Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Seth and Evee waited in the entrance hall on the ground floor of the tower.

"I browsed the footage a little, while you took a break. The tower is really awesome. It even has all kinds of advanced facilities like alchemy labs and enchantment rooms. There are also several floors of storage rooms." Evee mentioned excitedly. With her temporary Operator rights, she could check through the tower's systems, but not change anything or give commands.

"How about our guest?"

"She was still sound asleep when I checked before you called me down."

"The guests are now in range. Proceeding to move them to the entrance hall."

The party and caravan of Tijaahk suddenly appeared in the spacious hall. The carriage would not have fit into the maintenance tunnel and was stored in their inventories. Some of the drat animals that were not registered as mount had been led by a leash but were now stored in the Tower's stables.

"Welcome to Minas Mar!" he said pompously

"What happened?" some among the Tijaahk were confused by the sudden transportation and the animals vanishing. He guards too a fighting stance, but Drosi and the Party quickly recognized who had greeted them

"Seth?"

"Boss!"

"Hey, you are finally here. Don't worry, it's a long story, but this place belongs to me now."

When everyone recognized that there was no danger, but that they had arrived at their destination, their eyes filled with wonder. Especially the younger ones like Ruby and the kittens were looking around with big eyes.

The entrance hall was richly decorated with exotic wood, marble, and gold ornamentation. After decades of destitution, everything had been polished to its prime when Seth reactivated the maintenance system. Everything looked new and impressive.

Even the adults could not hide their admiration. Seth greeted Drosi and the party. All of them looked a little tired and his party members made no attempt to hide their relief to have finally arrived.

"You guys must be tired, how about you go rest and I will explain everything afterward. There are many quite a few rooms in this place and they don't lack behind the entrance hall in luxury."

Rubies eyes sparkled when she heard about exploring more of the place. All of them gladly agreed and Evee went with them to choose rooms. She had made herself familiar with the tower's layout. Now, only Seth and the caravan were left behind.

"You own this? You made quite a big haul here." Drosi joked looking around.

"Yeah, I was also really surprised. But you are probably also tired from the journey. There are a lot of guest rooms if you want to rest."

Drosi looked at the people of the caravan. After several hours of walking on foot, they were all tired. Even the children were fighting against their fatigue to ogle and explore the entrance hall.

"I will have to burden you then," he said with an apologetic smile.

Seth understood the old cat's hesitance. It took quite a bit of trust, before staying in the underground bunker of their new friend with their whole family. Even if they got quite friendly on the journey, he had a lot of responsibility as the caravan leader.

"It's okay, my house, is yours, too." he friendly patted Drosi's shoulder.

Maybe they would stay for longer once they got a taste of the tower's luxury. It was his subtle hope to recruit the Tijaahk. Not because of their forces, even so, their guardians were undeniably strong. They were great merchants; Seth was sure they could help him build a distribution network.

Not just for the items he was going to make to grind. Seth thought on a bigger scale. Link, Alison, and Evee were still at the starting point of their crafting skills. They would grind a lot in the future, more than their own party would ever be able to use.

If he didn't want to just pump money into their skill growth Seth needed a way to sell all the stuff. The most important reason he would have liked to work with Drosi and his people was that he had developed some trust in them on the journey. Seth would rather work with them, than with a stranger.

But he couldn't rush this. Otherwise, he might ruin their relationship if he was too forceful.

"I appreciate it. They really need some rest."

Seth personally accompanied them to the floors with rooms and helped them settle in. Once every member of the caravan had a room, Drosi and some of the guardians approached Seth.

"We would like to scout Delta; can you show me the way?"

Even if others rested, he had to do his duty as the leader. All they knew about this world until now, were things Seth had told them. Letting his people stay in his place was already a big loan of trust.

It made sense that they wanted to see it for themself and double-check the situation and the location. It was their duty, and it would calm their hearts, once they knew that Seth had told the truth.

Seth gladly brought them to the elevator and accompanied them on the way up. Once they saw that he was honest with them, it would only help their relationship.

"Is this the only way to the city?" Drosi asked. He was a little disconcerted standing in a cage that was slowly moving up through a tunnel.

"Oh, no. Don't worry, this is just the fastest. There is also the main entrance, which leads outside, but I have no idea where exactly it leads in relation to the city."

Drosi calmed down a little. He preferred to travel with his people using carriages. Tijaahk had bad experiences with cages. It made the fact that he let his people stay at Seth's place even more significant.

The ride took about 30 minutes. The cat people were visibly relieved when they reached the lobby of the Willis building and could leave the elevator.

"This is going too far! You are even bringing in pets through the secret entrance!?"

This time it was the middle-aged man with the long oily hair he encountered. Seth waved at the man as if shooing away a pesky fly and led the cat people outside of the building.

"That direction is the shopping district and... that's all I know. This is my first time here, too. You guys can manage on your own, right? I have some people to meet."

Seth and Drosi saw each other off and went their separate ways. Seth pulled out a smartphone from his inventory. It was Lydias. He didn't steal it. She gave it to him so he could contact Fin and the others.

Now that he could fiddle with one, he found that only the basic functions of a phone still worked. There was no internet connection or GPS function. Only calling, messaging and the native apps on the phone worked.

He called Mina's number and let it ring for a few minutes.

"Who is it?! Why are you calling so … early in the evening!?" a grumpy cat girl grunted on the phone.

"Good morning, Sunshine. I notice you have a great mood today. Wanna go and get breakfast together?"

"S-Seth!?" she asked embarrassedly. Seth could almost hear the blood shooting in her face.

"Ah, erm. Yes, breakfast! Of course. You should come to the embassy, and we can have a meal here. I will send you the map!" she spoke in a sweet, hurried voice.

"Alright, until later then," Seth said with a grin.

Within a minute she sent him a message with the address of the embassy and a picture of a map. Mina had somehow remembered that he entered Delta through the Willis Building. She sent him a cutout of a map that showed the way to the embassy.

His <Map> updated and showed the cutout in his map view. It made it easy to find the way. It was some way from the Willis building. It was a rich neighborhood of big luxurious mansions and high risers.

The embassy was surrounded by a high wall with powerful magic and barriers. The gates were guarded by knights in shining armor. He greeted the guards and send Mina a message that he was waiting at the gate.

"I'm there in a minute"

A slightly disheveled and much less posh-looking Mina came rushing to the gates. She looked just like the typical cue neighbor girl in her casual modern clothes. It really dampened her feline vibe of danger and sexiness. She looked almost innocent.

"I-I'm here," she said, trying to hide how out of breath she was. They hugged and were on their way.

"Do you know a good place to eat? You were a lot longer here than me."

Mina's ears fluttered cutely as she thought hard about a place to go.

"Oh, I know, let's go!"

They talked a bit more about their experiences since they split up. A lot of yesterday's talks were lost to the alcohol, and they had a lot to catch up on.

The restaurant they went to was small, but Seth had to admit that the food was superb. The chef was extremely skilled and there was a long queue in front of the place. They only got into the restaurant, because Mina knew the people and they got a private booth.

The conversation kept going without pause. They talked and talked. They talked all the way into the evening before leaving the restaurant and getting a room...

It had been a long time since he last woke up in this room. Well, not this exact room, but a room like this. Clothes were lying all over the place and a soft warm cat girl was snuggling up against him.

He really needed to keep leveling, if he wanted to keep up with his lover.

Still, he felt great after finally being able to get some much-needed sleep. As he looked at the rising sun outside it felt like he forgot something...

The Tijaahk!