Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

They had to ditch the carriage and the horses a long time ago. The horse met their end and the carriage's wheels broke. They had been running for a week with barely any sleep or rest. They had food, but no time to eat.

They had already been on the run for more than a week, the traders had already lost their lives a few days ago. Bulko was supporting Mike who had a festering wound on his hip, the priest was unable to heal even after his power boost. Mina was scouting their way and they were finally reaching the vicinity of Ora. Only to find that the enemy was already in front of them. The city was surrounded by hordes of corpse walkers and other monsters.

They came just in time to see the army be decimated by a storm of lightning. Where it hit it would jump between several tens of monsters and turn them into charcoal. The field of lighting kept expanding even past them.

One of the other B-Rank was suddenly hit and turned into a terrifying lycanthrope before dying! It had been among them the whole time!

Once the lightning slightly died down, they dared to come near the city. The land surrounding the city was filled with charred corpses. They had finally reached Ora, obviously a safe place. Except for Fin's and Lixiss' golden robes, all their armors and weapon were damaged from the long journey and endless fighting. What would Seth say when they finally meet him after weeks of silence?

The sorry-looking party reached the locked gates of Ora an hour later. They called for help and entry but got no answers. After sitting at the foot of the gate for a while, finally, the smaller gate opened.

A tall knight in terrifying black armor wielding a unique hammer was the first to step out. The second was a dwarven warrior with a great ax clad in bright silver armor. As the leader of the party, Mike got off the ground despite his injury.

"Please, let us in. We have injured people that need treatment." he gestured towards the party leader of the other party, that was even worse off than him after he took a hit protecting them in a critical moment.

"Guys?" they heard a surprised voice from the terrifying knight. It sounded somewhat echoy but familiar. The knight lifted his visor-

"Seth?!" the group exclaimed.

At the urging of the sorceress, Seth had decided to join the scouting party to assess the situation outside the gates. Seth had understood her reason after taking a look at the open field outside the city. Many remnant souls were left behind by these creatures, more than he had ever seen at once. There were even quite a few medium-sized souls among them.

Who knew that he would meet the group of friends he had been looking for, for weeks, out here at the gate? They looked really miserable as they sat there dirty, injured, and in their damaged gear. He was the disciple of one of the city's three dwarven masters so his words had quite some weight among the dwarven guards. Not to forget his master was right beside him. With these two vouching for the party, they were quickly taken into the city to meet the healers.

Seth and Tored on the other side stepped out onto the battlefield of this one-sided massacre. He only needed to walk around and the souls gravitated towards him and vanished into his soul space. A party of rag-tag B-Ranks accompanied the two as they inspected the battlefield.

Technically their job was just to make sure that everything died to the Mayor's lightning and there would not be any weird surprises. Who knew what the sick lunatics were able to cook up? After what had happened today, nobody could really be sure.

Despite so many people dying here and gaining almost 350 small souls, there were no uncommon souls among them. He would have guessed to find some with a grudge, maybe they died simply too fast? He also found almost 30 medium-sized souls.

With this much, he was sure that he would be able to level up <Soul Infusion> and <Soul Forging> at least once. This calamity was really a blessing in disguise. He thanked the lich for telling him to come out here, otherwise, he would have missed this chance. It was really a great birthday present.

The sky was slowly becoming dark when they returned to the city. They could not find anything wrong with the corpses left after the Mayor's attack. Since it was deemed safe, the city would send out a troop of people to clean up the remnants the next day. Seth unequipped the dark knight armor and everyone around him let out a sigh of relief.

"Hey guys, I'm glad you made it to my birthday!" he greeted the party in the medical wing of the guard garrison. Lixiss, Bulko, Mina, and Fin looked tired and bruised but were fine otherwise. Mike was lying down on a bed with a Doctor still working on the wound at his side.

Mina and Fin jumped up and clung to him like frightened puppies. What was happening? He had just stepped in and suddenly had two beauties hugging him tightly with tears in their eyes. Mina pressed her face against his chest while the fairy was hugging his face, smearing snot and tears on his cheek. He tried to think of something smart, or a joke, but he ended up simply hugging them back.

"I missed you, too."

"The poison dagger you gave me broke, please give me a new one." the catgirl whispered in a pitiful voice. This was a low blow after he became so emotional.

"Ah, no fair! My robe has a cut and the durability fell below half, please fix it for me!" the fairy stepped fort to ram another dagger in his already wounded heart. You too, Brute? Seeing his hurt face both started laughing. It was them who made a cruel joke at his expense this time. In response, he hugged them tighter.

After the doctor was done and left, they sat together and talked about what had happened during the last weeks, since they last met. When the sky got dark Seth left so they could finally get their well-deserved rest after such a long journey. All-in-all this was not the worst birthday Seth ever had in his life.