blacksmithoftheapocalypse

898. Vessel of Luf

A day later Seth arrived back in the valley. The half of the crown he left yesterday had turned into a big hill of dull shards towering over Seth and a small heap barely reaching his knees. The smaller heap of shards was obviously the <Enriched Necron>.

The blacksmith looked at the dull shards wistfully, they were not even accepted as a crafting material anymore, they were just powerless rocks now. They couldn’t even be cut like gems, since they were brittle like chalk. They wou...

897. Pythian Games

“On another note, how are the preparations for the tournament going?“ Seth asked since Karina, one of the keys to achieving it, was present, too.

This was the way they had come up with for advertising Seth's skills as a master blacksmith and spreading his name on Urth to gather Power of Existence.  It had been about two years since the rather disastrous failure of a tournament in Delta, that was blown up by the Theocracy of Chains.

But this time, they didn't plan to do an...

896. Inter-Tree-City

Since it would take Luf a while to refine all the material, Seth was rather free again. Apart from refining the blueprints and planning out how to make use of the hydra core, there was nothing he needed to do.

Of course, this free time was not granted to the busy blacksmith. The cruel and heartless businesswoman Jane and her accomplices Mary and the politician Leana had come up with a devious plan and called for him when he was about to start up his computer.

He entered Mary’s o...

895. Another Chef brings the Spice

“Hello, I’m Coralie!” the little girl approached Pip, who was leading the children from the herb gardens toward the gates of Minas Mar. After they escaped from the forest Pip had been the oldest pupil of Karina left and became their leader.

They were on their way to a snowball fight with the Tijaahk children, like every day in the afternoon, when a new face, a girl a few years younger than Pip, approached them with an excited expression.

“Can we be friends?” she asked in...

894. The Snake under the Guardian Tree

---Tree Station 7---

After a trip over Minas Palan, Mike arrived at Tree Station 7. Looking at the sky, he couldn't help his heart being moved. The tree and city here were a little special, thanks to the power of Lady White permeating the place.

The tree and tree buildings here bore white and rose-colored blossoms, creating a mesmerizing scene together with the vast mountain lake right at the foot of the tree and the many flowers sprouting everywhere. Compared to the snow-covered ...

893. The Blacksmith and the Tailor-Reforged

After he dropped about half of the crown in the valley, Seth finally returned to Minas Mar at midmorning. It was still a little early for Lunch, so Seth decided to give Neeco Boos a visit and inspect his new creation.

The blacksmith didn't go just because he was worried that Neeco's obsession flared up again, although Seth did worry that the tailor would once again try to make flimsy superhero suits popular, again.

His main reason was to see if it could replace his <Skysilk>...

992. Enriched Necron

It was already late, so Seth returned to Mina and Fin and spent the evening with them. The next morning, he took a piece of <Necronite> from the storage. After their raid on the colossal dungeon, Seth had broken up the giant crown of the Lich.

A small part of the resulting materials went into Evee’s new armor, but the biggest part was stored at his workshop after Seth cleaned out his inventory and put away everything he didn’t need to have on his person at all times. With a ch...

891. The Bard and the Bride(2)

Seth stared at Luf, unable to speak up. This was the first time he had come across something like this. Luf was not a ghost or an undead, she was purely a soul that formed her own body, or something that looked and worked like a body.

Seth was apprehensive to call himself an expert on souls, but he knew one or two things and he immediately had some ideas about Luf’s current state.  Disregarding that he had no idea how she ended up in this state, Seth guessed that the aura of deca...

890. The Bard and the Bride

"Now that you know, can we come to the important business?" Leana said a little annoyed. Seth had categorically avoided them and any kind of responsibility for the past two weeks, as he was either traveling with Mina and Fin or hiding with them playing.

“Rayki and Luf are waiting in a valley close to Delta.”

“Who?” slipped from Seth's lips before he remembered Rayki, one of the Faer that decided to leave and take care of business from when they were alive. The blacksmith d...

889. Entrepeneur

They rode Puffles back to Delta where they had to land some distance away from the city entrance. Although the scene was gone, Delta had already been irreversibly changed. After all, the people the Scene put into their positions were still in place.

Delta’s population had visibly shrunk with many people leaving for Minas Mar and whatever lay beyond. With the excuse of the zombie pandemic still raging outside of Delta, people were discouraged from leaving the city boundaries, otherwise...

