blacksmithoftheapocalypse

927. Forgot to close the door

The hammer that had taken shape under the rhythmic strikes of the blacksmith resembled a big judge's gavel made of silver with golden ribbons. Seth chose this design because it fit Tyr's justice aspect while the requirement for Maxwell's silver hammer was a hammer with two flat faces, instead of a traditional war hammer. But it also wasn't just a solid hunk of metal.

While its faces were solid, the body of the hammerhead was a hollow skeleton made of different geometrical shapes. This l...

926. Maxwell's Silver Hammer

While others were on adventures, Seth had his own in the depths of his workshop.

“Seth, I finished dismantling the head you gave me,” Link came by as Seth was idly making the plans for Gallwell’s new war hammer. The blacksmith looked up from the windows of <Blueprint> he had been focused on. He saw the gourmet hunter enter, with a stack of materials in his arms.

“Why did you just put them in your inventory?” Seth asked when he saw the hunter staggering under the we...

925. Somewhere Else (26)

---North of Gamma---

After over a week of riding the Alpeka, the weird mounts bred by Evan for Minas Mar, he finally arrived at the edge of the explosion crater. The massive hole spanning several kilometers was the result of his secret research facility exploding.

Cromwel had returned to fulfill a promise. Back then, they were just people who had come to plunder and steal his research at the command of their undead masters, but they had also been dragged into the treacherous trap ...

924. You what?

Seth stared at it for a while. This prompt meant that this head still needed to be either looted or processed by a hunter to get individual crafting materials from it. This meant that this was not just one piece of relic-rated material, but as many as the hunter could get out of it.

No small piece of leather, the skull, the horns, the fangs. Maybe Evee and Alison could do something with the tongue or eyes, or maybe Link himself would use some part for cooking? It was not a bad deal, get...

923. Asgardian Electrum

After the movie, Fin, Mina, and Seth just wanted to visit the ice café from last time, when Gallwell contacted them, that he had arrived. When they came to the location, there was quite a commotion. It seemed that he had arrived for a while.

Seth looked up and down the bear that posed as a man. A mountain ridge of muscle, the stature of a giant, and a very enviable bushy beard. Subconsciously, the blacksmith touched his own, soft chin. Even since Eos had hexed it away, his bushy friend...

921. Water Treatment Facility

---Little Sigma---

With the decision made, Seth could forget about taking things slow. The moment they sent a message to the Gamma Resistance in the Holy Land, Gallwell at once asked for a meeting in the close future.

Since it didn’t really matter whether Seth made the staff first, or later, he agreed to meet with him the following day in Little Sigma. The bard chose Three Station 1 so he could use the chance to make another short trip with Fin and Mina.

“When are you me...

922. Like a Grapefruit

Adam felt torn as he didn't know how to feel. On one hand, he was relieved that he was not wrong about the beast's weakness, on the other hand, he felt disappointed that the beast was not actually dead. Was he happy or sad about the current state of battle? His difficulty in discerning just grew as the fight continued.

Was he really that weak? Or was the creature of Minas Mar this strong? Should he be glad that they managed to be kind of allies with Minas Mar, or was he afraid that they...

920. Contents of the Letter

Seth’s eyes widened in welcome surprise as he read the contents of the letter. He had already expected it to be political. The Gamma Resistance was a group that intended to go against Arget Nore, while Minas Mar was currently in the talks to remain at least neutral.

The bard had expected some idealistic gibberish, similar to what the hero Ben Harker used to spout. Unexpectedly, it was not idealistic or political in nature, but a simple business request. The sender was Gallwell Ropartz...

919. News from the Holy Land

“Catch,” the Tower Master called out and the buff man he called out to, caught a brown shield aiming for his head. Bement and the rest of Jonah’s team had just returned from the Abyss, where they had been busy helping the rest of their members and some others, like Seth’s other vassal the Oni General, to reach lv.100. This was why he wanted to hurry, so it would be ready when the team got back.

The front of the smooth shield had a complicated pattern of foreign runes. Bement cou...

