Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

After a night of excess, Seth struggled to get out of bed. He was tightly bound by the two girls hugging him. The floor was covered in empty bottles of booze. It took quite a lot for them to get drunk...

They didn't just drink away the night. The three had talked for a long time and their support helped Seth overcome many of his doubts. He had a hard time remembering what exactly they talked about, but he felt much better and more motivated today.

If he was honest with himself, he had felt like he was not getting anywhere in the past few weeks. His level was maxed out, he still stagnated at master lv.1. This was why he had concentrated on passion projects and necessary projects, but now that Mike was still away and nothing big was up for him to do...

Making the decision to send his friends away was like a big turning point because it also meant that he acknowledged that he currently couldn't help them improve even further with his items. Getting his hands on legendary materials was more about chance than plan. He couldn't shake the perfect legendary items for them out of his sleeves. They had to leave and grow on their own now.

The blacksmith on the other hand had felt a little lost as to what to do from here on out. He wasn't willing to make oodles and oodles of relic-rated items to grind his way to master lv.2, just to face the hurdle of master lv. 3.

After the long night of drinking and talking and letting everything out, he felt like something was uncorked and he had a revelation in what direction to go next. He had chosen the Call of the Maestro as the specialization of his Infernal Scald class. He had chosen the Path of the Legendary Forger.

The Maestro specialized in becoming the master of everything and the Legendary Forger, although it sounded like a blacksmith class, was at no point restricted to only legendary blacksmiths materials. This became clear to him when his thoughts were fogged by alcohol. The way to continue was to expand.

<Composer of Fusion> would level up with every crafting skill he mastered and every skill he mastered would further allow him to work with a greater range of legendary materials, which also meant he would be able to forge a greater range of legendary materials.

What all of this culminated to was Seth's decision to grind. But not his master-tier skills, but all of his other crafting skills. <Sewing>, <Carpentry>, <Alchemy>. Especially in alchemy, he saw a great potential for forging legendary ingredients. If he was able to use his Power of Existence to turn normal ingredients into legendary ones, it might have an even greater impact than legendary armaments.

And the first step to all of that was a visit to Arget Nore's Embassy. They had yet to come by and get their golems. This also meant they had yet to pay. He needed to secure funds for all the materials he would need to grind the skills.

In the case of alchemy, he even needed double, since he didn't plan on leaving Alison behind. He needed her to help him with the recipes and in exchange, they would burn through a lot of money together and become Master Alchemists!

Similarly, he could help and learn from Nädel once he arrived and they could become Master Tailors together. Then he also wouldn't need Neeco's help to see the know the options of tailor products.

<Carpentry> with Craftsman lv.2 was actually the closest to the master tier and he didn't need any external materials. But first, he wanted to get an explanation from Arget Nore and his money if possible. Although he had amassed quite a fortune, he doubted his personal funds were enough for his plans. Of course, he could take it directly from Minas Mar's coffers, what else was all the money they earned in the Tree Stations for? But he wanted to see the deal with the golems finished first.

This was another of his doubts. Ever since facing his past in the illusion of the cultivators, he felt that he was acting too passive. Always on the defense, always preparing. That was why he decided to act more proactively to get what he wanted.

Seth got dressed, ate breakfast, gave the sleeping Fin and Mina a morning kiss, and left for Delta. After the treaty between Delta, Minas Mar, and Arget Nore, the empire of the undead was allowed to have an embassy in Delta. Without the constant drive of the Gamma Resistance, the hostility toward the undead in Delta had lowered and the instances of rotten eggs being thrown at their embassy had lowered to twice a day. It was a great improvement, as far as Seth heard.

The embassy of Arget Nore was also close to the parliament at the center of Delta.

The Embassy of Arget Nore was close to the parliament, where Ichabod Longbottom hat recently held his big press conference about taking responsibility and stepping back. The man didn’t cover himself with glory in the year he was in power.

An opportunistic, corrupt and easily manipulated man, If Seth had not felt an immediate dislike for him and offended him right from the start, Mary might have found him useful. They had no qualms about bribing people, but there was also nothing they wanted from Delta at the time.

He was distracted for a moment, but quickly focused on the purpose of being here. The embassy of the undead empire was the building that used to hold the representatives of Lambda, when Delta was still the seat of the central government.

Originally, they wanted to give the former Embassy of Gamma, since they were occupying the former area of Gamma, but apparently, the protests were even worse at that time. The blacksmith stepped up to the death knights guarding the entrance of the building who promptly crossed their weapons to block his way.

