Having left the dwarves after stocking up on nearly 2 thousand cans of fuel, all of which are filling up the golems inventory, we are traveling through the mountain range. The terrain is rough, but we can pass well enough because we spread out collectors for scanning.

We can find paths through the mountain that fits all of us, especially the blast turtle. Even though it's a turtle it can maintain a pace as fast as ours. I was kind of hoping to get to a flat area so we can see the other part of the turtles functions. I installed wheels and hydraulics and all the stuff that can make a car move to this thing. Shame for the time being we won’t use them but at least the turtle isn’t totally slow and we aren’t in any hurry to reach the next location, mostly because we don’t know where it is.

While we walk I looked through all the forums of all the races. In the clockwork there was an administrative post that showed my groups achievement and under it a simple map heading south, southeast and reaching the wall where the outpost is.

All the posts under that say the same thing.

“It’s that guy again. The one that pushed everyone out of the way to make a new body at everyone's expense.”“Man who knew that guy was all the way over there. Just how did he find it so quickly.”“Going to southern outpost anyone looking for party.”

It was quite funny to see how desperate they were. All of those who were going because I let out the info are just scared idiots who don’t know how to do something themselves.

They’re follow the wave where someone else has already passed and do things poorly instead of thinking about doing something well done.

From the forums it also seems the queen furnace at the clockwork base is only capable of making pure iron gear so it was rather funny when they looked up info about the town and found it was near the dwarven village which was capable of making cast iron and steel gear.

I was sure Victor and the rest would take advantage since I said that we helped them and not those to come. Treat them like travelers and don’t give them preferential treatment because of their race.

I was not about to let others benefit from my hard work.

Well then let’s get on with it. It's been about week since we left the dwarves and are finally making some progress, but we don’t know exactly how far it will be before we leave the mountain range.

For the most part with Rusts new class, his scanning power is greater than ours so we stay connected to him while he maps out the region while me and Nova spread out a specific new type of collector which was made just for scanning. We simply call the scouts, and scan the zone while passing to him the scan results.

With the new mapping program, the map that comes out is much better having basic info like altitude and so on.

It was some time after the start of the new week when we got a sign of life that wasn’t monsters we had hunted a bit. Like the dwarves said there were really high leveled ones but our weapons barely made up for our short coming against the level 60+ monsters.

Several of them are rock and fire based so they made good food for the golems since they absorbed the fires and minerals of their bodies. The rest I melted into lumps. They made interesting crafting material lumps.

Now then, this strange signal was coming from the sky and had several weaker life signs. Also there were many life signs on the road ahead where we would pass.

“What do you think those things are?” Bulk asked as well share a linked map so he points it out.

“If I had to be perfectly clear I would guess either tribe monsters or bandits. Maybe some other race has reached this far.” Rust suggested the possibility.

Bulk got his steel knight swords ready after hearing this. Nova and Rust also got the hidden rifles ready. For me, my knight robot was already ready as well, while he held my warhammer he was already building up pressure for a pressure fist. I had also added a large rifle into his arm.

We continued walking the path we were on. I also saw the protectors minigun appear out of his arm and steam begin building.

When we reached the crossing where all the lifesigns were, two humans came out.

“Hehehe good evening folks. Mind me asking what your doing walking about this dangerous mountain range?” One cliche bandit said with a smug grin.

No one replied and we just walked on.

He lifted the pistol in his hand and whistled. With the signal all the bandits appeared.

“Guess you don’t value your lives. Even someone dressed as a knight should know he is out matched!” The cliche bandit continued ranting.

“This guys is annoying.” Bulk said annoyed.

“I count around 15 men plus about 6 more somewhere in the air nearby.” Rust says looking towards the location of all the life signs.

“Hey drop all your stuff or we'll shoot.” The second bandit shouts angry.

He shouted as veins appeared on his head.

Bang!

From behind me a bullet was fired and it hit his right leg.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

One more shot his his arm making him scream while dropping the gun while the other bullets did the same to the other guy next to him.

When I looked Nova was holding her right arm up with two barrels from her rifle releasing small streams of steam from the barrel.

“So noisy.” Nova said with half closed eyes and really annoyed.

Suddenly the protector and Rust lifted their arms and fired. They hit several of the hidden men on the arms or legs if they were standing.

A few fell from the cliff and got heavily injured and were now nearly dead on the ground.

I kind of flinched when the guy fell.

When I looked at the guy he was pale.

I send a message to Bulk.

“Hey weaklings. Why do our scanners pick up people in the air?” Bulk asked my question for me.

