Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

"Please come in. I'm Sandra Irving, Mr.Mol's employee. I will accompany you on this trip." she introduced herself emotionless.

The associate Tano spoke of arriving in a long black limousine at their agreed meeting place. When Seth looked inside he found a serious-looking office lady. She wore a business suit, and small black-rimmed glasses, and her hair was in a tight bun.

She looked a little older than Seth, maybe in her late twenties or early thirties and her whole aura said that she meant business and wasn't here for fun. The blacksmith was a little surprised to meet this kind of attractive, serious office lady in the age they were living in.

He questioned the fact that she wore ordinary clothes when they were about to leave the district in a simple car. However, inside this luxurious limousine, it was the blacksmith who looked out of place with his medieval-style armor.

As if anticipating Seth's questions, the lady spoke up.

"The car is modified by Mr.Mol's experts. Even if we meet monsters on the way, they won't pose a danger," she said seriously and concisely.

"Hmm, I see," he simply answered.

She didn't seem very talkative, so Seth didn't even try to strike up a conversation as the car took the course at the outskirts of Delta. Soon they left the district border behind them and entered the roads in the wilderness.

The diver was separated from the passengers by a tinted window and Seth couldn't see him. Facing loneliness despite company Seth made the best of it and started listening to music while plundering the little bar.

It was actually her, who finally started speaking with Seth, but it was only to brief him on the place they were going. Apparently, there was an old abandoned town in the foothills not far from Delta. Not far as in a five hours long drive.

Whatever Tano'Mol had done to the limousine, it worked just like Sandra had said. They had absolutely no problem on the way and reached the town without a hitch. It was one of the settlements from before the districts, similar to the mountain city on Mount Agra.

However, this one was even older. Many were single houses from the times when people still insisted on wasting space to live alone or only with their family in a single, small building. There were even some buildings with historic architecture that reminded of otherworldly cities like Chrona.

The limousine suddenly came to a stop in front of a big, dilapidated house. After decades of vacancy the roof structure had rotted away and partly caved in, but the house was still standing. Tano'Mol has spoken of a kind of Mansion, this wasn't it.

"What is this place?" Seth turned to Sandra.

"A test for your skills. Before we can let you enter that place, I want to make sure of your skill. Inside is a powerful Poltergeist. I only agree to bring you to the mansion, if you can capture or neutralize it." she explained herself.

This seemed like something she did of her own accord and not something Mol had ordered. However, Seth didn't mind. He hadn't come across a lot of ghosts, but he had a rudimentary understanding of them. With his skills, this was offering him a free soul, and not a weak one.

For people to turn into something like a ghost they needed a strong attachment to the world of the living and to become a power full ghost it took a strong soul. They often retained a bunch of memories of their past life, making them similar to souls directly harvested.

Seth stepped out of the limousine and stretched a little before passing the dilapidated fence and walking toward the house. The front door had long fallen out of its frame and Seth only had to step over it to enter.

The air inside was damp and smelled of rotten wood and mold. Disintegrating parts of furniture covered the ground. This didn't quite look as if it was just abandoned. At some point, someone had come and demolished this place, and it had a long time since then.

He could feel that the atmosphere inside was loaded with mana. Similar to his soul armament, many stationary Ghosts had a kind of medium they were attached to. It helped them stay in this world and allowed them to use their power.

Using the senses given to him by <Soul Capture>, the bard tried to locate this medium. Carefully he walked up the stairs to the second floor. The atmosphere became more ominous as if trying to apply pressure on him.

If he wasn't constantly working with souls and the incorporeal, Seth might have been frightened by the situation. The most terrifying about ghosts, even to adventurers who mastered magic, was the unknown and he apparent powerlessness in many cases.

However, how scary would a ghost be, if you could straight up kill it with a punch? The perspective was shifted, as Seth did not come here as an unknowing victim, but as a hunter. If someone in the house was supposed to be scared, it was the ghost.

Following his senses, Seth entered something that was probably once a bedroom. The situation immediately changed as things started flying at him. With his level, stats and armor, they was nothing these miscellaneous goods could do to him.

Even the letter opener that came flying at him posed no threat. It was like a child throwing squishy toys at an adult. The item he finally found was a yellowed letter inside a crumbling drawer. From the few words he could still read, it was a love letter.