“Tell your masters that the Tower Master of Minas Mar is here.”

After saying what he wanted to say, Seth stood aside and waited. He was no expert on necromancy, but it was common knowledge that a Necromancer and his high-ranking summons shared a pseudo-telepathic connection.

As expected, it didn’t take long for someone to rush out from the embassy. It was Larish, the female dark elf who acted as one of the ambassadors of Arget Nore.

“Tower Master! I’m sorry, we didn’t expect you”, she exhaled out of breath. Her dark robes looked slightly disheveled, and she was gasping as she had just run down several tens of floors using the stairs.

“Well, would you have come out if I notified you beforehand?” he asked, slightly amused.

“W-What do you mean?” she asked awkwardly.

“We made a deal, I offered a discount, and you made an order, but for some reason, nobody came to get the batch of Golems and nobody paid either. I came to give you the chance to explain.

Where is my money?” the bard asked in a sweet tone.

“Ah, ehe, Tower Master, you have to give us some more time. There are difficulties in Arget Nore that got in the way of coming up with the lump sum...” she said nervously.

“Difficulties?” Seth asked, raising an eyebrow suspiciously.

“Maybe, we could talk inside? It's a delicate situation.”

She prompted him to follow and led him to a repurposed meeting room. What once was a room with a long desk, chairs, and probably a Beamer on the ceiling, had turned into a medieval-seeming salon with ancient, ornamental recliners and a small coffee table. Only the Beamer on the ceiling still bore witness to its original function, although the Beamer now acted as a fixture for a chandelier with magic crystals illuminating the room.

“Please take a seat, Tower Master.” she offered, pointing to an expensive-looking recliner. Obediently sat on it, before focusing on Larish again, who was taking cover behind the big desk.

“I think you can tell me now about this delicate situation,” he spoke softly, but in Larish’s ears, it was like his voice filled the room.

“Hmm, yes, I think the tower master deserves to know. We recently had a problem with insurgents in Gamma. Somebody keeps wrestling away the control of the undead, hampering our efforts to collect the money and resources to exchange for the golems.

The capital is being caught up in internal skirmishes that keep sabotaging the teleportation formation. Since they are lacking in manpower, they are having a hard time subduing the fights quickly,” she explained after hesitating for just a moment.

“Oh? Why are you lacking manpower all of a sudden?” his sweet voice seeped into her ear.

“I- I don’t think I should tell you this,“ she resisted the voice of the demonic bard.

“Why not? I assure you; that you can trust me. I won’t tell anybody,” he promised.

“B-but you might get angry. I can’t-”

“I definitely won’t be angry. You worry too much,” he kept imbuing his voice with mana using several of his skills to persuade her. What could it be that she tried to resist so strongly?

“M-Most of the troops are out...catching more people to exchange for golems. However, we lost contact with them over three weeks ago,” she answered hesitantly.

The blacksmith needed a moment to process what he had just heard. How...cheeky were they? He gave them a great deal to get people out of their slavery and then decided it was a great idea to simply go and catch more people to exchange?!

Now he was unsure whether it should calm him, or disturb him, that Arget Nore’s troops vanished shortly after leaving Gamma. They didn’t accomplish their goal, but what exactly was able to wipe out their forces in a manner that they couldn’t even notify their home base? It wasn’t like they could use Home Call, since they were not players, but he was sure Arget Nore had the means for quick long-range communication.

Knowing what they tried left a bitter taste in Seth’s mouth, but it didn’t stop him from offering them an olive branch. They were still a buffer that would stand against Spatia, once the time came.

“I will lend you the first squad of golem knights to secure the teleport channels. You better pay up as soon as possible, once they arrive,” he said magnanimously. “Of course, you will have to pay rent on them, until you pay for them,” he added, not as magnanimously.

“Upfront,” he added seriously, looking at Larish. His gaze made it clear that the ambassadors would have to pay in advance before he sent the golems.

“H-How much?” Larish asked carefully.

“I will be nice and say, one gold per week, per golem. Since I will send 30 golems that would mean 30 gold you have to pay me now and I will send the golems through the teleport formation of Minas Palan.”

“I- I will have to contact my superiors and Larosh, but I think that is...appropriate.”

“Well, do it now. I want an answer and the money before I leave,”

“Okay,” the elf gave in pitifully and started contacting people.

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