Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

A scrumptious meal and this success alleviated Seth's mood enough that he was ready to deal with the less fun stuff in life: human interaction.

He sat down and wrote not only a letter to N?del, consulting about the gloves, he also wrote one to Tored to confront him with the fact, that the leather was, in fact, cursed. He had calmed down enough, and doubted that Tored would knowingly harm him. Maybe someone had even tried to harm Tored with this leather.

Something this underhanded was not the style of dwarves, so who would pull off something like that? It was not Seth's place to get involved anymore, but he wrote to Tored to inform him at least. It was also a good excuse to never pay for the surplus materials he took from the dwarf!

Maybe he should extort some more from his master... No, it was ok. He also answered the letter of little Rena he had saved during his time on the airship.

What concerned him a little, as he thought about his correspondence, was that there was no letter from Fin or the party. He hoped they were doing okay. It would be a shame if he managed to build a place for them here and they ended up lost in some dungeon or battlefield.

Next was Samuel. He wanted to talk to him about the next auction and about the quest he had picked up. Seth had left looking for the sister to the church while he was lazing around- recuperating from his arduous adventure.

When She left his room, he came across two moderately cute girls that were happily chatting with each other as they walked down the hallway.

"Mary, Jane!" he called out to the two employees he had picked up.

"Seth, you are finally up?" Jane asked him surprised. They had not seen their Mast- Employer for almost 2 weeks. Mary kept a little in the back, still a little shy.

"haha, yeah. I neglected you guys a little recently, haven't I?"

"Oh! Please don't worry about it. Life here is very quiet and enjoyable. There is not much more we could wish for."

Seth nodded satisfied.

"What are you guys up to?"

"We were going to grab some food. Want to come along?"

How could Seth say no to food? He had eaten not long ago? …. How could Seth say no to food? That was why Seth made a detour and spent some time with his employees at the church canteen before looking for Samuel.

He knocked on a big door at one of the top floors of the church building. It had been the office of some bigshot CEO at one point as far as Seth had heard. He waited for Samuel to invite him in before he stepped into the enormous office.

It was very minimalistic with lots of empty space and a tiny looking desk before a giant window in the back.

"Seth? Take a seat. Would you like some tea?"

Seth sat down opposite of Samuel and accepted the tea gratefully. They started off talking about the next auction. Instead of just one kind of weapon they would offer a few different kinds and 2 suits of armor.

The reception of the last auction had been great and they were expecting almost double the number of people to come during the next one. Seth used the opportunity to complain a little about the church's ability to get materials.

It really wasn't that they could not get his stuff, it was that they were penny pinchers, so they took their sweet time to get his stuff somewhere at a cheap price and rip him off with the price it would have in the auction.

Samuel acted apologetically, but he did not make any promises to correct their way. He was a sly old man.

Once they were done deciding about the contents of the next auction, Seth came to the last reason he came for.

"Did you find her?" he asked about the sister, Evee. They had not found her yet. From what the church had originally found out from the government documents she was a 17-year-old by now and once lived with her brother in Mibo, a satellite city close to Y-City.

After her brother vanished, she went to live with her aunt in Arigiri, another satellite city at the coast where Y-City's big river entered the great lake and then the ocean. That's where the lead broke off since this satellite city was overrun by the merpeople in the early days of the apocalypse.

There were no more records of her afterward. Which was mostly that the leadership was still recovering even now. There were more pressing matters than thoroughly registering all kinds of refugees.

So, even if that city where she was supposed to be was overrun, she was not necessarily dead. Many people died back then, but many also managed to escape. There actually was a good chance that she managed to escape.

Samuel already sent people to look for refugees from that area and see, whether people knew of what happened to her. This was all they could do for now. If this led to nothing, they would have to hire a diviner to find her whereabouts, if she was alive.

Seth sighed.

"Samuel, you seem to forget: I am the one paying. Get a diviner to do some work right now. Who knows, she might be dead, by the time you slowpokes find a clue."

The world was in constant change, the life of a random teen could end any day with simple bad luck. It was not Seth being a concerned adult. He wanted the quest reward. After his recent experiment, the "Wanderer's Soul" became much more valuable.

It had a descriptor, this meant it was a "genius". These were the souls with the potential to stay with Seth until the end. Of course, their specific abilities mattered, but in the end, it depended on Seth and how he was able to utilize them.

But to utilize them he needed to get his hands on them. So, he needed the girl alive and well.

Samuel nodded.

"Alright, I will call for a diviner to look for the girl."

"Great!"

It would take a few days to get a professional diviner to come to Urth, so Seth had time on his hands.

Seth decided to finish the items for the auction and for his party. This way they could soon start dungeon diving and leveling like crazy. He sent a messenger to them to invite them for a meeting, where he could finalize their item wishes. Until then, he made the auction items and things he definitely wanted to make.

He recreated the <Mind Gauntlet> and the <Thaumatic Gauntlet> using <Mithril>, <Dark Steel> and the smithing ballad that would be able to reflect part of the damage and went with flat attribute increases when it came to the enchantments. Both came out as epic.

<Thaumatic Gauntlet

Epic

Damage: 250

Phys. Def: 370

Mag. Def: 590

Durability: 2000

1.+10% Mana regeneration in Darkness

2.+30% Mana regeneration

3.Casting Time is Reduced by 25%

4. +35 Intelligence

5. +35 Willpower

6. 15% of the received damage will be reflected to the attacker.

7. +10% Darkness resistance

8. +850 Mana

A gauntlet made by Journeyman Smith and imbued with peculiar effects using special means. The dream of any warrior/mage hybrid!>

< Mind Gauntlet

Epic

Damage: 280

Phys. Def: 415

Mag. Def: 285

Durability: 2000

1.+10% Mana regeneration in Darkness

2.+20% Resistance to negative status effects (Mind)

3. 35% chance to cause mental disruption on hit (Effects: Stun/Confusion)

4. +35 Strength

5. +35 Dex

6. 20% of the received damage will be reflected to the attacker.

A gauntlet made by Journeyman Smith and imbued with peculiar effects using special means.>

They looked like the opposite to the items of the Dark Knight set as they had a silver color with dark elements and designs on them. Seth created a pair of boots and greaves in a similar style, but he refrained from using souls on them.

With the Wyvern Armor's scale skirt going way past his knee, he did not really fear someone attacking his feet. Even if he could extract souls, they would still become slightly damaged and needed to be repaired with other souls. He rather saved the souls for other things. He had already splurged a little on the two gauntlets.

When he looked out the window, he found that it was already dark outside. He decided this much was enough and went to sleep.. His party would come early tomorrow for the meeting.