blacksmithoftheapocalypse

868. Unrivaled Sword Net Formation

Like a bell constantly being rung, a high-pitched noise kept echoing across the vast field of hardened dirt. This was the sound of weapons clashing against armor. The moment Seth stepped out of the lobby, which had been ripped out and transferred to the middle of this court, he was forced into a stalemate.

“Face the Unrivaled Sword Net Formation, Demon!” they cried as a group from the Voracious Cloud Continent attacked him.

The blacksmith was surrounded by martial artists and ...

867. Station 9

A figure was watching a different battle from the distance.  Tree Station 9 was a smaller base in the middle of the mountains. The dryad had not spent much time on raising this tree, this was the same for all trees in the direction of Y-City, except TS12.

Situated at the foot of a smaller peak, it was close to a handful of dungeons and ore veins of interest to Minas Mar. The small city below its canopy was still in the middle of construction but its unique and elegant style was alr...

966. Are we saved?

---Tree Station 10---

TS10 was a little smaller, a sapling grown in one of the abandoned satellite cities of Ypselon District. When it was grown, its canopy just about covered the area of the small city that had once held a population of up to 50 000 people.

It was hard to make out what had led to the abandoning of the city from just the ruins, but it seemed like a variety of factors, as the remnants of the city showed signs of fights among people as well as of monster attacks. Th...

865. Bloated Horrors & Hungry Skeletons

--- Y-City---

Cade was shocked when she saw the lobby vanish. Of the members on standby, she had been closest to the entrance, when the whole room suddenly vanished from the building. She didn't have much time to process the information, as the situation rapidly changed.

“Mike, Mina, Fin?” she spoke into the orb, but there was radio silence. “Can somebody hear me? Shit.”

From the headquarters of the Scene rows and rows of berserkers and soldiers in Polyarkanate Armor...

864. Outsource the Problem

---Tree Station 12---

“Here's Paolo. I'm at shield generator building five. A group of refugees is trying to invade the building with force. They are well-armed and their goals seem to be generators,” Paolo's voice echoed from an orb inside the command center of Tree Station 12.

“This is Evan from building 4, a bunch of people suddenly attacked and tried to kill the shield generator.”

“Here's Ember in building 2, we just apprehended a bunch of people trying to atta...

863. A trap!

---A few days later, Y-City---

“What exactly am I looking at?” the leader of the Scene asked, looking at the big screen at the head of their meeting room.

The screen showed an alleyway adjacent to their headquarters. Filling the alley was a massive burning pile of something and the words “Coming Soon” written on the wall with spray paint.

“We found this in an area where our surveillance was destroyed. When we went to check we found this massive pile of feces and th...

862. Advance of Madness

---3 Weeks Earlier---

When he finally returned to Minas Mar from the college, there were a lot of things on his mind but most of his personal businesses were dealt with. Aside from coming up with a way to weaponize the new skill, the most pressing matter on Seth's mind was the production of Armors of Lunacy.

At least for the dedicated casters of the Field Teams like Azul, Ray, Shay, Jess, Ferdinand and Lynri. Their final versions did not differ too much from the one Alison receive...

861. Invite our “friends”

---1 Week later, Y-City---

A room paneled with exotic hardwoods, carved by famous artists. A conference table made of ebony with inlays of lighter wood and silver, at least 300 years old. Opulent decorations plated in and a massive chandelier.

Everything in this room fit the man charming man sitting at the head of the table, wearing luxurious garments of the same style. It all reminded of a more regal and archaic time, except for the executive members sitting around the table, wea...

860. Night and Fog Operation

---1 Week later, Ypselon---

“Pretty foggy today...” the guard mentioned as he greeted his colleague to change shifts.

A thick fog was surrounding the facility this evening.

“Yeah, it started roughly an hour ago. You don't think it's those guys, right? My skin always starts crawling when one of them visits.” his colleague said worriedly. He got up from his seat in the little guard house to open the door for the night shift guy.

“Nah, why would they come to the...

859. Down the Rabbit Hole

---2 Weeks later, Ypselon---

She woke up from her light sleep when someone started tucking her in her thin blanket.

“M-Mom? What are you doing?” she mumbled sleepily. Her heavy eyelids fought against the sleepiness.

“Hush my little Moon pie, we have to leave now,” her mother whispered, holding her in her arms.

“Are we going back home? Can we see Dad again?” she asked her mother still half-asleep.

She missed her dad and their old home. Someday her fath...

