Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

A knocking on the door woke Seth from his nice dream "aww...."

Knock knock knock

He struggled to get off the big soft bed and he crawled towards the door.

"I'm coming! Stop knocking already." He finally reached the door and ripped it open.

Before him stood a tall slim man in a streamlined suit and combed back hair. He looked quite handsome and stylish and wore a pair of delicate rimmed glasses he just adjusted. His eyes behind the glasses looked at Seth up and down and stopped at his waist.

"I appreciate the view, but this seems a little inappropriate for our first meeting. Maybe you could..."

Embarrassed Seth realized that his bathrobe was not closed and his visitor was appreciating his best piece. He hurriedly bound his bathrobe correctly.

"I'm glad you enjoyed the view, but I don't swing that way."

"Hmm, that's a shame. Anyway. Hello, my name is Mark Baker and I'm an executive manager of Y Cities Special Defense Department."

"Special Defense Department? What is that and why did they directly send a manager?"

Seth had never heard of a special defense department. Did they come up with that after the apocalypse?

"Ah, yes. Maybe you don't know about us. The SDD is in charge of monitoring and dealing with special existences, especially those who appeared after the apocalypse."

"Oh, and why did a manager of that place suddenly appear in my hotel room?"

"Maybe we could talk about this inside your room? It's not quite appropriate to talk about in this kind."

"Sure, give me just a second."

Seth closed the room door and threw away the bathrobe. He used "Clean" a spell from <Life Style Magic>. The skill was similar to <Ultimate Translation> and was set on lv. Max. There were no ranks or level up, he simply got a list of spells to use.

"Clean" simply cleaned his body of any dirt. It was not as satisfying as a real bath or shower, but it did the job. After cleaning up Seth equipped his golden shirt, pants and gambeson, and the Dark Knight boots.

This combination was almost as comfortable as normal clothing but held more defense than uncommon plate armor. If the guy tried anything funny, Seth felt confident to be able to deal with it. Only after wearing his accessories and token, he opened the door.

Mark couldn't help but widen his eyes when he saw Seth opening the door again in his dazzling outfit. It took him a moment before he could speak again. He harrumphed and spoke.

"This really isn't necessary. I'm not here to offend you."

"Oh really? Then come in and sit down."

Mark stepped past Seth and took a seat on the big white couch in the middle of the living room. Seth sat on the two-seater to the side.

"So~ Why does an executive manager of the SDD visit me in my hotel room?"

"Ah, yes. Straight to the point. One of our employees reported a man dressed in a complete set of armor with a rating above uncommon. By the way, he described it as black plate, not a golden cloth..."

This was the perfect opportunity for Seth to show off his full armor, but he didn't. The bait was way too obvious. So, he just signaled the man to keep talking with an interested look, completely ignoring the implied question.

"Well... and the reason I'm here is that. Items rated uncommon are still very hard to find, but you are decked out in rare items. The only possibility would be that you have a reliable source or you are someone from a different world. In both cases, we would welcome your cooperation. This is an important matter. We could not leave it to some low-ranking member that is why I am here."

Seth nodded. It made sense that he was very conspicuous with rare-rated armor if people already had a hard time getting uncommon stuff.

"Well, I can assure you that I am from Urth. I am originally from City A. My name is Seth Smith."

<Ding! The Lord of the Red Land is watching you.>

What? Why again? He didn't have the time to think about it too much as Mark continued talking. He made a conflicted expression.

"I hope you understand, that we can't check that. Nobody we sent in the direction of C City and A City ever returned. All we know is that there is a giant forest growing."

Seth flinched when he heard, that the forest even covered C City. That meant the whole south-eastern corner of the continent was covered in that cursed forest, but this was not his problem right now. The current problem was that Seth didn't really want someone to appraise him.

Although being an Ori huma would be the strongest proof that he was from Urth, he didn't want people to know his skill ranks. Things might get really annoying then. Once they knew his abilities it might not even matter that he was a native...

There was only one option. He thought for a moment a came up with a lie.

"Well, you will just have to believe me then. As for a reliable way to gain items, I was very lucky. I got a few of these things from a dungeon. They open an auction interface where you can purchase any item you might want. I was able to grind my way up until I had a fairly good armor."

Surprised the SDD official looked at the silver stick. For a moment he feared it was a flashy-thing that would erase his memories. But nothing happened to Mark.

"Unfortunately, this is my last one. I was looking for civilization to find a way and get more. I could give this one to you since it won't be of much use to me right now. Of course, it's not for free."

Seth rather sold off the portable one-time access to the auction house, than having to deal with the government.

"What's your price?" he looked at the thing with sparkling eyes. He totally swallowed his lie. What did he want for it? Seth thought about it,

"I want identification papers that work on Urth. 200k credits and... could you give me a ride to Y-City?"

Mark looked at him surprised. Those were some surprisingly doable things for access to high-grade items. The SDD had a few working vehicles that were not open to public use and Seth didn't even ask for ownership, just a ride. Those were very sensible conditions from Mark's point of view. Seth just stated what he needed at the moment, he didn't know that his price was cheap and it pleased the official.

"Deal. I will have your papers ready in a few hours. Same with the money and the ride."

This was the advantage when one was talking directly to the manager, he could make the decisions directly.

"Great. I will give the thing to you then. Make sure you have loads of system cash on you if you plan to use it right then and there. Good stuff is expensive. I will stay in the hotel until you come back."

Mark nodded and left. Seth sighed after he closed the door. This could have ended worse. Seth had no intention to go against the government or something, simply because he had no idea about the power levels in Urth.

Seth had spent a long time in a different world and actually had an easy time since all his stats were double than his level suggested. But the people of Urth had just as much time and they had the same inherent buffs. He had no advantage except for his items, but this did not guarantee that he could beat someone with strong combat skills. Especially if their level was comparable.

Except <Pyrokinesis> he severely lacked attack skills. The easiest way to make up for that was reaching lv.50 as soon as possible and get a combat class. The other way was making special items. Like his bow or the robe he made for fin, weapons had options that had a similar effect to skills or granted them when worn.

That meant he needed to find more above common-rated souls. He actually had the hope that he could find more on Urth, than on Namia. In all his time in Namia he had only found one. He had found two during his first few days after the apocalypse.

They were also often connected to a quest, maybe he had to act in a way that triggered more quests...? But then again, he didn't get a quest to help the girls, even so, it would have been the prime opportunity.

What other connection was there... maybe he had to look at places with lots of tragic deaths? Or look for the really depraved people and monsters to kill. The last thought was based on the Orc that gave him an uncommon soul.

He could easily increase the power of a soul, but it was hard to increase the rating. He actually had no idea how he could increase the ranking of souls...

When his thoughts came to this point, he decided to stop there. There was nothing to gain in mulling over things he could not solve at the moment.. It was more important to go and tell the girls about their change in plans.