Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

"Disarm."

Suddenly the weapons they had just unsheathed and parts of the armor they had donned jumped out of their hands and off their bodies. It was one of the effects of <Crafty Failsafe lv.7>. Not only could items he made not be used against him, he could even outright disarm the opponent.

Using their surprise, Seth charged in and started wildly beating them. He simply ignored their counterattacks, as nothing they could do had a chance to penetrate his legendary defense. The blacksmith had no brawler skills but had overbearing strength and every strike was imbued with the plague curse of Lesath.

Since they could do nothing against the blacksmith's slaughter, it was like an adult fighting a group of toddlers. As if he was in the smithy, striking metal, he made sure to pound the curses of disease in their flesh and bones. Just because he didn't intend to kill, didn't mean he would grant them an enjoyable life.

The first had already lost his hand forever since Seth had used the Ravenous Sog to cut it, which also severe the soul. The curses on the other hand would need high-level healing magic to be cleansed.

His anger was real, but he went even further than necessary because he knew he had to make an example out of them. It wouldn't stop with just them. If he didn't do the same with the true perpetrator, other champions may think Minas Mar was easy to bully.

"Seth what have you done?!" Jane exclaimed hysterically when he finally stopped beating the people on the ground.

As an answer, he simply shoved Laraweg on Jane's head. After staring blankly into the distance for a few seconds, she suddenly seemed to come to it.

"These!"

Suddenly Jane stormed at the heap of half-dead bodies ad started stomping them, while cursing them out like a sailor.

"Don't kill them, we need them alive."

"Why?!"

"Do you think I have the time to run around town and look for their guild master? They are bait. And put them in a stable side position, we don't want them to choke on their own vomit, right?"

It was part of the curse of plague and disease. Their bodies were weakened, going back and forth between high fever and chills. Nausea, headaches, pain, diarrhea... the curse came with the full plethora of everything that would make feel people miserable.

The next step was that Seth sent an anonymous e-mail to the Nelgiv Guild with pictures of their badly beaten guild members. Of course, he was just a terrified witness in this scenario telling them that someone had suddenly stormed into the restaurant and beaten up their guild members.

Seth even used channeling for some demonic help in writing the mail, so the guild master would appear in person to ask for an explanation. If he didn't... Seth would simply collect all of his guild members until the whole guild used the floor as their sickbed.

He also sent a message to Mary to let her know, what he was about to do. After all, they were still living in a society. He needed a good cover-up if he went around, beating people near death.

After waiting for an hour, getting more annoyed about the time he was losing, he suddenly got a call from Mary.

"He's here."

The guild master and the executive members of the Nelgiv Guild had actually directly shown up at Minas Mar's offices.

"Make them wait. Don't meet them directly. I'm there in a moment."

For a short moment, people could see a shadow streak through the city canyons of Delta, as Seth used star escape and <3d Maneuver Assistance> to fast-travel through the city. During his training he found that the constellation map of Scorpio always formed a plane with the soles of his boots, meaning that its orientation would change with the orientation of his body.

With his improved agility and assistance skills, he was able to use the short-distance teleportation to travel between footholds on buildings or use the facades themselves as footholds. It didn't even take the blacksmith 5 minutes to cross the distance between the Turquoise Anvil and their office building.

The only problem with this way of traveling, was that it was not to Seth's taste. He was no adrenaline junkie or anything like that, so he had been stricken with fear when he first started using it. At this point, he had managed to reduce it to just being stressed.

"Where is he?"

Standing at the entrance he wrote a message to Mary and got the number of a room as an answer. It was a meeting room on the second floor.

"What are you going to do?" the message came a little later as if she hesitated to ask.

Seth didn't write back. There was no need to create explicit evidence. He adjusted the skyrobe a little before entering the meeting room.

"hey, isn't Minas Mar a little too much? At first, we are not greeted in person and we aren't even offered anything to drink when we are made to wait." a complaint came flying at him the moment he came through the door.

Ignoring the voice, Seth scanned the room. There were about a dozen people. At the head of the table sat an objectively handsome man the slimy smile on his face really ruined his impression. It was a face that made his fist itch.

"Well, gentleman, you are asking for treatment appropriate for guests. I am happy to inform you that you are not guests."

Seth's bluntness stunned the seated guild members.

"You are petty little thieves who dared to use charm magic on my people."

They had already taken their breath to deny it and cry out in anger when the room was filled with groans. They were about to jump off their seats when a terrible pressure forced the knees to give in and sit back down.

<Dragon Might>, it was different from the skill it was with the Wyvern Set. Now it was an ability, infinitely closer to that of a real dragon. The blacksmith could use it freely, concentrate it and change the area of effect.

The whole room was filled with an aura that made it hard to breathe, only the guild master of the Nelgiv guild was able to hide the effects it had on him and spoke up.

"T-Tower Master, I don't know what you are talking about." he managed to utter with some pauses. "Please calm your anger. We came here to ask for an explanation as some of our guild members were beaten up in your establishment."

Seth could feel the power in his words and the charm of his voice. He also saw some illusion effect that tried to make his face more handsome and lovely. His heart was set aflame. These pitiful tricks only acted as fuel for the fire of rage in the blacksmith's heart.

It was similar to the <Voice of Seth> but it was simply...crude. Where the <Voice of Seth> was a power of persuasion that aimed to find and nurture the desires in someone else to come to a satisfactory result, this guy simply forced his will on others. Seth questioned what kind of god would hand out such skills.

Even if he didn't have Laraweg, Seth was confident that he would be largely unaffected thanks to his high willpower attribute and the Eye of Argus. It was less the danger it posed to him than the pure audacity to try and use this shit on him.

"Don't worry. You will join them."

One had to admit that the guild master was not stupid. At the crack of Seth's knuckles, he understood who had sent the message and that his tricks didn't work. He jumped up, the chair he sat on flying back. In one smooth movement, he unsheathed a sword from his inventory and donned an armor.

"Disarm." At the same time as the ability of <Crafty Failsafe> was activated and the armor and weapon flew away from him, Seth ported behind the man. As if he had announced what he was going to do, he amputated the man's right arm at the shoulder with an upward swing of the Ravenous Sog.

A system notification played over the squeals of the now one-armed man

<Ding! Your weapon has learned a new skill.>