《Blacksmith of the Apocalypse》233. Party Arrived
Advertisement
"Hey! Wait a moment. You did really great in there. I have never seen Valen speechless." the cybergoth followed behind him with a radiant smile on her face.
"Don't you mean Uncle Valen?" Seth said with a laugh.
"Bah. That vampire is over 200 years old. I don't know what kind of fetish he has, to make everyone call him Uncle. I'm not doing that, it feels weird."
"Hmm, noted."
"You are returning into the Batcave?"
"That's the plan."
"You sure you don't want to have some fun on the surface before returning to the crypt?"
"Are you very bored? "
"Actually, yes. And you seem really interesting. Don't you want to have a look at Delta, or is there something important waiting for you downstairs?"
Seth had to admit that Lydia was right. Evee was sleeping and the caravan would take at least a day to arrive through the maintenance tunnel. He took a deep breath before answering.
"Alright then. Show me around your city," he said with a smile. The woman's expression lit up and she led him back to the lobby and out of the doors.
To Seth's surprise, Delta seemed completely normal at first glance. People wore normal casual clothes; the streets were clean and pristine. Nothing made it seem like there was a problem with random portals or dungeon breaks.
At a second glance, all these casual-looking clothes were low-grade equipment. Uncommon, rated t-shirts, jeans, and jackets. Just like the clothes of the cybergoth and the rest of the Willis family, everything looked normal but was a system gear.
Another difference was the races that mingled with the crowd. They were hard to notice, as they easily blended in by wearing the same modern clothes as everyone else. Some animal ears here, some horns there, demons with pale blue or red skin.
Some non-humanoid demons were more noticeable, but aside from some side-glances, nobody seemed to care. Unlike Y-City or B-City, as far as he heard, here many races lived together.
It must have been the influence of the Chrona Empire that had made a deal with the Leadership of Delta and the Demons. Who would have thought that there would be such a huge difference compared to Y-City?
Advertisement
But even in Delta, some changes were straightforward and not to overlook. The magical shops and street stalls dominated the shopping district. All the new and magical professions had taken over the economy.
Seth was especially interested in the material shops and other blacksmiths. It was a huge difference to Y-City where the public skill level was barely able to make uncommon gear. Here uncommon was good quality and some shops even displayed fancy rare weapons to attract customers.
The weapons looked better than they performed, in Seth's opinion. But it seemed to work. The shops were filled with customers. Overall, the situation was similar to the human district of Ora, where most shops were run by aspiring Blacksmith hoping to gain access to the dwarven city.
"Are you interested in equipment? You don't seem to need any new stuff, though."
"Oh, I'm just scouting out the competition."
"So you have a good crafter?"
"You could say that," he said with a smirk. She probably thought he was a magician. The smile was replaced by a look of surprise. There was a shop full of pots, pans, and other kitchenware. It was the first time he even saw Kitchenware with a rating.
"Why is that blacksmith shop selling kitchenware?" he asked in surprise. Now Lydia followed him in looking surprised.
"Why wouldn't he? Chefs also need their equipment, don't they? There are a lot of these shops in further away from the center."
Lydia was not an expert, but she shared what she had heard. Apparently, making kitchenware was a good practice for beginner blacksmiths to train their skills. It was a lot harder to make a weapon, so they were the financially stable alternative to start off with.
Not every blacksmith had their own smelter, failing to make an item meant wasting material they had to sell as scrap. Seth started off learning making equipment using , a skill, common blacksmiths did not have from the start.
The knowledge was so common, that nobody ever told him, who already knew how to make weapons. It never really came to his mind since all the kitchenware he saw was common and sold in general stores. He simply thought there was a different job like tinker who made those.
Advertisement
Seth was not to blame, not even Link had asked him for cooking stuff.
"Interesting."
Under the confused eyes of Lydia, he started to buy several different versions of pots, cauldron, pans, and knives. The price was several thousand credits. It was negligible. Although it didn't hurt Seth's finances at all, the shopkeeper was over the moon to have sold so much in one go.
With all the stuff he bought, he could scan it and add the kitchenware to his and start designing better versions. Although he had never seen any enchantment for cooking, just with different materials he could probably optimize the function.
Thinking about the possibilities they kept walking around the shopping street until his eyes fell on a set of leather clothes. It was uncommonly rated and made of snake leather. He had seen it before. To be precise, he had made it.
It was Mina's leather outfit he had made for her in Ora. What was it doing here?
