Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

When he entered the wing dedicated to training, he could hear the sound of fighting from one of the training rooms. Who was training this late at night? Curious, Seth came to the door of the room the sounds were coming from.

Inside he saw two shadows fighting at a speed his eye could hardly follow. One wielded a training spear, the other a sword. From the golden mane following the spear wielder, he realized it was Monique, while the other was Jonah, based on his elusive movements.

Seeing their speed and movement, Seth was humbled by the view. He realized that despite his improved attributes he could probably barely keep up with them in a melee fight. He had felt quite powerful after these past adventures, however, he had to remember that others could not be underestimated.

These two were epic melee classes, but similarly rated mage classes would have a similar advantage. Compared to a crafting class like his their multipliers for the invisible stats were much higher, easily double or triple, and more geared towards their specialties than his own.

The only things Seth had going for himself were the abilities of his equipment and the boosts in stats they could give him. But the latter was not really reliable. Although the blacksmith has used all kinds of methods to push his stats, he had decided to be an all-rounder.

All his stats ranged from 150 to 200. Adding all of his equipment he was pushing the 400 attribute points in many of them. He now saw that this wasn't enough to gain a clear advantage. Others, like those two, specialized in attributes pertaining to their class, enabling them to rival these numbers in their important attributes.

Seth had been really happy about the Trignis Gloves, but he realized that he couldn't stop there. He had to master the usage of his items. But this wasn't all. Not only did he have to master their usage, but he also needed more.

These two were "just" people with epic classes. He couldn't book on the chance, that all champions that would appear on earth were friendly, weak, or outright idiots. There was no guarantee that possible challenges in the future would be conveniently weak to his strengths, like the ghosts.

The blacksmith had committed to the path of crafting and as an all-rounder he was confident that he had more versatility than others , when it came to dealing with problems. Lately, he had been slipping into the thought of making items for fun, instead of survival.

His golems had given him a sense of security, but there were no guarantees. What if he couldn't use them? What if he faced an enemy with even stronger minions? He had many cards, but he could always face someone with overwhelming power.

Seth hardened his resolve. In the future, he would have to go even further. He needed more items like the Trignis Gloves if he wanted to keep up with the prowess of champions like Natina. He also needed training to truly master them.

He noticed that he had been standing there, brooding, for way too long. The bard didn't want to disturb the two and tried to leave silently, but he had watched a little too long. The two stopped their practice and looked over to the door.

"Seth, why are you just standing there?" Jonah asked, panting.

"Yeah, it's a little creepy to have our lazy hermit tower master suddenly enter the training rooms and stare at us with such an intense look," Monique joked.

"Sorry, Sorry. I originally came o test a new item. When I stumbled over you two training, I got lost in thought. Why are you still training so late at night?

The two looked at each other, a little troubled. As if she made a decision, Monique sighed.

"To be honest, we are trying to get rid of our frustration by exhausting ourselves."

"Frustration?"

"It's because of the recent attacks."

"Monique!"

"Oh, shut it. I don't care about what Mary said. Seth is the Tower Master. It's his decision whether he wants to care about it or not."

"Oh? You guys are having secrets, from your mighty Tower Master? I didn't know you became so cheeky. Have I been away too often, lately?"

Seth tiptoed to their side. He didn't really worry, since he had the utmost trust in Mary and the others. But some drama seemed like a fun distraction. It didn't take much poking for the two to open up.

Seth had already heard a little about the attacks on the guards that dealt with the refugees from Sigma. Monique and Jonah were frustrated because, unlike beastmen like Mina and Mike, they couldn't spot the invisible attackers.

Even when they came to the scene and fought them with some difficulty, nothing stopped those guys from simply running away after accomplishing their goal. Said goal seemed to be to simply slaughter the guards, for whatever reason.

The victims would normally be mid-level adventurers from the different organizations around Delta. The only survivors were high-level adventurers and the Oathguard that could rely on their mighty armors.

It was not hard for Seth to understand their frustrations after listening to the two. They were more than able to easily defeat these attackers, but they still couldn't save anyone or stop those guys from running away. They were almost helpless, despite their strength.

"I see... And what did Mary say, why you shouldn't tell me?"

"She said you were busy and it was not necessary to bother you with this kind of thing."

Truly, when Seth heard about this problem from Mina, it didn't seem too serious. Their people weren't in danger and it wasn't something the blacksmith had to interject himself. Although Seth didn't overly care originally, he couldn't help but care after seeing the two vexed like this.

"Good, I see. You know what? How about you help me test my new item a little? In exchange I will tinker a little and try to make something to help you," he offered.

He would have tried to make a little something for them anyway, but since these two were already here and full of energy, there was no reason not to make use of them. They were perfect to test the power to the <Flame Aura>.

"You guys only have to attack. I will try to block."

Seth only wore the Trignis Gloves and covered himself in the protective layer of flames. Since <Flame Aura> was technically a derivative ability of <Pyrokinesis>, it was relatively easy for him to use.

But unlike skills, abilities needed to be practiced to be used effectively. The aura was not completely uniform, being the thickest at the gloves.

Seeing Seth covered in a layer of heat haze and small flames, they lost their apprehension of simply thrashing their boss. Like a lightning, Jonah suddenly stood before Seth and struck at him from below with a drawing strike.

The blacksmith tried to block with his hand, but he was too slow and he had to block the training sword with his forearm. The aura was too thing to completely block the wooden sword and Seth earned a bruise on his forearm.

At the same time, the training sword had been slightly charred from the short touch with the flaming aura. Despite only using basic fire on the ability, it was very potent in attack and defense.

Using Jonah's attack as a distraction, Monique had circled around him to stab at his back. He barely managed to dodge, but a stabbing pain and the sound of ripping fabric told him that he didn't dodge completely.

The blacksmith collected a bunch more bruises before he started getting the hang of the <Flame Aura>. It was mostly thanks to his attainment in <Pyrokinesis> that he soon managed to control the thickness of the aura, to effectively block the incoming barrage of attacks.

His movements also became smoother as he started incorporating the <Lame One's Walk> more naturally into his actions. It did not level up, but the control of the aura and the use of the movement technique became more natural and almost instinctive to him.

If Seth fought, he would usually take the role of a caster. The level of the movement skill was rather high thanks to the conscious use when he tried to raise the level. He only realized now, that it needed this kind of practice to help him truly master this skill.

In case he ever got in a real fight, where he had no advantages, he wouldn't have time to spare much thought on the use of a skill. It had to happen instinctively.

He had some more ideas, for example strengthening the aura with <Pyrokinesis>, but after almost two hours of non-stop sparring, all three were too exhausted to continue.

"Thanks for holding back, you two. But I think we should end it here," the blacksmith panted.

"We didn't hold back!" they argued indignantly, but Seth was very clear about it. Despite taking a beating, he knew that they were going easy on him. Without his items, he wouldn't be able to keep up with them.

He didn't argue with them. He just ported to the bathroom in his quarters to take a shower, before going to sleep.