“Scanners…?” The bandit said pale in fear and confused.

He looked confused before he turned pale.

“Clockworks!” He said in a rough voice.

He was white as a ghost.

“Tell us...NOW!” Bulk said getting up close while bulk made his eyes glow brighter to scare him.

“You...probably...spotted...our...ship.” He said dizzy

The guy was nearly fainting.

“Hey Techno you hear that? These guys have a ship. I think it's one of those flying boats.” Bulk said with a grin.

”Convenient. Guys, finish all of them off and lets go get ourselves a ship.” I tell them.

Bulk grinned before he brought the hammer down on the guy. I controlled my robot to jump up and began killing them off. Nova did the same using the suspensions I installed for power jump to reach the guys and snipe them.

We killed all of them and gathered all the guns and metal they had on. Most of the guns were trash at best but we can remake them and leave them with Rust who uses handguns.

We got 10 pistols and 5 rifles. We moved along the mountain following the scans to where the ship was. When we reached it we found an old shitty boat that looked like it would fall apart.

It looked to be part wood part metal and mostly like a sail ship but on the back and under it were large propellers holding it in the air.

It looked to be able to hold a good number of people. For us this was a good thing. The best part was that there was a large hold door on the side near the bottom so we could load our heavy robots into it.

From scans there were 6 remaining inside. There were 2 out on deck watching out on both sides. We were about 1 km away from them.

”Nova can you hit those guys? I asked

“From here? ...No, too far. If I go up there I can get both of them though.” She said and pointed to a small cliff on the side.

I nodded and she took the protector and headed up there vanishing from my view. After the two men fell and didn’t move anymore. Nova returned as if nothing happened.

We moved close after that. The ship was in the air but to tell the truth it was “docked” on a high cliff that stretched out enough to put the ship close and lets it hop off. We took that way up and soon we found ourselves on the ship.

To put it lightly the ship looked like shit. Patched sails, half broken boards and rotting wood. The propellers were rusted metal and I could only wonder how this thing was staying up in the air.

From several vents steam rose out from the inside of the ship showing it had a steam engine.

“I will clear out the rest of these bandits.” Rust says.

”Just incapacitate them and remove all weapons. I want to know where the closest town is.” I order him.

“Ok, Nova can you help?” He asked.

“Mnn!” Nova nodded.

She nods and jumps off the Protector which is too large to enter, just as like Bulk and I are.

I had the Protector and the knight body help me bring the turtle aboard since he couldn’t walk in by himself.

Half way through we heard some gunshots it quickly quieted down though and Nova came out smiling.

“We got them bro.” Nova came back and said in a bored tone.

I nod and pull out a worker bots body and activate it as my eyes and have it walk in. The bot was completely made of steel and had a few tools as well as a rifle on the arm.

The insides were as crappy as the outside. Inside, in one of the lower rooms, was the captain's room where 4 men were tied and bleeding from the leg and arm but had cloth over it to close them.

”Nova you can play around but not in here. Bro needs to do business. Rust you're with me.” I tell her.

Nova ran out to play around while I turned to the men after locking the door.

“Ok, I will speak on his behalf since he doesn’t speak to those he doesn’t trust. Now, where is the nearest village.” Rust asks before removing the gag from one of them.

“Fuck you.” He shouted.

The man with the fanciest clothes who was the captain, spat out after saying that. It earned him a foot on the wound of his left leg. He screamed a blood curdling scream that sent shivers down the other men's spines.

“I-it’s to the southeast.” One of the other bandits said.

The man said shaking and pale.

“Where are the controls to the ship. The wheel, engine, everything.” Rust asked.

The captain denied again and was punished again but his men were much more compliant after seeing their captain in pain. The ship had a lower deck where the propellers machinery was as well as the cargo hold, a middle deck which had the engine near the back a kitchen which was useless for us, this room and another which took the rest of the space as sleeping quarters for the rest of the men. Then the upper deck which is the main deck but there is two rooms which was the control room and one small room which simply had the stairs to the lower decks.

After extracting info from them I killed the captain and had Rust patch them up better. Before we get rid of them we will learn to pilot this ship.

Up on the upper deck I open the door to the bridge and find an old bridge. It had a few monitors showing graphs about the engines and such. The ship itself seems to be working at around 20%. Rusty propellers and engine isn’t helping but it's still working well enough and can maintain at least 20 meters into the air.

I begin making some iron boards to reinforce the ship slightly just to hold the weight of the turtle until we can get to the village.

