Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

"Not cool," Monique berated him when he brought them back out from Legion after stashing away Dragos in his special shipping container.

"I'm sorry," the blacksmith obediently apologized.

"So, what did you do with Dragos? Is he dead?" Alison asked calmly.

Seth's action garnered mixed reactions from the party, but especially Alison didn't care enough to talk about it. Aside from Monique who felt a little hurt in her pride, most understood his reasoning. He didn't want to expose them to any weird shenanigans Dragos may have pulled.

"I stashed him away securely and put the box in a storage room in Legion. I also found this injector. Maybe Cromwel will have an easier time making a weapon against these things, with this and Dragos as a test subject," Seth supposed.

"Okay, okay, but who is that new Angel?" Shay asked, more interested in the new addition to the team they met inside Legion.

"Right, how did you pick up Angelique?" Jonah joined the water mage in asking.

The swordsman's arms had been successfully reattached by said angel. They were lucky that Jonah's soul had not been damaged, at least not to the point that his arms couldn't be healed. Seth was about to answer their question when Monique interrupted them.

"More importantly, what are you doing here? Don't get me wrong, I'm glad you came, but how come you came here?" Monique took the initiative to ask.

Seth explained how he reached lv.95 and got a quest. When he tried to tell them the contents, he was censored, which answered the question of whether any of them had already reached lv.95.

"Well, anyway. So I got this quest and a bunch of info and wanted to return to Minas Mar to talk with Leana. When I was thinking about looking for you guys, so you would also return once you reached lv.95, I got notified that two of my golems died so I ran here as quickly as possible."

"So there is a decision to be made at level 95. Maybe we could reach it when we finish the dungeon?" Monique mumbled.

"But Dragos killed the wind boss. He would have the key part for the door. I doubt he would just give them to us now," Ray mentioned.

Seeing Seth's asking look, they roughly explained what happened in their dungeon and what they needed for the last door.

"Oh, maybe you don't have to worry about that," Seth said and brought out a small black cube.

"I found it beside the injector. Cromwel said people literally die when they transform. Since Dragos dropped his item box, it seems like that was true."

Alison and Seth talked briefly about the interesting conundrum, that someone who died in a dungeon would usually send back to the closest adventurer guild, yet that was not what happened to Dragos. Seth's theory was that most likely the dungeon god's power lost its target when his souls turned into a soul cluster. While Alison still mused about it, Seth checked the contents.

Inside the killer's item box was a mountain of loot. Potions, damaged armors, weapons, money all the stuff he had probably taken from his victims and had no way to get rid of. There were quite a few epic armor pieces, it was weird that Dragos himself didn't wear any of it.

"I heard there are some classes that block the player from using items," Alison commented when she heard Seth mumble to himself.

"I see... Well, anyways. Take a look inside, maybe the key you need is in there?" he said after not finding anything of interest for himself and gave the item box to Monique.

"There really is a lot of junk in here..." she mumbled when she got a look inside. "Oh, there it is! Now we can pay a visit to the last boss," she exclaimed, holding the piece of wind for the door at the bottom of the dungeon.

"What about the wind crystal?" Alison asked interested.

"Wind crystal?" Seth's ears pricked up.

"So far every boss dropped a crystal in addition to the key for the last door," Tekar explained readily.

"I can't use them, maybe they are blacksmith ingredients?" the alchemist mentioned.

<Crystal of Maltus, Crafting Material,

Relic

Part of the accumulated power of Maltus. The crystal holds a strong power of fire and lava.>

<Crystal of Olaf, Crafting Material,

Relic

Part of the accumulated power of Olaf. The crystal holds a strong power of ice.>

<Crystal of Sephrite, Crafting Material,

Relic

Part of the accumulated power of Sephrite. The crystal holds a strong power of earth and stone.>

Suddenly, Seth had three different crystals in his hands all of them relic-rated materials. Unlike the marbles he got in his dungeons, these were pure crafting materials Seth would be able to use for accessories, or maybe wizard staffs.

"Yep, I can use them, thanks, guys. Back to the topic, do you want to come with me, or finish the dungeon?" Seth asked about what they planned to do.

"We will finish the dungeon and then return to Minas Mar, right guys? Maybe we can also get to lv.95 before returning," Monique spoke up.

"Can we rest a little first?" "Yeah, I could also use a break."

Monique's powerful answer was met with moderate enthusiasm and limited support. However, her team stood behind her. Seth looked at them with a wry smile. Taking into account how they fared against Dragos, he didn't have a doubt that they could manage the dungeon, even if they themselves lacked some confidence.

"What will you do, Seth? Are you returning right away" Alison asked unperturbed.

"I think I will return now. For a moment, I thought about looking for the others, but I don't think that's necessary," he answered after giving it a thought.

Lydia's and Mike's teams were probably doing fine, too. Seth wanted to return and pester Leana about the Path of Legends, so he could prepare before reaching level 100. With all the resting and fighting, Seth could only guess for how long he had been stuck in the dungeon and he realized one thing: Fighting was no fun.

The blacksmith wanted to get back into his workshop. On one hand there were the things he had gained on the journey. He wanted to take apart the club he got from the Dragon Newt and have a better look at the <Essence of Kova>. Of course, there was also the handful of relic-rated materials he got. On the other hand, there was still work waiting. He had yet to finish the prototype of the Armor of Lunacy.

On a side note, Seth also thought of spending some time with Cormac Payle. Since he was the chosen of Hephaestus, Payle probably had blueprints and recipes he didn't. If they came to an agreement where Seth could learn those, they might become a valuable addition to his craft in the future.

Delivering Dragos was also added to the thing on his mind. He was sure the mad scientist that had recently joined would be happy about a research subject and the injector that probably still had traces of the serum. It was unfortunate, that this likely was not the perfect serum, Cromwel had been bragging about, but another dumbed-down version like the one used on the drugged foot soldiers.

"What about the other teams?" Monique asked. If Seth left now, the others wouldn't know about returning after reaching lv.95 and it wasn't like Monique and the others could find them in the abyss as easily as Seth.

"Don't worry. I'm sure they will make the correct decision if one of them gets the quest. I also suspect that some of them would know a little bit about what is to come. Duhu and Fin are experienced otherworlders after all."

"I see, then we will follow you when we are done."

"Good. I wish you good luck with the last boss and don't forget to have fun. <Home Call>."

And like that the tower master vanished from the abyss, leaving them to deal with the final boss on their own.