Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Seth had worked hard for the past week, making bows, crossbows, clubs, and spears, anything that required and benefited from the <Carpentry> skill. The resulting items had also slightly increased his <Blacksmithing> by a whopping 10%. They also clogged up the Enchantment Laboratory’s storage room, since Grant May couldn’t keep up with Seth’s production pace.

Alison had also reported that she came up with a training plan for the two of them to reach master-tier <Alchemy> in the next 2-3 months. As for the tailors, they were tragic to look at, but Minas Mar now had several storerooms of finished <Ancient Bronze> and <Celestial Bronze> fabrics, as well as twice as much in unprocessed threads.

Another good news was that the business with Arget Nore finally started running smoothly. It seemed that the squads of golems he lent them were a great help and they had finally paid for their first batch of golems, increasing his Alchemy Budget to 3500 gold and putting a bunch of rare and epic materials into their coffers.

For 1000 gold and materials of a value of 300 gold, they received 150 discounted stone golems and kept renting the squads of Golem Knights that were working on guarding the teleportation formation in Gamma.

Facing the costs of Alison’s Alchemy Training plan, Seth regretted offering the discount a little. The final negotiations ended with Arget Nore earning up to a 50% discount on a Stone Golem for every 10 released people.

This way he missed out on 700 gold coins on the stone golems, in just the first exchange. Well, at some point, they wouldn’t have any more people to get discounts. Then they would have to pay full prices even for the Stone golems. Since Seth made sure only to allow discounts on them.

This was also why they rented the golem knights, instead of buying them. Seth demanded a whopping 50 gold for one. One may think that this was expensive, but they would have simply underestimated the worth of these golems in the eyes of the undead.

Seth had offered them the necromancing Necronite Golem, or NecroKnight as Seth unofficially called it, for a whopping 500 gold and they didn’t even hesitate to accept. The only reason he didn’t finish the deal, was because didn't have the lump change to pay him. They needed time to manage their affairs and come up with the money.

Overall, things had progressed well, and everything was ready to welcome Nädel and Tored, who would finally arrive today. He might have reached lv.5 in <Carpentry> earlier if he had not taken his time to personally make sure Tored and Nädel would have their own Workshops.

Not only were the workshops especially big and fully furnished, but he had also prepared several rooms, since Nädel hinted that he intended to bring his apprentices along, too. This meant, that Seth wouldn't just get an experienced craftsman, but also his talented disciples. Seth didn't really know any of them from his time in Ora, but he had a good expression from the few times he visited Nädel's workshop.

He was especially looking forward to showing off to Tored. Although many of his legendary works had left with his friends who went to look for adventures in other worlds, he still had quite a lot to boast about here. Although they were mostly legendary because of the materials they were made of, Seth was still proud of them.

He was sure the dwarven master would be able to give him advice to improve his technical skills in future projects.

“Are you ready?” Mina entered the workshop, asking him.

“Is it already time?” the blacksmith asked, hurriedly using magic to clean up before changing his outfit. He had been so engrossed in his work, trying to raise <Carpentry> by the last few percent, that he almost missed the timing.

They intended to fetch Tored, Nädel, and their entourage from the System Church and show them around Delta before bringing them to Minas Mar. Thanks to Mina fetching him, the two, Fin, and Leana still arrived at the system church early. The branch here in Delta was as busy as ever, maybe even busier than before it was a constant arrival and departure of goods and merchants, with people queuing at the counter to get deliveries or send stuff away.

It really drove home the point that when it came to inter-dimensional trade, the System Church had a clear edge over the Auction House, at least when it came to ordinary trade. If the materials he needed were not as rare and expensive, he would have also bought them through the System Church, especially since their transportation fee was much cheaper than the Auction, where Seth paid several gold coins for interdimensional delivery for every single piece.

They waited for roughly a quarter of an hour when finally, a bunch of familiar silhouettes appeared. Seth’s mood immediately improved when he recognized the stocky, muscular build of his master, Tored, and the tall, spindly figure of Nädel Spindli, the tailor craftsman.

