Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Everyone looked stumped at the final boss, who greeted them with a plea for mercy.

"If you kill me I will lose a whole two levels. I will give you anything if you spare me!"

He had a big pompous throne in the back but was kneeling right in front of the door to the boss room, begging them to spare his life. Since everyone looked at him to answer, Seth stepped forward to make a decision. He was not a cruel person, he was someone that could be talked to.

Was it hard for Dragon newts to reach such a high level?... Well, it wasn't easy for any of them either to gain a level past 90. The bard thought of at least giving him the chance to buy his life.

"What are you offering? It shouldn't be something that the dungeon would give, or you drop if we kill you, right?"

"Oh, merciful mister! I would not dare to even think of cheating you," he exclaimed.

Seth felt awkward, being called Mister by a three-meter tall dragon person that looked like the grandfather of the other dungeon inhabitant, with a beard of tassels around his chin. While the blacksmith tried to decide how exactly he thought about that, the chief started bringing out stuff from his inventory.

"This is a necklace made of the teeth of the previous chiefs of my tribe. This is a weapon made from one of my great ancestors' wing nails. This toga was created by our great ancestor and still carries his aura. T-This is the core of a salamander a great chieftain of the past slew. This..."

With every item he brought out, he looked up to Seth in desperation to see whether the man that decided over his life was pleased or not. The blacksmith deliberately showed no reaction to the relic-rated and epic items the chief brought out.

Seth kept silently watching, as the sweat started pouring from the forehead of the boss. As his inventory kept growing lighter, true desperation became visible on his face.

"T-This is my club made from the toenail of our ancestor... Erm, erm, this is a chunk of metal anyone in our tribe was unable to process? M-My inventory is empty, please take all of this and spare me!"

He finally broke down and simply kowtowed to him. It seemed like the last two, were really ones he had wanted to hold onto, and Seth immediately understood why. Although crude in workmanship, the club was rated legendary. Same for the chunk of metal.

<Essence of Kova (Crafting material)

Special

The coagulated blood of Kova. >

The item description was overwhelmingly underwhelming. Seth had no idea who Kova was. The only thing he could conclude was that Kova was a god of some sort since this was a special-rated metal.

He would have to ask Leana, maybe she knew who or what Kova was. It was definitely enough to pay for the life of the boss.

"Alright, this is enough to spare you. Of course, we also take everything the core can spit out."

"Of Course, of course!" the dragon newt quickly ran over to the core to get the treasure chest

"Is it really okay to leave just like that?" Mike whispered a little grossed out from watching the boss' behavior.

"One boss wouldn't do too much for our experience, and he already paid his ransom. Let's be nice and let him live," the blacksmith said magnanimously.

"Yes, please don't kill poor old Partysnaxx," the giant boss joined in as he returned with the treasure chest. "Here, I will even open you the return formation. Please, leave in peace and prosperity, dear lords and ladies."

He kept becoming even more obnoxiously submissive.

"Yeah, we are leaving. Good luck reaching lv.100," Seth said after packing up all the stuff Partysnaxx, which seemed to be his actual name, had brought out.

Now Seth had another two legendary materials to make something from. One was the <Essence of Kova>, the other was... <Lesser Firedragon's Toenail>. It was part of the crude club, if Seth disassembled the weapon he would get the toenail...really why was it called toenail and not claw?

There was also the Salamander Core. A salamander was a powerful fire spirit. Seth's gloves he received from Tored were made from the leather of such a being. It was a shame the core he received was only epic-rated. The other things were not up to standard for the lords and field teams of Minas Mar, but they would wander into the guild vault.

Previously, members of the Oathguard had the privilege to be able to purchase better items for their private load out. With Minas Mar's expansion as a District and taking in Subsidiary Guilds, this system was also expanded.

It had been Jane's idea to introduce a Contribution System. Any member associated with Minas Mar could gain contribution points and get the chance to purchase items from the public Guild Vault. Simply said, it was a way to distribute items they would not want to sell to random people among their own. The money and contribution needed would deter people from trying to make a quick buck.

Having stepped through the teleport formation without a problem they were back on the vibrant surface.

"Was that really a good idea? We don't know what happens when he reaches lv.100. Wouldn't it have been better to strike him down now?" Lyxiss voiced her doubts. Seth shrugged.

"Isn't that the best part? If he does nothing, we just god a bunch of good stuff. If this is all a ploy to gain time and come for revenge later, it's a heap of materials and experience delivering itself to us. I really see no drawback."

"If you phrase it like that..." Lyxiss answered stunned.

"It's a win-win situation for us," Mike agreed.

They contacted the other teams, who were not as lucky to meet such a supportive final boss. They used the chance to camp out in the idyllic territory of dragon people. They didn't have to wait for long before the other teams joined them again.

"How did it go?" Lydia jumped at Mike the moment her team arrived and asked in the round.

"Our boss was very...accommodating," Mike said startled.

"I can see Monique already. Let's talk when everyone is here," Seth suggested.

...

"...and he started emptying his inventory for us!" Fin described excitedly.

"Are you serious?!" the members of the other two teams were stumped.

"Yeah, he even handed me two legendary materials," Seth confirmed the colorful descriptions of the fairy. Although there were not as many epic beatdowns as she mentioned, it was a roughly accurate rendition of their dungeon trip.

"What now? Do we camp out and then go to one of those entrances?" Monique finally asked later on, referring to the map they had gotten from Payne Indias.

"Nope. We camp out and then we go to an entrance my golem drones found," Seth revealed that the drones also had success while they were on an outing. Although he had not found as many entrances as there were on the demon's card, there were two not mentioned on the map.

"I doubt the maestro would give us something useful, I bet most of them have some kind of trap or ambush he thinks we can't deal with. At least the ones the drones already checked seemed untrustworthy. Evading those on the map might be our best bet."

They talked for a while longer, ate dinner, and finally went to sleep.