Kapitel 9: Chapter 6
CHAPTER 6: Inhalation
"Careful, that big one is one of my most complex designs. I can't just slap a bunch of humidity arrays in a place like this when the moisture that helps grow the plants would produce mold as well.
So she regulates the water, fertilizer, and trimming on her own. She is rather unique that way."
"She? Does she carry a human mind as well?"
"Wha-Oh no," Kresha shook her head. "I only call Pyck a she because after years of research and development, I got irritated calling the behemoth of a project an 'it.' Pyck just sort've became her name on account that she picks the ingredients I need when asked."
"I see, and where do those doors lead?" Akryn pointed at the two barn-style doors off to the side of the Harvest Cavern wall. "I noticed they face the Livestock Cavern and a similar set face this way from there."
They were just large enough to fit a golem as big as Pyck, but the padlock holding them shut implied it was not any kind of recharge room for her to freely enter or exit.
"Oh that would be where I personally butcher and marinate meat. I also don't want any glitchy golem covered in manure or farm sludge to accidentally go inside and contaminate my food, so it stays locked. Let's get moving."
They continued onward and made stops at more caverns, each serving less complicated purposes compared to Pyck's Harvest process. One was for water treatment that was usable for drinking and cooling, another was storage for spare parts, and there was even a drawing room filled with paper and ink made from charcoal.
"Alright, this is the last big stop. Give me one moment." Kresha stopped and put the mask and goggles over her face. It was tight enough to create a seal that kept her breathing the air exclusively within the tank.
When she looked over to Arkyn for a moment, it seemed like she was getting lost in thought, until a psionic link she created formed between them. Being in his human form, he couldn't see the tether visually.
'This link is circulating between both auditory and vocal parts of our brains, be careful of overlapping thoughts, otherwise we will both be overwhelmed by the sounds of our inner thoughts echoing over and over again.' She explained through the link.
Arkyn nodded silently, figuring there would be no point to communicate anything unless necessary.
A familiar rise in heat occurred as they followed descending staircases and ramps down to the lower sections of the keep. They turned a corner to the dimly lit region, and were quickly overwhelmed with the heat of exposed magma.
Arkyn found they were back to the space of crucibles and central mining room he first discovered the night before. He was about to continue walking in, but thought about how the intensity would affect a regular human.
He was about to turn to Kresha, concerned that the mask for air would not be enough but she kept walking with little care about the change in environment.
If Kresha was affected by the heat, she didn't let it show. Instead she was still explaining the details with a lecturing tone. 'This is the Smeltery Cavern, I use the heat from the dormant volcano to combat the cold inside the Keep through those holes I carved as ventilation.'
The holes that seemed to suck up air now made sense to Arkyn, if all the heat was contained to the lower floors, the cold mountain altitude would make everything inside the Ash Keep freeze.
'At the Smelting Core I have some more intricate golems casting replacement parts and tools for themselves.'
'I am somewhat familiar with the process,' Arkyn spoke through the link, "This is where I followed several golems from the night before.
'Ahh, I figured as much. You smelled mildly of sulfur when you returned.' Her tone in thoughts seemed to chuckle lightly at the mention.
'All the mining is done at the lowest level. I have the crucibles set over the molten heat of the very dead volcano to smelt and melt raw materials. Almost every machine I have made here is a golem formed from metals used in this extraction process. They mainly find copper, zinc, tin, and iron.'
'A few magic metal veins appear every now and again, but those are mostly used in experimentation instead of golem assembly.'
'Magic metals?'
'Yes, minerals can calcify into crystals imbued with magic, and so can metals. Depending on what type of attributes you're looking for, there's durable stuff like Dunathrite or the element enhancers like Infernum Gold and Cold Steel.'
They walked between a few crucibles and she talked more about the system of reusing broken tools for mining. She briefly went over the array acting as a heat shield, mentioning it was made to keep the golems from melting overtime and for moulds to quickly cool their casted tools.
They watched the hands search the pieces of rubble for a little while and double checked the golem hanging from the ceiling wasn't malfunctioning in any sort of way before eventually leaving the cavern.
As soon as the psionic link was broken; Kresha took off the mask with a deep breath of relief. The air inside the tank had grown stale rather quickly. Additionally when wearing the mask, she wasn't able to drink from her flask of strange fluids or light her pipe.
Kresha did both while they walked and took a different path from the long route they used to see everything. Once near the Golem Cavern though, she stopped and swore loudly at the scene in front of them.
A natural crack formed in the ceiling and wall, the tunnel hallway wasn't in any danger of collapsing, but it had been leaking eroding water and dirt into the floor.
Kresha quickly turned around and went to the nearest room in search of something. Arkyn followed behind, feeling there was a pattern to how these tours were ending.
"Not every room or hall is always active or checked for cracks. This whole place is under a mountain range that has a lot of erosion from melting snow, so if you see cracks, place a bucket under it and command a replaster golem to resolidify the walls." She said while finding the nearest container to catch the droplets.
The best she could find was one of the bowls the sorting golems used to pick out certain metals.
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein