Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

952. Two old Coots

”Delta actually lost 107 granaries, with ten being damaged and needing repair...” Mina read the news on her phone. Overnight, Delta had done a thorough investigation and gave a press conference in the morning about the current state of affairs.

It seemed that several employees of the maintenance team had fled Delta after setting up arcane bombs in the granaries. There was no attempt to hide that this was a planned action to harm Delta. After the investigation, they also found several devices in other parts of the infrastructure of the district, that were set for a later date.

Comparing them and the remnants found in the debris of the destroyed granaries, Chronaʼs experts came to the conclusion, that the bombs in the granaries went off early, allowing them to find the rest before Deltaʼs infrastructure could be completely crippled.

The maintenance workers in charge of these other parts had also fled and were also put on a wanted list. Many media outlets immediately blamed Deltaʼs hard course over the past months, which only softened after the new representative of Chrona was instated.

Rampant discrimination and disrespect for workers in general as well as complacency had driven these people to treason. It was the government that created such a delicate weak point that someone now used to give them a decisive strike. The public actually came to a consensus. Ichabod, who had been in a tight spot ever since the fall of the Scene, was asked to take responsibility and vacate his post.

”Serves him right,” Seth commented as he shoveled breakfast into his mouth.

”Did it say anything about plans to rebuild the lost granaries?” the blacksmith asked a moment later. Although he said that he was not here to pamper the people of Minas Mar, it didnʼt mean that he wouldnʼt like to see this problem solved.

”No, they didnʼt make a comment on that, ” Mina said, shaking her head.

”Oh, lukk, a better game!” Fin suddenly exclaimed with a full mouth, pointing at the kitchen counter where a scroll with a small silver ring on it had appeared.

This was an idea Simon came up with. Since the Tower Ego of Minas Mar had access to the teleportation and could scan for the sigil rings Seth made, they came up with an automated way for the System Church to send or forward mail.

Instead of Simon or one of the staff handing them to them whenever they came through the church, they could now put them into a box at the formation and the Tower Ego would scan for the scroll ring and directly send it to the receiver in Minas Mar. The mail would then appear close to them.

Mina turned around and picked up the scroll, raising an eyebrow in surprise when she read the sender. ”Itʼs from Master Tored and Nädel. For you,” she said and handed him the letter. Happily, the blacksmith took the letter. It had been a while since he heard of the two.

Seth had been thinking more often about the two, especially Master Tored as he studied and tried to modify the master tier enchantments. It was a joyful coincidence to suddenly hear of the two. As he read the letter, Sethʼs heart started beating faster.

”What does it say?” Fin asked after finally swallowing for once.

”They heard our announcement of the tournament and congratulated me on my legendary item. The bigger news is that they intend to move here! Finally some good news.” Seth exclaimed happily. With those two experienced craftsmen joining Minas Mar, even Seth would finally have something to seek advice from. Not to mention their new employees.

Most importantly, he was looking forward to meeting his own master again. In moments when he was alone in the smithy before he was able to summon Sivri, he had often thought of his time at the dwarfʼs workshop.

If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that itʼs taken without permission from the author. Report it.

”Really? Those two old coots actually decided to leave Ora?” Mina and Fin exclaimed in surprise.

”Hey, donʼt just call them old coots in such unison. The letter says they still have stuff to manage and they will come over in two weeks,” he admonished the girls a little.

”Two weeks, huh? I really want to know what Toredʼs face will look like if he sees all the stuff you have made lately,” Fin said with a mischievous grin. Seth was also looking forward to showing his work to the dwarf.

”Do you think Mike would be back by then?” Mina suddenly asked. Seth knew, that she missed her brother.

”Hard to say. In the last update, they said that they are moving toward a place called Morranto to look for information. I have no idea how long it would take for them just to get there... If things become too complicated, I will tell him to forget about the request and finish his divine quest.”

Although he really didnʼt want to destroy the hope of a little girl who had already gone through an awful lot, he couldnʼt ask Mike and Lydia to spend weeks looking for a stranger in the No Manʼs Land. Maybe he could leave it to Ray?

”Are you two going to Delta again?” Seth asked, as he finished breakfast and stood up.

”Yap, itʼs now even more important to better our relationship with them. Are you going back to your workshop?” ”Yup, I have to make some items for Neeco and hope to finish Eveeʼs armor pieces today, or tomorrow at the latest.”

Exchanging a farewell kiss with each of them, they separated and Seth teleported to the workshop. Yesterday, after the sudden meeting, Seth had still managed to finish the armor plates for the upper arms, so the only thing left to forge now were the gauntlets.

For the gauntlets, he just needed to prepare the armor pieces that would later attach to a pair of fabric gloves. What was special about them was that they were more like tactical gloves. They had the built-in knuckle dusters of a good gauntlet but sacrificed the armor on the fingers.

This would allow Evee to perform the gestures for her magic with higher precision, instead of wearing a traditional gauntlet for knights. But in case she died and turned into a random kind of undead, Evee would still be able to burst skulls with her punches, as she used to if it was an undead specialized in melee battle.

Despite being a finicky task, Seth has already made quite a few gauntlets. With practiced hands and growling the ballad of Murmur, the deep black gauntlet pieces took shape within two hours. At this point, the only thing missing were the inner gloves made of death fabric.

Instead of directly moving on to enchanting the armor pieces, as he would usually do, he set them aside for now. Seth started working on the items for the tailor. As he mentioned to Mina, he needed to bring Neeco Boos to a level where he would be able to reliably spin the yarn of death, without croaking after 30 minutes.

Endurance, Willpower, and Dexterity, these enchantments now elevated to the master tier would help him with this. The choice of material was easy, as was readily available. The question of what to make for Neeco was answered by the tailorʼs unwillingness to wear armor when working. Something about feeling weighed down or caged in armor and being unable to unfold his creativity. Esoteric bullshit.

No armor meant accessories. Four rings, a necklace, earrings and maybe he would be able to persuade Neeco into getting a septum ring?

”Seth, you could leave those to me?” Sivri mentioned by his side, when she saw him planning out the set of accessories. The blacksmith halted for a moment and thought. She was right, but there wasnʼt really anything he could do with the time he bought like that. In that case...

”You know, I could. Or we split the work. That way it will be done quicker,” Seth suggested with a smile.

Originally, the thought of leaving it to Sivri had not occurred to him. He simply wasnʼt used to working with Sivri, yet. In Sethʼs mind, Cerberus was in charge of all the commercial stuff, and he was the one making things for the inner circle.

Although he had already left work to the golden dwarf automaton, leaving things to her was not the first thing on his mind when he had the time to do it himself. He had no problem leaving annoying things to others, but when it came to dangerous things, or his specialty, doing everything on his own was still a bad habit. It was time to work on that, at least a little.

”Are you sure?” Sivri asked surprised.

”Yes, I think I have not utilized you to your full potential. Letʼs work together on this,” the blacksmith said. Seth suspected that he had yet to tap into the full potential of the speaking golem that used to work with his predecessor.

He had stumbled around on his own, and only now, when he was looking forward to Toredʼs arrival, he realized that he might have had a well of knowledge right beside him, but never bothered to ask...