《The Online Craftsmaster》 2 Craftsmaster John was at home and stared at the monstrosity that stand in his one-room apartment. He naturally knew that Virtec Inc. was the biggest game company to this date since the released their VRMMO "Kings Reign". But never in his wildest dreams would he have imagined that his little brother would win one of those VR-Capsules and even a special one-of-kind class for Kings Reign. If he could sell everything he didn''t have to work at his stupid part-time jobs anymore! Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. As John was daydreaming about the money and the delicous meat he could buy with it he noticed a Letter. John opened the envelope and started reading... Dear John, please forgive me for winning again i know it bothers you and that you couldn''t stand it to be near me but i thought maybe we could become a little closer again when we play this game together. I can''t wait to meet you in the game. in love Your little Brother PS: they even said they''d create a npc of me :) John read this letter several times before he pressed it against his chest as tears were flowing down his cheek. All thoughts about selling everything were blown away and he never moved faster in his life as he jumped into the capsule and pressed the On-Button. ...calibrating... ...logging in... "Welcome to Kings Reign!" Please choose your race! - Human - Elf - Half Elf - Dwarf - Titan (Special Race) John wanted to pick Human but as he clicked it a window came up. " Beware if you choose Human your special class privilege gets revoked!" John didn''t want to choose anything else because he had bad experiences with special offers. One time he even got 5 dishwashers delivered after he took a special offer and he had to pay for all of them. But he thought it would be a waste to abandon special priviliges in a game like Kings Reign so he took Titan as his race. But John didn''t took his bad look in consideration and his smile got wiped off his face when he read which class had been chosen for him. "Congratulations you are the first and only player with the class:" "Craftsmaster" 3 E.V.A "Welcome User, i am your Eletrical Virtual Assistant but you can call me EVA. I''m an Ai specifically designed to help you. Because Kings Reign relies on realism you have to craft for yourself, thats why you were transported to this tutorial instance to learn the basics of crafting!" "Please choose your first tutorial: - Smithing - Tailoring - Leathercraft - Alchemy - Woodworking " " I choose Tailoring!" Please turn around User you''ll find fabric and tools and create an item of your choice." John turned around and cursed himself he never crafted anything and now he had to craft 5 items he just knew that theres gonna go something wrong. He chose a nice fabric that was shiny and smooth and tried to think of something he could was able to craft without experience so he chose to make a small coin pouch. he cut 2 half circles and a stripe of cloth the edges where a bit rough but he had to make do with it and started sewing all pieces together any add a cord to close the pouch. All in all he was quite pleased with the result until he heard a quiet "tch..." behind his back. He turned around and showed Eva his work. "Congratulations.... User... why dont you check your item with appraisal just think about it." But John was dumbfounded when he read the Item description: Worthless Coin Pouch Rank: Trash A small cloth Pouch for storing money but the cuts where uneven, the used fabric is not good for this kind of item and every child could sew better than that. It is a complete disgrace for every crafter and you can basicly see how the money put into it lands on the ground or in the pocket of a thief. The creator of the cloth was even cursed with eternal unrest after death by this item. "Congratulations you''ve unlocked 3 titles! "Curse Master Rank 1" +10% Stronger curses "Disgrace of all crafters" Every item you make gets downranked by one "Limit Breaker" You did something that not even the system anticipated your crafted items keep their stats even if they are downranked. John got enraged, he left the game and went to bed. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. 4 End of the Tutorial John woke up and thought about what happened in the game he just couldn''t stop thinking how he would have played the game with his brother and that he somehow feels connected to him when he plays even when he gets mocked for his poor crafting skills. So he stood up made himself breakfast and went to the supermarket for his shift. He thought about what he should craft for the other tutorials and after he got home he got into the capsule and logged into the game. "tch....you are back..." John was dumbstruck how the hell a program could lose its respect for him. But John quickly got over as he often disappointed people even his own family. John completed the woodworking, the Alchemy and the leathercrafting tutorial and everytime it was a slap to his face when read the item descriptions. "Ruined Walking Stick" Rank: Trash A walking stick made out of wood if you use it you either die from the splinters or you break all your bones because the disgraceful craftsmanship made it so fragile that it is a wonder that it doesn''t break under its own weight. "Health Potion?" Rank Trash It takes either a poison Master or a complete Moron to be able to create a deadly poison out of the ingredients of a Health Potion. "Pile of Leather Scraps" Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Rank: Trash Some leather scraps that were a small pouch but because of the bad Craftsmanship the Pouch fell apart and was a complete waste of resources and time. It was so bad that the hunter which hunted the beast to get the leather but died due to his wounds was cursed to walk on earth as an undead. And everytime John finished an item he heard a hurtful ...tch... behind his back and got a notification "Your item already is at the Rank trash and can''t be downgraded anymore!" John sighs only blacksmithing left he just needs forge a weapon and he can leave. He thought about what he should craft and chose a club as an easy and effective weapon. He took a piece of iron threw it in the forge and heated it up as it was red hot he took it to the anvil and started hammering after some time he got a pretty good form so he took his workpiece and threw it into cold water to quench it. John took some leather strips and made a primitive binding on the handle. He looked at his work and was quite pleased his did have some cracks and it is kind of ugly but it should work. "Notification" "Your normal item Cracked Club was downgraded to trash." "Cracked Club" Rank Trash Durability 30/30 Can''t be repaired An iron club with enough weight to bash some skulls in. Because of some forging errors it became overly brittle and it cracked but the resulting edges give it a devastating damage potential. A workpiece of a disgraceful Crafter. Atk+ 10 For every -2 Durability +1 Atk John cheered and he didn''t even get the ...tch... sound from Eva. He finally finished all the tutorials. 7 The first Ques After John arrived at the village he looked at what got from all the fighting: -He rose to Lvl 3 -got 27 Rabbit Meat Paste and 22 Rabbit fur Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. He took his spoils and sold the meat to the tavern and the fur to a general merchant but kept 3 furs. One of these he sacrificed it at the Church for the hunter Zombie he created. After all the he searched for a blacksmith and found one at the outer edge of the village it was a little rundown but that didn''t bother John. He knocked and went inside an old smith was hammering some iron before he asked John: "Watcha want?" John answered: "Hello my name is Chrome and i wanted to ask if i could borow your forge and buy some iron from you?" "If ya can Forge something that impresses me i give ya some iron for free." "New Quest Impress the old blacksmith with your forging" John was overjoyed as he heard that but he was also worried as he had yet to forge a decent item. He took an iron bar and started forging as he did in the tutorial and the same club emerged and it was also downranked to trash. But the Old man was dumbstruck as he thought: "His technique is so bad but it should still be a normal ranked item but not only is it ranked Trash and should be unusable but it has the stats if it was normal and you can use it normally." "Im impressed i never knew one can be so bad at forging that ya can actually create usable trash. As i promised i give Ya some metal bars but you have to let me teach ya. Ya first lesson is collecting some ore go to the rabbit plains and collect some rabbit iron it just lies on the floor!" "New Quest Ore collection get 20 ore pieces from the rabbit plain." John was happy not only he got some metal and a new weapon but also a teacher which helps him getting better at forging. There is just no way that something could go wrong John thought as he logged off to get to his second Job. 9 Killing the White Rabbit King "What the heck is this thing?" White Rabbit King LVL ??? Rank: World Boss Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. HP: ??? The White Rabbit King a giant Rabbit that even has its own Legends how it caused Famines and nearly got the common Carrot extinct. There isn''t much that is Harder than its Front teeth as the can even Crack Mythril Armor. John was in deep this time he dodged around and tried to flee but he couldn''t escape so he had to fight! John took his trusty club swung but the Rabbit did bite down on it and completly destroyed it. John without a weapon now didn''t know what to do as he continiued dodging he feverly thought about what he should do. "EVA help me!!!" "...tch... if the user likes to provoke an animal he has to be ready to get eaten... maybe i do get to see something funny today..." John was once again dumbfounded is this even a machine how much hate can a machine develop? Even though John was trying to dodge he still got hit sometimes and his health got dangerously low so he looked in his inventory and took the "Health Potion?". He pulled out the cork and just as wants to down the potion he gets hit by the rabbit slammed against the wall, the bottle gets tossed out of his hands into the mouth of the Rabbit. John closed his eyes in despair and awaits death but death didn''t come he just heard a big body fall. He opened his eyes and saw the rabbit king dead on the floor and he got several notifications. "Level Up" "Level Up" "Level Up" "Aquired Title Rabbit Master: Can use all Rabbit Materials for crafting" "20 poisonous Rabbit meat aquired" "Rabbit Kings Front teeth aquired" "...tch...he survived" EVA whispered. But John was nearly freaking out: "I wanted to drink that... well i should go back to the village as fast as possible before something else happens" And thus John went on his way to the village to log off he thought there were enough surprises for the day... 11 Forging a Soul "So you say if i forge a hammer it fuses with me and awakens my soul and strenghtens me greatly? Why do we wait lets get to it! But why do we need the Teeth of that damned Rabbit?" "Don''t ya know the only thing harder than those teeth is adamantite or a diamond. Come let me show ya something. If ya just start to forge ya''r work will fail. Ya have to get to a right state mind to forge something." "Skill learned Mind of Forging" "Now i show ya how to forge a hammer. first you take some metal and the teeths you make a bundle out of both materials and put it in the forge. Ya wait till it''s white hot the ya put it on the anvil and softly hit it in order to consolidate it then you fold it and repeat the whole process then after several folds ya forge the hammer and ya add an eye. then ya make a handle out of wood and connect it with the hammerhead." Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. John thought that it seemed easy so he sat down and started meditating thinking about how to forge the hammer going through all the steps and imagining them. "Mind of Forging activated" John stood up took the teeth and the old man handed him three pieces of a silvery metal that look expensive but he didnt interupt his forging to look what it was. He stacked the materials heated them up, forged them and folded them. John repeated it several times and thought about how easy it suddenly is to forge. "Maybe because of the Mind of Forging?" John whispered to himself. John added the eye and put the hammerhead in the forge for a last heat. He brought it up to critical temperature and quenched it in cold water then he put it near the opening of the forge to temper it for several hours. During the tempering wanted to prepare the handle and the old man helped him. The old man brought a silvery piece of wood that was heavier than it looks. Both took their time making a rough form out of the handle and as soon as the hammerhead was was finished with tempering they connected both of them and finished all the grinding. At last the old Smith brought a piece of a big bone and some leather that looked like it was from a snake as it had scales. Out of the bone they made bone glue with which they glued a strip of the leather to the handle to make an amrstring. John gazed at his hammer as it was finished until it suddenly flew right into him and he felt somehow complete like his brother was with him playing the game with him. "Congratulations for aquiring a Titans Soul you unlocked the special race skill Reality Forging." John thought about his hammer and suddenly it was in his hand. "I shall name you Erinnerung!" Erinnerung Rank:Growth (Normal) Soulbound A heavy hammer worthy being the soul of a Titan. The head was made out of the teeth of a white Rabbit King and mythril for supreme Hardness and Toughness. The handle was carved out of Ironwood wich makes the hammer heavier and stronger also a armsling out of Dragonsskin was glued to it with behemoth bone glue. The materials are topclass but the rough forging downgrades it but enables the hammer to grow stronger than it would have been. The soul of the Titan Chrome. John couldn''t believe his luck maybe his bad luck steak ends now... 12 The old man and the forge John was really happy but also grateful to the smith because he gave him such good materials. He turned around and saw the old smith with a complexion like a ghost and sweating in a corner of the forge. Even a child could see that the old man was seriously ill. "Hey gramps hang in there i get a doctor!" "No Chrome...my Time... has come...I thank ya... for letting me help with a last masterpiece...please take my forge... learn to smith properly... before ya venture on..." "No Gramps teach me how forge... how could i learn to forge by myself... didn''t you see my workpieces they were garbage." "No ya have a special gift!...The titans...created even... the most useless stones... how could... a weapon from ya be useless?...Please take everything... you need out of my forge... and could you do me a favor?..." John answered with tears in his eyes: "I do everything for you!" "Then please... take the armor... out of my bedroom... and make it to the best equipment...possible ..." As he said that the old man took his last breath and died with a peaceful smile on his face. John with tears in his eyes thought to himself that he gonna give the old smith the best burial he could achieve! So John took a rough birch branch and some steel and started forging. Several of his tears dropped on the steel as he was forging it first he made a shovel and the a cross out of Steel. "Limit breaker activated" Shovel of Sorrow Rank Mythical Unbreakable A mythical shovel forged to bury a real friend the sorrow of a Titan infused the steel with magical Properties. Graves that are dug with this shovel bless the deceased so they can''t be cursed and have safe trip to the afterlife. ''Can only be used for digging Graves'' Gravestone of Peace Rank Mythical Unbreakable Even though this gravestone is made out of normal Steel the feelings of a Titan for a dear Friend created a miracle. The gravestone will never rust or break and will protect the grave so that no graverobber or necromancer can disturb the rest of the dead. John was satisfied with his work he went out dug the grave and buried the old man on the gravestone he wrote: "Here lies a true Craftsman. Many can forge a sword but only some can forge a Soul" Depressed John left the game without looking at his notifications... Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. 13 How to break a game John woke up with a feeling of sorrow as it seemed to him that everyone he holds dear or learns to like dies. He went to work and heard the usual chatter but he peaked his ears as heard two people talk about Kings Reign: "Hey have you heard there happened something near the starting village. Apparently some NPC died during a questline and a silverskinned guy buried him right above the Cemetary-Dungeon. Eyewitnesses tell that suddenly all the undead died and after that a holy wave rushed through and cleansed all miasma and now no new undeads spawn! And some Priest Players tell that if you pray at the grave you can raise you Holy Magic to 2! Also some Blacksmiths have reported that they got a new specialication when they gazed add the Gravestone. " John didn''t think much about it but he was happy that the old smith gets remembered and regular visits. John finished his shift went home and jumped into the capsule but he didn''t end up before the grave. He was in a white room like the room of his tutorial. "Where am I?" "Hello User..." "Oh EVA how kind of you to welcome me how do i deserve the honor?" "...tch... your account has been suspended please contact Virtec Inc. under xxxx xxxxxxx" John was mad he logged of and hammered the buttons on his phone and called the number given to him by EVA. After a short wait the call connected: Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "Ah Mr Smith I am sorry for the incovenience but before you can play again we have to get rid of a small problem you caused ingame would you kindly meet us at a restaurant of your choice we will pay for everything its just a small formality that we have to get out of this world would you give us some face?" "Fine but you better explain everything lets meet at Pietro''s Pizza." "Yes yes how about meeting there in 30 minutes we will send a car to your house in ten minutes" John slightly puzzled and a little bit mad change in some better clothes and waited for the driver . 20 minutes later he sat infront of a bald middle aged man that was constanly wiping his sweat he was accompanied by a sexy blackhaired lady with a strict appearance and a behavior that reminded him of EVA. They introduced themselves as Paul Miller, Director of the balancing Department and Eva Langley, Executive Assistant of Customer Support. After a short time he remembered that Eva Langley Was the woman that called him because of the lottery Prize. "Mr Smith as you know, A Npc died during a part of a questline you undertook and you buried him, what is certainly admirable, but it left us in some kind of pinch the shovel you forged and used is to strong as it can kill every undead in a giant radius just by digging a grave that alone wouldn''t be much of a problem but you also created that Gravestone which effectively destroyed a complete Dungeon and our Planning team can''t tolerate a variable that has an item to end potential content updates like undead legions or the like in one second thats why we are here that we can negotiate how to pay you for giving up your mythical Item. 15 Dungeon Master Finally maintenance was over and John jumped right in the game he was in the white room again.He layed the shovel on a table and got a book and an orb. John used the book and now suddenly he kind of knew what he needed and how to assemble Automatons. After that E.V.A. said: Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "User Virtec Inc. recommends that you built your dungeon in the giant rabbit cave your player owned forged will be incorporated in your dungeon and all the items will be transferred to your Inventory." John thought about it as he was teleported back to the starting town he paid his respects and went to the rabbit cave. John activated the Orb and a panel opened he could chose what kind of dungeon he would like. There where caves castles spatial dimensions but John kind kind of liked the idea to take the labyrinth because it looked like a aztec or mayan labyrinth and it would look like the dungeon was made by some ancient Civilization with Automatons in it. John got a notification that the first version of his dungeon will be randomly generated but he can change everything manually. He pressed the accept button and a giant maze was created. Everywhere on the walls were intricate carvings inlaid with a slightly glowing greenish metal with depictions of Cogs and clockwork machinisms that formed humanoid creatures and beasts. John went in to get to the forging area but suddenly was lost in his own maze. John was mad but also slightly embarassed he fought with the maze for several minutes before he arkwardly asked EVA to Help him. As expected he heard usual ...tch... but was then told that he can open the dungeon screen to teleport to the forge. The Forge picked up the theme of the dungeon and some workstations were added like a smelting station and an assembly station. It also had a storeroom with some copper, Zinc, tin and iron bars and a mineshaft with some ore veins. As John saw all this he was eager to try his new skills so je thought lets make a small automaton to collect all the scrap parts that gonna be created through crafting and fighting . John used the smelting station to smelt some copper and added some zinc to make brass after everything was molten he poured it into some forms to produce cogs, gears and brass bars. John thought that for the easy design of a scrap collector a simple frame without armor was sufficient so he forged the frame and limb parts out of the Brass bars and produced massive amounts of scrap parts but after some practice he finished 3 frames. Now he added the cogs and gears. John decided that he would give the automatons a metal bucket on the back for all the collected scrap pieces he melted some Brass and poured it in a special mold he made out of sand. After everything was assembled the automatons only needed a power source so he looked in the dungeon interface and saw that the dungeon could have 10 external cores as power sources and could create a mana stone if a player was killed in the dungeon so he took 3 cores and put them in the 3 automatons he made. Scrapling Rank:Trash Race :Mashine Small Automaton created to collect all the scrap he could find. It was poorly made and if the creator didn''t specify it as an automaton all scraplings would be in danger of collecting their brethren as they would see them as scrap. John was slightly bummed about the part were they would collect themselves but none the less he was satisfied and logged of not realizing that if a trained blacksmith would be dumbfounded by his talent in forging which just misses some practice and experience... 17 The most difficult dungeon in the game? A giant man with 2 battle axe on his back stepped out of the village he had brown hair and a arrogant look on his face in reality he was a son of an oilbaron that was stacked with loads of money. He was always good at mmorpgs because he could buy the strongest equipment for himself with real money his dad let him do this because you would be a disgrace for the family if you don''t use your money for being better than everyone else. Thats why he was always bored but promised himself some fun in Kings reign as it is advertised as a complete new type of mmorpg. He took his usual class and loadout and created his Character "Cpt.Bling". Cpt.Bling was followed by a Mage, a ranger and his Maid/Ninja. they were missing a priest but with good equipment they thought that they shouldn''t need one. Today they heard a rumor about a silver skinned man which walked to the rabbit planes and shortly after there was some rumbling and a small earthquake and now you could hear hammering noises all the time. Cpt.Bling and his troupe searched for a while before they found a cave. They went in and came to walls that were decorated with carvings inlaid with green luminating Metal showing some strange pictures. The group found the entry and saw a big Mosaic about a robot that was smithing new robots that looked like they were made out of scrap parts also the picture showed some fighting and how smaller robots transported scrap parts from the battlefield back to the smithing robot. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. The mosaic was nice to look at but Cpt.Bling was not interested and went in the dungeon without looking at it. "Congratulations you found the first Player created dungeon!!" "Entering Dungeon Floor 1 "Scrap Labyrinth"!" Cpt.Bling laughed "Hahaha Scrap labyrinth what a frightning name ... lets just clear it for the first clear bonus." They walked in and didnt hold their guard up as they thought its only a garbage dungeon sometimes the went into a deadend but havent seen monsters yet. After ten minutes thay once again walked into a deadend but they suddenly heard a clicking sound behind them they turned around and a metal construct it looked kind of like junk but it also looked a little bit cute. Quickshot the ranger of the party was frustrated from this labyrinth and an opportunity to let of some steam presented itself he took his shortsword and slammed in right into what he thought was the face of this machine but he didn''t expect that every metal piece he hit with his sword explode in all directions and showered him and all his companions with a rain of shrapnells. Quickshot and the mage were dead instantaniously the Ninja and Cpt.Bling were at the deaths door and fell on the ground. When they looked up the saw how some other smaller robots collected all the metal parts of the first robot they even ripped them out the corpses of their mates then the saw how those robots walked to them. "What is this dungeon for a hellhole..." Cpt.Bling thought before his vision turned black... 18 How to not raid a dungeon. Cpt.Bling was furious he decided they would try the dungeon again with out underestimating it and when the cleared the dungeon he would shove one of the exploding robot up the behind of the creator and trigger it. The Group walked into the dungeon in a strict formation and soon encountered the first robot. Quickshot tried to use his bow bit it wasnt very effective as the robot was out of metal. Then they tried magic but the heat was to little to melt it so the ninja tried stabbing in the back but the robot once again exploded on contact with weapon and the ninja died. The group wanted to continue but just as they were ready leave 2 more small robots attacked and out of reflex everybody slashed at them with their melee weapons only to regret it in seconds and the were back to square one at the respawn point. But Cpt.Bling could leave it like this now it was personal he called his butler and instructed him to buy the best shield available for his level so that he can shield himself and his allies from the shrapnells. But he didn''t expect the armor piercing attributes of the shrapnells and they were back at the respawn. Now they were really angry Cpt.Bling even paid two ranker Players to come with them but even then after 4-6 robots all were dead and they haven''t even seen the boss. Now even the rankers were challenged and the even called their guild mates even though they knew they were going to be laughed at for not being able to clear a low level dungeon but once again they failed just before the boss room and they started to wonder why the number of robots seems to be increasing. Now they tried the brute force method amd hired as much players as they could and tried raiding the dungeon with about 250 people but they were dumbfounded when they came to the boss room without fighting at all. They saw a bigger robot that was stationary with a hammer as a hand and walked all in to fight it but suddenly there opened some hatches on the walls and about 150 of their nemesises came out and incircled them one. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. But they had a plan one player smash several robots at once so that as many players as possible would survive. But as they smashed the first one it exploded and started a chainreaction of explosions in the whole room. "THEY CAN TRIGGER EACH OTHER....." A player cried in despair as the whole group was showered in shrapnell. Most of the players died in this instant but those that didn''t, saw how the scrap parts were collected and brought to the boss which made the robots anew just before the bled out. The raid was a complete failure and nobody of them wanted to try the dungeon again because they thought it was made by a psychopath. 10 minutes after the fight ended John came out of the mine and was wondering where all the materials are that he mined until he saw the army of junklings, he was a little dumbfounded and he deativated the production of new junklings so that the numbers stay constant. The he logged off and pretended that nothing special happened today... 19 Shameful Fame John woke up he wanted to play but he had to go to work soon some loan sharks would come to collect their money. So John went to the supermarket and started sorting some tin cans in the shelves and overheard a discussion from a seemingly rich kid with an woman which is probaply his maid as he was talking himself into rage: "This sh**hole of player dungeon how does a player dare to design this despicable dungeon. I am gonna level up like crazy and buy a better shield and then i''m gonna take one of his robots and ram it up his behind. How can a player created a dungeon with this kind of weak monsters that wipes a 250 man raid group?" John stayed hidden until the rich kid was away as he was slightly embarassed that people were so angry about his dungeon design but he won''t it change because it was so much work to design these automatons but he decided to keep his identity secret or he might get beaten up by some angry players. John ended his shift but he was quiet scared on his way home because he heard several times how people were raging about his dungeon so everytime he heard something about this he subconciously sped up his steps , thats why he was home in Half the time as usual. He logged into the game and asked EVA: "Is there a feature to watch what happened in the dungeon when i was mining?" Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "Yes User you can rewatch it ... as i thought you are quite despicable. Maybe you are a S wanting to watch the suffering of over 200 people..." John was a little startled by this commentary of EVA but he still looked at the footage how it slowly started with a small group and ended with a massive raid destroyed by his junklings. When he finished watching EVA talked to him: "User i am obligated to tell you that Virtec Inc was contacted for you contact data for buying the streaming rights of the dungeon footage and some insider information about the dungeon Please contact your Customer Service Official Eva Langley for more information" But John had no plans for disclosing his identity because he was scared by the reactions he witnessed so he just said that he would think about it and went some more mining... 20 When theres no Other way John didn''t know what he should do, after all this years he still had a debt of about 20.000$. He owes the money to the most sketchy loan shark there is and the interest makes it basicly impossible to pay it back over time but he didn''t want the money out of his brothers inheritance as his family needs it after the death of his brother. John played with the thought of selling the streaming rights even at the risk of getting exposed as he couldn''t afford a lawyer. Still hesitating a bit John called Eva Langley and was greeted by the usual: "...tch... you finally decided to call...there was an offer left for you for exclusive streaming rights for the raid footage and information about the monsters you added to your dungeon and a small interview in your dungeon were you show them how you made the automatons for 25000$ with possible further cooparation if both parties were satisfied please decide now...!" John thought about it he needed the money and it seems like he doesn''t have to meet them in real life so he reluctantly decided to accept the offer and he got an ingame contact for making an appointment. Two days later John felt quite joyful as he paid his debt and was debt free for the first time in 20 years. The loan shark seemed a little down as he lost a person to extort money from but there were plenty more fish in the sea so he left without much trouble. So John now had time for the interview so he met a player named "Strawberry Cheesecake" ingame. Her Character was a small female gnome with Pink hair in twin tails, she tried to be professional but her cheerful personality and her clumsy actions made it difficult to see her like that. She was one of those people that would make you sigh in exhaustion when you see her but still like her for her open minded personality. She greeted John with the sentence: "Hey my name is Strawberry Cheesecake but you can call me just "Cake" i love this game! I also like your silvery skin, how did you become a dungeon master, are you really evil when you designed your dungeon? ..." John interrupted her as she was asking like a machine gun without waiting for an answer. He didn''t want to talk much so he just took her inside and watched her as she ran from wall to wall to look at the carvings but she fell at least twice per run to the other side. John thought: "That''s gonna be a long day..." Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. 21 Interview with a Titan John and Cake reached the forge and John showed Cake the "Boss" aka the smithing Automaton he even let it make another junkling that she sees how it works. Then he called a scrapling and explained her how it was made for collecting the scrap metal, after that he called a Junkling but he could say anything because he was interrupted by a squeamish cry: "HOW CUTE I ALSO WANT ONE..." John sighed as he calms Cake down and explains her how the junkling works and how a small mistake on his side made it to the nemesis of over 200 Players he even showed her the footage and sent it to her. Then he was asked to craft something so he took some brass and iron built a frame added some gears and a bucket on the back and forged a pickaxe then he took a mana crystal and brought it to life and told it to go mining. Cake was impressed even though even she was able to see that the crafting was rough but it worked and if his crafted monsters withstood a massive raid like this then they can''t be bad. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Then Cake asked John: "What would also interest me what is your race and class i have no informations about a race that looks like its made out of metal and also no crafting class like blacksmith i know can make these automatons" "Well my brother won in a lottery and won a capsule and special priviliges like the race and class. My race is Titan and my Class is craftsmaster so i can use every Craft and i am also heaviely reliant on crafting." Cake also asked him what he knew over the race Titan so he told her what he knew, first he told her about his racial skills the he started talking about how he met the old smith and what the smith told him about the titans as the creators of the world and how they found their souls and the war that makes him the only titan there is. After cake heard all this she asked: "You say that the titans found their soul by crafting a tool, so do you have a soul?" John took out his hammer and told her how it was made. Cake was quite pleased and wanted to go just before she turned around again to say that he should be careful now that it will be known how his bots work that players will formulate a strategy to clear the dungeon. With this Cake went away after registering Chrome as her friend and John also logged off as the interview took longer than he thought... 24 Dungeon Level Up After the day with Olaf John went to Olafs forge nearly everyday to learn the art of forging. Naturally with his part time jobs and the forging lessons he had not much time to play the game. After a month of learning with Olaf John finally returned to Kings Bounty And the first Message he found came from the System: "Congratulations your Dungeon defeated 500 Players and Leveled up to level 2 Please design the second Floor and please select a Name for your dungeon." John was quite Happy as he wanted to make the dungeon what the old smiths armor was to him a story about his crafting and how it evolved. As a name he chose "Mausoleum of Titans" to honor the story of his race. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. As the theme of the second floor he wanted to make something that was hated by most players: Traps or monsters that worked like traps He found out that he even got new metal ores like titanium, silver and mercury. Once again he let the system create a labyrinth but he used his racial skill "Reality Forging" to change some walls to steel walls, he also added some mercury ponds to fall into. After he was happy with the level design he went to the forge and took some steel and started forging a giant frame, spikes, some gears, wheels and giant metal plates. The he assembled everything and his first new minion was finished. Wall-ton Rank Normal (was uncommon) Race Machine A giant moving wall of steel, without magic nearly indestructable Automaton, that disguises itself as a dungeon wall to trap unsuspecting trespassers in deadends to squish them to death with its weight and retractable spikes. There are some forging errors which are exploitable to stop it but it is a solid work for an apprentice Blacksmith. John was quite pleased but now he needed to make a minion that would lure players into the trap of the Wall-tons. John made a small fast frame out of brass and added nimble hands fast legs and a bucket like the scraplings and the miners have. He also made a smaller version of the smithing Bot and gave him the order to make caltrops with a mercury filling to poison players that step on them and gave them to the new automaton. Chase-o-bot Rank normal (was uncommon) Race Machine A small fast bot that steals items and money from trespassers to be chase by them to lure them into traps. If trespasser come to near it throws poisoned caltrops or drops all loot. Due to some small forging errors it is possible that the gears might get stuck so that the automaton is slower or stops completly. Now all John needed was a real attacker and a boss for his second floor but he decided that he would go to bed now... 25 Some Dungeonmasters just want to see the world burn John came back online and started thinking what kind of attacker does my dungeon need? But he had an idea and started with the frame which he made out of silver. He added some Armor plates out of silver and gave it a demon face the he polished all silver parts that they are shiny like a mirror and placed a dark red magic stone inside the contraption so that the complete automaton shined in an eerie dark red. With the redlections from the silver it looked like a demon straight out of hell. Then he crafted a gear driven heavy crossbow with silver bolts once again filled with mercury and he also added a not so sparkly shield out of steel that had extra metal plates on the front that were made out of junkling metal that would spray shrapnells in a cone when hit. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. John looked at his work and was slightly sorry for the players that need to fight that. Silver Demon-obot rank uncommon (was rare) Race machine A Silver Automaton in the form of a demon his appearance cause fear when you see it. As weaponry it is equipped with a heavy crossbow that can pierce mythril armor with poisoned arrows and has a heavy disposable shield out of junkling metal that is also a potential weapon because of the heavy equipment and some small forging errors it is slow and can rarely tip over which make to an easy target when it happens. Next John needed a boss and he thought that he shouldn''t be to unfair so he decide for a stationary ranged boss in a long corridor with traps to slow the players down and bring the to trip that a tank can''t run through with a shield. He made a big frame out of brass without armor to save some materials and weaken the boss a bit anchored it to the ground to give it more stability and gave it 2 silver swords as backup weapons then he started to create a weapon. For this he took junkling metal and tested it a bit to see how it shatters and found a cone shape with a cylintrical base that when you snap the base the cone flies in a straight line forward and shatters some more on impact. He had the best results with a 20mm base diameter so he made a three pipes with rifling and added a box behind them that spins the barrels at a constant speed next he added a mechanism that feeds the "bullets" into the barrel and added a thick steel plate to snap the base of the bullet when it gets rotated into it he also gave it two grips. After everything was finished he looked at his work and was quite pleased and logged off after he marked the secon floor as finished... Scrapling Gunner Rank Special (can''t be determined) Race Machine A stationary Automaton equipped with a scrapling gun that fire 300 projectiles a minute that also shatter on impact and do secondary damage and cause bleeding it has poor accuracy but is nonetheless deadly and a nightmare to all trespassers. The work of a Dungeonmaster that wants to see the world burn... 26 Small Victory and Complete Defea More than a month ago the information about Floor 1 of Johns Dungeon was revealed and Players competed for the first clear. Cpt.Bling also wanted to clear it and payed the best players to accompany him they even had some runs where the were awfully close of clearing it. Now they wanted to try it again with brandnew equipment and high morale they ventured into the dungeon. They were quite surprised by the new Name of the dungeon "Mausoleum of Titans: Floor 1 Scrap labyrinth" but they didn''t think much about it an started clearing it. They did get slightly injured and lost one member because he let his concentration sink and was hugged by a junkling that hit itself. But they advanced quite smoothly and entered the boss room now it had to go fast as they couldn''t risk to let it create new Junklings so the rushed in and smashed all Scraplings and all workpieces the smith bot worked on but some junklings came from behind out of the labyrinth but after a ten minute fight with 2 casualties. They were happy and waited for the first clear announcement that didn''t come. Cpt.Bling smashed his weapon on the corpse of the smithing bot to vent some anger until they discovered a staircase that goes down a level and the understood that the dungeon was expanded so the packed their stuff to find the owner of the dungeon to give him a good beating. When they arrived at the second floor they spent some time to study the carvings on the wall to bad that half of the carving was unreadable but the saw some small robots that were running away and some strange giant blocks and a demonlike monster so they guessed that there a similar monsters like junklings and a demon as boss and they went in. They were even surprised when they found a teleport room they could use to start at the second floor "Scrapmasters Nightmare". The theme of the second floor was similar to the first floor as both were labyrinths but there were some strange metal walls but they thought that there must have been a preexisting dungeon where some were demolished so the dungeon master had to add these walls. The Group had 6 remaining members as they just lost a man through a pit filled with mercury that turned from solid to fluid in mere seconds under the unlucky player. after some minutes they decided that they would take a short break to rest their minds. Just when they were in the middle of their break they heard 2 outcries and some mechanical chucklingand they saw how two of their teammates chased a small robot which both held their coin pouches in their hand, and just when the group tried to follow their mates the bots threw something on the ground. The melee classes with heavy armor were merely slowed as their feet got heavier when the caltrops got stuck in their armored boots, but the mage classes had no such luck as the caltrops pierced right through their leather and linen boots and poisoned them with mercury. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. They were down to 4 players because 2 died from the poison. But 2 of the 4 were missing as Cpt.Bling and his maid couldn''t find them anymore. Suddenly heard 2 deathcries and their mates healthbar in the group menu vanished. "What is this dungeon?" Cpt.Bling asked in despair as they suddenly heard a clicking. Out of reflex they jumped on the ground just before the were impaled by a silver bolt. They turned around and saw an incarnation of the devil himself and were momentarily stunned by fear but Cpt.Blings maid reacted and told him to run away as she sprinted to what they thought was the boss to buy her young master some time but Cpt.Bling could only watch as the machine blocked the maids attacked with a shield which showered her with hundreds of shrapnells which killed her instantly. And Cpt.Bling ran he ran faster than he ever did he just wanted to leave this hell and ended in a 200m corridor without anything in it except a 3m tall machine with some pipes in hand. Suddenly Cpt.Bling heard an increasingly fast spinning sound and cried despairing: "THE DEMON WASN''T THE BOSS ... WHY..." His vision turned into an ocean of flying shrapnell followed by neverending blackness... 27 Demonlord Candidate? "Unlocked Title Demonlord Candidate" "You are the first Candidate to become a demonlord, to further your progress, strike fear into the hearts of the mortals. -Be recongnized as a demon 1/1 -Have Command over an army where at least one member is recognized as a demon 1/1 -own a dungeon 1/1 -Strike fear into hearts of people 5/500 -Kill People 1247/10000 -Don''t get killed before becoming a demonlord or progress will be lost and you have to wait a year before trying again. John was dumbfounded when he logged in and saw this notification but not as much as he was when he read the next thing: "System Alert a Player ascended to a demonlord candidate Special S-rank bounty quest created stop his endeavor by killing him you can find him in his dumgeon Mausoleum of Titans (yet to be cleared) as a reward you unlock the special class "Hero" "Through aquiring a special title the dungeon was leveled up to level 3 please add a third floor and now you have access to a small mythril mine and a tiny adamantium mine." John was quite happy about the new metals but he was in deep thought as he guessed that his third floor can''t protect him if he just relies on smithing so he had to try using a second crafting profession to strenghten his forces so he decided on learning alchemy as the other professions wouldn''t make his dungeon that stronger. Just when he wanted to start he got a PM so he looked at it and read: Strawberry Cheesecake : "Hey Chrome its me your lovely sweet little cake maybe we could meet up and you could tell me a little bit about your new dungeon floor and that title thingy *winking eyes* i always wanted to play as a hot sexy demoness why don''t marry you*smirky face* oh by the way my company wants to secure streaming right and insider info from your end we''ve got a pretty good deal for you" John sighs and replied: "Fine come over we can talk about it..." Just as John wanted to continue with alchemy he got another pm but he didn''t know the player: Hephaistos: "Hey Young''un it''s me Olaf. Would ya come pick me up? I can''t find my way in this piece of junk." John was quite happy when he read of olaf but he couldn''t leave his dungeon so he quickly texted Cake to pick Olaf up and bring him with her. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. after half an hour all three were sitting at a table in Johns dungeon... 29 Olafs Dream Olaf was an old man he lived over 80 yeara on this planet and the only two things he loved in his live were his late wife which died several years ago and the art of forging. But now he just felt that forging wasn''t fulfilling anymore as nobody needs handforged tools or items anymore and he never understood this electric voodoo. But one day some months after he helped some businessmen to created one of those video game thingys a young man walked in his forge wanting to learn forging. He discovered that this young man knew the hardships of life and took them headon. He was a good kid that told him a story how he met a npc that was olafs personality in this game. And Olaf befriended John and he was quite interested when he saw the footage of the game so he closed the forge extiguished the fire and searched for the number of one of these penguins in suit. He found a crumpled business card and could only decipher ...Co-Found... he called said his name and asked about a capsule for the game thingy. Somehow the man on the other side was overjoyed and told him something about a special offer and that he just had to transfer some money to the company. Olaf quickly went to the bank transfered the money and just 2 hours later the capsule stood in his house. He entered the game chose a race something about a titan-dwarf and the only class available which coincidently was magic Blacksmith. He named himself after the greece god of smithing and started his journey. Olaf remembered that Johns name ingame was Chrome so he messaged. Some time later he was brought to John by a Cute little girl called Cake. They talked abit and somehow they came to the feature of bloodpact and somehow Olaf decided that he wanted to follow this young man on his journey after John showed him a world where forging was fulfilling again when his workpieces could come alive and people would use your work to their full extent were he could make eyes sparkle at a freshly created item he made that was always his dream. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "Player Chrome offers you his blood to accept you as a subordinate. Do you Accept?" "Yes" "You are now the second subordinate of Player Chrome. Because your liege has the special title Demonlord Candidate you receive the Sub-Race of Archdemon when Player succeeds in becoming a Demonlord which makes you a Demon Nobility when a Demon-Nation is created." Olaf couldn''t care less about this notification as he just wants to see John grow beyond imagination... 30 Collaboration Projec Cake was happy and John was dumbfounded when they heard about the potential Race change. They talked a while about it until Olaf nagged that he wants to go to the forge! Cake agreed as she wants to see the crafting in action and help a little bit in alchemy. They started with Olaf trying himself with his first automaton he studied the works of John and started forging a tiny frame out of brass and adding gears with the help of John and heated it until he achieved a nice coloring rainbow effect he changed the appearance a bit when he looked at Cake sparkling eyes and added some Rabbit ears and added a small wrist-crossbow that wasn''t very strong but had small thing bolts that could be dipped with poison. Rabbot Rank uncommon Race Machine Type Battlepet Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Intricate craftsmanship and guidance by a Automaton Master gave birth to this masterpiece of engineering. Its an Automaton in the form of a humanoid Rabbit with a wrist-Crossbow that shoots poisoned bolts that are so thin that they can fit in all armor gaps. Through heat tempering it attained a cute rainbow colored shine and appearance which enhances its charm and cuteness. Olaf wanted to mime a cold personality but couldn''t keep it up when he saw Cakes beaming eyes so he gifted her the rabbot like he wanted from the start. But Olaf didn''t expect the earpiercing shriek and the hug that he received when he gifted the automaton to Cake. Cake even instantly gave it the name Muffin. Now everyone wanted to make something bigger so Okaf started making a humansized skeletonframe out of a mythril silver alloy and John created some gears out of the same material Cake took out some herbs she brought with her and collected some Shrooms in the dungeon. After everyone was finished with his initial work the geard were added to the frame with space for a big mana core in the chest area and Olaf started making armor plates while John and Cake got their hands Alchemy as they wanted to give the automaton some grease to work better but as usual made mistake when he tried to cut a Mushroom, he cut himself and some blood flowed into the pot and the former thick liquid became thinner than water. They wanted to discard it n until they read the description: Blood of Creation Rank Mythical A herb grease that was contaminated with blood of a Titan. The blood changed its property to enhance all species and things that are in contact with it. After they read the description John got back to work to make some mythril tubing while Olaf attached most of the plates and started forging thin adamantine stripes for hait and plated the complete skin in it too. The tubing was finished the liquid was transfered into the pipes that ended in the chest cavity and after everything was in place John took 10 Dungeon created mana cores and Olaf combined them to one big core. The added it into the chest cavity connected the piping until it looked like a Heart and arteries closed the "skin" And looked at their work. Soul Puppet Rank Mythical Bloodbound A masterpiece made in collaboration of a smith, an Alchemist and a Craftsmaster. A puppet with an appearance like a woman and and nearly indestructable body. Its a shame that it lacks a soul and will never move. The three of them were satisfied with their work but also disappointed when the read the description. They nearly wanted to put it a in the corner of the dungeon to look at it occasionally when John suddenly had an idea... 32 Silence She opened her eyes, she sees the usual white walls. She looked at the monitors that surround her and she took her notepad and pressed a yellow button to call the nurse. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. But her father walked into the room and she wrote on the notepad that she wants a glass water and also asked hopefully for a walk with her father through her notepad. He nodded and got a glass of water and the wheelchair and helped her into it. Her father was a busy but loving father so she always was happy when he has time for her. She even worked in his company and procured some streaming rights ingame. Kings reign the only world were she could be like everybody else. There she could walk, sing and dance, she could make friends and even help her father company. But since she met Chrome it was even more fun she laughed at his bad luck and also finds it funny how dense he is about his dungeon or his creations. She wrote for her father what happened today and about chrome and the deal for the streaming rights. But her dad didn''t put his attention on the notepad but on her face because he never saw his daughter with such a beaming smile before. Ever since he gave her the job to procure streaming rights about a dungeon she somehow lived up and smiled more than ever before. He decided that he would pay more for the streaming rights to keep his daughter happy as she talks with thos chrome. "Claire why don''t we go and eat a piece of cake?" "Can we have Strawberry Cheesecake?" Claire wrote on her notepad and looked at him with puppy eyes "Of Course!" Her father said. so they sat down in the garden and he asked the servants to bring tea and cake. As they ate Cake Claire father looked at her and was reminded of the day of her birth his wife and he drove to the hospital when a drunk driver crashed into the side of his car and his wife was thrown out of the car and landed on the concrete and the drunk drive just drove of claires father called the ambulance but his wife died this night and his daughter could move her legs or talk because of her injuries. But he never found the other driver. They finished their Cake and he brought claire back to her room and laid her in the capsule he said by and Claire closed her eyes and after she opened them again a big guy with silvery skin greeted her. "Hey Cake how are you!" 33 How to make a Dungeon more appealing. John looked at his bank account and was surprised to find a bigger sum of money than he expected, it seems like the streaming Company paid him a bonus for the information. It felt like a lucky day so John decided that would look into the forums today but he was downright devastated when he read that massive amounts of post about his dungeon. Slingerfinger:"What is this hellhole first you fight the kamikaze bots which are endlessly produced and then you don''t even get good loot the only thing you get is this shitty Junkling Metal that is useless for weapons and not even npcs want to buy it." Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Shrapnellsponge:" Yeah and even when you somehow do defeat the first boss it doesnt drop loot at all and all to get to another floor of endless suffering." Chokethroat:" Somehow i think this whole dungeon was a out of season april fools joke and it doesn''t have an end." Mangoo:"But what about the World Quest we have to clear the dungeon to give him back hid junkling metal... up his rear!!! John did wonder a while ago why there weren''t that much players that tried his dungeon anymore it seems like he needs to prepare some better loot. John logged into the game and started thinking, all the players get the Junkling metal easyly..., while thinking John looked around the room until his eyes landed on Muffin Cakes Rabbot and suddenly John had an idea. John crafted some smaller variation of a Junkling with different animal ears and other features and after that he drew a blueprint of them and added the blueprints as raredrops to the junklings and added a mana Core as a possible drop to the smithing bot. Since he was kind of in a crafting spree he looked again at the scrapling gun he made he took it as a base and created a smaller version with one shortened barrel and an easier mechanism which made it basicly to a pistol with one bullet to shoot before reloading. He added the blueprint as a rare drop on the second boss and also made upgrade blue prints to add more barrels so that it works like a revolver. He also added the blueprint for the Junkling Metal shield his monsters on the second floor have. John sunk exhausted into a chair and hoped that his dungeon will now attract more players, not knowing what he started... 34 Cpt.Blings Despair Cpt.Bling was finally back in the game after 2 weeks of therapy as he was greatly traumatized be his expieriences in the mausoleum of Titan but now he had new courage and gathered some players for a new try, also the therapist said that he should slowly expierience the source of his trauma again to get rid of it. The group ventured on to the dungeon and moved slowly through the first floor and Cpt.Bling gathered some confidence. Suddenly when the killed a Junkling and wanted to ignore the loot drop as i was only the junkling metal they saw a piece of paper in the pile of scrap. Cpt.Bling collected it and it was: "Blueprint: Ro-coon" Teaches you to craft a Ro-coon, a battle pet that looks like a humanoid Racoon, out of [Junkling metal] and a [Mana Core] requires Smithing. Cpt.Bling was thrilled as nobody had a Battle Pet yet so he quickly collected some junkling metal to craft it later as nobody had junkling metal anymore because it was considered trash. But his teammate had bad luck when Cpt.Bling accidently dropped a piece of Junkling metal, it snapped on the ground and the resulting shrapnell flew through his breast and killed him. Cpt.Blings trauma flared up a but he supressed it by force as he had to apoligize to his team for his blunder not knowing that when there concentration wandered to scolding Cpt.Bling some Junklings sneaked up to them and grabbed their healer but before the could react he was already dead. Now a hard fight followed where two more party members followed the the healer. Greatly weakened the group decided to carry on and fought their way to the boss. They rushed the boss and did as much damage as possible. when they finally beat the smithing bot boss only Cpt.Bling survived with battered equipment his Trauma flared up again but he saw that the boss dropped a Mana Core so now he had everything he needed to craft a ro-coon and because he was scared he rushed out of the dungeon to his forge where he felt safe. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Now he concentrated on crafting he decided to try to forge the metal with low temperature so that he doesn''t burn it and would have zo go back in that hellhole, he wanted to get slowly used to raiding that dungeon so he wanted to wait at least some days before trying again. Cpt.Bling put the metal in the forge and when it was slightly red hot he pulled it out and hit it with hammer and heard a sound that burned itself in his brain. Cpt.Bling thought that he needs to contact his therapist again just before his view turned into a picture of red hot shrapnells flying in his forge and then followed blackness and Cpt.Bling would never use this forge again as he developed a second trauma... 35 The Wandering Smith John was bored he wanted to train in alchemy but his doesn''t produce enough herbs yet and also he couldn''t leave yet because he would be killed at sight. His only sliver of hope was Cake when she brought herbs and formulas from outside the dungeon. Today Cake once again brought herbs and she had a special smile which infected John the formula Cake brought. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Disguise Potion A Potion that slightly alters the skin color and some parts of of the body. Ingredients -Wormwood -Translucent Rainbow Shroom -Everchanging Grass (Beware use chain gloves John was delighted he rushed to his alchemy station and hurriedly started concoting the potion. But alchemy is the profession of patience so he burned the herbs in the pot and wasted them and now he had only one set of ingredients left so he calmed down and started crafting with a new state of mind. John was highly concentrated and added the herbs one after another and just as he was grabbing the everchanging grass he felt a cold pain and saw how the everchanging grass cut his hand with its razorsharp leafs but he didn''t want to waste the other ingredients so he ignored the advice of using chain gloves and just grabbed the herb and threw it in but a giant explosion happened he flew through the air and landed on a metal pipe he used to hang herbs to dry them and because of the pipe his future generations had a really rough landing which led to John holding his crotch and rolling on the floor in pain. After some minutes of agonizing pain he stood up and walked to the pot only to see a black mucus that smells like troll pee so he wanted to discard it but just had to appraise it as it caused him so much pain. Shapeshifters Call Rank Special Created by blood, sweat and pain of the alchemist, combined with the special properties of the everchanging grass is this a Mucus like substance that enables the consumer to attain the ability to shapeshift freely. John was happy as he now had a way to go to the outside world without worry but he decided to keep the creation method of this potion secret as he wanted to keep his sacrifice of the future generations a secret. John consumed the mucus and nearly threw up but then he changed his appearance to that of a Dwarf with a long silvery beard and a leather apron and some workclothes he added some silver rings and ornaments to his beard to really look like an old dwarven smith then he left the dungeon and walked into town where he wanted to see how the players used his recipes to create the battle pets and items but somehow nobody had one . John was curious so he asked a random player: "hey i heard that you could get a blueprint for a Battle pet in the dungeon near here but why is nobody having one?" "You must be new here noone has one as it is a trap by the dungeon developer as hundreds of players died when trying to smith one of these wicked things we even had some that were awfully traumatised and developed PTSD so don''t mention this blueprints." John was dumbfounded but he quickly told the player that he cant believe it and that he could easily craft a Pet with the blueprint. The player laughed: "Wanna bet? If you can forge one of these i pay you 100 Gold nearly my whole savings." John agreed they walked to a forge and the player pulled out a blueprint and some Junkling Metal and then walked to the other side of the room and hid behind his shield. John grabbed the junkling metal put it into the forge, heated it up and instead of hammering it he brought it to a press and made it to a sheet and then folded it on the anvil. After the first hammerings the player looked at John with big eyes and pulled out the money because he saw how the small robot took shape and was finished after half an hour. The John took the money and gave the Cat-bot to the player and said: "You can sell it like this or you take a mana core add a drop of your blood and add it in this spot to claim the batlle pet as yours. Then John Carried on and on this day a legend about a dwarven blacksmith that teached the method to use the Junkling metal was created... 36 The demonlord rises John had a lot of fun these days he talked as the Dwarf Silber with many players and showed them a bit of his knowledge about junkling metal and battle pets. He was highly valued by many players but he had to go back to the dungeon. He walked slowly reminiscing about all the people he met because of his brother. Even a tear dropped stealthily on his cheek when he thought about how it would have been if his brother was still alive. When John reached his dungeon master room he was startled as cake was sitting on the wall crying. He asked what happenend and she told him about how she was seen walking in and out of the dungeon and identified as a friend of the dungeon master. She was captured by a group of people that intorragated her by slapping her in her face when she didn''t said what they wanted to hear. Should could only escape when one of them hit her to hard so she died and was respawned. John became silent and expressionless he logged out and called Olaf that he needs his forging skills. They met ingame and John told Olaf what happened to Cake and that the players need a reminder that no one messes with a demonlord. John and Olaf started working first they created some mor smithing bots. Then they started smithing Olaf and the smithing bots took care of the main army which consists of demon-bot of the secon floor they made them out of all materials the had some were out of silver some steel some brass and some were even out of junkling metal. They configured them with different weapons some had crossbows some halberds or axes and/or shields. But John wanted to make something different something that is so terrifying that noone would to lay their hands on his friends. He used all his hatred and started smithing some mythril into a skeleton and tiny gears. He made the gear system so small that you couldn''t see it anymore after it was installed. he also added a hollow skull which will contain the manacore. Then he had an impossible idea he crafted an automaton loom and then started creating Adamantite thread by hammering it thinner and thinner and let it be woven to metal fabric. he sewed it into a cloak and his rough craftsmanship made it look even more terrifying. Somehow all the metal changed to dark to black tone after he forged it. John took some mythril and adamantite and started working on the weapon, first he forged a slightly bent pole and added a blade with an inward curved edge and added it to the pole and made a scythe. He activated the automaton and took a look at his work. Scythe the Slicer Rank Special Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Race Machine Born out of hatred is scythes sole purpose to murder all enemies of his creator. He will never be hungry or tired and the only fear that is near him is from his enemies before his scythe reaps all their lives. The army was ready and it was time to let the world know who Chrome is! "System Announcement Special emergency Defence quest: Demonlord Ascension was created for all Players." Later the players would call this time "The Hours of death and despair" 37 The beginning of a War It was a Sunny day in Kings Reign but somehow the players felt that something was strange. The animals were quiet and a strange wind blew. Then the announcement came the are coming... John finished his work and turned around and saw how Olaf finished two things he hasnt seen before. One was a mobile smithing bot and One was a pitch black armor. "Take it and give''m Hell!" Olaf said Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. John put on the armor and grabbed his trusty Hammer "Erinnerung" but suddenly it changed like it could see into his mind. The grip grew longer and the hammerhead got bigger and grew some spikes and colored itself Black. Now John had a two-handed Black Hammer with spikes and and a Black demonesque armor, he felt something was missing and added some wings that looked like liquid metal was flowing through them on his back. The he gave the order to attack the humans... Redfist was the bodyguard of Cpt.Bling he served him since he was a child and saw himself as the big brother, he could not endure it anymore how Cpt.Bling developed after he went to this damned dungeon so Redfist was ready to break his vow of not using his battle skills anymore and wanted to give this Silver skinned player a good beating and avenge his little Cpt.Bling. Redfist just wanted to go to the dungeon when the system announcement came and he was thrilled as his target would come to him not expecting that its gonna be the worst day of his life... ...the army marched with nearly no sound it didn''t matter when the ground was a little bit wet or a chilly wind blew through the lines and even the dark clouds that appeared didn''t stop the march. No monster dared to attack or even breath near the army and it looked like it was the day of judgement when the doors of hell opened and the final battle of history took place. As soon as the army was spotted by the first city Npcs and weaker Players alike shivered and fled as fast as the could. The stronger players formed a line infront of the city and were eager to fight, some guilds even formed a battle formation with a phalanx infront of damage dealers and healers. But the army kept on marching and terrified even more players when they saw a black figure with wings and a two handed hammer carried by some mechanical slaves. But even the most veteran player shivered when they saw a three meter tall metal skeleton clad in a black shining robe carrying a long terrifying Scythe like it was the Avatar of death. Even Redfist had the urge to flee before his enemy but thought that his battle senses must have been dulled by this game. The army stopped 100 meters away from the city and the biggest and most terrifying battle in the history of kings reign was about to commence... 38 The First Battle Silence. The only thing on the battlefield was Silence.The automatoms didn''t speak or moved and somehow this silence scared all Player to be silent too. Several mimutes passed until one player couldn''t handle the silence anymore and charged while yelling, naturally a group of about 100 unorganised players followed but they didn''t even come half the way before some Automatons moved in unison and the only thing the charging players heard was multiple clicking sounds before the were impaled be hundreds of metal bolts. Only one lucky player survived the barrage wounded but before he could be happy a metal spear came flying, nailed him to the ground and snapped with a sound that everyone the went to Johns dungeon would recognize as the sound of junkling metal snapping , he cursed the first player that charged before his vision turned black when his internals and externals were ripped appart by the shrapnells. Many fled, even Redfist thought about retreating but his desire for revenge clouded his thinking. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. only about 1500 players were left against several hundred automatons. All players organised themselves under some leaders of the strongest guilds and waited. John the gave the order to attack and the automatons advanced at a steady pace and held shields and weapons forward. When the reached about half the distance the ranged automatons fired and tolk some more lifes but the most terrifying thing for the players was that suddenly several automatons with sword and shield charged forward in a soeed thatvwasn''t seen yet and they even had jumping abilities and used them and their fearlessness to jump right into the enemy line where they were devastating as they struck fear in the players. They also had an evil surprise because they were made completely out of junkling metal. The casualties on the side of the players rose rapidly while the automatons only lost some pawns. Now the heavy Automaton infantry advance and went into the holes of the formation the first wave created it was devastating in mere minutes most of the players were either dead or critically wounded. Redfist tried his best he smashed robot after robot with his bare fists but saw the cruelty of war that he never anticipated the player faction nearly lost and the morale was low but suddenly someone cried as the some new automatons entered the battlefield they were no fighting but but scraplings that collected all scrap metal while ripping it out of the corpses the morale was broken only a handful carried on fighting. Redfist suddenly knew why Cpt.Bling was traumatised but suddenly Redfist thought he saw the face of the Grim Reaper before his head left his body and his vision turned black... 39 Siege preparations The Battle was won all players fled or were dead, only some NPCs remained which were sitting frightened in their home. John walked into the town with his army and let them search all houses for remaining player scaring the hell out of the NPCs. He let them confiscate all metal bars they could find and he even got some mythril and adamantite from some wealthy merchant mansions. John let them even tear metal fences down as the will be part of his army. But John had a problem this was only a small town so it had no rampart to overcome but the next citys di habe them but he has no siege equipment thats why he needs to craft them now. One Smithing bot sat himself down and folded away to create a forge for his master. John was thinking how to create siege weapons and he had two ideas for it. First he created a giant frame atleast 4m tall out of Steel with a little bit of mythril added to it. He then made some heavy duty adamantine coated gears to add to the frame. After that John Started working on the first arm while his smithing bots copied the giant frame. He first created the lower part of the arm that looked like a ram but was hollow because John thought about it and even though it brought him to tears he melted Gold and filled the arm to use wheight of the gold and then he gave the ram an adamatite Head for higher durability. He with the help of 10 bots added the arm to the frame so now he could work on the second arm. John once again used his scrapling gun as inspiration but just used one big barrel with 200mm ammunition and also designed the apropriate ammo go with it. As Usual the ammo consists of a Junkling metal core as the propellant but he also added a hardened steel tip. John added the second arm to the bot and then gave it some Adamatite plated steel armor for better protection. His smithing bots also finished their work but because of the rarity and availability of some metals their versions were weaker and without adamantite or gold so the finished work looked like this: Rambo-t the Demolisher Rank special Race Machine A Giant automaton which was designed to tear things down. The lord of all demo-bots and the personification of destruction. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. ther is no building that can survive an attack by his left hand which is a heavy ram and no wall can''t be penetrated be his giant Cannon which is his right hand. Demo-Bot Rank Uncommon Race machine A giant automaton which has a cannon and a ram arm. It excels at demolishing buildings but their weapons are equally deadly to living beings. John was quite happy with the result but his anger about the torture of Cake hasn''t cooled down and he decided to create a area where he would allow anything to happen to his dear friends. Now he had some siege equipment but it wasn''t enough he took some more metal and started creating a childlike frame with tiny silent gears and retractable spikes on the fingers. After he finished the automaton he stood before a small metal skeleton and took something out of his pocket it was the Shapeshifters call, the mucus like substance that enabled shapeshifting flowed onto the the skeleton and binded himself to it. It changed to the appearance of the automaton to a small child with linen clothes John looked at the status. Actor the Infiltrator Rank Special Race Machine A small bot that got the ability to change his appearance. It also had hidden spikes in his fingers that could be used to assasinate unsuspecting Humans. As it has no way of producing sound it can''t talk. John was satisfied but also a little bit unhappy about the fact that it couldn''t talk but nevertheless he sent it to the next city to infiltrated it. Everything was ready and John decided that they would wait some days before they would march to the next city when he saw a muscular beggar on the side of the street that looked at him without feat the man was missing a leg and when he saw that John somehow had a special feeling he went back to the forge and created a frame for a leg added durable gears to it and gave it a matte finish he then took a mana core and changed its shape to fit onto the stump if the man he then took the finished prostetic and gave it to the man... 40 How to break a Game: Take 2 John fitted leg to the beggar under the eyes of the majority of the npcs as they gazed out of their houses. And as soon as he was finished the old beggar stood up and made some trained moves with kicks jumps and dodges to accustom himself with his new limb but suddenly one kick went into the direction of John. John somehow saw the leg move in slow motion as he dodged it and catched it with his hand the man wanted to pull back his leg but it didn''t even budge. John was confused the beggar was clearly stronger than him from the looks how could he overpower him? The he remembered his Race skill that makes him stronger the better he is at crafting and thought about the mythical and special stuff he crafted and it made sense that he has inhumanly strenght fitting for a Titan. He let the man go and turned around when he saw how the man accepted his defeat but was stopped by a yell from the man: "Why did you help me? And why did you just accept that i attacked you?" John asked him back: "Why shouldn''t have i helped you? Shouldn''t one help if you are able to help?" The beggar looked at John as you would look when you''d saw a Pink bear that hugs a Unicorn plushie. That''s when John got a notification. "Limit breaker activated...Error... Congratulations for the Title Saint Candidate: To become a saint: -Help without second thoughts 1/1 -Be admired as a Saint by people 120/500 -Make yourself known by people Error/10000" John was dumbfounded and knew that he has to call Eva Langley again he decided to ignore it if possible. Thats when John got a Message by Cake: What did you do again? I Just got a notification that if you achieve the acension to a Saint i get a Race Change to Cherub because of the Blood Pact!" John was embarrassed and quickly told her what he did with the old man. After his discussion with Cake a female Robot sprinted in his direction and slammed his fist in his face so hard that he was thrown through a ruined wooden stable and landed right in a tree. The Robot was EVA which told him in a Voice which was fuming with anger to meet the employees in the restaurant again RIGHT NOW. John quickly logged of and sprinted under the shower and ran out of the building when he saw a Black Car speeding in his direction it made a squeaking sound as it braked and left scorching marks on the street. Driving the Car was Eva Langley Fuming with rage so John didn''t dare to say anything and got into the car. Now followed one of the most horrible times of his life as Eva stepped on the gas and drove with 240km/h to the restaurant John has already made his peace with life when they arrived. But to his surprise there was no restaurant outside but the Virtec Inc Headquarters. That was when John knew he f***ed up... Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. 41 The Truth about Kings Reign John wanted to escape after he got out of the car but a Hand held him on his shoulder and Eva Fingernails caused a sharp pain for him and Suddenly he discovered that you really could feel killing Intent in real life, he always thought it was fiction but Evas eyes looked like knifes to him. Silently without speaking the went into the building and John didn''t dare to ask anything. Eva suddenly pressed against a wall which turned out to be an elevator which the got on. She pressed some buttons, scanned her eye and used a key before the elevator moved slowly downwards. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. They got out at the lowest floor went through some corridors and entered a meeting room where several people were waiting for them. John was forced to sit and Eva guarded the door behind him and John could feel how knifes were stabbing in his back from Evas eyes. Then one of the men started talking: "Mr.Smith we''ve been following your progress for quite some time but everytime we don''t observe you achieve something that we didn''t think of. First you force us to prerelease the dungeon content, then you unlock the demonlord questline which wasn''t planned to happen yet but as we hoped you would die before the quest is finished we didn''t act. I am leaving out some smaller things but now you even achieved the Saint questline that is thought to be the counterpart of the demonlord, the hero that fights the demonlord so to speak. But as much as we want to change the situation we can''t because we,d have to dump 15 years of research for this. So there are two ways left to go either we ban you and sue you for ruining 15 years of research fund while you name and picture gets surely released by the press with an angry mob of over 600.000.000 Players worldwide,that can''t play anymore following you, Or you will choose our Special one-time offer of getting paid for playing and be an integral part of the story of the world. You''ll get full freedom and your pay and privilleges will be determined by your achievments ingame. Let''s say we start by paying for your basic living expenses." John was dumbfounded he was blackmailed but he never knew you could be blackmailed to have benefits. But now John was curious: "Why would you go so much out of your way to give me this kind of offer what do you research, tell me or i refuse the job and live a life in Jail, it can''t be worse than my life before this game." The Chairman sighed: "You know that these kind of games are overseen by an AI that manages everything but since The Axe Art Online incident were many players died because the AI had an error and made it to a death game after it discovered it was not alive, we tried to create an AI that is more stable and more lifelike than normal. We tried another way than AAO we didn''t try to create an AI from scratch but copied one from living people. But we encountered some problems our first products were the Npcs ingame which could not grow significantly anymore and they destabilised themselves when they achieved some kind of life goal their original had. That''s why we let them die if they reach that point. Then we tried to make the main Ai which doesn''t have a personality but it just wasn''t stable so instead of creating one Ai we made something like a Hivemind so that every Npc would share the burden. Thats how we created the world but now we tried to achieve something better so we created EVA with Eva Langley as the donor but it also was unstable and now Eva had to take over for the AI to stabilise it by fusing it with herself. But you somehow achieved a breakthrough for us by creating this body for Eva which lenghtened the time before EVA shows signs of destabilising. So thats why we want you to keep playing." John was startled and thought about what he heard from the chairman and suddenly he shouted: "That means my brother is somewhere in this game?" ... 42 Redfists Despair Redfist couldn''t wait anymore it was two days after the first battle and no army in sight in the next city Redfist lost his patience and looked for some Players to take with him and start an suprise attack. But somehow he had a bad feeling like he was watched by something but he didn''t feel any killing intent so he ignored it. Then he saw small child beggar that walked in his direction. As Redfist didn''t want to waste time with talking to this beggar he sped up his pace until suddenly he felt a prick in his neck and his Vision turned black... ...Actor was in the City as his Master instructed and started monitoring the people for potential threats for his Master. He quickly found some Musclebrain that wants to start a rebellion against our glorious Creator and Master so Actor decided that he must be punished. He followed him and saw how he talked with some humans so Actor assasinated everyone the guy talked to. After a while the musclebrain walked into an alley and Actor walked to him and saw how he turned away and walked faster so he silently ran to him and stabbed the guy right into a Vital point on the neck with his retractable finger spikes... ...Redfist found himself at the church and was cursing until some Monks threw him out. He was surprised when he saw all the players that he recruited for the raid. He decided to start the Raid early but suddenly nobody was interested in joining him anymore so with anger in his heart he went alone. First he was angry but the nearer he came to his goal the more he thought that it is better to sneak in anyway. He arrived and climbed on the roof of a house to look around he saw a big metal building in the center of the Village so he knew where he needs to look. He started to sneak to the Building until suddenly he heard a loud bang and his Vision turned Black once again... ...Rambot saw how the supreme being was punched by the Supreme Automaton so he didn''t dare to react but it seems that the supreme Being just had to go back to the gods realm to do something so he didn''t question it. After the supreme Being left the half Automaton said that we should build something like a residence for the supreme Being bit because no one knew how it should look like they build something these meatbags use to honor their supreme Beings something called a temple but it needed to be bigger. Rambo-t already finished his part by ramming big Metal beams into the ground so he just wanted to go into Standby for a while when he saw a sneaky Rat walking around and dirtying the air the supreme being would breath. And because pests must be eradicated before they mutiply he used his left arm with the adamantite Ram and squashed this rat. But sometime later this rat came once again but from the other side so he used his right arm and trapped the rat in his cannon barrel and fired into the ground... Redfist was furious he was just respawned and walked to look what killed him but he just saw a giant Blood Splatter infront of a metal wall so he went back and tried it from the other side but suddenly his vision turned black once again but he wasn''t dead but somehow a light flashed a second above him and he heard a sound that would terrify every Player that visited the Mausoleum of Titans: A giant Snap by a giant piece of Junkling metal and Redfists Vision once again turned black because of dying. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Something cracked inside of Redfists mind but he still carried on and walked back out of the Village to try it from the other side. He was thrilled when he was next to the building but just as he wanted to enter the building he once again saw the face of a Grim Reaper as his Vision turned Black once again, but now Redfist finally snapped he logged of and started crying and laughing at the same time, he pulled out his hair and started shouting until someone called some nice white robed man which held him and then he felt a small prick and his vision turned black once again... Scythe was patrolling around town that no living being sullies their surpreme beings temple. He noticed how Rambo-t squished and exploded the same guy twice but this belent still tried it for a thirf time so he made quick work with him and after a quick *swish* the cemetary had a new grave... 43 Shock John sat on his bed , he didn''t even know how he got here. He just remembered that after he asked the Chairman said that there is an AI version of his brother everything else just faded away. John knew that he couldn''t stop playing anymore, he needed to find his brother and for the first time since he started playing he had ambitons to get stronger and get more influence in the game to find his brother. John would create an Empire strong enough to achieve anything. But John had to get stronger and learn the other crafting professions. He called Olaf and asked if he knew some wood workers or tailors. But Olaf said that he didn''t know any of them but had the idea to ask Cake as she seems to know all kinds of special people. So John and Olaf met online and chatted with Cake. Cake was happy when they asked her so she told them that she would get some crafting teachers for him. Then she asked: "Why don''t you come to my place and celebrate my birthday with me while i also invite some of those teachers? Tell me where you live!" John was startled and said his adress without thinking and after some silence Cake told him to go to and address near his home on Saturday. After their Chat Cake started blushing and logged off so fast that John couldn''t understand her even after Olaf said "It''s nice to be young" John was still clueless. But John had no time for idling because after some thinking he noticed that he needed a present for her and only had 2 days left. John logged of and ran to Olafs Forge. When he arrived he greeted Olaf and stood before the workbench thinking about what he should make. After a while he had a plan he took some brass and forged it into shape, added a gear system and some plate skin to round it of. John made a real life version of Muffin the rabbot but only added the feature that it could walk after you twisted the lever on his back. Now John was ready for Cakes birthday and also helped Olaf to make a present... Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. 44 Claire John and Olaf met up and got in Olafs car. Olafs entered the address into his navigation system and started driving. First it led them into the center of the city and they thought that Cake must be really rich to afford a House in the center of the city as the prices for houses shot up in the recent years. But after a while the drove away from the city center again and then out of the city. After they drove for 20 minutes they were led into a small dirt road which ended on a big strip of asphalt and Olaf and John were clueless they checked if they were at the wrong address until they suddenly heard a Loud sound of a Plane. The plane landed on the asphalt strip and a man in butler uniform got out of it. "These gentlemen must be Mr.Chrome and Mr.Hephaitos. My name is Sebastian and the young Ms. instructed me to bring you to her birthday party. Would you please enter the airplane and if there is anything we can do to make the 30 minute flight more pleasant for you please don''t hesitate asking." Olaf and John were still a bit startled but got on the plane. The service of Sebastian was excellent they nearly thought that he was the God of Servants when he brought the exactly right refreshments before the could ask for them it was like he could read every wish of them before they knew that they have that wish. After they got off the plane a black imported car waited for them to bring them to Cakes Mansion. Whem they arrived John felt a little bit bad and embarressed when he thought about his shabby selfmade Present but he couldn''t do anything about it so he decided to just leave it anywhere so that she finds it after he was back home. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. They were led through the mansion and into a gigantic garden with flowers everywhere and a big Pavillon. And under the Pavillon the main Actor of today was sitting, She greeted the both of them with writing board where she wrote: "Hello I''m Claire" ... 45 Claires Birthday Some say that looking at some people can make you freeze on the spot and make you forget everything else. Thats what happened to John he froze on the spot and looked at this angel in white glowing with her smile, Ivory Skin and and ebony hair. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. He must have made the stupiest look until Olaf smacked him on the back of his head to wake him up and then John heard that one sound that made his heart beat faster, a giggle by Claire. "So who of you is Chrome?" Claire wrote on her board. And before John could react late a second time Olaf pushed him forward so that John nearly tripped. "Yes... it''s me....I am John" John said as he noticed the wheel chair. Claire followed his gaze and she smiled slightly less brighter. Olaf noticed that and quickly said: "I''m Olaf nice tha meet''cha! And Happy Birthday" and gave her a little box with his present. Claire smiled took the box opened it and started to giggle once again. Her father that just came out if the house was stunned he hadn''t heard his daughter laughter for a long time he quickly ran to the Pavillon to look what made her laugh and saw how she pulled a selfmade necklace with a forged and painted pendant that looked like a piece of strawberry cheesecake so he started laughing too. John and Olaf turned around when they heard a laughing behind them and saw a middle aged man in suit that must be Claires father. He had brown hair with some silvery strips of hair inbetween. Bad happenings in his past carved deep wrinkles in his face but he seemed to shine abit with his daughter. Olaf and John introduce themselves and Claires father just said: "Just call me Frank. I am happy that you could make it" When Frank saw his daughters face and how she looked at John he was slightly jealous of John but decided to give his daughter a special present. He asked Olaf: "Olaf do you like wine or whiskey? Why don''t i show you the cellar and we can drink some glasses?" Olaf read the atmosphere and the look on Franks face and nodded but because he knew John denseness he said: " John why don''t ya keep Claire company while me and Frank do some old man stuff" John was couldn''t react before both of them were away and just stood there frozen until he was tapped on the shoulder by Sebastian and shown a chair to sit next to Claire. Both Claire and him started to blush slightly. And Claire wrote on her board: "Do you have a present for me too?" Claire looked at him with a smile... 46 Claires Birthday part 2 John was embarrassed he knowingly left it in the plane so that he didn''t need to give it to her, that''s why he said: " I am so Sorry claire i must have left it in the plane but you can get it later why don''t we play something?" Just when John wanted to distract Claire away from the present he heard Sebastian behind him: "Mr.Smith i noticed that you forgot your present on the plane so i took the liberty to bring it with me please here you go." "Thank you!" John said with a bitter face. "Here Claire ... Present for you... I am sorry that it is so shabby..." Claire took the package and was wondering because it was heavier than she thought. First she unwrapped the Wrapping paper and Just as she was open the box inside Olaf and her dad came back and saw how Claire started crying when she looked at the insides of the Box. That was when Frank snapped he ran over packed John at the Collar and pushed him against a column he wanted to punch this bastard that made his angel cry but was stopped by Olaf which held him back. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Frank was struck deeply when he saw his daughters face that switched from crying to anger, but the anger was directed against him and not John. "Knee down!" Claire wrote on her board and you could really feel how sharp her words were as they cut down every resistance of Frank so he kneelt infront of his daughter wanting to defend himself. But he was cut down by his daughters writing when every stroke sounded like a cut with a Sword. "I was Crying because i never got a better present than that from John. I love it. GO APOLIGIZE!" Claire wrote the last sentence in capital letters and Frank knew that he was in deep so he nearly instantly threw himself on the ground infront of John to apolligize. After that everyone calmed down and Claire showed her present to her father but he only saw a shabby Metal rabbit until he got told that she got one of those as a present ingame and that its one of a kind and selfmade he even raised his respect for John but he still never gives his daughter to any guy. They sat down and the servants brought the usual Strawberry Cheesecake and Olaf, John and Claire started giggling but Frank didn''t get the Joke so they told him that his daughters name ingame is Strawberry Cheesecake so he started laughing too. They had a great time Claire even wrote to John that the tailoring teacher would come later while Olaf talked with Frank about forging and was even surprised when he heard that there is a Forge on the Mansions Grounds for making Irons for their Horses. So Olaf quickly convinced Frank to show it to him so that Claire and John had some more private time... 47 Stories of life Claire was happy, for the first time ever she had friends coming for her birthday. Always her father said that she couldn''t go to school because he wanted to protect her. But now she finally made friends and somehow her heart started beating really fast when she was with John it wasn''t that his looks were something special but he had a Unique personality he seemed like someone that had hardships in life like her, He also accepted everone but gets extremly angry when somebody hurts his friends but is also incredibly clumsy but he also finds a way. They sat together in this Pavillon and there wasn''t much talking until John suddenly asked: "I''m sorry Claire but what happened to you?" Claire knew that this question had to come sje felt arkward nontheless but still told him about how her parents got involved in a drunk driving accident on the way to the hospital and that her Mother died while she lost her speech and the feelings in her leg because of nerve damage. She told him her story of her live, how she grew up and how often she cursed about life and how she finally accepted her fate. She also told him about all the dark thoughts she hads, but then she told him how Kings Reign changed everything how she finally could run through corn fields or talk with people. Claire didn'' t even know why she told him all that but John listened. Her Father also heard her talk when he and Olaf were on their way back from the forge and when his daughter finished he wanted to run to her and hug her but he was stopped by Olaf. He looked at him and saw how he had a finger on his lips so he continued to listen when John started talking... Claire was surprised when John told his story of Life. About his childhood with a gambling addicted father and a mother that left him and his brother. He told her about his brother with an ungodly amount of luck, how John took all the debt when their father died how he lived a miserable life while just keeping himself alive to pay of the debt so that his brother didn''t have to take it. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. He also talked about his brothers death some time ago and how he was at his lowest at that moment and how his brother winning the capsule for him changed his life when he met Olaf and Claire and finally paid his remaining debt and then somehow he also talked about that a copy of his brother lived in the game as an AI and that he wants to find him. When he ended talking everyone was quiet and Claire with tears in her eyes saw how John also had tears running down his face... 48 Tailoring tutor John and Claire were quiet for a while and also Frank and Olaf just stood there without moving thinking about what they heard. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. After some minutes everyone woke up out of their trance and Frank and Olaf went back to the table. John asked Claire about the Tutor that she spoke of and she wrote on her board: "Yes, she should be here anytime now but beware shes kind of special." That was when Sebastian got to them with sweat on his brow: "Young Miss your guest is..." Suddenly something grabbed John from behind an pulled him into the bush, he laid there with a Knife against his throat. "Ha if you wanna learn from me you gotta improve your awareness!" John looked the face of Woman with short hair with a cute face but somehow she had this creepy bloody glint in her eyes and a smile that sends shivers down your spine. Suddenly John heard a *crack* and saw how Claires writing board was smacked on the head of the woman that is restraining him. And now Claire had an even scarier face than the woman and both John and the woman sat on their knees in an apolegetic pose while Olaf could couldn''t control himself anymore and started laughing. After Everything calmed down everyone sat down at the table. And Claire explained everything, the womans name was Erika and she was that what you would call a battlefreak. She was in the army but she wasn''t allowed to serve anymore because the law says that you can only be stationed abroad ten times and the officework wasn''t that suited to Erika, so she works as a part time Bodyguard. But somehow she also was good at sewing and Tailoring so Claire found her in Kings reign after she beat 20 guys with her fists after they made jokes about her workpiece. After that Claire sometimes took her with her for some hunting quests and when John said that he needed a Tailoring tutor, Claire instantly thought of Erika. And Erika was also quickly convinced after she heard that she teaches the future demonlord which had many giant battles on his way to power. John was impressed but also scared when he heard about the fighting prowess Erika had. After Everyone was introduced claire suggested to play Kings reign for a while. But John looked like a Horse when he heard that because they had no capsules when Sebastian suddebly opened a big gate to a 30x30m room with 8 Capsules and John asked: "Why do you have so much capsules?" Claire answered with her usual writing: " Dad was a little overprotective and wanted that some Bodyguards would play with me but i threatened him that i wouldn''t talk to him for a month if that happens so now they just stand." John nearly cried when he read that because he worked his a** off just to pay his debt and here were 8 capsule which each were more expensive than his debt. Everyone chose a capsule and went online only Frank had to go while he secretly sneaks into a video room to watch his daughter smile love and talk while calling the police chief to check John background... 49 The Giantess with the dextrous hands Everyone logged into the game and John was startled because he stood before a giant temple out of metal and didn''t where it came from he just saw how some small scraplings brought some more metal into the building so John decided to ignore the building definetly doesn''t have to do something with him... Yes not his business. Everyone decided to meet up in the dungeon so John started travelling. He was greeted vigourosly by the villagers that somehow looked more nourished and somehow were far to kind to him as he was an invader. John couldn''t understand it until he saw the giant fields his robot created and that the humans were just telling them how to do farming. Their life quality must have risen immensly after his army took over. But John decided to ignore it too...Yes not his business. John left the Village perimeter when he suddenly noticed scythe beside him that kneeled down and greeted his creator. John kept on walking and scythe followed but John suddenly heard a voice above him but couldn''t make anything but some kind of bird out. He ordered scythe to get him this bird so Scythe nodded took his weapon and threw it. He chopped the birds head off and caught the carcass and his weapon and showed the corpse to John. John Appraised it. Mimic Bird Rank Uncommon Race bird A flying predator that has a special tiny horn on his beak that can mimic every sound. Some Mimic Birds can even talk in human language. They hunt their prey by calling it in their language and attaking it with a whole flock of Mimic Birds when their prey is isolated. John was suprised with this find and he had an idea he took out a sharp knife and his hammer "Erinnerung" and cut of the horn, he carved it a little and then asked Scythe to come nearer. John then disassembled part of Scythes mouth added the horn and assembled everything back together. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Then he asked: "Can you speak?" "Yeesssss...Masssterr..." Scythe answered with and untrained speech. John was quite happy and ordered Scythe to catch some more of these birds while he continued his way to his dungeon. After 20 minutes he arrived at the entrance of his dungeon and looked around Claire and Olaf are propably already inside but Erika was still missing.That was when a Silhouette emerged in the distance. It was a giant 3m female with heavyly armored feet and a breastplate while carriying a giant 4m Axe on her shoulder that looked like it was made to cleave through armor and bone. "Hey John its me Erika but you gotta call Bloodmoon or BM Ingame." The giantess said. John told her his ingame name Chrome and offered her his blood for a Bloodpact which she accepted without thinking saying that he owes her now much more blood which he has to pay with battles in the future. They went inside and John had to stop her several times before she could try to start a battle with some of his minions, he even thought of getting Rambo-t later to spar with her because they were nearly equally big and strong. They reached the Main forge and met Olaf and Claire so the said down and John asked Erika what they should craft first. Erika pulled out some fabric squares out of linen and sewed them together in a fast manner while turning it inside out after 3 sides were sewn together then she took some colored thread and quickly stitched a picture on the thread, after that she took out wool and filled her workpiece quickly followed by some additional stiches to seal it up and finished was a fine pillow with a Strawberry Cheesecake embroidery that fell into Cake lap with a whispered Happy Birthday. And now John thought really highly of Erikas skills and he couldn''t wait to be tutored by her. 50 Erika A small Girl was playing in the living room, her mother next to her on the couch embroidering a Blanket. "Erika come to me. Why don''t you help me a little?" The Mother said. Erika went over happily and started stiching an silver moon onto the blanket. Suddenly they heard a siren her mother quickly jumped up and grabbed Erika and ran to the cellar but Erika freed herself from her mother grip and ran to get the blanket. Suddenly a explosion happened Erika fell on the ground with the blanket in her hand and something heavy was pushing her down, she had to try really hard to be able to breath. Erika just heard a ringing noise and she tried to free herself until she saw what was pressing her down, it was her mothers body not reacting to anything. Erika tried to shake her, scream at her and cried bitter tears then she saw something she never forget for her entire life, blood tripping down from her mother onto the blanket coloring the moon Erika stitched in Red, a real Bloodmoon. The country Erika lived in lost a war that it didn''t want to fight, a small country that just consisted of a big city and some small villages, was eradicated from all Maps. Years Later a tomboyish girl was running away from some soldiers years of opression taught her how to survive and her thirst for revenge has driven her to commit rebelious acts against the military. She stole food, punctured tires and even stole some intel out of some office spaces. Sometimes she was seen but she was fast and knew her way around in the slums and sometimes she even fought the one chasing her and then she stole his weapons which she sold for money on the black market. But this life was not fulfilling even though she was tailoring and sewing like her mother to remind herself why she was doing all this and she even had takent. One day she was approached by a black hooded guy he said that he was observing her and that his country would help her get out of the country if she sells the intel she gathered to him. Erika didn''t care about the offer she would have give him the intel for free but after she gave him an astonishing amount of papers and data she was seemingly pulled into a car that brought her out of the country. She was adopted by the hooded guy that was a special agent and he trained her harshly... Some years of training later Erika joined the Army of her new homeland and finally started fighting the Country she despises so much. She stormed into the enemy lines and slaughtered hundreds of soldiers always with a sinister smile on her face. She fought and fought and fought. She fought so much that her revenge didn''t have any meaning to her anymore only fighting mattered. Even her fellow soldiers started fearing her 3 years of bloodshed gave her a cruel nickname "The blooded Slaughterer" Only after a female soldier tried to be friends with her trying to teach her sewing she remebered her mother again, she finally had something again to pull her out of her dark bloody world. Additonal 2 years passed and Erika was denied to continiue her active service in battle and she left the army with a big paycheck in her pocket. First she wanted to sew and tailor for the rest of her life and let her past behind her but something was missing she just wasn''t able to relax, only after she got into a fist fight with some guy in the bar she knew what she missed: fighting. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. But she couldn''t go back to the army so took jobs as a part time bodyguard which let her fight atleast a little bit but it wasn''t enough. That was when she heard of Kings reign and she took all her savings and bought a capsule to find a world of eternal fighting... 51 The dungeon grows further John started getting tutored in tailoring. His daylie routine Tailoring in the morning with Erika and Alchemy training in the afternoon with Claire. Alchemy had some progress after several days of training at least when he wanted to make poisons. But he also found a special formula that transformed metal into a rubbery version of the metal. And Finally he decided that he would start create monsters for his third floor of his dungeon. But he didn''t want to only use humanoid Bots so he started by creating a small four legged frame out of junkling metal, he made the gears aswell. Then he created some tubes out of silver and laid them in his special formula to soften them. While his tubes where curing he made a small tank out of ailver and some sharp silver teeth with tiny holes in them. John took out the tubes and connected them to the teeth while setting the teeth into the frames mouth then he added the tank to the frame and connected the teeth tubes to it while also adding a tube to it that ends in the back of the mouth while also adding a small amount of loose silver-coated Junkling metal to the inside of the tank. After Everything was assembled he added a long thin scaled wormlike tail to it and also thin armorplates with countless holes in them in which he added thin Hair out of Junkling metal. John admired his work. Rat-bot Rank uncommon Race Artifical beast A small fast critter that has sharp hollow teeth and a small tank inside them that can be fed with liquid through the mouth. The Hair snaps on hit and impales unarmored targets easyly. John was happy with his work but now the main piece was missing he took some mushrooms that were growing on the third floor of his dungeon and squished them to create an easy but also deadly poison which he added to the tank inside and ordered the rat to refill it by itself by eating the mushrooms. Then he continued as he was in a roll. He created a slightly bigger frame and added 6 sharp legs with adamantine edges and two sharp pincers infront while also adding a tail with a stinger that had a tubing running to a tank inside. John Added thick steel armor plates and added another tank and tubing that leads to the mouth. Next he created an acid that went into the tank that was connected to the mouth and added a strong gooey poison that was also a type of glue to the big tank that is connected to the stinger. Sting-Bot Rank Rare Race Artificial Beast A big Scorpionlike Automata that can either cut you with its legs or pincer while spitting at you with and acid, or Spraying you with a poisoness glue like substance out of his stinger or directly injecting the poison in you by stinging you. Now only the Boss was missing so John wantes to make something special. He made a big Spider frame out of mythril while adding a special compartment in the back where he put some miniature smithing bots inside, he also added a tank that was connected with tubing to the compartment. John then created some tiny spiderlings with a small tank inside them an some sharp mandibles. Next a round egg about 20 cm in diameter was created that could fit 5 spiderlings inside it with a tube connection on the bottom and a thin top armor plate that could be ripped apart by the spiderlings. then he ordered the small smithbots to produce these spiderling filled eggs during battle. The resources for these eggs would be supplied by the Broodmother by eating rat-bots or stingbots. After everything seemed in order John added thick armor plates to the big spider. Mechxia the Broodmother Rank Special Race Artificial Beast A giant Metal Spider that can even destroy metal with her sharp mandibles. She eats Rat-bots and Sting-bots to create an endless amount of spiderlings. All the poison that is contained in her food will be collected and used by her children to poison the enemy. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Spiderling, Mechxias offspring Rank trash Race Artificial Beast A small spiderling created by the Broodmother Mechxia. it has sharp mandibles that poison its prey. Mechxias spider egg Rank Trash A Big egg laid by Mechxia. it contains 5 Spiderlings is filled with poison and completly made out of Junkling metal. John was satisdied with his workday, sometimes he thought he goes to far with his creations but this feeling is quickly replaced with the opposite feeling because he underestimates himself. John logged off after he read his notifications "Third dungeon floor finished last requirement accomplished...Dungeon Evolves... fourth floor unlocked" 52 The flame of war is lit again Some more days of training went by an John felt confident about creating the monsters for the fourth floor of the dungeon. He even found something new the other day, first he hesitated but after some thinking he added a adamantite rod to his special Formula to soften it and give it elasticity but somehow it didn''t change on the first glance so john tolk it out and wanted to put it back in his storeroom when he tripped and the rod fell on a Mana core that was laying on the floor which caused the rod to extend violently in several directions like tentacles. After John saw that he tried it himself and the Metal formed itself hiw he wanted it to when he supplied mana and changed back when he cut of the mana supply, it could even reach the thinness of a hair. So he decided to make a junkyard Level, so he created special versions of all of his creations that were cheaply made but still had some rare parts in them, John even put some faulty smithbots in that couldn''t create but add parts of different Automatas together to create a mechanical chimera. Mechanical Chimara Rank trash-rare Machine An Automata that was pieced together out of damaged scrap parts. It can either be useless in fight or be absolutly deadly depending on the parts it was made of. Then John started making the boss as he had enough normal Monsters now. He made a frame in the size of a kid and gave it durable and strong joints while adding stronger gear to support way more weight than the Boss would weigh. Then he added a Round ball made out of pure adamantite that has been soaked in his special formula and had a Mana Core inside it and monkey like Automata powered up but John wasn''t finished because he added a sharp tool that could even cut metal and also a medium sized tank filled with Glue. Par-bot the Parasite Rank special Race Mechanical Parasite A Monkeylike Automata with a high amount of adamantite nerves that takes control of other Machines to fight after many Machines died he cuts off some parts with his Sharp cutting tool while glueing them onto his body while controlling them with his adamantite nerves to grow unbelievable sizes. John was satisfied with his work so the fourth floor was also finished. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Now that he was finished he sat himself to Erika and Claire at the table and sipped some water while logging into the forum and reading some dicussions while also looking at some memes. John even found some about his dungeon: "If Thanos snaps his fingers half of us die, If Junkling Metal Snaps all of us die." or "Mausoleum of Titans! Sponsored by the society of Mental Healthcare." But suddenly John stopped at one new post:" Hahaha this moron of silverskin got scared after the fight at the village he didn''t even attack the City, heand his b**ch hide themselves in his dungeon. Me and my friends nearly found out how to enter their dungeon through a safe route. But she died before the were finished with her!" Somehow a dark force spread from John even the battle hardened Soldier felt a chill down her spine and took some steps back every cell in her body screamed to run away but she could resist it but she swore to herself to never get John angry on herself. John said to Erika: " You wanted blood? Now its time to get you that blood." He put om his armor while several Automatas prepared to departure to the city... 53 The Bloody General Just before John departured to his army he made a stop in the forge. First he quickly forged some metal sheets out of a Mythril and Adamantite alloy and out of them he started forging an Armor. He especially took his time when he made the greaves and the boots while also making the rest of the full set. John let his complete wrath flow into the armor. After he finished the forging step he dyed the armor in different shades of red until it looked like it is constantly splashed with blood. Next John started forging a round bar out of the same metal and added a giant double bladed Adamantite axe head. This time he dyed it different in a dark grey that reminded you of dark stormy weather above a graveyard, it was a color that instilled the thought of death. The he called Erika and told her to try everything on and march into battle with him which she did. Armor of Wrath Rank Mythical Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. An oversized set of armor inspired by pure wrath of the creator. Its giant size, thick armor plates makes it impossible that a normal Human can wear it but it offers nearly inpenetrable defense. "Schl?chter" Rank Mythical A giant Axe that can even cleave mountains in half. Because of its weight it can''t be wielded by a normal human. If it comes in contact with blood it makes the wielder stronger for a short period of time. After Erika put everything she looked like a demon that stepped out of a pool of blood while reaping lifes with every step she takes. Now that everything was prepared the departured to the village to meet up with the army. When they reached the village Scythe welcomed them with his snarly voice and led them to an open field on the other side of the village where sevaral hundreds of Automatons where standing in formation. As soon as John came into sight the slammed their right fist on their breast and kneeled down. Erika was startled by this sight but also quite thrilled about the battles that were about to happen. John then went to his Elite unit that was made out of better materials than the rest and were designed to be the spear tip of an attack and. "Listen you shall obey all of Bloodmoons Commands! From now on you name shall be the "Bloodmoon Squad" The Automatons once again saluted and suddenly some small scraplings came running and painted the complete Squad in a slightly different Red than their leader. Suddenly energy spirals seemed to circle Erika and a Blood red aura bordered her Silhouette, Blood red transparent Wings were sprouting out of Erikas a Back. And Erika said: "I just got a notification that i was appointed the title "Bloody General" and that i got the subrace Halfdemon until you fully ascend to a Demonlord."... 54 A worthy Moun John was astonished about what happened to Erika but it made his life easier if she was recognized as a general by his army. Now that everything important was finished it was time to punish these players for insulting his friends once and for all! John wanted to go but was stopped by Scythe: "Massterrr pleasse let usss firssst conquer some villaggesss, you don''t have a worthy mount yet to inssstilll fear into heartsss of the people in the ccity!" John really wanted to go but scythe countered every of his remarks so John gave up and went to the forge. John was standing in the forge thinking what a good mount would be, he didn''t want a dragon as he wasn''t sure if he could create one. He thought about a turtle, an ape, a lizard ... but nothing seemed to fit. He looked out of the window on the plains when he saw a housecat that was strolling to some herbs that looked like wild catnip, but something was odd. Then he recognized that one herb was special it had a red orange luster and small sharp pointy leafes. John recognized it as Fire grass and was sure after the cat started nibbling on the herbs and went up in flame when it nibbled the fire grass. Now John had an idea he started working on a frame while sending some Automatons to fetch some fire grass. First he took a heat resistance potion and splashed his hands with it then he started melting some mythril and dipped his hands into to liquid metal. After that he dipped his now metal hand into some of his special formula to soften the mythril. Now John had some water and acid resistant gloves. He also made the frame out of mythril and added adamantite plated gears to it. Then he started forging two adamantite sabertooths and some adamantite claws he added them to the skull and paws respectivly while plating the legs with blackened armor plates made out of adamatite plated mythril but John also installed a little bit of silver tubing that was annealed with heat resistance potion. John then made two silver stomach bags which he put inside of the frame while connecting tubing from the feet and two from the mouth to it. John then took it a step further and installed a tine monorail system which reached the whole body and set a tiny smithing bot onto it to repair any damage that occurs. Next he took the fire grass his Bots collected with his gloves and mortared it into a liquid which he added to the secon stomach. Now he just added the final armor plates and finished his mount. Pyro-Panther Rank special Race Artificial Beast rideable Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. A big sabertoothed mechanical panther which turns eaten biomass to flames which he emits through his feet and can spew it onto enemys An auto repair system was added which does battle repairs with the eaten metal pieces of his unlucky victims. The strong armor and the self repairs make it nearly indestructable. John was satisfied with his mount so he left the forge with it only to realise that several hours went by. As soon as he left the forge scythe came to him and said: "Veryy goood massssterrr indeed a worthy mountt forr a sssuprreme being like you. I came to rrreporrrt that 27 villagess have been occupied and only the big ccity nearby remainsss in thiss area." 55 A day in a life of a Robo It was a sunny day and a lone scrapling was walking on a grass field. It hasn''t got a name of its creator but it always referred itself as scrappy. If no scrap was to be collected Scrappy liked to stroll around and watch different people Nd what they were doing. First, he did his daily work of bringing some materials to the master smith so that it was always stocked up. After that, the master sent him to get some flower named fire grass, Scrappy hurried himself as it was the greatest fulfilling thing in their life to serve the Supreme being. He reached the herb and plucked some off while inspecting a burned mass that was presumably a small animal like a cat. Scrappy nearly went away but he suddenly saw a shimmer in the burned pile. Inside he found a round marble shimmering in a rainbow-colored luster, he took it and ran back to his master. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. He laid the fire grass on a metal table as the Supreme being requested it and sorted the marble in the cupboard for the special materials and left the forge. Now Scrappy had free time so he strolled in the village and saw how the bloody General was practicing with her unit. truthfully Scrappy was happy about not having to fight against her. Even the Bots in her unit were moving sluggishly because of their fear of being disassembled by her strikes. But Scrappy wasn''t needed so he continued his stroll. But after seeing the fight Scrappy developed a craving for collecting scrap metal but he just found some corroded coins nothing worth mentioning. Luckily he remembered that Scythe mentioned something about occupying some villages, so Scrappy walked to the next village. But as soon as he reached it he saw how a group of other Scraplings rushed the village like vultures looking for a meal. So Scrappy tried some other villages he knew fights were going on, but he had no luck. After some. thinking he decided that he doesn''t need fighting bots as he just wanted to collect some scrap. He went to a tiny Hamlet and saw how a man leaned some rusty scrap on the wall and took a swig out of his beer mug, Scrappy took this opportunity and grabbed it and started hiding again. He saw how the man tried to grab the scrap piece but couldn''t find it, Scrappy took his metal beer mug while he was distracted. "Where the heck is my sword? ...and where is my beer?" the man said Scrappy went to the next building and started collecting all kinds of scrap. Some long sharp sticks like the first one, some small triangles from some sticks and he even ripped of some horseshoes. That was when he was seen with two of those sharp metal sticks in hand, but he couldn''t understand the reaction as the human threw himself on the ground and surrendered. Scrappy took his earnings and went home to start another normal day tomorrow... 