Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

The first step was choosing the fitting spot. Seth stood in the command room with a 3d hologram of Minas Mar before him. The tower was built at the back of a big empty magma chamber reach from the bottom to the top.

The lower floors formed a wide star-shaped base. What Seth wanted for his workshop was access to the magma within the mountain below Delta. He needed to build a smelter powered by an active volcano. Otherwise, he would be unable to refine <Olympian Silver>.

"Minas Mar, can you show me magma deposits close to our location?" lately he had started calling the tower ego by the name he had given the tower.

~Yes, Master. ~

The hologram was refreshed and showed several veins and smaller chambers closer to the tower. They all branched out from a giant magma chamber at the edge of the tower's perception radius. They seemed close, but the closest was actually several hundred meters away. Even with his mining skill, how was he supposed to dig that far?

~ Are you seriously thinking of digging out the rooms yourself?! ~ the lich interjected flabbergasted.

~ The tower's drones are much more qualified to expand the tower than you are. ~

" You mean the maintenance drones?"

Seth remembered seeing them when the tower was restored after they reactivated it. These creatures looked like biomechanical trilobites. Their shell had a copper sheen, and they were quite fast.

There were several floors and laboratories below the ground floor that housed the machinations responsible for their creation and maintenance.

~ Try going into the build modus. It should make everything much easier. ~

"Open the build modus?"

~Affirmative. ~

A menu window opened with tools that could be used to add things to the tower's hologram. It reminded Seth of some programs he knew from virtual reality. Though this was much more like augmented reality.

Besides manually creating a room, he could also describe to the tower ego what he wanted, and the tower would automatically show different possible variations.

He made one big room as a center. Here he would summon the <Spirit Smithy>. All other rooms were adjacent to the center. One would have a channel directly leading to the nearest active magma chamber. Here he could build the special furnace for <Olympian Silver>.

Another room was dedicated to the creation of <Bones of Seth>. It was possible for the tower to directly engrave the blood formation into the room's ground. This way he would only need to fill the prepared channels on the ground with the necessary blood instead of drawing it anew every time.

Close to this room was an experimental room Seth came up with. The Bloodbaths. The room would house big vats and tanks of blood from many different beasts.

These tanks were meant to nurture feasting blanks. This was an idea he had wanted to develop but never had the time before. Now that he was building his own workshop, he could add it from the start.

His idea was not complicated. After forging something using the feasting ballad, it would add the adverb of "feasting" like the feasting blade. With Tored's help, he had found a great synergy between Bleeding and Life Steal enchantments and the effect.

This was the reason he had always turned them into blooddrinker weapons immediately. It created the misconception that the feasting only worked in battle because the Life steal effect had changed it that way.

At one point he had realized that a pure feasting weapon could grow stronger by just absorbing blood. There was no need to spill it in battle with a weapon.

This realization spawned the idea of soaking a feasting weapon in blood, before processing it further into a blood drinker weapon or something else. Like this, he could further strengthen any kind of material he was able to forge with the ballad. All he needed was strong blood.

For this purpose, Seth had kept back the blood they had collected during their adventures in the dungeons. The others had looked at him weirdly when he asked Link to also harvest the blood. The blood of most creatures was worthless on the market.

But an item would not care.

He also planned a separate room for Cerberus and the spirit furnace. Only the crafting stations for smithing and enchantment would be present in the central room. After designing a few more storage rooms and blank rooms for future additions he confirmed the blueprint.

~Instructions received. Estimated time until completion: 3 Days. ~

"Just 3 days?" Seth blurted out in surprise.

~ The estimated time can be reduced if power production is increased. ~

"How long would it take with more power?"

~ 1-2 days. ~

"No... 3 days is okay. Proceed with the original plan."

Seth was not that pressed for time. He was also a little afraid of what could happen if he messed with this. He saw a flood of trilobites filling the hallways of the tower. No need to provoke something like that.

-------Somewhere in Delta-----

Willis Family welcomes esteemed guests in their base of operations.

"I welcome you to the Willis Family."

"We are happy to accept your invitation"

A group of strange men in wide cloaks was greeted by the remains of the Willis Family. Their faces were hidden and so were their bodies. Only one among the Willis family had met them before and guaranteed for them.

The leader of the strangers and the upper members of the Willis family sat together in a meeting room and recounted what had happened until now. Their hatred for Seth seeped into their every word and speech.

"You have done well, calling for us." the mysterious leader said.

"Our god gladly lends power to everyone, especially those in need."

Suddenly the room was stormed by the followers of the mysterious man and the remaining leader of the Willis family were all mortally wounded. Only the man that had guaranteed for these traitorous guests was unscathed.

"Why...?" one among of them asked as his life was seeping out of him. The leader crouched down to him.

"Didn't you want power? You asked for this. This is the way to ultimate power and eternal life. Trust me." his voice was oozing with sarcasm.

"You did very well," he said to the last remaining survivor of the Willis family.

"All hail, Zarkon." was the only answer.

Nobody cared for the corpses on the ground. Nobody cleaned up. Hy would they?

A few hours later the corpses woke up, back to newfound unlife. Now, with their souls bound to a foreign god, there were two kinds of reactions. Some regretted their behavior and hesitation. Others found joy in their newfound power.

The Willis Family was gone. A new branch of Zarkon assimilated them and took their place.