When the men are healed enough we begin moving the ship. I have my worker bot plus many tool drones go down to the engine with gears and parts. I try to fix as many broken parts as I can from the engine to make sure it survives.

I have the humans start the ship and soon we are heading south east.

For the most part of the 2 day travel, the people who were too large didn’t go into the ship but since I had spare worker bodies all we needed to do was focus solely on that one and we used it as an alternative body.

The ship held up for the most part and the humans only talked when we asked or when they spoke with one another.

The trip was pretty monotone since the ship can’t rise more than some 20 meters off the ground but it did its job to get out of the mountains. It took a day and a half to leave the mountains behind and reach a forest with few trees.

“Wow this place has so few trees. Is it because of the mountains?” Bulk asked.

“No, I believe it is due to the pollution in the water and dirt. To see so many trees alive could be called a miracle.” Rust says as his scanner was lighting up his eye as he scanned the terrain.

As we talked one of the human came out after hearing what we were talking about.

“Those trees are the result of some humans that lived in the city before everyone appeared. They are researchers for the most part but what you see is the best they could do. It helped out a lot by giving a somewhat natural place for a few mutant animals to call home. The trees also have begun to purify the water but its slow since it's done the natural way.” The bandit said.

“No machines?” Bulk asked.

“These ships and some of the scrap guns we scavenged were the best tech we can find. Anything more is asking too much. Though the humans completed the mission assigned to us it's not like life is getting better. Our group left after we got this rust bucket working and lived off hunting. When our crappy scanners picked you guys up we were excited to see “The Clockworks” walking towards us.” The second bandit said.

““The Clockwork” is that some titles?” Bulk asked.

“You guys don’t know? Many people consider your group the biggest representatives of your race. Others call you real adventures.” The first bandit says.

“Adventures. Huh such a childish term. As if adventure is something this world can offer. It’s a ruined scrap heap, that will take years to restore to a fraction of its old beauty. I like that humans, the creatures who most greatly ruined this world are the ones fixing it up even a small bit. We would need the Elves help for any massive restoration.” Rust said while with a lot of sarcasm which came from a half broken memory.

“You know a lot about this world, did you discover something?” The third bandit asked.

“I was repaired by Techno so they could find out something. Besides the small fragments of data that survived time, I know very little.” Rust says

The human suddenly knew he messed up talking as if he would do with any player. He didn’t think there were NPC in our group.

“It’s best get back to work.” Bulk said.

Bulk gestured to the room and put him back in there.

By the end of the second day we could see in the distance with the little bit of sunlight left, a massive warship. From it many lights were lit all around and on top of it. Around the top where it was similar to a carrier were extensions made of steel that looked like it would support a ship just about the size of this one.

I notice the com in the bridge turn on and the humans start talking and get permission to enter the hanging dock. It takes a while but they finally enter into one of those docks which holds the ship just above the propellers. Soon the sound of the engine stopping could be heard and the propellers stop. The docks themselves were at level with the upper deck. We call everyone and all the robots back and store them.

You have reached the human village, Ivoryhelm. The village already has formed a central governing body and has formed basic rules/laws that must be followed. Being a juvenile criminal, breaking these laws will increase your time within the game. This only counts for humans and only while inside their cities bordes.

So I now have a limiter on me. Before there was only survival of the fittest but here it seems the local law overrules that since the place is already growing to a certain degree. I thought to myself.

“Ho~. So they already have laws huh. Guess we can’t fight it out if some idiot comes at us then.’

Rust: ‘Should we go hand those humans over to the authorities?” Bulk said out loud.

”Doubt there would be any since the place is still wrecked but we can try.” I told him.

We leave behind the protector, Hino and the turtle plus a few tool drones that we were using to do repairs on the ship and climb out of the ship onto the dock. We had the humans chained as we took them in.

On the docks there were many people staring at us.

“Excuse me but these man was trying to rob us. Who are the authorities?” Rust asked.

“That would be me.” The voice came from the back of the group in front of us.

The one standing there was a middle aged human male with a slight tan, black with gray hair. He had leather armor and several guns on him.

“My names Lewis Farcry. Pleasure to meet you. Now if you mind releasing those idiots who ran away with our ship, I would be mighty happy.” The man named Lewis said while scowling at the bandits.

I nod and we release them.

“Our leader says the boat belongs to us now since the crew managing it tried to rob us.” Bulk relays my message.

“I guess that’s fair enough. What happened to the rest?” The man asked.

“They attacked us. You think we wouldn’t fight back.” Rust replied bluntly.

He nodded acknowledging our actions.