"Can I help you?" a quick clerk suddenly materialized and asked him from the side. He didn't see him materialize but he also didn't notice him until he spoke.
"Ah! Hello. Can I ask where you got this leather armor?"
"Oh, this one? It's a very good, uncommon-rated leather set from Namia. A very sweet cat lady that came to the city a few weeks ago sold it here. She was very sexy, at least 9/10"
The last part he whispered into Seth's ears. Hearing his items and on-off lover praised felt good, but it did not distract him from the fact that this meant Mina had come to Delta. If Mina was here, then the rest of the party was probably not far.
His heart started racing. They had come several weeks ago. Their level was practically halved in this world. Who knew what could have happened to them? He had read and seen too much to stay calm.
"Are you okay?" Lydia asked beside him.
"Hmm, no. Do you have a way to find people in Delta?"
"Errm, official way or shady ways?"
"Doesn't matter."
"Shady ones then. Yes, I know some people. But it's a little early. I can introduce them to you later."
"Good."
They kept strolling around town, but Seth could not stop worrying until it was finally time to meet Lydia's contact. It was evening and she led him to a fancy-looking nightclub. It was really as if the apocalypse never happened.
People dancing, drinking, laughing in an atmosphere of loud music and neon lights. Seth hated it. He would rather enter a damp dark dungeon than a damp dark disco. The only good part about this experience was that he could finally wear a set of casual clothes.
Lydia had forced him to shop around among the fashion shops. The tailoring business was booming in Delta. It was the easiest field to fuse modern knowledge and the new arcane knowledge brought by the Chrona Empire.
Now he wore uncommon-rated jeans, a T-Shirt and a jacket on top of Nädel's Set. He was still like a sore thumb in this environment, compared to the happy cyber goth that was dancing her way through the crowd.
"Wait here for a moment. I will go and talk to them." with those words she left him at the bar.
He stood at the bar and ordered a drink while waiting. He sipped on his glass when it suddenly fell to the ground.
"You gotta be kidding me..."
Entering through the door was a giant guy with broad shoulders and a sleek-looking young man in stylish black suits, a short woman in a fancy dress, a sexy woman in a small black one, and a tiny figure on the big guy's shoulder sparkling like a diamond.
Bulko, Mike, Lixiss, Mina, and Fin looking posh like celebrities had just entered the nightclub. They were led straight to the VIP-Rooms.
"Okay, we can go meet them now in the VIP Lounge. "
Advertisement
- In Serial111 Chapters
The Divine Hunter
Luo Yi, a high school dropout in his original world, was isekai’d into a fantasy world. Starting out as a weak boy named Roy in the village of Kaer, Lower Posada, he was determined to grow stronger, no matter what it took. The first step toward becoming a legend was to kill. And his first kill was… a rooster. ‘You gain 1 EXP.’ Of course, Roy had his own cheat system like all the other isekai protagonists. His first step to becoming a legend started now…
8 571 - In Serial13 Chapters
A King in the Clouds
Tanlar. A cruel, repulsive, and foul word. It meant untitled, officially, but it also meant ungifted, unable, unworthy, unnecessary, unhuman. It was more a curse than a term, a badge only the damned and condemned wore. To be a tanlar was to know your life, your entire being, was insignificant. Once Kaizer had resigned himself to such a fate, but those times had passed. He may have been untitled, but he was anything but untalented. He refused to scrape by at the bottom of society. Those who stood above him could sneer all they liked, but he wouldn’t suffer being stepped on for long. He’d be better, much better. But of course he would be. ‘Fate’ demanded it so. [Participant in the Royal Road Writathon challenge] What To Expect: The story of a boy becoming a man becoming a king + everything that entails. Largely gamelit, but later arcs could be called litrpg. Also schemes. A lot of schemes. I do love some good ol' fantasy politics and intrigue. Minimum Word Count a Week: TBA after Writathon Release Time(s): Daily for as long as I can/until the end of the Writathon. I also write The Deathseeker [Returning Dec 5th]
8 92 - In Serial88 Chapters
The Girl With The Crimson Eyes
Remnya is an orphan girl with horns and a destructive power sleeping within her. Oblivious of it, she spends her days protecting her friends at the orphanage. However, when a mysterious lady adopts her, Remnya discovers how valuable her kind truly is. But now she's surrounded by people she can't trust, and monsters who will do anything to get a hold of her powers. Her friends are at risk, along with thousands of innocent lives. Remnya won't surrender. She will protect them at all costs, even if that means abandoning her own innocence and awakening the crimson monster living inside her.
