Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Seth came by the octagonal room again and said his goodbyes to Marcel, Elza, brock, before following a butler to leave.

His head was filled with the things he needed to do in the coming days. Now that he could officially use magic crystals as a cheap additional power source, he would be able to make more test golems without worrying about squandering expensive materials.

Thanks to this, he was sure to level up <Golem Artisan> again and make the next step.

An excited beastwoman was already waiting for him when he returned to Minas Mar.

"Tell me everything! In Detail!" she commanded with sparkling eyes.

He did not understand why she was so hyped but gladly sat down with her to narrate what had happened. She smiled approvingly when he told Mina, how he helped the princess.

"Oof! Why...?" he moaned in pain when she gave him an elbow check in the ribs. He had just described the negotiations.

"You were rude to the princess. You know that I like her! She's a good person, so you should show her some more respect."

He nodded awkwardly and continued the story. When he finally ended, Mina suddenly stood up and pulled him off his seat.

"What are you doing?"

"That's my question! Why are you dawdling around? We should go and get you an instrument right now."

"Why right now?"

"Don't you have to practice a lot to learn a musical instrument? If you want to shine as a bard in the evaluation, you should start practicing as soon as possible. Let's go on a shopping date to look for one!" she answered motivated.

Seth could only smile wryly as she pulled him along. Wasn't it her who asked him to sit down and talk? He did not resist the soft hand that was leading the way to the surface elevator a the center of the tower.

Informing the others? Making Golem or item? All that could wait for now. Despite his fiddling around with items and golems, Seth had made sure to prioritize Mina and his friends in the past weeks. The blacksmith found his life much more enjoyable this way.

He happily dropped the thoughts of work and ran off with Mina. Although it was to look for an instrument, it was a date in the end.

They strolled through the streets of Delta, after exiting the surface building of Minas Mar. It was more humbled than the Willis Building that stood here before and leaned more into the architectural style of the Chrona empire.

After it was finished, it became the kingdom of Mary and her subordinates of the administration.

On the surface, the city had not changed. But at a closer look one saw many more shops and stores for all kinds of magical items with the signs of different Merchant and Adventurer Guilds on them. The Turquoise Anvil as an outlet for a guild was no unique idea, to begin with, but there was now much more competition.

It was one of the reasons Neeco Boos had finally decided to officially join Minas Mar during Seth's absence. The disaster in Delta had been hard on his business. And now that more and cheaper products from native and foreign merchants flooded the market, he had finally decided to give up on his own store and join Seth.

The blacksmith had reluctantly allowed the tailor to sell his superhero suits at the Turquoise Anvil, as long as he made cloth armor for Minas Mar. The Spell weaver's items could be comfortably worn under the armor and could give passive improvements if Seth infused them with a soul, or Hoen added a power nucleus.

They kept window shopping here and there, but despite the increase in diversity and goods, they could not find anything interesting in Delta. However, Mina seemed to have a goal and Seth followed her as she steered toward the demon district.

Seth had a vague idea where she was leading him. Just like how there was a kind of blacksmith district for demonic bards, adjacent to it was something similar for instrument makers. There was the place where he had also wanted to go later, to look for an instrument.

Mina led him to the demonic instrument bazaar. Since many demon factions were prominent traders, the demon district had many specialized bazaars and marketplaces like this.

"How do you even know about this place?"

"Oh, I came past it on a stroll with Ember."

"Ember? How do you know her?" Seth asked curiously. The demon girl from the bar college had never mentioned knowing his girlfriend.

"She came by Minas Mar after you were abducted. She was quite worried at the time."

"So that girl could be worried too?" Seth mumbled

The many different stalls offered a myriad of enchanted instruments. Things they made, things they bought. There were also a lot of stalls for used goods that advertised with the private instruments of well-known and legendary demonic bards, human bards, or minstrels.

They also sold all kinds of sheet music in thick stacks. The number of old instruments and songs sold in bundles was the harsh reality of the bard's business. Many got the class and aspired to be musicians, but most of them failed.

Degraded to street musicians or helpers in workshops, they could only sell their work and instruments, together with their dream of making it big. Often, they would change their class at the next possible opportunity.

Seth's <Instrument Mastery> gave him the possibility to learn the ropes of any instrument quickly. But similar to <Weapon Mastery>, the immediate use depended on the level of the skill, which was beginner lv.4 for Seth.

That meant, that Mina was kind of right. If he wanted to accompany his songs with an instrument, he would have to practice with it. Getting one as early as possible was the right choice. But which should he take?

<Instrument Maker> allowed him to appraise the instruments, but since its level was similarly low, Seth felt almost blind in this market.

It was still fun to go around together with the cat woman and test out different instruments. There were many exotic variations that used magic in similar ways to electric instruments. A magic piano board or stringed instruments without a body like e-guitars. The only drawback of those was that they used additional magic to be played.

For some, Seth had seen the blueprints in his catalog but had not tried making one yet. Others he saw for the first time. There were also alien-looking instruments for non-humanoid races. Like wind instruments that needed four hands to play correctly. Or triple drum sets that needed more pairs of legs and arms.

They came across a lot of intriguing and interesting instruments and Seth would try each and everyone to play for a little while for Mina. However, none really captivated him.

That was until h noticed one specific instrument.

A special lyre. Made from the skull of a demon with long black horns, shaped like an omega. The strings were stretched between the skull, which acted as a sound body, and a bar fastened between the horns.

It was not its design that caught his attention. This was a demonic bazaar; a lot of instruments featured skull designs or were fashioned from bones and skulls, themself. It did not even stick out from the pile of instruments it was stuck in.

It was not even the only instrument with an ego, he had seen on the bazaar. He could completely inspect it, despite his low level in <Instrument Maker>

What caught Seth's attention, was that it had a soul.

<Lyre of Oz

Unique-Ego

Durability: 666

1. Self-tuning

2. Self-repairing

3. Self-playing

4. +50% Proficiency gain in Instrument Mastery

5. +80% effect of music skills

6. Ballads of Oz

7. Hordes of Oz

Made from the skull of Oz, a well-known demon musician of his time. Often polarizing because of his hard take on music. Following his last wishes, a master created this lyre from his skull and sealed his soul inside.

Requirements: Gain the recognition of Oz >

Ballads of Oz would give access to the song Oz had created in his lifetime. Hordes of Oz would summon swarms of demon bats with every strumming of the lyre, that would proceed to attack the enemy.

"Are you interested in that thing? You should give up. Even though it has an ego and good effects, it's a non-seller since it has to recognize its master." he sighed.

"Do you know how happy I was when I managed to buy it for a lot of money and the despair when I found out, that it was unusable?"

"How much?" Seth asked distracted.

He tried to communicate with the ego of the soul, but it had degraded to the point where Seth could only perceive emotions but not clear thoughts.

"You really want to buy it? Did it recognize you!?"

"No, but I wish to buy it anyway," Seth said and tried to play the string, but the unique lyre remained silent.

"... 5 gold. I need to make back at least some of my losses."

Mina was a little confused why Seth bought an instrument he could not use, but the blacksmith only smiled and paid the price. This was expensive for an instrument one could not use, but for him, it was just right.

Seth already had an idea what to do with the lyre.