blacksmithoftheapocalypse

720. Indomitable Blacksmith

“Some people really know no shame...”

“Right, right. He barely has the money to buy steel...”

“I bet he's been home and drinking ever since his shop got closed. You should have seen the faces of those rubes that kept buying his stuff out of gratitude.”

“You mean their veneration when they first hold something made from something like <Dark Iron>?”

“Right, Right. Isn't it hilarious?”

Neill kept a blank expression, but his ears were almost...

719. Sample Pieces

By the time Neill arrived at the embassy, it was already noon. He was tired, sweaty, and gasping for air, but he made it in time.

“Is that Neill Repmore?”

“Neill, what are you doing here? Don't tell me, are also trying to join Minas Mar?” a blacksmith standing in the lobby asked.

His name was Liam and he was once his junior, but he had been lucky enough to become an arcane blacksmith. A rare class that allowed him to quickly learn and even develop enchantments. Being...

718. Eyes of the Maestro

< Ding! Your Alchemy(Apprentice) lv.9 has become Alchemy(Adept) lv.1 !>

Finally, Seth was able to collapse. Relieved he sank to the ground, looking like a mess. The white lab coat he borrowed was stained by residues of chemicals, herb juices, powders, and burns for literal explosions, but he did it.

In a secure cabinet in a faraway corner, sat several tens of bottles of rare Medium Health Potion, arduously synthesized from only uncommon and common materials. He had just fini...

717. Somewhere Else (19)

--- Somewhere in the Central Mountain Range close to Mount Agra---

He really wasn't made for this kind of journey. Cormac Payl, the chosen of Hephaestus really regretted not putting more effort into leveling up and fighting. He was never an athlete and enjoyed staying in his workshop a lot more, even before the apocalypse.

As a mechanical engineer and subsequently gaining a higher blacksmith class, he always enjoyed the privilege to stay at the base and using materials that the ag...

716. The Grind (3)

Thanks to Alison's preparation, Seth experienced a smooth and engaging entry into alchemy, which mostly consisted of making oodles and oodles of increasingly difficult potions for beginners. Two days later, Seth finally broke through to the apprentice tier.

<Alchemy> was obviously harder to level for him than <Carpentry> since there were no real shortcuts. He had some cheats, but no real shortcuts.  If there was one major thing that he learned about Alchemy in these thr...

715. The Grind (2)

A normal bowyer's job was riddled with glue and strings when it came to composite bows. Fortunately, they didn't do that. Bess used a glue that cured quickly, but she told him that there were many different and special types of glue that had mystical effects, but needed days or even weeks to cure.

It sounded like the world of bowyer's glues was similar to the acid in etching, where special acids could also have some effects on the final item.

Following Bess's example Seth finished...

714. The Grind

<Ding! Your Carpentry(Beginner) lv.1 has become  Carpentry(Beginner) lv.9!>

<Botched Longbow

Epic

Damage: 350

Durability: 1700

1. +50% Penetration

2. +75% Skill Damage

A waste of good materials. Clearly, the work of a beginner with low accuracy, lacking durability, and a high strength requirement. Nobody would want to use this bow, unless in an emergency situation.

Usage Requirements: 250 STR 100 DEX

Six hours later Seth fini...

713. You do the work.

Looking at the stack of paper and wishing to have less work, Seth suddenly had an idea. One that would save him a lot of time!  He had read about it in some novels, he couldn't believe that he had forgotten it.

In olden times, craftsmen had to produce a journeyman's piece or a masterpiece to have their skills acknowledged by their guilds. He would do exactly that! All of the applications that made it through to him were already judged as trustworthy, although some of these texts ma...

712. Teleportation Hub

With the departure of Al'Zalsar, the immortal witch had become their resident expert for space magic. It aligned with her interests, so she happily rose to the task.

Planning and managing the preparation and later construction of the permanent Teleportation hub in the Holy Land was now her duty.  Evee was in charge of how to use the materials they had... acquired from the Adventurer Guild to their best advantage.

She had even officially asked for a budget to buy corresponding...

711. “Helping”

The next few days, Minas Mar was flooded with people wishing to migrate. This time it was not only refugees, but many of the people in question were those hit the hardest by the new martial law and Delta's actions.

Local production classes.

Like Orry Abell, many people that were professional craftsmen before the apocalypse had chosen to return to their profession and chose a fitting class later on. They also had much of their merchandise confiscated which crippled their businesses...

