Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Wolfram stood in the middle of a crater filled with rabble and debris. A purple shield surrounding him had prevented any harm. The many gashes on the armor slowly healed, as he was processing what just happened. He was learning.

Other Golems also worked their way out of the rabble all around him. They had come tumbling down together with the collapsing building that had stood above the hall. Looking up, Wolfram found that the explosion was so strong, that several of the subterranean levels of Delta had also collapsed.

The cross-sections of halls and rooms could be seen along the edge of the crater, they were also filled with parts of the structures that had once stood on the surface above. Staring at the mayhem, Wolfram who was about to report, slowly packed the orb away again.

"Report: The assailants have all been purged. There are no casualties on our side. There are no casualties among the civilians. However, we found large numbers of corpses in various states among the rubble," a knight approached and reported.

He silently stared at the golem knight waiting for his orders. Wolfram's learning ego weighed all the possible options against each other before making a conscious decision.

"We will evacuate the civilians and relocate. Leave this to Delta's Authorities."

It was for the best if they didn't have anything to do with this and nobody connected them, or Minas Mar with this.

"Sir?"

"If you don't want to be scolded by Master, you better withhold any reports about our presence here. Relay this to the others. We have never been here."

…

Warm and soft. Seth woke up with little to no recollection of the party. This was a prime indicator that it was a great party. The blacksmith felt great as he stretched and relaxed in the soft bed, with the sleeping Mina in his arms.

"You awake?" she mumbled, feeling him stir.

"Wanna continue what we started yesterday?"

After spending the morning in bed with his girlfriend, the refreshed Seth went to the kitchen to get some breakfast, where he found a not so refreshed looking Link.

"Everything is gone..." he wept in his empty kitchen.

Seth could only look on with an awkward expression. Maybe a party with every one of Minas Mar had been too much on the reserves of the poor chef.

"Link, I-I'm sor-"

"Don't you dare apologize. I'm just wallowing a little to make myself feel better. In the end...this was my fault," Link confessed.

"W-What are you talking about?" the blacksmith asked more confused than before. This was not about losing his reserves over the party?

"It is I, who could not hold back, once you gave me this divine knife. I gave in to my craving and could stop savoring the feeling of cutting ingredients with this. Oh, the memory... If only I could-"

Link was holding the knife like a lover, swinging it around dangerously at times. What had he done? Seth could only hope this was because he was still new to the knife, and not because it had some hidden curse that turned the wielder into a lunatic...

But what if...this was the true gourmet hunter? Had he awoken some underlying nature in the passionate chef? The bigger question was: Was this a positive development, or should he find a reason to kick Link out of Minas Mar in the near future?

It was a shame to let go of a great chef, but Link's current condition made Seth feel really uncomfortable by just being in the same room as the man with a manic attachment to a chef knife and the knife. Especially the knife in the hand of the loony made him nervous.

"So about the breakfast-"

"I think I'm good. Don't worry about it, Link, " Seth made a strategic retreat and fled to his workshop. He still had some meals in his inventory, they would be enough. He could only hope the chef would come to his senses in the near future.

Feeling refreshed after taking a break for a day and celebrating, the blacksmith felt fit to continue. With all his skills on the master tier, there was nothing to worry about anymore. The reason he had held back on making some of the items before he became a master blacksmith was because of .

Although the skill to shape souls had its own levels, it scaled with his skill. With it now on master he would be able to make the items even more detailed, improving the overall performance of soul armament and infused soul armaments.

The plan for today was to start on the items he was going to make from the special . With the characteristics of darkness, chaos, and destruction, the best recipient of items made from it were Mina, Lydia, and Evee, as mentioned before.

Mina was very happy with her Midnight Set. Her weapons the Shard of Biting Ice

and Asclepius' Needle, both being relics, were still good to go, too. What was left were her accessories. She wore the previous version of his mage accessory set and the Ring of Gyges.

When asked what she wanted to replace, the only thing that came to mind was an accessory. It was a similar story for Evee. The immortal witch really liked her undead armor and the Gloves of the Swarm. For now, she also would rather have an accessory for the expedition.

With McCarthy now at their back and call he also thought of getting more , so he could make her a fitting staff or wand in the future. This time, only Lydia wished for something other than an accessory, either a dagger or a pair of vambraces.

Of course, this was before Seth had decided to hand her the angel dagger. However, nobody knew when the angel weapons would be acknowledged by the system, which was why he decided to do items for them, too, if time permits.

When taking into account the amount of material and subtracting the material he needed for a ring for Mina and a pendant for Evee, he decided to make either a dagger or a pair of light vambraces for Lydia.

He was about to get to work when his communication orb started vibrating.

"Wolfram?" he answered the call puzzled.

Seth barely remembered that there had been some problems with the number of guards. Had Wolfram found out what was going on?

"You finally answered! No, this is Leana! Seth, what the -" she choked off the curse, "What is up with these Golems?! Where are the members of the Oathguard?!"

"We had a celebration. I replaced them with the golems, so everyone could party. Why do you ask?"

He could hear that she was upset, which made him come to the conclusion that something happened. This didn't mean he was going to acknowledge that he already knew that something happened.

"Your golems detonated a whole building and we are standing on a mountain of corpses! And the golems won't cooperate. They say they would not stop patrolling until the next shift of Oathguard came." "Wolfram, can you hear me?" "Yes, Master."

"Wolfram, did you blow up a building?"

"No, Master."

"You heard him. "

"What about the corpses?" she threw in.

"Wolfram, what about the corpses?" "Only partially." "Elaborate:" "They were bad guys."

"See? He didn't do it. Leave my golems alone and let them do their job."