Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

"I think I know where this tunnel is leading." Seth suddenly said after they follow the wide tunnel for 15 minutes. He had kept an eye on his map as they kept going forward.

The path they walked pointed in a straight line towards the vicinity of Delta. If Seth was not wrong, they would be able to walk straight to a point in Delta through this tunnel. It was a shortcut!

If the tunnel really led straight to Delta, they could reach the district in a day's worth of walking.

"But we can't be sure what is at the end of the tunnel. Are you sure there is a way to the surface there?" Drosi commented.

"At the end of the way should be an ancient magic tower full of riches. That's what I was told."

"Maybe we should send someone to scout the situation, before going there with the whole caravan?" Tekar suggested.

"I will go!" Evee volunteered happily. She wanted to contribute to the party as she sometimes felt slightly redundant within the group.

"I can leave Flix with you and notify you through him about the situation at the other end. And even if there are traps, I can just revive. I'm the perfect scout for this, please let me go!" she argued before anyone could even deny her request.

Seth nodded.

"Alright, it's time for the Immortal Witch to shine. Half of us should stay here and protect this entrance, the other half should return to notify the rest, that everything went smoothly."

Drosi agreed to this, and their group split up. Drosi, Alison, Link, and some of the 3 of the guardians would return to the mountain town, Seth and the rest would stay to guard the entrance and wait for Evee's message.

As Seth watched Evee vanish in the darkness of the tunnel and Drosi walk down the snowy path, he got busy himself.

"What are you doing, boss?" Monique asked curiously when she saw Seth pull out an item from his inventory.

"Mining," he answered with a smirk. In his hand, he held a mithril pickaxe enchanted with piercing and additional strength. Together with the <Superior Mining lv. 5> he could dig into the hard rock as if it was cheesecake.

The reason for his sudden enthusiasm for mining was that he detected several deposits in the vicinity of the chamber. There were some he had not heard of before like <Snowcopper> or <Volatile Zinc>. There was also some <Magic Iron>.

As the name suggested <Snowcopper> was an uncommon variant of copper with a strong affinity to water and frost, while <Volatile Zinc> was an uncommon metal with constantly changing properties.

----------------------------- Evee

The tunnel was dark and without light, but it did not affect Evee. Seth had given then pendants with Nightvision before, so she could see clear as day. It looked like a huge maintenance tunnel just very empty.

Evee walked for several hours without reaching an end. She kept using <Astral Projection> to look for traps but there were none. There were also no forks on the road. It was simply a very straight hallway. She started getting very bored after walking so long in the empty tunnel when she finally saw a gate at the end.

It was made of forged bars and had a golden hue. It was not locked but stood ajar as if pushed open by the wind. Or left open due to negligence. She passed the gate, walked up a staircase, and entered a lavishly decorated room.

A heavy aura of mana and magic permeated the air in the room and made it hard to breathe. The golden pipe she had followed met 4 others in the middle of this room. Cables left this joint and vanished into the ground, making it look like a cyber star.

She found no danger or security measures that were activated. She lacked the <Map> skill to know where exactly she was, but she was certain, that there was no immediate danger here.

----------------------------- Seth

The hemispherical chamber looked like the center of an anthill with several entrances to tunnels and passageways Seth had dug in the last eight hours. He only took a break when he was hungry. The other could only watch in awe as the blacksmith dug through hard rock like a mole.

Mining was surprisingly fun with adequate skills. And harvesting ores for blacksmithing put the cherry on top. He still had little idea about what he would do with this stuff, but there was nothing wrong with collecting it first.

It felt great picking up riches even if he didn't know what to use them for, yet. Seth had been digging for 12 hours straight without pause when Felix suddenly jumped up and notified the group that it was safe.

Seth looked at his map. He had harvested most of the deposits he could find in the range of the chamber. He chugged a stamina potion to get awake and wiped off some of the dirt.

"Okay, I will go over. Then we know where exactly the tunnel leads to."

"Are you sure?" Jonah asked.

"Yeah, yeah, don't worry about it."

Seth took a little... longer for the way as he kept digging up stuff here and there. The metals and stuff surrounding the tunnel had probably been charged by the mana of the formation.

-----------------------

While Seth was on his way to the tower someone else was also doing their best to be the first there. Kesaz had managed to more or less heal himself and hurried back to Delta. It took him a full day to stumble back into the district.

He needed a way to get past that bridge and his only clue at this point was the guy who had originally found the entrance the first time. The demon had been suspicious of the amount of gold that had supposedly been stored in the "unprotected" workshops.

"You-" the demon rushed into a bar. He had searched through several bars to find the drunkard. He grabbed him by the collar and cast and quick illusion spell. There was no time to waste this time. The demon also found out that not just the formations, but the tower itself might also overload soon.

"How did you manage to enter the entrance? "

He found the answer around the man's neck. It was a necklace he had stolen somewhere in Delta. It acted as a key, opened the door, and deactivated the traps at the main entrance. The little bastard had hidden it before. With this, he could enter the tower without any problem! He should have taken control of the guy from the beginning.

The demon bought some high-grade healing potion and recovered from his injuries before leaving for the main entrance to the magic tower. Just as expected the necklace reacted to the formations at the entrance. It was like a backstage pass, but the true challenge was the bridge.

Sweat covered his forehead. He had no time to come up with a better method. The demon closed his eyes and stepped on the bridge. A huge load fell off his heart when nothing happened even after several moments.

It seemed safe. He could finally get to the tower! Just thinking of monopolizing all the riches of the ancient magician made his heart palpitate. He fell into a joyful sprint and attempted to cross the bridge when he suddenly heard an alarm.

<Intruder identified. The entrance token was manually overwritten. Security measures are reactivated.>

"Oh no..."

The stone slab below his feet suddenly vanished and a magic circle lit up around him. He felt a tremendous gravitational force pulling him down, accelerating his fall. Like a bullet, he was shot into the abyss below the bridge.