Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

"Lady Alison, are you okay?" an apprentice alchemist ran into the Laboratory after the tower shook and a loud explosion was heard inside. Contrary to the loud noise, almost nothing was destroyed. Almost.

"What happened? What did I do? How did I do it? Did I use Pearl Blade Powder? How much did I use? No, it wasn't Pearl Blade, it couldn't be. Maybe some Charged Azola fell in? But why would it..."

Alison was madly looking around an alchemy station in complete disarray, lifting beakers and smelling potions all over the place as if she was looking for the sanity she had momentarily lost. All while talking to herself about ingredients and quantities.

The assistant could only look on, uncertain of what to do.

...

"What in the world was that?" Yvette asked confused after the whole building was shaken.

"I don't know..." Leana was just as confused. "How about we talk about the details at a later date?" the princess asked with a smile and quickly finished her business with Yvette.

After Yvette left, she quickly went to the elevator that led down to the original Minas Mar. Leana had a clear theory about who was behind that sudden quake. If something big happened in the magic tower, only one person came to mind.

"I will go take a look," she said to Mary who was also on her way down. With a nod, the administrative leader of Minas Mar stayed back. She already had enough work, without worrying about Seth blowing up their main base.

Leana quickly walked down to the blacksmith workshops where she barged into Seth's room. For a moment she halted, looking down the huge hangar and seeing what Cerberus was working on before she recollected herself and focused on Seth.

The was bend over a weird contraption, looking up at her in surprise. The contraption he was bending over was a vise left and right holding a thin string on tension.

"What did you do?" she asked seriously. She didn't know how Seth did it, but she was sure he was behind the quake.

"What could you mean?" he asked innocently. It was clear to her that he wasn't going to talk about what had just happened. After thinking for a moment, she realized it wasn't worth trying to make him talk.

"Just so you know, the whole embassy and its surroundings shook for a moment just now. Whatever you just did, please don't do it again."

The princess was sure that if he knew the extent of what he just did, he would be more careful of his own accord. She just said her business and left again.

…

Seth looked her back as she left. He was a little surprised. The blacksmith had just wanted to tease her a little before explaining but didn't expect her to simply say her business and leave. That was a little boring, but he had bigger things to worry about.

Softening the metal with sound had worked. Working the material had taken a lot of effort, but he had managed to turn the <Essence of Kova> malleable enough to turn it into a thing wire to act as the core of a string. To test it he used two vises to put the wire on tension and play it.

This was where the problem began. Plucking the string wasn't just incredibly loud and shook the earth of a hot millisecond, the act itself was almost impossible. When put on tension it took so much force to pluck it that he almost ripped the vises from the workbenches.

Where the string was pinched, it cut into the material of the vises. To top it all off, Radiant Forgeright, the glove he was wearing when plucking the string had actually taken damage on that fingertip and lost some durability.

"If I try plucking the string with my bare hands, I would just rip apart his fingertips," he sighed after Leana left.

The bard had originally thought of making a cool guitar. He imagined something fitting his armor, lending itself to make him look even more imposing when he played it. However, he could forget about that. An instrument that would damage his legendary gloves to play it was not to his taste.

~How about a bowed instrument like a violin, viola, or a cello?~

"That could work if I wrap it in the right material, but none of the options are feasible. If it's too big, it becomes too cumbersome in a fight and I doubt I could place a violin on my shoulder to play when wearing the full armor..."

~Oh! I just thought of the perfect instrument, but it's complicated and could be hard to make.~ the demonic lyre warned.

When the demon shared his idea, Seth understood what he was talking about. The instrument he suggested really was on the more complicated end, but the way it was built was perfect to circumvent the drawbacks of the <Essence of Kova>

"I intended to improve <Instrument Maker> and <Instrument Mastery> anyways. Let's go and get some materials," he said and walked toward the herb gardens, to get some wood from the Hangingtree.

He was glad to have already improved his carpentry since it would be very helpful when making instruments from wood. Although it would be even easier for metal, but he had a regrowing source of high-quality wood in his basement, why would he use not-regrowing metal?

"Hello, Seth!" Pip and the children greeted him as he entered the herb garden. They were tending to the plants using the magic they learned from Karina.

"Hey guys, what's up?" he greeted them with a smile.

"Seth~ Can we go to Delta sometime soon again?" one of the smaller girls plead.

"I'm sorry, but Delta currently really isn't a place for you," Seth said conflicted. The children had been stuck in Minas Mar for a few weeks now. Although they could always go to the front gates to play in the snow, it wasn't the same as being able to go up to Delta.

"How about visiting Little Sigma together with Karina?" he suggested.

The dryad was currently on the move to strengthen and prepare the net of roots for the expansion in the near future. Giving Karina a break to spend time with them seemed like a good idea. The group's cheers suggested so, too.

Once he made his way through their crowd, he walked through the big gates into the cavern of the Hanging Tree. When he stepped in for the first time in a long while his eyes widened in shock and disbelief.

"Leana, Leana you there? Are you still in the tower? Come down to the herb gardens, please..." he fumbled with the communication orb and called for the princess flabbergasted.

"You sounded awkward. What did you do to the herb gardens?" she asked a little annoyed when she finally met him at the door to the Hangingtree's cavern.

"N-nothing, Can you please go in here and tell me I'm not crazy?" he nodded toward the big gate.

"You really are acting weird. Did something happen?" she asked a little worried.

"No! No, I just... need a second pair of eyes to make sure I didn't go crazy. Just look inside and tell me what you see," he said, opening the gates for her. She shrugged and entered the cavern. She had seen it briefly during Fin's tour, but she had to admit that she didn't really pay attention.

" Okay, let's see what this is abou- What the hell?!" she interrupted herself when her eyes fell on the massive tree that filled the whole cavern.

<Hangingtree of Minas Mar Lv. 198>

Judging by her reaction, Seth was convinced he had not gone crazy. The Hangingtree he had created back then, was close to actually becoming a legend now. As the craftsman he had become, his first thought went to the possibility of having another constant supply of legendary material, in this case, wood.

Yet, he quickly realized that was the smaller change. All trees along the Tree Route were saplings that grew from this tree's roots. If the main tree became a legend, would they also become legends? Depending on the path of the Hangingtree it would be an immense power boost across the whole of Minas Mar.

Thinking about these consequences, Seth had to make sure he didn't see wrongly. At this point, Leana actually started wheezing.

"This isn't good," she said in a panic.

"What?"