Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Someone else was also working hard this week. Mark Baker's blood was boiling. He was not offended by the blacksmith's harsh reaction. He himself was seething that something like this could happen right under their noses.

He knew about the incidents with the weapons, but they had no idea about the scale of the situation. Right now, they were hard-pressed to follow the leads Seth had given them and they found them at the crime scene.

Mark believed Seth and they spend a small fortune to invite the strongest necromancer-type player in Y-City. He was the Vice-Leader of the second strongest independent guild and was called the "Corpse Slaver" by the general populace. His true name was Nathan Stale.

This was a name only mentioned behind closed doors. Few people like the monikers they were given, and he was no exception. Considering his position, it took quite a bit of negotiation to invite him. He only agreed when they let him in on the reason why they needed him.

It was not because he was touched by the terrible fate of those" commoners". But having his name mentioned in a good light, once this case was solved would be a great boost for his image and that of their guild.

Necromancers in general were the class closest to handling souls. The common necromancer would summon small souls or parts of souls from the afterlife and seal them into the bodies of the dead to create undead.

Nathan's class was called the Soul Puppeteer. On top of the main skills of a generic necromancer, he could see souls and had skills for enslaving the souls of his freshly deceased victims. He could seal the souls of monsters he killed back into their bodies.

The resulting undead were a lot stronger thanks to their intelligence and ability to use their skills. Enslaving souls also came with reading their memories. Sometimes he would even be able to learn skills through this.

With his help, the Hunter's Association should have been able to determine the existence of the souls Seth had given then and read out the memories of the souls.

He arrived at the HQ in his full battle gear. A dark robe leaving shadow-like fog trails wherever he went and dark purple accents. His staff looked like pitch-black marble with a rose-colored crystal at the top.

It fit his looks of a 45-year-old regal man with a trimmed and proper full beard. His looks explained why people called him the "corpse slaver". Maybe it was also the fact that his undead beasts and humanoids were semi-sentient and were known to moan and cry in pain and anguish.

He met Baker in a meeting room where a small chest was sitting on the table. After a short greeting, Mark opened the chest and the necromancer's eyes widened.

"Where did you get this? This is the most complete soul I have ever seen outside of a body..."

"The origin is a secret. Can you read the memories?"

"Pff, of course, I can."

Although he was very interested in the origins, he knew that Baker would not tell him anything. It was already really hard to get some information about the case before he agreed to help.

He cast the enslavement magic to take control of the soul, but there was way too much information when he wanted to mind read it. There was a whole life rushing past his eyes. A completely different world, society, experiences, magic.

He almost threw up when he finally managed to break away from the connection.

"We have to do this differently. There is too much information to sift through."

He told Baker what he managed to learn, but they needed a different approach if they wanted targeted information.

"Bring me a recently deceased corpse. I should be able to make a mindless servant with this that an answer your questions."

Mark had a complicated expression but agreed. They brought the corpse of a criminal who had died in a gang war outside the safe zone. Nathan was not fussy about it and shove the soul into the mouth of the corpse. He then continued to cast his skills and spells.

He put quite some effort into preserving the sentience of the soul, so the undead could speak, understand and answer. When he finished the cloudy eyes of the zombie flipped open with a dazed gaze.

On Nathan's commands, the corpse stood up.

"It's ready. Ask it anything you want."

In the following hours, the hunters association found out a lot about the weasel society, their infrastructure, and overall makeup. Under the questions of interrogation specialists, they found out everything there could be.

Based on this the whole staff got into action to create contingency plans and measures to find these beasts. It was time for a purge.

-------------------------------- Delta

A diverse group of foreign adventurers left the local church building. With big sparkling eyes and the fascination of a little child, they looked at the massive buildings reaching for the skies. Two people, a big figure, a small figure, and a tiny figure were walking along the street gawking into the skies.

They took in all the new sights and sounds. The delectable smells of street food made their mouths water.

"Are you sure he will come here?"

"Yes, I heard it from Simon that he planned to come here."

"That's great! Do you think he will be surprised?"

"Definitely!"

"Should we try a dungeon to see, if we can deal with this world?"

The five people were pumped to explore this new world.

-------------------------------- No Man's Land

A figure smashed into a landscape dominated by old ruins. Ruins much older than the apocalypse. The remnants of the cities that were abandoned after the foundation of the districts.

"Who are you? What are you?" she groaned. She had roamed the No man's land between the districts and hunted monsters to increase her strength. Her level was just a smidgen away from level 50.

She had not dared to get close to humans after she got rid of her uncle.

Above her in the air stood a human levitating. He wore floating foreign robes and wore a smug smile. This person had suddenly attacked her.

Her survival of this strike could only be attributed to the heavily increased physical state of the Rakshasa class. Still, her health had dropped straight down to 123/1000. One hit had brought her close to death.

Her mind was calm, and she could logically process what happened, but she had no idea what was going on.

"And here I thought these powers seemed quite interesting. Yet you could not even take one hit." he shook his head in disappointment.

"I will end your sorry existence and- space manipulation!?"

The girls had vanished right before his eyes. After reaching lv. 40 she had visited Y-City and set it as her home. Avoiding humans was preferable, but she used Home Call to flee from this overwhelming enemy in this situation.

"Hmm. Interesting. But why is the continent so empty...?" he mumbled before he flew away into a random direction.

-------------------------------- Alpha

"How are the preparations?"

"We are able to inhibit the growth of the normal vegetation. But the spread of corruption is still a problem."

"Just tell me how much longer."

"We should be able to breakthrough in about four weeks."

"What about that runner?"

"We could not find his whereabouts yet. We suspect he is hiding somewhere."