8 325 - In Serial6 Chapters
Dead Hunters
BEDLAM The Bureau of Extra-Dimensional Logistics, Affairs and Militancy has a problem. The city of Scorched Sands has long since been a crucible of industrial and corporate advancement, attracting many displaced fae from the recently discovered dimensional plane of Gaia. Protected by laws that prevent humans or demons from harming them, in an ideal world, they would find employment, settle down, and live a fulfilling life on Earth. But this is not an ideal world. Disparaged and disenfranchised, many fae wind up being manipulated by Scorched Sands' unscrupulous corporations and rampant crime families. Many turn to shady activities to supplement their new lives, committing robberies, assaults and murders, knowing full well that the law protects them. So how can BEDLAM combat a people that cannot be harmed by the hands of humans, demons or even other fae? Simple. Form a taskforce of beings too terrible to be considered people. Form the Special Sixth Division. Form a unit of necrophages. [participant in the Royal Road Writathon challenge]
8 213 - In Serial11 Chapters
The Pugilist
Vincent Roy Salazar has never been your common folk. He climbed any mountain he found in front of him. From a bright young student to an accomplished professor, his life can be described as a continuous race to the top of his chosen fields. Patriarch of a loving family, proud father of three already grown siblings, Roy realizes that his life is the perfect picture of what the average man strives for, and for that he is truly grateful. But happiness is a difficult-to-reach goal, and as he lies in a pool of his own blood, his fist cracked, a young lady crying while cradling his head, he remembers what really gave sense to his youth. Pure Unadulterated Violence The Pugilist wants to be a different take on isekai shenanigans. What would happen if instead of a moronic idiot, a depressed high schooler, or a wannabe hero the one to get his do-over is a fully grown man that has already seen what life has to offer in full? Someone who conformed himself to society, but has always craved something different? In a journey of self-discovery, academy building, god-slaying, and absolutely no harem we follow someone driven by logic, experience, and a smokey goal: to fuck shit up, have fun while doing so, and maybe resume his career as a professor for those strange, magic-wielding, unstable youths that seems to never get enough of his presence. Guys, a few notes, first of all, this is my first time writing long-form fiction. I have a background in psychology, and my main income comes from writing dreary financial articles on SEO blogs. But after a bad break-up, and finding myself falling asleep only while thinking of deus ex machina for stories on this site (and for APGTE) I decided to try my hand at this web series thingy. I'm confident in my grammar, but that's it. Everything else will be a first time, and as such any constructive criticism is encouraged and gratefully accepted. Now, on the story. Romance will be introduced once my little heart is mended, if you are scared of LGBT you may be turned off by the fact that I plan to have no taboo of any kind in my universe, but I won't ever write detailed sex scenes for any characters so don't worry too much. The litRPG part is very light and will take place later in the novel, but it's a key component nonetheless, for world-building and storyline reasons. I already have everything big planned out, so I won't drop it outta nowhere, and I hope you won't find too many flaws in how things pan out. I plan to make The Pugilist an interactive story, with secondary characters created by my audience and introduced after tweaks and careful planning. The main reason I'm writing this is that I want to build a community for myself in this time of isolation. I discovered that exercising, playing the piano or video games means jack-shit when you are utterly miserable, so I hope to give some value to my readers in exchange for praise, fame, money, and companionship. I give full props to anyone who has read this whole mess of a synopsis: I hope to not disappoint too much, now let's write some more steaming garbage that will be in dire need of editing later on.
8 102 - In Serial10 Chapters
Kindled Spirits
Travelers near and far had come to this very city. Each hoping to get a chance to get an elusive copy of Kindled: A Life Forgotten, an 8d RPG indie game produced somewhere in Eurasia. The game went on well, producing high ratings within 24 hours of sale. It was praised as one of the best game of the millennium, earning several world records in a short amount of time. It was so popular in fact that even NASA decided to launch it into space, hoping to for it to be seen by alien races as a sign of life in the universe. We follow Andromeda Fushigiwa, a retired gaming veteran, and a have a profound knowledge at programming.The date is May 17, 2071 when it was found by an alien race. They enjoyed videos of it actually. To thanks Earth, they made our world just like the game with alien technology. Can everyone adapt to this new life or will the whole world plunge into anarchy?Note* The mc will become more and more op by the story progress.
8 88

