In the horizon was a valley, surrounded by large, beautiful mountains. A long river ran between this gorgeous valley towards a large lake in the center. Around this lake was a bustling town, far larger and grander than even Krestfall itself. It had short walls surrounding it, but that was because the mountain crown surrounding it was a far stronger defense than any regular wall could be. At the opening of the valley where the large river ran through, there was a heavily defended enormous straight wall that filtered and stopped any invaders coming into the valley. It was about 40 meters high and 10 meters thick, heavily manned with siege weapons and an entire army of guards numbering at 10,000-15,000 at a time.
A large cobbled highway led the visitors towards the large town and another leading out of the valley from the town. A canal opening in the wall had ships of large and small sizes coming in and out. When a batch of ships were checked and inspected for entry towards the town's harbor, the canal gates opened and allowed the ships to enter, then it was the next batch of ships' turn for inspection at the docks along the gate. Like this, the town of Rockcrown passed its days peacefully as the second-largest town in all of the Harrien Kingdom.
Two tall and thick towers also extended on the South and North side of the town, specially built for the airships to dock in place where they unloaded people, goods, and military personnel. Like the wall at the opening of the valley, these towers were also heavily guarded and had enough defenses to take down any airship acting suspiciously.
Without anyone being able to see, a group of 10 rank 3 sentries flew in the sky, invisible to anyone without the proper ability to see them. These were the sentries that the new medium-sized factory was able to produce, updated with the latest body mods as well as tech items and weapons. As they descended on the town of Rockcrown, they found a spot that was isolated and abandoned, a dark alleyway behind some clustered buildings that made the alleys here a maze. Making sure they weren't seen or heard, they uncloaked their invisibility.
What was seen were sentries wearing a combination of the goth-style armor of Dark Sentry and a robe covering their heads while wearing a white mask with a black visor to hide their appearance underneath. Once they were ready, they moved towards the open area of town. While they walked through the alleys, several of the less-wanted people of this town eyed them as they passed by. Some even ran off to go to their superiors to report this, while others didn't bother the large strangers that looked like they weren't pushovers.
But even though that was common sense, there was always some idiot who didn't have a shred of a brain.
"Look at this, boys, we got ourselves some dumbasses trying to act tough in our turf," a lanky lean man with several scars on his face said as he blocked the sentries' way with his gang of goons cutting their ways of escape. His lackeys snickered and laughed at their leader's remark, but the sentries just looked straight at the man without saying anything.
"Huh!? Got nothing to say? Then drop your goods. Get on your knees and I may let some of you leave alive!" The annoying thug ordered, but still, the sentries refused to answer or heed his commands. Taking out a large knife, the thug walked up to the sentry at the front and put the knife against its neck. While standing on its left side, "don't go getting all scared now, I said drop your fresh goo-" the thug was cut off as the sentry that it threatened shot its left hand grabbing the thug's face, and slamming it against the wall.
The thug's whole head was crushed into the wall along with the sentry's fist still in the hole it created. Blood leaked down from the hole as the sentry removed its blood covered fist. The skin still connected to the thug's neck held the body in place as the sentry used his tunic as a cleaning rag. Once the goons saw their leader die so easily, they left running with their pants soiled and minds shell-shocked. After that, the sentries continued their mission, forgetting the minor inconvenience without ever speaking a word.
When they finally reached a crowded road, people around the alley entrance moved out of the way for the large armored group. Picking a direction, the sentries moved down the road until they arrived at an area filled with many craft shops such as an alchemist potion shop, a Smithy shop, and cultivation scroll shops. They approached a guard patrolling the area.
"Excuse me, do you happen to know where the smithy shop called 'Deep Metal' is located?" one of the sentries asked.
Eyeing the menacing group the guard spoke, "It's down this small secluded area, second door on the left with the sign of an ingot and hammer," the guard explained.
Saying their thanks, the sentries walked down the small pathway towards the sign and door the guard had mentioned. Opening the door, rang a small bell placed above the doorway.
