blacksmithoftheapocalypse

188. Popping the Problems

Seeing their shields almost fail rattled the two robbers.

“What are you two doing! Can’t you see they are reloading? Rush them, you numbskulls!” their leader was raging and pushing the tanks from behind. While their priest was still trying to cope with a terrible sneezing attack the rest of the party rushed towards Seth and the others.

The tank was a templar, the off-tank a knight, the leader an ax warrior. The last one vanished when the boss gave his order. It was a shadow ...

187.The smaller Problem?

A pair of sparkly new skeletal hands extended from the girl’s arms. She was still rapt in fascination while looking and playing with them. Meanwhile, the party was also staring at her hands. Baffled by what had just happened.

“Link, how about you cook something for us?” Seth suddenly said breaking the atmosphere for the group. Evee was still locked in her own world, playing with her fingers.

“Ah, sure.”  They were currently inside Evee’s ward. The area was no smal...

186. Heads stuck together

Seth’s quest was not finished yet. This meant it was time for him to take care of the girl. He wanted to bring her to Y-City and help her level up. Her class sounded interesting and he was not against her permanently joining his company. The elephant in the room was obvious. They could not just bring an undead back with them to Y-City.

Sentient or not, Seth was unsure whether people could understand her existence and accept it. This meant that they had to somehow solve her problem. Th...

185. Evee Edmonts(3)

The girl jumped off the ground and took a fighting stance. Pointing two sharpened bone stumps toward them. She was missing a big piece of waist where her shriveled up intestines were visible and there were some other parts where chunks of meat were missing. She was covered in stitched-up cuts.

She was an undead, this explained the diviner's ambiguous readings. She was not dead... but one could not call this alive either.

“Ah, please calm down! We are not here to hurt you, Evee!�...

184. Evee Edmonts(2)

Seth and the party were carefully walking into the silent zone.

~Relax. There are no monsters because this place is protected by magic wards. Someone with a caster class must have put these up. ~

Now that the all-knowing sorceress told them, they spotted wards drawn here and there on the walls and the street. They were less like magic circles or circuits and more like ominous special sigils and formations. The group slightly relaxed as there would be no terrible monsters, but this...

183. Evee Edmonts

<Ding! Welcome to THE (Post) Apocalypse Player...>

It was the beginning of everything. Before she could react, the house shook and she heard explosions and screams outside.

"Evee! Evee! Wake up! We have to hurry! There was a warning. We have to evacuate; someone is attacking the district."

Her aunt rushed into her room in a panic, grabbed her hand, and started pulling her out of the room.

"Auntie! Wait! What is going on? Did you also get that message?"

"Tha...

182. Arigiri

It slightly reminded Seth of his exploration of Deltan. The city was partly in ruins and severely marred by the activities of all kinds of giant and humanoid monsters. Not just traces of fights but also signs of primitive settlement or nests.

Graffiti and broken barricades bore witness to human habitation past the apocalypse. Dried blood could be seen here and there but there were no corpses. An ecosystem full of monsters and desperation would not waste any resources.

Seth was usi...

181. On the way

Seth thought for a moment.

“I actually know two lovely ladies who have a lot of free time,” he said with a smirk. The party had met Mary and Jane before and after Seth explained to Tekar who he was talking about and where his daughter would stay in the meantime, he readily agreed.

Having solved this issue, they arranged to meet tomorrow in the church. They would set off for Arigiri at noon.

-------

Mark Baker sat in his new office on the higher floors of the hunter...

180. Tear up

Floor 20, the highest floor below the roof was one wide hall. The dungeon core was sparkling on the wall opposite of the stairs they had just ascended.  Between them and the core was a hulking lizardman. He was about twice the size of the regular ones, so about 4m in height.

This one actually wore a kind of barbarian leather armor and a huge single-bladed sword with a jagged edge. It greeted them with a roar that shook the whole floor. It was not done roaring when a wave of bolts w...

179. Power Up

This time around Seth led the party to a dungeon with an average level of 30. He was sure that they would have no problems with the new equipment. Here they would also be able to finally gain some experience.

The range of choice in dungeons had increased since the last time they had visited the guild and there were now more dungeons in the lower levels. It seemed that people started to understand, that keeping these dungeons open, was a benefit, not a danger.

This was a good sign ...

178. Gear Up

The next morning came as a surprise. Seth was woken up by knocks on his door. Drowsy he got off his bed and went to the door. What were these guys doing here so early?

At his door stood not a clerk, or maybe his two employees that lived on the same floor, no. There stood his three-party members with unkempt hair and ruffled clothes, Alison was even still in her pajamas, just like Seth, and they stared at him with a huge grin.

“What are you guys doing here...?” he asked lazily ...

177. Finish Up

Seth returned to his room intent on finishing the items, so he could assemble the party tomorrow.

~ That was quite the show. She was the real deal, you know? ~ Al suddenly commented.

“I guess? I never saw a “real” fortune teller before.” Seth said as he prepared the materials for the crossbow.

~ Don’t compare her to a fortune teller. That like calling me an illusionist or whatever you called those quacks. You should get closer to her; she could be useful in the fut...

176. Ambiguous Divination

The clerk led Seth to a luxurious dining hall.  On the table already sat two people. Samuel and a beautiful Lady. Her skin was smooth and her eyes bright. Seth could not even begin to estimate her age but she was overflowing with a mature charm. She wore an otherwise loose robe that was tightened in exactly the right places to show off her curves.

“Seth! Come, here. Sit own. Let me introduce you to our guest.”

“Good evening.” Seth greeted the two as he sat down.

175. The Diviner arrived

Seth used the acquired materials wisely and finished and the equipment for the gourmet hunter and what he himself was still missing. He used most of the bat leather for Link’s armor. It was a quite traditional design of a hardened leather armor that still offered a big range of movement.

Seth did not really like leatherworking. His skills made the crafting process not much faster, which meant it took much longer than forging. As he was stitching, boiling, and waxing the armor and its ...

174. Squashed 1

“Hey you, is that your pet?” the crowd split, and one of the people that had been surrounded by it stepped forward. He wore puffy leather armor with fur elements and his well-toned arms were bandaged in leather straps. 

He was pointing at Puffles, who was at this point almost as tall as Seth and happily munching on a bunch of meat skewers. The Ivicer had a growth spurt during the week they spent in the fog world. Even so, it had not leveled up, the caterpillar had become bigger...

173 Some Peace (3)

Seth took the freedom to oversleep the next morning. Although the work in the smithy was fun, it was still hard work. There was no need for him to hurry or anything. He had no plans to off on adventures before the diviner arrived.

Who knew with what kind of situation Seth would have to deal with, once they found the girl? One possibility to end the quest Seth could think of was that he would need to retrieve the girl’s corpse from the demolished and merpeople-infested city ruins.

172. Some Piece (2)

The next morning, he was woken by the bright sunlight. He was glad to live at the church right now since he could simply visit the canteen and eat as much as he wanted. Late morning, when he was done with his breakfast, the party members started to slowly arrive and sat down with him at his table. Mary and Jane also joined when they saw the group sitting around Seth.

He planned to work with all of them in the future, so he was happy that they got along without any problems. After breakf...

171.Some Peace

A scrumptious meal and this success alleviated Seth’s mood enough that he was ready to deal with the less fun stuff in life: human interaction.

He sat down and wrote not only a letter to Nädel, consulting about the gloves, he also wrote one to Tored to confront him with the fact, that the leather was, in fact, cursed. He had calmed down enough, and doubt that Tored would knowingly harm him. Maybe someone even had tried to harm Tored with this leather.

Something this underhanded...

170.Strength of a Soul

Seth had 17 small uncommon souls and 302 common small souls. It was enough for experimenting a little. First Seth made an item with a small uncommon soul to see what its effects were after infusion. The effects were similar to that of the medium-sized soul but much weaker, giving 5% resistance to mind-based status effects and a 5% chance to cause the mind disruption effect.

Next, he used 13 common souls to upgrade a small uncommon soul into a medium-sized one. When he made another gaunt...

169. Taking a break

The party stumbled out of the gate and stood on a dark street in the middle of the city. The street was empty and the night was quiet. Not ghostly quiet, but the quiet of a big city. It was... soothing. Even if it was empty and dark, they could feel the city breathing, the presence of people, and the small sound and background noise that assured them, that they were not alone in the world.

Link knelt on the ground and kissed the boardwalk’s concrete with tears in his eyes. Despite pla...

