Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

"Is this really all, master?" the mighty Minotaur asked as he stood awkwardly in a wide hallway, that fit his size quite well.

He held his Labrys in his hands and looked at his small master and maker with uncertainty in his eyes.

"Of course! I think you are perfect for this job. Just relax a little." he told the stiff and serious bull.

If Seth had to be honest, then he would have to admit that he had actually not made any plan for what came after he made Asterion. The blacksmith had acted more on impulse than with intent.

He had joked around with Fin, but he could give Asterion to her. It wasn't because he didn't trust Fin- correction, it was because he could imagine the scene of the little fairy flaunting the giant bull and riding it through the streets of Delta.

Since the giant bullman was now a life form like the Faer and unlike the other normal golems, he couldn't just be put into the inventory. Seth had to come up with something on the fly.

The solution was to make him the Gate Keeper of Minas Mar. It was a grand title for a position that entailed almost no work, as the gates of Minas Mar were rarely used. Although they had renovated the old gatehouse and tunnel that led into the cavern of Minas Mar, it was currently used as barracks for the Oathguard, without any real traffic which also made it a good spot to hide him from Fin for now.

It was the best idea Seth came up with when he thought of a place to put the Minotaur and save face in front of this serious fellow. How embarrassing was it to create a living being and instantly lose face by admitting, that they were made for no reason but curiosity? It also didn't seem like a nice thing to say to a newborn with intelligence.

"Yes, Master. I will guard this pathway with my life!" Asterion announced in a booming voice.

"Hey, hey, tone it down a bit, people are sleeping. They are your colleagues, so be nice to them, okay?" Seth reminded the bull who was flourishing his giant axe epicly.

"If you get bored, you can also go outside and explore the area." He mentioned when he thought of the big warrior just standing in the gateway all day.

"As you wish, master. I will regularly scout the perimeter," it said with its deep voice, now a little quieter than before.

"...Good, then, I will leave now, it's late. I will visit you again tomorrow..." Seth said and scampered away. He was not good at dealing with such serious people.

He ported back to his bedroom, where he joined Mina for the night.

…

"Seth! Seth! Get out here! Now!" a furious voice ripped him from his sleep.

One of his eyes cracked open to assess the situation. Wild knocking could be heard from the entrance of his quarters. When he got used to the thought that his sleep was probably over, careful not to wake her up he pushed off Mina, who was sleeping and drooling on his chest.

Grabbing and equipping a pair of pants from the floor, he walked up to the abused door.

"I'm here, I'm here. Stop slapping the door, you will only hurt your hand," he mumbled as he opened the door.

Marry stormed in. She seemed livid.

"What's with that giant ass bull, blocking our main gate?" he wished him a good morning.

"... giant a$$ bull...? Oh! Asterion? I was going to talk with you about him today. I put him as a gatekeeper for now, because I didn't really have a good job for him..." he mumbled.

"So it's true what the beast said? We've been having a situation all morning because of this."

She explained how the Oathguard found the Minotaur during their guard shift and thought a monster had intruded without their knowledge. They had sounded alarmed and the male part of the Oathguard was currently guarding the Minotaur.

The only reason there had been no fight yet, was because it did not show any aggression and kept telling them that its master gave him the role of a gatekeeper.

"... Why only the male part?" Seth's sleepy brain got snatched on that detail.

Mary blushed furiously and grimaced as if remembering something embarrassing.

"Y-You made this thing, shouldn't you know? How could you put that at the main entrance c-completely naked" she said, looking away.

"Oh...right. He's quite well endowed, isn't he?" the blacksmith slowly understood her meaning as he slowly woke up.

"I will take care of his clothes..." he promised, scratching his head sheepishly.

How could he forget? He had not even given the Minotaur a loincloth for decency's sake.

He got dressed and ate breakfast with Mina, before returning to the workshop.

