Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

The girl jumped off the ground and took a fighting stance. Pointing two sharpened bone stumps toward them. She was missing a big piece of waist where her shriveled up intestines were visible and there were some other parts where chunks of meat were missing. She was covered in stitched-up cuts.

She was an undead, this explained the diviner's ambiguous readings. She was not dead... but one could not call this alive either.

"Ah, please calm down! We are not here to hurt you, Evee!" Seth hurried to say. He stepped into the room signaling the rest of the party to stay back. Dark ooze or puss from crying stained her cheeks, but her eyes were vigilant and focused on Seth. She was like a cornered beast.

"How...How do you know my name?" she asked in a dry and raspy voice. She had hesitated as if shocked from hearing her own voice. She was still sentient. Seth wanted to give her the brothers' wallet first. He belatedly realized that she could not hold it...

He wanted to flip it open to show her the pictures and the ID, but tears had already started to well up again from her big dark eyes. She had recognized the wallet because it was a present from her!

She limped closer and clumsily took the wallet from his hand. She sunk to the ground and embraced it.

"What happened to him?" It was the first clue of her brother ever since he had vanished. Despite everything that had happened to her, this stayed the deepest scar in her heart.

In front of them sat the poor undead girl. Seth recounted their adventure and how they found her brother in that place. He showed her the book and told her what he knew from their expedition into the fog. It took a while to explain, and it gave her enough time to calm down enough to talk with them.

Once Seth ended his quest and his intentions to help her, it was her turn to explain what had happened to her.

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It was a circle of dying and coming back to life as a different undead. Each time after she died, she soon revived barely in time to prevent her from being eaten whole. She lost pieces of her legs and arms and the beast had even bitten a big chunk of meat out of her side before she finally got away.

She had revived as a ghoul queen, a rather high-ranking undead, which gave her enough power to flee from the beast. It was all that was left in her mind at that moment.

She had no hands and running had become hard after a part of her leg was missing. It was Evee's new race that gave her the nimbleness, despite all hindrances, to get away and hide. She crawled into the next best niche in-between rubble, where none of the beasts would fit in.

It took her a while to find the courage to check her body. When looking at the unreliable leg, she found her calf missing and the leg bone broken. The bones of her forearms were exposed, skinned during her hectic escape.

The biggest horror was the giant hole in her belly, where her intestines were hanging out. Undead felt no pain, this was the only reason she was able to run or even stand in this kind of condition.

It was her status that made her despair. Her attributes were greatly increased, but she had even less mana now. There was no way she could cast <Recovery> or <Revive> even if she miraculously got a new pair of hands.

How was she supposed to turn back into a human now? Her class would not allow her to die, but her existence as an undead was... terrifying. Even without pain, she could feel her whole body like a damp heavy, and stiff clothing. It felt foreign. Every movement was a conscious effort. And the world felt unbelievably cold and empty.

Even without her hands and close to death; being alive was a lot better than this!

She sat there for a long while, she didn't know how long and mourned herself and her family when it came to her. What she lacked was strength! All she needed to do was level up. She would gain more mana and maybe get a skill to help her!

Hope was budding again. She thoroughly studied her skills and her new body. It was relatively strong. She fathomed she could maybe try to kill weaker monsters in battle. All that was needed was to create a chance.

The most reliable skill she could use without her hands was the <Witch Wards>. She only needed somehow draw or form the specific ward and initiate it with mana. As long as she managed this, it would have at least some effects. Setting up a ward cost mana in the initial creation but afterward, the ward would consume the surrounding magic to not just power, but also strengthen itself.

One of the most basic wards was able to deter enemies. The beasts here were all not too intelligent, so even the basic wards could influence them. She used this to set up a small safe zone for herself. From here she kept exploring the ruins, looking for weak enemies.

In the beginning, the only creatures weak enough to be her prey were her brethren. People who had died and were stuck under rubble or locked in the ruins. Her first victim was a helpless zombie, stuck under rubble. The beasts were too big to get in here.

She sat at his side for several days until she finally found the resolve to end its misery. It was hard to kill without and good means of attack and barely a working limb. She sat on the rubble and kicked its head with her one good foot. It took her two or three kicks to crush the skull.

Learning from this she had to make her joke come true. She fully exposed the broken off bones of her forearms and sharpened them to points. She also learned how to use the skills of her undead race. It was possible to activate <Poison Claw> using her bone spikes now.

It became easier after her first kill, but she still felt sorry. These people were like her. They had not chosen to become a monster. All of them had just wanted to live their peaceful life. She started burying the zombies she had killed and the corpses she found in the ruins. She could not do much more for them.

Over time her skills grew and she gained new skills like <CQC>. The wards became stronger and her range of activity grew. She was still no match for the bigger monsters, but she could hunt the smaller ones.

Her plan got a small dent when she leveled up the first time and found out, that her APs were spent automatically because of her race! But it was just a small hurdle. Her mana still grew slightly, so all she need was time. She was the immortal witch, she had time!

She just needed to persevere. Yeah, just needed to persevere.

When she reached lv.5 it unlocked a few new skills. None of them could help her in her current situation, but it gave her hope. Maybe she could unlock one later? No matter how unlikely it was. She needed this tiny hope to keep going.

Time was lost in her continuous routine of hunting, setting upwards, and taking some time to mourn for her dead family and regret her life. As an undead, she needed no sleep and could see in the dark, so it went on unobstructed by the time of the day.

And one day when she was occupied with mourning the dead again, she felt a prick in the back of her head and found a bunch of visitors had come.