710. Why me?

The Adventurer Guild had asked for a conversation for a while, but things had been delayed because of current occurrences. Seth had been busy in the past few days and so they made an appointment for the day after the announcement.

With that, people from the Adventurer Guild were the only ones that showed up with an actual appointment. To make things grander, it was not just the guild's vice-master who usually took care of public appearances.

Stepping into Seth's office was the elu...

709.VIP Treatment

Following the peaceful morning, a messenger appeared asking to meet Seth. It was not someone sent by Delta, but one of Al'Zalsar's people. The sorceress had assembled a sizable collection of boy toys, but also useful people in her property at the red light district.

They were not technically part of Minas Mar, but they were in charge of the <Ithildin> Refinery Al had set up inside the building. It was one of the few connections to surface Delta, and a reason why they decided to se...

708. A Confession

Seth woke up to a maelstrom of golden locks covering his eyes. Trying to move the hair, he found both his arms occupied with other duties. Blowing the hair away from his face, he found a fair beauty in each of his hands.

One was Mina and the other was the origin of the golden locks. Looking at her peaceful sleeping face, Seth remembered finally what happened at the party yesterday.

...

The party had already been going for some time and the banquet hall was steeped in chaotic...

707. Internal Announcement (2)

Some shocked gasps echoed in the silence after the bomb was dropped.

“This building will be our embassy and the Tree Route our land. What does all this mean to you? It means all of you will have a choice to make. You all have seen and experienced the current Delta, will you stay here or will you stand with Minas Mar?”

Seth paused to let what he just announced sink in. The separation from the governmental structure that existed prior to the apocalypse and the foundation of esse...

706. Internal Announcement

Looking at the completely transmuted Hero that had turned into a metal statue, even Seth was shocked for a moment, not to mention the peanut gallery of soldiers and adventurers. He was confident that Wolfram would win, but he didn't expect the golem to one-sidedly trounce the hero.

Seth was surprised, maybe a little shocked, but for guys like the Slavemancer, the soldier or the negotiator lady a world was falling apart. The pivot point, the one thing they put their unconditional trust i...

705. You are already dead.

“I think we both know that this is unreasonable,” she said with a confident smile.

Her speech was sharp and concise, as expected from someone who was convinced to have the upper hand. As expected from someone with a class like Negotiator, Seth could feel the magic power in her voice wash over him, but it was in vain since he wore Laraweg. The bard responded in kind.

“No, we both know Delta is acting unreasonable. Demanding the return of our possession and the release of peop...

704. Chosen of Hestia

“I'm sorry, even after I became the Chosen of Hestia, I couldn't protect our external assets.”

Mary's first action when he finally arrived was not to scold him but to apologize to him Jane beside her didn't look much better. He had expected this to be a joyous return. After all, most of the troops he had taken along had reached their level cap or level 90.

With that, they had a sizable force with roughly 500 high-level people that were all at least the equivalent to a boss or ...

703. Returning to Delta

It was late evening and the last rays of a setting sun fell through the windows of Deltas  System Church. Just like the streets outside, the inside of the church was oddly quiet and empty. So much so that the staff was even dozing off.

The clerk in charge of the teleport formation was propping his face on his hand. He almost slipped off in surprise and hit his chin on the table when it lit up without warning. The man looked up to greet the rare visitor, but he couldn't see anyone a...

702.Vivisegmentation

“Ah, but you can't store this in your inventory or this ring, Tower Master,” Bement said hurriedly.

~Affirmed. Target cannot be stored.~ Legion affirmed Bement's statement.

“Why not?”

“It's because of the nature of these materials,” Bement started his explanation.

Of course, he was not a wizard so the explanation was not very technical. The crux of the matter was that these materials had a lot of traits that interfered with and stabilized space. This was th...

701. Bement

<Unreconciled Soul- Bement (Big, Unique)

The Soul of Bement, a high-ranking member of the Adventurer Guild. He had many plans in life and is not ready to move on. >

Hovering above a mutilated corpse stuck half in the wall, was a soul with a slightly humanoid shape. It looked like a genie-version of Bement. If this wasn't lucky, then what was? It seemed like Bement was the only one that managed to put up a fight and died with regrets.

<Ding! A new Quest has been gene...