858. An Option not thought of

No spectacular fireworks, no big explosion, or a grand finale. Seth's song simply came to an end with Galvan falling over, unconscious. The blacksmith was the irrefutable winner of the match, yet it was Seth who had a cold shiver run down his spine.

The bard had realized where the power to discombobulate Galvan's brain came from. It resembled the power of the time when he enchanted the marvelous, magnificent, mad Yatagan Mim. At this point, Seth was sure it was Schalk, the demon of male...

857. Deal with it from the start

“What?” Galvan asked confused, having a hard time grasping what was happening. A human suddenly materializing a soul contract was too far out there for him to comprehend quickly. The crowd had also fallen silent, seeing Seth whip out a soul contract.

“A soul contract, so you pesky bugger won't come whining to me afterward or keep getting on my nerves later on,” Seth explained nonchalantly.

He knew this kind of character. Galvan was that annoying fly that would keep getting...

856. Swear it!

---Cinema Dimension---

A massive hand, hard like iron and rough like a rasp suddenly grasped Seth's neck, and eyes that burned like the embers of the first flame fixated the god of chaos.

“Swear it,” Hephaestus commanded unexpectedly irritated.

“W-What?” Seth asked surprised as the hand pressure grew like a vice.

“Swear that this is NOT one of your avatar shenanigans again! You are trying to change his path before he starts leveling, right?” the bearded got...

855. Struggling Past

Level 99, naked, hardly awake. Struggling past the two sleeping ladies, he left the bed, because someone was energetically knocking at the door of their quarters. He grabbed a random towel to cover his nether regions before opening the door.

“Seth- AH!” Leana was about to aggressively call his name when she let out a squeal of surprise and shock.

“What's with that reaction? I'm presentable, you know?” the grumpy blacksmith pointing at his improvised loincloth about the siz...

854. Ray's Decision

“Yeah, and Ray just blew him apart on his second shot! He was incredible!” Shay bragged about his friend.

After the final boss was defeated and Seth's party used the transport formation to leave the dungeon, they reunited with the rest of their expedition outside. Of course, there was a big commotion about Ray's changes, but as they shared their experiences and puzzled together what had inside, they all had a great laugh together. Taking an evening they stayed in the abyss to rest a...

853. Spring of Darkness

--- Colossal Dungeon, the Crypts---

“Has the miasma become clearer?” Lydia asked Mike beside her.

The two anthropomorphic beasts had been fighting side by side swinging bats and swords respectively. In a short pause, before they wanted to run up to the next elite who was surviving Jess's ocean of fire, Lydia noticed a change in the environment.

The darkness that had been impenetrable, even with night vision skills, had mostly cleared up. She felt like she was now able to...

852. Ray's God

--- Colossal Dungeon, the Castle---

Monique cursed as the death knight in front of her healed once again, after she had almost blown it apart with her divine spear. Lemar was a harder nut to crack than the party around Monique and Jonah thought at first. King Marcus was manageable, but Lich Lemar had enough time to prepare.

Not only was the boss an archmage but it also had control over the undead they had passed on the lower floor. Every time his undead were about to fall apart, h...

851. The Fire seeping in

Eschok felt the fire seeping into his body as it burned away his flesh and miasma. At the same time, he kept absorbing the dark power from the air to heal himself. However, there was nothing else he could do.

The fire was not weakening and the unfamiliar pain he felt for the first time in hundreds of years, made it hard for him to cast spells. He was stuck in a loop of burning and regenerating. Scraping together all his concentration, he managed to form a thin layer of miasma on his ski...

850. Mr.Sun

--- Colossal Dungeon, the Crypts---

~Hey Mr.Sun, do you think you can do something about the miasma?~ Seth asked Puffles.

Once the arrows on light had exploded together with tens of surrounding undead, the crypt had gone dark again. The miasma even obstructed Seth's vision and he was more annoyed by it than he would have expected.

~Are you sure? Didn't you want to enjoy your little adventure? The unadulterated experience of raiding a dungeon... ~

~Yeah, yeah, enough wi...

849. Den of a Wizard

--- Colossal Dungeon, the Castle---

The cathedral floors shook under their feet as they heard what sounded like the roaring of a flood.

“Is the dungeon collapsing?! Grab what you can and run!” Monique shouted.

Link grabbed the spear and the crown of the king before he jumped on the back of the dragonfly golem and joined the others in the air on their escape. They flew into the hallway outside, only to see inky black fog already covering the ground.

“The black fog...

