Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Ring by ring Seth's stall slowly emptied. Some people were surprised, others started to cheer when they found out what they had gotten. Nobody was dissatisfied with their purchase.

Soon the stall was empty and Seth spent almost half an hour dispersing the crowd asking for more and for information of where the items came from.

When he finally dispersed the people, he could pack away the blanket.

"E-Errm, are you already done?" he heard a shy voice from behind.

He turned around. There stood the young man he had met the other day. The first one who had approached his stall but was deterred by the fact they were crafted. All his items were common and close to breaking.

Seth took off the one he had been wearing and threw it to him.

"Take this one, it's the only one left. No need to pay."

The young man who had almost lost hope smiled thankfully.

"Th-thank you very much!" he said and bowed deeply.

"Goodbye," Seth said and went away after putting away the blanket. With this, his business in Y-City was finished. Fitting for his last evening in the city, it started to rain. Walking along wet streets as the rain cleansed the dirty air, Seth fell into thought.

He looked forward to Delta. Hopefully, it was a little like Ora and he could open his own workshop. There were a few things he wanted to set up but held back from at the moment. And there were demons. It would be great if he could meet a demon blacksmith.

Rain ran down his cloak and slowly soaked into his clothes starting from the shoulders. Seth hurried back to the church. The wet cloak was taken off the moment he entered the lobby. He could have dried his clothes with <Pyrokinesis> but he rather went to his apartment to get a shower.

Seth passed the door and started undressing, generously distributing his clothes all over the place. Naked as he was born, he entered his bathroom and was welcomed by a high-pitched scream.

In his shower stood a slender man hiding in the shower curtain. His face was so androgynous that he would have had a hard time telling whether it was a man or a woman. The question was answered quite clearly by the massive device that was silhouetted against the curtain.

Seth took a deep breath.

"The fuck you doing in my bathroom? And who are you?"

"B-Boss, it's me. Jonah. I-I lent your shower because the one in our apartment isn't working and Monique is occupying the one in the training room."

"Jonah?" Seth asked surprised and inspected the face closer.

"D-don't look! It's all the fault of this dumb class!"

Jonah looked close to crying, which was just unfair with that kind of face.

"Okay, okay! Finish up and we talk outside."

Seth left the bath after grabbing a towel and waited for Jonah to finish. He said it was the fault of his class, so he didn't look always like this? It was true, the crimson blade had always made sure to hide his face.

His thoughts were interrupted by a dressed Jonah leaving the bathroom. His face had a deep red color and he sat down opposite of Seth.

"I..."

Quite embarrassed the vampire swordsman poured out his heart. A year ago, he was a burly and rough-looking man. He prided himself in his masculine beard. It all changed when he got his class through the random class wheel.

Although his race didn't change his body was restructured into this rather feminine body build. His face became fair and ambiguous, and his voice had become smooth and melodious. From then on, he had hidden his face from the world.

Others may love to become a sexy lean playboy. For Jonah, it was a big burden. Not just the fact that his face and complete body had changed, except his device, he also turned into something he could not handle.

The handsome feminine face was not to his taste, but worse were the kind of women that were attracted to it if they found out about his appearance. As much as he liked the powers he had gained, why did he have to look like a pretty boy?

He wanted to strike fear into his enemies! Who would be afraid of him, with a face like this?!

Seth listened to the rough man rant about his fair face. He didn't really understand his problem, but he also didn't judge.

"If you had told me sooner, I could have made you a helmet or a mask before our departure. Now, it's a little late. You will have to wait until we are in Delta. Then I will make you a mean-looking mask to strike fear in your enemies, or whatever. Can you leave now? I really want to take a shower..."

Belatedly the handsome man realized that he had ranted to his boss and kept him waiting. He apologized and left in a hurry, finally leaving Seth alone.

Seth took a long shower, went for a midnight snack, and finally entered his bed to sleep.

~ Hey, the cooldown is off. Maybe you wanna...~

The horny lich tried to seduce the tired blacksmith.

"I have a headache and we have to leave early tomorrow."

With that, he put the token in his inventory and turned around to sleep. It was better to keep Al'Zalsa as a trump card during the journey. And he wanted to be able to stand on his own two legs tomorrow.

The departure in the morning of the next day went smooth. Tekar's daughter entered the reinforced carriage and they set off. Once again, they were accompanied by people of the church all the way to the border of Y-City.

Their destination was Delta which lied in the opposite direction of the ruins. A big part of their journey would lead through the cityscape before they left Y-City district.

Delta District was situated in the center of the mountain ridge northwest of Ypsilon. It was the smallest district and was originally built as the seat of the world council that led the city districts. As such a location in the center of the continent had been chosen.

Originally, it could be reached from any district on the continent via various means. The most commonly used were the high-speed bullet trains. The whole mountain range had many roads and tunnels.

The tunnels and many of the highways had become quite dangerous. Dungeons had spread in most of them, and the mountains were a gathering and breeding spot for all kinds of strong monsters. Only some of the very old ways to travel across the mountains were relatively safe.

They were too small or cramped for the stronger beasts to inhabit. They were the routes that messengers even below lv. 20 could use to get to Delta. Alison and Link would be their guides this time, as they had traveled the way once or twice before with other parties.

The journey was supposed to take two weeks. Three days to leave the district and another 11 across mountain paths to reach Delta District.

Their small caravan of three carriages set off early in the morning. Their party and the people from the church were split between the carriage in the front and the one in the back. In the middle was the reinforced carriage with Tekar's daughter. Accompanying her were Mary and Jane.

The two were not just her babysitters. During the time they had spent in the church, they had trained a lot and the party had also taken them on some dungeon runs. Their level was in the mid-twenties, but their skills had grown a lot. They were the last line of defense to protect her.

The first days led through a monotone cityscape. Most of the territory between the cities of a district was living space and it lacked any kinds of specialties or attractions. The further they came, the bigger grew the mountains in the distance.

The land also steadily rose on their journey. They spend the night in the satellite city Batikagwa before they finally left the district behind on the next day. They left the church's people behind at the border and proceeded to enter the no man's land.

The horizon was dominated by the mountains and they were surrounded by a mix of hilly forests and meadows