Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

"It's been a week since they left, eh?" Jack and Monique sat at the edge of the Oathguard's training field and observed the recruits. The explosive beauty was drenched in sweat and had only sat down beside Jack Felton to relax a little.

After Mina and Yulecat's Fur left days had become incredibly stressful at first. Monique and the others left had to take on all the high-caliber dangers on their own because the Oathguard was not fit to fight anything above level 60 that crawled out of the gates.

Fortunately, the installation of field generators was progressing smoothly and the area they had to monitor kept shrinking. Their activity in this crisis had been an incredibly successful move for the guild.

To Monique, it was incredibly stressful. She had to make decisions as the temporary master and move out to fight strong mobs. Only in these moments, just after a subjugation could she just sit down and relax.

Her biggest nightmare in these trying times was paperwork. And the personification of this fear was the innocent and cute Mary who kept finding her for all sorts of things. Did Seth have to go through this, too?

"Monique~"

"No!" she jumped off her seat when she heard that sweet innocent voice call out to her.

The beauty had no idea why, but Mary could be incredibly stealthy. Wasn't she a priest turned scribe? Why did she have stealth like an assassin?

"Don't worry, the paperwork for today is already done. This message just arrived from the system church. It is a letter a traveler brought from Beta. It's addressed to Minas Mar. Well, technically it's addressed to Seth, but he isn't here."

A letter from Beta?

Beta was situated southwest of Delta and almost straight west from Y-City where Monique had stayed. She didn't know much about post-apo Beta. There were rumors that the leaderships of Delta, Beta, and Ypsilon were in contact, and that B-City also had a harsh fight with the ocean empire.

Other than that... now that she thought about it, it was kind of weird. People in Y-City knew a lot about Delta but almost nothing about beta, despite trade and communications being exchanged.

She took the letter and opened it unceremoniously. What privacy of correspondence? The government could barely stop adventurers from killing each other on the streets. This wasn't the time for privacy.

As if to confirm this notion, Mary and Jack didn't hesitate to also read the letter in Monique's hand. It was written with ink and in shaky handwriting. There were some smears and stains on it but was otherwise readable.

"Big brother Seth,

I don't like it here. I don't like it at all. Grandfather Drosi and the other brothers went with them and didn't come back. They came and told us they would help us settle in. It's cold here and they took away our things.

They brought daddy away. They kept smiling weird smiles and insisted that he was ill. He hasn't come back yet. Mother keeps telling me that Granpa Drosi will fix it, and everything will be okay, but I can hear her cry at night when she thinks I am asleep.

Please [big smears and some crossed words]

I am sure big brother is very busy but can you please [come] maybe send some of the other brothers and sisters to find daddy and grandpa? I don't want mommy to cry. I want to go back home.

You can have anything Lani has [some smears] even my little Adanya. I also saved some pocket money nobody knows about, not even mother. I will use some to send the letter. A brother said he would help me send it, but the rest is all yours!

[several smears and crossed words]

Please help,

Lani. "

It was visible from the various smears and corrections that someone tried to keep a formal tone but broke in several places. Like a child that tried to sound mature.

Monique looked up from the letter and saw Mary already bawling beside her. Even Jack had big tears hanging in the corners of his sunken eyes; just waiting to start rolling. Monique snuffled and blinked hard to not end up like these two.

"Who are we sending?" she asked in the round.

"We should send someone who knows them, and a delegation of-" Mary started but was interrupted.

"I say we send the whole Oathguard on their asses!" Jack suddenly exclaimed with fervor and even hit his fist on the bench.

Monique only shook her head. This guy may have looked rough and hard-boiled on the outside, but it was an incredibly thin and deceptive shell. On the inside, Jack Felton was as soft as a marshmallow.

Nobody had even the slightest thought of not helping or waiting for Seth to come back. Monique and Mary remembered Lina from their travel with the Thijaak caravan. She had been a very bright child around 10 years old.

"A delegation of the Oathguard and someone who knows them. Maybe Jonah? He's the only one whose absence won't have too great of an impact."

"It's true, but it sounds mean to say it like that." Monique agreed with Mary.

Jonah didn't have any other duty besides going out and fight. Monique had to lead, Mary and Jane couldn't fight, Alison led the potion department, Link was cooking, and Evee was operating the tower. Tekar wouldn't leave his daughter.

This only left Jonah. At least they wouldn't need to worry about his safety out there. Since the pressure in Minas Mar had been lessening with the reinstallation of the field generator, they could send 2 or 3 parties of the Oathguard with him.

"You think they are enough?"

"A group of 20 lv. 40+ people in epic armor led by Jonah? If this isn't enough, we can only wait for Seth and the others. "

Jack kept ranting on in the background but was ignored while the decision was made. After the preparations were finished, four parties of the Oathguard with altogether 17 people set off under the leadership of Jonah just a day later.

Their destination was Beta and their mission was to find the cat people and Lina.

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

Everyone saw the delegation off at the main gates of Minas Mar. Jess and James had volunteered for the mission. The power couple had shone during the subjugations in the city and leveled up quite a bit, both reaching lv. 47.

They followed the mysterious lord, Jonah the Vampiric Lord. He always wore a mask and spoke very little, which made him one of the most mysterious figures for the people of the Oathguard.

Looking at the Mask alone could intimidate a person.

However weird he may have seemed; everyone saw him during the subjugations, and he was an incredibly capable warrior.

Jess and James saw this as a chance. They could have a look at the world under the protection of such a powerful figure. On top of that, they might even have a chance to distinguish themselves on this mission.

They had always lived kind of on the edge of legal society. On this mission to find and hopefully rescue the cat people, their skills to gather information could help them excel. Maybe they could become leaders of their own field service team, like Mike or Monique.

The way to Beta wasn't long and they looked forward to the chance to prove themselves useful.