Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

The soul plague was still raging in the north, but it failed to spread into Delta, so it counted as dealt with. Arget Nore had also been calm, they had been diligently buying and paying for golems... However, Seth had the feeling that he was inside a powder keg. At some point, things were bound to escalate, he just hoped it wouldn't be during the Pythian Games.

“Seth, good timing. Simon sent the first batch of armor!” Sivri called out to him. The golden dwarf was standing beside a good number of palettes loaded with armor pieces, with a list of stuff in her hand, as if she was checking whether everything was there. “Someone brought them over this morning, I was just checking that everything was complete,” she confirmed his guess.

“Good work, “ Seth said and gestured for her to give him the list. He wanted to see how much the priest managed to procure in three days. According to the inventory list, there were 14 palettes of armor pieces, enough to gear up 450 people.

The delivery consisted of 50 complete sets of uncommon armor, which was not new but undamaged, another 150 scrap armor sets, and enough random items to gear up 200 more people. The latter were a mix of used items and scavenged scrap. The surprising thing was, that Seth found a few rare pieces among the scrap, though they were seriously damaged.

Simon had not lied when he said that new armor was in demand and scrap was abundant. The list also had the prices on it and the 50 used but undamaged sets cost the same as the rest of the delivery combined.

The scrap, on the other hand, didn't even look that bad in his eyes. It might have been a nightmare to any other mediocre blacksmiths, but not only was Seth a master, but he also had Charon's Obol and <Energy Manipulation 3> which made it quite easy to repair these kinds of lower-rated materials.

He wouldn't have to struggle with welding pieces back together, or closing the holes left by deadly attacks. None of the scraps were so bent and ripped out of shape that they were unrecognizable, making a repair quite easy and quick.

In this case, the scrap was definitely a bargain, since he only paid the materials prize for almost finished work. The time he would need to fix these was almost negligible. Realizing this, the blacksmith gave a priest a quick call.

“Yeah, Simon? Your delivery arrived this morning.”

“Is there something wrong with it?” Simon asked a little nervous. Usually, Seth only called him for a reason.

“No, no. It's great, exactly what I wanted. Actually, I wanted to call you to tell you, that it's okay if you focus on scrap, going forward. As long as it stays around the quality of this stuff, it won't be a problem to repair them,” Seth informed him.

“Great, I will do that,” Simon answered with audible relief. It seemed that he had been quite worried about the deadline Seth had given him. The bard on the other hand, also felt some weight lift from himself, since Simon's relief meant, that he was probably able to procure that much damaged armor much easier and in time at that.

Seth ended his call and stepped to Cerberus, who was still occupied with infusing souls into golems. He had made good progress on his own and managed to finish almost 450 orc golems, meaning that there were currently 1800 naked corpse puppets standing in one of the hangars, waiting for commands. At the sight, Seth was glad that they looked smooth as an action figure in their nether regions. A courtesy of the Golem Forge.

“Let's switch, Cerberus. You go repair the armor, I will get back to infusing souls,” the blacksmith ordered his forge helper. Although he and Cerberus had the same skills, the golem was definitely more fit for forging material, than working with the souls.

Seth was not a lot faster, but he managed to finish about 70 more golems a day, despite having to sleep for a few hours. Since they were splitting the work, it was better when Cerberus did the repairs and Seth did the golems. Once the golem finished the repairs, it would join Seth again, anyway.

While one finished the golems and the other prepared their armor, Sivri was left with sorting the armor pieces. Apart from the 50 used, and 150 damaged armor sets, everything else were random part unsorted parts, some enchanted, most not.

The golden dwarf diligently started determining which armor prices should be worn together by the golems, for the best effects. She also started noting down possible enchantments for the fixed items, to cause various set effects. Although Sivri was not fit for armor and weapon forging, she was still able to take on the part of enchanting it.

“Seth, I suggest that we send part of these repair armors to the enchanters,” she approached him after several hours.

“Oh, why?” the blacksmith asked, keeping his focus on the soul he was currently fusing into the golem, before shoving him through the waters of Styx.

“I sorted out the pieces I won't be able to upgrade in a sensible way. Since the enchantments won't matter, it will be good practice for them, “ the golden dwarf stated her reason with a shrug. Right, Sivri was a highly skilled individual, wasting her time on this was already asking a lot. If it would make a difference in the final product, it was almost a sin.

“Okay, you can give them instruction, or just tell them to do the quickest and cheapest enchantments then,” Seth gave his permission. Since the golems were going to raid Y-City, its bandits, and its dungeons, he had no doubt that they would be able to loot better armor.

If they did good, if they didn't, at least the golems would be sent into battle naked. In the end, the guys were corpse puppets, their bodies were not so squishy that they needed armor, it was just an optional boost he didn't want to miss, since it would help quicken their growth, too.

Starting with that day, this became their routine for the following three days. Every day, a delivery from Simon would arrive in the morning, containing enough armor for 400-700 individuals. Cerberus and Sivri would spend the mornings repairing and sorting the armor, while Seth infused souls into golems. Cerberus would then join him in the evening.

He was finished with the better quality ones on the second day, meaning there were then exactly 2643 nude orcs golems that used to be around lv.75 standing in their hangar. While Sivri started putting armor on them, Seth changed to competing with the lower-end orc and hob-goblin corpse golems that were covered in scales made of <Stainless Steel>.

The golem forge was still occupied by these, as it needed longer to forge and adhere the scales, than when it simply created the corpse golems. Seth would have a lot to do for a while, but he didn't mind.

On the last day, when the final delivery arrived, Hoen had just begun work on what Seth had asked him to do. Until the dwarf was finished, Seth would not need the Golem Forge, so it could take its time with the corpse golems.