Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

"If you want to, you can accompany me back to Mary and we can talk with her about the details," Seth suggested after sharing his plan.

Of course, this was only the tower master's quick idea. They would still have to ascertain and work out the details with Mary. Although it seemed like a good idea to them, mary might have a different opinion.

They would have to convince her first. Despite Seth being the Tower Master, he made sure not to push a totalitarian reign. He was way too comfortable with leaving work to others for that. In exchange, he was more than willing to listen to the input from others.

Karina looked at the dark, root-covered cavern.

"Yeah, I don't have anything to do right now, anyway." she shrugged and quickly came along.

She seemed more than happy about a chance to leave. Just how long had she hidden in that dark room, just to keep it secret?

"Oh, Karina? You are finally out? It's been-" the pharmacist greeted them on their way out.

"Yes, Otto, hello. I'm happy to see you, too. How are the children doing?" she quickly cut him off.

"Pip and the others are fine. They were getting a little worried, but it's great to see you outside again." Otto was a little confused at first but answered with a kind smile.

Karina had not further explained for how long she had been hiding the problem. Facing this, Seth felt a little sorry for the dryad. Hopefully, she would find the trust to approach the other members of Minas Mar more openly in the future.

They just left the herb garden when they came across an unusual encounter. Alison Arrcany, the bookworm, had left the depths of her laboratories on her own accord and even called out to them.

"Seth! Do you have a moment?" she called out with an atypical bright smile.

Although he got to know her as a powerful magician, all of his recent memories of her were of a moody shut-in alchemist. Ever since she got this second class and access to the laboratories of the tower, she would seldom leave them.

"Alison? What brought you here?" he asked surprised.

"Heh, are you surprised I left my dark mausoleum of glass and chemicals to bless you with my presence?" she mocked with a smug smile.

"Hoh? You seem in a great mood. Could it have something to do with why you missed my welcome party?"

"Exactly! I made a great breakthrough," she admitted without any remorse and waved around a potion bottle filled with a clear blue fluid.

"For you to call it a breakthrough, what can that potion do?" Seth asked curiously.

"I was on my way to find you and Mary about it. I adapted the recipe from the weird book you gave me. It took a while to get it right and I had to substitute some steps but! This is a potion that can permanently improve all physical attributes by five, independent of your level or attributes you already have." she answered proudly.

Seth's jaw fell open. Karina wasn't really sure what was so amazing about this.

One had to know that permanent effects always came with limitations. In the case of food, it was often a question of the attribute difference between the player and the ingredient.

When it came to potions it was similar. They would often have a level restriction or only work up to a specific attribute limit. On top of that, one would slowly grow an immunity to the effects of the medicine, so one could not drink a whole lot of high-grade potions to improve one's stats.

Potions that could ignore most of these limitations were extremely rare. Even if Alison's potion had some of the drawbacks, even if it could only be used once, the potion would be extremely expensive and the recipe excessively precious.

To the point that Seth would compare it to the method to create <Ithildin>. Maybe not to the same extent, but very similar.

"How often can it be used before you gain an immunity?" the blacksmith finally asked after sorting his thoughts.

"Thrice, if drunk at once. But I expect that one might be able to drink up to four or five times without a big loss in effect if they drink them with several weeks in between." Alison explained proudly.

"It's that powerful?" Seth exclaimed.

This was no joke. Five potions meant in the best case 25 to all physical attributes, which were Strength, Dexterity, Agility, and Endurance. This was equal to 100 attribute points, or 10 levels with the highest possible bonus attribute points.

"If I were able to make the original, it might be even more powerful. If I understood the recipe, the original "Body Transformation Pill" would have improved all physical attributes by 30-35 points.

However, since I had to adapt many production steps and ingredients, it was reduced to at least 15 and at best 25." Alison said in a way as if she wasn't trying to take all the credit, but actually revealing how amazing her deed really was.

Seth could barely believe it. So much had happened since he left and was still happening right now.

"You said you were on your way to me and Mary? We were also on the way to her, let's go together." Seth suggested.

The tower master could have simply ported them to Mary's office, but he wanted to take the time to talk with Karina and Alison for longer. Specifically, he wanted to give the dryad some time to get to know Alison better.

The alchemist on the other hand took her chance and talked excessively to the impressionable Dryad about her research and passion for books. Karina on the other hand did not seem to have a problem with attentively listening to her.

When they reached Mary's office, Seth knocked at the door.

"Who's there?" came the secretary's voice from inside.

"It's me. We have some stuff to talk about:" he answered.

"Seth? Come in then."

The blacksmith, the alchemist, and the dryad entered the room, where they found the secretary, the immortal witch, and the immortal witch's revived brother, who still hid under a full-plate armor.

Seth gave Edward Edmonts a slightly displeased glance, as it seemed that he had still not come clean to Evee. It was a good thing that he had not left it up to him. At his point, there would have been some weird drama, if he decided to tell her and Evee didn't already know that her brother was alive again.

"...What a weird assembly. You did not mention Alison and... Karina." Mary said.

"Oh? With we, I meant the three of us." Seth explained a little embarrassed.

"Evee, let's keep talking at a later-"

"Alison, is that what I think it is? Did you really succeed?" The immortal witch didn't listen to Mary and spoke up when she saw the bottle in Alison's hand.

"Haha, your eyes do not betray you! I have succeeded!" she bragged to Evee.

~...She got a little full of herself. I don't like that.~ Puffles suddenly complained

~The pot calling the kettle black. ~ Tatzel commented surprisingly sharply.

~Tatzel, are you okay?~

~Yes, Mom. Why?~

~No worries, just asking...~

What was going on between those two? Tatzel had even effectively shut up the ivicer, as Puffles did not further comment on the matter.

"Seth, what brought you three here? I can see that Alison probably succeeded with a potion, what about you two?" Mary brought him back into the conversation.

Evee and Alison were somehow in their own world, where they talked about effects, recipes, ingredients, and formulas Seth couldn't really follow. It seemed like this was the same for Mary.

"Since Alison seems... occupied, let's start with Karina's problem," Seth concluded.

Together with the dryad, they described the problem of the hangingtree's brimming vigor and the solution Seth came up with.

"Hmm, you are right, this would solve the problem with the security of the trade route, but do you really think people will trust it? Who would want to camp in the shade of hanged monster corpses?" Mary countered Seth's idea.

The problem he had remembered from yesterday, was the talk about their trade route to Y-City they were currently working on. Although the route was being mapped and cleaned, there was nothing stopping monsters from settling again in the area the Chimera's pacified.

Seth thought they could hit two birds with one stone. If Karina controlled the roots of the tree to grow along their trade route and grow offshoots along the way, the tree could not only grow. It could even thrive by hunting monsters, keeping the path safe, and offering a safe harbor to travelers.

However, Mary's objection was legit. Who would want to sleep under a man-eating tree that decorated itself with the hanged corpses of its victims?

"Errm, I could tell them to not do that?" Karina spoke up.

She suggested that the trees could also pull the corpses under the ground. It was not necessary to hang them in the branches.

"Still, a hunting tree..." Mary was not convinced yet. If people saw what the trees did to hostiles, would they really be able to trust them with their lives?

Seth had to grin when he had another idea. Once that would turn their trade route into the very definition of a weird fantasy setting.

"how about we leave the fighting to golems when people are camping under the tree?"