To his surprise, they were not the only people he recognized among the people arriving on the teleportation formation. He immediately recognized the tall, handsome figure of the Half-elf he ran a shop with, in Ora. What was Marn doing here? And there was a second dwarf Seth recognized but couldn’t quite remember the name.

The man who had helped him find his way in the city of dwarfs. A dwarf studying masonry... Vathon Stonechiseler! The name came to him when he remembered his profession. He was slightly more confused about his presence here than about Marn’s.

“Seth!” Tored greeted him and pulled him into a tight bearhug that almost broke his back since the tall blacksmith had to bend over to hug the dwarf, otherwise it would have been awkward. Even more awkward.

“It’s nice to see you again,” Nädel was more reserved and shook his hand with a semi-hug and a pat on the back. Behind the tailor were some of his assistants and disciples who decided to come along with their master. They greeted him shily. Then the blacksmith turned to Marn and Vathon.

“And what are you guys doing here? Marn? Vathon?” he joked, playfully indignant about these “uninvited guests”.

“I couldn’t shake them off, once I announced that I would leave Ora and the City of Eternal Night. When they heard that I would go to join you, they wouldn’t stop pestering me to come along,” Tored explained with a cheeky smile, making the two young men blush.

“I recently graduated as a craftsman. Unlike someone else, it was time for me to leave the nest. This is a great opportunity, don’t tell me you will send away a craftsman Mason and journeyman sculptor,” Vathon justified being here, but there was a glint in his eyes that told Seth that the dwarf was out for adventure in a foreign world, not necessarily the job opportunity.

“I-I also became a lv.5 Journeyman blacksmith recently and master didn’t stop me when I told him where I would go!” Marn argued

“Ha, we all know why you are here,” Vathon said with a raunchy smile, that made Marn blush.

“You know, he wouldn’t shut up about her, after that quarter Elf and her party left to follow you. He was sooo heartbroken,” Vathon snitched on Marn’s true motive to come to Urth.

Seth remembered that Marn and Lyxiss had a relationship by the time he had to leave Ora, but he didn’t know it was that serious. At least for Marn, it seemed quite serious, if Vathon said the truth.

“You are lucky, I don’t think Lyxiss had anyone new, yet,” Seth mentioned. Although the elf tried to hide it, the radiating hope in his eyes was obvious. One came for the thrill, the other for love, well, Seth wasn’t going to complain about two more skilled and trustworthy laborers.

After greeting Seth, they also greeted Fin and Mina, and after a little shock, they also greeted Leana, as a princess of the Chrona Empire.

“Do you want to see the city, or should we go to Minas Mar first so you can unpack?” Seth asked the crowd. Seeing how many there were, the blacksmith doubted that all of them wished to immediately go sightseeing.

“it’s still early, I would love to see the cityscape you used to talk about,” Tored agreed to visit the city.

“Me too, I also want to see what kind of place Urth is,” obviously, Vathon was also eager to find out more about this foreign world.

“I would appreciate it if we could go to our accommodation and rest first,” Nädel gladly took the offer, and his disciples and assistants agreed with him. He was already a little older and had other priorities.

“I... would also like to see the place we are staying,” Marn said modestly.

“I will show them around Minas Mar. You guys should take your time showing these two around town,” Leana offered to take them back to Minas Mar, while Mina, Fin, and Seth would show the two dwarfs Delta.

While Leana took the other through the teleport formation back to Minas Mar, the other four left the System Church and entered the streets of Delta. The moment they stepped out, the two dwarfs froze at the sight. Towers even higher than the pillars of the City of Eternal Night and mountain peaks populating the sky above.

“D-Didn’t you say there was no magic in your world? How are these mountains flying in the sky? How did you build such high towers?” Tored mumbled, audibly more interested in the last part.

“The stuff with the mountains happened recently, as for the buildings, pure architecture, and technology. But don’t ask me for the details, I didn’t study that,” Seth gave two simple answers with a shrug.

In a similar manner, they walked into an afternoon full of questions as they showed Tored around the city, its shops, and its restaurants.