“Well sorry for their miss conduct. Anything you need from us?” Lewis asks.

“Processed wood.” I reply in an expressionless tone.

I said that and point at the ship.

“That’s one of the only things we have in plenty but it’s real expensive to do since we don’t have the machinery. We would need to trade something.” He says with a glint in his eyes.

I thought for a while and looked around. Most of them seem to have trash technology at best.

“Do you have blacksmiths?” I ask.

“No we don’t. We have no furnace, nothing to melt iron with.” He replies with a fake sorrowful expression.

“We can build you a furnace at least. That way you can process metal. Seem fair enough?” Rust relays my message.

“Very.” Lewis says simply.

Rust looked at me and I nod as well.

“He wants the wood first though. He doesn’t trust those whom he meets so after we get the wood for repairs to the ship we will send a few robots to build the furnace while we repair the boat.” Bulk tells him.

“That's fine. In this world to find someone like “The clockwork” to build you tech is already something good.” He says.

Guess the clockwork is now my groups title. Damn couldn’t it be something cooler. I thought but narrowed my eyes when I noticed how he could connect us with that title when we never said it.

After that the human left, we were allowed to explore but because of our size Bulk and I were forced once again to use worker bots to explore. We waited at the ship and soon large amounts of wood arrived. I was working on making metal nails and other rusted metal parts, as well as gears that were broken I was remaking them and replacing them.

While I did all of that I was with Nova inside the ship exploring. It was a huge ship but not like navy ships that had the small corridors with the air lock doors. These were larger corridors. I had to constantly run after and grab Nova. She started to throw a tantrum again and got so out of control that I had to shut all her weapons systems down as punishment and make all her movements laggy after putting in a faulty programming in her movement software after making a copy of it but this time I managed to keep her under control, thankfully.

She was sulking a lot but at least I lasted through the heart piercing shouts she made as I shut most of her systems down.

With her walking slowly next to me with some jerky movements we walked through the place.

It was interesting to say the least. The place didn’t really have shops but many workshops. Trading was done through trade of objects and most likely there was no currency. That was obvious enough since money would be worthless until a large enough kingdom rose up and they “needed” a different form of currency.

We let out a few scout drones and began mapping the ship's structure while we looked about but the human settlement was...boring.

It’s not like the clockworks where you start with broken limbs and need to work quick to get things working. Here things looked...finished more or less.

It was rather sad actually. The dwarves were much more interesting. The humans didn’t even have armor to improve augment their strength. If I had to say humans might be the weakest race if they are completely neutral in all stats and no skill to power them up like elementals.

I wasn’t about to give them dwarven armor or clockwork tech. Only a furnace like we promised.

We return to the ship after a boring trip.

The ship itself I was taking apart. The size of the corridors weren’t good for my size. The I took apart and remade with a larger door and a big seat fit for my size in the bridge so I could monitor all the stuff.

The entrance to the lower levels I got rid of and made it again better with new wood and the stairs I replaced and expanded to handle me. Then I moved to the floor. I removed it all and put cast iron support bars interlocked before putting wooden supports which hold the floor and placing the boards. I began replacing the pipes and all the gears with steel gears and pipes.

When I reached this point it was night time. We decided to set up shifts to watch our stuff. I went first while I repaired more of the ship.

When I reached the cargo hold I saw there were a few boxes and stuff in the room. I looked around a bit. The boxes held some scraps, others some old guns, one I was happy to find a large but broken minigun that I could repair later.

When I opened the last and biggest box which was around 2 meters big and 1 wide I was very shocked.

Inside the box stood an old Clockwork worker with a female body model. In her chest was a small opening with a dull blue gem stuck into it.

What the hell is this. Its a clockwork but what is that. I thought to myself

I pulled out the clockwork by holding the arm.

Even though it was old it was immensely newer than those in the scrapyard.

I scanned all of her body and found a normal worker bot but then the scan picked up something new. In the place of all the wires in her system was pure silver wires all attached to him. Not only that she lacked an engine like myself.

Completely shocked I put her down and pulled the tools out of my arm and removed her head and chest plate which was a strange design made to looked nearly human as the body looked very human like instead of robot.

In the inside I found a strange hook system in the place of the engine. At its center of her chest was the dull blue gem I saw before. The gem was intensely wrapped in silver wire below the area that was exposed. From the wrapped gem the wires spread all over his body and connected to the machine parts.

The hooks were circular in shape and had two circular rings. They were loose and could open up. Looking at the size it made me remember something of a similar size.