918. Tailor's Request

Seth was glad he finished in time. Tomorrow, Bement and Jonah's team would return and he could deliver the shield. Not really wanting to immediately keep working, he took a moment to sit down and sort his loot. After all, he had not picked a fight with a demon king for the sake of a single soul. Not only had he harvested the other three leading figures of Bragmomal’s faction in Delta netting him two fire and one wind demon soul, but he had also ripped off Tano’Mol.

Ripped off was a ...

917. Azzo, The Pangolion

---Delta, Minas Mar---

After a moment of communing with Oz, his demonic lyre possessed by the soul of a great demon bard, Seth decided to give Azzo’s suggestion a chance. “I will survive” was not necessarily a song fit for engraving.

The song showed its best effects when used as a forging ballad or directly sung in battle. In the former case, it could allow an item to repair itself when durability fell below half. The latter could buff, and help allies to recover when they w...

916. Adam

The office the two were led to was clean, but spartan. A desk, chairs, and a bunch of filing cabinets. It didn’t seem like a place that was often used. The whole room was more like it was created just to have an office without the office saying anything about the man sitting at the table.

According to the little golden name sign on the desk, this was Governor Adam. The man sitting behind the desk was a lot more expressive than the room he was seated in. A hunk of a man, packed with mu...

915. Lioness Azzo

It was a fresh day when Seth returned to the workshop. Yesterday was very eventful and his little outing to purchase a soul had taken much longer than he had expected. After hunting demons over the day, he had helped Tano’Mol move to the embassy of Minas mar, using Legion.

After explaining everything to Mary it was already evening. Instead of working deep into the night, Seth had returned to the sweet embrace of his girlfriends and enjoyed the evening with them. Since Mike and Lydia w...

914. Big, Epic, and Up

“Great, since you agreed to join, show me your souls, big, epic, and up please,” the blacksmith could finally get to business. This all started with him needing a soul for the shield, after all. The demon could only sigh, the Tower Master acted as if he didn't understand the situation, but knowing that he acted like this despite knowing was even more frustrating.

“Any preferences?” Tano'Mol asked. He had lost the energy to get upset anymore.

“A soul related to the earth ...

913. Could you untie me?

”It's been a while since we met last. You look horrible.” the bard greeted her, the helm of hades he just took off in his hands. The helm vanished and Laraweg returned to his head, as he equipped it through the status screen.

“S-Seth? What are you doing here?” she asked muffled, as it was hard to speak with her swollen lips.

“Obviously, I'm saving you, aren't I? Although I originally just came here to ask where Tano'Mol ran off to. You DO know where he is, right?” the ...

912. Where's the Demon?

Starting with a good lunch break and a fresh pangolin scale, the blacksmith returned to his workshop and was ready to – plan out what to do with the shield. After all, he came from a thorough vacation and spent the last days with other projects like Samuel, Luf, and the Khopesh.

When did he have the time to do anything? Like this, he sat down at the workbench, staring at the scale and working inside the user terminal of the <Blueprints> skill to create a blueprint fitting for th...

911. Broken Shield

After assuring the man and his daughter that he sent someone to look for their aunty and sending the Parrot of Doom for Mike's reinforcements, Seth was free to return to the workshop the following day.

Although there were no pressing matters, it didn’t mean that he intended to slack when he had materials waiting for him. The next project was the broken shield they had brought back from Y-City. The shield was made from the scale of a legendary beast that resembled a pangolin.

It ...

910. On the Move

"Three weeks ago, our caravan was traveling toward Agra when we were raided by bandits. They were not after our goods, but us. They kidnapped almost half of the members of the caravan.  My Sister, Josephine's Aunt, was among the people they captured. There was nothing we could do at the time, we barely managed to reach Agra."

His voice became very solemn the longer he kept talking.

Anthony explained that they reported it to the authorities in Agra but they didn't move since i...

909. Saving Aunty?

On the next two floors, more clerks recognized them, despite not wearing any of their ionic armor. They were wearing casual-looking clothes that fit their little, short trip. Although Seth and the others were wearing casual-looking clothes, they were still items made by Neeco Boos, a master Tailor. They could easily rival a rare armor set in defensive stats. One could never be too careful.

The ninth floor was almost empty, as it housed the very few precious materials, potions, and relic...

