Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Ahmed had opened the door, but it did not really solve any problems.

"We will have to reach the burial chamber of General Hakor on the 5th floor. He is the only one on the shallow levels that has the awareness to help us." the knight asserted.

"The shallow levels?" the hero inquired.

"Ah, yes, the first 30 floors are the defense lines. As long as we can talk to general Hakor, we should be able to deactivate the security measures and give you safe conduct to the urban floors."

"Wow! How many floors are there, Ahmed?" Ellie asked curiously.

"The deepest chamber would be the Pharaoh's on the 103rd floor."

It was decided that Ahmed would help them get to the 5th floor and speak with this General Hakor to deactivate hopefully deactivate the monster spawns. He knew the shorted route.

A whole community of survivors was a great chance for their Team, and they really wanted to know more about this place and the undead Pharaoh that made it all possible.

Seth had found out that the Baram was one of the trade cities a few days from here at the coast. Since the city had a harbor, the chance was big, that there were a few people with knowledge about the world geography and maybe ruins at the coasts. People like merchants or captains from ships.

It was imperative for them to meet these people. Seth was sure they could narrow down the location of the citadel, even if it was just knowing where it wasn't. However, he made sure not to reveal their full intentions to Ahmed.

"Say, aren't 30 floors a little much just for defense?" Rich tried to make small talk on the way to the main corridor.

"No. Actually, they are currently deliberating to add another 10 floors to the defense line. I heard that an abomination managed to break through during the last Blood Sun."

Everyone thought about their battle with the Ghouls. The mummified Soldiers were also not weak. These were only the first few floors.

"Are there that many of those ... abominations? Or are they just that strong?" the merchant interjected.

He thought the same as anyone else. They had seen almost nothing in the past two days. What they met was not worth mentioning.

"I can see that you are a little confused. Let me guess, you arrived here in the past two or three days? The last Blood Sun was 4 days ago, most creatures in the vicinity had flooded to this place."

"They flooded here?" Marcel asked.

Ahmed just shrugged. "I don't know how, but the abominations instinctively know where survivors are hiding and storm there to pull them out into the light of the sun. Akhaz almost fell during the last blood sun."

He sighed.

"I actually came here to ask for help in repair and reinforcement of our defenses. Or at least take some refugees."

"Then why are you alone? Did things not work out?" the hero asked concerned.

"No... No, our requests were denied."

The hero grasped his shoulder reassuringly.

"We will help you." he suddenly promised confidently out of nowhere.

What was this guy doing?!

"Ha, ha. Thank you for trying to cheer me up, but you probably have your own things to do. I know you are strong, but I don't think you will be able to do much to help us."

At least the knight had some common sense. The group was about to relax when.

"Don't underestimate us! We are elites. These ghouls are not even enough for a warmup! I am sure we can help." Ben insisted!

The party could only facepalm, why was he trying so hard!? What were thy even supposed to help with? It wasn't like they had a Legendary Carpenter among them.

".. O-okay, I guess? You can come with me when I return to Akhaz." the knight answered awkwardly. The hero had successfully forced himself onto the poor knight.

Whether it was good or bad what the hero was doing, they swaggered down to the 5th floor in a relaxed fashion. Literally, swaggered. The hero was eager to show off his power to grow Ahmed's confidence in him. He simply soloed anything that came their way.

The rest of the party had nothing to do. Seth could only shake his head. Depending on what they could find out from the people here, they could have simply followed Ahmed anyway. Why the promise to help?

It made the blacksmith suspicious of the hero. He simply didn't know enough about that class, or Ben Harker. Seth was preoccupied with other stuff and neglected to gather information. Now he regretted not taking the time to know more about the party members.

It wasn't like he liked putting this much brainpower into dealing with others. It was such a pain. How did scheming people do it? In the end, he decided to stop caring for now and see where things would go.

It did not take long to reach the "boss room". There was no great gate flanked by giant statues or anything similarly imposing as they expected from the surrounding. There was no door at all. They simply entered a wide, well-lit hall with walls lined by richly painted columns. The middle of the room was taken up by a long pool of clear water.

At the head of the pool was a throne and two weirdly curvy mummies were fanning a giant desiccated man in pompous armor. The empty eye sockets burned with a red light and looked at the intruders disinterestedly.

Its deep booming voice reached them all across the room

"Ahmed, why are you here again? Are those the people who entered the catacombs without an authorization?"

The knight from Akhaz stepped forward and explained the situation. The mummy lifted its face pondering after listening to him.

"Visitors from another world. Are you guaranteeing for them, Ahmed?"

"Yes."

"And what is your reason for coming to this world? I don't believe you are just here for holidays?"

"It is true, we came to collect information about this world," Ben answered honestly.

"Hmm, so you have information about what is happening right now. His majesty might be interested in talking with you."

With a wave of its hand, several tokes were shooting toward the group. Everyone caught one of the projectiles.

"These will give you free passage down to the shelter. I will return the security measures to standby for now. Talk with the administrator. I'm sure you can trade information with him. Now leave."

They were just about to leave when Seth saw the mummy pull one of his servants onto his lap. He could not help but smirk. This guy was having the time of his life, even after he already died a long time ago.

"Do you think those mummy girls are still juicy or is their action more on the crunchy side?"

"Ew, Ellie, just ew." Seth twitched.

"Whaaat? I'm just curious. It's not like I want to join..."

"Don't end that sentence there."

"It's not like I want to join. Happy?"

"Yeah."

The next 25 floors were a bunch of empty halls, burial chambers, and corridors. It was almost eerie to travel through this environment in absolute silence. On the 30th floor, they finally came before an imposing gate.

It was flanked by a mix of human and undead guards in sets of ancient armor. Seth couldn't appraise the armor on the undead since it was part of the dungeon mob's body. The armor on the humans on the other hand was a set of rare items.

The performance was not bad at all. If they had an army equipped like that, they would be a sizable force.

"Ahmed? Why are you already back, did something happen?"

"Yeah, I met these guys when I was almost out. General Hakor gave them permission."

Everyone showed the token the undead philanderer had thrown at them. The guards nodded and opened the gate.

---Chrona---

A dungeon that was used as a shelter for refugees. The population of a whole city living in the bowels of a giant burial chamber. It was a first for all of them. It also caused a minor uproar among the viewership of the empire.

And they, the Chrona 5 channel, had the direct conversation from the perspective of Seth who had led the conversation with the first survivor any team had met yet!

Even if they had no broadcasting rights for the more interesting characters of the party, they had the right of the Party that first found survivors and a real source of information!

Shawn's heart jumped in joy. He was starting to have hope for the future. Maybe his decision was right in the end.