Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

"Okay, let's all get on Puffles, we still have to meet up with Caleb."

Puffles did not fly this time. It was to save his mana. Instead, he rushed through the streets of the crumbling city like a runaway train.

Megan helped the mountain queen calm down, while the ivicer express rushed to their next destination. Once the group was completed, they had to talk about how they would proceed from here on.

It was clear that someone was aiming for their lives, and they probably had highjacked Chrona's broadcasting. The problem was that they could not contact Chrona from their place.

Originally, Chrona would open a spatial gate for the participants, once the participants finished the quest based on the coordinates of the recorders. The fact that they had not done this yet to evacuate them, could only mean that they either couldn't or didn't want to.

Neither of the options boded well for them.

~Mom, are you worried? Maybe big mom could- ~ Tatzel him innocently.

~What are you saying? With me around, there is no need for anyone else. Me, Puffles, the great is more than enough to deal with some stupid undead. ~

~It's not just the undead. But thank you two for trying to cheer me up. I'm okay. ~ he answered them with a smile.

It took a while, but finally, the silhouettes of a resting Wyvern appeared from the fog. The ivicer express had just entered a wide clearing filled with rubble and ruins. It must have been a big fight.

Beside the wyvern stood seven people. There were four new additions besides Ellie, Marcel, and Caleb. On wore a deep blue robe with mystic golden embellishments. The hood was pulled deep in his face so that only the lower half could be seen and the rim of a blindfold.

The other was even shorter than the dwarf and wore a wild-looking outfit with all kinds of bones, dried plants, and other knickknacks covering his body. His arms were crossed, and he seemed anything but happy. Maybe because he was covered in grey mucus from head to toe.

The other two were Rich and Harker. The two groups came together and greeted each other, finally uniting everyone with their missing party members.

Caleb introduced the new faces to Seth. The fortuneteller, Tama, smiled mysteriously and bowed his head. Beside him covered in mucus was the goblin Twinkle Rainborn, a High Shaman. Seth belatedly realized that it was a female.

"What happened to you, Twinkle?" Megan asked.

She was about to hug the small figure but stopped herself just in time.

"I was swallowed by a slime..." she said with reproach and gave Ellie the stink eye. Her long green ears were wiggling in agitation.

"Hey! If Jimbob had not swallowed you and used his in time, you would already be fighting for the enemy." Ellie defended her baby incensed.

"Hmph!" the female goblin looked away, pouting.

Although they had the directions from Senior White, Caleb's group had used Ellie's slimes to scout in advance since the battlefield could quickly change. They had found the Hero first, though the slimes could only watch the fight among three heroes from a distance until the Wyvern Rider appeared.

The Fortuneteller was second. He had used his skills to escape the enemy's pursuit and revealed himself willingly to the slimes and was the first they found. By the time they collected him, the slimes had already found Twinkle in a similar situation to Yvette or Seth.

The goblin shaman was surrounded by a horde of zombies while two attackers sieged her. Had Jimbob, the steel slime, not jumped forward to protect her, she would have died before the Wyvern was able to reach her.

Although she very much disliked the fact that she was unable to wash up until now, she could not deny that it saved her life.

All of them decided to camp in this place for now and fully recover. In the meantime, they sat together and got acquainted with each other.

"Maybe everyone should officially introduce themself and what they can do." Caleb suggested a round of introduction.

"Before we talk any further, maybe we should get rid of the Recorders that we can't control." Seth proposed after explaining that they were probably being tracked by the enemy through them.

"Those we can't control?" Harker asked a little confused.

Ellie watched knowingly, as a bunch of recorders from their group landed on the ground behind Seth and turned off. It didn't take more than that to make the group understand, people immediately started smashing the recorders over their shoulders.

Now that they were unobserved, the first question Seth had to answer was obvious.

"How did you hijack the Empire's recorders?" Caleb asked, but everyone looked at him questioningly. He used the chance to introduce himself first.

"I'm Seth Smith, from Urth. I'm a blacksmith and bard. I have a special skill that allowed me to make these recorders into mine." he explained without revealing how exactly things worked.

Ellie already knew and Cade had her guesses after what happened with the Champion of Zarkon's soul. After a little back and forth, with the help of the two, they continued with the introduction.

The only surprise was Caleb, who was actually a Dragon Rider, not a wyvern knight. He just lacked a dragon, for obvious reasons.

"Since we now roughly know each other's capabilities, does anyone have an idea what to do from here on?" Harker asked in the round.

They gathered what they knew. The attackers were former examination participants, their strength was unquestionable. They could turn them into allies with their weapons. The enemy most likely knew everything they had shown so far. They could not expect any help from Chrona.

Most importantly, if they ran away, they would probably be stuck in this world until the Empire came.

If they didn't want to be stuck here, they needed to finish their quest, which probably meant they had to fight whoever was behind the attacks. If Seth was right, it was the daughter of Durnham. As for the why? They could only speculate.

They came to the conclusion that fighting was the best option. Seth was not opposed to this. After all, at the end of this quest stood a dragon's hoard and bones.

"But what exactly should we do? They know a lot more about us than we do about them." the hero summarized their problem while scratching his head.

"They only know, what we showed them. If we can surprise them with things they don't know, we might catch them off guard." Seth gestured.

Another surprise waited for everyone. A Mist Demon suddenly materialized beside.

"We should talk about this with everyone."

The appearance of the believed to be dead Misto Pheles shocked the team members of Urth, while the others were only surprised by the sudden materialization of another ally.

"You were alive this whole time?" Harker asked between anger and joy.

"Don't blame him, I told him to stay off the grid, just in case." Seth appeased the hero.

"Why? You couldn't know such a situation would arise."

"I... had a hunch and I learned to follow them. I also have a corresponding ability." Seth simply answered.

"Hoh? I am kind of a fortuneteller myself. Would share with me the name of that ability?" Tamas, the fortuneteller asked.

"It's called ."

"Hoh? I never heard of that, but it sounds very interesting."

"Enough, Tamas. Let's talk about a plan." Caleb scolded him.

...

The scaled lady stopped at the edge of the fog bank

"This is where our paths part." Senior White revealed to them.

~Are you really staying, Senior? ~ Tatzel asked sorrowfully

"Yes, it is not my time to leave, yet."

"Are you sure? We could really use your help in what is to come." Seth weakly tried to convince her.

He already understood that the deity could not leave this place behind so easily.

"I am sure. I wish you the best of luck. What you are trying to do is equivalent to tickling a dragon and you will need all the fortune you can get." she warned them.

"Quite literally." Seth laughed.

Seeing the message, everyone thanked Senior White profusely before unwillingly parting with her.

--Chrona--

The princess, Elza, Fin, and Mina were meeting in a private booth of a cafe.

"Any news?" Mina asked Leana, but the princess could only shake her head. Almost 4 days ago, they had completely lost their connection with the recorders on Keväti Kuinen.

Ever since they had re-runs running to hide the fact that they had no idea what was going on. Mina herself only knew because the Princess could not stop Elza from telling her.

In the meantime, the team of royals had managed to catch quite a few traitors that had infiltrated the imperial censors. However, they couldn't fathom the kind of damage they had done. Their people were currently checking all systems for security leaks.

The problem was that they did not get any more signals from their recorders. They were unable to check on the situation of the participants.

Leana tried to come up with a way to explain everything to Mina when they heard a great commotion from outside. With loud fanfares, a new program was suddenly started up on the public screens of Chrona. After a short and loud intro, came a burst of cackling laughter.

"Welcome to my, Natina Durnham's great Debut!"