Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Seth's face lit up as it dawned on him, that Ember had really brought him to the right place. Once he knew what he was at, the conversation went rather smoothly.

As a friend of his niece and with with pockets of money the blacksmith had no problems getting the information he needed from Charred. The demon seemed also pleasantly surprised that Seth was not some pauper his niece brought, asking for a free favor.

Still, on Ember's behalf, he got the information almost for free, as most of it was not worth a lot anyway. There were about ten soul traders known in the black market, but only seven of them had a fixed address. Others would come and go and couldn't be found at times.

When it came to the question of quality and quantity, only four options remained. According to Charred, there was only one trader that was well-known for the quality of his souls. Obviously, this was the most interesting address for Seth.

Although he was currently looking for large quantities of common souls for the item he would use Olympian enchantments on, high-quality souls were a lot harder to get and much needed for other projects.

Maybe he could get a talented blacksmith's soul for the gauntlet Forgeright? He was also looking for a soul with fire elemental properties he could use for the Gloves of the Firespirit. Despite having a divine enchantment in mind for the gloves, he didn't want to skimp on the materials out of respect for Tored and Nädel.

Not to mention the possibilities for different golems if he could freely get specialized souls.

As for the information on this most prominent of the seven, Seth had to slightly open his purse. The trader's business address was hidden and he would only trade upon recommendation. It was the recommendation that needed some monetary grease, so the blacksmith would be able to meet him.

The name of the trader was Tano'Mol. Charred wanted 10 gold for the address of his business premises and the recommendation. 10 Gold was a lot in Urth as well as in most other system worlds, however, Seth did not even have to rely on Minas Mar to pay small change like this. He could pay it directly out of his pocket.

He was able to see the demon's surprise again as 10 shiny, golden coins fell on his table without any comment or attempt to haggle. It was important to seem poor when dealing with people like Charred.

After storing the money away the demon gave him a small token together with the location of Tano'Mol's office. Finally, they left Charred's business with the token and a list of names and addresses of the other soul traders without running into any problems.

"Do you want to come along to the soul trader?" he asked Ember who was standing beside him.

"..Sure, but you have to protect me!" she said with a cheeky smile.

The blacksmith shrugged and took the lead. Fortunately, they didn't have much trouble getting around this place. Despite major architectural adjustments and changes, the layout of the streets and buildings was still the same. And this was similar in all districts as they followed the same schematics.

On his way, he had more than enough to look at to not get bored. The whole area of the artificial night was like a giant bazaar. The white streets and boardwalks were filled with street food stalls and peddlers presenting their wares and fixed tables or ragged carpets they unfurled on the ground.

They had all kinds of everything. Intriguing junk, bizarre trinkets, dungeon garbage, exotic weapons, and clothes for all variations of demons. There was nothing that jumped him in the eye, but he quite enjoyed the hustle and bustle and new views of stuff he had never seen.

Just two years ago, entering this dense crowd of people would have cost a lot of nerves, but a lot had happened and he had come to find some joy in this situation. After experiencing some of the worst alternatives, this was like a vacation.

They would stop here and there because Ember saw something interesting or explained some other stuff to him. Not everything was rosy. Seth felt a bunch of hostile unfriendly looks, but none of the scruffy guys took action at any point in time.

It took them turning into a dark alley that lead to the backdoor of the building Tano'Mol's business was supposed to be.

"Can I help you, Gentlemen?" the bard asked the three bulky demons that had followed them.

"Are you visiting Tano'Mol?" one of the three asked.

"How did you know?" Seth didn't hide it in the least.

The one in the front helped up something that looked like a small radar.

"You hold one of the recommendation tokens. We work for Mr. Mol. You could call us your welcoming committee. This location is just a facade. We will bring you to him," he said politely.

~Wait another moment.~ Seth called off Ceres's airstrike.

"You wouldn't mind me taking a look to make sure, right?"

"Go ahead."

What they said was the truth. There was nothing but an empty warehouse behind the door. Seth explored It thoroughly and couldn't find any signs of a person.

"Okay, lead the way."

The henchman at the helm nodded and took the lead. They didn't go far. Just going around the building to the other side. In an alley looking almost the same, except for the smelly garbage in the corner was a door almost the same as the other but there was a little square beside it.

What were they doing? This was still the same building. He had thoroughly looked around, there was nothing inside. What would using a different door change?

"Please place the token on the square."

Following his instruction, Seth places the coin n the square, which immediately lit up. There was a click from the door, that showed it was unlocked. The door slowly swung open on its own. This time there was no empty dark warehouse inside.

Golden light flooded the alley and the open door revealed a vast, well-lit room inside. The light came from floating, golden spheres illuminating the room. Seth's eyes shone as they stepped into the shop.

Tano'Mol's store was filled with heaps of things that looked like wicker bottles. Hanging from the ceiling were crystal balls held in wicker and on shelves stood bell jars that looked like wicker cages, Inside these exotic constructions floated small balls of light like fireflies.

At first glance, Seth understood that the fireflies were souls and apparently these glass containers were devices that could allow normal people to see them, as proven by Amber's looks of wonder as she entered beside him.

He doubted she would look around like that if all she saw was a room full of empty bottles and glass items. Seth had not yet visited any other soul trader, so he didn't know whether this was customer service or a common practice among Soul traders.

The blacksmith couldn't imagine that these things that allowed ordinary people to see souls were cheap. And the souls weren't either. The items floating inside the crystal balls were rare souls of differing sizes, while the bell jars were filled with big souls of various ratings.

This felt like he came to the right place. Souls below rare or smaller than big were not even on display here. He had to consciously ignore all the information that rushed into his head because he was about to instinctively rob the place.

At the counter stood a ram with four horns... Or a ram demon? It had an eccentric beard that was split under the chin and with the halves standing off at a 45° angle. With two of the four horns standing straight up at a similar angle and its long ears standing off horizontally, its head looked like a six-pronged star.

"Welcome to Tano'Mol's Soul Emporium. I am Tano'Mol, the owner and operator of Tano'Mol's Soul Emporium. How may I help you?" he bleated in a high-pitched, scratchy voice.