My prototypes were quite the success. I got the help of the dwarves to make it since I needed a thin shell to hold it.

I wasn’t able to shape the iron correctly but it was a good lesson on how to shape stuff irregularly.

As for what is my weapon. Well after some thought, I figured explosives would fit me best. Traps, bombs, all things to do with tinkering would work best from me. Why not rifle? Because Nova has that. I feel it's best to let her walk down a sniper path. Because she is small and loud it wouldn’t affect her much being a sniper since she can fire things precisely at fighting distances.

In the small time she has had her left arm rifle she has gotten better than the dwarves at using it. Even when they used the targeting system in their helmets they couldn’t hit as far as her.

If anything, I could say she was a natural with ranged weapons. When I spent some time playing with her I asked what her marksmanship level was. If I could sweat I would have because she said her level with marksmanship was already basic 9.

With the small rifle on her arm she was hitting targets at 200 m away. Though not in vitals she hit them none the less. If they are closer than 150 she can aim for a few vitals like the head, heart, a few organs if it's an organic creature. For clockwork she can dismember a clockwork by shooting carefully the gears near the joints.

It’s scary how good she is but thinking about it. Giving a child a gun in real life is made so we would never know how good she was but here she had access to a near cannon like sniper rifle plus a small caliber rifle which she made herself. If I didn’t know better she was made to be a sniper. The worst part of all this is that she is just playing around with it and not actually training seriously. I wonder what it will be like when she becomes serious about it.

Now then, what's been going on after I was relieved of my duties after enough Clockwork could do them in my stead? Besides making my explosives, I made something for Bulk. Because he is a full knight, he doesn’t have tools; so I tinkered around with his collectors and built several models with the basic tools he’s missing. I made several for him as well as for myself because they are too useful not to have. I also had one that had a special grip. This guy I called a drop bot. Why, because he was made specifically to drop a timed bomb and get out before it blows.

When almost all the dwarves had armor they initiated the plan. It was to invade the old mines and kill any and all golems. What was interesting was what they did with their rifles.

Gear Rifle

A dwarven model rifle that was standard model before being upgraded. With the arrival of clockwork technology it mixed in to make a much stronger steam based rifle.

Durability: 40/40

Rate of fire 3 shots per second

dps: 15 - 20

Cartridge 20 bullets

(http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8054/8438643470_4b983e9aed_z.jpg)

I would say weapon power to them but that's because I have a robot body. If this could be aimed at a vitals like arm and leg joints it could rip it off. Also if they get a good shot they could knock the fire golem’s cores out of their bodies and kill them, hopefully.

When it was finally time for them to leave the best shooters took the back with the leaders and those who would take the front were there. Bulk, Rust, Nova and I connected to all the helmets and could see what passed through the visor and could talk with them.

It would help to have extra eyes and an extra commander and if anything happened, we could relay it immediately.

We had made a small scrap cabin for ourselves while we stayed here so we sat down inside to enjoy the show that was finally going to begin since the dwarves were arriving at the cave entrance where the same two golems were with a seriously pissed off look on their faces.

Victor PoV

It was finally the day we would go back into the caves. Our troops were around 30 front liners and 40 shooters. We wouldn’t have much in terms of space to keep a formation so we would split 15 warriors in front and back to be safe in case the golems found a way to dig or move through the ground. It might just be my superstition but since I’m not a golem I wouldn’t know if an earth type could do that.

As we near the entrance we are met with two guards. Truthfully I would have thought they would increase security after Techno and Bulk beat them senseless.

Even so I could see they were uncomfortable.

From my helmet I could see a message come in from one of the front liners.

Dwarf 1: ”Sirs, I got some beef to pick with fatty. I want to deal with him personally.

At the same time a similar message came in asking for the human on.

I talked with the other four leaders and agreed and two front liners moved up.

Dwarf: ‘Hey fatty remember me.’