It had the aura of a soul, but the soul did not inhabit it. The moment he touched it, the air became even heavier. He could feel his Lucky Trinket heat up a little, which meant that the curse resistance Al and enchanted the ring with at work.

A poltergeist that was able to curse? Seth wasn't educated enough on this matter to tell whether this was a normal occurrence or out of the ordinary. The problem was, That the letter hindered Seth from finding the actual vessel where the soul resided.

This would really enrage it, but this was the only way. Seth used a little spark to ignite the letter and turn it into fleeting ashes in a matter of milliseconds. A ghostly wail shook the ramshackle house and Seth hurriedly ran out.

He wasn't interested in being buried under rotten wood and stone. The scream was even louder outside. Huge amounts of mana pooled together in front of the house and caused a storm..

"What did you do?!" Sandra screamed, holding her ears.

In shock, she looked to the left, where the dead tree in the front yard of the house suddenly started moving. The desiccated branches grasped a bunch of rusty chains that may have been a swing once, as the rotten roots freed themselves from the earth.

Raggedy tree holes formed an expression of great anger and despair as the tree joined in with the ghostly wail and attempted to attack the two people in front of the house. This would have been a terrifying scene...before the apocalypse.

The ghost was only able to act to such an extent thanks to the mana saturation of the pathworks, but it wasn't the only one benefiting. Even if it wasn't Seth, it would not have been able to be a big threat to a high-level adventurer.

A pale blue fireball hit the terrifying undead tree straight in the face. As the flame spread it turned the tree into ash almost instantly. It didn't even stop at the tree, but the fire even melted the steel chains it wanted to use as weapons.

Sandra could only stare in shock, as the possessed tree simply fell apart and turned to ashes without being able to resist.

"I-is it over?" she asked, not quite grasping the situation.

She could fathom that these were some extraordinary flames, but she didn't quite know what was going on. This had been outside of her information and she couldn't judge whether this had killed the ghost, or not.

"Not quite." the blacksmith answered her and looked around with <Soul Capture>.

Using this much power and without the distracting medium, it was easier for Seth to locate the source of the ghost, its vessel. He brought out his Giant's Rod and used the earth magic spell Dig Over.

Originally, this was an agricultural spell that could dig over fields and have the stones and such surfaces, for people to collect them. With the amplification of the staff and his other items, the ground in the front yard rolled over in a three meter high wave, like an earthen tsunami.

What surfaced were not just stones, but also old skeletal remains. The bones were yellowish and there were still some long blonde hair attached to the skull. In its hand, it still grasped a small golden locket.

Seth had equipped his Wraithguard as he crouched down at the side of the skeleton. Usually, the blacksmith had an aversion to this kind of stuff and it still made him feel yucky to look at the skeleton. He had no problem with the clean bones he got from hunters, but he couldn't deal with these still "juicy" looking things.

However, it was different now. He looked at the bones with a serious expression as he could feel their tragic emotions. There was rage. Rage about the burned letter, rage about him intruding, rage about its death, but much deeper than the rage was a tragic yearning.

~It's okay now. I will help you.~ he transmitted with telepathy.

The Wraithguard grasped the hand that was holding the locket and the gauntlet's power enveloped the remains as Seth extracted the soul.

<Lover's Soul (Big, Rare), Crafting Material,

A soul that died a brutal death and couldn't go on because It yearned to meet its lover one last time. Proficient in Curses and Telekinesis>

With the soul gone, the skeleton that had been preserved by the ghost power for centuries, crumbled to dust. Only the locket remained. Inside was the picture old picture of a young man and a curl of brown hair.

"What did you do?" Sandra asked from the side.

She had watched the whole scene in deep confusion and sock. Mostly because this had not been something an ordinary Poltergeist was capable of and how easily the blacksmith ad dealt with this unexpected situation.

"What do you mean? I fulfilled your test and harvested the soul." Seth shrugged. To him, there was nothing out of the ordinary. He did suspect that this was a slightly more dangerous ghost than a poltergeist. Judging by its soul being rare, big, and proficient in curses it could probably be ranked as a mid to upper-tier undead.

But it did not really make a difference to him.

"Can we get to the real business now?" he asked Sandra, bringing her back to the present.

"Ah, yes."

She got back into the limousine and Seth followed. As the car started driving again Seth looked over. The office lady had lost some of her serious and cold attitude. It seemed like he had managed to prove his skills and make a good impression on her.