Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Chapter 1017. An official purge

“This is the Tower Master of Minas Mar, speaking. Hereby I announce an official purge of Ypselon. To all entities able to understand human language: If you face the golems, put your weapons away and lie on the ground. If you do so, your lives will be spared. If you donʼt, the golems will identify you as the enemy.”

The bardʼs announcement echoed through the streets of the ruined city, as he followed the wave of golems that penetrated the surrounding buildings.

All of the golems had cores with Forgebrandʼs automaton circuit. They were not as advanced as those of Hephaestus, but they could take and understand simple and slightly complex instructions. Seth gave them two instructions:

Kill all hostile entities. Ignore Non-hostiles.

Loot all valuables.

Then he set the locusts onto the city. Thousands of almost sentient golems had swarmed into the high risers on all sides, tens of them per building. Sounds of fights quickly sounded through the city, but they couldnʼt compare to the bardʼs mighty voice, who kept repeating his announcement.

Apart from scavengers, all kinds of creatures had taken residence in the city since the humans had fled or died here. However, they couldnʼt stand against the army of golems. Even if they were strong beasts or invaders from the Pathworks, they all fell against the golems swarming in like ants.

In the streets and the houses, fights were happening. And as he walked down the street, repeating his announcement, things started falling onto the streets. “Loot all the valuables” translated to throwing whatever they found out to the streets so they it be collected by the group of golems Seth kept by his side.

The blacksmith regretted a little, that TanoʼMol had run off to Emerald City. Now he could only rely on the natural suction of to collect the various souls the monsters and scavengers dropped.

“This is a little disrespectful,” Sivri couldnʼt help but comment at the things being thrown out the windows. Seth twitched for a moment, thinking she had read his thoughts before he realized what she meant.

What fell from the sky was not purely a rain of riches. There were armor pieces, weapons, and jewelry, but they were often still attached to fresh or rotten corpses. The greatest part of the things falling from the sky, were monster corpses, as the possible materials also counted as valuables.

There were also various devices and apparatuses the golems judged as valuable because of their magic aura. However, what Sivri was referring to were probably the corpses of people who died during the last fight of the Scene or in the months afterward.

The golems had no care for the peace of the dead, if the dead dared to hold onto a piece of equipment, they flew out the window. Some undead were pacified before they received the same treatment.

“ You are right, itʼs not very nice... But look at it like this, this way we can give them a proper cremation once they are properly cleaned.” the blacksmith commented. He had no qualms about body stripping, it wasnʼt like the dead still needed the stuff. The only things of value the golems held onto instead of throwing them out were the small black item boxes that were dropped by the scavengers and contained part of their inventory. They would have been a pain to find on the street.

“...I guess itʼs the best we can do for them.” Sivri agreed. It was better to show them some respect and properly take care of their remains than to give some sick shaman or necromancer the chance to raise them as undead.

While the Golems in the building were busy with pacifying and looting, Sivri led a group of golems on the ground to collect and initially sort the harvest. Piles of monster carcasses, different items, and human remains started taking shape along the road, as they traveled further and further into the city.

One may have thought it would take a lot of time, to completely clear out any and every high-rise buildings and underground facilities they came past, but they proceeded quite quickly, given the number of removal assistants.

“S-Sir?” after they passed several blocks, they were bound to meed non-hostiles that were left alone by the golems. A small crowd caught up with Seth and the golems from behind. They didnʼt exactly look like scavengers, but that didnʼt really mean anything.

“Yes?” the bard asked, halting his announcements.

“Y-Your golems took our items...” the man at the front asserted hesitatingly.

“You have quite the balls, trying to take advantage of this situation to gear up,” Seth shot him down.

Seth knew very well how the golems would act. They would take stuff from a non-hostile and they would take consumables. All they took were things lying around, if they didnʼt have their important stuff in their inventory, they could only blame themselves. Seeing that Seth had no intention of giving them even an inch, they were lost for words.

“The path to Tree Station 12 is open. I cleaned it up on the way here. If you wish to live in a safer place, this is your chance to get out of this place,” Seth gave them a way out. Whether they were citizens who were simply stuck here or scavengers, the people at TS12 would decide what to do with them. The fact that they did not attack the golems, showed there was a chance for them.

When they heard that the path out of Y-City was relatively safe, the quickly ran off, repeating their thanks. Whether they thanked him for letting them off or because they could finally get out of this place, he didnʼt know.

After the short distraction, Seth turned back to calling out his announcement. Following the plan made with Mark Baker this was supposed to be a monster biome, so having some scavengers was already a little surprising.

“Oh, this one is quite good,” Sivri exclaimed, holding up a ring.

A bizarre creature? Overall, Seth felt this ring was a good fit for one of the few magic-focused orcs that were made from shamans. However, the flavor text drew his attention. So far, Seth had not come across any of the special creatures he heard so much about. All the beasts seemed rather normal.

“Where did you find it?” Seth asked her. Maybe the body had some clues?

However, when the golem led them to the body it took it from, there was nothing of worth. It was just the body of a scavenger. Maybe that the player had found Augurʼs corpse or got the ring in a dungeon. Maybe the bizarre creature had nothing to do with what was happening on Urth and Augur had died in a far away world?

Seth didnʼt even get the chance to keep the bizarre creature in mind, as he was constantly reminded of it. Quite an item description kept mentioning the demise of their owners by a bizarre creature, however, the items were always in the hands of scavengers.

“I guess itʼs not a coincidence,” Seth mumbled when Sivri brought him another, the sixth, item that mentioned the bizarre creature. This time it talked about the ownerʼs whole party being wiped out. With so many appearing as they progressed, the blacksmith became convinced that these things had happened here. Since initial dungeon drops were mostly random, there would be this many items with similar flavor texts.

“Do you think we will face this thing?” Sivri asked, not concerned at all. As much as she tried, she couldnʼt really worry, with so many golems around.

“Who knows? But since we are trying to cover as much ground as possible in the next six weeks, I think the chances are high,” the blacksmith estimated. “ on that point, the left flank should reach the first dungeon soon,” he added.

Although Seth would have liked to fleece the whole city for items and materials, they were on a tight schedule. Minas Mar was painfully aware that if someone intended to stage something against them, they would probably wait for the Pythian Games. Whether it was Spatia, the Cultivators, or even the Demons, Seth felt that they were not properly prepared for either after what he saw in Little Gamma. Their forces were too spread out, to deal with everything, everywhere, all the time.

He intended to change that in the next six weeks.