Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Many thoughts flashed through Seth's mind. Happiness, doubt, but most prominently regret.

"Why couldn't this have dropped earlier!?" he screamed internally.

If the proficiency he had gained from his legendary armor set had been tripled, he might have reached the master tier by now. Why didn't his prophetic skills tell him to wait a little longer? He was willing to allege malicious intent of the system. He took a moment to cry his crocodile tears and get it out of his system, before pulling himself together.

He couldn't change what happened, so there was no reason to get hung up on it. He had more important things to do. As it could be reversed later, Seth decided to postpone the publication of his name for now.

---You will be listed as "Hidden" on the leaderboard until you decide otherwise---

The blacksmith wanted to hurry back to Minas Mar and make an announcement, but since he was already here, he decided to take a look at the rankings. The church would probably fill with people soon. He wanted to use his headstart to familiarize himself with the new system function.

He entered the familiar entrance hall of the system church. Above the rows of counters opposite the entrance was now a huge system window glowing in a bluish-green light. It listed the first 5 places of every class.

Looking at it directly imparted knowledge into his mind. Using the code words "Rankings" or "Leaderboard" he was able to summon a personal, more comprehensive window to browse while being on church grounds.

It was just like the other system windows, with the exception of the restrictions of the locality. The rankings were split by basic common classes such as Swordsman, Warrior, Archer, or Thief anyone could choose. Even if one had a higher or specialized class, they could be classified into these basic classes.

For example, Seth was a Spirit Blacksmith, which was a unique blacksmith class. Despite knowing the and skills, he was not in the Goldsmith or Enchanter ranking. Neither was he in the Bard ranking since second classes didn't seem to count either.

Similar to Seth, it seemed that many people had decided to hide their names, as the lists were filled with either hidden names or names he didn't know. In general, most high-rankers had chosen to hide their names for now.

He was rather sure that he would see many of the names of Minas Mar in the higher ranks, but they had probably chosen to hide it for now. They would need to make the decision together, on who was to reveal their rank to the public. However, there was one name Seth knew. Ranked 4 on the leaderboard for Tailors glowed the name of Neeco Boos.

The blacksmith could have known, that the conceited tailor would not choose to hide his name. What surprised him was that Boos was only in fourth place. For as far as Seth knew, Boos had reached the craftsman tier not long ago, thanks to Puffles' support.

Although he didn't know how exactly the ranking was calculated, it had to do something with the basic skill of the class right? Crafting skills were resource intensive to level up. They would either need time and accumulation, or high-grade materials. To think that not one, but three people had a higher tailor skill than Neeco Boos, was intriguing.

The only place he would bet had one of these people was the association in Y-City. They had invested a lot in their crafting department. As for the other two... Maybe one of them had to do with the ruffian that was messing with Minas Mar? It was just a suspicion, it could be the work of an enchanter just as much.

"Seth!" he heard someone call out to him.

Turning around he saw most of the executive members of Minas Mar approach him from the teleportation hub. It seemed they had had the same idea as him, to check the leaderboard as early as possible, before the place got crowded.

Mina had called out to him and ran to his side.

"It seems like we all had the same idea, "he greeted them. "I was on my way back to talk about the world quest when I heard about the leaderboards."

After everyone had a look at the leaderboards they returned to Minas Mar. The church started to fill and they didn't want to discuss their matters in public. They assembled in the meeting room to talk about how to react to the new changes.

Their first decision was a tower-wide announcement using the Tower System to encourage everyone to accept the world quest unless they had bigger qualms. They also discussed what to do if there were people that were chosen by god among the members of Minas Mar.

Seth had no doubts about his companions, however, he was not as close with the members of the Oathguard, or the administrative teams Mary and Jane had built up. It was clear that they would support these members, but not unconditionally.

Since Seth had learned the power of soul contracts, they decided that all members that gained a divine class had the choice to stay with Minas Mar as is, gain support in exchange for an individual contract, or leave Minas Mar if no agreement could be found. Since Seth could use soul contact to keep their secrets, he had no qualms about letting people go to find their happiness somewhere else.

The next point was the rankings. Almost everyone present in the room was somewhere in the top twenty of their respective rankings. Monique was the only one beside Seth, that held rank one in her leaderboard of spear wielders, as one would expect of someone who gained the epic Spear Demon class with her skill alone.

Mike was in third place among swordsmen, despite having attained the Sword Demon class. First place was unsurprisingly held by the repulsive Hero, who obviously published his name. The real question was the unknown second place.

It was similar for the others, although their ranks were not low, it was hard to imagine there was someone stronger than them. Taking Mina for example who was ranked 8th among the Assassins. They suspected that the initial ranking might be mostly based on skill proficiency alone.

With the growth correction of ori humas, it was not hard to imagine that someone had higher assassin skills than Mina if they got their hands on some special classes. In conclusion, they suspected that the ranks in a class leaderboard were not necessarily an accurate depiction of their overall strength. Or Minas Mar was overall a little weaker than they thought, but where would other people get full sets of tailor-made epic armor?

The way the ranking worked was a little impractical for some of the other members. Alison and Link could not enter the rankings of chef or alchemist, as those were not their main classes.

The Gourmet Hunter counted to archers and didn't even make it into the top 100, while Alison as a wizard still made it in the top twenty, despite spending most of her time making potions. Tekar had an even more awkward problem.

It was clear that he was an extremely powerful tanker, with the assistance of items, but he was unranked. He did not even get a notification that he was on the rankings. Fin had a similar problem. Seth guessed that it might be because they had unique classes that had little to do with any of the basic classes.

Fin's first class for example was the unique class battle cleric that mixed the skills of a cleric and a brawler. It was likely that this was the reason she was not put on either list. Not making it to the rankings made her a little depressed.

These examples made it rather clear that the initial rankings were not necessarily a fair representation. However, up to now, the system had always been objectively fair, which led to the conclusion that there was most likely a way to raise the ranks, aside from raising one's basic skills.

They would need to consult Simon for some specifics tomorrow before making the final decision. For the time being, they decided to keep their ranks concealed, since revealing thems came with pros and cons.

The rank of the best blacksmith on Urth would be a great advertisement, but the Turquoise Anvil already had a lot of business and there was not really a need for it now. On the other hand, it would reveal that Minas Mar had the best blacksmith on Urth, possibly making them a target.

It was added to the tower announcement, that members should not reveal their rankings if they had any and contact their superiors before making a decision.

It was already late at night when they ended their meeting and they decided to go to bed.