Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

"Out of the way! "Run! "AAAaaAAH!" "Get out of the way!"

They had just taken their positions when the ground under their feet started quaking and breaking apart. A rumbling roar shook them to the core. Surfacing from right beneath their feet was a giant lion-shaped creature. With many of meaty tassels and a body covered in armor plates, it roared to the sky, standing amid the army of Oathguards.

"Get back in your parties! It's just big, nothing more!" Gus, their group leader screamed, as did the other leaders.

The Oathguard was not structured like a real army. They were all individual adventurers, not soldiers that had a lot of time for any kind of drill. What they were used to instead was party play, so the whole army was divided into system parties, led as a raid team.

This way they could quickly react to sudden changes in the battlefield, such as sudden, armored lions appearing among them. A circle was formed quickly. While tanks and vanguards kept the massive beast in check, the rear guard covered it in magic.

Aside from the Oathguard clad in their uniform armor, there were the members of subsidiary guilds, people from Little Sigma, and the warriors of Nas'korn. The latter fought as cavalry on their massive wooly rhinos. Although all of the Oathguard looked like knights, only a few of them had classes like knights, which partially depended on a mount. Those people could be seen as silver specks among the people from Agra, as they joined the cavalry.

Paolo and Marco stood right in the front, among the first that would face the infantry, also the best place to gain experience. But it also meant they had no time for a break. The first wave had been quick beasts in the shapes of wolves, deers, and bears, it was manageable. Now, they were constantly cornered by weird humanoids and classic fantasy tropes that looked like goblins, hobgoblins, and similar stuff.

"We are pulling back. Let the reserves get to the front and get back to camp to rest;" Gus suddenly granted them salvation.

They had been fighting all day and gladly returned to their tents. After a day on an actual battlefield, Paolo had lost the confidence he had gotten during the briefing. He also had to work a lot more than he expected.

It wasn't that the enemy was strong, but that they had huge numbers. Although they had no hard time killing them one by one, fatigue kept accumulating. But it was not without gain. The experience accumulated as much as the fatigue.

A day on the battlefield was stressful, but gained Paolo 5 levels, bringing him to the cusp of lv. 58. At the end of the day it felt like it was worth it.

…

While the battle on the surface was going on Seth and the others had set off on their own, leaving their army in the hand of Evee, Viggu, Bement, and the Golems. Evee and the golems were enough to dissolve the enemy army if needed, while Viggu, the Oni, and Bement were experienced leaders.

Seth and the Field Teams on the other hand went to farm some of the dungeons these guys came from. Their immediate targets were the dungeons that were originally theirs, the ones bordering the former hive territory.

The others went to gain experience, but the blacksmith had a secondary objective. Quite some while ago, Ortega had told him about what was the Naga Dungeon like. Seth had been reminded of this when he was browsing the pages of his new books.

What grabbed his attention was the introduction to Naga and their materials. They were actually one of the few races of creatures that could not only grow in power but could also change their shape depending on their talents. This was why they were known as horned snakes with almost dragon-like properties, half-snake humans, or even as humans.

The nook had listed the materials of their snake forms and what all materials had in common, was that they were some of the few materials that could improve luck. Naga were known to have a connection to fortune and good luck.

So he had a wild thought. If their bodies had a connection to luck, then maybe their souls did so, too. The blacksmith had to look for a soul for his Lucky Trinket for quite some time and now he saw his chance to finally get his hands on one. It was safe to say, Seth was ready to grab a bunch of souls on this trip.

He expected the Naga to have spread out, despite Ortega's culling. The bard was ready to clean a wide fortified area, but when he arrived everything was empty. No, not empty. Already been laid to waste. Fortifications were blown apart, buildings were burned down, and the ground was littered with rotting Naga Corpses.

"FFFF-"

Seth's speed increased as he rushed towards the place where the dungeon entrance was supposed to be, Ortega described it as a massive kind of lavish temple but what Seth found were a bunch of ruins and a hole in the ground.

When he entered the hole, the ruins left above ground were only a smoldering pool of molten rock.

…

"Isn't it getting a little warm?" one lizard-looking piece of shit said to the other.

"Maybe the boss increased the temperature of the lava pools again? If it gets too hot take some distance. Even if we are descendants of dragons, the boss is going a little overboard with the designs," the other waste mumbled into the darkness past the dull red shine of the magma pool behind him.

"Urgh!" Only a short gasp answered him.

"Stuart?! Are you-" he suddenly felt a strong hand clench his throat. The rest of his sentence was erased from this world, together with the dragon newt as a blaze of dark red fire swallowed him whole.

Seth was royally pissed. When he had finally found a good chance to get a soul for maybe his most important ring, the bunch of idiotic dragon newts had, in a fit of sudden megalomania, decided to extend their territory. Probably as a reaction to the vacuum left by the Hive's escape.

But the reasons didn't matter to Seth. Not even a little bit. <Calm Reaction> at lv.MAX didn't react to this level of emotion anymore because he was still thinking straight, despite his aggravation. Even when the only real change this made was that he used the Draconic Titan Flame to turn every one to ashes. This way he could vent, and still get experience and soul drops.

The dragon newts were all in the late lv.80's and not weak for their levels, but Seth didn't bother acting prudent or tactical. The blacksmith rushed through the tunnel system using the skills of his armor and eradicated the enemy in the most simple and brutal manner possible.

Like a passing wind that withered people to ashes in the blink of an eye, his rush looked more like a chain of spontaneous self-combustion than an attack. The tunnel system kept expanding the further he went. It was a vast network of volcanic caves, inhabited by dragon newts with the lineage of fire dragons.

The blacksmith abused Thea's Vision to completely and thoroughly depopulate the dungeon. When he left a floor, only ashes were left behind. With all the skills he had, those he trained, and those lent by items, Seth still felt most comfortable using his <Pyrokinesis> together with his trait as a Kin of Fire.

Especially in this kind of environment, which was rich in fire elements. He could constantly recover his mental power, mana, health, and stamina using <Fire Absorption Ex.>. Seth stayed in peak shape, despite rushing through the canyon, using his powers to their full extent.

Not even the bosses at every tenth floor could as much as slow him down. He kept up a constant speed until he finally came to a stop at the gates of the boss room on the 60th floor.