"Coming, wait a bit!" called out a man's voice from the back of the store. Inside the Smith shop were different barrels lining up the walls with small signs describing which barrel had what type of weapon. There was a longsword, axe, bow, and knife section. Approaching a barrel, one of the sentries took out a long sword, inspecting the weapon's weight. It was a good sword, better than most he had seen.
"If you're looking for better weapons, the stock in the back are my best works," said the stocky owner of the shop as he emerged from the back, covered in soot and wearing an apron.
"We heard that this was a place where we could find Harrold, one of the best smiths in the Harrien kingdom," said the lead sentry.
This made the man frown, "depends who's asking, never seen your group before. You customers or trouble?" he asked cautiously, slowly drawing a Warhammer behind his back.
Before the Smith jumped to conclusions, the sentry took out an Alpha wyvern's scale and an ingot of Olcrum he got from the medium-sized factory. Making a loud clank, Harrold dropped his Warhammer as his expression turned to one of full surprise. Running up to the things the sentry had placed on the counter, it was the ingot of Olcrum that grabbed the man's attention the most.
"Where did you get this!?" Harrold asked incredulously.
"Why the sudden question?" the sentry responded. Instead of answering, Harrold ran to the back of his shop and brought back a different ingot, but this one was very lumpy unlike the smooth Olcrum ingot that the sentry took out.
"This is the best I can do when taking out the metal's impurities, but how can you have an ingot that has almost no impurities. This is unheard of even if you're a talented Smith from the northern kingdoms!" Harrold exclaimed.
"We found this ingot along with a few others in some ancient ruins. We took it to an appraiser but they recommended we make a weapon or armor from it instead of selling it, so it's been only sitting in my storage ring for a while until I got this," said the sentry, sliding the hard scale across the counter.
After inspecting the scale, the smith's eyes widened. "This is also of high quality, so you want to make a weapon or armor out of it with the ingot? I'm sure I will be able to produce a weapon of unique or maybe even rare grade," said Harrold, brainstorming ideas to work on the materials.
"No need for that, what we want is for you to create an alloyed gold rank metal ingot out of the two materials. We will pay as much as you need," said the sentry, taking out bags of platinum coins.
Harrold gave them a confused look, "are you sure? These types of materials don't appear often, you know?."
"Just the alloy ingots." Reaffirmed the sentry.
"Alright, give me a few hours," said Harrold as he took all the materials the sentry had brought. Six hours later, the man emerged with a large stack of ingots with the color of navy blue. Taking an ingot in his hand, the sentry confirmed it, Rank 4.
"How much is it?" asked the sentry.
"Ten platinum, it wasn't easy you know, but I wished you would have wanted an actual weapon instead," grumbled Harrold.
Placing the coins on the counter, the sentries had finished their mission here and left. Harrold was a little curious and dashed for the front door, poking his head outside to watch the strangers, but when he looked around, no one was there. Having a bad feeling, he went back inside his shop, realizing those men were someone he didn't want to mess with.
Meanwhile, a few feet away, the sentries watched Harrold close and lock his shop, unaware that they had been watching the whole time. If it weren't for Marchioness Valeria being suspicious of him and having someone notify her when they left and entered Krestfall, he wouldn't have had to go to this length to have the rank 4 alloy metal ingots made in another faraway town from Krestfall. He had asked the same smithy he bought the rank 3, cold iron, if they knew any top smithy craftsman in other towns in the Harrien kingdom. The best one they recommended was Harrold in the town of Rockcrown. With the first batch of rank 3 sentries ready, he was finally ready to make a rank 4 body. He barely had enough materials for 3 bodies from all the scales and some Olcrum ingots. If only Calamity beasts like the Alpha wyvern could appear more often, then he would be set for life.
For now, he stopped production on the rank 3 sentries at the medium factory. It could produce 2, rank 4 golems a day unfortunately. The rest of the materials he took to the medium factory that wasn't laid on top of a metal vein back at his fortress. With the two working at the same time, it wouldn't take long for him to have his new bodies made.