Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

If he remembered correctly it was a mighty river that had carved this scar and the many caves into the landscape but he was unable to spot it on his short flight.

“Quite the sight, isn’t it?” the caravan leader greeted them as they came back.

“I knew it from the picture, but seeing it in person really is different,” Seth agreed.

“Tower Master? I’m glad you are back. Captain Bement asked all the leaders to assemble for a briefing,” a young adventurer suddenly came running and informed him.

“We barely arrived and there is already a briefing. Sorry, Mina, I will be right back.”

He separated from his fiance and followed the young soldier into the fortified camp, or maybe it was more appropriate to already call it a castle? The camp with enough space for several hundred tents was surrounded by a high and thick stone wall, with walkways and watch towers.

Filling a small valley that looked over the canyon and its surrounding land, it was in a position that was hard to attack and easy to defend. The soldier led Seth to one of the big stone buildings in the inner ring, where he also spotted facilities like a smithy.

He was led to a big hall with a long wooden table. Along the sides, he saw the leader of the guild teams already seated together with the people from the adventurer guild. He sat down at an empty seat beside Brock.

“Now that we are all here, we can start the briefing. First of all, apologies. I wish I could let everyone take a break and recover from the journey, but the situation does not allow it. I asked everyone to come so quickly because things have changed since the original plan was made.”

Above the table appeared a rough 3-dimensional sketch of the canyon and the land inside the storm. It was labeled Floor 0. The Adventurer Guild treated their Holy Land as a super dungeon, that was split up into hundreds of individual dungeons.

This model showed only the surface and some of the shallowly explored areas they labeled as the first floor. Even though it was just Floor 0, it was already full of tens of differently colored areas. This was the map they were shown prior to their departure.

It showed the territories of the different beasts and dungeons that took home inside and were in a state similar to warring nations, defending and trying to expand their territories. The goal of the expedition was for the guilds to pacify all the areas outside the dungeons so the adventurer guild could set up a permanent base and a teleportation hub.

For this, the canyon had been split into zones with every guild having its own hunting grounds to pacify. In exchange, the guild would have exclusive rights to raid the dungeon in their zones for the next weeks. With the high respawn rate of these high-level dungeons, this was more of a necessity than a reward, however, it was also exactly what the high-level players wanted.

Of course, there were still some other deals and rewards arranged but they were the private business between the adventurer guild and the individual guilds of Delta. Officially, this was a project working on mutual benefit.

“This was the status before your departure. These are changes that happened over the last week.”

It was the same map, but there had been a great change in colored territories. There were four new spots, that had taken over three-fourths of the visible parts of the map.

“Four forces from the lower floors have suddenly and aggressively started conquering their way to the surface. This is the state our last scouting party encountered. As you can see, the original separation will not work as many of the original territories have already vanished.”

The lower floors, the vast cave systems below the canyon, and the surrounding lands and easily led several hundred meters deep into the belly of the mountain range. The adventurer guild had not yet succeeded to get a good look at whatever was happening down there. Nobody knew how many floors this “super dungeon” really had.

With little to no knowledge about the place, changes like this were sudden and came without warning. The involved parties could only groan and try to cope with the situation by redistributing sections.

Bement started explaining about the four new factions. He pointed at the smallest of the fours.

“This small blue space is an aggressive tribe of Dragon Newts, reptilian hybrids that have a distant blood connection with low-ranking dragons. They show no interest in the local dungeons, but they are very strong and have their territory under tight control.”

“The violet area here are demonic beasts probably led by a Maestro. Although the beasts are not very intelligent, they are high in power. There are a few lesser demons among them, that hijack conquered dungeons to summon even more of them,” he explained, pointing at the second biggest space.

“A Maestro?” Seth thought in surprise. Others around the table didn’t seem to quite understand what a maestro was as none of them so much as reacted to the information. When a demonic bard was a mix of a bard and a blacksmith in demon society, then a Maestro was equivalent to an enchanter with the abilities of an alchemist and a monster tamer.

