Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Seth stared in awe at the result of Evee's undead slaving away for weeks. She called it the foundation of a magic tower, but from above it looked more like she was growing a citadel of doom. The mentioned "foundation of the tower" was a star fort built from black granite. Similar to Minas Mar, it was built half into the mountain wall, with five points of the star pointing towards the canyon in the distance.

There was a second, even higher, wall, parallel to the outer walls, and in its center was the foundation for the magic tower, as well as the teleport hub. Both were right above a crossing of three dragon veins that accumulated power in this region.

Of course, she had shown them the plans, but seeing it in person was again something different. Seth and the field teams had come ahead of time, while the rest if Minas Mar was working on organizing the teams that would get the chance to enter the Holy Land.

The blacksmith had taken to the sky on the back of Puffles, to take a look at the surroundings. The reason was that he had the Sight of Theia. Not only could he easily scout out the monster army the immortal witch had described, but also look for the source that caused the instability of the teleport passage.

Evee had found the reason why Home Call did not work in the Holy Land. Someone had placed a net of space-locking formations across the canyon and its surroundings. Taking into account the previous incidents, the Maestro was the most likely culprit.

Since these formations were hard to find, Evee was not able to find all the ones in the vicinity of their construction area. This led to disturbances when connected to the outside. For the sake of smoother travel, as well as their people, Seth decided to go and look for the formations using <Theia's Discerning Eyes>.

Since they were sending their allies with lower levels into a battlefield, and not dungeons, the blacksmith wanted to make sure, that at least Home Call was functioning, so they could escape in an emergency situation. Since they now had a stable transport method, there was no reason to avoid returning all the way back to Delta or Little Sigma, as it was called now.

Although actual Teleportation was not a cheap method, like the one that used the pathworks as a medium, Evee guaranteed that it wouldn't be a problem. They hub was currently harnessing the power of three dragon veins that crossed close to the surface in this place and accumulated mana in the mountains behind the tower.

In theory, this was even more power than Minas Mar collected with its five formations, but it was also very volatile, making it hard to harness large amounts at once. It was more than enough to use teleportation without worries and power several defense systems for now.

If they really wanted to tap into the power of sleeping below their feet big time, they would need the help of someone at the skill level and knowledge of Al'Zalsar. Evee couldn't do it alone.

In the meantime, Seth detached from the view of the star fort below and began cruising across the Holy Land on Puffles back.

~It's been a while since we just flew around like this.~ Puffles mentioned nostalgically.

~You just became so strong. Revealing you would be revealing an ultimate trump card.~

Although Seth's words sounded like flattery, it was also the truth. Over the past months, especially after the evaluation, Puffles had made great jumps in strength, to the point Seth couldn't fathom it even when using Sight of Theia.

It had become a habit for him to hide his trump cards. In a world where you didn't know what enemies were lurking in the shadows and who was watching you, it was better not to advertise their strength openly and give them a chance to prepare counters. The Scene was a good example of that.

Had Seth openly used his power without abandon, or revealed too many of their secrets, they would have probably prepared something to counter man of Minas Mar's trump cards.

~I'm Puffles, the Great. Obviously, I AM a trump card and you should trust me more. I also have my own trump cards that may even trump your trump cards!~ the trump-carding joker kept bragging.

~Me too! Me too!~ Tatzel joined the conversation. ~ I have also grown a lot, Mom! Let me help more often, too."

Seth had to admit, that Tatzel was right. The once cute little snakelet had grown to become a really big, cute snakelet. Despite the extremely slow leveling speed of the Imugi, Tatzel had already reached lv.70. It was thanks to Sight of Theia that he could see his level again, though parts of his status were still obscured.

With the rise in levels, the snakelet had also become bigger. With seven meters in length, he could already raise himself to Seth's eye level. He had a thick and strong body, like that of some dragons, but he didn't have any legs.

~Alright, alright. If the situation allows it, I will throw you two out first to pull the fire. Is that okay?~ Seth tried to appease them.

~Now you get it. Let the great me clean the floor with them. You can finish them off afterward for the experience.~ the Ivicer commented.

~Yap, Yap.~ Tatzel linguistically nodded at Puffles' words.

Bickering around, they kept flying across the hills and mountains that bordered the massive scar in the earth and scouted the surrounding of the mage tower. Seth kept using <Theia's Discerning Eyes> and the trait "Theia's Vision" to scan the landscape below like an eagle.

The first thing that fell into his eyes was the enemy camps. Although Seth primarily came by to look for the magic formations, the enemy camp was quite prominent, not far from their construction site.

Rows upon rows of tents and small huts with a myriad of creatures and beasts squirming among them. These had to be the forces that came from dungeons situated at the edge of the former Hive territory.

Looking down at them, Seth could help but think that they didn't look too different from humans. Of course, he didn't mean the outward experience. Most of them were barely humanoid beasts or genuine magic beasts in general.

What he meant was that they were all more or less intelligent. Clever enough to form an alliance and set up a structured camp, even come up with a strategy to attack a common enemy. Seth might have felt bad for seeing their lives as a bunch of experience if it wasn't for the fact that all of them were a bunch of invaders that came to Urth to pillage and plunder. Had they come in peace like the fairies, that had come to Urth to explore and make friends, it would have been a different story. What little compassion Seth had was extinguished at seeing how forming an alliance to attack them was their first step of action.

As Evee had said, the average level of these creatures was not very high. With a sweep of <Theia's Discerning Eyes>, he could tell that only a few of the beasts below had levels above 60, barely reaching 70. To go a little further, he was also able to confirm, that none of them were incredibly strong for their level, except for some big monsters that had very high attributes thanks to their physique.

Having checked out the enemy, he continued to look for the source of disruption.

"Is that one of them? Puffles, go down here." Seth muttered, seeing a sick yellow glow of magic under a ledge below. An illusion disguised the ledge as a mountain wall, covering the magic circle.

The circle in question was made in a similar way to the one Seth had drawn to set up the temporary spatial beacon. It was a kind of sick, yellow dust strewn onto the ground and burnt into a glassy glaze by the magic running through it. In the center was a magic crystal, powering the spell.

Taking a moment to look at it, Seth found it matched Evee's description. This kind of magic circle was popular since it was relatively easy to set up, in exchange it was easy to destroy. Seth just had to destroy the enamel to interrupt the flow of mana, rendering the circle useless and getting a free mana crystal.

In this fashion, Seth found and destroyed another three magic circles like this, hidden by illusions across the hilly landscape surrounding their new base. The mana crystals were natural crystals of good quality, to be able to power a spatial disruption spell.

Like <Arcane Gold> they had the inherent trait to accumulate small amounts of mana from the surrounding and could grow, unlike the artificial ones. Seth was sure he could throw them into the golem forge to make some good mage golems later on.

Once he was sure to have cleaned the surroundings where they expected the battle to take place, the blacksmith returned to their current base.