I pulled out a Will-o-Wisp core. When I looked at the core then at the circle I saw it was a perfect fit. Before I stuck it in I checked all the circles and found they had a different color. No, each was made from special material. One that as a reddish color like the core had traces of magma golem core crusts in it. So it could handle high temperatures better.

I don’t know if I should put it in or not but my curiosity took the best of me and I opened the circle and stuck it in before closing it.

As soon as I sealed the circle the metal began glowing red followed by the core as well. From the glowing metal, the silver wires attached to the hook also began to progressively glow as the shine began running towards the gem and finally it reached its end.

Once it did the dull blue gem slowly began to gain radiance.

I made sure to pull out my war hammer and prepare to swing should anything happen.

As I watch the gem grew brighter and once the glow was lighting up the room with a calm blue light the glow began to travel through the other wires traveling all over the body.

When the first glows reached their destinations the gears began turned on. Each one gave a lurch as it broke the rust off.

When the glow reached the brain it entered the motherboard before it began traveling through all the other systems. Slowly the lights in the eyes turned on with some flickers until they gained full radiance as the clockwork woke up.

…

“I’m...awake.” It said with a female voice similar to a woman in her late thirties.

I connect to the clockwork so I can speak with her.

”Who and what are you. You look like a clockwork but are working without an engine.” I asked her.

“Clock...work. Oh...child, you...are a...clockwork. My...Id code...is GA1A...but you...can call...me Gaia. I was...once a...clockwork like yourself...but today I...am of the race known as Synthoid.” She says and gets up and gives a bow.

”What is a Synthoid? Do you remember before the wars? I don’t know much about it and the world is in ruins. I told her.

Gaia: ‘Yes, I remember my whole life even...during the wars. As for your first question. A Synthoid is a complete artificial life. We are the perfect...combination of a golem, construct and clockwork. We have the powerful body of a clockwork, the mana circuits of a construct and the naturally mana core of a golem. When the three meet in the same body we become a complete race just like any other.’ She explained with her broken speak fixing up and becoming complete.

You have discovered an completely new race.Synthoid

A mysterious race, this race can be compared to a living race. It is the perfected artificial race made up of the most predominant features of the Clockwork, Construct and Golem races.

They have the powerful body and weapons of a clockwork.

The magic capability of a Construct.

The magic regeneration and capacity of a Golem.

More info still to discover…

“Ah? My body is rusty. I guess it’s not completely perfect anymore . Mind giving me a some oil. My gears are rusty, old and require lubrication.’

I look at her with narrowed eyes for a moment before I pull a single can of oil and put it into the small tank near the side.

She begins moving her body and the creaking slowly goes away while her body gains mobility.

“It’s good to move again. Hm this ship, its human technology. Are we in a human settlement?” She asked.

I nod.

“Its best be careful of humans. They have always been cheating bastards and scavengers. They live off taking from other races. They are the weakest of all races because they can’t quickly grow like us, at a fast pace, but if they can get their hands on something of another race they can become rather problematic.” She said in a very angry tone.

”I made a deal to make them a furnace to smelt iron in exchange for wood to repair this ship. I told her.

“I shall be frank, the best you can do is plant a bomb in the furnace and blow it up after you leave. giving them access to technology will only lead once again to war. Its best to wipe humans off the face of the earth. They will only become bandits and the scourge of this world. Just as they were before the war.” She says with conviction.

”Can you tell me what happened during the war? I ask her.

“You are interested in that? ...If you repair the gears in my body, I will tell you and also travel with you. I need to repay you for waking me.” Gaia says.

”Just the story I don’t need more people following me that I don’t want.” I tell her.

“I see, so that’s why you use the text system instead of talking. Let me guess you are one of the fabled awaken who will rise after the apocalypse in the body of the dead revived by the gods.” She inquired.

I looked at her. I knew about the awaken part but not about the second part. Well clockworks are easy to understand, the same for construct since both are machine type creatures but the rest is kind of shocking.

“From slight changes in your face I can tell you didn’t know. Well even if you say you didn’t want me I’m not going to leave the small child that is with you to be raised by a child like you. Well, please begin repairing my body, I will tell you my story as well as show you what the world was like.” She says

I couldn’t help but grind my gear hearing her talk like that but since I wanted to know I pulled out steel parts I had in reserve and began repairing as she connected with me and uploaded videos which I moved only to one eye so I could work as well.

“Well then, the story of the wars begins...2000 years by my readings. Well my body sure lasted nicely. Opps my bad. Heh. It began when the largest human kingdom attacked wanting total conquest.” She began telling her tale.