After we made the decision to help the dwarves, I thought about how to go about it. Having so many tools I can work nearly twice as fast as Rust and Nova and four times faster when compared to those who were just revived.

Seeing that, I decided to first repair the clockworks joints to increase dexterity and agility. This would make it easier for them to work on more delicate stuff.

The solution was to make new iron joints. The dwarves were tasked with making the molds for the gears that made up the joint. Unlike the ingots which a simple metal box would work something like a gear needed a clay model.

They made small bricks and pressed the piece in which left the design printed on it after drying the clay. This made for a good copy of them.

Besides the molds for joint gears, which were all small sized, the bigger gears were also made so we can make the gears for the armor.

It was almost 5 days after we agreed to help, that we actually had enough people and materials to begin. We needed to stop a few times for repairs for Hino because as any other clockwork, we need to allow our engine to rest or it breaks. The forge engine can last long periods of time with the engine revved up but it took long and soon problems will rear their ugly heads.

As the number of clockworks that got repaired grew my workload decreased as I had Rust take command of them and start working them.

A good number was charged with gathering fuel and scraps. Some were given orders to smith the gears. And the rest were to build the armor. I built a few but then something made me curious.

What do dwarves eat? I’m sure you’re wondering yourself so I looked and found out that they actually foraged herbs and roots in the woods next to a shallow river at the base of the mountains. They used a hidden exit through the wall but my scanners found it.

With a bit of curiosity, I dragged Bulk with me and went into the mines after the dwarves left the door alone.

On my arm was a large warhammer that Victor let Bulk keep, the one Bulk used in their fight. Bulk himself didn't want it so I took it since I'm somewhat lacking in the weapon department.

“So why did you drag me here?” Bulk asks.

"I want to size the golems up." I tell him.

“And why don’t you come with some dwarves or by yourself?” He ask while following me.

”I could die and leaving Nova alone isn’t an option.” I tell him.

As we got to the mine shaft we saw them. Two golems stood guard.

Roughly human shape, one looked similar to the Thing and had red rocks making up its body with red glowing eyes. The other was very human shaped but had glowing eyes and glowing lines along his body where the rocks connect.

As we neared, they lifted their weapons. The bulky one held a metal club and the small one held a sword and shield.

“Stop and leave or die!” the bulky golem shouted.

“Want fatty?” Bulk said insulting the golem.

I nod and he activates the gears in his arms which opens a slim space between the arm and a large blade comes out. The blades themselves were called short swords but because of our size they could almost be called two handed swords or a bastard sword. They are dual sided so no matter what side you cut with they will actually cut.

The sword was modeled after a cool Baton sword I saw once.

The sword spins on a set of gears to leave the arm and turns forward while the handle was made into the guard stretching it out and made to be used like baton with the long side pointed forward.

I grab the warhammer and hold it sideways as I walk towards fatty while Bulk goes towards the human shaped golem.

“If you can kill us, then be my guest!” Bulk taunted them

With his provocation Bulk ran in and brought his left sword down. The golem put the shield in front and took the blow making his leg get buried in the ground a few centimeters.

“You bastard. Cocky aren’t you, for a piece of shit the dwarves built you sure talk big.” The smaller golem shouts.

Bulk was pushing down while the human took a step to the left and deflected the sword into the ground and lift his sword to strike, but before he knew it Bulk’s right sword came in on a diagonal and hit the shield unprepared and sent the golem rolling with a large cut in his arm.

“BASTARD!” The bulky golem shouted loudly.

The huge one ran towards Bulk but was met with a warhammer coming at him. He barely had time to lift the iron club in time to block it before it hit.

The hit pushed him back a good two meters back and stopped him dead in his tracks.

He looked at me with his glowing red eyes shining brightly.

“You’re dead, I’m going to make you into scrap metal!” He roared.

“The big guy says that weak dogs bark louder, if you want to do that then do it and shut up!” Bulk told him for me.

His eyes grow brighter and he comes at me swinging the club with reckless abandon.

Let me just remind everyone that I never put my free stats points in my stats so this is my pure robot body fighting.

The iron club comes down in a horizontal swing. I hold the warhammer with both hands and use the metal shaft to block it. With the hit blocked I do a complete turn and bring the warhammer in a full circle and hit the golem in his flank.

-50

(-50) 450/500

Well that's a shock. Are these guys just low leveled and weak or are they strong?

Bulk was having it just as easy. The guy couldn’t keep up with the swords. Though we don’t have guns at the moment, I passed my targeting system to my indebted travel mates and it also seem to work with swords. Instead of showing a crossed circle to shoot from it shows a few glowing weak points.

Returning to the fight I advance on the golem and with a horizontal swing coming from below, I aim for his head and successfully hit it, but I don’t stop and as the hammer reached its peak I bring down the warhammer on the golem's chest.

-150 Critical Hit, -50

(-200) 250/500

Cracks appear all over his chest as I jump back and get ready for the next round.

As he stood up I saw that a part of his head crumble and fall off. From his chest a lot also broke off. Then something VERY interesting appeared. In his chest, giving a faint brown glow was a perfectly brown stone still half buried in his chest.

