Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

--Delta--

It was a quiet evening in Delta. The leaderboards and world quest were still the talk of the town, but everything had quietened down two weeks after the announcements. When nothing dramatically changed, things went on as usual.

Although there had been many tragedies with the Apocalypse, everything finally seemed to be on the rise again. A hint of normalcy had returned to the people under the protection of Delta and the Chrona Empire.

Even the tense situation with the refugees from Sigma seemed to have calmed with the project announced by Minas Mar. Just as much as the world quest and the leaderboards, the imposing announcement of the reclamation of Urth was a topic everyone discussed.

Of course, there were supporters and critics. Besides the obvious safety concerns, the critics would often bring up, that their ancestors had a reason to build the districts and pull away from the world. They would often ask, whether they had not learned anything from their past.

In the past, humanity had ravaged the world in a race for quick gains at any cost. Even after everything they did to right their wrongs, the announcement at the start of the Apocalypse made it clear, that they had not managed to evade the climate change and other catastrophes.

In their opinion, expanding again would only increase the risk for their people.

The supporters on the other hand reminded of the obvious gains. The world had changed. They were now part of the Pathworks. There was Magic and Skills, even literal Gods had descended to their planet.

Urth was now in a constant state of change, and many terrifying dangers had already become obvious in the short time since the Apocalypse was announced. It wasn't the time to think of the past when there were dramatic changes to come in the future.

In their opinion, it would pose more danger to let the rest of the world swelter in unknown chaos, until some unknown calamity came over them. They needed to know what was going on, so they could prepare for the worst.

On this calm day, several things happened at the same time. Close to the city center, where now many of the headquarters for the large and prominent guilds were situated a huge storm broke out without any warning.

A huge warping tornado, like a sphere of wind, expanded. Destroying window facades, vehicles, and throwing around people, mounts, and pets alike. Fortunately, nobody died thanks to their strengthened physiques and quickly arriving emergency helpers with healing magic.

Similar things happened in this region. A sudden area of darkness, independent from natural or electric light. A sudden local outage that held on for just a minute. A spontaneous blooming of plants and similar less noticeable events.

Other events also happened in different places in Delta, but not as densely packed.

….

"Is it true, you have become a chosen?"

"Yes, Tower Master" Evan answered shyly.

"And the god that offered you his blessing was really...?"

"Hermes, yes." he blushed.

"When did you become a thief, Evan?" Seth asked the young man dryly.

Seth had come down to the stables, as they called the area built for the tamers of Minas Mar, of which there weren't many. Evan had most of the space for himself, and he needed it. After all, he was breeding Titanoboas down here.

The two Juveniles he had brought from Alpha had already become adults, and he had even managed to breed them. Although Seth had concerns about whether those two weren't too closely related, but as the tamer/breeder Evan had assured him it wasn't a problem.

"I didn't get the blessing of a thief!" Evan exclaimed indignantly.

"The great Hermes has given me the gift of Animal Husbandry," he added proudly.

"Why did you have to get it?!" Elly cried from behind. The slime rancher was incredibly grumpy and jealous.

"Probably because his highness wasn't interested in your one-trick-pony slimes!" Evan countered and stuck out his tongue at her.

"Could both of you please act more mature..? It's not like you are children." Seth scolded.

"So, out with it, what can your new class do?"

After listening to Evan's explanation, he could understand why Elly was jelly.

Like his Brother Apollo, Hermes had many aspects. Although he was more known as the god of thieves, travelers, and commerce, he was also a guardian deity of shepherds. This was how Evan got the class of Divine Herder.

The class had skills to improve the stats of the beasts he bred and caught by several times. He got a skill that could tell him most traits of a beast and even special food that could further improve their power, level, and growth speed. If that wasn't already powerful, he had the skill <Selective Breeding>, which didn't sound like much until he explained the effect.

It wasn't just the pairing of two individuals with special traits to get a new generation that would all have these traits. He was able to choose which traits should have a higher chance of being inherited, giving him a certain control over almost anything in the next generation.

If this skill leveled, it was safe to say that it would be no different from genetically engineering beasts. It didn't stop there.

His new skills were not "just" about animal husbandry and breeding. His pet space was expanded and he gained stealth and taming skills for the sole purpose of being able to steal and raise a beast's younglings without being noticed. So Hermes' protection as the god of thieves also came into play.

Evan had become the kind of chosen with a high ability to grow their own army and bring it wherever they pleased. Though it wasn't as strong as it seemed. He lacked the terror of ...say a necromancer who could grow their army by killing enemies. Evan also didn't have any magical healing skills for his living army.

He DID have a specialized alchemy skill to make individual healing salves for beasts, but nothing that could help in a big battle. His class only had two obvious advantages over similar classes

His beasts could exist independently from him, so they wouldn't vanish if he was killed, and if he was killed, they would go into a berserk state and attack the enemy even more ferociously. The other was the stealth skills that allowed him to hide and not die in the first place.

All in all, it was a powerful class, but still had some drawbacks like the time it took to raise and train the beasts, the resource consumption, and himself not actually becoming very powerful. It would be hard to raise the class on his own.

However, if he found a powerful backer like Minas Mar, the class had a good chance to soar. Like the tamer had once said, that he would breed the Titanoboas as the mounts of Minas Mar. An army of beasts mounted with overgeared players and golems. It was fun to think about it.

"Well, did you already decide? As mentioned in the announcement we will do everything to support a chosen like you, but you are free to-"

"What are you even saying? I'm not going to leave Minas Mar. If you want to get rid of me, you have to kick me out." Evan interrupted the blacksmith slightly offended.

Seth had saved his life and it seemed that Evan was very serious about staying.

"Calm down, I didn't doubt you, I just want to give everyone to the freedom to decide before they commit to something." the bard reassured him.

Because one thing was clear, they wouldn't accept people leaving, after using Minas Mar's resources to grow. A soul contract was part of staying as a chosen and obligatory. This was what they had decided during the meeting among the Lords. Even the lords did not make an exception for themselves.

"Oh, alright then! I'm sure and ready to sign the contract!" Evan said motivated.

Seeing him so eager, Seth started to feel a little bad. Had he neglected Evan in the past months? It felt like the tamer wanted to prove himself If that meant that Evan was going to work hard to become strong, the blacksmith wouldn't stop him.

Everything for the glorious future of a snake cavalry.