Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

"Yvette, I'm glad you were able to make it."

"Princess Leana, thank you for the invitation, " Yvette greeted her with a bright smile.

The saintess was in a great mood. Despite the state of present Delta, things were going up for her. With the help of Minas Mar, she was able to build a church and her religion had grown over the past months. It was true that tragedy was the best soil for religion.

Yvette herself wasn't religious by any means, but she couldn't help but be happy over the growth in believers for one simple reason: She got finally rid of Samhach. It had been almost two years now since she stumbled upon the god's old temple and became possessed by his remnants.

Officially she became his saintess, but really it felt more like being a shuttle or a life pod for the struggling existence. While the god was too weak to exist on his own, she had been constantly plagued by the side effects of his presence. Chronic fatigue, micro-sleep... sometimes she felt like she suffered from narcolepsy when she would fall asleep and wake up a lot later, not knowing what happened.

Since Samhach was also the god of quietness and stagnation, she was hit with lapses of thought and barred from feeling strong emotions. However, with the influx of believers and the power of Faith, Samhach had finally left her body.

Ever since Yvette felt like she was reborn. A heavy burden had been lifted off her body, allowing her to return to the person she used to be before. Compared to her elegant calm image as a saintess, she was almost bubbly now.

As horrible as that time was, Yvette never blamed Samhach at all. She had made the decision back then and her position and his blessing had allowed her to survive in this world. Now that he was gone, she had the chance to enjoy her position as a saintess.

In part she attributed this change to Minas Mar and Mary's flawless cooperation with her. Another part was the princess giving her a chance to participate in the evaluation. She gladly came, when Leana and Minas Mar invited her to a conversation.

"It had been some time since we last met. What was so important, that you had to invite me over?" the saintess asked friendly.

As an answer, Leana placed a small stack of documents in front of her. They described the current situation in Y-City based on reports from Cade who was currently investigating. Her smile quickly vanished when she read the report of the Rakshasi's experience.

"Is this true?" she asked disbelieving. "It is what Cade wrote me. This is what we know about the Scene." Another document was given.

"What are your plans? You must have some when you asked me to visit and this is the first thing you show me."

"We will expand the Tree Route towards Ypsilon, as it was originally planned, and use this connection to get as many people out of Y-City as possible. To accomplish that, we have to strengthen Minas Mar, as a district, further."

Yvette gulped, for several reasons. For one, these were probably top-secret plans. Being told about this meant that Leana put a great amount of trust in her. In addition, it meant that the princess had a role for her in all of this.

What was she going to ask of her? If she was honest, she enjoyed the quiet life as a saintess. Apart from holding the mass and counseling the new priests, she was quite free. She preferred this a lot over the adventurous and dangerous life she tasted as an adventurer and during the evaluation.

"Don't worry, I don't expect you to go on any dangerous mission," she said as if reading the saintess like a book, " Actually, I wish to make you a great offer. What do you think about a location for your main temple?"

Facing Yvette's confused look, Leana explained their attempt to recruit a guardian for every bigger Tree Station in Minas Mar. In this sense, she didn't ask Yvette for anything, but she was trying to recruit Samhach as a guardian deity. The offer was the same that was given to Senior White. A base city without any opposing religions and a temple, in exchange for guarding the place in case of emergency.

When Yvette heard the proposition, she relaxed a little. This was a lot better than asking her to take action on anything. A place for their believer to gather, away from Delta. Even when things were improving for her personally, it wasn't like she didn't see the deterioration of the central district.

She heard from many of the priests that public safety had decreased despite the higher presence of guards and the forces of the leadership. Many people complained about the curfew and the restrictions on dungeons. It became hard to make a living for most. Many of Samhach's followers only stayed in Delta, because of their church here.

Closing her eyes, she sought connection with the god, currently residing inside a church. The incredibly lethargic feeling she got through the connection carried a sense of disassociation. She transmitted her thoughts and opinions on the matter and waited. It was like she was talking to a quagmire thinking in slow motion. Samhach took a while before he finally answered positively.

"Samhach agreed to your proposal. I hope you can help me manage the move of our believer in the future."

"Of course!" the two shook hands with bright smiles when the earth suddenly shook.

...

Alison enjoyed being back in the laboratory. The bookworm felt the calmest when being in her laboratory or the library of Minas Mar. Ever since she had gotten the class, Alchemy had become her second passion, aside from reading.

As much fun as learning something new was, knowing she also grew stronger through it made it even better. She was back to her slow life. Standing up in the morning, roughly taming her mane before shoving it in her pointy hat. A delicious breakfast in the canteen and spending the morning experimenting in the lab. What a bliss.

However, she didn't forget the situation they were currently facing. Even when she approached things her own way, she was working on things that would help them in the future. One of the big headaches they expected to face in Ypselon was the fact that they could block home call and probably all kinds of long-range spatial movement.

They had to expect their convenient escape route to be cut off. This meant they had to come up with other methods to ensure a successful escape if things became dire. Things like stealth or distractions. Urth's fiction and reality had come up with a lot of ways to allow someone to escape even behind enemy lines.

Alison saw it as her calling, to translate some of these things into their current reality. This was the reason why she was clear about not joining the dungeon raids when talks about training the new members came up.

At least that was her excuse. She also wanted to work on unlocking a new path. The only one currently available to her was "Seeker of Knowledge". It was unlocked because of her Title " Bookworm" and the massive amount of knowledge she had accumulated because of it.

It allowed her to unlock powers to glean and retain more knowledge, becoming something like a super detective with perfect eidetic memory or something like that. It definitely improved her use in fights and exploration... exactly the two things she held no interest in. She would leave her comfort zone when necessary, but she had no intention to live out there and fate couldn't force her!

So instead she worked on becoming a master alchemist, to unlock the path of a Legendary Alchemist, the princess told her about. According to Leana, the prerequisites were the master tier and having created a legendary potion, or potion recipe.

Like Seth before her, she was currently on the grind to get through the Craftsman tier of <Alchemy>. Unlike the blacksmith, she didn't have an unending supply of legendary materials. Instead, she was able to gain more proficiency by creating new recipes. At least it was better than making dozens of the same potions over and over.

According to her calling, her first project was alchemy flash grenades. Ordinary flash grenades lacked the power to do any harm to the magically enhanced creatures and people of today's day and age. Something very similar already existed across the Pathworks, however, it was a product of enchantment and quite expensive.

The wizard was convinced that she was able to create a new flash grenade by combining her knowledge of science and magic. Something her friends and the people of Minas Mar could use as a means to fight or run away. Pursuing this goal, she was now experimenting with all kinds of chemicals and materials she had collected over time.

She had abused her acquaintance with the inter-dimensional merchant a lot when he was still around. He had vanished for the past weeks though, so she had to make do with what she had and could get from the auction house.

She was close. She had already succeeded to imitate the original power of a flash grenade using chemicals. The only problem now was the strength. It took minute control to weigh and mix the volatile powders and potions she came up with to create a- Suddenly the earth shook, her hand slipped and the world was drowned in light and noise.