Seth did not put much thought into what he made for the Minotaur. His greatest defense was after all its cursed leather skin. Following the thought of leaving as much skin exposed as possible, he used an old cartoon as an inspiration. Man-Him, an old barbarian hero wearing a leather skirt and leather belts across his chest.

Using some of the ice troll leather to counter the lack of actual armor he quickly fashioned a revealing outfit for the bull. With <Adamantium> he made a chest piece with the crest of Minas Mar. it would protect the Minotaur golem core. He added to it the same functions as the sigil rings. This way it had a good use and it made the gatekeeper recognizable as the staff of Minas Mar.

When he arrived at the entrance gate he found that the situation was already de-escalated by Mary and the other members of Minas Mar.

"Master!" Asterion greeted him with a respectful boy. Everyone else just nodded, waved at him, or greeted him friendly.

With an awake mind, he saw what gave Mary such problems. The bulls mighty clapper was flinging around freely in the open. Everyone made sure to avert their gazes, but Seth had other worries. Did he make the skirt too short?

Were panty shots an unfair tactic of psychological warfare in a battle? Maybe he would need to have Boos make some kind of spats to avoid people from calling Minas Mar shameless for using underhanded tactics? Could people blame a Minotaur for going commando?

"Here, Asterion, Wear these for now," he told the big bull to hide his big bull and turned to the Oathguard.

"Yes, Master. Thank you." the Minotaur said and started to get dressed in a hurry.

After donning the barbarian-style armor, he was the spitting image of a generic barbarian in pop culture. The giant Minotaur, wielding the double-headed giant axe in his highly revealing leather armor. Perfection.

"I'm sorry everyone for surprising you like this. This is your new colleague Asterion, he will be the official Gate Keeper of Minas Mar. Please get along with him for now." he asked them.

Seth thought for a moment and didn't decide to mention, that their duties might change in the future thanks to the Minotaur. Since the Asterion was here now, they probably would not need as many guard teams on stand-by, which meant they would be able to go out and enter dungeons more often.

This was good news for them, but he would have to talk with Mary about this and didn't want to get their hopes up, yet.

Having mostly satisfied his curiosity by creating Asterion, Seth returned to the workshop to work on his original task. In the Workshop, Cerberus was busy forging weapons. The dwarfs were in their own workshop. Wedan was working on armors and Hoen was busy minting the seals of approval.

While the waited for his <Ithildin> and armor shipment, he had the golem forge produce the golem frames in preparation, It was a good thing, that he was able to harvest a lot of souls during his journey to unlock the golem forge. This way he did not have to worry about the supply to make his "highway patrol golems".

The idea of calling them that gave Seth another inspiration, but he couldn't act on it now. He decided to concentrate on his current task. While the golem forge was working automatically, Seth decided to return to the anvil.

This time he did not work on weapons. Remembering the reaction of Paolo and his friend, when a ring dropped in the dungeon reminded Seth of his neglected child. The <Goldsmith> skill. Unlike <Blacksmith> and <Enchantment> who had both crossed lv.5, it was still at lv. 3.

What did Mary say again? Scarcity and demand make the price. Judging by the party's reaction, accessories were quite scarce. Seth knew that accessories and magician equipment did not drop often in dungeons, but it was not a problem in places like Ora. Although accessories were still expensive, there were enough goldsmiths to make up for the scarcity, so that one could at least buy one if they were a little well-off.

It was not the same on Urth. It still lacked native goldsmiths with the ability to steadily make jewelry with good effects. The demand quite simply highly outclassed the supply. Even if one had the money, they might be unable to buy something. And a foreign merchant would rather cut off his finger than import and sell jewelry for cheap.

As Seth sat down on his Jeweler's Table an amused smile crept up on his face. It was not the thought of all the money he would make, It was the thought of the anguish these merchants would feel when he went ahead and messed up their business.

What could they do against him flooding the market and destroying their probably well-cultivated system to keep the prices high?

"Tower, did you finish the scans of the surrounding mountains?"