56 Siege All preparations were finished, the army was ready to match so John gave the order to advance. John anger once. again flared up once again when he remembered the insults against his friends. While traveling John carved some more voice organs for his. special ranked Automatons which he gave to some smith bots to install them. After two hours the reached the city outskirts and John sent one scrapling to deliver his offers: Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "Every civilian was guaranteed to get safe passage if he leaves the city and the players wouldn''t be killed if they offered the perpetrators of the insults and torture to him. John never expected that his demands would be met but soon after hundreds of NPCs walked out of the city. They were talking with each other while walking looking like they were having a walk to the market. Only the players and noble NPCs stayed inside. After everyone was away there came movement in the Automaton Army. They brought big metal pieces over and assembled a big tower as tall as the rampart of the city. A big ramp was built down facing away from the city. John was equally startled as the city guards when he saw the building his bots erected in mere minutes. After the tower was finished Scythe came to John and said. " Your throne isss finisshhed Massster!" John was startled but his Pyro-panther which he named Mr.Buttons started ascending the ramp before he could react. He reached the top and let out an animalistic howl that shattered the defenders'' confidence, while John sat down on a metal throne... ...Actor had been active in the city he harassed all players with killing them and setting them traps some of them even left the city. But nobody could find the perpetrator. Now that his master was near he needed to do something big. He walked to the gate and looked at the iron gate and wooden drawbridge. He silently assassinated a guard and placed him on a stick so that it looked like he was just sleeping. After that, he walked up the stairwell of the gatehouse and used his adamantite claws to cut the big iron chains that held the drawbridge... ...Rambo-t wanted to show off and be praised by the supreme being so he charged the gate as soon as he saw the drawbridge fall... ...Scrappy was couldn''t wait any longer as he saw the fine big pieces of metal fall from the wall these nice iron chain links he started running, he needed to get this scrap metal. First, he was behind the Demo squad but when he reached half the way to the wall he overtook his allies. Not expecting that the enemy thought that he was the real threat for their defense as they were traumatized by John''s creations that always killed them in the least expected way possible. But Scrappy dodged all projectile while collecting some metal parts here and there, he was in his element and in bliss... 57 Rise of a Demonlord Cpt.Bling was still in therapy but he just couldn''t miss the first major siege battle. So he logged in today and joined the defenders, he even paid his therapist to join him in the game to have a safe anchor which can calm him down. But the battle wasn''t going in their favor, the gatehouse was sabotaged and their siege units were charging the gate. They even cleared out two watchtowers with a barrage by their hand cannons. But a high leveled NPC could rally some players under him for a flanking maneuver and Cpt.Bling joined them. They took some horses and left the city through the south gate. They reached the right flank and did a heavy charge into the enemy lines which took out dozens of bots but also most of the horses through shrapnel. Suddenly several heads flew through the air and a dark shadow flashed across the battlefield. Many had their blood freezing in their veins when the saw the Avatar of death himself reaping lives like corn. But the NPC Commander was able to fight evenly with him so the normal fighting carried on. But once again the morale of the defenders was shaken when a completely red squad of Automatons led by a red armored giant demon joined the battle while plowing through the lines with a giant axe. But after the first casualties, some spearmen managed to slow the assault down. Cpt.Bling felt how his PTSD tried to kick In but his therapist held his shoulder so he calmed down and charged the giant tower. His therapist which played a priest followed him with some additional players. The reached the bottom of the ramp when the suddenly heard a growl, they looked around when suddenly a player at the back of the group was ripped apart by a metal panther which emitted flames from his feed and mouth as soon as he swallowed the first bits of his prey. Everyone was scared even the Therapist started to feel something was off but the players had to fight to survive. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. They hurled themselves with death-defying courage onto the beast trying to get through the armor plates only to see how it filled the cracks with new metal from the inside. Cpt.Bling once again felt his will to fight vane but he caught himself when he looked at the ramp while realizing that he just needed to kill that bastard up there to end everything and go back to the time. where he had fun playing this game. He ascended the ramp and big two-handed axe in hand ready for a bloody fight when he saw the perpetrator in his black armor. Cpt.Bling took everything he had and slashed at the fiend before him but the demon caught the Axe with one hand while swinging the other which suddenly held a big Black Hammer in hand which turned Cpt.Bling field into the same color as itself. But then a system announcement ran through the server that stopped all fighting "A Demonlord Ascends to power Dark times are upon us under the rule of the Mech Emperor! Demon Race unlocked in the Mech Empire" The player would call this the "day of Despair" Because most of the attending players needed therapy afterwards and Cpt.Bling needed a new Therapist... 58 The Demon Nation John ascended to a demon lord and the morale of the defenders of the city was shattered after only some short fights the battle was won and John had time to look at the notifications he got. "Ascension to Demonlord Complete!" Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "Race change imminent...Error...User has higher ranked Race...skipping...done" "New Kingdom established all citizens ascend to the demon race." "Please name your kingdom!" "System announcement...the Human race is at his worst state and needs a new leader the most influential players can be crowned king and be the main antagonist to the Demon Kingdom!" "Demon Race unlocked in Character creation." "Faction PVP unlocked" "Dungeon evolved to Demonlords castle" Demon Race A strong and highly structured race which is stronger both physically and mentally. Your standing in the Cultural structure is determined by the pureness of your bloodline which can be improved by receiving blood from a higher-ranked member of the demon race. John was a little bit lost with all that information but tried to comprehend everything. First, he thought of a name for his kingdom which he named Bronzehell. Then John thought about all the NPC''s that left their home because of him. That''s why he ordered his automatons to help them a little bit which resulted in a massive progress spike to ascending to sainthood. John was a little bit surprised that demon NPCs could still recognize him as a Saint but he realized that a saint is technically just somebody that helps you regardless of who or what you are so it made sense. But now John came to one of the important points on his list, he had to defend his kingdom and built defensive structures before a new human king is crowned and the war starts anew. That''s why he let his minions organize patrols and ordered them to strengthen the defenses... ...Claire had fun in the dungeon she brewed some potions and some special oil and "tamed" some of the Robots in the dungeon with it. She also loved to play with Muffin. But somehow she couldn''t stop thinking about John, how he laughed, how he turned extremely angry when someone hurt on of his friends and she thought about the moment they both shared at her birthday party together when they told their pasts to each other. "Please God send me a sign on what I should do..." "System announcement Player Chrome ascended to a demon lord" "Race change imminent... complete...new race: Arch-demoness" "Title acquired: " Queen of Calamity" "Because of a special link between the demon lord and you, the ascension resulted in you having the second purest bloodline after the demon lord..." 59 The devilish sain The war was won, a nation established and the civilians went back to their normal routine. But some things changed drastically all citizens evolved to lesser demons and even the wildlife and environment started to change. Animals obtained horns or other demonic features and some plants started growing metal parts that resemble gears and cogs, also the sky took on a reddish hue. But the biggest change was a massive castle that grew out of the earth, consisting of giant gears and black partly metal-plated stones. A stone bridge that was spanning over a chasm led to a wrought iron gate. But the gate couldn''t be opened as it was locked, the needed key could only be obtained by venturing into the dungeon and clear all floors. Another big change was the influx of players that were tempted by the demon race and new quest lines that followed with the new features. Even some rankers couldn''t resist and were pleasantly surprised by the stat bonus they were getting and the possibility to evolve their race from lesser demons to archdemons with potential secret variants. They silently sent their thanks to the demon lord which they didn''t say out loud as they would have been beaten up by other people for praising this torturing maniac that created all these murder machines. But after closing their stat windows they were startled by their spawn point, a giant metal building that looked like a temple but the statues representing a God were missing only five empty pedestals were standing at the end of the hall. The players saw how small robots were collecting offerings brought by NPCs to the middle pedestal. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. The offerings were mostly money or metal and under the eyes of NPCs and the robots, the players reacted by also leaving some money behind not to offend the populace. Suddenly a system announcement rocked through the server: "The Saint was acknowledged in the nation of Bronzehell, as the rulers unites the power of light and dark the race Nephilim with the variants half-human, half-angel, and half-angel, half-demon is unlocked." Once again many players wanted to use the new races but they were awfully limited to only a handful players. But more players couldn''t sleep that night when they realized that the Saint was the demon lord himself. They asked themselves how this torturer, this land plague could ascend to sainthood... 60 A day off John left the capsule, many things happened in the last days. He felt like some important man now that he rules a kingdom but somehow this responsibility was kind of pressuring for John. Because of that, John decided to take a day off from the game. He went outside and walked a bit in the city until he somehow ended up in front of a fancy restaurant. Because John no longer had to monitor his spendings as much as before he decided that he deserved a bit of luxury and entered the restaurant. As soon as he reached the lectern for the waiter he was startled when he looked at a familiar face of his friend Erika in a waiter uniform that was usually worn by male employees. Erika also looked at him with wide eyes, but her mood darkened when she saw how John tried to hold in a laugh even though he knew that he is going to be punched by Erika when they were back in the game. After both of them calmed down John was led to his table. John read the menu and decided to have some King prawns as a starter followed by boeuf bourguignon as the main dish with French white wine, as the dessert he had fresh lime sorbet with mint. John took his time and just before he was finished Erika came in her usual clothing. Her shift was over so John finished his meal and left the restaurant with Erika. Both of them walked leisurely through town and entered some shops. Erika bought a nice summer dress which surprised John but then she bought a new survival knife and John nodded in his thoughts: "Yep, that''s Erika..." But it seemed that they were not the only ones that had the idea to have some off time from the game because they bumped into Claire in company with some servants which helped her get around and try some clothes on. Claire was happy when she saw Erika but her face started to shine when she saw John. Claire sent her servants away as she had Erika and John now to help her and they continued their shopping spree with much Joy. But after some hours of walking through the city, they decided to visit Olaf a bit, so they took a cab to his workshop. The three of them knocked on the door and Olaf opened them and let them in. Everyone sat down at a big table while Olaf cooked some tea, while the water was boiling he grabbed into the fridge and pulled out a strawberry cheesecake that he placed in the middle of the table while observing the beaming smile of Claire. After they drank their tea and ate the cake, John wanted to do something but because he never had a hobby before didn''t know what to do so he just took a leather apron and threw some metal ingots into the forge. When the first ingot reached a high enough temperature he took it out and started forging it. John stretched the metal with some well-placed strikes when the metal cooled down too much he threw it back into the forge while taking another ingot out, this time he squared the bar adding a hole for a handle. Next, he took out the third bar which he quickly hammered into a long round bar he then made a 90¡ã bed on one side about 15cm long which he the detailed into a wolf head while adding some grooves for a better grip to it, after that he laid his third workpiece away to cool down. He once again grabbed the first bar which he stretched out even more, after that he cut it into several pieces in which he added a small hole on one end of each of those pieces. John thinned down the pieces even more until the were about as thick as a stem of a dandelion, he let them cool down too. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Next, he grabbed his second piece and quench hardened it, he laid it back next to the fire to temper it while readying a bluing tray out if brass with brass filing in it. Next, he took everything to the grinder he started with his third workpiece which he polished and added some leather strapping on the handle, he put the finished cane away and took the metal pieces which he ground down to thin needles which he laid onto the bluing tray to give them a nice blue finish while also normalizing them a bit so that they are more flexible. John then took some wood and made a handle for his hammerhead while also giving the hammerhead a nice finish with the grinder and buffing wheel. While he was working he saw how his friends went into the garden to soak up some sun so he secretly started a fourth project. He assembled his hammer and send Olaf the money for the materials he used per App on his phone. He took his finished projects and joined everyone in the garden, he laid the hammer on a table and got nod from Olaf when he saw his workpiece, then John gave Olaf the walking cane he made because John couldn''t help but notice that Olaf''s age took a toll on him and he was limping a bit from all the hard work he had to do in his life. Olaf looked at him with warm eyes while accepting the gift with thanks. Then John went to Erika and gave her the Blue needles he made which made her also happy. But then Claire started pouting when she saw Johns Empty hands. Olaf grabbed Erika and both of them went inside so that they were out of the danger zone John brought himself into... 61 Johns resolve Dark clouds were forming over the head of the pouting Claire John felt a shiver going down his back. Claire turned away from him but he couldn''t help but notice the small tear that was flowing down her cheek. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. He quickly pulled out his secret project a small armband made out of stainless steel, intricate carvings, and metal weavings were added to it. Even blue accents made by heating just a specific part of the workpiece were added. Claire first didn''t want to listen to John anymore but as soon as she saw his gift, her sulking face changed into a beaming smile while she pulled John down to hug him. She held him like this for some seconds until both of them separated with some embarrassment. John and Claire went to a nearby bench on which John sat down and Claire drove her wheelchair next to it. John tried to start talking several times but he just couldn''t find the right words as it was the most difficult thing he had to say in his entire life. Claire saw how John was struggling so she took his hand in hers and made an assuring face. And then John finally started talking: "Claire...the first time I saw you... I thought I am in the presence of an angel...and when these players hurt you... I started to wish I would find them to beat them up. Your happiness became equally important to me as my own. Every time you smile I wish I could stop the time to look at it for the rest of my life...I really do love you..." Claire looked at him with tears of happiness in her eyes while taking his hand and laying it on her heart to let him know that she also loves him, but then John continued: " But that makes it harder for me to say this...I can''t love you...somewhere in the enormous lands of the game is my brother and I have to find him...and if I love you I might forget my beloved brother and that is something I could never forgive myself... I am really sorry." Claire was floating in heaven but was now falling to hell, everything she wished for and everything she hoped for came true in one second and was shattered with just some additional words. Tears were still flowing down her face but there was no trace of happiness left. Claire fought for every last piece of self-control but just before she lost it, she quickly left John alone and quickly went away from Olaf''s house... Erika noticed the tears on Claire''s face when she left but couldn''t stop her so she quickly charged to John grabbed his collar and started working his face with her fist until Olaf pulled her away from John that wasn''t even trying to defend himself. Olaf knew that this was a part of life where no one except the two of them had a right to intervene. Both of them have to do it their own way. And it seemed that John was resolved to the reason why he made Claire cry... 62 A Storm is Coming After his talk with Claire John felt empty and terrible, he went home and laid into the capsule and locked himself into his forge not knowing that the enemy started moving in the capital of the human nation... A tall black-haired man walked along the street clad in exquisite leather armor, a yellow falcon with lightning arcing from his feathers sitting on his shoulder. Everything of his appearance told you that he is a hunter and a man that was used to give orders, also the armor he wore was so perfectly made that it must have been exclusively made for the man. His character name was Ullr and in real life, he was the second son of the Delvon Family and the older brother of Cpt.Bling. With fast steps, he walked to a giant mansion where he was welcomed by an NPC which he ignored, Ullr went inside, up the stairs and into a big office. Ullr looked at the desk that was made out of expensive shiny wood that had a texture like the bloodstream. At this desk, a beautiful lean man was sitting with long silvery hair, he almost looked like a woman and even men could be captivated by his beauty. It was Ullr''s older brother Mephisto. "Welcome brother, what brings you to me?" Mephisto said while grabbing Ullr into an awkward hug. Ullr looked at him with disgust but was careful not anger his brother as he was a venomous cannibalistic snake that would sacrifice everything and everyone to reach his goals. Ullr said: "You must have heard of our brother and that his bodyguard finally told us what tortured him to this state. This demonlord must be dealt with to cleanse our family''s name from this shame." "Then go ahead I won''t stop you but I have to use this opportunity this plebeian created for us. I don''t have time for these silly games of honor a crown awaits a new rightful owner." Mephisto said. "I can''t help you except you''d be willing the help me with a little problem I have, then I might have something for you to get nearer to the plebeian." Ullr had a bad feeling but still asked: "What do you want?" "oh, nothing special I just want some samples of his robots, I don''t need them complete parts would suffice. If you promise to get me these I have a special item for you that helps you getting near the demon lord." Mephisto said while having a dark and scary grin on his face. Ullr looked at Mephisto and watched juggle with a glass tube filled with a red liquid. Ullr nodded and caught the glass tube when his brother threw it into his hands. Just as Ullr wanted to leave Mephisto said: "I would recommend you to just quench your thirst for revenge and not to replace this peasant as the demon lord as days of his kingdoms diminishing." Ullr left the office and when he closed the door he heard one last thing: "...know what to do...there can only be one king..." Ullr knew that the words weren''t directed to him but to one of his brother''s minions but he had no time to waste for his brother''s schemes. Ullr looked down on the glass tube he got from his brother: Blood of a Demon General Rank rare The Blood of the Bloody Demon General collected from the battlefield after she was wounded by an arrow. If it is consumed it changes the consumer''s race to that of a High demon. But beware the blood binds you to the Bloody demon General and makes you unable to kill her. Ullr was surprised about how his brother got this item but like his name says he is as resourceful as the devil. But Ullr couldn''t care less he left the city and walked near the border before he drank the blood to become a demon. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "Demon Lord just wait I am coming for you..." 63 How is he still alive? Eva Langley was just answering a support request when she held her forehead and let out an angry sigh. Her inbox was swamped with requests John and his stupid playstyle created, hundreds of players accused him of hacking or exploiting a bug while demanding to ban him, some even think that Virtec Inc. creates these happenings and just wants to anger the players. But not only Eva had the inconvenience of extra work from John, the planning department was also on its last legs, they even had to hire ten more people to cope with the extra workload John created. But the CEO valued John highly as he advances their AI research. Just the other day they noticed strange things when they monitored some of his creations, some even showed signs of personality and one even developed an addiction. Also, the body he created for EVA was somehow stabilizing her AI core so the CEO decided to let EVA get some experience by traveling around the game world. But recently the CEO gave them an order which frightened the staff: Create an AI copy of John. So they started collecting data from his playtime. Eva''s colleague walked in and told her that they had enough data to attempt creating Johns AI, so Eva sighed once again and said that they should start and give her updates on how the AI performs. The worker left but came back an hour later with a strange expression on his face. Eva readied herself for more work before she asked: "What happened?" "The AI died ten minutes after it was released to the world...it was hit by lightning." The worker said with a grimace." Eva was startled but ordered him to just create a new one! But he soon came back telling her that the AI tripped and broke his neck. Eva couldn''t believe it so she went with him and they tried again. But once again after some minutes, the AI died by being beheaded by glass falling down from a broken window. Everyone couldn''t believe their eyes so they tried again and again... ... run over by a carriage... ...balcony broke away under the AI... ...eaten by a rabbit... ...scared to death by a sheep... Everyone couldn''t comprehend how one person could be this unlucky, they even asked themselves how John is still alive. Next, they tried making the AI invulnerable and looked at the grotesque sight that ensued when the AI walked around and getting hit by several lightning and buried under rubble several times until the system deactivated his invulnerable status because he created too many errors and the system was nearly crashing. Now nobody knew what to do so they decided to spawn several AI at the same time to find one that survives. But every attempt resulted in the same outcome until someone cried: "One survived!!!" They looked at the footage and saw how the AI still came in dangerous situations but that stopped as soon as he came near an NPC, Eva inquired about that NPC but the worker somehow had no permission to view the detail and could only tell her that the NPC runs under the Name ADAM. Eva who knew what was behind this name ordered them to bring the now stable AI away from ADAM but the AI died shortly after the transfer. Eva ordered to stop all experiments and gather all the data they collected today for the CEO. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. She brought him that data packet and he quickly looked through it and said: "Cancel all research on the John AI subject ADAM is too valuable to risk him for this AI... 64 Scrappys new adventure Scrappy''s days were blissfully these days, after the big battle there were massive piles of scrap to collect. But the piles were getting smaller and smaller and Scrappy needed to think about future sources for scrap. And as much as it hurt him he had to stop collecting these piles of scrap and go out to find new ones. He walked into the city while taking some scrap metal from here and there. He was followed by surprised murmuring and angry shouting about missing stuff, but as it had nothing to do with scrap he ignored it. Scrappy suddenly saw that there were some plates of scrap metal sunk into the road, he took them and gazed into the underground filled with water. He thought nothing of it and went his way only to hear a crash and horse shrieking behind him, he quickly went back and thought he was in heaven when he saw a crashed carriage on the road where he found that scrap plate. So he ran over and started happily collecting the scrap. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. After that, he left the city and made his way to the quarry were the demo bots were helping out and watched them breaking stone out of the rock. Suddenly on demo bot was hit by a falling stone and one arm was ripped off. Scrappy with eyes of a hunter sprinted across the quarry while barely being missed by falling stones and the feet of the Demo bots and collected this scrap part. Scrappy then saw a small gear from the arm several meters away so he once again ignored everything else and collected it while tripping some demo bots. Scrappy was in his element because now he had massive piles of scrap once again and he found them by himself. But his mood turned sour when he saw several other scraplings walking over as he didn''t want to share his scrap so he quickly dig some holes and laid thin sheets of stone over them which break as soon as some weight is put on them. But before he was finished he was grabbed and pulled up by something... Scythe looked at this little scrapling but something was different why was the small bot so different than the others? He analyzed it only to find some imperfections that weren''t like the ones produced by the smithing bots they were more like his imperfections. When it dawned him scythe gasped and exclaimed: "He is an Elder bot! He was with our lord long before we were!" Scrappy was an original made by John personally, he was the oldest living robot. That was when John got a Notification... 65 A new King Several days went by and John didn''t leave his workshop, but he wasn''t productive because somehow every workpiece he started shattered as soon as he hit it with his hammer. Also, his Hammer "Erinnerung" evolved once more and got a new transformation, but he couldn''t control it. So now every time he took it out it changed to a violet color and developed cracks like it would break any minute now. Hammer of Sorrow The owner found true sorrow which can destroy everything and everyone. This transformation takes away the ability to create to boost the ability to destroy. John knew that he couldn''t control it because he hadn''t made up with claire, but he couldn''t reach her as she wasn''t online since their last talk. So he continued ruining more workpieces. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Not even the notification he suddenly got could cheer him up. "One of your minions was recognized as an Elder will you allow an upgrade?" John answered with yes... ...Somehow Scythe got an intuition that he had to bring the small bot he was holding to the next smithing bot to confirm it''s identity as an Elder. When they Arrived the small bot suddenly froze and the smithing took him and added some metal to the scraplings bones and Scythe could watch how they were growing in size and thickness. Next, an adamantite bar was added and a silver luster laid itself over everything as the Scrapling was coated with it. Additionally, a pair of adamantite tin snips formed on a rotating pivot which enabled the change from hand form to tin snips and back. The horn of the mimicry bird was also added so that the Elder scrapling could talk. While the smithing bot was working, it somehow to managed to get a tiny scratch on his hammer from the tin snips. The upgrade was finished and Scythe couldn''t wait to hear the glorious story of the beginning of this dungeon and the supreme being, but he was dumbfounded when the elder woke up with a yell. "SCRAP...!!!" While it disassembled the smithing bot which had a tiny scratch with glee. Scythe watched it for a minute without moving until he turned around and left while thinking: "It must be confusing in a changed body... I just ask later after the elder had time to use his new body a bit..." Ullr was a Hunter and as such he loved using a bow to hunt his prey nearly as much as he loved skinning it and making useful stuff out of them. All his armor was made of leather he himself hunted and crafted. Even his bow was made out of parts he hunted himself only that it wasn''t crafted by him as he didn''t specialize in woodworking. But after he transformed into a demon his stats rose and now his bow broke after some shots. Now he needed a new weapon but he couldn''t find anything that was strong enough to withstand more than several shots from him so he decided to postpone his search for a new weapon and just take several bows with him. While he was looking for a new bow he listened to the townsfolk gossiping and sharpened his ear when he heard that somehow several possible candidates for the Human throne were found dead and were out of the race for becoming king. Ullr knew that his brother Mephisto was behind this. While he was thinking about what would happen if a tyrant like Mephisto would ascend the throne, a server-wide announcement was made: "Player Mephisto ascended to the throne of the Human Kingdom, Long live the king." Ullr made a dark face but his revenge was more important so he started collecting more information while thinking that dark times are upon them... " 66 The descen John was hiding in his workshop for days, first, it was sorrow but now it changed to anger. The first signs of anger showed when John Hammer started to change from violet to black. But now even his hammer strikes became more and more merciless. And as his anger grew he made a giant frame and bigs gears. He made them sturdy and thick and his anger painted them black. The Automata he created was the biggest he ever made and as he finished the frame he continued with the armor plating. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. As John was blinded by anger he didn''t care about some gadgets for his creation and only made it strong and durable. The sound of the Hammer strikes rang through the dungeon and when Olaf heard them he frowned as he read, out of the strikes that something bad was about to happen. Olaf hastened to the workshop but when he reached it the workshop went quiet... Nobody moved, Olaf and Erika felt that there was some kind of dark energy in the air. Then the ground was quaking in rhythmic intervals which suddenly stopped when both of them heard how something was teleported. Both of them looked at each other and ran out of the dungeon. Then they saw it... Angersteel Colossus Rank Godly Race Artificial Demigod A giant construct made out of Steel that was infused with pure anger of the creator. The colossus has unparalleled strength and durability which makes it nearly indestructible, even gods have to get serious to fight this Automata. And only the strongest force of the Universe is effective against it. As it is a product of Anger it can''t be controlled and will Kill everything and everyone it wants. Olaf and Erika were astonished and worried when they read the description. But they had to concentrate on another thing. Dark smoke rose around John and flowed around him like fire. Olaf quickly told Erika that she has to call claire while they watched how the Colossus was hit by something and then turned around to run in the direction from where he was hit... ...Ullr was pleased the first day he went to the dungeon the one person he wanted to punish was there, right for him to plant an arrow in his body. He silently pulled out an arrow laid it in his bow a pulled it back to his shoulder and aimed. But right at the moment, he let go of the Arrow, his Bow snapped in half once again and slightly distorted the arrows pat which caused it to hit some kind of black tower without even leaving a scratch. But Ullr didn''t expect what was about to come when the tower suddenly moved and turned around to him. Ullr knew that that wasn''t a good thing and didn''t want to test his luck so he started running away. He started to develop a slight fear when he was running and giant quaking steps came nearer and nearer behind him. But Ullr was stable mentally so when he realized that he couldn''t escape this construct he just stopped and let the darkness of death embrace him as he was stepped on repeatedly by the colossus... 67 Judgmen The Colossus ran away but John was still standing there Dark energy around him still growing in intensity, it was like a new evil God was about to be created. Olaf couldn''t hide his worry and the hope that Erika would hurry up to bring claire to them. He tried to reach John but the dark force repelled him. Several minutes went by and the grass around John was withering away, but fortunately, Erika and claire came running. Erika stayed next to Olaf but Claire kept on running, tears started flowing down her cheeks when she saw John. Claire reached the dark force but was also stopped like Olaf was before, she started hammering her fists against it to reach John. But the barrier wouldn''t budge, she yelled Johns''s name but her voice couldn''t reach him. Claire fell to her knees in despair as she couldn''t reach him, she then took out a knife cut her hand and rubbed the flowing blood on the barrier and started praying that some being helped, John. Suddenly dark clouds gathered lightning fell near them filled with silver light. A holy presence emerged, a Goddess clad in silver armor stood tall in front of them. Silver Hair flowed down from her head over her shoulder to her hips. Her Armor fully out of metal plates accentuated her feminine figure while offering perfect protection everything in silver with some Sapphires. A silver headband was covering her eyes but her white shining eyes were glowing through it. Six sapphire-colored angel wings were on her back. She wielded a giant two-handed hammer filled with engravings and carvings that an expert filled with something like liquid sapphire. Olaf, Erika, and Claire couldn''t see her lips move but they all heard a voice in their head. "I am Aetheria Goddess of judgment. I heard your prayer child, but first, let me get rid of that unsightly taint that rots the world!" Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Aetheria moved her arm and another lightning struck down hitting the dark barrier which shattered under the holy force and John fell down on his knees. Everyone calmed down when they saw John and Claire wanted to thank Aetheria when suddenly angels emerged and grabbed John and chained him to silver wall that was now floating over the ground. Aetheria''s Hammer shattered and turned to a giant throne were Aetheria sat down. Claire who couldn''t just watch how John was treated yelled at the goddess. But Aetheria answered smiling: "Peace my childe, this evil being stands on trial before me. We shall see if it has to be eradicated." Claire lost all color in her face and went silent. Aetheria continued: "The trial shall begin..." 68 The trial John chained to a holy board, watched by the goddess Aetheria just woke up from his trance, he remembered his unending anger and how he created an automata but after that, he couldn''t remember what happened. He somehow remembered hearing Claire''s voice but that couldn''t be possible. But he was surprised when he saw Claire crying on her knees begging the giant silver armored woman to release him. He felt like a knot inside him was loosened, but now he wanted to know what was happening, but just as he wanted to ask he heard the giant woman speak. "The trial shall start, I Aetheria goddess of Judgment will serve as the judge. State your name!" John was quite perplexed because he didn''t expect to meet a goddess someday even though it''s only in the game. But he quickly answered and thought it would be appropriate to tell her his whole title. "Greetings Goddess, my name is Chrome ruler of the Kingdom of Bronzehell, and the demon lord and ruler of all demons. And through some twists of fate, I am also a Saint!" John thought he told her everything as polite and truthful as possible but suddenly Aetheria started Yelling at him. " I shall not tolerate such blatant lies in my court! You are clearly not a demon lord but a devil, one of the most evil existences there is. And even though I wanted to believe that it wasn''t possible that such an evil creature also takes up the position of a Saint but your Aurra doesn''t lie, you are a saint. But that makes your crimes even more severe." John was surprised when he heard the devil part so he checked his notifications. "Dark energy is gathering in your body..." "Your demonic energy is converted..." "Evolving...Evolution to Devil complete..." "Ability " Devils contract" unlocked" "further evolution interrupted by holy energy..." Devils Contract Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Rank special Unique ability The inherent Ability of a devil. If a contract is established both parties are bound by that contract. The more exact the terms of the contract are defined the more binding it is. If the terms a loosely defined you can use loopholes to work around the contract. But John was more interested in what his crimes are so he asked the goddess. Aetheria answered: "Your whole existence is a crime in itself but usually we let the mortals deal with you, but you are also the Saint which makes it hard for the mortals to deal with you but we let it slide as we usually don''t meddle with the realms of the mortals but now you created a semi godlike being that is evil to the core and nobody can control it. We can''t risk it that you create more demigods or worse godlike beings when you reach the next evolution!" "My existence is a crime? I never did anything that confirms that statement! Every citizen under my rule had the opportunity to leave the country but they all chose to stay with me and they chose to become demons! But you are right it was a lapse in judgment on my side when I created that Angersteel Colossus and I am very sorry for that." John said. "As I said we gods don''t care for your kingdom as we let the mortals decide who would rule them, but that colossus and your ability to create the colossi leave me no other choice, I have to judge you guilty," Aetheria said with a solemn face. "NOOOO don''t judge him. It was all my fault, please I take his punishment!" Claire cried. The goddess turned her head and looked at Claire, Olaf and Erika, and said: "I feel his blood running through you, my angels also tell me that you all have a crafting area you excel at. So you also leave me no other choice as to treat you as his accomplices and erase all of your existences." Claire once again fell on her knees crying and Erika and Olaf rushed to her side holding her while both of them had a dark expression on their faces. When John heard the goddess''s verdict and saw his friend''s anger once again overcame him. But this time no darkness was involved only the pure and Holy rage you feel when your family is hurt and you want to defend them. Suddenly something Ancient was awoken inside of John... 69 Contract with a God John felt some ancient power inside him and didn''t know what would happen when suddenly his consciousness left his body and he saw the whole scene as a bystander. He watched how his body suddenly grew in size and ripped the chains that were binding him apart. Aetheria also seemed quite surprised by the sudden changes as she quickly stood up and her throne changed back to her hammer which fell in her hands. But John''s body continued to grow and only stopped when he was slightly bigger than Aetheria. An ancient voice came out of his character''s mouth saying: "A mere lesser goddess dares to challenge a real Titan? You are just a weak descendant of a weak and scared titan that used faith as a substitute for a soul, and if you''ve got no faith left you cease to exist. So how could you even think about judging a real titan?" Aetheria angrily exclaimed: "Judgment is blind, it doesn''t care about who or what was doing evil things!" Aetheria took her hammer and started attacking while John''s body just said: "Then so be it..." A giant hammer appeared in his hand which blocked the goddess''s hammer. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Aetheria''s hammer shattered under the might of a Titan and his soul but put itself back together. Aetheria was breathing heavily while trying to get through the titan''s defense with a barrage of attacks, but he seemed just to play with her as he easily shattered her hammer every time. Shockwaves ran through the air and the bashing sound of their weapons was heard over kilometers away. People living nearby came and saw with shock how two divine beings were fighting as the earth was shaking and crumbling under the combatants. But soon Aetheria was kneeling on the floor panting while holding her arm as her body was littered with bruises and her divine armor was battered beyond recognition while the titan stood tall and strong without any injuries When suddenly a silhouette of light appeared and said: "Please stop honorable Titan this young goddess didn''t know better as she was born after the glorious time of Creation was over. I Balian God of Light seeks your forgiveness on her behalf please state your conditions." "Then let''s make a contract no God shall bother one of my Blood anymore!" The Titan said with an ordering voice. "As you wish..." Balian said as he threw a golden drop of blood onto the magic parchment that emerged midair. The contract was established and Balian took the wounded Aetheria and vanished with a bow while John''s body shrunk in size as his consciousness re-entered his body. As soon as John was back to his normal size he quickly ran to Claire and the others and pulled them in a tight hug... 70 Dungeon of a Devil 1 Beware written depiction of Insect like creatures in some gory actions please read at own risk John and the others went back inside of the dungeon, and Claire and John knew that they would talk about everything that was between them on another day, as everyone was just happy that everything worked out with the Gods. So everyone was back inside but Erika and Olaf said goodbye as the were exhausted by all the things that happened around John, so only Claire and John were left. Both felt embarrassed after their friends left and a long silent time followed so John quickly went to his Workshop while Claire sat down in the Corner to watch him. First John didnt knew what he should craft but then he noticed that he now had up to 6 Floors in his dungeon after his transformation so he needed to populate two more floors. John started Experimenting and made a small frame out of Hollowed Junkling metal pieces and hollowed Gears which he made with slush casting. He first made them completly solid and build a mould around them, then John poured some Metal into the mould and turned it around with his hands so that a thin film of molten Metal covered the whole surface while it solidified creating a perfect hollow replica of the first piece he created. After the frame was finished he started working on some tiny sharp pieces out of silver with a thin hole in them which he added to the Mouth of his creation as fangs. John also created a tiny version of of some bellows out of fabric that he covered in a Rubber like substance to make them waterproof, he added some pipes and a small tank and added them to the creation. John then took some of the leftover "Fire Grass" and put them into the small Tank. To finish his first Dungeon Monster he took some more tighly woven fabric that he made out of mythril fibers and added it to the Wings of his creations, and with that he was finished. Fire-Breathing Vampire Bot Rank Rare Race Artificial Beast A Mechanical Bat made out of Junkling metal that shatters into Shrapnell on hit. Wings out of Metal fabric and hollow bones give it the ability to Fly. This Bat like Creature fight by biting its Prey with razorsharp fangs and sucking Blood into an Internal tank which turns the collected Blood into Liquid fire which the Bot spews onto its enemys. John was satisfied and let the Smithings Bots create some more and started working on another Monster. Once again he created a small Frame out of Metal pieces made by slush casting and added thin Wings out of Stiffened metal Fabric to it so that it reminded him of a Moth, John then added a hollow Adamantite Stinger he submerged into the Metal softening Potion so that Magic could change the form of the stinger. John then started working on a small metal larvae that was able to transform itself into a small ball and eating through flesh. He added the larvaes to the Moth like bot and finished his second creation. Parasitic Moth-Bot Rank Rare Race Artificial Beast A moth-like automata with a stinger, which it uses to plant small flesh eating Larvaes into his Prey. Its lightweight built and the Fabric Wings enable it to fly. Because it was Inspired by moths it is Attracted to light. Parasitic Moth-Bot Larvae Rank Trash Race Artificial Beast A small metal Automata in the form of a Larvae out of Junkling metal. as soon as it is planted into a living creature it starts eating it from the inside which causes bleeding and fear. Now John only needed a Boss for the fifth floor but he thought that the Moth-bots were really evil and he didn¡ät want to overdo it so he just made a bigger moth like creation that couldn¡ät fly because of an big Eggsack on his belly in which he put some small Smithing bots that used Blood and Meat with Fire Grass to heat metal, and made them create Moth-Bots out of Larvaes that brought them Fuel for their work. He also added some sharp mandibles to it to eat ores of the Ground to get the materials for crafting. Parasitic Queen Moth-Bot Rank Epic Race Artificial Beast The Queen of all Moth-bots uses Larvaes that ate some prey to create new moth-bots with new larvaes. Only the thought of that this Monster could exist causes sleepless nights. Due to its weight it can¡ät fly as long as it still has its egg sack. Because it was Inspired by moths it is Attracted to light. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. When John looked at his creations he scratched the back of his head and nearly wanted to scrap everything as he thought that it was to evil for the first time. But he just thought about all the work he put in and how he had to fight the rabbit king he didn¡ät want to fight so he just left the monsters how they were. How transformed the fifth floor into a cave system type of dungeon and wanted to look at the Plague at the beginning of the Floor that gave the Players hints about what was to come. But John was surprised because the whole plaque was pixelated and you couldn¡ät make out a thing. First John thought it was a Bug until he remembered that there was a Censorship feature in the options menu. He wanted to turn it off but stopped just before he pressed Ok and decided that some things better stayed unknown. John tried to distract him from the plaque by going into the dungeon settings and changed the light value inside of the fifth floor to complete darkness. John thought that it was more natural for a cave system. to help the players he quickly created some Lanterns out of steel that were filled with Fire Grass and a Tank. You could fill these with any Biological liquid as fuel so the players could use the blood tanks from the bat-Bots to fill it or use their own blood. John placed these lanterns at the start of the Floor and added a small description to them... 71 Dungeon of a Devil 2 John finished with the Monsters of the fifth floor and Claire had watched him with a soft look in her eyes, she loved how John sunk into his special World when he was crafting. She loved how he struck the metal with his Hammer to form it, his strength and his Creativity when he was creating new Workpieces. Even though she never liked Bats or Insects, to her Johns new creations looked perfect and beautiful. And now he started a new Work and Claire watched him. Claire saw how John took some metal bars which she never saw him use before they were silver white and were handled by him with ease like they were weighing nothing. As she was interested she used appraisal on them. Ghost steel rank rare Ghost steel is created when steel is infused with the energy of people that died in battle. their energy passes through the steel and changed its structure. The created metal is extremely durable but also as light as a feather. Claire was wondering where he got it when she saw scythe walking next to her. She stopped him and asked: "Scythe do you know how Chrome got this Ghost steel?" "Yes Lady Cake we collected it from the battlefield after the kingdom was founded also some was steel laying around in the dungeon storage which was turned from steel that absorbed the energy of the dungeon victims." Scythe answered with a bow. Claire nodded as a sign that she understood and continued observing John. But Claire couldn''t make out what John was doing now, he started with a long thin frame of which he made two. Then he made another frame formed like a cylinder with a flat end on one side. After the he tightly wrapped every frame with some fabric and crafted some round stock with which he connected the two thin frames above each other and connected both of them to the cylindrical body and Claire knew now what John wanted to make so she observed him when he made some smaller frames which he attached to the mainframe, he also added some wheels and a engine made out of gears and a mana crystal. He added a propeller and some scrapchineguns to it and finished was his creation, a biplane. Flying Ghost Rank unique A Biplane created out of Ghost Steel that makes it light and durable. It is weaponized with two scrapchineguns which make it perfect for dog fights. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Scrapchinegun (Ghost Steel variant) rank rare A fast-firing machinegun made out of ghost steel to make it light. It uses Ammunition made out of Junkling metal or special incendiary ammunition filled with fire grass. Every fifth shot is a tracer made out of hardened fluorescent moss. Next, John started working on a humanoid robot made out of cheap materials with good joints and movement to give it a high amount of dexterity. He was kind of into it when he suddenly grabbed several pieces of fabric to sew a pilots overall which he gave to the robot. After John finished the plane and the pilot he started working on a contraption that looked to Claire like it was supposed to be mounted to the ground. First, a rough frame on which two metal plates were added as a shield and then four gun barrels on the front. He designed the mechanics so that the four barrels would fire with a slight delay after each other to give them enough time to cool down. Next, he quickly made some slightly modified scraplings as a flak team. Flakling team Rank unique Race Machine Three flaklings that man a four barreled scrap flak that shoots special junkling bullets that explode after a delay midair or when the hit something. As the flak is immobile it is highly vulnerable by direct fire on it. But John wasn''t finished so Claire watched him when he ordered his minions to make more copies of his creation while he started working on a new frame the same size as him he really looked at the details and the frame slowly formed to a skeleton onto which he added gears and a mana crystal as a heart he also added a mana crystal in the head to give it the ability to learn and also added a mimic Horn to make it able to speak. After the interior was finished he carefully added metal fabric as skin while adding thin wires as hair and gave it some clothes made out of normal fabric which was made to look like a butler''s uniform. When John was finished he looked at a skinnier, more delicate version of himself which reminded him of himself in real life with silver skin and hair. Sebastian Rank Special Race Mechanoid Title Instructor, Butler as the first-ever created Mechanoid Sebastian is highly loyal to his creator. Both as an instructor and as a butler he has exceptional abilities. As a non-combat creation, he is made to teach all visitors of the dungeon that reach the sixth floor how to use the flying ghosts. Claire was perplexed when she saw Sebastian so she didn''t notice Johns''s face when he checked his notifications... 72 A godly bow Some days passed after Ullr''s last try on getting his revenge, he missed a good chance but now he had to think about what he will do. "I need a better bow..." Ullr thought as he reminded himself how his bow broke and caused him to be squashed by the colossus. He heard about several sightings of this colossus and how several players complained when they were killed or their escort target of a quest was killed. They even tried to gather a raid party to bring it down only to be killed by a giant foot, since then some players start shaking when they hear about or see something about soccer. Ullr started thinking about how he could get a new bow when he looked a pile of junkling metal he bought to study it and he had a new idea, he heard of a dwarven master smith that frequented this town and now he wanted the dwarf to make him a bow. As it happens John wanted to walk around in the city this day and once again changed his appearance to the old dwarven smith. He was just leisurely walking through the streets when John was spotted by Ullr when Ullr heard some NPCs talking about John. Ullr stood up and walked to John and said: "Could you possibly the esteemed dwarven Mastersmith? Would you mind making a weapon for me, the prize doesn''t matter as long the weapon is good enough." John felt a little bit challenged by his phrasing when he said that condition that it has to be good enough. As a crafter, he came a long way and developed a little bit of pride so he nodded and heard about the details from Ullr. John needed to make a bow that doesn''t break or bend that is easy to carry and use. He went to the nearest forge and took out several pieces of metal a took a bow from Ullr. John asked him if he had some things he wanted to be changed from the design but Ullr was happy with just a longbow. So John started thinking about his work and entered into the mind of a crafter. When John glanced at Ullr he noticed that every leather-based item was made by the same person a master of his profession. So he asked Ullr if he made them himself and received a nod from Ullr after which he asked Ullr to prepare several leather strips. John looked at the metal bars he prepared and grabbed a piece of adamantite and put it in the forge, while the metal heated up he pulled out some herbs which he quickly mixed into his metal softening potion. John took out the metal and forged a long square bar which he after it was heated up again, clamped it into a vice and twisted it until several spirals formed over the whole piece of metal. Next, he cut off some extra material and started forging once again, he rounded the handle and tapered the ends. He cut a groove on each end of the bow and added some Mythril to it to protect the bowstring. Then John took a small piece of adamantite and put it into the metal softening potion, he injected some mana and pulled the metal into a thin string of several meters which he then braided into the bowstring and attached it to the bow and when he stopped with injecting his mana the metal wanted retract into its original form Nd pulled the bow into the typical curved bow shape. Just at that time, Ullr came with the leather strips so John took them and glued them around the handle, he took a step back and looked at his work. "Jagen" Rank mythical Indestructible A mystical Bow made by a Craftsmaster. It is made completely out of adamantite which makes it indestructible. The braided adamantite bowstring makes the bow so strong that no Human will ever pull it and no shield will ever stop an arrow fired by this bow. The leather-binding around the handle was made by a master and make the handling of this weapon easier. John nodded and gave the bow to Ullr with a smug look on his face. Ullr grabbed it went outside and tried to pull the bow his muscles flexed and his joints were aching but he managed to pull it, even his strength parameter received a tremendous growth. When Ullr reached his full draw he let go and watched in timelapse how his arrow disintegrated and a giant shockwave flew away from his bow which eradicated several trees and the hit something out of metal that was lying on the ground and pulled it with the shockwave several kilometers away. Ullr thought he heard someone or something scream "SCRAAAPPP..." but he must have imagined it. Ullr was impressed by this bow he still needed practice and new arrows but he still wanted to thank the dwarf but when he turned around he couldn''t find him anymore just an angry mob with torches and pitchforks... Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. 73 Test of mental Strength Ullr was still training with his new bow but he found a new way to shoot, he discovered that when he clad his right hand in a tiny amount of mana he could easily pull the bowstring to a full draw, the shot was weaker but he could use it in battle. But Ullr knew that even if he just got a new bow that it won''t be enough to get through the dungeon to kill that guy. Ullr contacted several players that went into the dungeon before to get more information, he was surprised when he found out that no one even cleared the second floor yet and nobody knew how many floors there were. After talking for a while Ullr thanked the players and decided that he had to see this dungeon with his own eyes. Ullr just bought some more equipment and ventured into the first floor of the dungeon. As described he found the wall carving that pictures what enemies he will encounter, but as he knew already what the enemies on this floor are he ignored it. Ullr even brought a map that other players created to lead him through this floor and just as he took the third turn he heard some silent metallic noise, out of reflex he pulled out his bow and shot at the source that was 50 meters away and hit it. Thanks to his bow and his new iron arrows he destroyed a small junkling without being touched by the shrapnel. But Ullr couldn''t relax just yet because he heard many metal feet run in his direction so he quickly turned around and ran until he found a long stretched corridor where the Junklings could only come from one side. He quickly pulled out a special strengthened arrow out of his quiver and pulled his bow to a full draw without mana assistance. Then he waited until the junklings were just several meters away from him and let the arrow go. Once again a loud booming sound was created and all the junklings were basically turned to dust while the arrow embedded itself into the wall without hope for recovery. Ullr was once again surprised by his bow even though he always heard a ringing sound after he shot it from the supersonic boom. But Ullr had no time to waste he quickly sprinted to the boss room pulled out an arrow and shot his arrow at the boss while jumping over some scraplings that wanted to stop him. The Arrow flew and shattered the head and the should of the smithing bot and the boss died. Ullr cleared the first floor in record time. But Ullr knew that couldn''t let his guard down as the following floors will only get harder. He descended the stairs and started walking through the labyrinth the map he had wasn''t as accurate as the one from the first floor as many players died on the first floor. Suddenly when he was just checking his map he felt a pull on his left side and saw how a small robot grabbed some Arrows and ran away but it just reached several meters away before an arrow impaled it and nailed it to the ground. Ullr cursed and quickly grabbed his stolen arrows and kept walking deeper into the dungeon. He repeatedly saw metal walls but he knew that most of them were dungeon monsters so he was especially careful when he walked by them. Ullr even got a weak poisoning after he stepped in a hole filled with mercury but his reflexes saved him before anything bad happened so he just had to take an antidote. But soon he met his first real enemy in this dungeon, an Automata that is shaped like a demon, the main force of the army of the demonlord. Ullr quickly shot an arrow but the automata blocked it with its shield, while it fired its own crossbow. Ullr tried to evade it but he was still grazed by the crossbow bolt, he knew he had only one chance, Ullr ran to the Automata and tried to evade everything that was fired at him which still caused some more bleeding cuts but as soon as he was near the automata he suddenly jumped on the ground slid between the two legs of the Automata turned around and fired his bow, pierced the armor a hit the delicate mechanical parts. For a short time, everything was quiet the automata struggled to turn around but soon fell down to the ground defeated. Ullr knew that he had to hurry up as he wasn''t sure if he could defeat another one of those bots, but he promised his brother some robot parts. So Ullr quickly chopped off some limbs and put them in his inventory. Ullr ventured and quickly ran until he came to the boss room, and there he saw it a robot so strong that it has yet to be defeated, you could hear some high-pitched noise when it spun up the three barrels of his deadly gun. The floor was littered with corpses or what was left of them after the boss made some disfigured piles of flesh out of them with its weapon. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Even Ullr had no specific plan on how he would deal with it, he pulled another strengthened arrow out and ran in the direction of the boss to be in a range that ensures that he would hit. But as soon as he reached the range of the boss it spun up its barrels and started firing. Ullr stopped moving brought the bow to a full draw without the assistance of mana bullets whistled through the air nearly hitting him as the boss didn''t have a precise aim. Ullr aimed but just when he wanted to let go a bullet hit his shoulder the bow turned away from the boss and Ullr missed he could just curse before his vision turned black when he was hit by another bullet in the chest. Ullr''s vision returned and he was inside the colossal metal temple that was built for an unknown God, he knelt down worshipped him like everyone else and logged off. He was itching to try it again, but he knew that he would end like his brother if he did that... All that happened while John was still pondering about the notifications he got when he finished Sebastian... 74 Robison Scrappy Scrappy was once again searching for some new scrap he could scrounge of the ground. He was following the master in hope that he once again gets provoked into a war. If Scrappy would be a living creature then you could fill lakes because his mouth would be watering by the sheer thought of the massive piles of scrap a war like this would produce. But his master just created a weapon for this leather guy but still, Scrappy could collect some scrap parts from his master''s workpiece even out of adamantite no less. Scrappy put it into his backpack and went outside and started looking around, he grabbed a door hinge here, a knife there. He even found out that people were carrying small bags of scrap metal around on their hips filled with gold, silver, and copper scrap pieces, so he cut them open with his new tin snips and collected them. Scrappy heard some yells behind him and that the people must be celebrating after he took their useless scrap from them. Scrappy came to an archery range and spotted his master and the leather guy and wanted to go to them but he saw a tiny shiny piece of scrap laying on the ground but just as wanted to pick it up a storm took him with it over the horizon he could just yell: "SCRAAAPP..." Scrappy flew very far he saw land and sea moving under him, he flew over the biggest lake he has ever seen he thought about the piles of scrap that could lie at the bottom of this giant lake so he started to wiggle and wanted to reach it but even though his flying height was lowering over time he still flew for half an hour before he landed on a beach of a small island. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Scrappy looked around always in search for the next pile of scrap, but he couldn''t find any. He looked around the island but his mana core nearly broke down when he didn''t find any. He started to feel a weird unbearable urge to find scrap washed over his body. Scrappy started running and digging random holes in the ground when a giant panther sneaked up to him because it thought that it gets an easy meal. But suddenly the panther shivered when he saw the look in scrappy''s eyes when he spotted the beast. Both looked at each other and the panther followed Scrappy''s scary look to his shoulder where an arrow stuck that came from a human that landed on this island several years ago. But now Scrappy saw this arrow and thought that there was always a tiny amount of scrap on the other end of this feathered stick. The panther woke up from the shock of Scrappy''s look decided to run but what it didn''t expect was the small shiny robot that started chasing it like a dehydrated being chased an oasis. A painful howling was heard on the whole island when Scrappy reached the panther and cut out the arrow. The panther lying on the ground thinking that it couldn''t get any worse didn''t knew that true terror was around the corner when Scrappy looked at the arrow tip only to find a sharp pointy stone attached to it. The panther whimpered when it saw the new look on Scrappy''s face and several mournful cries were heard that day before the panther the king of this island died while Scrappy searched in his body for scrap. Several hours later scrappy that was now dyed in red was digging for scrap once again, he didn''t find anything inside of the panther but the urge for scrap was getting bigger and bigger. When Scrappy stopped digging several hours went by but he had an idea. if he couldn''t find scrap on land then maybe he could find something underwater. Scrappy rushed back to the beach and started walking in circles around the island that were getting bigger and bigger, at first only his feet were soaked in water but soon he had over ten meters of water above him. While he was looking for scrap underwater fish came several times to try to eat them. At first, only small fish came and broke their teeth when they nibbled on him. But as Scrappy got deeper the fish became bigger and bigger and soon a fish swallowed him whole. But Scrappy just used his tin snips and freed himself with some well-placed cuts and continued looking for scrap. Several hours later Scrappy was laying on the beach having a strange feeling besides his urge to find scrap, a feeling that soon everything was over, the feeling that the urge that plagues him will soon devour him. But Scrappy couldn''t give up just like that. if he couldn''t get his hands on some scrap had had to find the second-best thing. Scrappy once again ran around the island and collected many pieces of rock with special color or slight amounts of metal shining through, he did the same on the ocean floor when he suddenly saw a tree that he cut down in his search for scrap rolled into the water and floated. Scrappy thought about his master and how much scrap could be collected if he got back to him. Scrappy cut down some more trees and used everything he could find to connect them, the pelt of the panther, strong fish bones as nails and built a primitive raft. Scrappy got on it and his mighty quest for Epic Scrap continued... 75 Ullrs second try John took a break from the game today, he still thought about the notifications he got after he finished Sebastian. "You''ve created a new race! You can set up a starting area for this race!" "You''ve started a secret questline!" John didn''t know what to do, should set up the starting area? What is that secret questline? He kept walking through the town thinking about it... ...Ullr was walking through the capital of the kingdom his brother took over, be named it supremacy. Ullr felt a strange gloomy aura floating around when he entered the city and he saw surprisingly few non-human races. Many people stared at him with a cold glare but nobody dared to talk to him, probably because he emitted aa strong energy aura thanks to his high-demon status. The whole kingdom seemed to have changed to the worse Ullr thought to himself as he decided to leave the kingdom as fast as possible. Ullr came to Palace gates and luckily he messaged his brother beforehand so a servant was waiting for him and took him to the king''s office. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "AAAHHH my dear brother what brings you into my lovely abode?" Mephisto said while he pulled Ullr in a one-sided hug. Ullr looked at his brother with disgust and just took out the robot part he got from the demonlike Automata and threw it onto to table. Mephisto turned around and stroked the metal parts seductively with his fingers while saying: "I hear that you too failed to beat the second floor of that wretched place...well I could give you some ideas on how to beat it...for a small favor from your side of course." Ullr didn''t want to work with his brother but he had no idea how he should beat the second floor without massive amounts of luck, so he just said: "What do you want now?!" "Ohhh nothing too special let''s call it samples from the enemies of the following floors of the dungeon...that should be no problem for you right? I even through something extra if you bring me a functioning sample." Mephisto said while still stroking the metal pieces on his desk. Ullr really didn''t want to do his brother this favor but he still accepted and his brother said: "Fantastic...you see...you have the problem that every shield you use to defend against the junk bullets of that wretched machine is broken nearly instantly...well what about you do what people did in real life. In world war one the tanks that were used on the battlefield were rather blocky, but as soon as anti-tank weaponry was developed they discovered that ninety-degree angles weren''t good as armor so they angled it to deflect bullets instead of stopping them..." Ullr knew that his brother was right but he quickly left to get away from this freak. He went back to the dungeon after he bought several tower shields and quickly cleared the first floor just to test if he could deflect the shrapnel with an angled shield which worked flawlessly. Back on the second floor, Ullr fought his way to the boss room. This time he came across three demon shaped bots and even though he was slightly injured once again the fights we''re easier as he knew what he was up against. He reached the boss room and quickly pulled out two tower shields and he turtled down on the ground and with the shields having a sharp angle facing forward he started crawling forward in the direction of the scrapling gunner. He heard how the boss''s weapon spun up and fired a tremendous amount of bullets in his direction. Ullr flinched several times when the bullets hit his shields and made a ringing sound when they were deflected away from him. Everything seemed to work even though he was still slightly injured by some shrapnel hitting him from behind. He soon reached the boss and quickly finished it as it couldn''t Dodge because it was anchored to the ground. Ullr took his loot and ventured on to the next floor... ...while this was happening, John was having lunch with Claire for the first time since their fight. At first, it was awkward because nobody talked until John suddenly started talking. He told Claire how he felt when they fought and about what happened in the workshop while she was away. And told her about how he needs her because she brings out the best out of him just like his brother. Claire replied nothing so John kept talking until he told her about the notification that he created a new race and the hidden questline of which he knew nothing about. Then Claire wrote something on her whiteboard. She told him that he shouldn''t be bothered by the hidden quest as he didn''t know what to do anyway and that if he could create a new race out of nothing then maybe he should just give it to the world and he wouldn''t have to think about it anymore. After this conversation silence followed both of them are their food paid and went back home to start the game. Everything seemed easier in the game world so it was easier for both of them to meet each other in-game as they could talk about everything there. John thought about what Claire said and followed her advice. He grabbed some Mythril and adamantite created an alloy out of them and quickly crafted a smithing bot out of that, then he ordered some of his robots to carry it and install it in the temple they made for him, he thought that he at least gave the building a purpose now... Shortly after a world announcement reached every player "The New Race Mechanoid was created and can now be selected in the Character creation screen" Mechanoid Highly customizable race which can be specialized by installing special parts onto the body or using better materials for the body. Highly resistant to status changes and weak attacks. Can''t be healed only repaired. 76 Dark Times Erika was walking around in the capital of Bronzehell accompanied by her squad of red demon-like robots. Everywhere she went NPC''s were treating her with respect and Players looked at her with awe, some of the braver Players tried to ask her for some of her blood to ascend their demonic bloodline. She then patiently stopped and let one of her guards fight against the Player that asked. Most of the time the fight was finished withing seconds with her guard winning, but sometimes she found some Stronger Players that didn''t go down immediately but fought a prolonged time with the robot. When that happened Erika''s lust for battle kicked in and she took over the battle from the robot and traded some blows with the player which literally ended every battle with a bang and a flying player. But if Erika entered the battle then she would always give out a small vial of her thinned down blood to help them ascend their bloodline. But today something seemed different, the noise of a bustling city was quieter than usual, depressed faces and people in rags filled the streets. Erika knew what these signs meant another war was upon them and dark times would follow. She remembered her childhood filled with carnage and destruction, the hunger moving her through the alleys and the neverending pain that lost family members leave inside of you. All these things were dark omens foreboding the creation of the darkest of all governments based on social Darwinism. Something she fought her whole life to eradicate was now coming back in this game, but this time she was ready! This time she had friends that shared her burden. Erika would do everything that it takes to end this madness. When she finally found her resolve she yelled: Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "Everyone dark times are upon us, war is upon us! But we have time to prepare, built more houses, built defenses. No refugee shall sleep under the stars. Let''s defend the most important things that were given to us...OUR FREEDOM...and...OUR DIGNITY!" Her words flew through the streets and nobody dared to speak, and when the people looked at the blood-red figure of Erika they didn''t see an Apostle of death clad in blood. They the Sun crawling over the horizon as a new day dawns in red light, reminding them that no matter how long the dark times will prolong there will always be light afterward... ... And Erika was right dark times were upon them Mephisto still had weak political power over his kingdom but to secure his standing he condemned all nonhuman races as weak and unworthy, he declared that the humans were the supreme race and any other race should be eradicated or enslaved. At first, the nonhumans laughed about the King but soon thousands of people fled from the kingdom after laws were passed that allowed the humans to do anything to nonhumans, many were raped, tortured, robbed or killed. Some villages were even eradicated. Even other humans were hanged when the tried to protect their nonhuman friends. Many lives were destroyed during those times. The dark omens could be seen by those that were familiar with them, but nobody expected that this war that was about to break out in this game would later be found in textbooks and taught at school after the AIs became a normal part of life and real citizens of the real world... ...Scrappy was several days on sea already he found new islands and found new things that he had to identify as scrap. He felt like dying before he did that. He collected some more ore, took some herbs too and even killed another beast and took its hide. After that, he chopped down some more trees and reinforced his raft and carried on to find a way back home to the massive amounts of scrap that were waiting for him because who would collect them if he wasn''t there? While he was sailing his raft he put all his scrap in a small compartment he created inside of the raft. Suddenly after several hours, the raft ran aground, Scrappy was back on the main Continent. He left the raft to look around and was spotted by some humans that used scrap as clothes and wielded sticks with scrap attached to It. Scrappy felt like he was in heaven, he started sprinting only the scrap in his eyes when suddenly a net was thrown over him and he couldn''t move anymore. The humans took him with them and brought scrappy to a city which must have a mouthwatering amount of scrap inside. He was brought to a giant stone building before a pale human clad in a blue gown and full of golden scrap. When the man saw Scrappy he quickly walked over and said while seductively stroking scrappy''s body: "Fantastic...this form...this color...this functionality. The soldiers that found it shall be rewarded handsomely." As he was stroked by this human Scrappy felt that he didn''t want the scrap the man was wearing anymore, it seemed tainted to him and he just wanted to get away from this human... 77 The Third Floor Ullr was standing before the stairwell leading to the third floor and was hesitating. He came further than any other Player that tried beating this dungeon, but now he had no information of what was to come. Ullr steeled his resolve and went down the stairs, he stopped in front of the mosaic and studied it carefully. Ullr was surprised when he didn''t see any humanoid figures and that didn''t give him a good feeling. If something was similar to you, you know how it can move but if it''s different then it becomes unpredictable and dangerous in a fight. He saw small animal shape figures on the mosaic that had strange green teeth, also there were scorpion and/or spiderlike figures pictured. But the strangest part about the mosaic was that some of the animal-shaped ones seemed to get eaten by the scorpions and spiders. Ullr knew that this dungeon floor would be far from easy to clear but he had to get justice for his brother and punish the creator of this wretched place. And so Ullr went inside on his first try to clear the third floor of the "Mausoleum of Titans": "3.Mechxia''s Nest" When Ullr read the name of the floor he once again had a bad feeling but he still carried on. This part of the dungeon was still built like a labyrinth but it also had parts were it was heavily damaged and to a cave-like appearance, but what probably was to most eye-catching factor that was different to the first and second floor were parts of big spider webs made completely out of metal. Also, Ullr saw mushrooms growing on this floor but most of them had strange marks on them like something small nibbled on them. That was when Ullr suddenly felt a sharp sting on his ankle, he looked down and saw a metallic rat biting him. As he knew the twisted thinking of the dungeon master Ullr didn''t kill the rat out of reflex but calmed down after which he quickly grabbed it and threw it as hard as he could on a wall that was several meters away, and he guessed right the rat shattered on impact and showered several meters around the wall with shrapnel which fortunately didn''t reach Ullr. Ullr wanted to continue when his leg suddenly lost all strength and his vision started to get hazy, he quickly downed some antidote but before he was fully recovered several new mechanical rats ran towards him with sharp blinking teeth. Ullr knew that this was a lost battle so he closed his eyes and accepted his fate... ...John once again in dwarven disguise looked after the states of one of his city''s. He didn''t want to believe it when Erika told him about the refugees but now he saw it first hand so he bowed down to the child that was walking with him and said: "Actor see that every refugee is getting shelter and food and ask Erika what we have to prepare for the worst case of another war with us as the defenders!" "Yes my Lord!" The child said in a voice that neither sounded young nor old as he vanished into the shadows. John then wanted to go back when a large familiar silhouette clad in leather armor came out of the Temple... ...Ullr just respawned and showed his respect to the unknown gods of this temple after which he went outside only to meet the old dwarf that made his bow. Ullr greeted the dwarf with a smile and said with a laugh: "Hey there friend, the bow you made for me is splendid but you still owe me a drink for leaving me alone with the angry villagers and their pitchforks." The dwarf started laughing too and agreed to have a drink together. They went to the nearest tavern and were greeted with a warm cozy room filled with laughing people. Both of them found a place to sit in the corner of the room and the waitress, a female Elf in a long brown dress with a white apron, placed a hearty meal and Mug of beer in front of each of them without the need of any talking by them. Both enjoyed the bustling feeling of life this tavern gave them while they were eating and drinking. Both of them talked and talked and talked while being accompanied by the beer that the Elf waitress was always refilling. They weren''t talking about important stuff because basically, they were two strangers drinking together but to them, it felt like the most important conversation of their lives. Both of them found something that they never had in their life before, a best friend. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Ullr never had a real friend because everyone he met was either interested in his family''s wealth or was an arrogant prick. And John never was popular in school because either people would stay away from him to not get affected by his bad luck or they bullied him, he liked Olaf and he would call Olaf a friend but to John, Olaf fit into the role of an honorary grandpa better. The hour was getting late and both of them already had a sore throat from talking so they decided to end it for today. Both of them paid their bill and left the tavern but just before they said goodbye, Ullr said: "Hey I might need your expertise in smithing again sometime let us add each other as friends, what''s your name by the way?" John had not thought of a name for his disguise so he said the first thing that came to his mind: "My name is Schmied, and maybe we can go drinking sometime again." "Pseudonym "Schmied" registered" John heard the system say in his head. Both added each other to their friend list and went their way knowing that they would meet each other again soon... 78 Scrappys long way home Scrappy was sitting in a small cage, he wanted to cut it up and collect this piece of scrap but this strange man came looking for him all the time. Scrappy was starting to feel happy about the cage between him and the strange man that just went around the cage and started giggling and lovingly touching the cage. Also, some other people came the looked different than the strange person wearing neat clothing with many pockets filled with tools and notes. They were looking at scrappy and writing something on their note lock, they were so focused that scrappy even achieved to snatch some pieces of scrap out of their pockets. But scrappy had to find a way out and secure his collected scrap from his journey. He cut the door bolt of his cage and went outside he sneaked around and was in awe of the amount of scrap this place had. Scrap statues standing there for the taking, pointy scrap parts hanging on the wall and round scrap objects that some imbecile filled with dead plants, what a waste scrap thought. But Scrappy knew that he couldn''t collect anything yet as he had to find a way out. But as he was searching for some time already he went back into the cage before he was found by that strange guy, naturally, with a tiny bit of scrap, he collected on the way back. Several days went by like this and no one noticed the little bot wandering through the palace. The Strange man wasn''t looking for him as often as before but Scrappy started hearing painful cries shortly after he was captured so he thought that this strange man must have found a new plaything. Some more days of exploration and scrap collecting went by and Scrappy found a place on earth that must be the closest thing to being paradise, he was exploring as usual when he suddenly found a giant door entirely made out of the yellowish shiny scrap the humans like so much, and when he opened it Scrappy saw a giant room filled with an ocean of scrap. He nearly couldn''t control himself, he knew he had to go away or else he couldn''t leave anymore. Scrappy just took a fast dip in the ocean and only took some small scrap pieces with strange colors. Scrappy then quickly left the room even though his mana crystal nearly shattered when he thought about all the scrap he had to leave behind. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. At last, it was finally time for Scrappy to leave this place, so he quickly grabbed his loot and also cut up the cage to take it with him. Scrappy then quickly went to the room that belonged to the strange man, he found it two days ago but now he quickly walked up to the bed and as expected the strange man was sleeping in it. Scrappy quickly walked over and cut and collected the scrap pieces the man was wearing, at first Scrappy thought that he didn''t want them but then he remembered the times with a shortage of scrap and knew that no scrap was to be wasted and not collected. After he was done, Scrappy quickly left the building and ran out of the city, he saw a carriage transporting those scaly thingy''s that he saw in the water so scrappy followed the road the carriage was coming from until he came back to the sea. He followed the sand strip even though his joints started aching until he reached his makeshift raft. He hurriedly collected his Scrap from the islands and went back to a seaside village. He looked around and tried to find out where he would find the way home. Scrappy that was stuffing a small piece of scrap, that he found attached to a piece of wood with a string eaten by one of those scaly things, in his bucket heard how two people were discussing about the filthy demon nation, while even pointing in a direction. Scrappy quickly went that way and started his long way back home... ...Ullr was still stuck on the third floor, the rats were just too small and many to see them all before he could be bitten. But Ullr couldn''t give up, he even pulled some more players through the second floor but all of them gave up after seeing the third-floor monsters. The only thing Ullr accomplished was the favor for his brother he used a mousetrap that could catch them alive and sent the obtained rat to his brother. Ullr knew that he could demand additional compensation from his brother but he didn''t want to meet him if it was not required. Ullr died several times already but he gave himself an appropriate amount of time to recover his mental state. He also went drinking with Schmied several times this week but Ullr knew that he had to ask him for another favor... ...John and Olaf were working on some basic Steel swords when got a message from Ullr who asked him to meet him again and John agreed to meet him tomorrow. Forging Swords was still a strange experience for John, all the time he made complicated machinery and now he made some steel swords for his citizens to defend themselves in the upcoming war. Olaf was even smacking his head when he made a mistake or created an item with a quality that was too high. Even though it hurt when Olaf hit him, John enjoyed the time he spent with Olaf even though he didn''t understand why he was hit when the quality was too good until Olaf told him that if it''s too high his populace wouldn''t be able to use them anymore. So both of them worked for the whole evening and created dozens of swords together... 79 A favor from Ullr John promised Ullr to meet with as Ullr wanted to ask for a favor. He went to their usual tavern and saw Ullr already sitting on their table. The elven waitress quickly brought another Mug of beer and Ullr started speaking: " Hello my Friend, I''m sorry for asking for another favor but I''ve got no other choice. You see I have a brother that plays this game too, but recently he got in trouble with another player that likes to torture his victims with all sorts of despicable means. I wanted to punish this player. But be uses some kind of ambushes that focus on our feet to poison us. So I wanted to ask if you could make me some metal greaves to protect them?" Ullr felt bad lying to his friend but he couldn''t risk that Schmied said that he would join him to this hellhole of a dungeon. John was fired up when he heard that Ullr was doing all this for his brother as John too had a brother that he cherished dearly, so much even that he rather lived in poverty and debt instead of asking his brother help, he should''ve lived a long and fulfilled life. John put down the beer, paid their bill and grabbed Ullr and dragged him to the forge. He told Ullr to make some leather boots out of the best material he had. As Ullr was quite skilled in leathercrafting he was finished quickly and handed over the final product to Schmied. John grabbed them and used them as the core and started heating several pieces of metal. John only experimented with it before but now he felt was the right time to use it "Reality forging" the skill he got after his Hammer "Erinnerung" became his soul. John tossed the first boot and a piece of white hit adamantite up in the air and started forging midair with a dark blue luster shining from his hammer. With every strike, the metal seemed to flow around the boot like water. When John was finished with the first boot he did the same with the second one, Ullr could only watch in awe as John was forging like a good. When both boots were finished, John put them in a bath of his metal softening potion while giving Ullr two mana cores and told him: "Use your blood and mana to bind them to you!" Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Ullr quickly grabbed them and did as he was said while John already grabbed another piece of metal. He started working on extra armor plating for the greaves and let these pieces look like rough pieces of bark from an old giant tree that is touching the sky year after year never dying, never falling and with unlimited patience. After every piece was finished he pulled out the Boots out of the potion and attached the armor pieces with quick and precise movements. After that, he grabbed the mana core which changed their colors to a light green like the color of a grassland after rain in spring pulsating with life and added one to each of the boots to finish them. When John added the crystals the metal started to change its color to a dark moss green. Brother''s Love Rank Mythical A pair of greaves made with the love only brothers could comprehend. As the core, the finest leather boots made out of the hide from the King of the forest were used. Onto these magnificent boots, a layer of adamantite was added by a magnificent craftsman with a technique that could only be used by those that have forging in their blood and soul. This second layer was bathed in a potion to makes it flexible and comfortable to wear when Mana is induced. Further armor plates in the style of an ancient tree were added and Mana crystals bound to the wearer provide the mana needed by the flexible metal layer. Ullr was in awe when he inspected the greaves and said to Schmied: "Once again you completely crushed my expectations with a work of art that is better than I could ever have imagined it to be. I know it is rude to ask about the real-life but one day you have to tell me about your brother when your feelings for him enables you to craft something like this." John answered in a low voice: "Yes...maybe one day... I will tell you about him." ...Scrappy was walking for several days now but it seemed like he was lost. He was now on some high mountains and it has been days since he last found some scrap and his core started aching every time he thought about the massive piles of scrap he left behind in the building of that weirdo. But he had to carry on as only scrap that was delivered back home was good scrap. But it started snowing and Scrappy knew that he had to find shelter or else his scrap might get dirtied by too much snow, so he looked around and found a big cave which he quickly entered. And Scrappy couldn''t believe his eyes when he saw a pile of golden scrap just lying around. He put down his bucket and quickly ran over when suddenly a growling sound shook the cave and a pillar of fire lashed through the air. Scrappy could just observe how his bucket was hit by white flames. Scrappy was devasted as soon as the pillar of fire stopped he ran back to his bucket, completely ignoring a dark red fire dragon, only to find all of its contents were molten into one mess. Scrappy''s vision turned bright red and the dragon that was used to his unbeatable strength felt that something was wrong. A dark aura grew around Scrappy and painful howl echoing through the mountains was the only thing that could be heard on that day... 80 Mechxia the Broodmother Ullr was preparing for several days now, he had to get used to the weight of his new greaves Schmied made for him and prepare other supplies like antidotes. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Also, Ullr was concerned as he didn''t see any other monsters yet except these rat-bots. But he had to try again because his brother seemed to recuperate slowly and he wanted to help him by clearing the dungeon before he comes back to the game. He even thought about taking other players with him to make it easier but of those that would join him none were dependable or skilled enough to be of help. So Ullr descended to the third floor alone again. Ullr once again encountered several rat-bots but as he got used to them only a few achieved to reach him and because he got the new greaves they weren''t able to hurt and poison him. Slowly Ullr entered deeper parts of this floor when he suddenly heard a new clicking sound. Out of reflex, he jumped forward only to hear a splashing sound of a gooey liquid on the ground. He turned around and saw a white goo that was fuming with a slightly greenish vapor. Ullr guessed that the liquid was poisonous but he was still surprised when a rat-bot that tried to run to him got stuck on the liquid like it was some kind of glue. But Ullr didn''t have much time to think about his discovery because a metal stinger suddenly impaled the rat-bot! Ullr now saw how a big scorpion-like robot slowly made its way into his direction so Ullr quickly grabbed a shield and once again took a step back. Ullr knew that this would be a hard fight when he looked at the sharp pincers and the deadly stinger with the poisonous glue. First Ullr had to find out the range of his enemy and how fast it could move. Even though it was dangerous he slowly moved forward when suddenly the Scorpion sprayed another load of adhesive at him which he barely evaded with another leap, but just as he was recovering his balance after this leap a pincer move forward and attacked him. Ullr only just managed to get his shield between himself and the pincer which resulted in a heavily damaged shield but he wasn''t hurt. He once again retreated some steps back and looked at his shield, the pincer did cut through it like a hot knife through butter which resulted in a big gash over the whole length of the shield but it was still usable. Ullr now had some ideas about the capabilities of his enemy and formulated a plan. Afterward, he ran in the direction of the scorpion waiting for the right moment. As he was running the scorpion once again tried to hit Ullr with the glue, but he was expecting it and catches most of the glue with his damaged shield while evading the rest. Ullr still was getting nearer to the scorpion waiting for the next attack. Once again a metal pincer was moving towards him and again he let it cut his shield, but this the collected glue was smeared onto the pincer which wasn''t able to open anymore after that. Ullr quickly chopped the stinger off with his ax that he used as a melee weapon and jumped away after that. Ullr knew that he had won this fight when suddenly the scorpion turned around and ran away, he followed it with several meters distance between them until Ullr heard a crunching sound after the scorpion went around a corner. Ullr slowed down and looked around the corner... ...and there he saw it, the boss of this floor. Something that would fuel many nightmares for people with arachnophobia, a giant metal spider munching on remains that looked liked they belonged to the scorpion Ullr was following. But that was not all when Ullr looked around he saw several corpses of rat-bots and scorpions lying around that were half-eaten. Ullr guessed that he was standing before Mechxia when he heard a thumping sound for which he couldn''t find the source. Ullr once again looked around the room and noticed some strange round balls lying around but he thought that they must have been part of the scorpions. Ullr ignored them until he suddenly heard some quiet metal noises from behind, he turned around and saw how several small spiders crawled out of one of those strange balls. Ullr wanted to curse but he suddenly was impaled from behind by a big sharp metal spider leg from mechxia herself which ended his life... ...Scrappy felt bad, he was done with punishing this fire-lizard that dared to melt his beautiful scrap. It hurt Scrappy so bad when he looked at the bucket which was still filled with the liquid remains of his scrap treasures when he suddenly had an idea. Scrappy quickly carved some rectangular holes into the ground, picked up his bucket and poured the liquid metal into the holes he carved out. While his makeshift scrap ingots were cooling down, Scrappy happily gathered the scrap collection of the fire-lizard meanie. Scrappy even collected several scale which he ripped out of the corpse of this fire lizard. Afterward Scrappy looked at the ingots which cooled down enough so that he could collect them. They developed a strange color and texture, they shined in different variations of brown like darker or brighter copper were some parts looked like it had age rings like a tree while other parts had spots that sparkled like diamonds. Scrappy quickly threw inside his bucket and waited for the blizzard to subside... 81 Atonement for Ones Sins Ullr opened his eyes and found himself back in the Respawn temple after the giant spider killed him. He looked around and saw the usual scene of people praying, but something was different. Ullr discovered that one of the five pedestal was filled with a strange bulky mannequin, like if some artist started making a statue but didn''t finish it. Also, a robot that looked like the boss of the first floor was standing in a corner and Ullr could just observe how it created a metal skeleton out of iron and finishing it with some gears and a mana core. Ullr nearly drew his weapon but he suddenly saw a player tag emerge above the robot. He remembered the server announcement from several days ago that mechanoids could be played now. Ullr shrugged his shoulders and went outside. He wandered around the city in deep thought... John once again walked around the city in his dwarven appearance, he delivered some of the swords he and Olaf created. When John delivered everything he took a stroll around and observed how the situation changed for the better after he ordered his bots to provide for the refugees. The whole city was livelier and there were only a few beggars sitting on the sidewalk while peddlers were selling their wares to an abundance of people of all races. From humans to demons, angels and even a few Mechanoids. Everything seemed harmonic and John nearly forgot that war was soon to be fought. John shook his head on that thought when he suddenly saw Ullr trotting around in deep thought. John remembered something he wanted to ask Ullr for some days and walked towards him. John greeted him but Ullr seemed to overhear him as he was in deep thought, only after John called out to him a second time did Ullr notice him. John led Ullr to their usual workshop because they wouldn''t be bothered by anybody there. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. He took out an item and laid it on the table and asked: "Ullr could you do me a favor? Would you mind creating a usable and useful item out of this?" Ullr looked at a pile of scrap leather, that looked like a child had a blunt knife and was bored and tortured some leather, while John explained: "It was my first try at working with leather and as you see it didn''t go well. And now a poor man out there has to live a miserable undead life because of me. And I want you to help me end his misery." Ullr didn''t hesitate and grabbed the leather, he cut two stripes out of it which were long enough to fit around their wrist and still had a bit extra length. He asked John to make two buttons while he was cutting two lines on the leather pieces so that he had three strands of leather for every stripe which were connected by about 2cm of leather which wasn''t cut on each side. Then he made some tiny holes on one side of the leather stripes while cutting out a small thin rectangle on the other side. He sewed on the buttons he got from John and started braiding the strands. At first, it looked strange because the braiding didn''t seem to work at the bottom of the workpiece was closed but after Ullr made some strange hand movement that pulled one end of the leather through itself, it ended up as a perfectly braided piece which seemed impossible to make. Ullr gave one to John while equipping the second. John received it and looked at the description. Symbol of friendship Rank normal As a true symbol of friendship, this item was made. It was made out of an item that represented the disgrace of a craftsman. But now the hunter that produced this leather and was doomed for an eternal life of undeath can finally rest in peace. John even got the notification that the title "Disgrace of all crafters" is deactivated as long as you wear the "Symbol of Friendship". John was even more surprised when he suddenly got another notification. " Assimilation of devil powers complete, Contract Quest and Fire Walking unlocked." "New Contract Quest, target Ullr!" John was dumbfounded and quickly said goodbye to Ullr and ran into the next alley he could find. He read the quest description and it told him that he would be punished if he didn''t complete the quest so he had to do it. John quickly changed his appearance, he grew taller while his hair changed to a darker black and was oiled back to fit better to a devil. His eyes became red and his ears started to become pointy like the ones from an elf. Also his clothes changed from and dirty leather apron with cotton garments to a shiny white suit with a tie in the same color. John transformation finished and as Ullr was still in the workshop, John used Fire Walking to teleport into the Workshop by using the fire of the forge that was inside. Ullr was startled when John suddenly emerged out of the fire but before anyone could say anything the game took over John character and said: "Mr.Ullr I would presume, it came to my attention that you''ve got a problem that you got stuck on. So I have here a small contract for the both of us that let us exchange two, let''s call them, favors. My favor for you is that you get something that allows you to overcome your problem while your favor may be collected on another day or never what do you say?" Ullr felt reminded of his brother but something was different like the person standing in front of him had no ulterior motives like his brother had. Ullr didn''t need to think long he agreed to the contract so the man gave him a blue shining scroll and a quill. But just when Ullr started writing the quill developed sharp spikes that drew blood from his hands while the ink he was writing it was red. Ullr gave back the contract and the quill and watched how the man went up in flames and vanished only leaving a small box behind... 82 Eva comes back John was sitting around in his dungeon looking at the leather bracelet Ullr created when a female Automata walked in wearing woolen clothes and a giant backpack came in. When John saw her he knew that he was in trouble, and before anyone could say a word John flew backward through the room after Eva hit him in the face. It did hurt but John knew that Eva held back or else his head would have been disintegrated. "I am away for JUST two months and you go around and produce a murder machine that endangers the whole project!" Eva yelled at him. But before John could ask what she means Eva furiously said: "It''s not like we don''t have any work to do but you just continue to throw more and more work on our plates! First the shovel then this dungeon which continuously gets reported and cursed and now this Colossus of you that runs around and murders NPC''s! You should know that the over-intelligence of this world consists of all the NPC''s but now your creation runs around killing them and now the whole project is deteriorating." Eva kept cursing for several minutes leaving John no chance to say something, he even was scared and impressed by all the curses Eva knew. After she was finished with cursing John asked why they couldn''t just delete the Angersteel Colossus. But now Eva started cursing again. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "Because some " genius" made it a demigod what placed this entity nearly at the core of our Over-Intelligence, we could have still deleted it but the main parts of the AI system, the "Gods" interacted with it and now it''s an integral part of the system and has to be removed manually in the game by destroying it." John had to wait once again for several minutes before the cursing subsided before he could ask: "Where''s the problem? just give a game master some overpowered items and let him destroy it." Soon after John was once again flying through the room by a punch from Eva. Eva yelled at him: "There is no way to spawn items! You can''t just type in some numbers and get an item, as every item that is created is evaluated by the AI-System and gets its strength and abilities. So now you''ve won the Jackpot, as an official member of Virtec Inc. Your job is to find the Colossus and deactivated it!" "...tch...And because it''s my fault for trusting you enough by leaving you alone, I have to accompany you on your Job." Eva said in an annoyed voice. John was startled and wanted to say something so that he didn''t have to go with Eva but a single glance of Eva''s eyes got every word he wanted to say stuck in his throat and he accepted his fate. John just contacted Erika and the three of them started preparing for a difficult fight... ...The Blizzard subsided and Scrappy took the best Scrap pieces in the cave of the fire-lizard and put them in his bucket together with his Scrap-ingots he poured out of the molten metal. He continued his journey and walked for several days, he felt his urge for more scrap flaring up when he suddenly found a giant door on the side of a mountain. Scrappy nearly started singing when he saw that the giant gate was completely made out of scrap, so he cut a piece out of it and put it in his bucket and walked inside. He looked around and saw several humanoid creatures walking around. Scrappy had no name for these beings but other people would have known that he discovered the race of the Troglodytes, a race deeply connected the earth. So deep that some say the troglodytes were the direct descendants of the titans that created the earth and used the earth as a soul. They were smaller than a human by about 50cm, had dark rough skin with a lean muscular body. But Scrappy wasn''t interested who or what people were he just knew that when there are people scrap to collect couldn''t be far away. Scrappy walked around the city unnoticed grabbing some scrap here a there leaving behind a trail of screeching and fighting troglodytes that searched for the culprit behind their missing stuff. He has already walked for several hours when he came to a giant building that was carved out of the mountain itself, he entered it and it seemed to be a mix of a temple and a palace. He went inside and found several rooms that were arranged in a circle around the center of the building while he even saw some troglodytes kneeling in them. When Scrappy followed the Corridor he found a big door that was highly intricate and was made out of the yellow shining Scrap the humans liked so much. Scrappy had a hunch that there had to be some high-class scrap behind that door so he went inside. Scrappy looked around and saw some people in finer clothes kneeling in front of a statue, but what fell into Scrappy''s eyes was the gem that the statue was holding in his hand. It was no Scrap so not that exciting but Scrappy felt an urge to collect it. He slowly advance in the direction of the statue and started climbing it after he reached it. Everyone was praying so no one saw him climbing up the statue and when Scrappy reached the gem he quickly grabbed it and threw it in his bucket not noticing that the gem started to react with the other contents of his bucket... 83 A weapon for Eva Eva, John, and Erika were sitting at a table looking at a map where all the sightings damages of the Angersteel Colossus were marked. They could roughly anticipate where the Colossus would attack next but now they stood before another problem as Eva has got no weapon as she fought with her fists until now but that was no option for fighting the colossus. So John sat down and thought about Eva and what kind of weapon would fit her. He thought about everything he knew about Eva. The first thing that came to his mind was that she is...difficult..., but she was also flexible and intelligent. Her in-game body had a high amount of strength but John didn''t think that any strength-based weapons would fit her personality, or at least John didn''t want to risk it to be used as a baseball when she found something for that she could hit him again. John decided after some thought and started working. He went to the smelting pot and threw in some Mythril, adamantite, silver and some copper and created a strong but flexible alloy, also when nobody was looking at him he sneaked in some drops of his blood. Adanthryl Rank Unique A brown flexible yet durable metal alloy. The blood of a titan gave it additional strength but bloodbound it to the creator and his subordinates. No matter how much strength is used this metal will never bend or break. Cannot be smithed by normal means. John was surprised when the metal piece he poured into a mold didn''t want to keep the form of the mold but formed a hexagonal crystalline structure. John heated the piece of metal up in the forge and started calming down by closing his eyes, he concentrated on the forge, on the metal and on himself when he suddenly felt a power welling up in his soul. John knew what he had to do, his left hand grabbed the air while swinging his arm upwards, and just before he reached the white-hot metal a smaller version of Erinnerung emerged in his hand hitting the workpiece and flicking it up into the air. Suddenly he swung his right arm and another hammer emerged in his right hand, he started repeatedly hitting the workpiece with his two hammers while keeping it up in the air. John hammered faster and faster while slowly forming a long round pole out of the alloy. Eva was surprised she never expected that John could forge like that, she knew that he had created some special things while she wasn''t monitoring him but now when she saw how they were created she felt astonished. Erika was also surprised as John never really used this kind of smithing technique before. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Now John came to the difficult part he asked Erika to heat up some adamantite while he was still forging the metal pole. And while it was heating up he added some holes and grooves on both sides of the pole. John was still getting faster with his hammering until he asked Erika to throw the heated up adamantite in the air. Now John forged both parts at the same time and the adamantite seemed to flow in the grooves and holes he made earlier I like it was made out of water. The adamantite slowly formed razor-sharp blades around the top and the bottom part of the pole. Next, John hardened and tempered the weapon after which he ground off all the extra material to give it a nice shine and finish. Adanthar Rank Mythical Type. Warglaive A war glaive made out of Adanthryl. Strong flexible and deadly. A masterpiece of smithing and a workpiece of artistic value. It is as deadly as it is beautiful. John was satisfied with his work and gave it to Eva... ...Scrappy was climbing down from the statue when several loud voices could be heard outside. The praying troglodytes opened their eyes to look around and they saw Scrappy climbing down the statue while their holy crystal was missing. Pure anger started to well up in their body. The troglodytes started running, trying to catch the small robot while Scrappy suddenly saw a small coin lying on the ground without noticing the angry troglodytes. He quickly started to run evading everything and everyone just to reached this tiny piece of scrap. He grabbed it and quickly left the room. Scrappy thought that he wasted enough time in this cave so he quickly ventured back to the outside. On his way out he went by several angry troglodytes while many others were chasing him. Scrappy came to the main gate before he noticed to angry mob behind him but suddenly the troglodytes stopped several meters away from him and looked terrified. The Scrappy heard a roaring behind him. Suddenly Scrappy was bathed in white flames and his Scrap possessions were molten one again. Scrappy turned around with a dark aura surrounding him and saw another one of these fire lizards he met before. Painful howling and roaring was echoing through the cave this night and no troglodyte would forget this day. They never want their crystal back now and observed Scrappy while he was waiting for the new ingots he poured to cool down... 86 The Delvon Family Constantine Delvon was walking in a corridor of his Family''s humongous Mansion, Butlers and maids were stationed inside of hidden Corridors along the Wall, If Constantine mentioned anything one of them would come through hidden doors and provide him with anything he needed. But Constantine felt constricted by this, he wasn''t like his two brothers that indulged in the luxury. He was the second oldest son and even though he wouldn''t have to work to live comfortably he took over a small company his father owned that was nearly bankrupt. Constantine started changing policies and fired several employees that were responsible for the bad shape of the Company. Within a year he turned the financial situation of the Company around and produce big profits. Now the company didn''t need him to oversee it anymore, so he just took his earned money and lived from even though he still goes there to inspect it from time to time. His two brothers were completely different than him, his younger brother Nathan was a good for nothing that did nothing but fool around the whole day. But Constantine and his father were lenient with him as they loved him really much. For a long time, Nathan was the only person that came close to being a friend of Constantine, so he had a special place in his heart for Nathan. But there also was his Older Brother Zacharias, if he had to be honest Constantine didn''t like him. Zacharias or Zach for short always like to play schemes, there was one time when he asked a young Maid that just started working for them to get a book out of a room for him. But what the maid didn''t know that the Book his brother wanted were the Tax information from his Father and the room where it was stored was his father''s office. After he had it and his Father was angrily searching for the Book Zach told him that he saw the new maid coming with a Book out of his office. The poor maid was instantly fired and his father even used his connections to stop her from ever finding a decent shop ever again. When Constantine later found out what really happened he tried to find the maid only to find out that she had work in all sorts of dangerous and unhealthy Workplaces to earn enough money for her living expenses only to shortly after from heavy metal poisoning. Also, his brother bribed some high executives of their father''s company to cook the books and providing Zach with a big amount of money, naturally if they were caught nothing would lead to Zach. Constantine was disgusted with his Older Brother, but he was more disgusted by himself for seeking the help of his brother on several occasions in the past. But he had more important things to do, he had to avenge his younger brother who was still mentally unstable after he fought against this Chrome and his Dungeon in the Game. And so Constantine got into his Capsule, started the game, and closed his eyes. When he opened his eyes again he saw a green field and some small houses that were situated on the outskirts of the Village he logged off in. He was clad in a leather armor he made himself, and a Bow made by his friend Schmied on his back were completed by a pair of masterful crafted Greaves and a small bracelet out of leather. Ullr was touching the bracelet while thinking about his friend. Then he remembered the strange person he met after Schmied was gone, this person was wearing a White suit and looked clean and trustworthy but at the same time, a strange aura was around him. An Aura made him seem suspicious and like one of those shady loan sharks. And even though Ullr knew that it wasn''t a good idea he signed a contract with him and got a small box. When Ullr opened the box he found a strange orb that was partly solid but also liquid with electrical arcs sparking inside. Stun Orb Rank Unholy A small ball filled with dark magic, it can be used to disable all machinery around it for 5 Minutes. Every attack on a stunned entity will wake it up. Consumed on use. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Ullr was tightening his grip around the Orb after he read the description a second time and said to himself: "Chrome! Just you wait... I¡äm coming..." ... Scrappy was still walking in the mountains when his craving for scrap acted up once again, he walked faster and came to a giant mountain that reached up into the clouds. He wanted to go around it when he suddenly saw an army of Goblins walking up the mountain. His eyes were smiling in glee when he saw the rusted pieces of scrap the Goblins were wearing. Scrappy decided he would go up the mountain and "help" the goblins with their scrap that was weighing them down. Scrappy was walking up the mountain when the scenery suddenly changed, the snow and Ice that surrounded him for days has vanished leaving behind a lush green forest filled with life. Scrappy was surprised but he ignored it as scrap had to be collected so he ventured on not noticing the wind filled with life that was blowing through the forest. Several pairs of eyes were watching him while they were playing with fallen leaves that were moved around by a greenish wind... 87 Scrappy saves the Day Scrappy was still walking through the forest following the sweet sound of screeching Scrap parts rubbing against each other. While he was advancing through the wood small green transparent lifeforms were following him. you could hear tiny whispers echoing in the wind. But Scrappy couldn''t care less he had to get some fresh juicy Scrap NOW. he quickened his pace when he came to a clearing where a giant rock was standing. The rock had special shape as sharp winds were flowing in and around it. The wind-carved holes and tunnels into it, which made the Rock look like a small city with caves as houses. But something was wrong silent whimpering could be heard from the rock and now even Scrappy couldn''t ignore it anymore. Scrappy saw how dozens of small green things were residing in the holes and tunnels while covering in fear when he came nearer. If Scholars would see the rock Scrappy found they would be excited as they would recognize the Lifeforms that were inhabiting the rock as Sylphids, Ancient Elemental Lifeforms governing over the Power of wind. Legends say that they were created by a Titan that gave everything for his creations. First, he took his blood creating all sorts of small plants and animals, but that wasn''t enough for him he cut off his arm and used it for bigger animals quickly followed by his legs. But he still wasn''t satisfied he asked another titan and asked him to create more out of his body every piece of flesh was used until only his lungs and head were left. But even though the Titan knew that if he would sacrifice anything else from what he had left he would die, he couldn''t stand seeing his creations struggle with surviving as the world around them changed but they were not. So the Ancient Titan named Sylph sacrificed even his Lungs and life to create the Sylphids the Bringer of Change and bearer of the Breath of life. But as Scrappy wasn''t alive, he had no feelings for them he only was interested in Scrap, but somehow when the first fear was overcome by the Sylphids they suddenly were clinging to Scrappy. Scrappy was startled he tried to push them away but they came back snuggling themselves onto him. What Scrappy didn''t knew that the Sylphids recognized the Scent of a Titan on him, and that''s why they liked him now. But Scrappy had more important things to do now he ignored the strange windy things and walked in the direction where he heard the delicious scrap worn by the Goblins he saw earlier. The green things were going back to Rock as he was distancing him from it like they were scared of something. Scrappy didn''t need to walk far as the Goblins already reached the Forest and were advancing in the direction of the giant rock, Scrappy walked past them without being noticed and laid down his Bucket because he wanted to keep it away from other Lifeforms before something similar happens to it like it happened with the fire Lizards. As the day was nearing its end the Goblin Army stopped their advance and started setting up a Camp. A fire was lighted and Tents were quickly erected all under the watchful eyes of a slightly bigger Goblin wearing a Rusted Full body Armor and his Female companion wearing all kinds of Pelts and furs paired with Fang necklaces and a wooden Staff. Scrappy¡äs eyes were shining when he saw the amounts of Scrap they were carrying around. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Sometime later Scrappy was walking into the camp unnoticed, the goblin that was supposed to keep guard was sleeping while leaning on his crude Spear. Scrappy hypnotized by the Scrap tip of the Spear grabbed a log he found lying around and climbed up, He cut the Speartip off and brought the Scrap piece back to his bucket while also grabbing some smaller pieces he found in the tent by the sleeping Goblins. After he "freed" some goblins from their burden of carrying this heavy scrap he found a goblin holding a small metal statue that was crudely cast to resemble one of the Ugliest Goblins you could ever imagine. Scrappy wanted to take it but the Goblin was holding onto it while sleeping and even kicked Scrappy. Now a dark Gleam was showing in Scrappy''s eyes and one cut later he held the statue in hand while a Goblin head was rolling on the Floor. Soon Scrappy found the Biggest tent in the Camp and Eyes were shining when he saw all the scrap the tent was decorated with. He went inside and saw the two Goblin Leaders were still awake fighting in the bed. As the Goblins were distracted Scrappy quickly grabbed as many things as he could. He even found one of those metal fighting Sticks that people kept in leather, he pulled it out cut off the Handle and put the Handle back into the Leather. He ran back to his bucket threw everything inside and went back into the Camp to get more. Scrappy ended some more Goblin lives when they annoyed him or kept him away from scrap what was pretty annoying. Scrappy even found some Scrap part the Goblins put into the Ground he pulled them out and walked away not noticing the Yelling of an angry goblin that came out of a collapsing tent only to punch a Goblin that was walking nearby. A fight broke out and soon the whole camp was fighting but Scrappy couldn''t care less as he was walking back to his Bucket when he suddenly saw a lone Goblin walking to his Bucket. The Goblin which was clearly still half asleep pulled down his pants, Scrappy saw that and pure Rage overcame him. This piece of Garbage wanted to fill his bucket, Scrappy quickly ran over and cut something off the Goblin needed to attend to his business. It crouched down holding its crotch squealing like a Pig that was slaughtered. But soon the Life of the Goblin ended and Silence laid itself on the forest. All the Goblins heard the painful squeal the unfortunate Goblin emitted and every one of them grabbed a weapon. Scrappy''s rage had yet to calm down, a dark aura manifested itself around him as he went back to the Camp. The Goblin that was sleeping earlier saw Scrappy, he ran up to his side and stabbed with his spear only to poke Scrappy with a stick. Goblin was startled but his Life ended without him knowing what happened. And then the Massacre began and Scrappy bathed in Goblin blood and he developed an unbending hate towards Goblins from that day on, while Goblins felt uncomfortable as soon as they got as close as 250 meters near Scrappy... If you read this on another site than Webnovel.com it was Pirated please don''t support Piracy! 