168. What are you doing here?

“What are you doing here?”

Three people said in sync. They were seated around a small round coffee table in a tiny but cozy study. One of them looked haggard and pale with a beard and hair so dense and black it made him look even paler. But nothing could hide his handsomeness and the fascinating attraction that radiated from his deep dark eyes.

“Once again we are aiming for the same man, Nephew” he spoke to one of the two others. This man's build was also slim, but his bar...

167. Foggy Night

A ghoulish chime gave the gourmet hunter who stood guard goosebumps. It also woke the rest of the party resting around the burned-down campfire. A group of will-o'-the wisp lit up in the fog surrounding them.

“Ignes fatui...” the amazon mumbled with shock on her face. The ghoulish chime rang from the ball of light floating in the fog. Their pursuers had caught up with them. Everyone got ready to fight. Alison cast a buff on everyone while Seth and Tekar wore their armors.

Teka...

166. Chase

“Where did this fire come from?” he pressed out between clenched teeth.

“Stop talking and concentrate on stabilizing the shield.” the other reprimanded him. The patrol had split up in search of the amazon that had intruded. The two had been looking for traces and found a burned-out building they were investigating when the sudden wave of fire swallowed the pillars of stone.

The incredible heat singed their hair even with the shield they were painstakingly maintaining toget...

165. Nowhere to hide

The moment he saw this group it was clear to Seth that these were the people mentioned in the diary. He used <Concealment> and signaled the other to do the same. Alison cast a hiding spell on herself and Tekar while Link used a similar skill from the hunter skillset.

They did not dare to look out the window and only listened to the sound of the chimes with bated breath. Beside the chimes, they could also hear the clear voices of these passers-by. Like a clear harmony, their idle t...

164. The taller they are, the harder they fall

Alison called. She stood at the window and looked outside with a shocked expression. Seth stepped beside her at the window just in time to see a giant leg descent from the thick fog above them. The leg was comparable to a bus in size and covered in a rough carapace. The faded cement-gray color resembled the surrounding building-like structures. It smashed the street's surface and created a deep crater.

Seth stared at the giant crustacean leg.

“Alison... this is too big for our c...

163. Not all who wander are lost

The sky started to darken and the bloodthirsty crew decided to carefully enter one of the buildings. As the city outside everything was empty. Empty hallways, empty rooms, empty doorways, everything lacked signs of human presence. The dark vines and growths that covered the walls were the only thing except for the cold stone walls. It just looked manmade, but might have been a natural structure.

It was important to stay vigilant in such a tight space. If something like the chameleon-thi...

162. Empty World filled with danger

Now that the Lich got what she wanted she became silent and did not react to Seth’s attempts of communication. He could only hope she sunk into some state of deep thought to come up with a way to escape.

Whatever was the case, the four of them and Puffles were now stuck in this familiar-not so familiar world.

“I expected this to be a horror scenario but I expected something like Violent Hill and not Stranger Dings...” Seth muttered as they walked through the empty twisted st...

161. The Other Side

~You have to get out of there. This is not the dungeon anymore! ~

“What?” Seth squinted and looked around when he heard Al’s warning. He didn’t know what it meant, but he trusted the sorceress.

“Hey, didn’t the dungeon cha-”

“Okay guys, that is enough. I think we should leave for today.” Seth interrupted. He clapped his hands and took the lead on the way back. The place really had changed. Rott and mold covered the walls and a kind of sludge and mud took ov...

160. Third Hospital

“Link, did you say there was a group of patients ahead? Where are they?” Seth asked as he looked down an empty, dimly lit hallway. The only thing there were, were some hospital beds stained with a dark sludge, maybe old blood?

“They were here just a moment ago...” the gourmet hunter answered confused.

Seth and Alison both looked to the ceiling. The ceiling looked normal for now. In a game, it was a reoccurring phenomenon that mobs would suddenly break through the ceiling a...

159. Joint Dungeon dive

Seth sat in his room. Now all he could do was wait for them to make their decision and come back. In the meantime, he could finally get back to finishing his loadout. There were still a lot of things to make, but what Seth lacked were the fitting materials.

He had a lot of good materials, but he lacked the means to imbue them with the effects he really wanted for the items he needed to make. His standards had grown after he finished something like the epic set. He didn’t want the othe...