Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

An ice café at the edge of a busy pedestrian zone.

A sundae was quickly being emptied as if it was vanishing in time-lapse. When the class cup finally returned to the table, a tiny humanoid wiped away her ice cream mustache.

"Now, then, Leana suddenly asked to meet Fin. What can Fin do for you?" the fairy asked, looking up at the princess.

The princess was supporting her chin with a hand and looking down at Fin sitting on the table. Although she had just asked a question in a serious tone, her eyes were already glued to Leana's sundae, which she had barely touched.

With a chuckle, she pushed it over in front of the little brute. The look of the little fairy, as if Leana was the most magnanimous person in the world, just before diving into the cup, warmed her heart. There were a lot of things she wanted to do, but she had to control her impulses. She had to play this slow.

A tiny burp signaled the inevitable end of the second sundae.

"I have something for you Fin, a present."

"A present for Fin? But Fin is already indebted to Leana for the thing with that annoying prince. How could Fin accept a gift? It's Fin that should gift something to you." the high-pitched voice tried to argue.

"Don't reject it so quickly. You should have a look before you make any hasty decisions," she said with a big smile and brought out an ancient-looking scroll. The parchment had become a deep yellow color with age. Rips and cracks bore witness to its history.

The scroll was held together by a ribbon that might have been bright red at one point, but now it seemed dark a grimy, like dried blood. On the ribbon was a bronze-colored wax seal with a symbol that could not be recognized.

Even without an appraisal skill, one could feel the aura of power emitting from the old parchment.

"A skill scroll?" Fin exclaimed. Judging by its aura it had to contain an incredible skill.

"Yes, it's an ancient skill scroll. I had to look through quite some storage registers. Do you want to know what skill it is?" she tempted the fairy's curiosity.

"I- Fin... Fin can't accept such a precious present, no matter what skill can be learned from it." the brute tried to resist her own thirst for interesting knowledge. Her eyes shown bright, but she turned away from the temptation.

Leana bowed down to her, so her face was right beside the fairy on the table. Then she whispered with a persuasiveness that could rival the <Voice of Seth>.

"It's really extremely precious and really cool, but also something "only" Fin can use. It's a skill just for Fin."

"J-just Fin?" she stole a glance at the scroll. The fairy's iron will showed cracks.

"Yes, I prepared it, especially for you. I would be soo sad if you refuse my gift." the princess continued.

"B-But...Well, maybe I will at least listen to what you have to say." her defenses lowered.

"This is an ancient and very rare skill scroll, that can give you one of the special skills of the fair folk."

"A special skill of my people...?" Fin mumbled, entranced by the possibilities.

"It's the <Shapeshift> skill-" the princes started, but suddenly Fin and the scroll were both gone before she could even finish the sentence.

The fairy had actually grabbed her present and ran off...

…

What did just happen? What did she do?

The little fairy came to a halt in the shadows of a narrow alleyway. Her eyes were glued to her loot as she was still trying to figure out what she had just done. The moment she heard about the skill, something short-circuited in her.

The possibilities, her yearning, the chance... It was a present but at that moment she instinctively had to get her hands on it. Gone were her attempts to seem modest. She didn't even care that Leana said it was a present. She had run off with it, like a thief, just to make sure, nobody could take it away from her.

<Shapeshift>, a skill her ancestors were known for and proficient in. the ability to change into a human, or animals, or even things like fog or wind, depending on the user.

For a moment she became completely calm. Was she really going to do this? If she did she would be able to... but what about Mina? They were friends. Was this okay? What about Seth? If things didn't work out things would be so awkward.

Was she really ready to risk their friendship? Usually, she lived on the motto that the only loss was a chance one didn't take, but this was the first time it felt so important.

Decisively, she ripped the scroll.

<Ding! You have learned the special skill "Shapeshift" >

She had decided. Just learning the skill wouldn't change anything. What was important were her actions from here on.

…

After finishing Ceres, Seth put down his tool and spent the rest of the day with Mina watching movies and playing games. After their stay in Chrona, she had become more susceptible to the pass-times of Urth.

Now, everything was ready. He had recharged his batteries and started working on the Guard Golems, which would take over part of the protection of the trade route.

The golem forge had consistently spat out golem frames over the past day and 200 of them only waited for the last touch. There was only one major difference between these golem frames and the ones he used for his golem knights.

It was because of a conversation he had with Drosi, the Tijaahk merchant when he described to them what he was working on for the trade route.

"If you allow me to give you a small piece of advice, it might not be a good idea to give the golems your weapons." the catperson told him.

As an old traveler and merchant across dimensions, Drosi had a better understanding of the mindset of people. If others saw epic weapons in the hands of golems, no matter how strong they were, they would have thoughts of attacking the golems and plundering their weapon and armors.

He would be lucky if they didn't act already, just for the armors. This made the blacksmith realize that it was not necessarily a good idea to give the golem detachable weapons. Although this impeded their ability to change weapons based on the opponents, Seth decided for a change.

Instead of two hands, like his golem knights, these guardian golem frames came with either two blade arms or one blade arm and a shield arm. Seth hoped to have the weapon being part of the golem's body, would deter people from attacking the golems to plunder them.

To counter the drawback of not having a separate weapon, these blade-arms had edges made of a tiny amount of <Artificial Adamantium> embedded into the blade-body made of <Crimson Steel>.

All Seth had to do now, was make 200 cores from <Ithildin>, assemble the golems, and infuse them with souls. The process was just like when he made the golem knights. The souls he used were mostly the medium-sized souls he had looted from the bronze birds.

As the final power of a medium-sized soul could vary, Seth took care while refining them. If they were too small, he would add a few more small souls. Since he didn't have to do a whole lot, soon the finished guard golems started to line up in the workshop.

Mostly because it granted Seth a great deal of satisfaction to see his finished works neatly lined up like that. That was despite the fact that they looked like imperial soldiers of Star Battles and less like Knights, Seth's preferred aesthetic.

But there was nothing he could do about that now.