Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

It was the middle of the night. The group was on the go wandering through the dark wasteland, following Ahmed's lead. Seth was walking in the rear together with Ellie. The bard opened his hand and unnoticed by the rest of the group, a recorder rose back into the sky.

"Are you done?" the slime rancher whispered from the side.

"Yep, that was the last one. Now, we won't have to worry as much anymore." Seth said with a mischievous smile.

Seth had gotten the blueprints for recorders when he was wandering around Chrona with Mina. They had come across many shops that sold magical devices like the little golem cameras.

His class advancement gave him the ability to appraise devices and could give him all blueprints up to epic by appraising them. This made it easy for him to come up with a way to insert his golem souls into the recorders.

The surveillance drones and the personal recorder of Ellie and himself were now under his control. This gave them a little more freedom to react in case the situation became dire. However, the chance of that happening was small, since the rest of the party could not be underestimated.

Night in the wasteland was surprisingly uneventful. No, maybe it was wrong to say that. They met a few nocturnal monsters, but they were no obstacle for their group. The hero had quickly recovered his motivation after he heard that his wish to go to Akhaz was the right decision.

They had made good distance during the night when they finally saw the first rays of the sun in the morning. Things started to change from here. Although the group was mostly unfazed thanks to the rings, other monsters started popping up.

During the night, they had encountered monsters commonly known to travel through the pathworks. The basic composition of the base monsters did not change, but they were now horribly disfigured.

Like Ahmed had said, the power was completely different compared to the normal beats. As they were looking for a shelter during the day. They met a group of Orcs at a huge rock formation.

These typically 2+m tall, green-skinned hunks, with their huge tusks, looked almost unrecognizable. They looked swollen and their skin was burned rosy between thick swarths of black cancerous growths covering their bodies.

The moment they saw them, they charged at the group from Urth, without any sense or strategy. Like always, the hero stepped forward to meet them. He leisurely swung his sword, but it became clear, why they did not need any sense or strategy.

In a surprise, Harker watched the epic sword, that was given by the empire, bounce off the black patches of cancerous skin, as if they were armor plates. In a hurry, he managed to block the beast's attack just in time.

"I might need some support for these."

Facing the kind of strength and defense these monsters exhibit made the hero ask for team play. Brock, Ellie, Cade, and Marcel joined the frontlines, while Misto, the mist demon, and Elza, the ice mage started casting spells.

Seth, Yvette, and Rich were busy casting support or curses from the back. The merchant stood alongside them and shot arrows, from an eccentric-looking bow.

Except for the more normal members of the group, like Elza, Marcel, and Brock, everyone was only showing the bare minimum of their skills during the team play. Such was Seth's evaluation at least.

Well, he didn't know whether Rich held back since his skills were limited without the party being his slaves. Otherwise, it was rather obvious from the kind of behavior everyone was exhibiting. Everybody was calm and collected as if the situation they faced was something, they could also deal with alone.

This made it apparent to Seth, that they were most likely holding back, just like him and Ellie. It would take more than this to make them show the depths of their skills.

As for the three from Delta, he knew them and their capabilities pretty well, after they traveled together for weeks. They had no problems facing these beasts one on one, but they were not calm in the sense of "being able to deal with this situation, no matter what happened."

As such, their time in the wastelands, meeting smaller groups of abominations, was more of a training exercise in teamwork, than it was a danger to them.

---Chrona---

The second Prince was furious. He shouted and hollered and berated Fin's parents openly. He had more than enough of this situation. Even after he went through the trouble of propping her up as a Hero to the public and having his father bestow an engagement onto them-!

Even when he finally found her after she ran away. Months' worth of royal summons had gone unanswered and ignored.

How dare a person born to lower nobility act like this! She should feel honored to become his wife. It was the chance of her life to achieve something great. Become a queen! Instead, she used the next best excuse to run off and cut off any contact with the kingdom. To ignore this prince!

What did she think who he was?! What did her parents think who they were, not to

The beautiful fairy and her husband looked awkwardly as the prince was screaming at them at the top of his voice. In front of someone else's butler no less.

Suddenly, the door was thrown open. A cute beastman girl with cat ears barged into the room.

"Go to your own home, if you want to train your vocal cords! Your whimsical, squeaky whines ring in my ears!" she confronted the tiny royalty.

Hearing some arrogant noble berating someone else's parents for not going along with their selfish desires and sacrificing their child's future had incensed the free-spirited cat assassin. Especially since this was about Fin.

"Who are you to tell me what to do? Insolent beast! Know your place, you are not worthy to be in the presence of this prince." he first asked incensed, but his voice turned to disgust when he saw what he was talking to.

"As if it wasn't bad enough for my future wife to spend her time with humans, but even with beastmen. Have you not educated your own daughter?" he made a snarky comment toward the two other fairies, Fin's parents.

"Future wife?! Hah! As if a tiny, rude ball of arrogance like you was worthy of her! You are unworthy." Mina spat out.

"Unworthy!" she repeated and pointed at the second prince.

"T-Tiny! You!" she had touched upon a taboo of the fairy race. None of them could handle being called small. They were even worse than dwarves in that regard.

"You don't deny you are unworthy. At least you understand. She is way too good, for something like you!"

"Something like me? How dare you dirty beastman tell me I was unworthy! I will have your head!"

Suddenly the room dimmed, and a dangerous aura emitted from the tiny prince. Several armored fairy knights broke through the windows and surrounded the prince. At the same time, the door behind Mina exploded.

People who had been lazing around on the couch until just a moment ago had switched from their pajamas to powerful armor in split seconds. In the front was Fin, who had just pulverized the door in anger.

"I don't care if you berate my parents. But nobody touches Mina!" the father and mother pairs face darkened.

The butler was looking around in shock, suddenly caught between two powerful sides. Their menacing auras clashing in a stand-off. Events came thick and fast. Then the wall exploded out of nowhere, causing the butler to finally lose consciousness from shock.

Debris flew through the room and thick dust hang in the air.

"Am I too late?" Princess Leana and a troop of imperial knights charged in through the hole.

"What is the meaning of this?!" the second prince asked shocked, suddenly facing not just Mina's friends, but the imperial guard.

"That's my line! How dare you trespass on the area exclusive to the relatives of Evaluation participants?" she said righteously but winked in Fin's direction. They were the cavalry.

Of course, the Princess had spent enough time with Fin to know about the fairy's problems. She had covered for her in Delta; however, the empire was different. She had more duties to take care of and the prince had used this opening to get access to the palace compounds, using the identity of her parents.

"This has nothing to do with the empire! It's an issue among the fair folk! Don't intervene."

"You are threatening citizens of the empire, on the empire's territory, in a place you are not supposed to be. Take him away." the princess commanded.

To everyone's surprise, it was not the imperial guard that moved to detain the prince. It was the fairy knights, that encircled the prince.

"What are you doing!? You are my guards!"

"I have already contacted your father about your transgressions."

"The king has ordered your Highness to return immediately. We are to bring you back, so you can take responsibility." the guard leader said

"What!? But-" he said unwillingly, shooting venomous glances and Mina, Fina, and the others, before being brought away by his own guards.

"Seems, like we were in time." the Princess heaved a sigh of relief. Her face twitched a little when a specific smell wormed its way into her nose.

"How about you guys wash up and we eat out together?"