What the hell is that? Wait...If I remember correctly golems have always been portrayed as either an elemental or an alchemy project. Considering the name of the quest he is the elemental version. Elementals in many games are said to drop crystals of their element type. If it’s true then that thing must be it then. I thought.

Realizing what made the golems tik I couldn't stop a mischievous grin from appearing on my robotic face nor could I stop the steam output from increasing.

I watched the golem intently as he fell on one knee.

“You...bas-tard. You'll...pay!” He shouts.

He lifted his arm and struck the ground. Suddenly he began glowing. The broken parts on his body began to reform and soon he was completely healed.

“Hehe you can't kill us unless you smash us to bits!” He said grinning like an idiot.

I knew he was right but I also guessed of a different way to beat him. When I realized he was healing I knew things were just getting serious so I opened the status screen and poured 20 stat points into agility 10 on strength and 12 on toughness.

I noticed that toughness was our form of vitality, so my health rose by 60 as a result as well.

As I close the tab I see him get ready to fight but he suddenly does something strange.

He drops the iron club and a moment later the glowing lines on his arms glow brighter. Soon his arm becomes wider and I see why. It was hollowed out. He shoves his arms into the ground again and pulls it out and faces his right arm at me with an almost evil grin.

[Rock Cannon]

Just as he said it the lights flared and a compact ball of stone came rocketing at me like a cannon ball. I was barely able to get out of the way thanks to the large boast of agility.

Before I could look I heard another shot be fired and this one connected.

I was thrown rolling and landed 4 meters away.

The rock hit my lower left chest and partially dented me.

I looked up my visor glowing. He was grinning smugly at me which made me boil inside, literally.

I stood up and dropped the excessively large hammer and brought out my own knight swords.

“Oh? Going with swords against a rock creature. Real stupid of you.” He said trying to taunt me.

I ignore him and run forwards. Let me tell you, you wouldn't guess 20 stat points on agility to be much or at least noticeable but when you’re two meters and a half it’s a huge difference.

My movements felt more refined than before. It also felt more fluid and I could move faster. If I compared myself to anything with my speed and size would be a raging bull charging.

He flinches a bit seeing my speed but aims as me again and fires. I jump and dodge the rock ball and clear the space between us before I thrust both my swords into the cannon muzzle he made with his arms and then pull up leaving a long cut along the top part of both arms.

He roars in pain and falls back. I stomp on his chest and then mercilessly stab my right sword into his head. The left sword I cut from his neck down to his waist.

The large cut opened the body and with a push from the sword it was pushed aside. I then stomped on his chest and parts fell off and revealed the core again. While still pinning him down I grabbed the exposed crystal and after a bit of struggling it came out.

Fatal blow

You have killed a player. Under normal circumstances, your jail time would have increased but until all races succeed or fail in their survival quest you are exempted from gaining penalties as much of the world's laws are now set to survival of the fittest.

Note once all races have finished their survival quest the world laws will change and you can only kill for self defense of yourself or an ally. During wars the penalty will not be counted as it is an act to defend allies.

Fuck that was lucky. I need to be careful with sentient beings. I thought to myself as relief spread over me

I breath a sigh of relief and look to Bulk. The human shaped golem was on par with him but not in strength but skill. It was clear the guy had real life experience but he was only on par because his stats probably weren't as high as Bulks.

The guys shield was nearly destroyed from the heavy blows and cracks were everywhere.

When the guy suddenly jumped back to gain room what met him was Bulk sheathing his right blade and sending a punch. I felt a hint of pity towards the guy. He put his shield in the way and when Bulk’s fist met it the pressure valve released and Bulk’s fist impacted with devastating force.

The guy’s shield gave way and the punch followed downwards onto his chest but as a normal punch but it was dangerous all the same.

Bulk finished him by stomping on his chest crushing everything but the single hard crystal in the center. It was much smaller but I still walked over and picked it up.

“Good workout.” he said nodded while panting for breath which was to cool down our systems.

I ignore his stupid comment and look at the crystals.

Elemental Crystal (Earth)

A crystal found in the heart of a golem. These crystal naturally absorb mana in the air and release it as its element.

This type is an earth crystal. Unlike the other types of crystals this one is breakable and can be used as crafting material.

I read and reread again the message.

If I'm mistaking this is one of those augmenting crystals. There are some games that used this. In those games this crystal would increase resistant to a certain type of element or give more defense for armor.

“What’s that?” Bulk asked.

I hand one to him and he scans it and gets the identification message.

“...We are keeping all things from the golems right?” He asked.

I nod.

“Sweet~!” He said while excitedly jumping around.

"Lets go back. We need to finish the dwarves’ gear and I want to squeeze the complete skill of dwarven smithing from Felk. I tell him.

Bulk grin mischievously as we left. I didn't forget to pick up the weapons they had and anything else.

Back inside the scrap yard we got to Felk and "ask" him for the full teaching. He readily accepted to teach me and passed me a few books about smithing before technology found its way. A few recipe books on how to properly melt an ore or a scrap piece of metal. Some showed their own guns and such.

All in all they were books and as any proper robot all I need was scan and copy each page for later reading.

