Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

As they waited for their food, they talked about what happened. When Seth and the others started talking about what happened on their Quest and in Sigma, Hoen and Wedan realized that they had been so distracted by the dragon scales, that they missed to ask the tower master for what actually happened.

The food came and they kept talking about what happened over the meal. The members of Yuelecat's Fur were so tired because they had been on action 24/7 since they returned. Although Sigma had been depopulated before they came there, the refugees still numbered several million people.

The most chaos was during thee transportation, but it didn't become much better once all people arrived in the Starta Village that was obviously way too small to take in all of them. Until Leana managed to get reinforcement from Delta, there had been a huge horde of people filling the vicinity around the village.

Since the vampires were left in Sigma, they needed every able person to make sure the herd wasn't wiped out by a strong monster from the mountains. Although the area around Delta was relatively safe, it didn't mean nothing could go wrong.

With the forces from Delta arriving, the people were slowly guided to Delta District, where they were put in provisional camps before appropriate space could be found or made. Delta was lucky in the aspect that they were not it as hard by the events since apocalypse, as other districts like Beta or Ypsilon.

It also meant that they didn't have as much readily available empty room to take in refugees as Y-City had. Not to mention that Delta was the smallest district and already offered apart of it to the demons. They had barely been able to accommodate the people of Gamma.

Mina and the others had spent the last days helping in the evacuation of the people from Sigma and finally got the chance to return when they heard that Seth had returned. Listening to their gripes brought his mindset back into the moment.

He had used the project of his new armor as a small escape and break from the stress he had went through over the past few days. Although he had a one-track mind for creating his new armor, he realized hat he had a lot of other things he needed to take care of and look after.

With a more or less clean consciousness, he decided to leave all the big stuff to Leana and that people whose job it was to think of the big picture. Sigma was pacified for now. Gamma, Omega, and the refugee? He could also leave to officials.

If anything, he was sure Mary had already taken the appropriate steps for Minas Mar's role in this situation. He would still ask her about it later. Other questions were more pressing for him. Such as the situation with the trading route.

Drosi and the Thijaak were still on route, distributing the golems and the chimeras had probably already started clearing the way towards Y-City. These were the people he cared for, so obviously it had a higher priority.

Judging by Hoen's foundries in the workshop, the accessory business was going well, but it was also a situation he wanted to keep an eye on. Same as their certificates for the items. It wasn't the right moment now, but he would approach Hoen later in the workshop before having a talk with Mary to stay up to date.

He would have like to spent some more time with Mina and the others, but they were really tired and wanted to wash up and get some rest.

"then I will see you later in the bedroom." Seth separated from the tired Mina before everyone got to their rooms.

Since all the business talk was a tiresome matter, the blacksmith decided to get it over as fast as possible. When he and the dwarfs returned to the workshop, he had a talk with Hoen.

Jane had worked quick and set up the Copper Anvil, their new outlet for low-tier equipment, in a matter of days. As Seth had suspected, despite being really cheap and basic accessories, Hoen burned through the ores they had mined as the products were sold like hot cakes.

After Seth left, Hoen had also made some foundries for simple pendants, which meant that customers could completely satisfy their needs for magical accessories with one visit to the Copper Anvil.

The blacksmith couldn't help but gloat when he thought of how this was probably a mean dent in the business of merchants that sold overpriced imported items. Since they got the ores technically for free, their prices were unbeatable.

At least not by imported goods. Seth, or in this case Jane, still had a conscience and didn't press the price below the point, that locals couldn't compete anymore. These were cheap products after all and lacked most of the augmentation they could have if they were made personally by a blacksmith.

With this dissemination, Seth also gave the blacksmiths of Delta a chance to learn enchantments and compete with them. A blacksmith or goldsmith who managed to copy the engravings would be able to make a slightly better version of these accessories.

So they would be able to make a living, Jane had decided to sell at a price that was still far lower than the imported items, but not much cheaper than it would be if made by a local. These were the thing Seth had talked about with Jane and it seemed to work for the moment.

Hoen didn't really know anything about the other matters, so Seth decided to go and look for Mary.

The person in question was gloomily brooding over some documents when Seth entered the office. He used the door this time, instead of just teleporting in front of her desk.

She looked up, not surprised about who would enter her office without knocking.

"Great timing. I have...news." she said ominously.

Seth walked to her desk and sat down opposite her.

"Pray tell, what bombed your mood like that?" he asked curiously.

"Mark Baker... is dead."

He stared at her for a while in surprise. He hadn't expected this. Baker was pretty strong and not stupid as far as Seth knew, so it was probably not an accident. Seeing that he understood the implication of the news, Mary continued.

"Y-City is in chaos and things are changing. Baker was one of the few who understood how important it is for the districts that are left to work together. The current movement in in Ypsilon's leadership is pushing for isolation, rather than strengthening our connections. Without him..." she left the sentence open ended.

It was pretty clear what it meant. When Seth left, their negotiation with Y-City concerning the trade route had not been finalized. Seeing Mary's mood, it had not been finished before Mark left the realm of the living.

"Then what is the current status of the negotiations?" he bit the bullet and asked.

"What do you think? Everything is on ice and it doesn't look positive," Mary said depressed.

"Then we should contact the adventurer guild now and call back the Chimeras."

Seth stayed calm even in the face of bad news. Since Y-City's stance was uncertain, there was no reason to clear the way before they had an agreement. Worst case they would just steal the rights afterwards.

The blacksmith had no illusions about the benevolence of people. He was sure people would try to snatch it, especially if Minas Mar had no official assurance. They wouldn't put in the work just for others to reap the rewards.

"Why do you want to contact the guild?"

Mary understood why they called back the chimeras but not why Seth wanted to call the adventurer guild.

"They would have approached us anyways once the route went public."

The guild would push to build a small branch at any greater dungeon in the wild, like the ones Seth had farmed a couple of weeks ago. There was even a possibility of small villages forming. It would have been great if they could built a trade channel with Ypsilon, but he didn't need them to make profit from it.

Minas Mar could just open the trade route all the way up to Mount Agra and profit from the dungeon business along he way. Seth also doubted that independent merchants and caravans would stop using the mountain road to trade with Delta.

With the opening of the route, anyone from Y-City would probably aim for thee mountain city and then use Minas Mar's safe road.

"I see..." Mary's face lit up.

She had been too reoccupied by the business with Y-City to see the lower-hanging fruits. With the golems and trees the maintenance was technically free. Any business would mean profit for them. It was Y-City's loss, not theirs.