Although, calling it a monster tamer was maybe too nice, as they used curses to take control of beasts- Creatures that fall into their hands would be experimented on and strengthened by demonic magic and alchemy. The chimeras the Theocracy created in their dungeons were a joke, the botched attempts of a bumbling fool, compared to the demonic creatures of a Maestro.

Bement didn’t seem to notice Seth’s reaction as he faced the two biggest spots, that shared a border.

“Currently at conflict with each other are a Kingdom of Orcs, Kozdan, and a horde of insects we call the hive. While the former has a similar strategy as the demons, the hive simply destroys and absorbs any dungeons on their way. They are the most numerous new power, but their power levels vary tremendously from simple workers to dangerous elite units.”

The last sentence made one thing clear, nobody wanted to take on the hive. Not because of the danger or numbers, but because a lot of the people present were interested in the dungeons as a regrowing resource of experience, not the surface clean up. After they got rid of the built-up forces, there would only be one source of monsters left, instead of dozens. Other dungeons could grow there, but how long would that take?

“The dragon newts are the faction with the most individual strength, but the lowest danger to the dungeons, and they show no signs of expanding their territory any further, for now. Taking our strength into account, I suggest that the guilds of Delta concentrate on the Hive and Aurelia, while the Adventurer Guild will face the Maestro. We can then debate on how to split the rest based on performance. ” Bement suggested, including Minas Mar as a guild from Delta.

“Aren’t your cherry-picking a little too much? You are the strongest force here, you should take on the hive or the orcs,” one of the guild masters countered.

“Right! You can leave the demonic beasts to us.” another of the representatives agreed.

Bement’s face darkened. It was obvious that these people just didn’t want to be stuck with a place that had only one dungeon left. They were completely ignoring whether the hive was actually the strongest faction, they simply argued based on the size of the territory.

Seth on the other hand stayed silent. He watched on in slight amusement. It was a little funny to think that people had already forgotten the danger of dungeons and turned to see them as a resource.

He also saw no need to speak up as things actually developed in a way that he liked. If one thing was clear to him, then that he didn’t want to face that demon. The blacksmith had heard stories and read books that mentioned the danger and vindictiveness of a Maestro.

It wasn’t that Seth was afraid to face some army of demonic beasts, but they were simply not worth the effort. His goal was for himself and his people to level up. If given the choice between a powerful and tricky enemy, and one that was just powerful and gave the same amount of experience, who would choose the difficult one? Only those idiots who didn’t know what they were trying to fight.

While he was watching the first guild master had managed to form a small alliance that all argued together with him, that their guilds should take care of the demons, while the adventurer guild should face the orcs and the hive.

Others saw their chance and tried to lay claim to the dungeons that had yet to be overrun by one of the four factions. When everyone was locked in a heated debate and even Bement seemed close to losing his temper, Seth bought out Oz and played a dissonant sound that made the whole room cringe in pain and discomfort. The bard ignored their reactions and spoke.

“I have a simple offer. Minas Mar will take on the Hive, but like everyone else, we don’t want to work without profit. In addition to the hive, I claim all these independent dungeons in its vicinity.”

With this announcement, Seth not only offered to take care of the drudgery but also demanded half the independent dungeons on the map. However, he didn’t even need to use to have the assembled representatives agree.

They had spent so much time concentrating on not being the one to face the hive, that they virtually ignored the fact, that Seth asked for a hefty price for his work. They even felt happy, or crafty, that they could “hamper” Minas Mar’s profits in this place. It was almost too easy. Only Bement showed some concern.

“Are you sure Minas Mar can take on such a load alone? You shouldn’t underestimate the hive.”

Taking the hive and adding the adjacent areas meant that Minas Mar would be in charge of one-third of Floor 0. it was obvious that Bement was worried, despite the number of people Minas Mar had arrived with.

“Oh, don’t worry. We will manage.”