The last book was a bronze colored on that gave a bit of a glow. Yep, it was a skill book, or in this case a skill rank-up book.

It held the skill for dwarven smithing. Now what kind of thing did we do to Felk for him to teach us the full skill? Teach him how to build a clockwork. He wanted to know the workings and wouldn't give us anything even with torture.

When I finished scanning the last page I gained the skill and I passed the book to Bulk.

“You don't want the book?” Felk asked.

“He scanned and copied it in his memory. I think clockwork are outside the magic skill books learning system.” Bulk explained.

Felk nodded after thinking a bit. He explained that the proper way to do it would be to say "Learn skill" the book would turn into particles of light and enter your body.

Out of curiosity Bulk did that but it failed but scanning page for page let him learn it.

“Really you fellas are too strange. Well your whole race already defies normal logic.” Felk says while scratching the back of his head.

“What would be the fun in being normal.” Bulk said

Felk looked at him a moment and began laughing.

“I guess it’s more interesting a life like yours. Well anyways I should get going. I can help you bots now and I'm sure my fingers are a lot more flexible than those rust buckets.” He says while pointing to the rusted clockwork outside who were getting some repairs done with some hunted robot parts.

He puts on a tool belt holding tons of tools and then leaves us behind him.

For the rest of the day we modify the armor suits and after looking through all the revived clockwork I found one that is the hardworking friendly type.

We made him the lead smith and later on at night we uploaded dwarven blacksmithing so and told him that after we leave he should lead the clockwork then mix the dwarven smithing techniques with construction of their bodies.

Here is the dwarven smithing skill.

Dwarven Blacksmithing (Basic 1)

The most coveted blacksmithing art. The techniques of the dwarves are passed on in the family and even after the industrial age appeared it was still at the top for being able to make higher quality goods than industrial goods.

The techniques this form implies are all primitive but can easily be adapted to any form of blacksmithing and to many different conditions. Even when using a poorly made clay forge you can produce good quality metal items.

In the past it was kept a trade secret kept under tight guard. It was once even considered a race only art that only dwarves could learn because of their open minds towards blacksmithing. Today though with so few people remaining to keep the art alive, the arts were spread among those the dwarves and to those they trust, or if ever a need great enough arises that warrants the trade of the arts.

+10% when blacksmithing anything.

If any crafting skill deserves to be called OP it’s this. Seriously 10% increase when blacksmithing at level 1 how good will it get as it goes up.

During the night after I got that I also wanted to make it easier for me to converse with them. Since I rarely speak and robotics help a lot more I develop something for the dwarves.

I found some scraps and took the heads apart and then I grabbed some of the dwarves helmets they normally wear. I took the clockworks brain apart and began outfitting the helmet with the brain parts. This was so they could access systems normally out of their reach like we can.

I then cover the helmet with a few metal plates making a strong metal helmet with the dwarves’ goggles as the visors. They works rather well after you install it all into the dwarven armor and it felt like a finishing touch to the look.

With the new piece of gear to make the others start making them as well after they all wake up.

In the morning I called the four leaders so that I could get a bit more info on the golems. All I know is what I already saw with the two golem guards.

We meet outside of victor's house. They already got some of the mechanic helmets I made, so I could now “Talk” with them.

“What is it that you wish to know?” Victor asked.

”How much do you guys know about the golems?” I asked straight up.

“And why do you want to know when you’re not even fighting them?” The first of the three others asked.

“Because I found that little exit you guys use to get outside and I took a shot at the two guards that stay at the cave entrance” I said.

The four paled hearing that.

“You’re lying! …How did you beat them.?”

I send a full detailed summary of my fight and made sure to include the crystal since it caused a fatal blow to the golems. I included this because I wanted to make sure to reinforce what I wanted them to return with.

“So these crystals are a kind of power source?” Victor commented to himself out loud.

“Seems so, but for alchemy based golems it seems strange to find it in their chest?” The third dwarf said.

”They are elementals not alchemy golems. Now I want to know about the fire golems, what do they look like? I asked.

“Body made out of fire completely. Can fly about. Can change their shape since their body is just fire.”

“I don’t think they have a power source like the golems though.” The first dwarf said.

”It’s probably in their chest. Perhaps they can move it about to keep it safe if they know what it is.” I said guessing on that.

“How will they be handled?” Victor asked

”You guys have better start practicing your marksmanship because you’ll need it. But here is a gift to help with that.” I said

I sent the targeting system to their helmets. Now with most of what I wanted done, I need to get ready. I can now have some eyes in the cave as they go since I can connect with their helmets while it’s close and keep it connected as it goes away.

Now I need to make up for my shortcomings. The fight with the golem showed me clearly just how unprepared I was. I need ranged weapons and I will definitely make it. I will take this new blacksmithing skill for a test run with some of the weapons the dwarves have in their books. I can’t wait to get my hands on a few fire elemental crystals. Soon our fuel problem will be over, so the quicker I help the dwarves wipe out those golems the faster I can make a new engine for us four, and we can go out into the world safely.

I get to work on a few prototypes. I can feel my tinkering skill itching to be used and I make sure to scratch that itch.