Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Seth didn't change his short-term plans, despite the sudden announcement of the Age of Gods. The next day, he dissuaded Mina from guard duty and took her along on his trip to the first Tree Station on the trade route.

Tree Station was what they had decided to call the rest areas protected by the Hangingtrees. The first one from Delta was the place where Karina had experimented on her idea and wanted to showcase her results to Seth.

Tree Station 1 was also home to the Lover's Cave, the dungeon where he had met the horned couple. There were also some other, smaller dungeons in the vicinity, making it a good first place to found a town.

Seth informed the Ivicer but didn't ask Puffles to come along. The nightmare centipede was out terrorizing in the mountains near Delta. Sometimes Seth wondered, whether it was okay to simply let his affiliates roam the mountain range.

Puffles, Ceres, and Python were always running around outside, sometimes accompanied by Tatzel. What kind of mischief... or destruction were those four up to, when left unobserved? He liked to imagine the group going around smashing dungeons and super-powerful monsters. It was just a funny thought, though.

Instead of taking Puffles, they used the shuttle to cross the distance. It was faster than when traveling on the ground, or even with the flying Ivicer. Within mere hours they could see Tree Station 1 in the distance.

While Mina looked on in shock, Seth's face distorted in terror. For a moment he felt an existential threat, as he was starkly reminded of the Hangingtree in Alpha. The giant tree that had towered far above the modern skyline and covered the whole city under its crown.

After a moment of true fear that covered him in a cold sweat, he could feel the connection with the tree as one of his creations and his heart gradually calmed down. However, his mind was still scrambled.

The blacksmith, the people of Minas Mar, and maybe even Karina had obviously underestimated what kind of size these off-shots would be able to reach in the cold and barren mountain climate. The tree easily dwarfed the nearby mountain peaks.

Its crown had literally taken mountains under its wings. Despite that, when his mind calmed down he realized that it was still a lot smaller than the one he had seen in Alpha.

Growing from a valley between two peaks, Tree Station One's trunk superseded the two mountains on each side, while the spread of its crown covered the two and some smaller peaks and valleys past them.

Only after calming down a little, he could appreciate the sight completely. It was like a green mountain in the middle of a dead, snowy landscape. The area it overshadowed was easily big enough to harbor a city.

As they got closer, they could finally see beyond the dense dome of foliage, seeing a forest, covering the space below the mother tree's crown. The pilot landed the shuttle just outside the green canopy. Seeing the rim of the tree's crown several stories above him, with the grappling vines hanging all the way to the ground reminded him of some terrifying memories.

This time, the curtain split for him and Mina, instead of trying to grab them, and choke them to death. The sight from the ground was completely different than from above. If it wasn't for the crown of leaves above them in the sky, Seth could have sworn to have stepped into a city.

Before them lay a broad road made of a dense net of roots. On both sides were trees, hundreds of stories high with slightly square shapes, and window holes all the way to the top, where they spread into a crown that intertwined with the mother tree

Wooden skyscrapers, rooted in the ground and the heavens.

"Seth! Mina! You have come. I'm glad," the dryad greeted the two with a warm smile.

Like an acrobat, she stood on a vine that was lowering from above, before stepping down to the street.

"What do you think?" she asked the couple that was still looking at the scenery in bafflement.

"Can we have a look inside?" Seth asked still a little overwhelmed.

The trio entered the next best crownscraper and Seth was seriously surprised at how accurately Karina copied the overall air of an apartment building. The dryad approached a set of doors, like elevator doors, that opened as she approached.

"Let's take the elevator," she suggested.

"There are even working elevators?" Seth exclaimed.

"Yes. However, they are moved by vines, not technology," she explained with a smile.

As they entered she also explained, that she had gone to the length of replicating even the safety mechanisms of real elevators.

"Let me call Mary, so we can show her this, too." Mina reminded them.

Seth had almost forgotten about it. They had specially brought a magic communication orb with a video chat function, to directly share the progress with Mary and some other personnel of the administrative departments.

In preparation for this project, Mary had roped in people from the construction sector and public relations for the viewing. On one hand, it was to get safety concerns out of the way, on the other they wanted footage for advertisements.

"Seth? I thought you guys went to Station 1, why are you in an elevator?" Mary's voice could be heard from the orb.

"What are you saying? We already entered one of Karina's buildings. Look, she's here with us. Sorry for calling a little late, we were... distracted, " the blacksmith apologized.

"So Karina made elevators...I see," Mary said a little stumped.

"It's too early to be surprised, wait until we show you the outside."

"Give me a moment. I will call the advisers, so we can clear out any questions from the start," the scribe asked before vanishing from the orb.

The elevator stopped at one of the floors and they stepped out into a hallway, lined with doors. Instead of exploring further, they waited for Mary to return.

"And you really managed to do all this in just a few days? That's crazy, Karina." Mina gushed.

"he he, it's not that big of a deal. Once I finished the genetic blueprint for a house tree, it was just a matter of providing the energy for growth," she answered shyly.

"Don't be so humble. You stomped a whole city from the ground in a few days. That's massive," Mina kept praising.

"She's right, Karina. You did something really big, bigger than any of us could do. But you just said you made a genetic blueprint? You learned quite a bit in Delta, huh?"

"I have been consulting Lord Alison on some of these topics. Before I planned on manipulating each tree individually, but by telling the tree, that this is how it is supposed to grow from the start, it is a lot easier."

The dryad didn't even realize how absolutely frightening everything she said sounded. She had quite openly stated that she could genetically program plants. Seth especially had great respect for genetic engineering, since the whole debacle of the ever-propagating forest was caused by it.

"But you are sure these housing trees won't grow anywhere outside of your control, right?"

"Well, theoretically I could make seed for them, but I doubt they could grow anywhere naturally. They consume a huge amount of power and resources. I sucked the whole network dry to prepare this."

"With that you mean... all the other trees?"

"And the original mother tree, yes," the Dryad confirmed.

"Does that mean the other trees aren't this big?"

"Unfortunately not. There are some differences, but Tree Station 1 is currently the biggest."

Although Karina seemed a little depressed as if she thought Seth would be disappointed, Seth actually felt reassured. If the dryad could stomp this kind of scenery out of the ground as if it was nothing... it would have been kind of scary.

"However, with the addition of this urban forest, I'm sure I can gather energy for the next city quicker," she tried to "cheer" him up.

Soon, Mary returned just in time to break the awkward silence that followed. After that, they continued their tour through the artificially biologically grown city. As they continued, they found that the only drawback of the housing trees was that the rooms were bare and lacked any power lines.

Through the orbs came a lot of professional questions and requests for different shots and pictures as they toured the city. Obviously, Karina was no city planner so there were a few problems here and there, as there were virtually no utility buildings or infrastructure aside from the root roads. Despite these flaws, it was a great prototype and definitely better than the current emergency shelter for the people of Sigma.

One could even think of these flaws as a blessing, as they would bring work to the people. Normal work. They finished their first inspection with an overall stellar impression of Karina's work.