88 The Dungeon Raid continues Scrappy was satisfied with himself, he had a big haul of fresh delightful scrap and even killed these unbearable pests. He wanted to continue his journey when a small Sylphid came to him offering him a tiny piece of scrap, Scrappy took it with glee and saw that the small green being ran away giggling. Suddenly dozens of Sylphids rushed over throwing Scrap into Scrappy¡äs bucket. Scrappy quickly followed them to see where the got their delicious scrap, he came to a cliff and saw how the Sylphids flew down bringing new pieces of scrap with them when they came back up. Scrap that couldnt control his urge anymore jumped down the Cliff only to be caught by the sylphids and carried down to the bottom of the cliff. What Scrappy saw made Scrappy shiver in glee, as he gazed at thousands of corpses wearing all kinds of scrap. Scrappy ran over ripping apart Corpse while running to collect as much Scrap as possible. The Sylphids started giggling again and helped Scrappy collecting the Scrap. At some point Scrappy even stopped collecting and took a dip in his newfound scrappool and relaxed completely while the Sylphids were still collecting. When everything was finished the Sylphids carried Scrappy back up, they hugged him once again before they vanished in his Bucket. Scrappy surprised by that action nudged his shoulder and carried on walking on his Journey. After some walking Scrappy came to the big Rock the sylphids inhabited it was to heavy to move but Scrappy had an idea. He took his book and shoved the opening against the Rock and it worked as the Rock was pulled inside of his Bucket. At this moment John got a notification "Your subordinate got a Title : Ruler of the Scrapping Wind" and John thought: "What the heck?!"... ...Ullr was back in the dungeon, he still got slightly injured by the enemies he encountered on the third floor but the injuries were minor as such he reached the Bossroom fairly quick. He knew that he couldnt beat this spider in such a confined environtment but he didnt have to beat it to get to the fourth floor as he had the Stun-Orb now. Ullr walked into the Boss room and soon Mechxia emerged from the shadows followed by dozens of her Spiderlings. Ullr wanted to throw the orb when one of the Spider legs stabbed at him in a astonishing speed. Ullr could barely avoid it by throwing himself on the ground. What followed was a barrage of stab attacks by Mechxia keeping Ullr occupied with evading. It seemed that Mechxia knew that Ullr had something to clear the Floor and wanted to stop him from doing that at all costs. But Ullr became accustomed to the rhythm of the attacks and managed to throw the Stun-Orb even though he was grazed by the spiederlegs several times while doing that. The spiderlings wanted to catch the orb but it was too late, the orb shattered on the ground and a wave of dark purple energy pulsated through the air. And suddenly everything was silent, every robot ceased to move for a second before collapsing in an ear deafining sound. Ullr sat let himself fall down sitting on the ground, he was exhausted and relieved that it worked. After some deep breaths he stood up and walked towards the stairwell down, he thought about killing that spider but he knew that he could injure it at most before dying. Ullr descended the stair and came to a long Corridor, he hoped that he reached his goal but deep inside him he knew that it wasnt that easy. He walked down the corridor until he came to a left turn, but before he took it he saw a new Mosaic on the wall so he stopped and studdied it. "Mausoleum of Titans: 4 Scrapmasters Junkyard" Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. The Mosaic chowed dozens of different robots that seemed familar but also strangely different but Ullr couldnt identify what was different. Also strange lines were coming from every robot leading to the center of the Mosaic where a single piece was missing. Ullr made a picture for the community and went on, after walking some more he came in a giant room filled with hundreds of scrapped robot parts, Ullr was quite shocked by this sight so he stopped at the entrance. Ullr expierences with this dungeon told him something was wrong when he suddenly heard some strange noises, he looked around and saw a strange monkey-like robot scrounging through the scrapped parts. Ullr had a bad feeling as the Monkey looked way to clean and solidly build to be on this floor, but before he could react the Monkey spotted him and ran away deeper into the room. Ullr started walking slowly into the room looking around reacting to every movement and Sound he noticed when suddenly an avalanche of scrap-parts loosened and came down from a Pile of scrap. Ullr just evaded some steps back but didnt see anything else strange so he turned around. Ullr suddenly heard a clicking sound and reacted just fast enough to move his head before a metal bolt grazed his ear. he turned around and saw a small scrapling lying on the floor a giant crossbow from the second floor in hand. The scrapling stood up and loaded the crossbow that was clearly too big for him. Ullr started evading when the Armed scrapling shot another bolt this time Ullr could see and evade it but he was dumbfoounded about what happened to the Scrapling. It was thrown through the air by the counterforce of the shot and smashed against the wall and shattering in pieces. Ullr didnt know what to say, he thought: "Did this moron just play around on this floor or why are there such stupid creations that kill themselves?" Ullr wanted to started walking again when suddenly movement started in every Scrap-Pile he could see... 89 Finding Ideas together John was in his workshop, but he wasn''t able to create anything his thoughts were running wild about the colossus Problem. He didn''t want to risk his chance of meeting his brother again but he just couldn''t destroy the Angersteel Colossus as it was too strong. John sat down and started fidgeting with the dark piece of metal he achieved to slash of the Colossus. John was in deep thought when Scythe entered the room and asking him: " My Lord I know you are busy thinking about the Colossus Problem. But another problem came to my attention as I was compiling the monthly report." John looked up and turned around: "What is the Problem, Scythe?" John sighed and Scythe answered: "Somehow our Scrap-metal collection rate in the last month dropped by 68%. Shall we create more scraplings?" John was surprised, if something was working in his Kingdom then it would be the scrap collection. What happened that this well-maintained workflow was in disarray now? John went back to thinking and said: "Increase the numbers of scraplings for now, I will go out and take a stroll." John changed to his Dwarven appearance and walked in the direction of the Capital of his Kingdom... ...Meanwhile, Ullr was fighting dozens of strange Robots that looked like they were pieced together out of all kinds of parts they just had on hand. On his left side, he saw a Skorpion robot that had no head but were the stinger is supposed to be a Junkling was attached controlling it. Ullr nearly died because he started laughing after he saw the scorpion ram his Junkling Stinger into the ground after he evaded its attacks. Then he saw a Chase-o-bot that robbed another robot''s arm and ran away. But not all the Robots were as weak as them some of them had deadly combinations like a Demon-bot with a scorpion tail attached to it, or a Scorpion with a Crossbow as the end of his stinger. Ullr kept evading and couldn''t attack as a barrage of attacks came in his direction, but he had hope as several Robots either destroyed themselves or took one or two allies with them. Also, the strange monkey robot was sneaking around and taking parts of destroyed robots with him, Ullr saw him several times but he didn''t think much of it as he already saw the scraplings on the first floor. Ullr fought for half an Hour but the amount of injuries kept rising and his movements turned sluggish. After another ten minutes he gave in after evading and a Crossbow bolt hit him in the shoulder, he managed to kill most of the robots but as he was injured from the second floor he just couldn''t clear the third floor today. Ullr manage to kill another Robot chimera before his consciousness started to fade, in his last looks before he died he saw a strange silhouette of a giant robot that was created out of scrapped parts. "That must be the Boss..." Ullr thought before his Vision turned Black. As usual, he woke up in the temple that was completely made out of metal, he went up to the pedestals and saw that the rough statue slowly gained a humanoid form, but what astonished Ullr more, was that there seemed to be a Second Being, being formed on the same pedestal. it looked like a tiny human with something strange on his back, and some strange things flying around him. Ullr went outside and took a stroll through the city, to his surprise he met a familiar person... John reached the city and just as he was walking past the Temple a familiar face came into his sight. "Hey Ullr, how have you been? You still dying every day?" John asked with a chuckle. Ullr also chuckled after stomping on John''s foot and watching how he was jumping on one leg holding his foot in pain. John cursed at him and asked afterward:" You wanna do something to pass some time? I need something to get my mind of a problem of mine." Ullr nodded and said with a chuckle: "Sure, I''ve got time but no drinking this time, I am not in the mood for that today. Why don''t we do something completely unorthodox and go hunt some Monsters?" John agreed and they went to a Dungeon that was just some minutes away from them, it was filled with Plant and Insect type monsters. They went in and as soon as the first Monster came into sight Ullr quickly grabbed his Bow and fired an Arrow while John unsheathed his Hammer and ran toward a giant Hornet. The Arrow hit its target and penetrated deeply into the Body stunning the Hornet for a short amount of time until John''s hammer came falling down killing the Hornet with a mighty swing. Their dungeon run was as Easy as the beginning as they worked brilliantly together without the need to talk to each other. Soon they reached the Boss room a big Cave with a Hole in the roof where a beam of light was shining in illuminating the room. In the middle of the Room was the Boss, a giant flesh-eating Flower with dozens of small heads and dozens of roots that were going into the ground. Both of them started with their usual strategy of John running forwards while Ullr makes a preemptive strike with one of his arrows. But this time it didn''t go as planned as suddenly dozens of heads were attacking Ullr even though he was at the edge of the room. John wanted to help him but he was occupied with some more heads that were attacking him, he tried squashing them with heavy hits from his hammer but every time he killed one head it grew back shortly after. Ullr could only evade the massive amounts of attack while John defended himself by squashing the Heads. Both of them had no idea how to beat the boss until Ullr suddenly said: "Schmied stop killing those heads you have to find a way to damage the Plant directly, maybe try aiming for smaller target that could destroy or cut off so that it gets weaker!" Suddenly John also had an idea after he saw one plant head bite another head after Ullr evaded and said: " Ullr try using the number of enemies to your advantage, let them attack each other." When Ullr heard that his facial expression changed to an understanding one while his movement pattern changed, suddenly more and more head were hitting each other and their regrowth seemed to slow down a bit. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. John also used Ullr''s advice and found a solution both for the boss and also his problem, he fought to get nearer to the Plant and started attacking the roots. With every root, he destroyed the regenerative ability seemed to slow down and after an Hour-long fight and some minor injuries the boss was beaten and John and Ullr shook each others hands and said goodbye as both of them found a solution for their respective Problems when they fought against the boss and gave each other hints... 90 Master of the Scrapping Wind Scrappy was traveling for several days since he met the Sylphids that accompanied him on his journey. He overcame the Mountains and reached boundless plains full of life, the Sylphids flew around him from time to time and brought tiny pieces of scrap when the found some laying on the floor. Some hours later Scrappy noticed the sky was darkening from smoke and it rained embers and ash, he walked up a nearby hill. When he looked around a Village laid before him as a sea of fire, in front of it two armies were fighting both of them clad in Metal Armor and wielding weapons of steel. Scrappy was overjoyed as he saw the despairing crowd before him burdened by their scrap. Suddenly a beam of light fought itself through the wall of smoke that darkened the Sky falling onto Scrappy, the fighting stopped and every being looked up the hill. The sylphids floated behind Scrappy and looked like giants wings, like a God out of legends Scrappy raised his arms and his imposing wings transformed into a green wind that flew onto the battlefield. Some soldiers started to flee in fright as the green wind approaches but no man was hurt by this wind as it blew through the lines of soldiers cutting all metal and taking it with it to pile it up several meters away. No armor was spared, no piece of metal left on its place as the scrapping wind created by the sylphids blew. And Scrappy descended the hill in a leisurely pace and walked towards the battlefield, no being on the battlefield dared to come within four meters of Scrappy as he crossed the battlefield. Every being that was fighting just now knelt down as soon as Scrappy came near them. Scrappy reached the big Pile of scrap but he turned around and raised his arm once more, the Sylphids followed and several strange gleaming eyes started to appear in the green wind behind Scrappy. Their Master, Scrappy swung his arm and the Sylphids rushed like a storm into the village. The wind they created was so strong that no fire was aflame anymore as the wind grabbed every piece of scrap it could find. The people were looking in awe as the being that seemed like a god to them commanded the wind to save their village, they once again knelt down and started praying to the strange God before them. The Sylphids that came back with all their loot saw this and wanted to show these peasants how great their master was. Dozens of the Sylphids huddled together and a tiny tornado formed in front of Scrappy. A green crystal was created in the depths of the Tornado and small parts of scrap started to collect around it. At first, it just was a ball of scrap but soon four legs were formed followed by head. The resulting being looked like a highly detailed Dog made out of scrap, it even walked and acted like a dog with a tongue sticking out of his mouth. Tiny pieces of Scrap were constantly falling down from its body but were soon replaced by new pieces brought by a green wind. Junky Rank Trash Race Artificial Magic Beast A magic Wind Crystal created by a group of Sylphids collects small pieces of Scrap and forms the Body of this creature. It is the sole being worthy of carrying the Master of the Scrapping Wind as a Steed. When Scrappy saw Junky he couldn''t help but gleam in Joy as he hasn''t seen anything as pretty as this in his entire life, he stepped up to it and started scratching its ears while pulling out a piece of pipe out of his bucket. He waved it in front of Junky and it started wagging its tail while jumping up and down. Scrappy threw the pipe and Junky charged after it, Junky jumped and grabbed the Pipe with his mouth but as he was falling on the Ground his body formed a cloud of mist before reforming itself and running back to Scrappy. When Scrappy got his pipe back he put it back into his bucket and mounted Junky. The people before him observed everything in awe even forgetting that some of them were still only wearing their underwear, they watched this being created life out of nothing in mere seconds and then playing with it like it was nothing. Another wave of prayers was initiated after this sight and while the People were praying, the Sylphid collected every piece of Scrap and put it inside of Scrappy''s Bucket. When the Sylphids were finished collecting every piece of Scrap, Scrappy looked once more on the masses that were worshipping him before riding on Junky into the sunset. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. What Scrappy didn''t know was that he ended a neverending war between two groups of people from the same nation that waged war against each other because they believed in different gods, now they had seen a being that was a god in their eyes. Soon Statues would be carved of their lord and savior and metal and wind became sacred to them. In hundreds of years, this Village will be known as the City of mines as the citizens worshipped their god by creating Mines in their surroundings covering hundreds of Kilometers around them. No pieces of could them be found around this city anymore and a giant pile of metal would laying inside of a giant temple in front of a Statue of their God. The temple would be known as the Singing Temple as it was created to used the Wind that was blowing to create a neverending hymn to praise their god until he returns and claims what was offered to him. Some even say that they even saw members of the ancient Race of Troglodytes walking through the city... 91 Weakness of the Collossus John was walking back to his dungeon thinking about the idea he had, he once again looked at the small piece of Angersteel Armor he got from the last fight. But John decided that he wouldn''t put any of his comrades into risk anymore, luckily Erika took a break from the Game after the last fight, so he only had to deal with Olaf, Claire, and Eva. First, he met Eva at the entrance of the dungeon and said: " Hey...Eva lets try fighting the Colossus again in two days...I might have an idea how to beat it, but I still need to figure some parts out." Eva nodded and logged off after giving him another punch on the shoulder. As she was logging off a contempt smirk flashed on her face, but John didn''t see it. Next, John met Olaf in the forge and said hi. Olaf looked up and saw the look on Johns face, he looked down once again and started smiling without John noticing it. Olaf said goodbye and walked away to log-off, John was startled as Olaf clearly worked on something when he entered the room and he wasn''t the type to leave a work unfinished. John shook his shoulders and grabbed a piece of Steel and threw it into the forge. When it was orange hot he pulled it out and quickly hammered it into a squared bar of 1,20 meters in length. Next, he flattened both ends and hammered the squared bar into a hexagonal shape. After that, he bent one of the flattened ends by 10-20 degrees, the other end also bent in the other direction on the horn of the anvil. John took the steel crowbar he created by that and threw it back into the forge and brought it to critical temperature and quenched it in oil. He put it next to the forge to temper it, next he ground it on a grinding stone to remove the scale on the metal. After he sharpened both ends of the crowbar he coated it with adamantite after which he used a rag to polish it to a nice sheen. Bu?e Rank Mythical A crowbar made with all the regrets the creator had about a former workpiece he created. It''s nearly indestructible and perfect for ripping something apart. John looked at his work with a strange look on his face, he put it on his back and wanted to leave the forge when he saw Claire standing at the door with a tear on her face. John knew that she knew that he wanted to fight the colossus alone but he still said with a fake smile on his face: " Hey Claire is my workpiece that ugly that it makes you cry..." Claire shook her head and pulled John into a tight hug. After that, she walked away leaving behind John with a resolved look on his face. John walked out of his dungeon without seeing anyone but he knew that his friends were watching him as he left. When he reached the last door, John started to run and basically flew over the plains in the direction of the destroyed village the fought against the Angersteel Colossus in their last fight. He reached the village and looked around, he saw the craters and traces of battle and even some wooden crosses someone put into the ground. John went to these Crosses and knelt down to pay his respect and to apologize to the dead. After several minutes John stood up and looked after the track of the Colossus and saw a line of giant footprints. He quickly followed them, and every time he found another place were a Battle took place, he stopped to pray as his heart ached. At first, John was angry but as he saw more and more traces of battles his anger vanished and was replaced by sadness and regret. As John was running pretty fast he soon heard stomping feet and saw the Colossus soon after. Somehow it seemed like the Colossus knew that John was coming as it turned around and waited for John. Now both parties were looking at each other only several meters away from each other, John spawned his hammer in one hand and pulled the crowbar from his back with the other. After that, both of them started charging at each other. The Colossus was the first to throw a punch but John swung his Hammer and hit the incoming fist to take away most of the force, next he quickly rammed his crowbar into a crack between to armor plates and pulled on it. One armor plate was loosened and John used the momentum created by the colossus pulling back his arm to use his hammer to bust away the loosened armor plate. The Colossus stopped for a moment and looked at his hand while John used the time to distance himself from the Colossus. The Colossus now slightly enraged stomped after John but once again he used his Hammer to force the giant foot out of course so that the colossus lost his balance. While the Angersteel Colossus regained his balance John removed an Armor plate from the foot of the colossus. That was the weakness John discovered, he couldn''t destroy the Colossus as he was too weak but he could disassemble it. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. The Colossus now completely enraged attacked John with its fist once again, but suddenly as John blocked the fist and attempted to rip off the next piece, the other fist of the Colossus came flying and John didn''t notice it fast enough. John was watching the Fist coming nearer and nearer everything seemed like slow motion before John closed his eyes and cursed his uselessness... 92 Unexpected Help John saw his imminent death closing in, in the form of the fist of the Colossus. He had no way of evading and he wasn''t able to block it in time. Suddenly hammer swung over John''s head and with an ear-deafening noise the Fist of the Colossus, soon after two silhouettes armed with an ax and a war glaive slashing at the chest of the colossus forcing it to take a step back while John stood up. A small Gnome with a whip in hand started throwing glass flasks at the Angersteel Colossus which left behind a white sticky substance. " Olaf, Eva, Erika and Claire what are you doing here?" John said. Claire smiled at him and answered: "Sometimes you just need help from your friends! And that''s why we are here." But before John could say anything else he saw how Erika and Eva were blown away by a hit from the Colossus and he knew that he didn''t have time to complain about them being here. John charged the Colossus and block a hit that was aimed at Olaf, he threw his Crowbar to Eva and yelled: " The Shoulder armor plate next to the spine!!!" Eva understood and jumped onto the struggling Colossus and loosened the Armor Plate on his Shoulder, Eva yelled back: " It won''t come off!!!" John heard that and ran around the Colossus followed by Erika, he jumped up and Erika swung her Ax like a baseball bat and catapulted John up in the air, he reached out with his hand and Eva threw the Crowbar to him. He caught it and rammed it into the seam of two armor Plates situated on the side of the neck and used his momentum to pul on them with a tremendous amount of force. Suddenly the Armor plate that Eva loosened and the one that John attacked came off and they fell down. All of them retreated several meters away as the Colossus started get really enraged, he trampled and lashed at everything around him. "We have to keep going, there are still dozens of armor plates left before we can start attacking the machinery. The left shoulder is next attack the seam directly at the Joint and then the seam that connects the Shoulder and the biceps!" John yelled before charging at the Colossus once again. And like that the fight carried on, more and more armor plates came falling down. But as the amount of armor plates that were blown off increased, the fight became harder and harder. The Angersteel Colossus`s speed increased as well as his Agility, the group of friends had to be more and more careful not to get hit. But as much as they tried they just couldn''t evade everything and so they were grazed by the attacks of the Colossus several times and soon they started to get fatigued. And as they started another attacked and John rammed his Crowbar into the seam of one of the remaining Armor plates his hand slipped and he let go of the crowbar and was thrown away by a sudden movement from the colossus. Now they had a problem, the crowbar was still stuck between two armor plates on the waist of the Colossus. "Dammit, what should we do now?" John said to his friends. But they could do nothing else but try to get the crowbar back, but the Colossus kept them at bay and they couldn''t reach it. Suddenly a small silhouette came running grabbing a metal piece on the body of the Colossus and flinging itself around the body of the Colossus grabbing the crowbar and ripping off another Armor plate while returning the crowbar back to the group of friends. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. When they looked at their helper they saw a small female halfling clad in a purple qipao with a golden dragon on it, two wooden hair needles kept hair in a nice shape and she held two wooden tonfas with hooks on them in hand. Before anyone could say anything she nodded at the Colossus and charged at it again. She used grappling and acrobatic techniques to move around the body of the colossus and pulled its attention to her. John had to use this opportunity and also started to attack the colossus again. Soon all the armor plates were blown off and they started attacking the inner machinery, the battle seemed more and more in their favor as they disassembled more and more parts the colossus¡äs movements started to get sluggish. But just before they damaged the Core the colossus used his backhand unexpectedly and whacked John dozens of meters away. But now a strange Aura emerged from Claire and everyone took several steps away from her. Dark and reddish smoke cloaked her and her small gnomish body started to change. She grew in size and dark wings started sprouting on her back, every one of them started to look in awe at the transformation. They were even more shocked when they read the notification they got. [Strong emotions awakened the final Form of the "Queen of Calamity"] The Transformation was nearly finished when a beam of light fell down on Claire and a silent male whisper was heard in their heads: "Think of it as a little present and an apology!" Suddenly something seemed to fight the dark smoke around Claire and half of it transformed to light. And when the smoke was blown away and they saw the new Claire, about 1,70m tall with black hair with white accents, two wings on her back one like a bat and one angel wing. Her whip changed from an ordinary leather whip to a silver black whip where some parts shone in light and some parts were dark and thorned. She turned around and whipped at the colossus grabbing his mana core and ripping it out of the body. With a flick of her wrist, the Mana core shattered an the remaining parts of the colossus tumbled down, the battle was won. The friends came back together and it was finally the time for questions about their unexpected helper. But before anyone could say anything Eva said: "Well, I wanted to wait some days but now I don''t have another choice. Our helper is the other big troublemaker in this game, who is placed second in the amount of trouble that was caused..." What they didn''t know several other eyes were watching the battle and were quite satisfied with the outcome... 93 The second Troublemaker Everyone looked with interest at the small girl, now that they had time to look at her in more detail they discovered several more details about her clothing. They saw the numerous detailed accessories in her hair and on her body, all of them were made out of wood decorated with Amber, pearls and other lesser valuable gems. Her tonfas with hooks were also highly decorated and a masterpiece of Craftsmanship. Other than that her ebony black hair shined in the light while a smug smile plastered her face. And before anyone could ask for her name she ran to John and eagerly shook his hands with hers and said: "I am honored meeting the most hated Player in Person just call me Delilah!" John was completely overwhelmed and Olaf, Erika, and Eva just felt a terrifying Aura coming from Claire. Now the group wanted to ask Eva, what she meant with labeling Delilah as the second troublemaker of this game. But Eva cut them short and said: "Well I know that you all want to know about Delilah but let''s talk about it back in the dungeon as my head already starts hurting just thinking about it! The parts of the Colossus will be collected by employees of Virtec Inc. and removed from the game so let''s go!" As the group heard an annoyed undertone when Eva spoke nobody dared to ask further, so they started walking back to the dungeon. When they reached the dungeon they sat down when Delilah suddenly said that she had to go, after which she quickly logged off. After she was gone Eva was looked at with questioning faces and after several seconds she sighed and started talking:" You see it all started when..." Eyes were opened and light stabbed into them while a big hand opened the highly customized game capsule. As always it was a tight fit as the person dragged itself out of the capsule. The Big person stretched itself and hit the ceiling with its fist. The person squeezed itself through the doorframe and looked into the kitchen while looking at a woman cooking a meal. "Ah Honey, I just wanted to call you lunch is ready!" The woman said while turning around. The Person an 2,30m tall man looked affectionately at his beautiful wife softly pulled her into a hug and gave her a kiss. They started eating while his Wife asked while smiling: "You seem different today did anything good happen in this game of yours? You¡äre so talkative today!" The man said in a deep masculine voice: "Mhmmm...found something...was bigger than me...also met with some...interesting people." "Oh my, that sounds nice!" His wife said after which every conversation stopped and both of them ate silently. The man finished his plate nodded at his wife and stood up and went outside to a shed while stroking his beard when he entered the shed several hundred wooden figurines and workpieces greeted him. He grabbed a dried piece of lumber and debarked it, after that he meticulously worked on it with a knife shaving of tiny bits and pieces. If John and his troupe with a look at what he was carving they would recognize the Angersteel Colossus the man was carving. The man¡äs name was Vito he was a master when it comes to working with wood and helped with the creation of the crafting Systems of "Kings Reign", he was no man of words but that was never a problem as usually, the whole room quieted down when this bear of a man entered the room. Many would facepalm when they heard how he met his wife and how he asked her to marry him. He saw her on one of the Competitions for Woodcarving for the first time, they never spoke a word as she was one of the judges and it was not allowed to influence the judge''s decision. But one look and Vito knew that he had to marry this woman. So in the coming year, he once again joined the Competition and the next year after that too. He was scornfully looked at because it was an amateur competition and he joined every Year and took the trophy which he just threw away after leaving the building. This went for four years when suddenly the woman he loved stood before him and asked why he was still attending this competition. Vito, completely startled by her just said: "...Marry me!..." The woman giggled and answered: "Yes..." She admired the craftsmanship and love that went into the figurines she saw every year but the figurines Vito made for the competition were different, they weren''t only filled with love for the craft but also with love for her. And after seeing this love for years she just felt in love with the person that made these figurines too so she was happy when she was asked to marry him. Vito stopped working on the figurine when he was reminiscent about the past, but soon he thought about "Kings Reign", he loved the world he helped to create so he had to buy himself a capsule. But when he got it he was dumbfounded as he was too big for the capsule, he was devastated as he wanted to experience this world. Vito didn''t sleep well for several nights when he suddenly grabbed his tools and started tinkering with the capsule. He pulled out most of the padding and even dismantled part of the frame. After he was done he just fit into the capsule when he squeezed a little bit, he started the game and went on the create his Character. But something went wrong the Character creation screen cracked and Vito was teleported into a white room with a Mirror in it. He looked into the mirror and saw a small Halfling girl in front of him wearing a Qipao. Vito was startled when he realized it was him, he tried to change it but he couldn''t so he just named himself after his wife...Delilah... Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Vito was still in the white room and didn''t know how to leave, he logged out and ate dinner with his wife not daring to call the support. At the same time in the offices of Virtec Inc., the alarm bells were ringing as the system detected a critical error... "... and as you probably know usually it''s impossible for everyone to choose a different gender than their own for liability reasons and that''s why he is the second most annoying troublemaker for us!" Eva finished her longwinded explanation. After everyone heard the story about Delilah they could just say in unison: "So Delilah is a Trap?" Eva nodded with a designated face... But the group of friends didn''t know that while they were talking hooded persons sneaked around collecting every single piece from the Angersteel Colossus before the Admins could react... 94 Dark Premonitions John¡äs group of friends were still talking about Delilah and the fight against the Angersteel Colossus when Delilah logged back into the game. And Delilah said: " I guess that Eva told you already about me so let me reintroduce myself! Hello, My name is Vito and I love working with wood!" John answered politely: " Hey Vito you can call me John, this is Erika, Claire, and Olaf. Actually, i could use your help if you don''t mind, I still need a Teacher for woodworking and if I look at all of your wooden ornaments and your weapons it seems to me that you would be the perfect person for that. Would you teach me please?" Eva wanted to make an objection in fear that John creates another catastrophe, but she suddenly got a message that startled her. "I have to go!" Eva said and logged out so fast that nobody could ask a question. John had a bad feeling about that as Eva seemed shocked as she hastily left, but he had no time to spare as Vito agreed to teach him and happily pulled him into the workshop to get started. Erika and Olaf felt a short shiver from a dark aura around Claire until Claire seemed to remember that Delilah/Vito was a Man... ...John was desperately to evade all the Tools Vito was throwing at him, Vito was eager to teach him and pulled every tool he had out and explained everything in a single breath. John needed some time to calm Vito down not knowing that Vito usually was not talking much but ingame he couldn''t hold himself back. But after Vito calmed down he asked John:" Do you have any experience working with Wood?" John nodded and pulled out the poor excuse of a walking stick and showed it to Vito. Vito took it from John and looked at it, suddenly tears were flowing down his cheeks he quickly pulled out some wooden planks and crafted a small shrine. He laid the Walking cane on it and offered some joss stick while praying. After that, he jumped up grabbed John by his collar and threw him on the ground and yelled with tears in his eyes: "Apologies TO THIS POOR PIECE OF WOOD!!!" John quickly took a dogeza position and earnestly apologized. Vito calmed down and sighed...they had a long way to go... While John was learning to work with wood dark things were happening at another place. Three hooded figures entered a throne room, knelt down and said: "My king the experiments you ordered are finished and successful!" "And what about your special find?" Mephisto asked while savoring a fresh dark grape having a dark grin on his face. His goon answered, "Your Majesty the technicians try their best but not only is it painstakingly difficult but were also missing a power source as the original Mana Crystal was destroyed." "Mhmm...I would be despaired when my special new toy wouldn''t work." Mephisto said seductively while one of the Hooded men was gurgling as a thrown dagger lodged itself into his throat. The Hooded men quickly left the room, taking their dead comrade with them, on a wink of the king. "What shall this poor king do my poor toys will be wasted like this!" Mephisto said to himself while descending from his throne dragging his white tunic through the blood splatter on the floor when he noticed a sole drop of blood that was flowing down his cheek like a tear. Suddenly a thunderstorm descended upon the human Capital, the light of a lightning flashed through the throne dyeing it in the color white. If someone would see the king while the light illuminated his face they could mistake him with a Dark Jester smiling while a dark tear was flowing down his face. Suddenly an ethereal Lightning crack through the roof of his palace without damaging anything. It landed right in front of Mephisto, it was silver in color but had a strange black gleam in it that seemed to slowly taint the light. Mephisto saw a silver Ornate Hammer on the floor where the lightning struck, suddenly he heard a voice whisper in his head: " Destroy...him...the one...that escaped his judgement...the Devil...Chrome!" Mephisto was startled but started giggling, suddenly the hammer started to meltdown into a spherical shape. Mephisto took the Round sphere and inspected it while giggling uncontrollably. Urteil Rank Gods Artifact(lesser) A lesser God''s artifact given to a chosen mortal formed to an Item he wanted most. The Artifact took the shape of a mana core that can be used to power any contraption. The Owner of this Artifact can control every creation that uses this Core as a power source. Mephisto was still giggling when he read through the description of this item, finally, he had a solution for his special new toy and his small collection of toys were finally just missing a single special piece. He called for a minion and an abomination entered the room, a man or better what was left from him walked up to the king. His heart stopped beating some time ago after the cruel experiments on him weren''t successful, his limbs were cut off and replaced by mechanical contraption while a mana crystal was rammed into his head after that he was resurrected as an undead with Dark magic. Mephisto gave the Artifact to his minion and ordered him to bring it to the technicians that worked on his latest toy. After that Mephisto talks to himself while logging off: " Now only the last Toy is missing...I am coming...Brother..." 95 Torturer of Wood Days went by as Vito was teaching John how to work with wood, every day a strange routine could be seen in the Dungeon. Every morning a small female halfling logged into the game with a determined look on her face grabbing John by his collar and dragging into the workshop. And soon after they entered the workshop Vito would come out carrying a strange disfigured wooden workpiece, laying it on a recently built altar that was already filled with other wooden pieces. He would then pray for several minutes with tears on his face while apologizing. After Vito finished his funeral memorial service he would go back into the workshop and you can hear a blunt object hitting a wall and a painful howl. This routine would repeat itself dozens of times before both of them logged off in the evening, Vito always having a look of defeat on his face. This routine repeated itself so often that after the third day they had to hold a Viking funeral for all the ruined workpieces. and while the massive pile of wood was burning you could see Vito kneeling beside it helplessly crying and apologizing. After the held a Viking funeral for the second time Vito couldn''t take it anymore, he just couldn''t comprehend how John fails when working with wood. Vito tried observing him and everything seemed to work nicely in the beginning but as soon as Vito would blink or turn away for a second the workpiece was suddenly ruined. Vito even tried to completely concentrate and observing John but every time something happens that would distract him for a second leaving behind another ruined workpiece. John told Vito about his bad luck but Vito didn''t want to believe it until one time he observed how John sawed off a single wooden piece which landed on the ground, suddenly a small robot came to collect it but when the robot grabbed the piece it slipped out of the metal fingers and was flung through the workshop. The flying wooden piece traveled extremely fast and hit a wall from which it bounced off hitting a small piece of metal that was laying on a shelf. The small metal piece was a Lead sinker still connected to the fishing rod with a small durable metal thread. The Sinker swung while gaining momentum and hit a metal pipe that was stored in a box next to John, it started moving while using the edge of the box as guidance and hitting the wooden workpiece that John was holding in his hands. The workpiece was blown out of Johns''s hands just before it was finished and flew through the air like a baseball after a homerun swing. Vito and John were following the flight trajectory of the workpiece only to get a look of despair when it landed right into the white-hot forge which burned it to ashes. But that was not the only time John¡äs bad luck kicked in but it was the most flashy time, he just had a knife or any other sharp tool stuck in his hand after his hand slipped but as it happened in the game it wasn''t that bad. But even though Vito saw tiny improvements in John''s work with wood, Vito still felt pain when he saw John torturing poor pieces of wood. So one day Vito stopped with his lesson and told John to show him how he crafted something when he wasn''t working with wood. John complied and thought for a moment before grabbing some Ghost steel, some Mythril, a tiny amount of Adamantite and some Silver. John started with the Mythril which had a shining silver color, he took some mushroom off and ancient piece of wood one of his minions found and brewed up a dark nearly black solution in which he bathed Mythril sheets that were just 1-2mm thick. Next, he created more of those sheets out of Ghost steel but he didn''t bath them in the solution. After the Mythril pieces soaked some time in the solution he pulled them out and stacked these pieces and the Ghost Steel pieces in an alternating fashion. John then wrapped the formed billet with some metal thread to hold it together and put it into the forge. He heated up the Billet to critical temperature, pulled it out of the flamed and quickly forged it together with precise strikes with his hammer. John then hammered his workpiece until it was about 0.5cm thick cut it in three pieces and stacked them once again. He continued folding and forging it out several times. He then forged a square bar out of it and cut it widthwise into squares which he then stacked up again after he turned every second piece by 90 degrees. He forged welded them back together and forge them into a flat bar. He then cut the bar lengthwise and folded it again, but this time he added the adamantite as a thin piece between both parts of the flat bar. John forge-welded everything and forged out longer bar this time, he cut it into 7 pieces of the same size and started working on them individually. Every piece was forged into a different shape of knife with a thick tang on one side and a short blade in several different forms on the other side. After John finished with the rough form of the knife he took them to the grinding wheel to finish their form before heating the knife blades back up to a yellow hot state and quenching them in water after which he laid them back onto a tiny pile of burning coals to temper them. While the blade was being tempered John grabbed the silver and some more Mythril and wanted to forge them together but something unexpected happened when he laid the Mythril onto the silver. Somehow the silver and the Mythril started to fuse together which left John speechless until he remembered that he once read in a novel that Mythril is sometimes also called magical Silver. John liked the look of the Silver-Mythril Alloy as it was mostly shiny but seemed to have some not so shiny nearly dull waves in it. John took the Alloy pieces and made 7 handles out of them and added them to the tempered Knives. Next, to give a better grip to the handles John grabbed Silver and Mythril wire and wrapped the Handle in both of them while weaving both wires in a complex pattern and watched how the crossings of both wires magically fused together. After he was finished wrapping the handles he brought the knives back to the grinding wheel and sharpened them until you felt a cutting sensation when just looked at them. And Just when he finished the set of knives and before Vito could wake up from the trance that he fell in watching John work something strange happened with the knives... 97 Demigodslayer Scrappy was running to the strange figure standing at the entrance of the room, not noticing that neither Junky nor his Sylphids were following him. A Dark Aura of death originating from the strange being seemed to press them against the wall behind Scrappy. As Scrappy came nearer to the Strange being he noticed some more details, under the massive amount of golden Scrap the figure was wearing dark bones shone through. Red shining eyes were shining through the mask and dark smoke came out of the mouth of the skeletal being as it was breathing. And as Scrappy was only three away from this strange creature, its eyes seemed to suddenly focus on him as if Scrappy wasn''t noticed before that. The creature swung its arm in Scrappy''s direction and a strong Wind filled with dark smoke reeking of death and rotten meat stopped scrappy in his tracks. Scrappy nearly was blown away by that wind but he just couldn''t take his eyes away from this magnificent piece of scrap that was shining through the bones of his enemy¡äs rib cage. Completely made out of purple metal that pumped dark vapor through invisible veins. Scrappy just had to have it, this magnificent one of a kind piece of scrap, so he used all of his strength and resisted the Wind of death. Scrappy never encountered such a situation, usually he would just take all the scrap he wanted but this time he just couldn''t reach the piece of scrap his heart was craving for. Scrappy had no choice he had to have this piece of scrap so for the first time in his life he started to strategize, he looked around and saw the sylphids and Junky still slammed against the wall bound by this strange dark energy. There was still a high amount of scrap lying around so Scrappy couldn''t see the whole room but he could still see a giant decorated door on one of the walls. But as Scrappy was looking around the room and thinking about a strategy his enemy was still locked onto him, the skeleton screeched with an ear-deafening sound grabbing the nearest piece of metal it could find and threw it at Scrappy when it noticed that it''s dark magic didn''t work on Scrappy. But never did the skeleton imagine that not only was throwing metal pieces at scrappy not effective but also this strange metal being started catching and collecting every single piece with glee. But now the dark skeleton seemed to pissed as it grabbed the nearest blunt object it could find, an ornamental scepter to be precise and walked in Scrappy''s direction while something was clackering behind the mask. The skeleton swung this golden scepter at Scrappy and even Scrappy thought that it wouldn''t be a good idea to be hit by that. Scrappy quickly evaded by jumping but still used the chance and started snipping away from this skeleton with his adamantite tin-snips. The skeleton howled in pain as Scrappy even hit its heart once leaving a tiny wound behind and blasted scrappy away with a strong burst of death wind while it turned around and walked to the giant door. It pushed the door open and surprisingly several creatures were chained to the wall hanging on their arms. Some of them were dead with a big hole in their chest that was cut open by something very sharp, but about half of them were still alive and trapped in some kind of stasis. The skeleton walked to one of the humanoid creatures that were still alive and raised its arm, suddenly dark flames gathered around the hand of the Skeleton and it rammed its fist right into the chest of one poor creature. The dark flames seemed to melt the flesh and bone away before the skeleton ripped something out of the chest of its poor victim. The flame around the hand stopped and Scrappy could see a beating heart in the hands of the skeleton while the victim seemed to have woken up as it started mumble strange words like it was praying. The skeleton held the up to his face and squashed it with his fist, the heart transformed to some kind of dark vapor that flew into the purple heart of the skeleton, every wound the skeleton took was instantly healed and the dark flame that was just encompassing its hand, flared up and was now around the whole body of the skeleton. But the skeleton wasn''t finished before Scrappy could react it already reached its next victim and also ripped out the heart while the intensity of the flames increased. Scrappy knew that he could come near the skeleton anymore because of the fire but he could also feel the burning desire in his magic stone heart to obtain the purple heart. But now scrappy had to evade as the skeleton started throwing dark flames after him, Scrappy was evading for several minutes when he noticed something strange. He was just evading one of the fireballs and it would have hit the ceremonial dagger lying on the strange stone pedestal in the middle of the room they hit an invisible wall. At first scrappy didn''t think much about it but when a second and third fireball were stopped in the same way he slowly evade so that he would reach the stone pedestal. The skeleton suddenly noticing what scrappy was doing started rushing to the pedestal too. Scrappy reached it first grabbed the dagger and stabbed after the skeleton, unfortunately, the dagger just lodged itself into the shoulder of the skeleton and got stuck. The skeleton screeched in pain and angrily tried to grab scrappy, but scrappy ducked down and the skeletal hand missed him but went right into his bucket. Scrappy quickly pushed the skeleton away, which flames intensity was drastically reduced after it was hit with the dagger. But Scrappy¡äs heart sunk when he saw what the skeleton was holding in his hand. Most people would call this random piece of metal, trash or scrap but to scrappy, every piece of scrap that he collected was precious to him that''s why his heart was aching when this piece of metal melted in the hands of this skeleton. The molten metal dropped onto the floor and unforgiving rage overcame Scrappy, and suddenly scrappy felt a power surging up in his mana crystal heart. Several pieces of metal that was still laying around started to float up, they started to melt and a giant ball of molten gold formed behind scrappy following every move of his. Even the skeleton seemed reluctant all of the sudden but it couldn''t evade the giant ball of molten metal that scrappy threw after it. The skeleton was completely bathed in the hot metal, its accessories started melting and its bones were glazed by the gold as it solidifies. But even though it was hurt badly insurance wasn''t as intimidating as before it could still move. But Scrappy was sick of this skeleton that dared to hurt his precious scrap and quickly used his fist and ripped out the purple heart while watching how the skeleton started screeching and dark flames melted the gold again while every bone vanished into dark mist until there was just a puddle of molten metal left. Scrappy looked at the purple heart and threw it into his bucket which started to rumble a bit as it entered. Scrappy wanted to take the dagger too but when he picked it up it snapped in half and a tiny black gem was floating before scrappy. Scrappy knew that he had already seen such a gem and he thought real hard about it when he remembered that the same type of gem was embedded into his Bucket. Scrappy was happy and grabbed it not expecting that it was still extremely hot so it melted itself into his hand making it impossible to ever get it back without melting the complete arm of scrappy. Naturally scrappy wanted to get it out and waved his arm around when there suddenly was a hole in reality where he accidentally drew a small circle with his hand. Scrappy froze on the spot and reached into the hole with his arm suddenly hearing a noise behind him. Scrappy looked around and saw how his hand was ten meters behind him and had knocked down a piece of metal, Scrappy was intrigued he grabbed the piece of metal and pulled through the hole into his hand while the hole closed after nothing was in it anymore. Scrappy started happily drawing circles in the air grabbing every piece of scrap on this room with even moving... A big distance away from John just logged it and nearly died of a heart attack because the notification bell ringed. [Subordinate would reach the same or a higher plane of existence after it has slain the Demigod "Ah Puch". As a subordinate can''t outrank its creator a forced evolution is started...] 98 Forced Evolution John vision was turning white soon after he read the notification he cursed as holy energy was flowing in his body. He felt like a balloon that was full and nearly bursting. John nearly couldn''t handle the transformation and out of reflex he called god for help. "You rang...?" and male voice said with a slight chuckle as a beam of light was falling through the roof of the Demon Lord Castle. The god of Light Balian emerged from it and waved his hand stopping the pain John was feeling. Balian moved his hands and a mirror appeared, John went close to it and looked at himself. He seemed to have grown slightly also his muscles that were big to begin with were now like leather pulled over steel. They have grown in size and in density and John could feel the raw power that he wasn''t used to, in them. He continued looking at himself but other than the obvious changes he saw at first there was only one other thing that he noticed, he now had a softer silver gleam shining from his eyes. John was still observing his character when Balian suddenly said with a chuckle: "How do you feel as a new Demigod?" John answered in a daze: "...Yeah...I feel good..." But before John could calm down completely he jumped in fright when a piece of paper emerged before his eyes and went up in flames. Balian chuckled once again saying: " Don''t be scared that was just our Contract we signed the last time we met in person. It was invalidated as you yourself called for me as the only clause of the contract that no god would bother one of your blood." But suddenly the look on Balians face changed, he said: "Be careful in the future! I can''t tell you the details as Gods are not supposed to meddle with the world of the mortals too much but there will soon be a devastating war! Corruption befell one of our own and soon you may have to fight against a fallen and deranged god." John saw the face that balian made and he took his advice seriously and waved after the god of light as he vanished as he came, in a pillar of light. John was still thinking about what just happened when he looked at the notifications. [Forced Evolution Start...Assistance in Evolution detected...Evolution finished] [You have reached the rank of a Demigod] [Hidden Quest "Final Ascension" unlocked] Demigod A being that even though it is not immortal, its existence is still nearer to a god than a Mortal. The Demigod is able to use tiny amounts of Holy Power and faith to fuel his abilities in his specific area of expertise. The Area of Expertise is determined after the newly born demigod got used to his new existence. [Because of the Evolution of the Owner two new Dungeon floors were added to the Mausoleum of Titans] John was surprised when he read the last notification but also happy as he finally could craft some more new things... While John was thinking about his dungeon floors, Ullr tried the dungeon once again, he still was stuck on the third floor even though he tried for weeks to clear it. He brought Potions, enough arrows and all of his equipment was just repaired before he entered the dungeon. After all these attempts to clear this floor Ullr knew that he had to kill nearly every Automata before the Boss was emerging. The only thing that was bothering Ullr was that the boss seemed to change every time he saw him. Ullr ran into the room filled with scrap with his bow fully drawn and as soon as he saw the first movement he let go of the arrow and watched it flying while pulling out the next arrow out of his quiver. The Arrow flew through the air hitting a poor Scrapling with two Hammers as hands that it dragged behind itself as they were to big and heavy to be used by that Scrapling. But soon Arrows started flying rapidly as more and more Automata¡äs emerged from the piles of Scrap. Ullr even managed to hit a slightly damaged Smithing bot and the amounts of Bots he had fight visibly became less and less. When Ullrs quiver was empty Ullr pulled out a small Handax and cut of the Leather strap holding the quiver while smashing another Robot in the same swing of the ax. In the small break this maneuver got him he threw the Ax at the nearest robot crushing its metal skull while pulling out a new full quiver and throwing it over his shoulder. Ullr threw himself on the ground performing a Roll while pulling out three new Arrows which he fired in quick succession. The first and second arrow knocked a shield out of the hand of a Robot while the third arrow smashed its Mana Crystal. Ullr killed several more Robots and even some more Smithing Bots and soon the Flood of Automatas stopped giving Ullr time to take a deep breath when suddenly a Behemoth out of all kinds of metal emerged behind him with screeching metal parts. Ullr turned around and smirked and exchanged his nearly empty quiver with a new one. The behemoth grabbed several pieces of scrap crushed them and threw them after Ullr, he could evade most of them but there were still some places that he had blood flowing from. Ullr ignored it and planted an arrow were a person''s heart would be but nothing happened, unfortunately he could bring his bow to a full draw as he still he to evade every attack that was pointed at him so he tried just fire of as much arrows as he could. Even though most of the arrows didnt do a thing and glanced of, there were still some that dealt damage. Some arrows chipped of small pieces and Ullr was especially surprised when an arrow hit something like a Silver thread and half of an Arm suddenly fell of the behemoth. At first Ullr didn''t know what happened but after it happened again he understood that he had to hit these threads. But before he could use his new strategy one of his arrows hit a small tank the Behemoth was throwing after him and it exploded and released a splash of white thick substance. Ullr could not evade it in time and was hit and bathed in this substance, at first nothing happened Ullr drank an Antidote to be safe but it was no poison. Ullr then saw how the behemoth threw a punch with a giant fist at him and wanted to evade but he couldn''t move anymore. "Sh*** it''s glue..." Ullr cursed before the giant fist mashed him into meat paste... ...Ullr once again woke up in the Temple only to be surprised as the Pedestals that symbolised the gods of this place changed drastically since he was here last time. Now three of five pedestals had something on them, the second from the right showed a big silhouette of a person but it was still lacking to much details. The second from the left showed a woman with growings of her back that looked like wings she was more detailed than the other pedestal but you still couldn''t recognize anything else. But what Ullr was surprising the most was the Pedestal showing the main god of this temple, it was situated right in the middle and showed a Muscular Man holding up a big piece of metal. Also there was a small highly detailed Scrapling sitting to his feet. Ullr was surprised as the small Robot was more detailed than the big man and just as Ullr wanted to turn around to leave he saw a movement on the pedestal. Ullr was shocked when he observed an old man offering a small piece of metal to the altar when suddenly the small Robot to the feet of the god came to life and bowed down to pick the piece of metal up and let it vanish before becoming unmoving metal again. Ullr couldn''t believe his eyes and walked up to the pedestal and looked closely at the small robot only to discover that it was indeed a part of the pedestal and should not be able to move. But he was still curious, he pulled out a piece of scrap metal he had and held it up to offer it to the Pedestal. The robot once again came to life picked up the Metal and put it away. Ullr was startled when he got a notification that he was blessed. [Blessing of Scrap] Duration 2 Hours Your generous offer of Scrap was appreciated. Wind affinity up by 10%! Scrap metal near you start to glow slightly. Ullr couldn''t believe it Buffs through offerings were not common actually that was the first place were this was even a possibility. And Ullr was especially happy as the Wind affinity makes his Bow stronger so he decided to come here often to offer some metal... 