Bulky: ‘Hm. Oh you're that midget that I wiped when we were getting rid of you. I remember that face you made it was priceless to see a dwarf cry out like a baby.’

His rage boiled as he pulled the war hammer out.

Dwarf 1: ‘I’m going to make you cry much more than that.’

Bulky: ‘Haha bring it midget’

Veins appear on the dwarf's head.

Dwarf 1: ‘I’ll show you why it's good being small’

With his augmented strength and now speed because of the improved suit he speeds towards the golem with uncharacteristic speed for such short legs.

The golem pulls his new iron club and swings diagonally. Before reaching, the dwarf spins once and the hammer follows and impacts the club head on.

BANG! CRACK!!

The iron club was pushed back by the tremendous force and when the golem looked at it, his eyes lost its shine. All over the iron club were cracks and small pieces were falling off the club.

Both golems stared stunned and even the dwarf was shocked by the strength he displayed. It was more than they could ever ask for. A sudden grin appeared on the dwarfs face as he brought the hammer back and swung it, hitting the unprotected right flank of the golem’s lower chest.

Cracks spread all over his chest from the sudden impact.

-230 Critical, ambush

(-230) 270/500

Nearly half his life went.

Bulky: ‘You bastard’

He glared at him and punched the ground getting his arms stuck. He looked up grinning as his body began to glow and rebuild but as soon as he looked up he saw only despair as the huge war hammer fell with pure rage on his head crushing it and pushing it into the ground. Not satisfied with just that, the dwarf began to pound the rock body to dust until he walked back with a satisfied smiled on his face.

The human golem was trembling in his boots as the second dwarf approached him after the first was done.

He was struck with fear and couldn’t move or react and just like the first was crushed in moments. The only thing that survived the crushing was the crystals which were not so easy to break.

After the second dwarf had pulverized the golem until he was satisfied he looked back grinning and lift his hammer cheering. All the others did the same and the cheer turned into a roar that echoed through the mountains.

I cheered with them because I couldn't help but feel happy about them showing us how much stronger we are now.

As the cheering died down a message came in from Techno.

Techno: "Make sure to pick up their stuff, especially the crystals."

Rust: "Just so you kids know, we will be scouting ahead with a few collectors and will keep you informed on incoming foes.”

I still didn't know how to use the text messages or even if we have it so I just spoke out loud.

Victor: 'Sure thing and thanks for the extra help.'

With our confidence at an all-time high we gathered the stuff and enter the cave.

With our numbers, we had to get into line with warriors in the front and back and shooters in the middle.

We invaded the cave like a storm, and as soon as we spotted a golem our group was already running while shooters fired at them making cracks which break easier with the heavy impacts from the dwarves’ hammers.

The earth golems had little chance with this concentrated fire and began crumbling but soon we noticed fewer in our path.

As we went further a message came in.

Bulk: "Hey there is a wide room holding a small village up ahead. The place has a number of golems. That includes fire ones. Most are in the air getting magic ready."

With the warning the front liners pulled out something we made in preparation for this.

Each of them pulled out a tower shield larger than themselves and walked forward while blocking us. The shields were really heavy but the armor let them hold it. It could handle quite a powerful punch so we prepared a few for this.

As they appeared a sudden torrent of flame shot towards us and it the shields head on and burnt for a good minute before it died down. The air was densely covered in smoke which covered us, but we took this chance to get into the room and get the shooters ready.

As the smoke cleared we started to see the lights from the fire golems in the air. I pointed to them and screamed.

Victor: 'FIRE!!'

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Gun fire rang out as bullets aimed at the fire golems were shot.

???: 'Hahaha they’re trying to kill fir...Ding'

One of the fire golems began gloating their invulnerability but a sudden shock stopped him as his flames died. From his back a bright red small orb as flew out of his back from it a bit of flame raised before dying out. The golem’s body soon followed the other flames having lost its source when he died.