848. Illuminating

--- Colossal Dungeon, the Crypts---

As the whole dungeon around them shook, the lights atop the sarcophagus were extinguished. Seth had a sudden premonition.

“Everyone, get ready! Raise every defensive measure you have!” he exclaimed as he did just that.

The party was enveloped by <Apollo's Shield>, several elemental shields, a holy barrier, and Jame's new skill <Klinker's Barricade>. It was just in time as the lid of the sarcophagus moved aside by a little a...

847. News From the Route

---Minas Mar---

“We just received bad news from Karina. Y-City has started impeding on the advance of the route.”

Mary entered the room and placed a stack of papers in front of Leana and sat down on the chair opposite her. It was the report on what had happened at Tree Station 8. Karina had come by earlier and explained everything to her before returning to TS8.

“Is this true? They became resistant to the soul-whisking formations?” Leana asked gravely, after reading ...

846. No Grip

Recovering his spear after stabbing at the vermin's shield, he suddenly felt a danger approaching. Shifting his head to the right, he a piercing pain in his cheek. Only now did he see the puny invader surrounded by the massive image of a silver aura spear.

“Tsk! He dodged, do something, Jonah!”

Instinctively the King made a step back, only to feel something scraping his shin. Grimly, he could feel the hot blood soaking his garments and running down his leg. The pests proved st...

845. The Crypts(2)

--- Colossal Dungeon, the Crypts---

It was a fulfilling prophecy, as Seth's prediction came true mere minutes later. The walls on both sides ended and they flew into pure darkness, only the vague silhouettes of the pillars visible when they fly close by it.

“Ugh, it's like diving in murky inky water...” Faenys complained.

Suddenly, light was introduced into the darkness. Rows upon rows of torches lit up in front of them, revealing an expansive vault. Kneeling on the grou...

844. The Crypts

--- Colossal Dungeon, the Castle---

The path was not as free for Monique's and Jonah's team, as they found colossal knights guarding and patrolling at regular distances and intervals all over the place. They managed to act relatively stealthy thanks to one of Lynri's buffs.

Her buff <Fortune of the Battlefield> increased the chance to trigger status effects against opponents. The Pipe, Tekar's weapon, had a 15% chance to cause Silence on hit. With the priestess's buff, this ...

843. Tree Station 8

---Tree Station 8---

In the newest Tree Station and the first that was directly in the direction of Ypselon, Karina was busy cultivating housing trees for future occupants, when a commotion distracted her. She felt the chimera's footsteps running toward her before he appeared in her vision.

“Lady Karina, people have appeared from the direction of Y-City,” the left head of the two-headed chimera reported.

“Merchants?” Karina asked unperturbed. Although the mountains h...

842.Ting TingTing~

---Colossal Dungeon- The Castle---

Ting Ting Ting Ting!

The noise of metal hitting metal sounded quietly in the distance. The party watched as the colossal knight twitched and bend to get something off the back of his armor.

“Do you really think this will work?” Monique asked doubtfully.

However, her question was answered before Bement could voice his confidence. With a crash, the colossus knelt. The knight had started to slow down before, but he finally could sust...

841. Colossal Dungeon

---Colossal Dungeon- 7th Floor UP---

“Damn,” Tekar and Link commented at the same time.

After they fought through the waves of guards on the 5th and 6th floor they suddenly reached the top of the stairs, where they faced an overwhelming scenery. After passing under the door, made of dark, lacquered wood, they stood in a massive hall.

The hallways on the lower floors paled in comparison. It was like standing in a cathedral with the high, arching ceilings so far up above t...

840. Cutting down to Size

A bull's bellow echoed through the hallway. The massive labrys clad in turbid green energy cleaved through the giant leg guard and cleanly amputated the Colossal Guard's shin. The colossus started falling in a cry of pain.

Asterion did not bother delivering a finishing and rushed to the next ankle he was going to cut. His actions were inspired by the age-old dwarven technique of cutting enemies to size. While the Minotaur golem charged forward, a powerful torrent of water pierced the gu...

839. Sufferer in the Darkness

<Sufferer in the Darkness lv.99>

<Sufferer in the Darkness lv.102>

<Sufferer in the Darkness lv.101>

<Sufferer in the Darkness lv.100>

They were no hills, not at all, but monsters.

“James, Edward, block!” he called out.

Seth and the two tanks quickly raised their shields when a cloud of breath billowed toward them. The blacksmith used <Apollo's Shield> and was able to block the brunt of the attack.

<You successfull...