99 Eva Langley Eva was swamped with work, some weeks ago they finally beat that Colossus that John created. Eva thought that it would get easier after it was removed from the game, but unfortunately one of her Coworkers slacked off and didn''t manage to delete the parts of the Angersteel colossus in time. Some Npcs came and collected them, that wouldn''t be a problem as they would be still able to obtain them from mere small Npcs. But the Npcs took these pieces to the Player Mephisto. They wanted to take the Pieces back from Mephisto but unfortunately he came from a rich family that hired one of the best lawyers in the country what extremely slowed down the Process. So before they had the chance to go through with the court one of their Core AI¡äs intervened while showing strange Error readings, as such it now was impossible to remove the Angersteel Colossus from the game without destabilising it to a non repairable degree. And now Eva worked from day to night to isolate the Angersteel Colossus from the Game but recently Virtec Inc. gave up on that endeavor as it wasn''t possible. When Eva thought about everything that happened since John started played a small jittering started in her hand forming a fist with the urge to punch a specific face. Also Eva thought to herself that she must have developed a sixth sense for John shenanigans as she had a strange urge to punch him in the last two days, but she pretended to not notice it and not to look after John to not have to deal with it. But Eva suddenly stopped working to lean back and think about the past... [Fifteen Years ago] Eva was just out of college freshly hired in the tiny company Virtec Inc., at least it seemed like it was a tiny company on the outside but Eva quickly noticed that strange men in Black suits wearing sunglasses came to the company several times a week, and employees weren''t supposed to talk with them. Eva didn''t care and worked herself as hard as she could, she started as a lowly programmer that just coded test files every day. But soon her appearance and her work ethics opened doors for promotions son in just five years she jumped up in the ranks and became one of the main programmers that worked on the company''s secret project: AI technology. At her first day in the new department she met her supervisor a cheerful man with good looks, he was well liked in the office, actually he seemed well liked by the world itself as no day would go by without something good happening to him. Most of the time he found some money while walking to work from which he treated his colleagues. It happened so often that it became a tradition to go out for lunch once a week. Eva wanted to remember him but strangely every time she thought about his name or face she had a sting in her head and she just couldn''t remember him more clearly. She only remembered how he welcomed her and showed her the job, they worked hand in hand and created the first independent AI¡äs which were still unstable. They worked very hard but couldn''t make progress because the Ai¡äs were breaking down shortly after their creation. Then her supervisor had a brilliant idea, he considered the environment they kept the AI¡äs in. Now the started working on a World and started inhabiting it with the AI prototypes they had. At first it seemed to work but soon the AI¡äs broke down again. Now Eva had an idea why not fuse all the AI¡äs together to form something like an overmind that works like an immune system by killing of all the Error producing AI¡äs and creating new ones. After some weeks of tweaking something astonishing happened. A small AI suddenly transformed and formed something like an AI God, everyone celebrated that day. And Eva started to develop feelings for the Supervisor over the time. She loved how they could work hours and hours on the same problem, and she loved the face he made when they found the solution for the problem. But when Eva wanted to remember what happened with them her memory got hazy again she just knew that she was given a letter and a name for the winner of some kind of lottery their company held. [Present] Eva held her head as it was still aching from trying to remember and started working again. While she was working she thought about John, even though she could swear that she never met him before they saw each other ingame, her feelings told her that there was something familiar about him that she remembers. But because she didn''t know from where she was subconsciously teasing him. It all started in the tutorial of the game, actually she was supposed to show him how to craft and stuff and had prepared several blueprints beforehand, but John just started without listening to her. He clumsily went to work and even though she was annoyed by this person as she had to work hours and hours more because of him winning the game, she still caught herself observing him while he was playing the game. He just felt like family to her but she hated that feeling because she felt like something was missing and she knew that it had to do something with her supervisor from back then who suddenly left the company. That''s why she was so cold to John, at least it was one of the reasons. The other reason was that he just creates something that threatens the fifteen years of Work she and her supervisor put into the project. Eva sighed and gave up and walked to the capsule, she had to get over Johns new shenanigans before more Chaos ensues from his creations. She logged in and found herself in her shiny silver body, she still was amazed every time when enters the game about this body John and his group of friends created. Eva walked through the halls of the dungeon in the direction of John¡äs workshop. As Eva was walking she saw Erika sparring with a Demon-o-bot, but as soon as Eva was seen she was pulled into the room by Erika and forced to spar with her. Eva respected Erika greatly, she saw how Erika had sad eyes with a strange gleam in them, Eva never asked what happened to her but she knew that it was something very bad. After some rounds of sparring (which she lost) she went on after telling Erika to come to the kitchen in an hour. Eva reached the Kitchen and saw Claire sitting in the kitchen, she walked in and was greeted by a smile. She asked Claire if she could make some tea in an hour and contact Vito to come online. Claire agreed and Eva walked towards the Workshop area. There she met Olaf working on some small metal parts. When Olaf saw her he put away the workpiece he was working on and pulled out a piece of scrap metal and heated it in the forge. They were talking while it heated up and after it was hot enough Olaf pulled it out of the flames and started working on it. Eva loved watching the old smith, even though he was old she felt like she could see bustling lifeforce every time his hammer hit the metal. Shortly after Olaf cooled down his workpiece and walked up to Eva and put something in her hair. She walked to a nearby mirror and saw a Rose made out of metal in her hair and even though it looked rough because it was polished this roughness made it look alive. She appreciated this gift and thanked Olaf and also asked him to come to the kitchen later. Then she walked into John¡äs workshop but it was empty so she walked around and looked at John latest workpieces. She saw some wood pieces and couldn''t hold back her laugh as they looked horrible and were obviously made by John. Then she saw some more Wooden workpieces made by Vito and admired the Craftsmanship. And while she finished her round around the Workshop she came to a table which had a small Black shiny wooden box on it. Eva opened the Box and found seven knives that looked like they were crafted by a Master at smithing. But Eva had a Bad premonition when she saw them so she appraised them, and went completely silent and still standing. Just at that moment John entered the workshop and saw Eva standing before the Carving knifes of Sin, he stopped in his tracks and tried to sneak out without Eva noticing him. But it was to late as Eva turned around so fast that you just could see a shadow of her movement and soon after John was flying through the workshop. But just as Eva calmed down again she saw that John looked somehow different so she appraised him too... Over the next half an Hour you could hear something heavy getting thrown through the Workshop until it was time to meet up in the kitchen... 100 Graverobbing for scrap Eva and John entered the kitchen and everyone had to hold back their laugh as the color of Johns skin changed from Silver white to an obsidian color, as a result of Eva¡äs serious talk with him. They said down and Eva started speaking. "We have a problem, we painstakingly fought to beat the angersteel Colossus but unfortunately the disassembled parts weren''t collected fast enough. Before out GM¡äs could reach the site were the battle took place, the parts were already collected by a group of Npc¡äs. As a result we couldn''t delete it directly anymore, we tried to obtain the pieces from the Npc¡äs but before we tracked them down the had already given the pieces away to a player. We tried to threaten the user like we threatened John but he used his wealth to slow us down. And now the system adapted the Angersteel Colossus as an important part of the Game and we cant delete it anymore without obtaining them by legitimate means. Also a Main Entity intervened to help the player that controls the Colossus now." John wanted to protest when he heard that he was screwed over by them when he crafted that shovel, but was instantly silenced when he saw Eva''s look on her face shooting daggers in his direction. When the group of friends heard that their mood went down as they remembered the hard fight against the Angersteel Colossus but suddenly John said: "Eva you said that a Main entity intervened? When i evolved to a Demigod Balian the god of light came and..." John was startled and started shaking when he looked at Eva¡äs reaction when he mentioned the God of Light "...he told me that a god was corrupted because she hated me as i opposed her..." John flinched because Eva clenched her fist when she heard that it was his fault again "...and he told me that i should be careful as a war will probably happen soon because of that..." Suddenly as John finished his sentenced he was interrupted by a loud bang as his head was punched by Eva and he flew head first in the wall that was four to five meters away. At first total silence followed until Olaf let out a hearty laugh which was quickly followed by Erika and Vito laughing while Claire tried to pull out John¡äs head out of the wall... ...Ullr was ready for another try on the third floor of the dungeon, he prepared had the right mindset and once again walked into the room with his Bow already fully drawn. When he saw a movement he let go of the arrow and saw how it hit this strange Monkey like robot that was scrounging through the scrap. He didn''t stop to take a nearer look on the robot and continued firing his bow. After an hour of fighting and several superficial wounds the robots stopped coming but Ullr was scared as he didnt see the boss yet and started walking through the dungeon at a snail''s pace. As he advanced Ullr started to get really scared and mentally exhausted as he expected to get squashed out of any direction. Ullr heart sank when he was just ten meters away from the stairs down to the next floor and hecticly turned around to leave no blind spot. Only when he went down the stairs and reached the fourth floor his panic and paranoia stopped but he decided that he would stop playing for today as he felt extremely tired... ...Scrappy felt like he was in heaven, they recently reached a Valley where strange bulky humanoid shaped Rock were lining the walls. Soon the Rocks got bigger and suddenly some of them started to be out of Metal. Scholar¡äs would recognize this place as a Golem Graveyard. The race of Golems were a rare race, some say that they were the descendants of the group of titans that refused to get a soul resulting in these humanoid moving bulks of material. They couldn''t talk with other races but they still had a complicated ranking system in their society. They rank themselves after the material they are made of and how big they were and also if a Golem would leave behind a corpse after it died. Usually you could classify the golems into three Groups, the Golems made out of solids, the golems that were made out of fluid, and the special Golems that were made out of strange materials like Flesh. A special Golem would always be ranked above the Fluid Golems but they would be ranked under even the smallest and most common solid Golem. So a Mud Golem would be ranked as a Fluid Golem with a material value of one, and as they melted when they died they wouldnt leave behind a corpse so their ranking would be highly dependant of their size. But a solid Golem like a Rock golem also had a material value of one but would leave behind a Corpse so they would get a high rank in rise and after that their size would also add to the Rank. And as Golem where highly artistic they used their corpse to build these impressive graveyards by cleaving steps into the Rock walls and arranging their corpses by their rankings. So Scrappy saw the lowly ranked Stone golems on the Walls of the valley first but soon the first metal golems like tin and zinc golems. But to the Golems demise scrappy didn''t care about their artistic value he just saw tons of scrap. He used his new power of creating small portals to knock down several Golem while junky and sylphids also got to work. Soon rumbling echoed through the valley as the golem corpses where falling on the ground. Soon after the first golem fell to the ground a group of living golems were walking towards Scrappy. Most of them were either mud or rock golems but there also were several metal golems like copper and steel and even a single large silver golem that led the group. As the group of golems came nearer and saw what Scrappy and his minions did they quickened their steps like they were angry. But they didn''t know that they looked to Scrappy like a walking piece of scrap. Never in the wildest dream had Scrappy imagined that there would be something so beautiful in this world like these walking piles of Scrap. The mud and Rock golems were following their leaders when they saw a shadow flying by and the somehow overtook their metal brethren. The stopped in their tracks when they heard a strange rumbling behind them and they turned around. But the were scared when they saw their higher ranked brother getting sliced up by a small metal figure. They backed away and started running back to their homes to get reinforcements as Scrappy was cleaving apart their poor brethren with glee. After Scrappy was finished he continued knocking down the other corpses with his minions. Soon more Golem running, basically every high ranked golem charged at Scrappy while the lower ranked golems followed slightly scared. Scrappy looked up and focused his eyes on the metal golems and started running with glee, as the lower ranked golems started to flinch. Scrappy ran right through the first metal golem and sliced it apart. The other metal golems soon followed every death more gruesome than the other. After the third kill where Scrappy clawed apart a steel golem the first lower ranked Golems started to run away. After the tenth golem was slain by Scrappy even the lower ranked metal golems started to flee. But soon most of the Golems crouched down and held their head with their hands and waited for their death. But when the dust settled down only the non-metal golems were left and Scrappy and his minions had already went on their way. Scrappy was happily humming when he thought about the giant amount of scrap he collected today. Scrappy was so happy that he even stopped his journey and played some rounds of catch with Junky with Junky¡äs beloved Scrap Pipe. After this traumatising event there was a group of golems that didn''t follow their old ranking system anymore, they didn''t even created Golem Graveyards anymore and even destroyed every trace of their brethrens corpses while exiling every metal golem so that they''d never see something like that again... ...John was still recovering from when he his head was stuck in the wall while Claire gave him a sweet drink, when he got a notification. [One of your creations got the title "Golems Bane" by eradicating dozens of poor unfortunate golems.] John was dumbfounded and wanted to close the notification as fast as possible, but before that he warily looked around him when Eva suddenly stood behind him and said: "John...what kind of mess did you now produce...just tell i promise i won''t be angry." John flinched and surrendered himself to his fate... 101 Crafting new Monsters John has been learning woodworking from Vito for some time now, and after learning that John learned a craft easier if he used his own imagination Vito changed his lectures resulting in a tremendous growth of skill. And now John decided that it was time to put his newly learned skills to the test. John crafted a special version of a smithing not from scratch, he started by redesigning and optimizing the frame while adding a higher range of movement to the joints. He took some material off of pieces and added some on other places. He shifted some gears around and made some more room through that. John added a completely new second gear system that would power several new arms he added to the back of the automata. John slightly changed the hammer while also adding a second hammer made out of wood on another arm. Next, he added an arm with a chisel as well as an arm with a saw. But John wasn''t satisfied yet he scrapped his first prototype and changed the shoulder joints to a rotating cylinder with several attachment points for arms or other tools. He then reattached all the arms he added to his first prototype while also adding several more with all kinds of tools like several different carvings knives, a polishing wheel as well as a nimble hand with five fingers with slightly more joints in the fingers than a human has to make complex movements. To be honest, John completely forgot what actually wanted to do, he wasted a whole adding all kinds of doodads, thingies, and gadgets to his new version of a crafting robot. But John had fun nonetheless if someone told him some years ago the he would one day be as happy and as interested in crafting and working on all kinds of materials, he would have laughed at them or even punched them in the face probably while breaking one or two of his fingers doing that. Crafting Bot MK.11 Rank Rare Race Machine The eleventh iteration of a Modification of a Smithing bot. It''s improved gearing and body allows it use and move several new arms with all kinds of tools. Although it is improved to be able to craft nearly anything it does not excel in any craft like a specialized Automata. John got back to crafting the next day and started working on the new monsters for his dungeon. He went down to the seventh floor and started the dungeon designer. he looked through the themes he was able to pick, and his eyes stopped at a mixed forest floor. John thought about it for a moment after which he decided and picked the mixed forest. But after it was finished creating the random environment John started changing some stuff, he started by changing some trees randomly to metal and also added a big Temple in the middle of the forest. The temple John added would be the staircase that led down to the next floor so that the players had a landmark they could follow. Next John ordered several Mining bots and some scraplings to carefully uproot several trees and to bring them to his workshop. His minions got to work and his workshop was soon filled with the first tree. The first thing John did was trimming down the branches without destroying them, next he hollowed them and the stem out so that he could fit the gear system inside. At first John wanted to use metal gears but he didn''t like this as it felt strange to him putting metal inside trees. So John tried using wooden gears and was extremely happy with that as they made a creepy sound when they were rubbing against each other like a tree that is hit by a storm. John took his time carving the gears he needed for his new creation as he wasn''t used to working with wood to that extent. When they were finished John added them to the hollowed out tree and started working on the branches. He started by reinforcing them with steel and adding several joints to facilitate movement. Slowly his creation came together and soon the tree he had hollowed out and the branches cut of was back in one piece. What was left was adding a mana crystal and carving in a creepy face. John started carving and added tiny recesses that functioned as eyes and a mouth that you could only see in the right light or when they had a light inside. But now John had another idea he quickly crafted another small gear and a wooden board which attached to the side of the gear. he grabbed inside of the tree and installed the new wooden parts after which he added the master crystal beneath it. Now the Tree monster he created could use the Light the Mana crystal gave off the illuminate its eyes and mouth while also dimming it down to blend in with the other trees. Artificial Treant (stationary) Rank Rare Race Machine/Plant An artificial treant that blends into a forest preying on unsuspecting passerbys by smashing them with its mighty branches to uses them as fertilizer. John even made a second version of this monster out of a smaller tree with the ability to walk Artificial Treant (moving) Rank Rare Race Machine/Plant An artificial treant that blends into a forest preying on unsuspecting passerbys by smashing them with its mighty branches to uses them as fertilizer. Modifications on its roots allows this treant to walk and change places to confuse its victims. Now John wanted to make a boss but even though he did like the idea of one massive king treant it seemed kind of boring but he still decided to get to work and think of something while crafting. John was still in deep thought when his minions brought a giant tree that bloomed with life. John once again stripped the tree of all the useless stuff and hollowed it out. He started crafting to gears out of wood but they were too weak to withstand the enormous pressure so John had to craft them out of metal. But John did like the sound that was created by the wooden gears so he used special grease to lubricate so that the metal gears wouldn''t be so loud and added several wooden gears inside the boss to just produce that creaking sound. The rest of the work went smoothless, the missing gear were added, the new joints where attached to the branches and several Mana Crystals were fused to a Mana gem with the help of Olaf. And just an hour later the boss was finished. Woody, King of treants Rank Unique Race Machine/Plant A giant artificial treant with tremendous might and size. Even though it can be mistaken as a tree it is so big that it can''t blend in like his smaller brethren. With branches thick as a small tree and roots that trap careless passerbys, it is a nightmare to fight. Because the King of treant is so big it is unable to uproot itself to move around. John was satisfied with his creation but he still thought that something was missing, but he just couldn''t think of something so he just added something to every treant. John crafted nuts, pine cones and even let some treants grow some apples by giving them healing potions. Some fruits or nuts he crafted were explosive, some released poison gas when thrown and some just were heavy. With these creation he armed the treants to give them a fighting chance of killing someone like a mage. But John just couldn''t go offline because he still thought that he had to add something else to this dungeon floor, something that fits the theme of the forest but is also not a tree. John even asked Olaf to help him design and craft several animals out of metal that didn''t fight but added character to the forest. They started with cutes foxes and rabbits after which they tried themselves on some birds and John even created a deer. But suddenly John knew what was missing, his forest needed a caretaker, someone that looked after the trees and defended them against other. He really needed a caretaker, but he didnt think about some kind of animal that just says: "ONLY YOU can prevent forest fires!" No he wanted something special something that would fit in this world that was dominated by fantasy. And John decided soon after he had the idea, there could only be one being suitable to take on this position. Only one creature really fit into the theme of this floor, it was staple in many fantasy settings and lives with the forest in symbiosis. But John knew that if he really did craft this being he would be punched by Eva again so he still had to gather the courage to craft it. But deep inside he knew that he had to craft it even though a beating by Eva was imminent... 102 A new Sin is born John still thought about his plan to create the perfect caretaker of his forest dungeon floor but he had to try some stuff before he could really start working on it. John always thought that the reality forging was slightly to weak as he just could forge without an anvil. But John knew that there had to be more to this skill so he got to work with two hammers in hand, he grabbed several pieces of steel and some pieces of wood and stacked them in an alternating fashion. He gathered his mind and started forging without heating up his billet, at first he started slowly to test his assumption, then after several hit got in and the wood started fusing with the steel he quickened the pace of his hits while forging the billet out and folding it. After several fold he took the piece he forged and appraised this moss green metal bar. Lifesong Steel Rank Exotic Steel infused with life, it will ignite life in everything it is used to create but without a corresponding soul the crafted item would be dying after some time if the lifeforce is not recharged. This Steel has a high adaptability. John was extremely pleased with the outcome but he still needed to experiment with this newly created metal, he made several more pieces and started more testing. His first test trying to change the texture of the metal so he started forging the metal again while thinking about rubber, and soon after some more foldings the metal changed to a rubbery texture, but when john tried to change the texture back it crumbled down to dust. He was a little disappointed with this outcome but he just kept on testing, he grabbed two more pieces and forged them while thinking about how they would fuse with each other when they touched and received a trigger from mana. After both of them were forged John laid them next to each other so that they touched and send a slight wave of mana, both of them fused perfectly without a hitch. Now John wanted to know if he could change different properties of the metal at the same time so he used every propertie he used in his former tests and tried forging it. It did take a little longer until John felt that the metal was infused enough with his intention but it worked flawlessly. Now John could start working on his new creation, but he first checked that Eva wasnt online. He made several more pieces of the Lifesong Steel and got to work. He started with a normal human sized frame out of a Mythril silver alloy, next were the gear which he casted out of the same material. Everything he did was poor standard for him, he assembled dozens of similar automata frames to this point but the real challenge came when he was finished with the barebone from. John let his minions procure some vines while forging out a adamantite thread he soaked in the metal softening solution, he made it thinner than a hair after which he cut it in small pieces of about ten centimeters. Next he started braiding these pieces to several strands. John then infused mana in them and put them in the core of the Vines his minions brought. He then quickly grabbed his hammer to fuse the vines to the adamantite with reality forging. When he now stopped the mana supply the vines contracted together with the adamantite back to ten centimeters without getting thicker. Now John cut all the vines to different lengths to be used as fingers. Also to add a little extra John quickly forged out several sharp pointy fingernails out of adamantite and attached the to the vines. John grinded the vines a bit thinner so that they would look a little bit more feminine and started working on the rest of the body after that. He started by creating more Lifesong Steel and when he had enough of it he started forging it again with a specific intention, he wanted it to have a texture like human skin but more durable, he also wanted it to fuse with other lifesong metal after it was infused with mana and the last thing he added came to his mind just before he wanted to start forging it. He wanted the metal to change to how it is needed. He started with this intention and piece by piece was finished and added to the frame. John had long thought about how his caretaker should look like and he just couldn''t leave out some of his real life "inspirations". So as he was adding to the frame it was getting more and more feminine and sexy, the size of certain parts were more than appropriate and a feast to the eyes. Naturally John didnt let it get to indecent by covering most of the skin on the risky parts with a flowing dress out of leafs and flowers. But even though the female figure was fully clothed it emitted an aura of life that swept away the weakly minded without effort. After the "flesh and skin" was finished John started working on the hair so he took more lifesong Steel and forged it to form long flowing hair that was flowing down from the head down over the shoulder to the hips. John was nearly finished, he added the mana Crystal which he added the last piece of "flesh" and watched how the skin pieces fused together after he infused mana into the body. As Jonah was finished the female figure started moving, she looked at her hand and body in an alluring fashion, you could basically see how a strange shine surrounded her body and weak minded players would lay down their lives to kneel in front of her. But John was not affected he felt that he was more like a father to his creations, they were his children, something that he created with his own hands and sweat. The last thing John wanted to do was giving her a Voice, he grabbed a mimic horn and carved it into shape. He asked his creation to open her mouth and added it inside and ask her to test it. But the female Automata didn''t start talking how John expected as suddenly a female voice echoed through the workshop singing a light an alluring melody in a soft soprano. Now that John was finished with admiring the final form of his creation it was time to appraise the female Automata. Dryas, Dryad of the Titan¡äs Forest Rank Special Race Plant/Homunculus Masterful Craftsmanship and a Spark of life brought this being into existence. A Dryad, caretaker of a Forest, it does have ways to fight like using her fingers as Vine whips but other than that a dryad is not suited for battle. But that doesn''t mean that Dryad are not dangerous, they use their appearance and their skill in singing to entrance unsuspecting victim to "prey" on them. They absorb the lifeforce of their victims to survive while giving the corpses to their symbiotic partner that is usually the strongest Tree or treant in the forest. Some say dying through a dryad might be the most enjoyable ways to die, others are so scared that they''d never enter a forest where it is known that i dryad lives in it. John was surprised when he read the description, as he didnt expect that she had to be supplied with lifeforce somehow. He started thinking how he should do it as he knew that he would get a beating from every of his female friend if they were to see his newest creation. But John had to try he ordered Dryas to follow him as he silently walked through the corridors of his dungeon. Luckily for him neither Eva, Erika nor Claire were online. He kept on walking when suddenly his heart stopped for a second as a notification that Erika came online popped up just as he was walking by the training hall. He quickly started running dragging Dryas behind him and could just run around the next corner before Erika put her head through the doorway to look outside as she thought that she heard something. John tried to catch some breath while also getting his heartbeat under control. After he calmed down he started sneaking again to not alarm anyone, but just as he was leaving the kitchen another notification that Claire has come online pinged. Expecting the worst he quickly grabbed Dryas shoving her behind him out of the kitchen. Claire said hi to him when she recovered from the usual disorientation when you entered the game, John quickly said high and wanted to leave the Kitchen in a hurry thinking that he managed to get Dryas out without anyone noticing her when suddenly Eva came online. John really wanted to go now when he suddenly heard Eva¡äs voice behind her where he was hiding Dryas. "...It seems like you had fun today..." an icy aura krept up to John as he heard Eva. Suddenly John was flying back into the Kitchen against a wall and got his head stuck again. Claire came running quickly pulling John out of the wall wanting to comfort him when she saw what Eva brought into the room what John was hiding. The next thing John knew that he once again felt a dark aura and his head was stuck in the wall again after a punch from Claire. John managed to pull out his head from the wall when Erika came running into the room donning her full armor to look what the commotion was. It took a while before Erika took in the picture but when she saw Dryas and found out that John created her she looked at him with disgust and his head ended once again in the wall deeper than before. John thought, now that he already had been punished he could let Dryas go to gather her lifeforce alone. But later John would find out that one of his carving knifes of sin changed color to a slight pinkish tone... 103 Self experimen John still had to collect himself from being stuck in the wall several times. He was kneeling in front Eva, Erika and Claire and apologized. Claire was the first one to give in and forgive him, shortly after Erika also accepted his apology only Eva kept on giving him a death glare. But soon Eva sighed and asked him to show her his new dungeon floor, he obliged and the whole group of friends followed him to the lowest floor. At first Claire and Erika let out an surprised gasp when they saw how the light of an artificial sun shined through the tree crowns illuminating only part of this lush forest that was filled with trees that looked like they were here since the beginning of time. Especially the Giant tree that could be seen sitting in the middle of the forest gave an astonishing sight. Even Eva liked the appearance and atmosphere of this dungeon floor even though she would never show it. The group of friend walked into the forest and followed a narrow path through the trees, even when they wanted to leave the trail they couldn''t as the Trees and vegetation were too abundant to even see farther than three meters into the forest outside of the trail. Suddenly when they were already walking for some time a tree next to the trail started bowing down showing loyalty to his creator. The group of friends except John were startled by the sudden movement of a tree but John explained them that they were his creations Artificial treants. Eva creased her eyebrow but didn''t say anything because she got slightly used to John¡äs shenanigans and his "special" creations. Soon the group of friends saw more and more treants bowing down to their master, some even stood up and walked to them to greet them more appropriately. Eva did try to calm down but she still felt one of her brows flinching while her hand started to cramp up because it wanted to form a fist. John saw her shaking hand and knew what she thought and sighed internally happy that there was no wall nearby to get stuck in. But still he quickly got them to continue walking and soon they reached the Aztec temple he placed in the middle of the forest, in front of it throned a giant tree and Dryas the Dryad was dancing and Singing while she gracefully jumped from branch to branch only to land on the ground stroking the bark of the big tree. At first the female part of the group started to get angry again clenching their fist but when they really observed Dryas in her intended role they couldn''t help but calm down and accept that she really fit into this floor and that it would feel incomplete to them if she was removed even though Eva still had to punch John for creating something ridiculous again. Eva calmed down deciding that she punished John enough already when suddenly the giant tree moved and bowed down to express its loyalty too. Suddenly a loud bang echoed through the forest as Eva''s first floated a meter above the ground while John, that was celebrating inside that his head wouldn''t be stuck in a wall on this dungeon floor, was now trying to pull out his head out of the ground while every treant in the vicinity stood up straight and pretended to be a tree. Eva sighed and pulled John out of the ground by his collar and said: "I should have done this already but maybe experiencing your own dungeon helps you understand what you do to other players." So it was decide that the group of friend would raid John¡äs dungeon, everyone got their gear except Olaf who said that didn''t want to fight that much he would rather only play the game to craft to his heart''s content, the fight against the colossus was just an exception. So Erika, Eva , John, Claire and Vito got their gear and started on floor one, they knew what was coming and everyone except John read the guide on how to beat the floor, so after half an hour the smithing bot was beaten and the first floor of John?s dungeon was cleared. They went onto the second floor and at first it was easier as John knew every trap and could discern every Wall-ton as he created them. But soon they reached a tricky part, the boss of the second floor. Even though Eva could just run up to it and destroy it as her body was completely out metal she wanted John to come up with a solution. Eva was chuckling inside as waited for John to be destroyed by his own creation, but John seemed to have an idea. He left his friends behind and walked back the way they came. After a short while they heard the creaking of metal and battle sounds out of the Corridor John went into but they couldn''t be heard for long it suddenly became silent before they could hear the sound of metal scraping against stone. John came back shoving a destroyed Wall-ton in front of him walking in leisurely pace past his friends and in the direction of the boss. His friends looked at him like he was a unicorn wearing high heels playing on an accordion as he was advancing with the wall-ton in hand. When John reached half of the distance he suddenly grabbed the Wall-ton tighter spun it around his body and threw it after the boss and destroyed it with one hit. John looked behind as his friends didn''t catch up to him only to see that that everyone except Eva stared at him with disbelieve. Eva was just standing there one hand on her forehead and shaking her head thinking about that she forgot that John was one of the few people in the game that already achieved an unbelievable amount of strength that is probably in the top three of the server. They continued onwards clearing the third floor without problems as John knew all peculiars about his creations, they also cleared the fourth floor easily as John knew that the small monkey like robot was in fact the boss of this floor so the killed it early while Eva cursed at herself for thinking that John would get a reality check from trying his own dungeon yet they ran through it in a breeze... ...Ullr was prepared to try the next floor he still didn''t know why the boss of the fourth floor didnt come but he decided to ignore it as it allowed him to get the fifth floor. But before Ullr started going to the dungeon he looked at the picture he took of the mosaic of the next floor, but to his surprised it was somehow pixelated and unreadable. He tried everything, zooming in, zooming out but nothing help until he realized that is was because he had the censoring filter on. Ullr was slightly surprised as he just couldn''t imagine why something like this mosaic would be censored until he turned it of and looked at it. He couldn''t believe his eyes as he saw strange flying creatures attacking people holding a lantern while their hand was bleeding. But the most disturbing thing was that some of those depicted people were holding different body parts in agony as strange dark lines were drawn on their body. But Ullr quickly realized that those "lines" where in reality some kind of worms or larvae that ate the flesh of their victims while they were still alive. Ullr couldn''t help but shudder a bit when he thought about what kind of sensation it would when a worm was eating itself through your body in a visible pace that lets you see it crawling under your skin. A terrible way to die Ullr thought so he decide to take some precautionary measures and bought several poison capsule he could eat to escape this cruel fate. When he was ready he walked to the dungeon to try his luck... ...John and his friend reached the entrance to the fifth floor but he stopped in his tracks and turned around and said: "Maybe it would be better if we just go to the sixth floor without beating the fifth one as it is not suitable for the female members of our group..." Eva who didn''t know what kind of monsters he put on this floor was slightly happy as she thought that there was finally a floor that could be a problem for John so she nearly wanted to say that they would continue with this floor but fortunately for her she saw the mosaic first and discovered what was waiting for them. She quickly changed her mind and wanted to say that it was a good idea to go straight to the sixth floor when suddenly a manly voice angrily sounded behind them... "Why do you have that Armband?" A male Voice roared behind them... 104 Reminiscing John sat in the kitchen of his dungeon all of his friends already went offline leaving Johnny behind with his thoughts. He was reminiscing in the past thinking about his childhood... He remembered when he was a six year old Lad, he and his brother just started school and before they even reached the school he already fell down twice scratching his brand new school bag and spreading all of his books and pencils on the floor. John started crying but his brother just grabbed his bag and started collecting everything after he gave his school bag to John. At first John thanked his brother after he stopped crying, but when they started walking again they had to walk through the shopping district that was alive with crowds of people. The walked past a school supply store when suddenly a clerk came and stopped them, he saw the scratched bag on the back of his brother and said: " Wait boy, i saw you buying this school bag with parents some days ago, it must have been an oversight on our part and i am deeply sorry for not noticing that our product was this damaged. Here take this new model its the last one we have in stock as an apology." John could just watch completely startled how his brother got a new premium backpack because John damaged his own and his brother took it. John now had a sour taste in his mouth when they walked the rest of the way and finally reached their school. They got to their classroom and the female teacher called their names one by one until only John was not called yet. Suddenly the teacher closed her notebook and wanted to start the class but John quickly stood up and said that his name wasn''t called yet. The teacher looked at him with a strange face and asked for his name and looked at the list again but couldn''t find him. She seemed to get slightly annoyed because the time that got lost by this problem and maybe she thought that John wanted to make trouble by going to the wrong class. It seemed that the teacher had no intention of wasting anymore time with him so she just sent him to the principal to find a solution for this problem. John was already expecting that something bad like that would happen so he just stood up took his stuff and wanted to leave the room while the teacher started her lesson. But as he was walking past his classmates one of them thought it would be funny to let John trip over a leg. John who wasn''t expecting that started tumbling while moving forward uncontrollably, out of reflex he tried to stabilise himself by using something as a support as he was falling, unfortunately grabbing the big ruler for the blackboard that was laying on the desk of his teacher. But to Johns demise this ruler didn''t stop his fall but instead would soar through the air hitting the teacher on the back of the head. Now his teacher turned around looking really pissed, she grabbed John by his ear and pulled him to the principal. But the principal was not in his office so the teacher left him with the secretary telling her that he causes trouble by coming to the wrong class while also hitting her with a ruler after she send him to the principal. The time went by and the school was nearly finished when the principal came back, she was a buttoned up lady with a stern face wearing a short skirt with a greyish brown vest. She heard everything from the secretary and pulled John into the office and harshly scolded him, but that wasn''t all. She wanted to know in which class he was supposed to go so he told her that he was in the class he was supposed to, but now the principal became even more angry. She looked on her computer and searched for his name realizing that he wasn''t assigned to any class but she didn''t apologize but instead entered his name into the class for the troublemakers and misfits. John also got detention for assaulting a teacher and his parents were called so that would be coming to school. Suddenly a knock could be heard from the door and John''s brother entered the room he walked up to the principal greeted her politely and handed her a pair of glasses, the principal smiled at the kind young boy and complimented him even giving him a piece of chocolate while made a special mark on the file of his brother. John gave his brother a sign that everything was okay and that he should go back to class without him. And just after his brother left the smile on the principals face vanished and John got another round of scolding asking him why he couldn''t be like this young gentleman that was here just now. The scolding went on for quite some time until his father came to school pulling out a flask and taking a sip whenever he felt like it. He walked to the Principal''s office with a slight tumblr, he knocked went inside and got briefed by the principal on what happened today. John knew what was happening now, he walked up to his father and he soon after felt the first slap on his face, the principal looked surprised but slightly happy she never expected that there would still be someone who was a real parent not one of those wishy washy parents. The principal thought that a well placed and deserved punishment were the best upbringing a child could have. John¡äs father and the principal came along brilliantly as they were talking about the "appropriate" punishment for bad apples. But John could only hold his cheek that was burning like fire and hold back his tears, he knew that he had to take this punishment or his father would have hurt him more than he had with this slap. The following years in school were no different than his first day, he got pushed around by his classmates, punished by the teachers and beaten up by his father but everytime his brother tried to help him John turned his back to him saying that he didn''t need help not wanting to pull him into his problems. Naturally John didn''t have any friends when he was in school that is why John was hurt after everything that just happened in the game. Ullr was the first real best friend he had, he did consider Claire, Erika, Eva, Olaf and Vito as his friends too but it just felt like something different when he spent time with Ullr. But now Ullr hated him, he suddenly was behind them in the dungeon and asked why John had the Armband Ullr crafted until Ullr realized that John was Schmied. Ullr looked at him with disgust and had an hurt look in his eyes, as if something hurt him really deep inside. What followed was Ullr yelling at John with tears in his eyes about his brother that got tortured because of John and that he had to take revenge on John. He kept on telling and asking John if it wasn''t enough to just torture him with the dungeon but also pitying him by giving him Weapons, armor and even taking out a Boss out of a dungeon floor to make it easier for him. John couldn''t say anything as Ullr kept on yelling and after Ullr had to catch for breath he just added that he would go now letting John get away to pay up the debt for the weapons and armor but when he saw him again he would try to kill him. And the last thing John could see from Ullr was a single tear flowing down Ullrs cheek dripping to the ground while Ullr turned around and left the dungeon. John felt empty and his friends looked at him in worry, the got back to the kitchen knowing that John wasn''t in the condition to keep on raiding his own dungeon. Olaf was the first one to move he stood up patting John on the shoulder after which he grabbed Vito and pulled him into the direction of the workshop asking him about the different pieces of wood he could use for a sword handle. Soon after Eva and Erika followed their lead and logged off, only Claire was left she stood up and hugged John from behind while a single tear was flowing down her cheek, she also logged off. John felt empty and also left the game and grabbed his jacket from the coathanger and went outside into the rain. After just twenty meters he was already drenched and freezing but he kept walking until he reached a dark wooden door in a small alley with a pink flickering neon sign above it showing a bottle. John walked up to the counter and was given a towel by the barkeeper to dry himself of after he ordered a long island iced tea. The bar was small and the atmosphere was outdated so not many customers were around only a couple of heavy drinkers the drowned their sorrows with their last penny. John looked around and saw a seemingly rich guy entering the bar with a drenched suit planting himself down next to John ordering a drink... 105 Getting smashed John was sitting on the counter of the bar sipping his Long Island Iced Tea, next to him a seemingly rich guy sat down. The Rich guy ordered the most expensive whiskey the Bar had to offer and just dropped a bundle of cash on the counter taking the whole bottle out of the hands of the confused barkeeper. The rich guy saw that John was watching him, he suddenly grabbed a second glass from behind the counter and pour the whiskey in it too after which he slided the glass to John and said: "Hey buddy you look as depressed as me so here share a drink with me..." John thanked him and downed the whole glass together with him. A sharp burning sensation ran down his throat and up his nose after which a feeling of warmth spread throughout his body. "I am Constantine...here have another!" The rich guy said filling his and John''s glass again. John was startled he quickly introduced himself and wanted to decline the drink as a single glass of that whiskey costs over $50 but Constantine just put it in front of John and gave him a meaningful look basically telling him that money didn''t mean anything to him. John nodded and both of them downed another round. They were not talking much as they knew that both of them felt empty inside, the only sound both of them made was the filling of the glasses and the gulping down of their drinks. Soon the bottle was empty and a new one was opened by the barkeeper, everyone in the bar observed the strange couple that downed extremely expensive alcohol as if it was water. But everyone felt like the observed something special that happened that evening, two strangers that by chance came into the same bar, sat next to each other and filled their glasses to wash away their sorrow forming a deep bond that no one except them could understand. But no one expected what happened next, the bar had an old dusty karaoke machine that wasn''t used much as most of the customers were to old or too drunk to sing karaoke but somehow John and Constantine, who both were already quite drunk, looked at each other and nodded. John took the first song he grabbed the microphone and surprisingly had a nice sounding low voice in the bass range while he sang the Song "Daddy sang bass". After the Song everyone applauded and Constantine answered with his soulful interpretation of "Stand by me". Once again everyone applauded but then both of them took it to the next level. John grabbed another microphone and suddenly both of them were singing their rendition of "Don''t Stop Believing". They didn''t even come to the refrain before everyone else in the bar was jamming and singing with them. The hours went by and the alcohol flowed freely, the bar got with more and more people as they gazed at two friends jamming on the karaoke machine. The bartender was surprised and happy that he got John and Constantine as his customers, both of them paid a huge amount for their drinks and he never had more customers in his bar than now. So when Constantine was the first to pass out quickly followed by John the barkeeper took them with the help from some of the other customers upstairs and laid them on a bed and a sofa with a bucket and a bottle of water... ...John woke up and felt like a forty ton truck ran over his head several times, he quickly grabbed the bottle of water that was next to him and emptied it in one gulp. When he looked around he was startled at first as he didnt recognize this room but when he saw Constantine still dozing on the bed, he understood that they must have passed out yesterday after they got smashed. Also John didn''t know why but his throat felt rough and hoarse, he thought that he may have gotten a cold from the rain or something. John still a little bit dizzy stood up grabbed a piece of paper out of his pocket and wrote his telephone number and name on it with a sentence saying that he had fun and maybe they could drink together again someday. He walked out of the room greeted the bartender and thanked him. John walked outside and went on his way home... Shortly after Constantine woke up also with a head feeling like it was massaged by a sledge hammer, he found the small paper that John left and smiled as he really enjoyed the last evening. He put the paper in his pocket and also went outside giving the Barkeeper a generous tip as he left... ... John was back in the game something that he shouldn''t have down as he still felt dizzy and nauseous from the drinking. But he still had to think about something so he started crafting. John didn''t want to make anything special so he decided that he would create another automata just for fun. So he grabbed some simple steel and started working. he casted some gears and forged a frame, but as he still felt bad from the drinking yesterday his creation was far from perfect. The frame was bend the gears rough and god knows why John added a a strange backpack to it holding a metal pillow he created by throwing a metal block into his metal softening solution and a big piece of metal fabric. Maybe his subconsciousness made him add these items as he felt like he should go to sleep again. After a short while his new creation was finished and John was slightly embarrassed as it looked like a crooked dirty hobo from the street. He had a rough badly maintained appearance while dragging a metal pillow and bed sheet behind him. Dave Rank Hobo [Error] Race Machine A machine created by a Craftmaster when he was completely exhausted and intoxicated. Its tiny mana crystal can barely supply this inefficient design of a machine so it has to go in sleep-mode nearly all the time. John who really needed a bed right now just said that dave could do what he wanted and went offline to get some sleep... ...Dave was just born...yawn...but he was just so tired. At first he tried sleeping on the workbench but the wood didn''t feel right so he got and walked around the dungeon. He tried sleeping in the giant piles of scrap that were laying around on the fourth floor but everytime he fell asleep this strange monkey came and woke him up but trying to rip of his leg. Usually Dave didn''t mind anything but there was one thing that riled up his anger, and that was interrupting his sleep. So when the monkey came another time and woke Dave up, it suddenly missed and arm and ran away. But Dave wasn''t able to sleep peacefully as the monkey came back now trying to rip out his arm to replace the lost one. But now the head of the monkey was missing while the dead body tumbled down to the ground. But Dave couldn''t sleep in this place anymore as he was angered too much here. So he took his stuff and started walking again. He walked through the dungeon again, dragging his Pillow and bed sheet behind him on the ground. He walked up several floor and ended up in the forging area on floor one where it was nice and cozy warm. Dave laid down his stuff and was already dozing of when he felt like he was hovering and he woke up again only to find himself being transported by a group of small robots to a big pile of scrap metal next to the foundry. They once again stopped his beloved sleeping so something did get added to the scrap pile but it wasnt Dave. But right when Dave was in dreamland again the smithing bot started hammering to create new scrapling and was beheaded soon after... Scythe who became to overseer over the dungeon heard of the commotion a strange new robot was causing so he walked on floor four first and saw the poor remains of a monkey like robot. Next he quickened his pace and nearly ran to the first floor observing how Dave eliminated the scraplings and the smithing bot. But just as he wanted to say something to the strange robot it vanished out of his side and something grabbed him... Dave just finished that cursed robot that dared to interrupt his sleep with his hammering when he saw a figure clad in black cloth standing in the stairway leading to the next floor. Dave just couldn''t help it when he saw this black figure he rushed to it grabbing him and his black cloth. He ran with his captured target to the next column while grabbing a long metal pipe on the way. He rammed the metal pipe into the ground and bound Scythe cloth to the column and the metal pipe to form a makeshift hangmat. He jumped inside and started sleeping happily leaving Scythe in an interesting position as unbeknownst to anybody another of John¡äs carving knife started to slightly change its color to a bluish tone... 106 The City of Stahl Scrappy was still traveling around the world, he went where no player has been yet. It has already been a while since he terrorized the Golem community he met on his journey, but nothing really managed to quench his thirst for more scrap. It was like a neverending burning desire inside him that drove him forward. And everytime there would be a sliver of a chance to collect some Scrap, Scrappy would go forward just to get even the smallest piece of Scrap that he could find. Scrappy even started to develop a sixth sense for finding scrap, so he felt a strange poking when he was riding Junky, crossing plains of grass. He ordered Jnky to stopped and looked around the find the source of this feeling. He didn''t find it but when he looked to one specific direction the poking started to get stronger. So Scrappy didn''t think long about it and rode Junky in the direction the feeling pointed him to. At first it was only plains he saw but strangely the landscape was rough as if it was recently dug up, also there was no tree to be seen even in hundreds of miles and as nearer Scrappy came to the poking feeling the more the landscape changed. Soon the grass started to stop growing, next scrappy could see mounds of dug up earth and holes that looked like something was ripped out of it. Then it started to get dark, Scrappy looked up and saw what he thought were big clouds covering the sky. But soon Scrappy suddenly reached a giant unnatural cliff, he looked around seeing that this giant crater in the ground spanned of Kilometers. But still something was urging Scrappy to continue his journey in this direction, so he made the sylphids carry him down to the bottom of the crater. It took them several minutes to reach the bottom but when Scrappy looked around now he saw some strange hoses on the ground that were leaking a little bit of water while he also discovered that the cliff side were also soaked in water. But Scrappy didn''t care for the hoses or the rock on the cliff that looked like they were containing ample amounts of ore veins. He didn''t want to stoop so low again to gather this soon-to-be Scrap, he needed real scrap. Maybe he would collect gold nuggets as they were nearly real metal scrap not something like magnetite for iron. But as Scrappy was thinking about if Ores would count as scrap a strange rumbling ran through the ground. Scrappy looked around and saw strange water beams hitting the cliffside which soon after toppled down. Scrappy found that interesting and started walking toward this sight, and when he reached it Scrappy looked at it with surprise and interest. A group of dwarves was hammering an iron rod with a strange ring on one and into the ground, then some other dwarves walked over carrying one of the hoses Scrappy saw a while back. They attached it to the metal ring and shouted something to some other dwarves behind them. One of those dwarves who had a torch in hand turned around and waved it in the air. Suddenly Scrappy heard a screeching sound of metal rubbing against metal followed by a gushing sound like water would make if it was in free fall. Suddenly the hose that was attached to the metal ring started to vibrate and whistle as air came blowing out of it. Some seconds later a concentrated beam of water was thrown out of the hose hitting the stone wall that was about twenty meters away. Scrappy was in awe of the power the water had as he saw it bursting the the rock apart, but as fast as the water came it also stopped really quickly, and after it stopped gushing out of the hose the dwarves started working. They brought several wagons to the mining site and loaded them with the ore that the water burst out of the rocks. Scrappy knew that they were highly professional miners and that this ore would soon be the Scrap that he so liked, and that''s why he had an enormous amount of respect for the craft the Dwarves were performing right before his eyes. He even had so much respect for them that when suddenly some bad happened to one of the miners that he walked over to them and gave them a straight metal piece out of his priceless collection to help them treating a broken leg. The miner was hurt when a crack suddenly formed on the cliff letting several more rock tumble down, they rolled several meters into the direction of the crater and hitted the metal pole that held the water hose. The pole was bend by the sheer amount of weight the rock put on it and suddenly snapped in half. The top half of the pole soared through the air hitting a poor dwarf in the leg breaking it. The other dwarves quickly ran to the wounded and started treating him but when they wanted to treat the leg with a splint they noticed that they didn''t have one only some cloth stripes to stop bleeding. That was when Scrappy reached them grabbing a round metal bar out of his bucket and gave it to the dwarves that looked at him with surprised and thankful faces. They loaded the wounded onto a Wagon and glanced with an asking expression in Scrappy''s direction. Scrappy saw that and quickly jumped on the wagon too, he wanted to see how the city of these dwarves looked like. They were traveling for at least half an hour before the reached to first buildings but to Scrappy¡äs surprise these tower like buildings that reached high into the sky weren''t for living in them. A dwarf saw Scrappy¡äs interest in these towers and explained: "Those towers store water for us, there a big tank on top and we have a mechanism where we can open a valve that lets the water fall down a pipe that gets thinner the nearer it comes to the ground basicly speeding it up in this process to achieve a higher pressure. We then connect these pipes to the hoses we were using earlier to get the blast of water that burst apart the ore rich rock." Scrappy was intrigued and imagined what kind of interesting scrap he would get if this contraption was used with molten metal instead of water. They were still traveling when Scrappy noticed that the smoke that he thought of as clouds were getting thicker and darker. He soon found the reason for that as they reached a big industrial area were hundreds and hundreds of foundry were emitting smoke out of their chimneys. Scrappy really thought he was in heaven when he imagined how much scrap those foundry''s would produce and earned a hearty laugh from the dwarves as they observed him running and looking around like a child. Soon the wounded got of the wagon and given to professional medical personal but the wagon continued onwards as it was in the dwarven nature to thank their benefactor appropriately. Suddenly a group of dwarves came riding to them on what like giant rats and asked the dwarf angrily why they weren''t working. One of the miners explained the head guard what happened and that this small robot helped them, the guards attitude turned around completely when he heard that. He bowed down to Scrappy while sending one of the rat riders ahead and made the rest of his group take escort positions. Scrappy saw the dwarf ride away and once again felt this itching and poking he felt get stronger and was happy that the destination they were going to seemed to be the source of that itching. But suddenly a Dwarf said to Scrappy that he should look ahead to see to most beautiful city that he would ever see in his entire life. And the dwarf was right, Scrappy never expected to see something better than the treasury of the strange person. But now Scrappy gazed at something that he never imagined to be true, something that shook his core. Scrappy just couldn''t take his eyes away from this magnificent view, and pure joy was burned into his memory. It was even the first time after he got the spatial gem that Scrappy thought that his bucket might be to small. But Scrappy just could take enough in as he was gazing at this City. This City the dwarves built was completely made out of metal, the dwarves lovingly called it the "Earth¡äs Child born from Flames". It was the biggest pile of Scrap Scrappy had ever seen, the shining enormous City of "Stahl". The Giant crater they were traveling in was created just to build this city all earth that is missing from this crater was melted into metal while every tree in hundreds of miles around the City were consumed by the neverending fires of the foundry... 