Soon several others had the orb shot out. It took quite a few shots to hit it ‘cause the orb was the size of a five year olds fist.

After seeing several die the golems began dodging. And returned fire. There were twenty fire golems and the rest of the room was earth golems numbering forty.

With the fire golems occupied I ordered the warriors to advance on the earth ones and war broke out.

I was vigilantly in the back giving orders with the other leaders. I did notice a few robot spiders running in between the legs of everyone and sneaking away with the fire crystals.

Every so often we received a message from the clockworks telling us someone was being pushed back. This helped us always protect our ranks by switching someone with someone with more health. We slowly wore them down until we finally broke their ranks when we began outnumbering them.

We didn't get through this unscathed but it wasn't as bad as the golems. We had 7 injured shooters from burns and 5 dead warriors and another 12 with injuries.

When the final fire golem died the shooters cheered. It caused the morale of the golems to plummet to its lowest and some ran into one of the tunnels probably to warn the others.

We finished the rest and then a moment of silence fell over us. It was because we had beaten them on our own. We were given help but we fought ourselves.

I started laughing and the others looked at me and all of them smiled as new uproar came from us.

We cheered, yelled, cried and celebrated before all the excess emotions were pushed out before we started to secure the village. It was the town most of us found after we began in Etheria. The village still stood with all its buildings but most possession was gone but what mattered was here. The houses, the village and our pride.

We sent someone back to the outpost. We were going to bring the rest back here and reinforce our town. I'm sure the clockwork will like the towns forge. Unlike the engine forges, there is a proper furnace and forge here.

Techno PoV

We watched from the outpost the whole fight. Rust was charged with relaying if they won or lost.

The moment it was said that they won and recaptured the village the remaining dwarves cheered.

Soon after one of the dwarves that were part of the group came saying Victor ordered everyone to return to the village. It needs repairs and reinforcement so everyone should come.

He also asked if the clockwork wanted to go. Bulk, Rust, Nova and I plus some 40 other clockwork accepted but about 30 wanted to stay and build a proper town.

I passed to them the models for tanks we got from the trio and knights that we had.

We then packed up and we all headed to the dwarf town.

We had seen the cave from outside and from the inside and from the collectors but it was surprising to find that it was high enough to fit us.

Though considering the size of the bulky golems it could be understood if a pure golem was here it would be a another story.

The tunnel themselves are rather straight and are clearly mined out and not a natural formation. It’s been roughed up by time and fights that happen and was forming a few cracks, or rocks were falling but nothing that could signal a cave-in, since the place was reinforced somewhat with square stone pillars, which last longer than wood.

As we reached the town we saw an even higher ceiling about 10 meters high and on the ground small cottages of stone. The larger buildings were probably the chief's house and the largest of them all, with a pipe stuck into the ceiling, I couldn't tell what it was.

We found Victor with a wide grin.

Victor: 'Ah you guys are finally here. I want to thank you for helping us get the most satisfying victory in our lives.'

Rust: 'We didn't do anything'

Victor: 'You gave us the tools that gave us our victory. Here is the stuff we picked up.'

He led us to a large pile of swords, clubs, shield and armor.

Nova: 'Wow so many cool stuff.'

Nova ran over to the pile and looked around excited. She grabbed an iron club.

Techno: "Be careful Nova”

Nova: 'Don't worry bro this looks easy'

She pulled it and the iron club was nearly her size, 150 cm, was up in her hands. She then took some old scrap and tossed it up and took a baseball player’s batting pose and as the scrap fell she swung the club at it straight on sending the scrap right into the wall on the other side of the village.

Nova: 'Hehe that was fun. Hey bro wasn't that just like the baseball games you played.'

We just look at the scrap which was now embedded into the wall and thought how scary that would be if it was us and not a wall in its way.

Techno: "Ya, she is definitely made to be a sniper. To hit that without training..."