700. Improved Beacon

With everyone and everything nicely stowed away, Seth set off on his lone journey. He switched to the Helm of Hades and started running the way back that they came from. Nobody needed to know that they had already deserted their camp.

Carried by his swift shoes and agile armor, the blacksmith zipped through the landscape. He was aiming at the Adventurer Guild's stronghold. Invisible as he was, he was thinking of playing fly on the wall and see if the guild was really in on what was goin...

699. Retreat for now

The horde of monsters rushed through the long shaft to the surface, ready to ambush the defenders from behind and bring them despair. Only to face despair themselves, as a giant maw swallowed the light above them and came barreling down.

Subject XXXX69S#, leading at the front of his horde, was swallowed first. It only saw rows of massive teeth rush by before entering a long, dark tunnel. There was only darkness and pain as its sturdy body was constantly hit all over by hundreds of attac...

698. Slave Nr. 2

<Viggu lv.95 (Boss)>

<Warhog lv.93 (Boss)>

With the end of the Song, Seth turned towards the orc horde behind him where Tekar held back two bosses with ease. So much so that Seth started doubting his eyes. Did Tekar also finally gain a blessing?

The horde of orcs had already mostly fallen to the insect golems and Sickle Strikers, not without major losses among the ordinary golems. In the end, they couldn't escape the fact that they were mass-produced articles wit...

697. Death from Above

Enrage at the sight of the bug suddenly appearing in their way Viggu charged forward, the legion following him. However, as he got closer, a demonic chant slithered into his ears. The whole army of bugs was swaying and buzzing in rhythm.

The oni could feel his heart tremble and his body weaken. What was this witchcraft? It didn't discourage him and only served to fuel his rage. The cowardly crawlers had actually been working together with the demon all along.

It had not made sense...

696. It was a ruse afterall

Or maybe it was Seth proving the power of bards, as even the undead were clad in a blue aura and strengthened under the battle sky as they joined the choir with their inarticulate growls and grunts. The bard was busy keeping up the Cathedral of Valor but kept a sharp eye on the situation.

Aside from Evee's growing army of Undead,  the melee members of the field teams, the Oathguard and Faer were putting pressure on the monster army, while the magicians led by Shay, Ray, Alison, and...

695. Siege of Fire, Ice, Lightning, and Pain

The barrier was flickering dangerously under the attacks of the weird monster army. The second energy blast of the group of sorcerers had almost broken through, now they could lose their protection at any moment.

Brock and the others already had a hard time defending the walls. Despite the two chosen of Fire and Ice constantly blasting attacks into the hordes of enemies, their numbers did not shrink. Worse, it wasn't like there were so many that the kills didn't make a difference. The b...

694. In a Nutshell

“Are you sure you don't need our help?”

Brock ruefully thought back to the moment, when Seth and Minas Mar left. If only Seth had taken him along, then they wouldn't be in this situation. Barely an hour passed by since the departure of Seth and the rest of Minas Mar and things were looking dire.

They had been afraid of an attack from the orcs, but instead, the whole plateau was suddenly filled with bizarre monsters that surrounded the fort like an ocean a nutshell. Especially ...

693. Silence

“What was that light!?”

Gin, Brock, and some others came running outside in shock. The sudden light in the middle of the night had not gone unnoticed.

“Nothing much. We had a visitor from Kozdam. I just took care of him.”

One thing seemed clear, the orc kingdom knew about them and even kept taps on them. It seemed like it was time for Minas Mar to make a final move. After all, they wouldn't want to be stuck between both forces.

Thanks to Buzz and the golems the...

692. Sight of Theia

With <Spirit Forging> on level eight and all his basic crafting skill being master tier, he was able to create an almost perfect soul replica of the pendant using the Soul of Sight. The hardest part came when he started to engrave the soul pendant.

A blazing light suddenly filled the workshop as Seth felt a brilliant and benevolent presence behind him. This was Theia, the "wide-shining". She was a titan and the goddess of vision, light, and brilliance of precious metals and gems.<...

691. Artificial Trait

Despite the tension and uncertainty of their situation, nothing happened at all. Several days went by after the Boulder Guild had arrived, and the guild member return to their fortifications. The hive was enveloped in a disconcerting silence.

They had prepared for a counterattack or a full-on invasion. Instead of throwing everything they had at them, the hive only stationed a few guards at the tunnel they had used to invade. After the dragonflies were wiped out by Seth, they also became...