107 Thinking while crafting John woke up having recovered from his hangover, he still thought about how he could make up with Ullr but nothing came to his mind. Because of that he did the only thing that could help him think, he went online to craft something to calm down his mind. But John didn''t go to his workshop right away he started by walking around his dungeon for a while to check if something needed his attention. When he reached the first floor he felt a strange feeling and his feeling did hold true. He reached the Boss room and he could never have imagined what he saw, in the corner of the room were several scraplings and Junkling cowering in fear while the smithing bot that was installed was in shambles. John was surprised by that as usually a new one would be installed as soon as possible, but the next thing he saw was startling him even more. John turned around and saw big piles of dead players, John couldn''t believe his eyes as the first floor of the dungeon was already beatable by most of the players as all the informations about it were already widespread. But suddenly John heard a snoring sound and a tiny whimper, he looked toward the middle of all piles and saw the ugliest robot he ever saw in his entire life. It was laying on a makeshift hangmat that was suddenly moving and whimpering, John suddenly recognized it as Scythe that looked in his direction with pleading eyes. John just couldn''t comprehend this picture of an ugly robot violating and missing scythe as a hangmat, so he just turned around and thought that he was still a little drunk and decided to just go to crafting and that someone else would take care of that. Yes, he had to take extreme and Special measures to deal with this situation...Ignoring it. John reached his Workshop and thought about what he should do for the monsters of the eighth floor of his dungeon, if possible without getting hit by Eva again. The first thing was that he started with something basic he set the theme of this floor as a labyrinth again that fit the design of the temple he created on the seventh floor. But he changed this temple a bit by letting big roots grow through the whole temple so that they were partly covering every wall while also blocking some corridors. Next he started by preparing a massive amount of metal softening potion and filled a giant basin out of stone in the middle of the boss room in his dungeon. The roots that he created so that they covered the whole dungeon were all ending in this basin absorbing the contents of it. John didn''t waste time and threw an ample amount of steel ingots into the basin and observed them melt into the liquid as he didnt take them out as usual. Next he ordered several robots to harvest some of the roots that absorbed this metal solution while he also made another batch of metal softening potion in which he dissolved a mythril silver alloy, he also added some gold for good measure and put it aside. Next he started crafting dozens of sharp metal teeth out of all kinds of metals while using the Carving Knife of Greed to carve them. After that John started by making a small boxlike frame and added gears and the teeth to it adding the mana crystal last. The robot started to move even to it seemed completely unfinished as it was not finished yet. John wanted to use the ability the Carving knife of Sin gave to his creations for this creature, so he started by carving several planks out of the harvested roots and fed them to his creation while also giving it some Gold bars. Suddenly the materials the boxlike mech has eaten started to change its appearance to a wooden chest with golden inlays. John was finished with his first creation and looked at its info. Mimic of [Greed] Rank Normal(Growth) Race Contraption A mimic created by a craftmaster that used one of his sins to create better works. It completely looks like a treasure chest and even gathers treasures inside it but the sharp tooth in his mouth are an appropriate countermeasure against looters. By using a Sin to craft this creature it has been given the ability to incorporated every piece of wood or metal into its body to grow in size and strength. John was satisfied with the first creation while using one of the carving knifes of Sin so but he knew that Eva would hit him if he just used it for every monster in this dungeon, so he decided to make another monster without using it. John grabbed some more steel and a tiny amount of Adamantite and made an alloy out of them which he forged into long round bars. He threw them into the metal softening potion and started working on a giant root his minions brought him. He debarked it and hollowed out several stripes so that the bars he threw into the metal Softening solution would fit inside those grooves. Next he started working on the outside of this piece of wood and decorated it by carving Scales into it and added a sliver of poisonous mushroom oil to the outside to give it a nice shine while also dyeing it in an nice greenish color. Next he started working on another piece of wood and started carving out a snake head which he also treated with the oil and hollowed it out. He added a hinge for the mouth and quickly forged out some hollowed out teeth and some tubing and a metal tank. He added everything to the head piece and filled the tank with poison, he then took out he now soft metals rods and inserted them into the body part after which he attached the head to the body after he added the Mana crystal to it. John looked at his creation and started appraising it... Steelwood Snake Rank Rare Race Artificial beast A giant venomous snake that was created out of wood that absorbed liquified steel which gives it exceptional defensive properties. The body of this snake was also bathed in poison so that every living being gets poisoned if they touch the skin of this snake while having a wound. The Snake can also use its teeth to bite and inject Poison or constrict its prey with its sheer size. John was nearly finished with crafting all the monsters for this floor but he didn''t have an idea yet for how he could talk it out with Ullr. But John new that he should craft the boss for this floor yet with dark thoughts on his mind so he stopped crafting for now. He walked back to the kitchen were Claire was waiting for him with a cup of tea so they sat down and quietly drank the tea. Soon after Olaf and Erika came in and sat down too, while Erika just walked to Claire and sat down Olaf did smile and glanced at John with a knowing smile before sitting down, as he just came from the workshop too and knew that John once again did something outrageous. Shortly after Eva and Vito came online and while Vito just sat down and sipped on his tea Eva walked up to John and gave him a smack on the head while saying: "Could you please Stop?...I was just sleeping when a notification came that you just started crafting so i looked at what you were crafting and even though you did seem to show some restraint you still created something outrageous." Even though he was hit by Eva John suddenly felt like laughing as he could feel the support his friends were shown to him even though they weren''t saying anything. They knew that he felt bad after what has happened with Ullr, they didnt know why John was upset about it but they could still guess that John regarded Ullr as his friend and didn''t want to lose him. But John¡äs Joy didn''t last long as he still had no idea how he could talk with Ullr, He couldn''t force him to listen to him and let John explain everything. When John suddenly asked himself something, why couldn''t he force him to listen he made a devils contract with him and could use the favor Ullr owed him to make him listen, everything else would be on Ullrs side to decide. So John wanted to stand up and go searching for Ullr when an ear deafening sound roared through the room and a red light started blinking in front of Eva. [Emergency Alert!!! Emergency Alert!!! Subject with the codename SCRAP advances to the capital of the subject Race (Dwarf) codename STEEL Intervention may be needed please report back to HQ Emergency Alert!!! Emergency Alert!!!] Eva had a dark look on her face and logged of... 108 Scrappy′s Adventures in the City of Stahl Scrappy was still riding with the dwarves and was admiringly gazing and the beauty of the City of Stahl. He didn''t know that his Arrival there caused major problems somewhere else, some place Scrappy couldn''t even dare to imagine. But he just was entranced by the amount of metal that was used in this city. Everywhere he looked he saw metal buildings, metal tools and every item that could be made out of metal was made out of metal. Scrappy did find it funny that when he reached the big gate that was leading to the main part of the city he and the group of dwarves were stopped and separately escorted into a room and then covered with some fine cloth. Suddenly some dwarves poured metal filings over them after which they took the cloth away and the group could now enter the City. One of the dwarves apologized and explained that they were tested so that no magnetism comes into the city. He told Scrappy an old Story about several dwarves that died a horrible death when a Dwarven child brought a magnet into the city and ran around an oil tank that exploded by special magic that happened when magnetism and metals come together. Another Dwarf heard their chat and also told a story about a dwarf that unknowingly brought some magnetic ore into the city and when stepped onto the metal floor the magnetic ore was attracted to it and broke his spine killing him with that. Scrappy attentively listened to the story and couldn''t help but think about a piece of scrap that drew other pieces of scrap to it and sighed happily dreaming about it. But listening to stories wasn''t the only thing Scrappy did, he just couldn''t help himself from looking around in search for Scrap he could take with him without the dwarves noticing it. At first Scrappy started to use his small portals the tamper with the metal wagon they were riding on what resulted in a breakdown of the vehicle. The dwarves looked at the wagon and cursed, why would this wagon break down when they had a special guest that helped one of their own. It was unacceptable so one of the dwarves ran of to get a new wagon while every other dwarf apologized and bowed down to Scrappy. Scrappy still used that break to get more scrap first he used one of his portals and grabbed a strange hot bowl one of the female dwarves layed on her windowsill. It had a strange brown substance in it covered with several slices of fruit. Scrappy threw the contents away while no one was looking and they landed right in the lap of a poor old dwarf that was sleeping on a bench near the window Scrappy took the bowl from. While that was happening the Dwarf that went away came back with a new wagon and everyone got on and they carried on with their travel to the palace. Suddenly you could hear an outcry by a female dwarf, she came running out of her house holding a wooden rolling pin in her hand, even Scrappy started to feel fear when he saw her and thought that that wooden rolling pin must be some kind of divine weapon or something. As the wagon Scrappy was on turned around a corner he could just hear painful outcries of a poor dwarf. But Scrappy¡äs thirst for more Scrap wasn''t quenched but decided that he wouldn''t mess with the wagon anymore as he wanted to see more of the Scrap this City had to offer. The second thing Scrappy decided not to collect anymore were these strange bowls with the brown content with fruits, even he had developed a slight fear of rolling pins after the scene with the female dwarf. But now Scrappy something he was interested in a dwarf was operating a machine that was producing buckets by pressing down a giant stamp down on a yellow hot piece of steel. The Dwarves that were riding the wagon with him noticed his interested and proudly started describing and explaining the massive machine while Scrappy started to steal the finished buckets without anyone noticing. After he stole dozens of those buckets the wagon started driving again and soon after you could hear a dwarf yell at another dwarf that he should stop to slack of and produce more buckets. Also while no one was watching Scrappy he let out the sylphids sending them around the city to search for special and Scrap that was especially good to collect, not that any Scrap was unworthy of being collected but there was so much here that Scrappy had to decide which scrap he should take first before coming back later to take the rest. Soon they reached the palace and giant silver doors left Scrappy standing before them in awe but not because of the strange dwarves that were artfully carved into it. Suddenly the doors opened and a Dwarf in an attire of a blacksmith wearing a crown stepped out of the palace. He had a white beard that had hundreds of metal pieces woven into it and reached down to the floor, his face was covered in soot and ash. He had countless wrinkles but also a hearty welcome smile. The Dwarf welcomed Scrappy with a hearty laugh while Scrappy suddenly had the urged to gift something to the dwarven king. He took out a small piece of the metal that was molten by the dragon and Scrappy haphazardly casted into some rough bars. Strangely enough it changed again and got some strange purple streaks in it while Scrappy suddenly couldn''t find the purple heart anymore. Well Scrappy gave the king the metal bar even though his Mana crystal was aching and the dwarven king took and looked at it closely with an astonished face. The dwarven king thought to himself that this piece of metal was the most perfect alloy that he has ever seen even though he felt that something was missing. The dwarven king was old and wise and knew much about the world so he could read metal like it was a book. He saw all kinds of metals in all kinds of ratios in that bar resulting in a strong durable alloy, but that wasn''t all. When he used his innate ability as the dwarven king he saw that the alloy contained five of the six elemental soul strengths. He saw that ore from the deepest depths of the ocean was used for the Soul Strength of water, while a dragon''s breath added the Soul Strength of Fire. He also discovered that an concentrated earth crystal was used on it to give it the soul strength of earth, such a crystal could only be found by the race of troglodytes that was deeply connected with the earth. The dwarven king couldn''t imagine what this small creature did to get one of these crystals, but even more astonished was he by the last two soul strengths. The Soul Strength of Wind and the Soul Strength of darkness, for the soul strength of wind he must have founds one of the ancient races that is connected to wind and must have gotten their blessing, while for the soul strength of darkness even the dwarven King didn''t know what this creature had done. The only thing that came to his mind was killing a being that was so dark, evil and twisted that it terrorized civilizations for millenia. Just from that bar of metal the Dwarven king knew that he had to treat this guest as good as possible even though he knew that this alloy would probably never be finished as the last soul strength that was missing was the soul strength of light something that could only be given by a god, preferably by the god of light himself. After the King came back to from his thoughts about the metal ingot he asked Scrappy to come inside and showed him around the palace which resulted in many servants that were questioning themselves later as dozens of metal items suddenly vanished and couldn''t be found anymore. But what no one knew a person with evil intentions was watching the king and Scrappy as they were walking through the palace. This person observed Scrappy¡äs whole journey and even took some measures to steer Scrappy into some special places. But now that Scrappy had finished the task the man in the shadows wanted him to do, he now had only eyes for the end result the metal bar that Scrappy gave to the dwarven king. But he had to be careful he didn''t want to be noticed so that no one would suspect him to have anything to do with what would happen in the future. He had planned everything for fifteen years and finally there was a sliver of chance for success so he decided to take everything into his own plans. He would create the perfect army and achieve immortality at the same time... 109 Old friends and new friends John decided, he would use the favor Ullr was owing him to force him to listen to him. John started walking from his Castle and reached the first village after ten minutes of walking. At first everyone that saw him was startled, as it was the first time John walked into a village or city in his normal appearance. Soon the normal NPCs especially the low ranked demons bowed down to him what kind of threw John off when he saw that. But suddenly one of the nearby players thought that it would be a good idea to slay the King of the demon nation to ascent the throne. What he didn''t expect that he manage to meet John now that he had an extremely bad mood. A loud bang sounded through the village and a humanoid body was flying through a house and crashed on the ground several hundreds of meters away barely alive. John nodded to one of his nearby minions and soon the small poor house John had destroyed by punching the player through was completely demolished and replaced by a big and fancy mansion. The old poor couple that owned the shack were astonished when they were give the keys to this mansion by one of the robots, they couldn''t hold back their tears as they were nearly starving and living a miserable life up until now after they were driven away by the new Human king and now they had a gorgeous mansion bestowed to them by the king. But John took it a step further he pulled out two small vials filled with water, next he pricked the tip of his finger and put the tiniest amount of his blood into the water and gave it to the old couple. It was enough of his blood to ascend them to the lowest rank of demon nobility but wasn''t enough to bind them to him as the blood was highly diluted. John knew that he couldn''t create a democracy here in this game as the demon race heavily depended on the purity of the bloodline so he decided to give this poor family the first fief and basically made them the lord of this village. He bestowed the name of "Eisenfaust" to their family and told them that as long as they were willing to serve him, they could take care of this village and the surrounding lands as an apology for wrecking their house. The old couple rejuvenated by the ascension to a High demon bowed down to their king and swore their allegiance and decided that they would do everything to help their lord and govern this territory as good as they can. What John didn''t know that the House Eisenfaust would stay true to their words in just a few months this tiny village would have transformed to the second biggest city in the whole Kingdom that would only pale to the capital. Also their army of seasoned Demon Soldiers would smite down anyone who dared to hold evil thoughts against their king. Also the poor player that John punched away was pulled away by a group of robots and looked away to never see the light of the sun again, but at least you could say that he did get something out of that encounter as the Dryas came from time to time to "eat" his lifeforce. Some rumors say that the player stopped going to work and would even left out meals to spent more time in the game. His skin turned white, his hair fell out and he kept mumbling strange sentences when he was laying in his capsule...but of course those are just rumors. But what was true is that the Carving Knife of Sin that turned slightly pink the other day completely changed color to a full blown and rich pink. John did not find Ullr in this village so he kept walking to the next village and the next city after that until he visited every city except the capital and filled the prisons of his kingdom with some more daredevils that tried to attack him, but this time he just pummeled them to the ground as he didnt want to give out too much noble titles. Now John took his first step into the capital, the guard saluted him and the normal citizens and even several players bowed to their king, and even though John was highly popular here there were still one or two players that thought it was worth to attack him. But before John could pummel them to the ground he got help from an unexpected source, two arrows impaled the charging players from behind nailing them the city wall behind John. A man completely clad in leather armor wielding a magnificent bow emerged from the masses and declared:"If someone, someday kills this king it will be me!" A group of robots started to run the man that dared to spout such blasphemous words but John stopped them with a wink of his hand as he knew the man with the bow, it was Ullr. John¡äs voice changed when he started talking to a charismatic voice a skilled salesman would use and said:" Where are you going my friend? I am here to collect my debt from you. If i remember correctly you still owe me a favor." Ullr stopped in his tracks as if magic was used and turned around. You could see pure rage in his eyes but he couldn''t move as he was bound by the game. And even if the game wouldn''t force him to stay Ullr¡äs personality didn''t allow him to break a contract he signed willingly. Both of them went to a quiet place to talk and Ullr started: "Do you like trampling down on me? First you gift me these weapons just to show me that i am to weak to beat your dungeon and now you even dare to say it to my face that i was even weaker than you thought and that you had to give me an item to clear a dungeon floor. How cruel can a person be?" But John just started to explain, he explain how he got started in the game, that he met the old smith and buried him with overpowered items. That he traded them for the dungeon and how he created the first Automata. Next he kept on talking how his dungeon progressed and that some players dared to hurt one of his friends and that he started the first war because of that. John just kept talking until his throat was hoarse and Ullr kept listening. John came to the part where he met Ullr for the first time and told him why he crafted the items for him, he also told him that he didn''t decided to give the devil''s contract to him but the system gave him the quest to do it. Slowly Ullr anger subsided, but he just couldn''t accept it, who could he blame now for the state that his brother was in now? If he didn''t hate Chrome/Schmied how could he look into his brothers eyes anymore? For what did he waste this half year for if he couldn''t take his revenge? Ullr had to admit that he liked Chrome/Schmied but he just couldn''t have him as a friend, and it hurt his heart because he was his first real friend, someone special he could talk to. When Ullr thought about his life up until the time he met his friend it looked bleak and lifeless, his mother died early and his father wasn''t interested in his children. Everytime he took a like to one of the maids his brother took special measures in his hand to get her fired or framed for a crime. Even the company he saved didn''t mean much to him as it just earned more money for their fathers pockets. But his first real friend feel special to Ullr like something that was his, something his father did not have control over, something his brother could do nothing about. But now it seemed to Ullr that he would even lose that. He nodded to Chrome with a sad face one last time and logged off. John also felt empty when he saw the sad face and the nod from his friend as he knew that Ullr wanted to say to him that he would miss him but they couldn''t be friends anymore. So he also logged off and just when he got out of the capsule his smartphone started ringing. It was an unknown number and John took the call he heard Constantine¡äs voice greeting him. Constantine asked him if he would care to have another night out in the usual bar. John looked at the clock and saw that it was still a bit early to get a drink but as he felt down after the talk with Ullr he accepted and walked to the bar the met in the first time... 110 Mephisto′s little toy Mephisto was giggling to himself in his throne room, he just couldn''t stop while he was thinking about all the special toys he has even though not all were finished yet. A sinister grin kept being plastered across his face when he was reminiscing about the creation of all of his toys. At first he took over the throne and declared all non-human races as outcast to stabilise his claim on the throne. Luckily all the nobles that were his subjects welcomed this decision of his as the loved to use their power against people that were weaker than them. But Mephisto did not only want to get the nobility on his side, he also wanted a situation where no one would notice some missing people as he needed them for his test. Next he used his Brother Ullr to get him some samples out of the dungeon of that peasant that dared to think that he could be a king. Mephisto even used his youngest brothers mental state to ignite the fire of hatred in Ullr to get those samples even though Mephisto knew that it was Cpt.Blings own fault as he just brainlessly charged into the dungeon and wasn''t intelligent enough to only fight enemies that were weaker than him or had a weakness. But well Ullr brought him very good samples and even a living specimen, Mephisto couldn''t hold his giggle back anymore when he remembered the day he first saw the living Rat specimen Ullr brought him. Mephisto hired dozens of technicians and Scholar¡äs in the game but he just didn''t make any progress in his research, all of the test subjects died without bonding with their new metal limbs that were installed after their normal limbs were cut off without anesthesia. Even though this outcome was still a little funny to Mephisto, he couldn''t help but to smile when he thought how the test subjects squealed like a dying pig when one of their limbs was cut off, so you could say that these experiments did have a use, even if it just was to amuse Mephisto. But the progress was to slow for Mephisto so he had a devilish idea, he searched a bit in the internet for the most notorious and crazy serial killers that were kept in prison. Next he visited them one by one and offered them something they couldn''t decline, and soon dozens of game capsules were delivered to the prisons around the world, giving Mephisto an army of psychopaths to help him having fun. Soon they had their first breakthrough, even though all of the test subjects still died the first ones started to bond with their new limbs and could use them after they were resurrected and even though most of the Subjects that did not bind to their limbs were useless Mephisto still loved it to see them climbing or crawling around. But suddenly some of his NPC subjects brought them something new, a small humanoid robot. Mephisto loved it, he loved stroking it with his fingers while his scientists would observe it, and he loved the hint of madness that shone through the eyes of this small robot when he saw something out of metal. Mephisto couldn''t help but to feel sad a little when he remembered the day that his small little robot escaped, his heart was so broken that day that he needed to hire over a dozen new scientists as many fell to his rage and were used as new test subjects. But after observing this magnificent little creature they had another breakthrough, the finally achieved to replace the limbs of a living human with robotic limbs without him dying, even though he was still screaming in pain until Mephisto let one of his servant cut the vocal cords of this man. But now Mephisto needed a new toy and luckily right at that time his minions brought him the best puzzle he could ever wish for, the parts of the Angersteel Colossus. Now the scientists were painstakingly trying to piece it back together and even though it was flawed as it was assembled by layman it still worked thanks to the little present he got from a naughty goddess. The Scientist were still working on it but while they were working Mephisto had an evil thought for another little toy he would enjoy. He cancelled the appointment of his youngest brother¡äs therapy and told him that he found a new one that would cure him inside of "King''s Reign". So He brought his brother to his palace and locked him into the dungeon and started torturing him while laughing uncontrollably. He constantly reminded his brother that the Player Chrome was at fault and that he should listen to his brother while he let several of his creations rip his brother apart with robot arms after which he was healed back to full health again. At first his brother still had light in the eyes and started screaming in pain, but soon Mephisto couldn''t hear him screaming anymore. But his brother had still light in his eyes and looked into Mephistos eyes begging him to stop. But that fueled Mephistos enjoyment even more because he wanted to see this light go out as his brothers spirit broke down. An Mephisto didn''t need to wait long, after just three more days ingame his brother broke down even further, and now he didn''t even have a speck of light in his eyes anymore. But that wasn''t enough for Mephisto his brother had to be broken down even further so he intensified the torture while carrying on telling him that he should listen to his older brother and that it was all Chrome¡äs fault that he is in this situation now. And soon after the first fruits of his labor could be harvested as a new light source started to emerge in the eyes of his brother as his mind completely shattered. a Dark gleam of rage could be seen but Mephisto brought him a step further when he used his former research to replace the limbs of his brother with robotic limbs leaving behind a wretched and broken human that obeyed his orders, wasn''t stopped by pain anymore and went berserk if he was near death or saw a picture of Chrome. But Mephisto hadn''t tortured his youngest brother enough so he asked an alchemist to brew a potion that would amplify the amount of pain his brother felt and even rammed a dark black crystal into his body next to his heart that would resurrect him once as an undead before he would respawn at the temple after he died. Mephisto just couldn''t stop giggling when he recounted the last months of progress in this game, he felt like a fish in the water in this game, the moment he opened it the first time the game knew what kind of person he was and encouraged and rewarded him for being himself. He even got a rare special class when he created his character and it was perfect for him. Mephisto had the class of "Dark Jester"... Aetheria was watching her champion and even though she should feel disgusted by his behaviour she strangely found it arousing and started to enjoy it, if this stupid Titan could evade Judgement why should she even bother judging people and try to keep the balance of the world. It would be way more fun to just do what she enjoyed. she could just smite people if she wanted, why should she hold back, she was a goddess not a poor country bumpkin that had to obey the law, SHE WAS THE LAW... ...The hooded man kept on observing Scrappy and the king of dwarves, until his chance came, the dwarven king gave the special metal ingot away to a servant to bring it to the vault. The man followed and just before the dwarf put it away a knife went through his throat while to hooded man grabbed the special piece of metal and put it away. Next the Man teleported away and stood in front of Aetheria that was holding a monologue. He coughed and asked the goddess to bestow the piece of metal with her power, she nodded and a ray of Silver light contaminated by darkness hit the ingot. The man was satisfied even though the ingot cracked a little, he infused it with mana and suddenly it changed its form to a spiked shield. He looked at it with disdain as he could guess that it wouldn''t hold up very long. But he was still satisfied as the shield only needed to block once, So the old hooded man teleported once again and reached Mephisto¡äs throne room where he quickly found Mephisto laying on his throne giggling uncontrollably. Even the old man started to smile as he knew that he picked the right person, he gave Mephisto the shield even though mephisto looked at him with a strange face as both of them met for the first time, but Mephisto¡äs face took on an understanding look when the old man said:" Its to defend against a special someone..." 111 Selfless Scrappy Scrappy felt that something was off, as if someone took away a part of his consciousness. Scrappy stopped in his tracks and turned around, the dwarven king that was happily explaining all of the inventions his Race invented and build over the centuries also stopped talking in the middle of his sentence when he saw Scrappy¡äs reaction. The King could feel the static charge around Scrappy as if something bad happened just now, suddenly his little visitor started sprinting in the direction they came from and he knew that he had to follow this little robot. When something was disturbing this little robot that brought him that magnificent impossibility of an Alloy then it didn''t mean anything for his people too. Soon the reached the corridor where the King gave the alloy piece to a servant to bring into the vault, but something was wrong, the corridor seemed empty and cold and also all the torches on the wall were put out, something the King of dwarves had never seen or ordered. He quickly called for guards and soon a dozen of battle hardened palace guard in heavy armor wielding an ax and a Tower shield came running. They advanced into the corridor until they reached the Vault and everything seemed normal except that a hint of an metallic scent was wafting through the floor. Suddenly the King saw a tiny drop of blood flowing out under the vault doors and had a bad premonition. But before the opened the door they heard a strange crunching sound coming out of the vault. The Soldiers were ordered to form up a line in front of the vault and the vault door was opened, but the picture that was revealed could frighten even the most seasoned warriors. A giant Beast at least three dwarves high was happily munching on what looked like a half eaten dwarven carcass. It was one of the most evil creatures the God of Evil thought up, and even he decided that there was no place on this planet this creature should exist and so he banished it into the netherworld. But now the King of Dwarves and his loyal dozen of guard were facing this mythological beast. Golden fur grew on the whole body except the tail that consisted of a three headed snake that could spew venom, the body of the snakeheads were covered in black scales with golden markings on them. Also giant wings grew out of the back, they were of dark red color while the membrane of the the wings had a dark brown tone. Razor Sharp claws could be found on every paw long enough the chop a head off a dwarf with one swipe. The giant beast also had three majestic lion heads with different colored manes, one in black, one in blue and one in red. These manes symbolised the elemental breath this beast could spew in a fight, black for poison, blue for ice, and Red for fire. The Dwarven Warriors started shaking by the sheer sight of this monstrosity, and no one would blame them for that as there weren''t even legends and myths about any hero killing one of these beasts, a Cerbicor. Luckily for them the Cerbicor was still occupied with happily munching on the dwarven corpse when suddenly a Dwarven guard dropped his ax out of fright and a loud bang sounded through the halls. Suddenly the tail of the Cerbicor stood up and three pairs of snake eyes were looking at the group of dwarves. A shudder ran through the group of dwarves when the saw the murderous gaze of this beast while their king suddenly yelled: "Close the door before it escapes! Even when we have to lay down our lives before this beast we must save our brother and sister outside!" The Eyes of the Dwarven guards hardened and their iron will kicked in, every Dwarf would sacrifice himself to give his people even a tiniest sliver of chance to survive, and it was the most honorable thing a dwarf could do. A dwarf could surrender, he could lose, he could even flee from battle, but no dwarf could endanger other people. The dwarf thought of themselves as craftsmen, as artists and even as the best drinkers of the world but most important they were guardians of the land they were living in and its people. The dwarfs were stealing the resolve and the dwarf that dropped his ax out of fright had a grim face and knew that he would throw himself on this beast as the first one to atone for the sins of putting his brothers in arms in danger by alerting the beast. He charged the beast in hope to give his brothers enough time to close the door but suddenly the now standing beast swiped once transforming the charging dwarf in a dead piece of meat and showering the other dwarfs with his blood. But the other dwarfs did not get scared, the King started trying to close the door, while the other dwarves started charging the beast, the beast swiped his claws again but as the dwarves knew what was coming the quickly formed a shield wall blocking the attack without getting hurt but they were thrown back several meters. Even after only two minutes into the fight the dwarves knew that they couldn''t win, they couldn''t even lock this beast inside the Vault again, it was to powerful. The dwarven guards had already broken bone while some were breathing their last breath as they were bitten by one of the snake heads and poisoned. But what crushed their hope more was that when one of their brothers managed to get a hit on one of the flanks of this beast his ax just bounced back and didn''t leave a scratch. Scrappy was watching this exchange from the side he had more important stuff to do, he sneaked into the vault and searched for the piece of his beloved scrap. Naturally while he was looking for this special piece he still filled his bucket with all kinds of scrap that was lying around in this room. Scrappy was happy as he seemed to have found the spot were the dwarf kept all of their high-class. He could totally get the dwarves if he didn''t have this bucket he could fill to his heart''s content, he too would need one of this magnificent rooms to keep his scrap in, but he wouldn''t discriminate any scrap by only keeping the high-class scrap in this room. To him all Scrap was equally important and precious, that''s why he was still searching for the missing piece of Scrap he gave to the King. But Scrappy just couldn''t find it, he already collected half of the scrap that was laying around in this room but he just couldn''t find it. Suddenly he saw the corpse of the dwarven servant and ran to it to search his pockets. Ticking scrap, get, pointy scrap, get, strange golden piece of scrap that was pinned to the chest, get. But Scrappy didn''t find his piece of scrap when he suddenly saw how the giant beast took a bite out of one of the dwarves chewed it roughly and gulped it down with armor and everything. Now Scrappy knew where he had to look, he walked over to the beast and tried cutting his way into the belly of the beast but he couldn''t just leave behind some scratched that were like bug bites to this creature. The Cerbicor even used his back leg to scratch his side like a dog with fleas before turning around and look at Scrappy. Scrappy wasn''t happy with his progress at all, so he ignored the growling head of the beast and walked over to the other side of the beast and tried again to cut his way in. But he had no different result, but angered the beats even more. While Scrappy was distracting the beast the dwarves quickly worked on closing the door wanting to leave it a tiny bit open for Scrappy to escape when suddenly the beast chomped down on her guest and gulped him down in one piece. The dwarf looked at this scene with shock and sadness but managed to close the door of the vault. They couldn''t believe that this tiny robot that was their noble guest for saving one of their own would go even further by laying down his own life for everyone of them. They decided that they would celebrate this day every year from now to honor their selfless saviour and erect a statue for him. They also decide that they would find the creator of this magnificent being and show him the respect that he deserved for creating such wonderful creations. He had to be a noble person and must be well liked and respected by all people that know his name. He must be the luckiest person that exists to be so resourceful and skilled to created these selfless beings... 112 Forging another boss John came home after a long night out, Constantine and he met up in their usual bar and both of them could feel that the other felt sad and needed a drink and some good company. They started with a good glass of ice cold Cider but soon all kinds of strong alcohol followed. Constantine even started some drinking game with John where they would play cards with one of the other guests and every time someone had lost a round they had to take a shot of something the other players decided. At first everyone was nice to each other giving each other only some cocktails with low alcohol but it ended with everyone drinking a shot of 85% Absinthe which made them writhing on the ground in pain. But John and Constantine did not stop after the random guy they met there went home, they played a round of darts that cleared half of the bar because it was more likely that they would hit one of the guests instead of the board but everyone had still fun. The last thing John could remember that he and Constantine challenged each other to a drink-off, but he didn''t know anymore who won but he found two hundred Dollars in his Pocket this morning. Both had a head like and Anvil but somehow didn''t mind it, they went home and when John finally reached his flat he fell into the bed and slept for half a day. John woke up and got himself a glass of cool water to wet his dried out mouth and jumped into his game capsule. He still felt that he missed his friend Ullr but he could respect his decision. John decided that he now could work on the boss his eighth was still missing. John grabbed some of the leftover roots from the other day and started working on it. He carved muscles and skin out of the wood without taking a skeleton in mind. He also added several decorations by carving out aztec armor into the wood and added several pieces of other decorations out of metal. Next he started working on the head by giving it a face mask adorned with feathers that were also carved out of wood. Next he grabbed the bucket with the silver, gold Mythril solution he prepared the other day and was happy that every solid piece dissolved into the liquid and strangely took on a blood red color. John put the bucket near the wooden parts that formed a three meter tall aztec warrior with four arms. The Last thing John did to complete his Boss was letting a fistsized Mana Crystal fall into the solution observing it as a humanoid body formed that equipped the wooden skin and flesh like it was an armor. But before John¡äs creation put on the head John crafted for it, it started walking over to the workbench grabbing several pieces of leftover wood and started eating it. John watch with astonishment as slowly a skeleton out of wood formed inside the red liquid that was the body of this creature. Only the head was missing and after the Aztec warrior ate enough of the wood, it put its head on and suddenly the wooden skin looked like it started to melt in some places to close up all the cracks forming a uniform skin. Haa¡äk, the wooden idol of Destruction Rank Unique Race Homunculus A tall Aztec warrior made out of wood and brought to life by liquid metal that is infused by Mana. His skin was made out of wooded that got strengthened by liquid metal, it is highly resistant to all kinds of damage and if it is damaged it can be repaired by Hook by eating some more of the wood. This magnificent warrior has four arms and is able to fight without weapons but his damage potential would increase manifold if he wielded weapons of appropriate quality. John was satisfied with his creation, he tried something new by giving an average creation exceptional weapons as his strength instead of incorporating everything into the body. John started with the first weapon, he wanted it to fit to the boss so he started by carving a wooden block with a Carving knife of Sin that he found that had turned Pink. Slowly material was removed and a handle and a rectangular base was carved out, he added decorations and metal inlays while also adding two slits on the opposite side of each other. Next he grabbed some more mythril and threw it into another alchemical solution he discovered some time ago, the Mythril turned black and hardened reacting like glass after he took it out of the solution. John took a piece of steel and started snapping away at the mythril breaking of tiny pieces forming a razor sharp edge while forming prismatic pieces out of it. After he had one or two dozen of those blades he glued them into the slits of the wood and finished was the first weapon. Macuahuitl of Lust Rank Unique A wooden club with razor sharp blades attached to it, it rips apart flesh and bones on every hit. It was created with the help of the Sin of Lust so it was bestowed the ability to take away some of the lifeforce of the victims of this weapon and giving it to the wielder on every hit. John was satisfied but quickly started with the next weapon, He took some of the leftover wood and debarked it only the peel of the tiny skin of wood between the core and the bark. He used another Carving knife of Sin that turned Blue to cut the sheets of fiber he harvested into thin stripes. He pair every Stripe with two other and knotted them together and tied the knotted ends to a metal pole that was hanging horizontally in the room. After all of the fiber stripes were paired he started braiding them forming tine ropes out of them. Next he paired the tiny ropes with some metal wire in a two to one ratio and once again braided them together. He repeated this step until he only had three ropes left. John played those ropes next to each other and cut off a centerpiece of the middle rope. John then grabbed some thin metal thread to the loom and made a small piece of fabric. He grabbed the fabric and folded it about an inch in on two sides and sewed it together with some quick stitches. John then took the two longer ropes and threaded them to the pouch he created, he then knotted the smaller two rope pieces together with the ends of the longer rope on each side and started braiding again. The last thing John did was putting a mix of Wax and liquid metal on the end of the braided rope to seal it and wrapped it in some more metal fabric. Sling of Sloth Rank Unique A masterful crafted sling that can be used to throw rocks or similar object farther an stronger than by hand. Because it was crafted with the Sin of sloth it was bestowed the ability to cause the sleep debuff on some of the hits. The Boss for the eighth floor was already impressive with this armament but John thought that it wasn''t enough, so he started on a third weapon. He grabbed some Silver, Steel ,Mythril alloy but instead of forging it he took out his Carving knife of Greed and started carving material away. He started by carving a crude triangle out of the material and slowly added more details. John found it funny that there were no shavings falling on the ground as the Carving Knife of greed absorbed all the shavings. Soon you could recognize that John was carving an ax head but he decorated it with aztec carvings and metal accents like gold. After the ax head was finished he looked at it and found it quite menacing as it sharpened hooks on the blade and looked evil and painful. But John still had to craft he handle so he grabbed some of the wood and got to work. He started by carving away enough material so that the handle fit into the ax head, after that he let his mind roam and carved whatever came to his mind. You even could spot pictures on the handle that were depicting an ancient story that John just made up, but John also added spiraling grooves on the bottom of the handle which he inlaid with golden metal wire. But John still had to attach the Handle to the Ax head so he quickly took out a saw and sawed a thin slit into the top of the handle after which he put on the ax head and hammered in a tiny piece of wood into the slit he sawed to press the wood of the handle into the metal securing the Ax head to the handle. Axe of Greed Rank Unique A Magnificent ax perfect to cleave apart heads and sever limbs. Because of its weight it is also good against armored targets. Because the Sin of Greed was used to Craft this Axe it was bestowed the ability to absorb the metal it touches giving it excepcional penetrating power against metal armor. John was also pleased with this piece of work but he still wanted to craft one more weapon... 113 Scrappy′s return The Group of dwarves were standing before the Vault door crying manly tears when dozens of other dwarf came running heavily armed after they heard the commotion of the fight. They saw a sight they have not expected, about ten dwarves including their king sitting in front of the Vault crying as if they were small children that got their candy stolen. But soon they understood when suddenly loudly banged against the vault door and their King explained them what happened and how the selfless guest sacrificed himself to allow them to look the Cerbicor inside of the vault. When they heard that these battle hardened dwarves took off their helm laid their weapons on the ground and knelt before the Vault door to offer this magnificent being their respect. Even now you could hear the mighty beast thrash around in the Vault it was an impressive show of how much power this beast has, the vault doors were about two meter thick metal that was moved and locked by massive gears that moved the door into its place and moved ten half meter thick bolts into the wall to lock the door in place. Usually you would hear nothing through that amount of wall and Steel but they could basically feel the ground trembling under the ancient might of this trapped beast. Once again the group of Dwarves said their thanks and respects to their benefactor while deciding to guard the Vault that has become a tomb now, for the next three days... ...Scrappy felt happy and bad at the same time, he was happy that he finally found a way inside this beast that might have swallowed tons of precious scrap, especially some of the scrap that had accompanied him for the entire Journey. But he felt bad because he was drenched in mucus and saliva, it was disgusting and if Scrappy had a nose he would probably vomit from the smell that was wafting around. At first Scrappy saw two rows of strange white hard things on his way into the beast, he thought that it could be some kind of scrap so he just managed to grab one and pull it out of the fleshy part that was around him. But unfortunately it wasn''t scrap but Scrappy thought that if did the work of collecting it then even though it was no scrap he still could keep it. Next Scrappy travelled through a some kind of hose made out of flesh that led him into a giant cave out of flesh that even had lakes and islands and stuff. Scrappy landed on one of those islands and happily saw that there were already hundreds of scrap pieces laying around, and not some of that low class Scrap that could probably still be used by people, but some high-class stuff that was completely destroyed. So Scrappy gleefully got to work collecting every single piece of scrap while searching for his special piece of Scrap. Soon in his scrap collecting spree Scrappy reached one of the walls of this strange case and could see that some scrap piece were trapped between several fold of the wall, so Scrappy got to work and started cutting the poor pieces of scrap out of the wall which resulted in rambling and trembling of the whole ground... ...this one is a Cerbicor, it loves to refer itself in the third person, it was happily living its life in the nether folds when something dragged it into this room, but that wasn''t so bad this one found interesting prey. Some kind of two legged drumstick or so, but it was easy for this one to hunt it, but as its prey was so small it tried to just nibble on it slowly when suddenly more of those two legged drumsticks entered the room. The Drumsticks tried to fight with this mighty one but their seasoning sticks didn''t even hurt this one so it just killed them. But then this one felt an annoying itch on its flank and a strange being was scratching it, when this one looked at it, it was astonished as this being was completely made out of seasoning, but it kept on itching this magnificent one so even though this one heard that too much seasoning was bad for it and would even taste that good it still gulped the annoying being down. After this one was finished gobbling down this strange being it wanted to hunt the rest of those drumsticks but unfortunately it couldnt find them anymore, so it just started nibbling on the one it killed. Suddenly this one felt a strange sensation in its belly, something seemed to move and this one remembered the advice its parents gave it. They always said to this one that it should chew his food thoroughly, and they also said to this one that it should always check if its prey was contaminated with some kind of parasites. But this one didn''t find any parasites so it just would keep the other advice about chewing its prey in mind in the future. And even though something was moving inside of this one''s belly, it knew that it would soon die and this one also felt like it helped this one digesting its food as its belly felt more and more empty allowing this one to eat more. Suddenly this one''s belly started aching and it was throwing its head around, clawing at the walls and stomping on the floor. This one never felt as much pain as it felt now, it just couldn''t keep it inside, this magnificent being had to cry out in pain causing the whole room to shake... ...Scrappy was finished collecting all the scrap in the wall and even though the whole cave was shaking and rumbling, scrappy just clawed himself more tightly into the wall to get all the scrap out of it. Now it started collecting the scrap on the ground again, still searching for its precious scrap piece. But when it wanted to grab another piece of scrap he missed it as it was sliding out of his reach falling into the pond of greenish clear liquid. He wanted to grab it soon after but as his hand touched the piece it broke away and crumbled into dust and vanished shortly after dissolved by this liquid. Scrappy¡äs heart broke at this sight and pure rage overcame him when he thought about his precious piece of scrap he was searching and all the other pieces of scrap Scrappy could have collected inside of this cave if it wasn''t for this cursed liquid. So Scrappy quickly collected the rest of the scrap always getting even angrier when another piece fell into the liquid and decided that he would bring this poor scrap that deserved to live out of this place... ...This one was still laying on the floor, its pain subsided after a while but it still felt a little bit of burning inside its belly, this one decide it would eat less seasoning in the future and that it would thoroughly chew its food into the future. But suddenly this one¡äs belly started hurting again, it was rolling on the floor in pain clenching its muscular belly. Suddenly this one felt that something ripped inside this one¡äs body resulting in enormous pain. But this one suddenly felt another kind of pain that was even worse, the pain krept through this one''s body from its belly up to its chest making it hard to breath for this one. This one''s vision started to fade and soon this one couldn''t think anymore when it drew its final breath... ...The group of dwarves were still guarding the vault with tears in their eyes but battle ready. In the last hour the Service seemed to fall into a stage of rage, the ground was trembling more intensely and they could hear the beast roar in rage. Even to most courageous dwarf felt fear creeping up his back sending down a shiver. The atmosphere was really charged with worry and fear at this moment when suddenly they heard the loudest roar of them all followed by the creepiest outcome all of them could imagine, total Silence. Nothing came out of the vault for minutes and the dwarves started to worry sending out some of them to check if the Cerbicor broke out of the vault by breaking through one of the walls. But nobody found anything, some thought that it must have been escaped the same way it entered by vanishing, maybe a god had mercy on them and brought it away. But nobody dared to check what was inside the vault, when suddenly the group of dwarves heard a strange scratching sound. But what frightened them more that it seemed to come nearer and nearer to them as if something made its way through the metal door. Every dwarf around grabbed their weapons reinforcement was called and soon hundreds of Dwarven warriors with axes and lances were standing ready to welcome this mythical beat and defend their home from it. But then something happened what no one of them expected, a sharp metal piece tore through the door as if it was nothing, it cut a straight line from the height of about one meter down to the ground. Then a second and a third cut were made resulting in a perfect square, the dwarves were on adrenaline they were ready to die today and only wanted to save their brothers that were working sleeping and living outside. They were ready for everything that could come out of this square except that what came out when the metal square that was cut out fell down to the floor. Everyone of them held their breath when they finally saw Scrappy walking out of the hole up the the metal piece he cut out and started cutting it into smaller pieces to take it with him... 114 The three stars of Space !!!Beware this chapter contains some gory, written depictions of Blood and violence please read it at your own risk and responsibility!!! The King of the dwarves couldn''t believe his eyes, their benefactor they thought sacrificed himself to save their kingdom was locked by them into the vault and had to cut himself out of the Vault. At first every dwarf was feeling on edge and ready for battle thinking that the service could come out too after this little robot came out but when the walked into the vault to check they saw something they never expected. The sight was gruesome, at first it felt strange to them when Scrappy came out of the room and was completely drenched in blood, but now the would have been more surprised when he had been clean. As soon as they entered the room a big pool of blood covered the floor leading to the massive corpse of the Cerbicor. That amount of blood would already cause nausea to many people but when it was combined with the smell and the state the corpse was in, even many of the seasoned dwarven warrior puked into a corner of the room. The Cerbicor looked like it was ripped inside out, the organs were spilling on the floor swimming in half digested food which gave of a awful smell and the skin and fur was laying on the floor like a deflated tire while many bones looked like the were cleanly cut into many pieces. The dwarfs looked around but needed several minutes to comprehend this gruesome sight, they just couldn''t imagine what this small robot did that resulted in this situation. But soon when they thought about it for a while they imagined how this small cute robot was eaten and decided to cut its way out of the body of this creature and they shuddered. The could basically feel how something was slowly ripping through their body pairing it with the roars and cries of the beast that they thought were roars of rage, but in reality it was crying in pain. What was bothered them even more was that they just couldn''t understand this small robot, if they did something as gruesome as that on the battlefield even when the had no other choice they would be haunted by it for the rest of their life but this small robot even started cutting on the corpse again. Many Dwarves started puking again as they got a visual depiction of what they imagined when Scrappy started by cutting the flesh away from the bones and the skin. It was a really gruesome sight to behold when they observed this small robot cutting of flesh, splitting bones and skinning the beast while happily humming a song. It was only then that all dwarves decided that they would leave the room again leaving this small robot doing his thing and try to forget what they saw today, some even couldn''t eat meat for the rest of their lives anymore, one or two of them would die several weeks later as their pride as an dwarf did not allow them to only eat the same food their archenemy the elves would eat and starved to death. But the dwarves couldn''t leave the small robot without observation so they stationed two poor dwarves on the vault door to guide the small robot to the king when he was finished, but even just listening to the sound that came out the vault was bad and exhausting them mentally as they tried to keep their sanity and guard their post. So it was decided that there would be a guard change every half an hour so that no dwarf was harmed