Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

---Little Sigma---

Sitting outside a small ice cream shop in the middle of a busy pedestrian area were Seth, Mina, Fin, Puffles and Tatzel enjoying a cold treat, enjoying the warm evening sun. Puffles had put quite some effort into learning a similar miniaturizing magic like Tatzel, allowing him to appear in public without drawing too much attention.

Since Seth didn't really want to return to the workshop after dealing with the envoys of Arget Nore, they decided to make a short trip to Little Sigma. The tree station had developed a buzzing city life and was a nice place to spend their free time.

“It's been a while since all of us were able to just peacefully sit down and eat and ice cream,” Seth said with a smile before shoving a spoon of ice cream in his mouth and enjoying it melting on his tongue.

“Did you forget our vacation already?” Mina asked with a teasing smile.

“No, but we did leave Puffles and Tatzel behind,” Seth said with a shrug.

~You dared to gorge on ice cream without the great me?!~ the ivicer exclaimed indignantly. He got really worked up when he was left out from eating delicacies.

“ I remember we did a lot of things with ice cream, but I don't think we ever did it in public, or with a spoon...” Fin pondered, blushing a little when she remembered the things they had done during their vacation.

“Fin, your memory is getting worse. We did indeed use a spoon for-”

“Not in front of the children, Mina!” Seth interrupted her, as she tried to remind Fin of what exactly they did involving spoons.

~What did you do we can't hear of? Was it offspring? Did you-~

“No more about spoons or offspring. This topic is closed,” the blacksmith shot down Tatzel who was innocently asking about not-so-innocent topics. Mina took a deep breath but swallowed what she was going to say with a teasing smile when she saw Seth's warning glance.

~I want another cup, as redemption for the transgression of leaving us out of ice cream business. ~ the Ivicer demanded a sacrifice to quell his ire. The sacrifice was quickly ordered and the growing deity appeased.

“Should we go take a look at the shop?” Mina suggested when they finished their ice cream and got ready to leave.

After his shops, the Turquoise Anvil and the Bronze Anvil were moved to Little Sigma as a form of punishment against Delta, he had not gotten the chance to visit them often. The last time he had taken a look, was at the start of their last vacation.

When the Turquoise Anvil was still in Delta in occupied four underground floors of one of the busiest business passages where they split the items produced by Minas Mar on several levels depending on quality and price. A custom Seth had copied from the shops he had visited during his visits in other worlds.

In addition, they also had a floor where they ran a restaurant with Links's food. Their second shop the Bronze Anvil was in a less popular area and sold the more basic products their fresh personnel had been producing at the time.

Now in Sigma, where Minas Mar owned all the real estate, the Turquoise Anvil, the Bronze Anvil, and their restaurant were all in the same high riser, like a big shopping center run by Minas Mar alone, all unified under the name of Turquoise Anvil.

The first five floors were dedicated to basic equipment for adventurers of lower levels or budget. Technically this was the inventory that would have belonged to the Bronze Anvil. Then came two vast floors dedicated to the restaurant, before the floors with the inventory of the Turquoise Anvil began.

Even when Minas Mar hoarded the best stuff for themselves in general, the new Turquoise anvil had already grown a reputation as THE place for all adventurers. Whatever equipment and consumables one needed, one could find it here. They were even able to add magic scrolls to their inventory after recruiting enchanters.

As its reputation suggested, the shop was bustling with people when Seth and his girlfriends entered. Especially, the first floor was brimming with people looking for new equipment or to stock up on their consumables.

This was despite the prices being not much different from the ordinary market prices anywhere else. Unlike in the Bronze Anvil, where they sold accessories and potions below market price to hurt the foreign merchants that had swamped the market in Delta, they couldn't do so in Little Sigma.

Their competition here was mostly their own people who had gone through quite some suffering to raise their crafting skills with hard work and investments. Selling consumables at production prices would have destroyed their growing market.

On one hand, this was to save their profit in the short run but the other reason was crisis prevention. Seth didn't want to be called every time the world was in danger, he was not a superhero. He also didn't want his friends to be like that or be treated like this.

It was better if the people of Urth could deal with their shit on their own. The first step for that was the production of goods. Craftsmen had to be able to support the adventurers who would ultimately fight the danger. It was Leana who had explained to him these basics of a self-sustaining society at the constant brink of destruction.

A more modern example would be, if a hospital offered cheap healing, other hospitals would go out of business. When only a few cheap ones were left to compete and a catastrophe happened, there would not be enough hospitals to take care of all the injured. Or something like that.

Anyway, having this many people despite not offering products at cheap prices just showed the value of their reputation in Little Sigma. One of the reasons was their successful brand protection. Products of Minas Mar, carrying the seal made of <Bones of Seth> were always of top quality. The trust in this seal Seth had come up with had grown firm and strong. This obviously also reflected in the cheaper products they offered in their shop, even if they didn't carry the seal.

The three worked their way through the crowd and slowly ascended the department store, taking their time to look around and enjoy the magical atmosphere of the place. Seth had to admit that whoever Jane hired to do the interior decoration, didn’t just know how to set up a department store but also knew how to keep the fantastic feeling of a magic shop.

On the higher floors, Seth even found some of his wooden golems acting as animated mannequins, striking poses to display the armor for sale. At some point in time, Jane had asked him for a few, after seeing the Demon Summoning Puppets he made to fight the Scene. Now he knew where they ended up.

The higher they climbed, the fewer people were there. Compared to the lower floors there was a steep rise in price past the 7th Floor. The original inventory of the turquoise Anvil was all items made by people above the journeyman tier and were at least rare.

The people that came here were those who could afford to look at and buy these kinds of time. They were mostly high-level players or people with a well-running business. With the rise in quality, the security also rose, with golem knights standing guard in addition to the anti-theft magic.

The imposing golem guard only raised the atmosphere of a magic shop. Seth couldn’t help but smile, enjoying the visit to his own shop.

“I’m getting a little hungry…” Fin lamented, holding her tummy. After a while, she had dropped her cutesy way of talking, though she didn’t really lose any cuteness because of it.

“Didn’t we just eat ice cream an hour ago?” Mina asked her a little upset with the glutton.

“It’s okay. Let’s look at the rest of the floors, meet the managed, and eat dinner in the restaurant later,” Seth appeased the two. He didn’t mind getting an early dinner, but he wanted to see the person Jane left in charge here.

Since Jane was now in charge of most of the business of the whole district, she obviously couldn’t personally run their stores, not even the main one. The blacksmith wanted to meet the manager to see who was in charge of interior design there.

“Oh, Tower Master! Did you already come to meet the manager?” On the 8th floor, one of the clerks called out to them, as they passed the counter on their way to the stairs up.

“Already? Yeah, I thought of looking for the manager, but did you expect me?” he asked a little confused.

“Then, you aren’t here because Lady Mary asked you to visit?” the clerk mumbled, also confused.

“Is something going I should know about?” Seth asked with a raised brow.

“Yes, but I think it would be best if the manager explained it to you. I don’t know the details and don’t want to tell you anything wrong,” the clerk said apologetically. Seth didn’t blame him, it was actually a very sensible answer.

“Well, then we will go look for the manager once we are done window shopping,” Seth decided, after hearing that the manager was in his office on the 10th floor, right above the last public floor of the building.

Although there seemed to be some business waiting, the three didn’t hurry and they kept looking around the store on their way up.

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