Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

"We have to keep this a secret for as long as possible. We have to contact Karina and see if she can do something about it," the princess stammered panicky.

"Leana! Calm down! What is this about? Why do you react like that and why do we have to keep it secret?" the blacksmith asked confused.

"If the Hangingtree becomes a legend and it gets out that this world had already birthed a legend, it will lose the protection of the covenant. Now hurry and contact Karina!" she ended with a hushed voice because she noticed the children watching them.

Seth didn't quite know what the princess was talking about, but he did what she asked of him for now.

"Karina will be back in a few hours, now tell me what you meant just now. What is the covenant?" he demanded as he closed the big gates to the room, so the kids wouldn't eavesdrop.

"It's an agreement among all the greater powers in the Pathworks. No force is allowed to send their legends to new worlds. Whoever does, may face the backlash from the other members of the covenant.

We have also observed that the system god does something similar, otherwise, new worlds may be overrun with legendary creatures before they developed any kind of defense. However, all of that becomes void, once the first native being in a world attains the status of a legend.

Do you remember how I advised you not to advertise your ability to make legendary items because it could cause unwanted attention? This is like a 1000 times worse. If that tree becomes a legend, then it will open the door for foreign forces to send their powerhouses. Not to mention legendary beasts that may find their way here. It's a catastrophe" Leana spoke quickly and agitated, venting all her emotions.

"This means we are between a rock and a hard place," Seth summed it up.

Currently, the elite of Urth, like Minas Mar, had most of their people at the cusp of stepping on the Path of Legend, they were all far from being legends. It could take years to become legends for them if they even succeeded.

That would have been enough time, for many adventurers to catch up, at least to the point of also walking the path. If one of them became a legend at that point, Urth's chance to withstand foreign forces may have been quite high. But right now, Leana's prophecy was apocalyptic.

Not to mention the Muir Empire, or Arget Nore who already were here, what if Chrona and Spatia went to war on Urth, with people that were the equivalent of nukes? The blacksmith quickly realized the gravity of the situation.

"But how are we supposed to stop it?" he asked her.

"An ordinary person can stop investing their power into their level of existence, however, the Tree doesn't really have a sentience, right? That's why I said we need to keep it a secret. Even if the invisible border of the Pathworks opens, it doesn't other forces will know immediately. If we can hide the tree's status, they will not be able to find out if we are lucky."

"If we are lucky?"

"Yeah, if we are lucky. There are a lot of ways to attain information out there, that are hard to block. All kinds of fortunetelling, foresight, scrying, and sorcery could be used to get this information. Once they know what to look for and can prove it, they will have nothing to fear from the covenant."

"I see, so in case Karina can't stop the tree from becoming a legend, we have to make sure it won't show any great changed along the tree route."

…

"I-I'm here. What is so important I had to immediately come back?"

Two hours later Karina finally arrived. She was fatigued and a little out of breath when she reached the cavern. To the blacksmith's and the princess' horror, the level had actually gone up by one in the time they had been waiting! Was something they didn't know about going on, or had they just come at the right moment to witness it?

Leana, now calmer but also more serious, quickly explained their situation to the dryad and what they needed to do. Fortunately, the explanation was not hampered by the system, since Karina had already naturally stepped on a Path of Legend, similar to Puffles.

After meditating in front of the tree for some time, the dryad had good and bad news. Although her soul and that of the Hangingtree were connected, since her rebirth she was no longer in a position to control the tree completely. She was unable to stop it from advancing.

The good news was, that every sapling, albeit grown from its roots, was its own tree. If the main Hangingtree became a legend, the sapling across the Tree Route would only inherit its path, but not become legends, too.

It meant the borders of their world would open to legendary creatures, but it wasn't like there were hordes of them just waiting to come in. They were the smaller evil compared to advertising the birth of a legend throughout the whole Tree Route. This was it would probably take a while for any of the forces to realize that a legend was born and then they would still need to prove it.

Seth was worried about the future, but he couldn't help it that his heart was jumping in joy since he would soon have legendary would, to go with his legendary strings to make a legendary instrument. On that note, he would have to work on his <Instrument Maker> skill.

"By the way, Leana, do you have any news from Chrona about the paths?" he asked, since it suddenly came to mind. But the princess shook her head.

"No, but they should arrive by tomorrow. I have to return to the embassy and talk with Mary about this whole ordeal," she excused herself and left.

"So, do I return now, or is there anything else for me to do?" Karina asked a little clueless.

"When you are already asking, could you grow me a good amount of lumber before you return? That would be very nice." Seth answered with a smile.

"Fine, but in exchange I'm demanding a long vacation once all of this is over. I want to travel somewhere with nice weather and I would like to see the ocean!" the dryad suddenly demanded.

Thinking for a moment, Seth agreed surprisingly quickly with a nod.

"Sure, I will make sure you see the ocean on your vacation. You also don't have to hurry back, you should stay and spend some time with Pip and the others."

When she mentioned the ocean, only two currently existing districts still had one. Beta had been a famous holiday destination. Since they were in an alliance with the new settlers of Beta, nothing spoke against going there on a vacation. After all, Karina had to go there anyways, to grow another sapling. Her vacation could start right after she did that.

"Yay!" she cheered. It seemed like she had gained an interest in traveling lately. Seth could not blame her. Every time she left Minas Mar, she would visit a tree she grew tree or travel through the desolate snowy mountain range, always seeing the ever same landscape. He understood that she wanted to see some of the scenes from TV and stories.

Looking at the clock, he found it was not even afternoon, yet. The blacksmith decided to return to the workshop with the lumber Karina had just prepared. He put his new instrument on hold and found that the time wasn't enough to start anything big, instead, Seth sat down and started making instruments using the Hangingtree's epic-rated wood.

Thanks to the <Carpentry> skill he had no problem using the wood, even when his <Instrument Maker> was only at the apprentice level. Although his first few attempts at simple things like wooden flutes and xylophones were crude, his level quickly rose. Like <Carpentry>, Seth had to raise <Instrument Maker> to the craftsman tier to have an effect when working with legendary material.

He started on this because he procrastinated on other things as he waited for Leana to bring the info about the paths. Not just because of his own, but also to match the ones of his friends.