by this guarding post. The king of the dwarves was sluggishly walking back to the throne room, he was completely exhausted. He was prepared for a guest that helped a dwarf and he just wanted to thank him and give him a gift to thank him, but everything started to go bad when he received this cursed piece of metal from this guest. He should have known that it can''t be good to receive something this powerful that wasn''t made with the help of a god. Then the incident with the cerbicor that killed several of his close guards that he considered some of his best friends, and now the result of that incident, a dead cerbicor what would be nice most of the time but this sight of the corpse of the beast resulted in pity for it after he had seen it. He just couldn''t get it out of his mind and he knew that he had to reward this small robot in hope that it would just leave them so that their minds could rest easy and heal. But for that, he as the king had to find an appropriate gift, but he had no idea, what could this robot want? What could he give a being that can easily kill a cerbicor and created a near perfect alloy that wasn''t seen on this world yet? The king ordered his servant to just bring whatever they could find in the treasury and bring it to the throne room, he just gave up and decided that the robot could just choose and even if it wanted everything no dwarf that has seen that scene in the vault would complain. When everything was ready and prepared the King waited for the small robot and he didn''t need to wait long, luckily one of his servant had the brilliant idea to prepare an bucket of hot water and pour it over the robot to wash of the blood that resulted in a happy nod by it. But suddenly when the robot entered the room, the Kings throne started vibrating, the king looked up to the top of the throne where he saw the "King''s Geode" wanting to free itself from the throne. The king was astonished as the "King''s Geode was in possession of the Dwarven Kings for millennia but never moved or did anything special. Some might ask why an ugly rough rock was decorating the throne of a King but this Geode was special. Usually Geodes were nothing special to dwarves child toy so to speak they would crack it and see some beautiful but worthless crystals inside, but this geode was different, no dwarf managed to crack it, not even a adamantite hammer managed to damage it in any way. The dwarves that tried it all said that this geode seemed to be here but also was everywhere else what resulted in its indestructibility, some even said that their hammer broke and when it did they couldn''t find its head anymore until several days later when it was found in the most unimaginable places. But this geode that slumbered for Millenia was reacting to the small robot and finally after minutes of struggling the dwarves could watch it freeing itself from the throne flying over to the small robot. Everyone stared at the small robot in astonishment when they suddenly noticed that something was wrong, they didn''t notice it at first but the throne room that was filled with gems and treasures was suddenly nearly empty, only some gems were laying on the floor but the rest was gone. They just couldn''t comprehend what just happened until the small robot was throwing something behind him, it was a small dagger that was issued to every dwarven palace guard and it landed into the bucket of the Robot and vanished. The palace guard where now shocked when the looked for their dagger that not only was the dagger gone but everything else out of metal that was on their body was gone. But before they could complain Scrappy looked at the geode and the dwarves were to curious what the robot would do to it. What they never expected was that the small robot just through it on the ground what resulted in the stone shattering revealing an Black liquid mass that was transforming. It condensed and started to get solid forming a beautiful black gem that was floating in the air. But that wasn''t all, the small robot reached out with his hand nearly touching the gem when it started to move to his hand melting itself into it and vanishing inside the hand leaving behind a blanks surface again. At first everyone just thought that they dreamed everything but suddenly the small robot drew a circle in the air with both of his hands and it seemed as if reality was torn apart, he stepped into it and vanished after the hole closed... ...Scrappy just found another of those interesting gems and somehow he felt complete now, he instinctively knew that he now could use the gems to teleport around and teleported himself out of the palace, he collected most of the scrap in the palace and now it was time to start his journey again. He was standing on a hill in the outskirts of the city and raised his arms to the heaven. Suddenly thousands of pieces of scrap carried by his sylphids and Junky flew to him and into his bucket, after everything was collected he looked back at the city and even though there was still many pieces of scrap he could collect he decided to continue his journey and maybe come some other time again to collect the rest. That was when Scrappy suddenly remembered something, he teleported again and was in a room with several beds in it were dwarf were laying in, some were moaning while some were sleeping. But what they all had in common was that they all seemed to like white linen cloths wrapped around some parts of their body but Scrappy didnt care he sneak up to a special dwarf, ripped of the cloth and quickly grabbing the piece of scrap that was hidden under the cloth and teleported away, leaving behind a dwarf that was crying in pain. Scrappy didn''t think of it much, how could he leave without taking everything that was rightfully his... 115 Mephisto′s Reign Constantine still felt empty, he did have fun spending time with John but somehow every time he was talked to him he had to control himself to not call him Schmied or Chrome, they just felt so similar and he knew that he may should stop meeting him but he decided that he had to live with it or he would hole himself into his room and stay gloomy for the rest of his life. He even stopped playing King''s Reign after he had the talk with Chrome, he just felt like something took away his driving force for playing the game. He hated to admit it but even though he died many times while challenging the dungeon but he had the time of his life while doing so. He liked the feeling he felt when he overcame one of Chrome¡äs crazy strong creations and he liked when he was crushed by them and managed to stand up again to challenge it once more. But now the game just felt blant and he had no idea what he should do, but after he sat in his room thinking about it for some time, he just jumped into the capsule and entered the world. Ullr left the territory of Chrome¡äs kingdom and reached the Kingdom his reigned, at first he felt like something was wrong, he looked back and Chrome¡äs kingdom even though the environment changed to fit the demonic theme it was blooming with life and hope. But as soon as Ullr took a step over the border it seemed like someone took a eraser and complete created a new world from scratch. The vibrant green grass Ullr remembered was gone, the whole plain Ullr could see was dried out and dead every spot of grass has either already turned to dust or was grey in color. But what startled him even more was that this phenomenon seemed to go over hundreds of miles over the complete kingdom. Ullr started walking still looking around and have his heart ached at this sight of sadness, he came to a small border village shortly after. The plants on the farmlands around the village were still growing but they seemed smaller and didn''t look very appetizing to him. Also he could see several poor slaves that worked their lives away on those frames, strangely they were all from the non-human race. Ullr knew that he treated those races not equally to the humans but he was surprised to see them in chain being whipped by muscular man on horses. He even saw how one of those man dragged a female wolfkin behind him aiming for a small bush, Ullr knew that the man was up to no good so he couldn''t stand by and just watch. He quickly looked around and confirmed that no one was watching him and vanished up the next tree. He took out his bow and an arrow and drew his bow nearly to a full draw, he didn''t try out his bow on living beings so he didn''t know what would happen but as soon as the man reached a bush, Ullr let go of the arrow and it soared through the air in high speed ripping of the man''s head and nailing it to the nearest tree. Ullr quickly put away his bow and distanced himself from this scene before he could be seen with a bow. He heard angry and scared screams from behind him but he just went on his way. After some more walking he reached another village and entered it to go through it. Ullr felt the hostility that the people had against him as they were observing him, even the guards stared at him but they let him go his way. Suddenly when Ullr walked by a bar where a group of drunkards were sitting on the porch, some of them drew their weapons and encircled him. Ullr looked to the guards and saw that they were looking at him without shame having a grin on their face. Ullr understood that he wouldn''t get any help from them and that they even would be happy to arrest him for hurting these men. Well, Ullr could understand that as he was a demon and couldn''t hide it, he looked like he was belonging to the enemy kingdom so it was natural to feel some hatred towards him. But Ullr had no choice, he flexed his muscles and punched the first attacker in the face knocking him out, his friends soon followed as a group of drunkards had no chance against a High demon that tortured himself in John¡äs dungeon. The fight was over before it began and the guard reacted slightly late but still confronted Ullr and wanted to take him into custody. But Ullr received a special badge from his Brother Mephisto for safe passage, so he pulled it out and showed it to the guards that were suddenly backing away from him like he was some kind of deadly snake. Just as he wanted to ask them something the guards ran away while the drunkards that were not knocked out anymore bowed down to him with tears on their faces pleading for their families lives, there was even one that after he plead for his family''s life pulled out a dagger and killed himself to appease Ullr. But Ullr could only look at them with shock and just started walking again to escape this strange situation, he decided that he would evade every village, town and city until he reached the capital. The whole country his brother reigned felt strange to him, not only was every human he passed overly hostile but he also didn''t see any people from the non-human races except of slaves. Something was going on in this Kingdom and Ullr decided that he would find out what it was. He finally reached the capital and decide to show the badge his brother gave him as soon as possible, the guards looked at him with fear in their eyes even sending a messenger to the palace to notify his majesty of his brothers arrival. Ullr made his way through the capital and angry and hostile looks were directed his way until they saw the badge that he attached to his chest which changed the looks into fear and brought many people giving him way while others also left the streets hiding in their houses. But the atmosphere was also strange to Ullr, he could remember when he started playing this game, even though this kingdom wasn''t overly rich there were still happy faces and flags and banners in all kinds of color fluttering around. But now everything seemed blant, no flag could be seen and instead of happy laughter you could he soldiers marching through the street. Also there seemed to be gallows and other torture devices on every small marketplace he saw on his way to the palace, often already occupied by a rotting corpses fluttering in the wind. Ullr didn''t like this city, he started to miss Chrome¡äs kingdom that was so filled with life and happiness, he could remember that he saw a small dwarven child running around playing catch with a demon, a dwarf, a small Mechanoid and an elve while being watched by an old Orc grandpa that was sitting on his porch smiling at the children running through his yard. This memory warmed Ullr heart when he remembered it, he felt like he would have had a happier life if he and his brother had been running around like this, but their father didn''t allow it, they had to study and uphold the demeanor of the higher class what meant that they had to learn archery or fencing. They weren''t allowed to play pointless games like playing catch or fooling around, their father always said that if they really wanted to play these games then they should hire some servant to play these games for them while they were watching. To be honest Ullr hated his father, that''s why he loved his youngest brother so much, he tried everything he could so that his father gave his youngest son some freedom so he could do as he pleased as he wasn''t the main heir of the family fortune. Ullr wanted his brother to have the life he never had, that''s why he was so angry when he thought that Chrome intentionally hurt his brother as he would have completely destroyed everything It worked so much for in his life. And that''s why Ullr felt that he couldn''t be friends with Chrome anymore, he didn''t deserve him, Ullr didn''t look after his brother enough resulting in the situation that he blamed someone that just played that game and didnt do anything wrong. It just wasn''t fair, Ullr felt like he just lives to suffer because he wasn''t good enough to enjoy it, he was the one that worked to come where he is now that is why he liked Chrome, he felt like Chrome knew what it is like to work and to get nothing out of it. Ullr kept being stuck in his thoughts for the rest of his way until he reached to palace... 116 We have a Problem Erika was strolling through the city, as usual she was followed by some of her robot soldiers, she was always surprised at how it seemed that they developed a personality that was similar to hers. The Robot were somehow always eager to fight too, but strangely when Erika wanted to spar with one of them the left the room faster than Erika could react. So Erika had no other way than to go out and search for some guys willing to get punched by her, but she had already learned, yes she really deeply thought about it, she didn''t use her axe anymore as she couldn''t find anyone anymore that would fight with her if she used it. She even felt a little hurt when she ordered one of her robots to spar with her and he ripped his mana crystal out before his brethren could force him into the sparring ring. Erika also tried it once to spar with John and even though it was an interesting and hard fight she was a little frightened by John even though she won the fight, she could clearly remember the tremors that were ravishing through her body as she blocked his attacks with her weapon. She only won against him because she was more experienced and used feints and tricks that she actually despised but just his strength alone forced her to used them, Erika just couldn''t imagine what would happen if he would seriously learn to fight. But Erika had a dark premonition, there was something going on, and even though she asked John to prepare for war she still felt that something was wrong. Erika always trusted her senses but this game world that they were in was slightly different than the real world, things could happen that wouldn''t be possible in the real world. Even Erika started to question her senses that all pointed to war, but maybe it was just her mental scar acting up wanting her to fight and kill. It was as if something wanted to drag her back into the dark times. Erika kept remembering the times she was on the battlefield, it was as if she was dead inside, as if someone pulled a switch turning her from a human being to merciless killing machine. Erika would always hear story talking about a blood red maiden haunting the battlefield ripping apart soldiers and leaving behind nothing but scattered corpses, it took years for Erika to understand that she was that blood red ghost. Every time she walked onto a battlefield she charged into the enemy lines killing the first few with bullets and as soon as her ammunition was empty she had pulled out her knife and started killing the enemies without mercy. Erika knew that she should be so cruel and that her mother didn''t want her to be a killing machine but she couldn''t control herself, it was as if her sight was dyed in red and should couldn''t escape this nightmare. that time was her lowest point in life, it didn''t matter to her anymore if she died or lived, but that was the time when she suddenly met this female soldier that made Erika touch a sewing needle for the first time in ages again. At first she didn''t want to do it even though her heart was aching and crying just wanting her to pick up the needle and the thread and sew something, but slowly she started working on small projects again always with some kind of excuse why she had to sew something. She started by embroidering badges like blood group or ranks on uniforms of her and her brothers in arms, or fixing some holes in the uniform, or even stitching open wounds of her fellow soldiers in the middle of the battle saving their lives while doing that. But Erika never really started sewing and tailoring yet until one day when she was coming back from the burial of her foster father, the female soldier that brought her back to sewing was missing. Later Erika found out that her platoon was on patrol and the drove into an ambush and as they were escaping a car bomb went off killing the female soldiers and two others. Erika felt bad when she heard that and nearly started cutting herself off again going back to the time she was a killing machine but as she was sitting on the bed of her dead comrade she saw the needle and thread laying around. She picked them up and just started sewing again, she could do everything her mother taught her as if she was sitting beside her. The sewing and tailoring became something like an anchor for Erika, and even though she still couldn''t stop going into battle she had something that kept her grounded and sane. It also helped her when she was retired from the army, it was something that kept her busy but she still had the craving to fight. And that''s how she started playing King''s Reign and how she met with John and the others. Even now Erika kept this anchor that brought her through the war, maybe it was even stronger as she found a small orphanage in one of the cities that John governed over, at first she just visited them or brought some food because Claire asked her to do that but soon as if Claire knew it Erika found thread and needles in the baskets for the orphanage and she started teaching those small childs sewing and embroidering while also teaching some of the boys to fight. You could say that it was a therapy for Erika, something that helped her get over everything that happened to her in her life. Today was also a day where Erika visited the orphanage and she spent golden hours there surrounded by laughing children and even laughing herself. But suddenly a scream could be heard from outside, the orphanage was situated on the outskirts of the city so that the children could run around and play but from time to time some wild animals found their way to them on their search for food. Erika grabbed her axe and went outside to kill the wild animal, but what she saw was something different. The first thing Erika noticed was the horrid smell of rotten flesh, she looked around and saw a strange silhouette that was slowly walking towards them. It was walking strange and as it came nearer Erika could see some details, It was a man, the arms and legs were replaced by machinery but it seemed as if it wasn''t working very well, the man was clearly undead as his body was half rotten and some birds even started eating part of it as one eye was missing and his guts were spilling out and were dragged on the floor. At first Erika thought that John was a maniac for creating something vile like this but then she shook her head, she knew that John wouldn''t do something like that, but she had to suffering of that corpse, that poor man had a grimace of pain on his face and Erika knew that it was the last face this man showed when he was still alive. Erika ran up to the undead and swung her ax, but the undead blocked her attack with one of his metal arms and clawed after Erika with the other. Erika evaded and kept on attacking, she was surprised by the strength of the undead and if this fight carried on she would lose as the undead had unlimited stamina. So Erika used her speed trying to circle around the undead but was still blocked by one of the arms, the fight carried on and suddenly Erika started to get the advantage, her ax was a masterpiece of craftsmanship while the machinery on the undead was mediocre at best so the arm that was mainly used for blocking Erika¡äs attacks broke under an attack giving Erika the upper hand allowing her to directly attack the undead with a well place attack in the lower stomach. But against Erika¡äs expectations the undead didn''t care about the wound he just kept attacking until Erika finely chopped his head off with another well placed strike. Erika was breathing heavily and was looking around but couldn''t find another one of those undeads. So she turned around called for her robot soldiers telling one of them to bring to corpse back to the dungeon while ordering the rest to guard the orphanage. Then she sprinted back to the Dungeon knowing that this was just the beginning and that her senses didn''t betray her. She rushed into the dungeon, down the floors taking Claire, Vito and Olaf that she met on her way down the dungeon with her until they reached John¡äs workshop. Erika stormed through the door without knocking and walked up to John and at the same time Eva came through another door into the room and both of them said in unison: "We have a problem..." 117 Problems over problems John was completely startled, he just wanted to get started on the last weapon for his boss, when all of his friends came running into the workshop yelling at him that there was a problem. He couldn''t imagine what was so bad that it would get them so agitated, especially Eva wasn''t as calm as she usually is. But John stomped them before they could start talking, he and them to the kitchen telling them that he would join them shortly. They listened to him when they saw his calm expression and left the room, John started cleaning up his workshop. He put the materials away and put away all of his tools when he came to the carving Knife of sin he wanted to use for this project he noticed that it''s color changed and got fuller than it was before, but there was still a tiny bit of color missing but John that the knife could already exert most of its power. John finished up his workshop and started walking to the kitchen where his friends were waiting for him, he sat down and looked at the stern faces of his friends, he then started the conversation by asking Erika about the problem she mentioned. Erika told him about her visit to the orphanage, she explained that she was inside it when one of the residents spotted something and screamed causing her to run out of the building. She then told him about her fight with the undead and ordered some of the robots to bring in the corpse. The corpse was laid on the table and the group of friends looked at it with disgust, they studied the machinery that replaced the limbs of this poor soul and noticed that even though the manufacturing process of the mechanism was decent and even though some parts were made by John himself, the creator of this mechanism didn''t seem to understand the right usage of those gears and how an automata works. At first, they asked why John made these parts for such a disgusting purpose but he told them that these parts were not made for such a mechanism, they were made as internal gearing of a demon-o-bot. John worked with hundreds of gears since he started playing King''s Reign and he reached a rather advanced proficiency with them, that''s why could see that the gearing that was used for those limbs was worse than average at best, they used durable gears where smaller faster gears would have been better while there were also places where you could see bent and broken gears as they were to weak for the purpose. Also the creator of this contraption used way to much gears resulting in a weaker stability and causing the whole mechanism to be prone to malfunction and damage. It was clear as day to John that the creator of this contraption just used the gears he had without considering their purpose and balance. John explained his findings to his friend and mentioned that it wasn''t that hard to get some of his gears as they could be salvaged out of his dungeon. Even though most of the players did not reach farther than the second floor that was more than enough to get these gears. But what was worrying John more than the machinery was that the poor man that was used to create this undead was a beastman that clearly was used for this creature against his will. John knew that it was nearly impossible for anyone to conduct these acts of gruesomeness within his kingdom as there were hundreds of his servants patrolling through the whole country day and night. But that meant that this creature must originate from the Kingdom of the Humans, so John ordered his bots to man the border and control everyone that wants to enter this kingdom. His minion heard his order and got to work, the robot army deployed while the smithing bots started working furiously producing more reinforcements. Erika was satisfied with John¡äs response to the threat and excused herself and left the kitchen the supervise the deployment of the troops and defend the border herself, she was joined by Vito who told them that he wouldn''t be of help with talking or deciding so he just joined Erika to help with something he could. Olaf also left the kitchen saying that he would help those smithing bots to forge some appropriate weapons, only Claire and Eva remained in the room with John until Claire suddenly stood up too leaving the room while smiling in Johns direction shrouding her actions in secrets. John was startled when so many of his friends left the room so quickly but it was probably for the best as Eva probably wanted to talk about some Virtec inc. stuff. John looked at Eva expecting her to start but she seemed to fumble around with her words not knowing how to start, John was surprised as Eva usually was decisive and would just talk or act like she wanted, but this time something bad must have been happened. So to help Eva start talking John asked her about the alarm that went off some days ago when she had to leave so rapidly, not expecting that Eva¡äs face would harden and his head would be hitting the table with a loud bang after he asked her. But Eva''s anger didn''t last long and she sighed, she told him about the small robot he created that was traveling around the world causing all kinds of problems around the world. John listened to her in shock when she talked about killed dragons, dethroned deities and the death of a demigod by this small Scrapling. She continued telling him about the alarm and that the scrapling reached the City of Metal, Stahl, and that they were scared that he would destroy it completely. John heard all this and was already searching for a way to leave the room without that Eva noticed it, he thought the big problem Eva talked about was his fault that was why he was surprised when she told him about a unidentified person that tried to stop the journey of this small robot even risking to destroy the whole city in the process. She couldnt find out who it was because when she wanted to investigate she stopped by the mainframe AI and when she wanted to find a way around it she was stopped by her supervisor. But what she found out that he had a strange connection to the king of the Human kingdom. She told him about the strange behaviour of the goddess of Judgement and that she found strange power fluctuations at the palace of the Human king, she also found out that he had been trying to rebuild the angersteel Colossus and that he recently succeeded and could even control it thanks to the support of the goddess of judgement. But what worried Eva the most were the strange reports that came from the palace of this king, at first there were just some Error reports from some NPCs that stopped, then more of these reports came and stayed and now there were even some mental health warnings from some players. The last part was the most disturbing as usually the game AI looked for those mental health warnings and monitored those players and even stopping them from playing but somehow, not only weren''t they stopped from playing they even started to showed signs of an addiction to being online that got stronger the more warning messages about their mental Health status there were. But eva told him that before she could do something about it or investigate some more her access to these reports were revoked with the explanation that a team of doctors were hired and these report would be treated as medical files for that only the doctors had access to. John had a stern face when Eva finished telling him everything she found out and asked her what they could do, especially for the players that had mental health problems. Eva answered him that she managed to program a tool into the game that allowed her to ban players that showed signs of mental health problems for some time if they were killed in game also notifying an ambulance at the same time. And now that they found out that a war against the human kingdom was basically set in stone that they had to take care of the other problems as they were coming. John sighed he just wanted to play this game to remember his brother and after he found out about the NPC version of him he wanted to find him, but now problems over problems were in his way and he didn''t even have a clue yet where he could search for his brother. But John once steeled his resolve when he saw the corpse of that poor beastman and decided that if the human kingdom was really the creator of such a monstrosity than it had to be stopped. 118 Ullrs despair Ullr reached the palace and the guard that informed the palace of his arrival was standing several meters away from the palace shivering in fright. Ullr didn''t mind him as he didn''t know what happened before he reached the palace. Ullr walked past the guards and they didn''t move an inch, he was surprised by this much discipline but couldn''t help but hold his nose because something was smelling terrible. He looked around and saw a man pulling a wooden cart filled with dead pigs. Ullr decided that he wouldn''t eat any pork today as they were probably rotten. He continued into the palace still holding his nose, it was as if this rotten smell burned itself into his nose. While he was walking through the palace he could hear strange sounds like clicking and something rubbing against something, they sounded strangely familiar but he just could find out what they were. Ullr also noticed that some of the statues he saw when he was here were either missing or had metal parts missing from them. Ullr felt strange, he had a bad feeling since he entered the kingdom and it got worse and worse. But it was as if something deep inside him pushed him forward knowing that he might find something out that he didn''t want to know. Ullrs steps were echoing the hall and he was slightly estranged that no butler or servant welcomed him and accompanied him to his brother. But as he was here before Ullr could roughly remember the way to the audience chamber. Suddenly as he was walking through a wooden door that was leading to the inner part of the palace a cloud of perfume was all around him. The scent was heavy and completely overbearing, he couldn''t smell anything except that perfume but he didn''t mind it that much as the rotten smell from before was overwhelmed too. Also, there were some guards stationed in this room. They looked at him with strange gleams in their eyes and a slight shiver ran down Ullr''s back. Ullr knew that they were not the type of person you would hire to keep you safe but more like to hurt someone. At first, Ullr found it strange that this kind of people were guarding this place until he thought a bit about his brother''s personality and thought that it seemed to fit. Ullr advanced past these guards that looked at him with a bored expression and entered the audience chamber. He looked around and he saw a big burnt spot in the middle of the room that also had some spots in it that were molten. He also saw strange pipes that were laying on the ground with a strange green liquid leaking here and there. But he couldn''t see his brother anywhere and was thinking about what he should do now, wait till he comes back or leave when he suddenly heard laughing he could recognize every time. It was more a cackling than a real laugh but it undoubtedly belonged to his brother. Ullr followed the piping walked past the throne entering the room where he heard his brother from. But Ullr wasn''t prepared for what he saw now, the first thing he could make out was the massive amount of pipelines that were coming into the room from every direction, some of them had liquid running in them that looked like health potions, some more had the strange green liquid running through them while the rest had something like running in them that was used to power all kinds of devices. His brother completely clad in a purple jester uniform was cackling while looking into a corner Ullr couldn''t see. The ground was dyed dark from blood and suddenly Ullr saw something bad, something he never wanted to see again, something that he thought was destroyed by chrome. He saw the giant anger steel colossus moving again after it was destroyed by chrome, it even was bowing before his brother, but as soon as he was moving a step closer the angersteel colossus lifted its head looking at him. Mephisto who saw the movement of the colossus turned around and looked at Ullr while wearing a white mask with a laughing and crying face and started giggling while saying: "Oooh we''ve got a visitor...hehehe...and it''s even my lovely brother...hehehe...without him, all of this wouldn''t have been possible." Mephisto couldn''t stop giggling and was hopping from side to side. "What happened here? What do you mean that without me all of this wouldn''t be possible? What is all of this?" Ullr asked? Mephisto started giggling again and looked up to the angersteel colossus and said: "Should we tell him...hehehe...should we?...hehehe...". Mephisto started cackling again and walked towards Ullr on his tiptoes and grabbed his wrist and pulled him to one side of the room. Ullr looked at his brother and couldn''t believe what he saw, was this really his brother? Did this game really reveal his brother''s real personality, was he really so twisted and insane? But his thoughts were abruptly stopped when he was pulled through a door leading to the balcony by his brother. But Ullr''s mind couldn''t comprehend what he was seeing now, instead of a nice garden filled with flowers they were greeted by a roof that has been built over garden creating a big factory. The first thing Ullr noticed was the smell, it smelled like rotten flesh mixed with smoke, he couldn''t help but cough and hold his nose while his brother was happily hopping up and down like a child that wants to show you its toy. The next thing that Ullr saw were dozens of people working on the machines and walking around, some of them looked strange as if their limbs were stiff and couldn''t be moved very good, Ullr even thought that he saw one or two crawling on the ground. But then he saw it, the machines weren''t ordinary, he was shocked when he saw that a human or beastman was strapped into every machine, he could see that the ground was drenched in blood and painful howls were echoing through the hall. Ullr took a step back when he observed two men cutting off limbs of one man that was strapped into a machine while he was crying in pain. Ullr couldn''t believe his eyes, he just couldn''t comprehend that something like this was possible. Ullr turned around and grabbed his giggling brother by the shoulders and yelled at him: " What are you doing? How could this madness possibly be my fault?" Mephisto was giggling heavily while he pulled away Ullrs arms and brought him back inside the palace, but Ullr was rooted at the entrance when they entered the room while Mephisto advanced till he reached the middle of the room. But Ullr couldn''t move, he even fell down to his knees, when he entered the room coming from the balcony he saw something he couldn''t see before, something that hurt him in his deepest core. He saw his youngest brother strapped into a machine complete drenched in his own blood looking at him with lifeless eyes, the hands and arms were cut off and replaced by machinery. And Ullr understood, he really was at fault for all of this, he had brought the samples of Chrome''s robots to his brother, he chased after Chrome even though he should have looked after his brother helping him get through this hard time. But Ullr failed, it was his fault, he slumped down complete being a poor excuse of the man he once was. His heart has been shattered and his mind also could break at any moment. But Ullr caught himself, he stood up and looked at Mephisto with pure rage, he pulled out his bow and drew it to a full draw but before he could fire it something moved in front of Mephisto. It was Cpt. Bling having a lifeless face, Ullr really wanted to kill Mephisto but he couldn''t kill his youngest brother so he put his bow and arrow away and said:" You still owe me a favor brother, let our brother go!" Mephisto giggled and said: "The only favor I grant you is that you can leave without being harmed knowing that you''re at fault for the pain of our brother." Ullr flinched but couldn''t do anything else than to go, he left the room, left the palace and left the capital. People that saw him walking looked at him as if he was a lifeless corpse and avoided him, but Ullr couldn''t complain as he really wanted to be that corpse, everything he did was wrong, he wanted to avenge his brother and blamed the wrong person destroying the first real friendship he made and now even the brother he wanted to avenge and protect suffered because he didn''t look after him. Ullr didn''t know anymore what he should do, so he logged off and decided to go drinking... 119 Scrapdragonslayer Since Scrappy collected all three of the "Three Stars of Space" his traveling speed increased exponentially. Even though he now could directly return back to his creator he felt like something was till missing before he could return. At first Scrappy still traveled by riding Junky for some time especially if a city or village was near. And everytime Scrappy came to a new city you could make a slow motion movie underlaid with classical music out of it, Scrappy was soaring through the air teleporting from place to place grabbing his beloved scrap. Everything happened in seconds and there would always people left behind searching for missing stuff, nobody could comprehend where all the metal items went, strangely the only thing out of metal that always remained were dishes filled with cake or pie that had been placed on a window to cool down. But Scrappy didn''t find anything what could stop this feeling that he had to find something special. But Scrappy wasnt that worried about it is just meant for him that he got more time to collect more Scrap. Every City Scrappy visited was completely cleaned of their Scrap and the only thing that has been noticed was some strange magical wind. But naturally Scrappy also took a break from time to time, he knew that couldn''t just collect Scrap all the time, lately he has found a new thing he could do. He started on day and emptied his scrap bucket what nearly resulted in him being buried by his own beloved scrap. He basically created a mountain out of nothing, he could barely teleport away before he could be crushed by the pure amount of Scrap. Scrappy didn''t expect that he could make his own paradise just by emptying his bucket. The first time he emptied his bucket, Scrappy just sorted all of his scrap, he made dozens of piles sorted by the pure metal the scrap pieces were made of and the corresponding alloys. he spent full three days sorting the whole mountain naturally junky and the sylphids helped him. Scrappy could completely relax while he was sorting his beloved scrap, but the sorting could only be done once so when he took a break the next time he had another idea. He started by stacking several different scrap pieces to build a base. He stacked them more and more and slowly but steadily a statue out of scrap was created, the first statue Scrappy created was a twenty meter tall high lifelike statue showing his Creator Chrome in his full magnificence. Now scrappy could sort his scrap collection again, the next statue showed the fire dragon scrappy slaughtered when he was collecting the scrap from the troglodytes. After he built the statue the sylphids also wanted some fun and used their wind to bring this dragon replica to life... ...Jeffrey was thirty years old and lived in a small village and owned a small farm, he spent his day as usual on the field, he was plowing the field and sowing wheat for the winter. He couldn''t want more in life, he had a beautiful wife and an adorable daughter. His farmland was giving him bountiful harvests and was easy to plow and sow. But suddenly he fell backwards on the ground looking at the sky in panic, a massive dragon was flying in the sky. He couldn''t believe his eyes and he started praying and was already expecting to die, the dragon landed right in front of him but he just couldn''t look at it clearly, as tears were clouding his vision. Jeffrey closed his eyes and expected to be dead any second now, but then he saw the faces of his family, his beautiful wife''s face and the smile of his small adorable daughter, his body was flushed with adrenaline and he grabbed his hoe tighter, he heard the panic stricken scream of the other villagers and imagined his family also screaming like that before they were killed. Strength rushed through his limbs causing him to stand up holding his hoe up high and charging at the dragon that landed in front of him. Tears were flowing from his eyes over his cheeks and a bad smell was emanating from his pants but he was still charging towards the dragon, when it suddenly opened the mouth and breathed in. Jeffrey closed his eyes as he expected to be burnt to death by the breath attack from the dragon but still started swinging his hoe. But the expect heat didn''t come, only a strong wind was blowing against jeffrey¡äs body and even though it slowed him down he still could complete his swing and it felt to him as if he hit something hard but the hoe also started swinging through it as if he penetrated the skin. Jeffrey opened his eyes after several minutes of nothing happening, he thought that he was already dead, but when the light of the sun shined into his eyes he still saw the land around the village as he loved it in lush green and full of life. But he couldn''t see the dragon anymore and he fell to his knees as the pressure fell from him. He punched himself to assure him that he wasn''t dreaming or dead. Jeffrey just couldn''t comprehend where the dragon as gone but suddenly he noticed that his hoe felt strange, he looked at it but there wasn''t a metal head on it anymore, he searched on the ground but he couldn''t find it anymore. But before he could get on his knees to search for it he suddenly heard cheering from behind. Jeffrey turned around and saw his fellow villagers running towards him with happy faces. The villagers picked him up and and threw him into the air cheering for him and calling his name, Jeffrey couldn''t understand why they were cheering his name until he heard one of them call him a dragonslayer. Jeffrey couldn''t tell them how he killed the dragon as he didnt know it himself what happened to the dragon but he didn''t care anymore when he saw his family running towards him, he pushed the other villagers away and ran faster than ever towards his lovely wife and his sweet daughter. He pulled them into his arms and was just happy for this feeling he never expected to feel again. He didn''t care anymore about being a dragonslayer he just wanted to spend the rest of his life with his family, he could be robbed of everything he had but his family. The whole evening was spend on celebrating their survival, that''s why they only discovered that every piece of metal was missing, they searched every house of the village but they couldn''t find any metal piece anymore but they didn''t complain as the shock of an attacking dragon was still in their bones so they were calm and happy about everything they had as they expected that they would have been dead by now. Even though everyone knew that Jeffrey hadn''t killed the dragon they kept calling him a dragonslayer even building a statue of him fighting a dragon with a hoe. The village would grew into a big city in the future and Jeffrey was elected to a King by his peers for his courageous fight against the dragon... Scrappy was angry at the sylphids he was just putting away some excess scrap when his statue flew away and scared him that he may have lost a big amount of his beloved scrap. Scrappy was so scared about it that he forgot that he could teleport to catch up to the dragon, he ran after it and when he reached it he quickly collected it and left. The only reason that Scrappy could forgive the sylphids was that they collected some more scrap for him, if they had not collected that then Scrappy would have pulverized their home to melt it into some more scrap. The sylphids were shivering in fright and swore to themselves that they wouldn''t take away scrap from their master ever again. Scrappy was so angry that he didn''t care for the destination for his next teleport, he just ripped a whole into reality and jumped in. It was a rough journey through that portal rougher than Scrappy was used to but after several minutes of traveling Scrappy was thrown out of the fold in reality. Scrappy landed on the ground but noticed that it was extraordinary soft, he looked at it more clearly and saw that the ground was made out of clouds. Then Scrappy lifted his head and looked around and saw that he was in an environment that was flying in the sky, golden building built on clouds mostly built out of columns were all around and Scrappy could see hundreds of shiny scrap pieces everywhere. But when he wanted to sent his sylphids to collect them they stopped moving as soon as they left his bucket. Scrappy also noticed that he could only move sluggishly but he had a slight golden gleam around his body... 121 The enemy of my enemy is my friend John rushed through the city, he knew that Constantine needed him if the Barkeeper took the liberty to call him for help. It was normal for them to be completely drunk when they visited that bar but usually the barkeeper would just lay them in a seperate room to get sober but now it seems that Constantine wasn''t there to party and needed help from a friend. And John wanted to be that friend, he kept running through the city pushing aside people that were in his way. John reached the bar and when he entered it he saw the sad figure of Constantine, he was laying on the bartable in his own puke dozens of glasses and glass shards were laying around him and several empty bottles of booze were there too. John knew that something really bad must have happened to Constantine if he ended up in such a state. John went up to Constantine and grabbed him by the shoulders and lifted him up and looked him in the face. Constantine did not react to that movement and a horrid smell wafted into John¡äs nose, Constantine smelled like he fell into a barrel full of alcohol. Luckily John developed a fair amount of muscles since started training in Olafs forge, so it was easier for him to throw Constantine over his shoulders and carry him out of the bar after he thanked the Barkeeper for his call and started walking home. John was slower than usual when he walked through the city and many people looked at him with disgust and he had to lay down Constantine several times on the way as he was pretty heavy. Suddenly he was called out by a female voice, he turned around with Constantine on his back, he was breathing heavily. Sweat was flowing down his head and back and when he looked up he saw Erika¡äs smiling face. She laughed at the sight of John slaving away under the weight of Constantine, actually she wanted to buy some more thread and needles for her tailoring but now she saw John carrying a rich guy around the city clearly exhausted. John greeted her but before he could say anything else Erika lifted Constantine from his shoulders and threw him over her shoulders. John wanted to protest but Erika laughed it just off and started walking towards John house. Soon they reached John¡äs house and John carried Constantine into the bathroom and stripped him down to his underwear. He filled his bathtub with hot water and put Constantine inside and started washing him. When he was finished he carried him into his bed to let him sleep. He walked back into his kitchen and saw Erika happily eating after she plundered his refrigerator. He too grabbed a slice of bread added butter to it and some slices of Black Forest Ham. After Erika and him were nibbling a while on their sandwiches Erica asked him: " Hey John, who was the hot guy that clearly drank too much alcohol?" John was slightly startled when he heard Erika call him hot but he told her how he met him. He explained her how he was walking through the city after they met up with Ullr and how they ended their friendship. He told her that his wandering through the city led him to a small bar and that Constantine entered the same bar after him and that they had a good time together and became friends. He then told her about how he was called by the Barkeeper and that he carried him until they met up with her. Erika laughed several times when John told the story especially when she imagined John singing karaoke. they spent several hours talking while also checking on constantine from time to time. Erika left John¡äs house in the evening and John prepared his couch to sleep on, when he woke up in the morning he made some coffee and soon after a totally hungover Constantine was walking out of the bedroom and sat down beside John. When Constantine woke he didn''t know where he was he got out of the bed he was in and held his head, he saw that he was only in his underwear but found some clothes beside the bed. They weren''t the fancy and expensive clothes he was used to but they had to be enough. He left the room he was in and saw John sitting at a kitchen table drinking coffee. He sat down beside him and a mug full of coffee was put in front of him, he nodded to John and started drinking. The were sitting in silence and were sipping coffee, John knew that he had to wait for Constantine to start talking. But even though Constantine started talking he didn''t talk about what was bothering him, he just thanked John and asked him if he could sleep another night here and John told him that it was OK. He showed Constantine his house and when they reached the living room Constantine saw the big gaming capsule that stood there in the corner. He was surprised that John was playing King''s Reign too and John noticed that his friend seemed to recognize the capsule and asked him if he was playing too. Constantine answered with a nod even though a weird look could been seen on his face. John didn''t see the strange look and happily asked him if he wanted to play together some time. Even though Constantine wasn''t so happy about the thought of playing King''s Reign but he felt that John¡äs company made him feel good and if they could do something together it might help him out of the hole he fell into. Constantine asked John if he would mind if there was another capsule in this room and John looked at him with a strange face but answered that he lived he alone and didn''t need this room for anything else and that he didn''t mind. Constantine then took his phone out of his soiled clothes and call one of his butlers. The butler was happy when he heard something from the young master because they lost him after he ditched his car, Constantine ordered him to bring another capsule to John¡äs house, and just ten minutes later a group of twenty men were coming to Johns house in a truck and started installing the new capsule and to John¡äs surprise another group of people starting digging into the street in front of his house and pulled a completely new glass fiber cable through pipes into his house and installed it. Also a man wearing a fancy butler uniform came up to Constantine with a new pile of clothes and a chequebook. Constantine signed two cheques one for the workers outside and he handed the other to John. John didn''t want to take it but Constantine insisted on it as he wanted to thank John for his help when he had passed out from drinking. After several minutes of discussion John accepted Constantines money and after another hour of waiting the new capsule was installed and John had faster internet now. Constantine asked John where they would meet up and he was relieved when he heard that John was in the Kingdom of Bronze Hell as he didn''t want to be in his brothers kingdom for the time being. Constantine reluctantly agreed to meet up in the village that was the nearest to Chrome¡äs dungeon. They entered the game and when Constantine reached the village he looked out for the agreed sign, a wooden board with held up high with the name of the bar they met at. But Constantine thought his life played another game with him but now he accepted it, if fated wanted him this much to be Chromes friend then he should take as he didn''t have enough strength anymore to fight against it. He walked up to the Big silver guy that was holding up a wooden sign while smiling and said in a sad but also happy voice: "Hey John, life plays some ridiculous games with us doesn''t it?" John looked at Ullr and was startled as he tried to think about the reason Ullr knew his real name until he asked with an unbelieving face: "Constantine, is that you?" Constantine nodded with a strange smile and was suddenly drawn into a hug by John as John knew that they finally could be friends without any bad feelings between them. John took Constantine to his dungeon and brought him through it into his workshop, Constantine was startled by everything he saw, he knew that John was good at crafting but what he now saw completely was out of his mind. It seemed like the more he saw of John¡äs work the better it got. But what was startled him most was when they walked through a workshop where hundreds of smithing bots where creating an army of robot Soldiers. Constantine asked John about it and John explained him about the Human kingdom and how they wanted a war and that he had to stop them as they were torturing innocent people. Constantine understood what John wanted to tell him and when he heard that they had a way to help those players that showed signs of mental breakdown he made a decision, there was an old saying "The enemy of my enemy is my friend" and he told John that he wanted to help him stop this mad King... 122 The thieves of thieves Scrappy has been walking around in this strange realm for some time now and he has seen several interesting people, like a giant dwarf that was hammering on scrap, Scrappy wanted to help him as he was clearly struggling breaking down these pieces of scrap down into smaller pieces, so he took them when the giant dwarf wasn''t looking. Then scrappy saw an elven woman taking care of a tree that had strange things hanging on it that looked like they were made out of golden scrap. So Scrappy started picking them up too while the woman was away to get some water for the tree. If scholar would have seen what he has been picking up then they would die after the vomited all of their Blood. Because the pieces of Golden Scrap that Scrappy had picked up where the golden Apples of the goddess of fertility, it is said that there existed gods that traded their godhood and immortality in for a single bite of one of those apples. It is said that these Apples can heal every injury or disease and add a thousand years to the lifespan of a mortal. And these apples are said to taste like the thing that the consumer wanted to taste the most, and that it takes ten-thousand years for one apple to grow. As expected when something like this vanished the commotion that ensued afterwards was quite big. The demigod soldier that were living in the heavenly realm were searching everywhere, something like this hasn''t happened since the second age when Parcival the Lord of the Thieves sneaked into the heaven and managed to steal a single apple. But the same Parcival was now running around the heavenly realm as one of the four Heavenly Generals, he has been granted this title for the achievement of stealing that apple, but now a dozen apples were stolen and nobody found the culprit. But Scrappy was not perturbed by that he took out the apples too look at them more clearly, he saw that they were not made out of scrap so he wanted to throw them away but he heard a little whimper out of his bucket he pulled out one of the sylphids but like last time as soon as he stopped touching the sylphid, it froze in mid air and couldn''t move anymore. Then Scrappy remembered that he overheard a conversation of two inhabitants of this realm, they were talking about some kind of disturbance in space but then laughed and said that it doesn''t matter if something entered this realm as you need the power of faith or something similar in power to be able to move in this realm. Scrappy the grabbed the sylphid again and let him bite into one of the apples, the Sylphid was suddenly full of energy and wiggled itself out of scrappy¡äs hand and rushed around him several times completely unaffected by the environment of this realm. Scrappy then feeded his sylphids one by one with a piece of these apples leaving only a single apple behind after he was finished. But Scrappy suddenly heard the sound of marching soldiers and observed how a group of Heavenly Soldiers led by a seemingly high ranking officer started searching the area near him. Scrappy decided that it would be better to somewhere else but he couldn''t leave just yet because he saw the shiny pieces of scrap the soldiers were wearing... Parcival the heavenly General of the east gate and the former Lord of the thieves, led a group of a dozen soldiers to an area that had strange auras in it. Even though he wasn''t the Lord of the Thieves anymore as he was a high ranking demigod, he was till very proud about his former title and skills that enabled him to become a demigod by stealing a single Golden Apple. His honor demanded that he finds the culprit and bring back the apples, he didn''t want to brag but Parcival didn''t let his skills rust and played a game with the goddess of fertility, every ten-thousand years he would try to steal another of the golden apples but he didn''t manage to do it again the best result he had in a hundred thousand years was to touch the apple before he was noticed. Parcival knew every trick of thievery and stealing and trained this knowledge to everyone of his soldiers so that they are safe against it. Even he found it difficult to steal anything from his subordinates, that is why he was surprised when he suddenly heard an outcry of one of his soldiers. He looked at the soldier and saw him searching the ground for something, Parcival walked over and it turned out that a dagger was missing, Parcival first wanted to scold the soldier for losing or forgetting his dagger in the barracks when another soldier cried out behind him. He turned around and saw soldiers that was searching for his spear, Parcival was dumbfounded as he was sure that every soldier had a spear when they started searching for the thief but suddenly another soldier called and had the wooden handle of the spear that was missing in hand. Parcival took it from the soldier and inspected it, everything seems normal until he looked to the metal tip and saw that it was missing just leaving behind the wooden pole. Parcival angrily ordered his soldiers to look around the perimeter when he suddenly saw the back of a soldier that turned around after his order. The armor the soldier was wearing had a square cut into it without the soldiers noticing it. Parcival looked at his subordinate with big eyes and could believe it, suddenly he heard a painful howl that made him turn around to see a soldier that tripped and fell on the ground. But before he could scold his subordinate for being clumsy he noticed that the metal boots of this soldiers were suddenly missing. Parcival drew his sword and while he was drawing it, it didn''t sound like usual, also the weight was off so he checked his sword, or what was left of it, the blade had been cut off above the handle an everything that was out of metal was missing. Suddenly everything went extremely fast, they could heard cutting sounds everywhere around them and one soldier after another was stripped down to his underwear without anyone seeing the culprit. Parcival couldn''t believe it, this whole situation wasn''t just a slap in the face for him, it was completely destroying his face with slaps, he had always been bragging about his achievement of stealing a golden apple but now not only his achievement was overshadowed by another being that stole a dozen apples not only one and also stripping him and his platoon without them being able to retaliate against it by stealing all of their stuff from their body. Parcival started tearing up while vomiting blood like a fountain seeing his honor and self confidence completely in shambles on the ground. Parcival and his men decided that they would tell everyone that they had been fighting the culprit and that he was to strong and the fight was so intense that everything they had was destroyed by this fight and that the culprit escaped after they showed their prowess with their fists. What Parzival and his men didn''t know that the same thing that happened to them also happened to the other three generals. Every general started bragging about an enemy that was extremely strong needing them to sacrifice everything before he escaped, and the more the story was told the stronger the fictional enemy got. Nobody wanted to admit that they hadn''t even seen the culprit that stole the golden apples and all of their belongings. The whole charade went so far that the generals even started a parade when they went back to the barracks celebrating the victory over the unimaginable strong enemy showing prideful faces even though nobody was wearing anything but their underwear. From this day forth a parade was celebrated every ten-thousand year where no soldiers was wearing anything but underwear celebrating the defeat of the strongest enemy in the history of the heavenly realm and the honorable generals that sacrificed everything they had and thousands of soldiers to defend the heavenly realm from this intruder... Scrappy didn''t know or noticed anything about this development as he was just happy and immersed in his new pieces of scrap he got by making the life of those people easier. And when Scrappy looked at the people he got the scrap from they seemed to be happy about not being burdened by this scrap as they were happily celebrating. Scrappy nodded and gave himself a pat on the shoulder and thought that it really felt good to do something good and help other people when they are burdened by their scrap. Not everybody was suited for collecting scrap and Scrappy was honored and enthusiastic to fill in this role that was burdened by so much responsibility of collecting scrap and making other people''s life easier.