879.5 Brutal

“I have to admit...that was brutal,” Hephaestus praised the little blacksmith’s performance

Picking up popcorn lathered in ambrosia syrup from an automaton server, he gave Seth a well-meaning nod. It was a sign of peace, a sign that the blacksmith god had finally forgiven the god of Chaos for influencing the path of the little blacksmith in the direction of a demonic bard.

Seeing the bard's talent and the kind of instrument he had fashioned with his own skills, Hephaestus ha...

908. Of Spoons and Shops

---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 tr...

907. White Wisent

The demonstration was a success and it had visibly left an impression on the two envoys from Arget Nore. The meeting also helped Seth get some info about his potential customers. It seemed like the rumors of the undead empire were not exaggerated and Seth understood the disgust the people in the street had.

However, for Seth, this felt like people had already forgotten what times they lived in. Delta had just started slightly changing for the better and people were already back on the m...

906. Larish and Larosh

Larish and Larosh shared a glance. Their heart had jumped a little when they saw the delicate and complex mechanical work as well as the obvious intelligence of the golem dwarf that had just shown up at the door.

They couldn’t let the Tower Master know how shocked they were by this sudden display of technological advancement. The golem knights that could be seen here and there in Delta and across Minas Mar, the district, were already more than most experts in Arget Nore could accompli...

905. Elves of Arget Nore

The next day, Seth sat in his office in the finally finished embassy of Minas Mar in Delta. The envoys of Arget Nore had quickly agreed to meet him today. Seth had just come from his breakfast and was now waiting for their arrival.

Looking out the window he could see their entourage and the angry mob following them. Maybe they were right, and someone would actually kill them if they had waited too long. Right now, the mob was only swinging signs and banners, who knew when that would hav...

904. Little Brighter

As his last task of the day, Seth took the parts of the hammer and smelted them down in his furnace. The station roared with pale blue fire, as if it was happy to be fed such high-quality metal. The <Adamantium> was a worthy opponent for the furnace, as it took almost two hours for the parts of the hammer to turn into a shining liquid.

Seth opened the drain at the bottom of the furnace and let the liquid metal flow, filling three of his ingot molds. where he would leave them to co...

903.Somewhere Else(25)

---Little Gamma---

The street outside was filled with cheers and a crowd of people. She had already experienced it a few times since she came to Little Gamma. Looking out from the window of her room, Cade looked at the commotion with an emotionless face.

After the battle in Y-City, Cade had still not decided to quit, but she had asked Leana for a vacation and a quiet task. Since Leana had chosen to join Minas Mar, Cade had also passively become part of the Guild, but she was not i...

902. Jaws of Apep

As for the soul enchantment, the two Khopesh forged from the soul of the mantis general and only connected by a thin tether were covered in a line of a demonic poem, he had etched into their surface using the special acid Alison had invented for him.

Temporarily, the blacksmith had broken out in sweat as he got closer to the end of the prose, but not because of the difficulty or the demon he was channeling, but because the pot of special acid had been almost used up. Only a few drops re...

901. Double Poison

Samuel the new saint had left. Luf now had a body that didn't kill everything in her vicinity. All of the important things were done. Since Seth had randomly decided to meet the envoys of Gamma in a week, this was his only fixed appointment at the moment.

Meaning he could leisurely start on the other things left on his imaginary list. Some of the things had already been taken care of or delegated to other people.  For example, Mike was not the only one who had lost his equipment. B...

900. Ascension

---Eotomel, a world among the Pathworks---

An unfamiliar fluctuation in the dragon vein woke him from his slumber. It had been over a century since had come to this world, razed these plains to the ground, and claimed them as his territory. Who was so brazen to tough his place? Had he slept so long that people forgot their lesson?

Cracking his neck, he turned to the shape of a human with dragon horns, worse a simple robe, and stepped outside his cave. The moment he left the cave, ...

899. Step upon the Stage

Awkwardly, the black skeleton started moving, silently looking at its hand and naked body. As Seth had expected, Luf’s deadly aura of decay had vanished while she was inside the Waters of Styx and now it was completely gone. The leak had been sealed by binding her into a vessel.

Agitatedly, her jaw jumped up and down and she wildly pointed at herself. It seemed like everything was moving accordingly but she had not yet figured out how to use the vessel’s voice box.

~Well, then...