101 Crafting new Monsters

John has been learning woodworking from Vito for some time now, and after learning that John learned a craft easier if he used his own imagination Vito changed his lectures resulting in a tremendous growth of skill.

And now John decided that it was time to put his newly learned skills to the test.

John crafted a special version of a smithing not from scratch, he started by redesigning and optimizing the frame while adding a higher range of movement to the joints. He took some material off of pieces and added some on other places. He shifted some gears around and made some more room through that. John added a completely new second gear system that would power several new arms he added to the back of the automata.

John slightly changed the hammer while also adding a second hammer made out of wood on another arm.

Next, he added an arm with a chisel as well as an arm with a saw. But John wasn't satisfied yet he scrapped his first prototype and changed the shoulder joints to a rotating cylinder with several attachment points for arms or other tools.

He then reattached all the arms he added to his first prototype while also adding several more with all kinds of tools like several different carvings knives, a polishing wheel as well as a nimble hand with five fingers with slightly more joints in the fingers than a human has to make complex movements.

To be honest, John completely forgot what actually wanted to do, he wasted a whole adding all kinds of doodads, thingies, and gadgets to his new version of a crafting robot.

But John had fun nonetheless if someone told him some years ago the he would one day be as happy and as interested in crafting and working on all kinds of materials, he would have laughed at them or even punched them in the face probably while breaking one or two of his fingers doing that.

Crafting Bot MK.11

Rank Rare

Race Machine

The eleventh iteration of a Modification of a Smithing bot. It's improved gearing and body allows it use and move several new arms with all kinds of tools. Although it is improved to be able to craft nearly anything it does not excel in any craft like a specialized Automata.

John got back to crafting the next day and started working on the new monsters for his dungeon. He went down to the seventh floor and started the dungeon designer. he looked through the themes he was able to pick, and his eyes stopped at a mixed forest floor. John thought about it for a moment after which he decided and picked the mixed forest. But after it was finished creating the random environment John started changing some stuff, he started by changing some trees randomly to metal and also added a big Temple in the middle of the forest.

The temple John added would be the staircase that led down to the next floor so that the players had a landmark they could follow. Next John ordered several Mining bots and some scraplings to carefully uproot several trees and to bring them to his workshop. His minions got to work and his workshop was soon filled with the first tree. The first thing John did was trimming down the branches without destroying them, next he hollowed them and the stem out so that he could fit the gear system inside. At first John wanted to use metal gears but he didn't like this as it felt strange to him putting metal inside trees. So John tried using wooden gears and was extremely happy with that as they made a creepy sound when they were rubbing against each other like a tree that is hit by a storm.

John took his time carving the gears he needed for his new creation as he wasn't used to working with wood to that extent. When they were finished John added them to the hollowed out tree and started working on the branches. He started by reinforcing them with steel and adding several joints to facilitate movement.

Slowly his creation came together and soon the tree he had hollowed out and the branches cut of was back in one piece. What was left was adding a mana crystal and carving in a creepy face. John started carving and added tiny recesses that functioned as eyes and a mouth that you could only see in the right light or when they had a light inside. But now John had another idea he quickly crafted another small gear and a wooden board which attached to the side of the gear. he grabbed inside of the tree and installed the new wooden parts after which he added the master crystal beneath it. Now the Tree monster he created could use the Light the Mana crystal gave off the illuminate its eyes and mouth while also dimming it down to blend in with the other trees.

Artificial Treant (stationary)

Rank Rare

Race Machine/Plant

An artificial treant that blends into a forest preying on unsuspecting passerbys by smashing them with its mighty branches to uses them as fertilizer.

John even made a second version of this monster out of a smaller tree with the ability to walk

Artificial Treant (moving)

Rank Rare

Race Machine/Plant

An artificial treant that blends into a forest preying on unsuspecting passerbys by smashing them with its mighty branches to uses them as fertilizer. Modifications on its roots allows this treant to walk and change places to confuse its victims.

Now John wanted to make a boss but even though he did like the idea of one massive king treant it seemed kind of boring but he still decided to get to work and think of something while crafting. John was still in deep thought when his minions brought a giant tree that bloomed with life. John once again stripped the tree of all the useless stuff and hollowed it out. He started crafting to gears out of wood but they were too weak to withstand the enormous pressure so John had to craft them out of metal. But John did like the sound that was created by the wooden gears so he used special grease to lubricate so that the metal gears wouldn't be so loud and added several wooden gears inside the boss to just produce that creaking sound.

The rest of the work went smoothless, the missing gear were added, the new joints where attached to the branches and several Mana Crystals were fused to a Mana gem with the help of Olaf. And just an hour later the boss was finished.

Woody, King of treants

Rank Unique

Race Machine/Plant

A giant artificial treant with tremendous might and size. Even though it can be mistaken as a tree it is so big that it can't blend in like his smaller brethren. With branches thick as a small tree and roots that trap careless passerbys, it is a nightmare to fight. Because the King of treant is so big it is unable to uproot itself to move around.

John was satisfied with his creation but he still thought that something was missing, but he just couldn't think of something so he just added something to every treant. John crafted nuts, pine cones and even let some treants grow some apples by giving them healing potions. Some fruits or nuts he crafted were explosive, some released poison gas when thrown and some just were heavy.

With these creation he armed the treants to give them a fighting chance of killing someone like a mage. But John just couldn't go offline because he still thought that he had to add something else to this dungeon floor, something that fits the theme of the forest but is also not a tree. John even asked Olaf to help him design and craft several animals out of metal that didn't fight but added character to the forest.

They started with cutes foxes and rabbits after which they tried themselves on some birds and John even created a deer. But suddenly John knew what was missing, his forest needed a caretaker, someone that looked after the trees and defended them against other. He really needed a caretaker, but he didnt think about some kind of animal that just says: "ONLY YOU can prevent forest fires!"

No he wanted something special something that would fit in this world that was dominated by fantasy. And John decided soon after he had the idea, there could only be one being suitable to take on this position. Only one creature really fit into the theme of this floor, it was staple in many fantasy settings and lives with the forest in symbiosis. But John knew that if he really did craft this being he would be punched by Eva again so he still had to gather the courage to craft it. But deep inside he knew that he had to craft it even though a beating by Eva was imminent...