888. Weird Saints

Gleobem and Oz joined him in a funky tune. The formation started glowing mysteriously.

"Mana veins and cores and dance, Bits and pieces and the magic from the hand.
Will make- weird saints, ooh ~"

The whole valley shook under wild music, as Seth played the Devil's Fiddle and sang live into the saint's body.

"Weird Saints, Not what god asked me to do, Makin' dreams come true, living tissue, warm flesh Weird Saints, ooh~"

At first not much happened as Seth serenaded ...

887. Creating a Saint (2)

Seth had abused all the skill he could muster to create a saint for the System God. Samuel's body which had turned into a hardened puppet body was now adorned with various modifications made of the leftover <Divine Arpegium>

He was taking a break and eating his lunch when he heard the benign ding of the Soul Refinery telling him that the last batch of refined soul parts was ready. Seth had added this function to the refinery and the Golem Forge with the help of Sivri.

The ol...

886. Creating a Saint

---2 Weeks Later---

After the experience in Y-City, Seth took two weeks of vacation. He literally did nothing in those two weeks, except lazing around and spending time with Mina and Fin. Eating, gaming, traveling, no work or fighting. He needed that now.

Seth also silently celebrated his 26th birthday with just the two of them. His vacation was only possible because he was abusing an important loophole in his forced quest. Although he had no possibility to refuse the quest, the q...

885. Dragonkin?

TS12 had already recovered its emerald canopy and could be seen from far away. After they saw the giant tree in the distance, it still took them an hour of riding the undead to reach the wooden city below it.

Seth and the others could have been there a lot earlier riding their own mounts or Puffles, but they stayed with the survivors to keep up the image and give reassurance about the undead under their butts.

The ground surrounding the thriving tree was drenched in blood. Despite...

884. Somewhere Else (24)

A massive fleet of big Airships filled the sky above the grassy plane as they traveled westward. The sky was filled with smooth mechanical flying machines, vaguely resembling ships without sails. In a cell aboard the second biggest vessel was a man.

His body was in a terrible condition, malnourished and covered in festering wounds. He was even missing an eye and some of his nails and teeth were missing. Everything pointed to the fact that the man had endured terrible torture.

“T...

883. To TS12

Despite their wish to quickly return home, they stayed at the system church for another day to help with the initial aftermath. The Immortals of the Scene were gone, and the demons Seth had brought with him had taken care of most of the monsters of the Tuatha De, but the situation in Y-City was not over yet.

The survivors of Y-City were still stuck in a desperate battle for survival. The problem in the matter was that most of the high-level players had already joined the Scene enticed b...

882. Obligatory Quest

On their way out, the staff explained that it was a tradition to burn the body of a priest of the system church in the place where they died. At first, it was merely a practicality, but it had already been a tradition for millennia.

Outside the half-destroyed system church, the crowd had already built a pyre. They had piled up wooden scraps from the surrounding debris and drenched it with gasoline. On top of it was Samuel’s body, now clad in a ceremonial robe. With his hands on his ch...

881. Funeral?

As they were about to leave, the swarm of golems landed behind them. Clumsily, the people who had spent months in captivity were dropped off by the aerial strikers and stumbled towards the crowd.

“Seth,” Sivri called out to him, shortly after his reunion with Fin. Beside the golem was the already healed Cade. It seemed that they had managed to arrive here safely and Cade was tended to by some of the priests of the System Church.

Similarly, some of the people of the church also...

880. Old Faces, New Bosses

The now empty building with the deserted throne room was swaying precariously. Only Seth, Puffles, and Tatzel remained on the rooftop. The blacksmith let out a tired sigh, as he looked on as the whole city was rocked by an earthquake.

“We should not stay up here. Let's go look for the other.” Seth suddenly said worried. The Scene was gone, for the most part, but he had no idea about the state of his friends. Especially Mina and Fin who had stayed close by as reinforcements, he neede...

879. Awaken...?

The noble throne room of the seven gods and their king was suddenly desecrated by the appearance of the means of production. The anvil, the forge, the furnace, the soul refinery, the crafting tables, and the golem forge, all barreled down like comets and surrounded the gods in their own Olympus. And with them the security.

Milton could barely make a step to attack when the massive fist of the three-faced golem turned his head into a cloud of blood. The lady that looked like a tailor att...

