Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

----Mountains Southeast of Delta----

"Once we wiped out the pack of Wind Rippers in the gorge south of here, we will be finally able to pacify that goddamn dungeon that keeps spitting out monsters." the Orc-headed Chimera explained to a few others while pointing around on a map.

"The problem is how. We already tried five times and were lucky not to have lost anyone." one of the others commented.

They were currently in the temporary commando tent of their expedition. For the past weeks, they had been working down their way through the mountains along the maglev tracks towards Y-City.

With the help of the golem knights, they carefully cleaned up the surrounding, leaving a mostly safe route in their wake. A few days ago, they had come across their first major hurdle.

In a gorge a few kilometers away from the tracks was the entrance to a huge dungeon, that had broken a long time ago and kept spawning huge numbers of monsters.

The chimeras had cumbersomely wiped out the packs of dire wolves, mountain bears, and frost spiders that had come from the dungeon and settled down in the area. The only hurdle left now were the flying reptiles that held the pass.

Their strength and speed made the Wind Rippers nesting there a bigger problem than expected. They were a mix of a flying reptile and a bird and even more territorial than wyverns. They attacked anyone trying to enter the gorge while hunting and chasing away monsters spawning from the dungeon.

Lacking in mages on the level of Azul, or similar long-ranged classes, the chimeras had a hard time dealing with the flying opponents.

"I', sorry for the interruption, Sir- Visitors have come!" a messenger barged into the tent.

"Visitors? Who would visit us in this place?"

"They say they are reinforcements from Minas Mar."

The group of leaders stepped out of the tent and followed the messenger. Outside of the camp stood a group of 25 humanoids. Most looked like humans, but a few also had elven ears or beast features.

"The furr of a bearr and the head of an orrc, are you Parrdo, the current leader of the chimerras?" one of them stepped forward and spoke while weirdly rolling the r.

"Yes, i am."

"Grreat. This is a letterr frrom the towerr masterr. We arre yourr rreinforcments and we brrought a new batch of Golems to help. I am Kurrdo, the current leaderr of the Faerr." he introduced himself and handed over a letter.

"I see, this seems legit. And where is the batch of golems?"

"herre.."

The chimera's eyes widen when he saw the full force of the reinforcements. Suddenly, he was confident there would be no more problems in the close future.

----Mina Mar----

They were in a simple guest room of Minas Mar. On the bed before Seth sat a man around his own age. It had been a day or two since he moved into his room.

"You have to face her at some point," Seth spoke to the man

"..." the man wearing simple clothes just sat there and stared at his own hands.

"She will be happy-"

"No! I left her alone. I told her that I would always be there for her, but I failed! How could I face her!? After all the suffering and pain. What kind of scum would I be to crawl back now, after all this time, and proclaim myself her brother!? Why did you bring me back?" it finally broke out of him.

Anger and sorrow were mixed in his voice as he screamed at Seth. The blacksmith answered after a moment of contemplation.

"Why did I bring you back?" Seth took out a small booklet and threw it in his lap.

"I admired the willpower of the person who wrote this book. You were so obsessed to get back to her. So driven to survive. Even after death, you wanted her to be safe. What happened to that? You just said that you promised to be there for her. You are here now, why can't you be there for her now?"

"I want to...but it's been so long. I'm afraid. Afraid that she-THUNK!"

Seth suddenly shoved a knight helmet onto his head.

"If you can't face her then don't. But you can still be there for her. I didn't put so many precious materials into your body, so you can sit around and feel sorry for yourself. Wear an armor, cover your face. You can reveal it to her when the time comes. But let me tell you one thing: The longer you wait, the more it will hurt both of you."

"What do you-"

"Think, Edward, think! Right now, you could have a beautiful reunion with your little sister. If you wait, you have to explain why you waited. And once you realize that you will wait even longer. I'm telling you, just go to her now." Seth said and left.

He took off the helmet after the blacksmith left. With a disheveled mane of black hair covering Edward's sullen eyes, he sat there and stared at the helmet in his hands.

"What do you think he will do?"

"I don't know. Give him some more time to think," he told Evee who had a hard time holding herself back from charging into the room.

Obviously, Seth wasn't going to let some dumb drama play out. Evee already knew that her brother was back among the living. H had not kept it a secret from her, once he succeeded in reviving the people he had harvested on the battlefield.

Through refinement, he had been able to restore the ego of most of their souls. The 25 people who had asked him to harvest their soul, were now the members of Faer. They were ghosts that came back from the dead, stronger than ever.

Despite only being experimental for the most part, the base performance of their bodies already rivaled an ori-huma on level 40, at level one. They needed it since they lacked the ori-prefix or the blessing of the system god like everyone else.

Edward was a matured prototype with stats comparable to the mid-fifties. If he became a knight or a warrior, there would be no problem for him to join Evee's party in the dungeons.

Seth grasped the sad girl's shoulder.

"It's okay. I will wait for him." she wiped away her tears and smiled at him.

"She had really grown stronger." he thought to himself.

He patted her shoulder and smiled back.

"If you may excuse me, I have an appointment with Neeco, to take the measurements."

Silently he appeared in the workshop that was prepared for the tailor. Puffles was here too, to supervise the tailor's work. Recently, Neeco boos had reached lv. 50 and gained the epic class Tailor of Ivice.

It specifically boosted the power and properties of attire made from Ivicer thread. Puffles saw it as his holly duty to guide the new tailor on his path, to serve a fallen god. Or rather, to use the skills meant to serve a fallen god, to serve Seth and Minas Mar.

The blacksmith looked forward to items made of the new thread. It already had a great effect when he just used it to sew leather together. Even though Neeco was "just" a journeyman tailor, with the special materials it should at least rival Nädel's work.

First of all, he wanted new pants and a shirt to wear below the armor, instead of Nädel's pants and shirt.

For his new role as a bard, he wanted a robe. A person in the rear needed a robe. Mina had told him the whole evaluation was broadcasted across the empire. Against what others may think, Seth was not interested in multidimensional publicity.

Just the thought of all the work and potential enemies he could incur by showing off on live tv. A robe would hide most of his equipment and as long as he kept to playing the bard, his other skills would also stay a secret.

~Look who the at dragged in. ~ Puffles commented when Seth entered the tailor's workshop.

"...Where did you learn to talk like that?"

~Neeco keeps talking like that...~

"Don't pick up weird habits from him."

"Weird habits?" the tailor joined them and asked.

"Don't worry about it. What did you think of the <Sky Silk>? "

"It's a fantastic product! The <Celestial bronze> and <Ancient Bronze>, too! Puffles is really amazing! And this class-"

His face froze and his right lower eyelid twitched as if he had flashbacks of some terrible memories.

"It-it was worth the hardships...I guess." he glossed over his trauma with a smile.

Puffles looked very smug when the tailor praised him and his products. No wonder this guy started picking up weird habits, with Neeco gushing over him like this.

"Give me a week and your items should be read." Boos said with a smile after quickly taking his measurements.