I stepped into the blacksmith's house with the man in the white apron. The blacksmith and other man spoke to each other and after a moment the blacksmith asked me to hand him my gear. I took off the iron and handed him my sword and tools. Whilst he worked on them he began to talk to me.
"You know? I've been doing some research lately. It would seem that long ago, out people used to have large iron protectors. I think I could build a few to take care of this village and teach you how to make them so you can put a few where ever you think would be good. I'm sure the other part of the village would appreciate a few as well."
"Alright, well I'll try to bring back some iron from the mines then"
The blacksmith handed me back my tools and armor. After I was ready I headed back to the other village and went to the mine.
The elevator they had made looked fairly rickety and out of repair. Somehow I knew it wasn't going to be that easy. I climbed down carefully and began to explore the mines. They seemed pretty standard and after a while I found a dark room full of mold. It seemed like this might have been where the zombie were coming from.
I ran in and cleared the room out. After the zombies were gone I broke that strange cage with a zombie effigy in it. I figured that would at least cut down on the zombie problem here in the mines. I picked through the chests and found nothing super amazing, just some wheat and redstone. I kept looking through the mines and before long found another room with one of those cages.
The room looked empty so I ran in and smashed the cage before anything appeared. I looted the chests and kept looking for more of these rooms. After a while I found a third one and cleared it out as well.
With the third room gone I was beginning to notice the mines were getting quieter. I could still hear some monsters crawling around but I think I had solved their zombie problem. With the zombies in check I decided now would be a good time to start clearing out what monsters were left and start mining some materials to help the villages build back up. It was only a short while before I found some useful things for myself as well.
After I had cleared out most of the minerals I could find i went back to the dungeons and mined out some of the stone. Under the flooring of one of the rooms I found even more diamonds.
After I had gathered all I could carry I went back up and began smelting some of the ores. I took so iron over to the black smith along with some of the diamonds I found to him.
"Wow!" The blacksmith exclaimed, "You're alive! And you've got plenty of material to work with too, let me see what you've got?"
"Well, I found plenty of iron and something a little shinier than that as well." I dumped a few diamonds out on his work table "Now, what can we do with all this?"
The blacksmith looked it all over and smiled "This will do nicely. Let me show you." He picked up as much of the iron as he could and brought it to his anvil. He began crafting what looked like some sort of mechanical arms and legs as he explained the process to me. After a bit he had a small pile of parts and told me to grab the hammer and try for myself.
With some sweat and his guidance I was able to make some legs a chest and arms. He then showed me how to set it all up. I watched him put his parts together, while I followed along with mine. After a while, we had two headless metal figures standing before us.
"Well... That's pretty cool, I guess." The blacksmith caught onto my sarcasm.
"Now bear with me..." The blacksmith stood there looking at the two iron figures. "We're missing something. Wait right here." The blacksmith went back into his house and came back out with a small notebook. He flipped through the pages, I could see some drawing and schematics inside. He continued flipping through the pages and stopped suddenly. "Ahh... I see. You wouldn't happen to have a pumpkin would you?"
"Umm, no why?"
"Well it seems that these iron guardians rely partially on the power of nature."
"What?"
"Yes. I think there might be a few growing out in the forest, or you could take these parts back to the other village and see if they have some growing."
"Alright, well then help me take this one apart." As we worked on taking my iron golem apart to take to the other town he explained that all I needed to do after putting him back together was the place the pumpkin where it's head should be and it would come to life.
I took the parts to the other village and set them up. The man in the white robe came up to me and began to watch me somewhat puzzled.
"Have you gone mad? What are you doing?"
"The blacksmith told me that this was some sort of ancient guardian. I figured a man made of iron would have a better chance of standing up against those creature from the forest. Plus we wouldn't have to worry about losing what few men you have left. Oh, I was also supposed to ask, do you have any pumpkins?"
"Umm, well we're not really growing any, but I know there are a few growing just outside the town, you could use those." He pointed in a direction and I could see a small patch growing.
"Perfect." As I snapped in the last piece I shook the man's hand and went over to the patch of pumpkins. I grabbed a few and headed back to my golem. "Well, here goes nothing..." A small crowd had gathered around the golem and they watched as I stepped up towards it. I placed a pumpkin where the head would have been. Every person watchign was silent. Waiting for something to happen.
After a moment, I noticed small vines and flowers growing quickly across the chest and the arms of the golem. The iron around the neck began to bubble and slowly crawled up the pumpkin covering it in a hard iron shell. I saw the vines begin to pulsate and pull on the arms. They raised slowly as his foot stepped forward. The eyes began to glow slightly. The crowd gasped in awe. The golem walked towards the man in the white robe. Silently he stared at him as the crowd cautiously backed away.
The man looked at the golem then nodded towards me. The golem slowly turned towards and stared down at me. I cleared my throat as we stared at one another.
"Go, go and protect these people." The iron golem broke eye contact and stood up straight. He scanned the surrounding area. He looked into the forest between the trees. He looked down at the gravel road and began walking. I followed him for a moment before I noticed this silent iron guardian was now patrolling the town. Satisfied I returned to the blacksmith.
"It worked, and here. I found a few pumpkins. I've also got some seeds so you guys can grow some more if you need them."
"Perfect!" The blacksmith pocketed the seeds and picked up the pumpkin. I followed him out and watched the same process as before. As the blacksmith came to life he spotted a small rose. He gently picked the rose and handed it to the blacksmith. "Thank you, now, please go and guard these people." The golem scanned the village and looked down as the gravel road and then began to patrol. "Well, I can't believe that worked. Truly amazing. With these guys around I'm sure we'll be much safer. Now, they're going to be pretty preoccupied by protecting the village, which leaves the problems in the forest, up to you. While you were gone I used some of those diamonds to make a sort of thank you gift for you." He pulled out a sword made of diamond. He demonstrated how strong and sharp it was but cutting through a part of fence.
"Wow, thank you. I sure this will come in handy." He handed the sword to me and I swung it a few times. "I really appreciate this"
"It's the least of what we could do. Now, go show those monsters how strong we really are. Once you've got some of the area in the forest safe again, we can start reclaiming land and rebuilding our city."
"Alright, well, here goes nothing." I turned around and looked through the forest once more. It looks like I've got my work cut out for me once again.