Breaking the silence was Victor as he tried to get everyone to snap out of it.

Victor: 'Um...well I guess you guys will want access to the forge right'

Bulk: 'We have Hino we don't need regular engines'

Victor: 'Not those, that. It’s an industrial furnaces but I got to warn you, it’s at best half repaired. It was already nearly falling apart when we arrived and the NPC were still the only ones here. They could run it on patchwork for stuff they understood but the rest we couldn't figure out but now.'

Rust: 'That thing is part clockwork technology.'

Victor: 'You guessed it'

Rust: 'Well clockworks did have a good relationship with dwarves in the past so to find old relics of that mix shouldn't be too hard.

Techno: "Let’s go check it out and get it working. I want it up and running so I can figure out how to transform the forge engine into a furnace engine"

Everyone nods. I tell Nova where we are going and that she can go around to play or help the people fix stuff.

She just waves and we head to the smithy.

The smithy was a three story building with the furnace in the center of town but the building was made so that it was at the back and most of the building was built towards the entrance we came from.

If I said there was rust on everything, it would be putting it lightly. Besides the non-iron parts, which are few, everything is covered in rust.

The furnace was made of a huge engine in the bottom which takes half of the first floor and is where a substantial amount of pipes and coal was. There were many lifts that rose to the third floor to drop the coal inside and many of the pipes hooked up to the bottom.

Bulk: 'What's with all the pipes?'

Felk: 'They are air pipes for blowing air below the metal. Heats up after that like nothing else'

I scan them and find it’s all copper pipes. The second floor is where pressurized air is pumped from and the third floor is where iron ore list dropped from. The last floor is small and only has two lifts that bring coal and iron up.

Victor: 'So what do you think?'

Techno: "The furnace is impressive but badly damaged and the building itself is shit. I would tear the building around the furnace down and build a new one if I had the materials to do so."

Victor: '*sigh* blunt as always. '

Techno: "Once this thing is running that WILL happen."

He nodded. Then sent a general message to all the clockworks.

Techno: "All clockwork, we have examined the towns furnace and it needs repairs. It’s made with clockwork and dwarven techniques and it’s lacking our part. Request that you all assist in its repairs

You have given the Clockwork NPCs’ a missionMission: Relic Restoration

After examining the relic industrial furnace in the dwarven town. The relic is made of dwarven and clockwork technology but the clockwork tech has been neglected and requires complete restoration to make the furnace work at full capacity.

Difficulty D

Reward: New body

Requirement: Being a clockwork, understanding at least the basics of the clockwork technology.

Success: Completely repair

Failure: The furnace is destroyed

...Well that’s new. We can make missions for others.

Bulk and Rust also make strange looks.

Bulk: 'You gave them a mission...and what's it mean by gets destroyed?

Rust: 'Two things come to mind. For the first is that clockwork gained this mission software you guys have. For the second I would guess it means the golems or someone messes something up.'

Victor: 'What are you guys talking about?'

We finally remember the dwarf and show it to him after he puts his helmet on.

Victor: 'Fuck...this game is rea...

Bang

Victor: 'Agggrraaahhh'

The dwarf fell down holding his foot in pain. Over it was Bulk super heavy right foot.

He sent a message to the dwarf.

Bulk: "Careful, because Rust is an NPC."

Victor: ‘Fuck!! what was that for!?’

Bulk just ignored him and kept silent after sending him the personal message. It’s common sense that telling an NPC that their world is a game is stupid since they wouldn’t believe it or if they did they would hate the players.

After a while the pain subsided and we walked out to find a crowd of all the clockworks in the town.

???: ‘Sir, we are...ready for...work. Where should...we begin?’

Techno: ”Rust, please help them. If you need anything, call. I’ll be remodeling Hino and making a new bot to carry the new furnace I’ll be constructing”

Rust: ”You already know how to make a small furnace?

Techno: ”More or less, it will take a bit of trial and error but the result will probably be a large robot to carry it but I don’t think it will be much.”

Rust: ”Alright, I’ll take care of stuff here. What about Bulk?

Techno: ”Send him to gather scrap repair material. Send Nova with him but tell her to find me before going. I want to keep the protector here. I will make some ammo for those guns on its arms and it will do its job as a protector.”

He nods and then begins giving out orders. I look around and find a large enough empty house and after a bit of asking around I find that no one has claimed it so I do so after removing one of the walls so I can enter. I then cut a hole in the roof to let any smoke out and then had Hino enter and deactivate. I start opening it up and soon the plates are off and I remove the large forge engine. I then looked through the scraps I had in my inventory and pulled out an old clockwork engine. I begin repairing it, as well as adding a few newer parts before putting it in the rhino robot.

The normal engine is nearly half the size so there is a large amount of space left inside. All that extra space will come in handy later on when I outfit Hino with weapons. I can already imagine a few long range cannons that would work nicely on his back.

Back to the subject at hand, I turned to the forge engine after I had finished up on Hino and took it outside. I needed room for this. I removed a lot of scrap gears and iron plates. If I am right about this, both clockwork tinkering and dwarven blacksmithing is needed for this.

I will have to use my engine for now to make the parts but I have plenty of scraps to set up the model. Once the furnace is done new parts will come out and with that I will remake it.

Ten minutes after I start Nova appeared riding the protector.

Nova: ‘Hey bro what did you need?’

Techno: ‘Can I borrow your toy for a bit. I want to fix it more and make those big guns work’

Nova: ‘REALLY!’

Her eyes were shining brightly after hearing that. The main reason is that she has to control the robot so it’s pretty much her that is using the gun so I’m giving her said gun after I fix it. ...I’m wondering if this could be bad for her developing mind. Nah she knows it is a game so I shouldn’t worry much.

Anyway, she is jumping about and then she hugs me before handing over control of the robot and runs off happy.

I sigh. To have that much positivity in such a wrecked world it’s kind of amazing.

Anyways, I return to my forge engine. I work for hours and sometime later Nova and Bulk return with pipes and scrap metal to fix the town furnace.

I was half finished with my own. At the moment it was already covered with an outer shell but had the chamber inside plus a few reinforced water tanks to hold the water that will turn to steam before being redirected to the engine outside the furnace. The engine was from the old forge engine and it would now power the new robot that would carry the furnace.

Nova comes to see her robot but I tell her I’m still working on it and goes off to play.

Before I finish the furnace I began thinking about what I would make the robot. I had used a rhino the first time but it was for a small engine. Right now the furnace by itself was nearly 2 and a half meters tall and 2 meters wide.

I take a few steps back and look. Suddenly a game from my childhood came back. In one of the Pokémon games (ruby, sapphire) there was a fire type turtle that had a long head and its shell had a hole at the top that reminds one of a volcano. Imagining it I could definitely see the model fitting. The current chamber only has 1 entrance to allow heat to enter so you would need to throw coal or fuel in as well as iron.

Having the turtle idea, I open the plates up and get working at the chamber to make a new opening where a pipe then will expand from. I would later attach a type of movable metal through which will let the robot “eat” scrap and coal in correct proportions to make proper iron or steel.

After this was done I make a hatch to open the furnace so I can get the chamber. I then begin working on the wiring for the engine as well as the systems that will work on the engine.

By the time I finished the furnace and engine the time was already midnight.

I should stop now because I have skipped too many nights working and it would be bad to continue like this. My engine could risk overworking.

I sigh and finally feel how tired my mind was. I look for Nova with the bots and find her sleeping next to Bulk in a small cabin near here. I go and pick her up and bring her to my little cabin. After a bit of work I make the cut wall into a door instead. I close it and sit next to her while leaning on the wall before going to sleep as well. We have a long road ahead and we need this robot, that’s for sure.

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