Yes, we will even give them everything on the list.” the hollow voice reinforced.

...

While others were scheming based on the glimpse Seth had revealed to the world, the blacksmith was already working on the future. Striking a nice work-life balance the bard worked on adding the Automaton Core Circuit of Hephaestus, to his own Golem manufacturing methods.

Trying to build in such a high-level difficulty circuit into already complicated processes was as hard as it sounded. The Golem Forge lacked the skills to engrave a Golem core with the circuit, even if Seth fed it a blueprint of just the core. He would still have to make one like that himself.

Similarly, the blacksmith found that adding the circuit to the soul formation also wasn't incredibly helpful. He was trying to make powerful golems, that wouldn't cost him a soul. Adding it to the golem formation using souls would improve the intelligence of the golems he created this way, but wasn't his current goal.

At least this was the his simple excuse for not being able to do it at the moment. He just barely understood either of the two, trying to fuse them was still too much for him, although he tried.

Since he didn't make any progress in that direction, Seth turned to making golem cores by hand.

For this he used some of the fresh batch of <Mad Ithildin> which was finally finished.

Unfortunately, Seth didn't have that big of a supply of urthan <Ithildin> to begin with. The first batch of <Mad Ithildin> was quite small since it was just an experiment. The process of the <Ithildin> to soak up blood and transform took quite some time, which was why it took several weeks since the first time he created it successfully, to get a second batch.

Although he would have liked to, he couldn't make a Ring of Dionysus for every warrior in the field teams. What he could do was make various single and set accessories for all of them, however, this was not what he was going to do now, for a simple reason.

The blacksmith was waiting for Arget Nore to take their deal and hand over the stuff he requested. Namely, a list of master-level enchantments, which he would then use on the new jewelry and other items. So while he waited for it, he decided to work on some high-tier golems to “sell”.

The highest tier he planned to offer to Arget Nore were “living” armors. Epic armor sets, assembled and controlled by a core of <Mad Ithildin> engraved with the Basic Automaton Core Circuit. The reason he used some of the scarce material was because he had found that its influence improved the speed of the development of an ego.

Of course, there were no long-term studies on what kind of ego would develop, but even if they got a little skewed... who cares? They were going to be someone else's problem for the time being. And he would make them someone else's problem if he got them back if they were a little too loco.

What could be the worst that could happen? Destabilizing the very foundations of an undead empire through insubordination and rampant violence? This was a price he was willing to pay, to see where these cores could go.

In addition, he came up with a system of five additional cores made of regular <Ithildin>. They were engraved with mana-gathering formations and connected by <Arcane Gold>, both of which would provide the golem with more than enough mana to operate. Although he couldn't combine high-tier knowledge, as a master blacksmith and master enchanter he was very much capable of something like this.

Once a core was finished, it was time for the Golem Forge to assemble the armor sets that Cerberus kept making, together with the core, into a working, refined golem. The very first of these golems was even more experimental than the others that would follow.

The rose silver core made of <Mad Ithildin> became the center of a pitch-black armor. In a whirl of mechanical arms, the armor pieces were engraved and the insides refined with epic <Arcane Gold> inlays.

The design of the armor was not a new one, but it was the design for the Dark Knight Armor Set Tored had once gifted to him. Seth had slightly improved the design and used the <Enriched Necron> as material for the armor. It was originally sort of a prototype, for a new armor for Evee.

A pale red light shone in the visor of the black armor, as the golem stepped out from the Golem Forge. There were no notifications about finishing an item, there never had been any, however-

<Ding! Your skill Golem Artisan lv.8 has become Golem Artisan lv.9!>

One of the skills that had laid dormant for a long time, because gaining proficiency was arduous, had finally leveled up. At the same time, the red light of the visor fell onto the blacksmith.

“Master, what are your orders?” the black knight asked in a deep, still slightly robotic voice. A dread-inducing aura swung within the voice, caused by the concentrated power of death in the material of the armor.

Forget the high-ranking undead and pretentious swordsmen, this- THIS was a Death Knight.