878. Desert and Decay

“Oh, fuck me...” Cade mumbled and legged it. She activated all her skills, from invisibility to illusion, anything that would help her escape as quickly as possible. She didn't need to see whatever just happened on top of the skyscraper.

The presence the rakshasi could feel from this distance was enough to tell her, that she had no chance in a fight. Even if she was in a better condition, she needed to be lucky to get away with her life. She was not lucky today. A white flash zipped...

877. Cade's Struggle

Cade's claws were strong enough to leave deep gashes in concrete and stone, but the man's scale armor only lost single scales or had some minor scratches from their fight so far. She had also tried her illusions and spells but found magic being almost useless against her opponent.

Unlike the members of Minas Mar, Cade lacked legendary items or even divine protection. The former was owed to her arrogance, the latter because of her specific class. Now she cursed her past self, that she ha...

876. Samuel's Light

---Y-City, System Church---

The arena barrier had fallen. The monsters were being pushed back, but things did not look good. Fin. Lyxiss and Bulko suddenly faced a dire situation when four new intruders appeared after the barrier fell.

“I knew we shouldn't have left this to Craig and Jeff,” the one on the left lamented.

“What can you do? We had to lock off the city,” the one on the right answered.

“I will take on the demon, you three take care of the rest,”...

875. Meeting at Mike's

“Sperion, are you sure this is the right way?” Mina asked the demon she summoned, while the demon in question was busy slaughtering a path through the masses of grotesque monsters. The reason she asked was because they were getting further away from the headquarters of the scene.

“I can hear your worry. Your brother is not held at their main residence but in a hidden prison below the city. We will soon reach the entrance,” the almost omniscient demon answered her question while ...

874. Vestiges of the Past

“Grandfather, why do people not explore the no man's land anymore?” he asked the wizened man, wearing round golden glasses and big binoculars. The old man leaned on his cane,  seemingly thinking of an answer.

“Only few people are born to be explorers with a natural fascination for the foreign. Most people like the comfort of staying at home, with little to worry,” he spoke after a while in his warm, deep voice. Little Seth back then had a hard time understanding that sentim...

873. Meteorite Sword

The old man halted for a moment before he grimaced in indignation.

“Your witty remarks, will not safe your life,” he spoke imposingly and pulled out his sword. It was big, straight, thick, long, and of a deep gray color. It was obviously a special material, but it was the first weapon that looked displeasing to his eyes.

Seth had already noticed that the weapons of the people here were made of a special material. With the force of their attacks, simple steel would have shatter...

872. Drunk Mike

Moaning, Mike woke up from a feverish dream only for a tremendous headache to greet him in reality. His unfocused eyes showed him a blurry room. The floor was cold, like a metal slap, and everything sounded weirdly muffled and distorted. He noticed that he wore nothing but a flimsy gown.

Slowly, hazy memories flooded back into his head. The feeling of power leaving his body when his transformation was canceled. His desperate fight, his capture... his hand shot to his head as his heart f...

871. Stratagem of Phoebe

<Maelstorm>

A column of wind turning at unfathomable speeds was cast. The drill made of air directly aimed at the priests and warriors of the church that were holding their position tenaciously against the flood of beasts. Even though they could manifest divine skills within the arena, they still had the edge over the skeletons and obesities.

“I told you not on my watch!” Bulko jumped in the way, wearing a silvery blue set of armor. With this armor, he had a 90% resistan...

870. Plan B

---Y-City, The Scene---

The handsome, slender man clicked his tongue.

“Then there is no more need to wait,” he said and rose from his seat.

They had spent the past 30 minutes listening to reports and updates on the situation from the war front. In coordination with the Tuatha De and the Cultivators, they had attacked Tree Stations 8, 9,10, 11, and 12. It ended with slowly losing contact with them all, starting with TS10.

The frown had yet to leave his face. It was ...

869. Cutthroat

---Y-City---

“Seth? Mike? Fin? Damn it!” Mina spoke into her communication orb, but she couldn't reach anyone. It was clear something happened. Well, they expected something to happen, but not necessarily for their communication to be jammed.

She had to make the decision, look for Seth or return to the Church. She knew that the Church was the more logical decision, after all, what could possibly happen to Seth? Still, she turned to run looking for her significant other.

...